Personal Post: Top Video Games of the Decade (2010-2019)

When you're done read, comment, spread the links, re-tweet and follow me on Twitter @OnDavidsBrain!, support me on Patreon and watch my Twitch Channel Every Saturday at 10:00 ET

 To think that ten years have already come and gone. As we head into the 2020’s we must take the time to reflect and plan from where we were in 2010 to where we are now to where we want to be in the future. But that’s a bit too overwhelming and philosophical for this guy so let’s instead talk about the best video games of the decade. Now this is all my list covering games that I’ve personally played that were released in the United States that year so if you don’t see your game of that year on here leave a comment and let me know how much of a non gamer I am. Also there won’t be any compilations or collections on this list so no Mega Man X Legacy Collection, Bioshock collection or anything like that. 

 Nor will I put any game on here just for the critical acclaim that they’ve received or what everybody else thinks should be on the list for that year or anything like that. If you want that go to IGN where they’ve most likely put Ocarina of Time 3DS on their list because it’s expected and everyone is a Emperor Damned Sheep. No my choices are ones that I either really do love or have a personal attachment to me as a gamer and as a person. Though to give you all hopefully some idea of what kind of gamer I am here’s the list of the runners up for their respective years.

2010 God of War 3/ Bioshock 2

2011 infamous 2

2013 Project X Zone/Bioshock Infinite/ SMT4 

2014 Persona Q Shadow of the Labyrinth/Ni No Kuni

2016 SMT 4 apocalypse

2017 Persona 5/ Pokémon Sun

2018 Fist of the North Star Lost Paradise/ Bendy and the Ink Machine (PS4)/ Ni No Kuni 2/ Mega Man 11

2019 Luigi’s Mansion 3

Now that you have a taste here’s what I consider to be the best games of the decade in the year of their release.

 Starting off with 2010 I’m going with the release of my very first non Persona SMT game Shin Megami Tensai Strange Journey. With Persona 4 I discovered my favorite franchise and fittingly enough Strange Journey was my first step into the wider SMT catalogue. The best way to describe the transition from the two was like one minute you were watching Diamond is Unbreakable and the next; a remake of Saving Private Ryan written by Alan Moore. Strange Journey introduced me to the negotiation system, a more serious story, even harder bosses, but slamming difficulty and the moral choices between Law, Neutral and Chaos that the wider SMT games are known for. Now I know that this game got remade in 2018 and while I do love it to pieces and consider it essential for your 3DS collection the original is more personal to me and while I will definitely recommend the 3DS version the original game is what I will remember 2010 for, when I took a chance, chose my unit and ventured forth into a strange and dangerous land and will carry those experiences with me forever.

 2011 however will be much shorter since honesty I would rather keep any positive comments toward Konami at a bare minimum considering how they are the pinnacle of the Japanese Hell Company and thus earns my unyielding hatred. Downpour contributing to that as well when Konami tried to release this game, Book of Lost Memories and the horrendous Silent Hill HD collection during the aptly named month of Madness. The last hurrah of the Silent Hill franchise; Downpour was the spiritual follow up to Silent Hill 2 that Homecoming tried and failed so hard to be. Though it did have its flaws with the Otherworld segments being reduced to running away from a red vortex for a few minutes to the breakable weapons the spirit of what Silent Hill should be still shined through without having to lean on nostalgia. Plus it was one of the few games that acknowledges that Silent Hill 4 existed so there’s that. So; short and sweet, this game is underrated and #FucKonami.

 Now I did say that compilations are off the list but that doesn’t mean that remakes of the same game with new original content were excluded. So that means that I can put Persona 4 Golden as my pick of 2012 no problem. Oh the poor PS Vita, a lovely little handheld that Sony sadly neglected. Before the Switch came around this was as close as we could get to having full console quality video games on the go, with the enhanced rerelease of Persona 4 being the pinnacle of that notion. With this game I will forever refer to the PS Vita as the Persona 4 Golden machine.

 Aside from that Persona 4 Gold is basically Persona 4 only portable with new content, simple as that. And if you have a problem with that (other than "please port it to a system that more than a few people own so everyone can enjoy it aside from watch let’s plays") let me know. Not much else to say but it’s Jojo’s BizzaRPG 4 on the go, what’s not to love?

 Now 2013 was a great year for the 3DS with Project X Zone introducing me to new franchises I was only casually aware of to SMT4 my first proper mainline SMT game. But for me I have to give that spot to the game that got me back to a childhood classic, Pokémon X. I skipped generations 4 and 5 simply because I was kind of bored with Pokémon by that point so seeing as I had a new 3DS and needed games for my library I figured what the heck and now I was literally back in the game. Just seeing all of the Pokémon in 3D on a proper portable console invoked the expected reaction. 

 Not much else to say except it was the game I needed at the right time, sometimes you can come home again. Except for now when Nintendo, game deal or whoever decided to do what they did with Pokémon Home, absolutely unforgivable!

 2014 however was a rough year for me personally. This was the year that I finished my one year game design course at the New York Film academy and started to get into the real world. I didn’t have a job for months so until that came around I had quite a bit of time on my hands. And after the emotional roller coaster I needed a pick me up and Studio Ghibli and Level 5 gave me that with Ni No Kuni, Wrath of the White Witch. It’s a cliche to say that certain video games are like playing an interactive movie, but it’s true Ni No Kuni gives you the chance to play an actual Studio Ghibli movie with all the tropes, proper hand drawn art style and the whimsy, wonder and magic that comes with it. 

 Now as much as I love this game I do have some problems with it. Actually completing the game is an absolute nightmare with getting all the Familiars, creating all the items from the Genie, fighting the super boss and completing the Solosseum was just too much for me to bear back then. Speaking of the Familiars I was not a big fan of that, you’re supposed to be a newly minted Wizard with your new companions yet you have little monsters to do all the work for you, sounds pretty weak to me. Completion problems aside this game and Studio Ghibli remind us that sometimes it’s always darkest before dawn, even if Miyazaki himself can be a grumpy asshole.

 2015 was one of the tougher years to pick out though that was mostly due to the lack of games that I was interested in. But there was one game that I was waiting for, the conclusion to the Arkham trilogy; Batman Arkham Knight. While I did have a fun time getting to be the Goddamn Batman one last time before my opinion of Warner Bros withered and died like the Joker. That was mostly due to me playing the PS4 version while PC users were treated to a buggy, broken disaster. Also if you knew anything about Batman history you knew who the Arkham Knight was as soon as you heard him talk.

 Now funny enough apparently the Arkham Knight caught on with someone at DC since there’s an actual Arkham Knight in the comics now. Now before you say anything, no the Arkham Knight in the comics is not Jason Todd. Back on track Arkham Knight wasn’t the only problem since Scarecrow was a boring, droning putz who took himself way too seriously. But thankfully we had the surprise inclusion of the Joker with Mark Hamill’s second to last performance as the clown prince of crime before the bellyflop that was The Killing Joke. As the conclusion to the trilogy that helped repair the reputation of Superhero games it was satisfactory but Warner Bros and WB have burned too many bridges with me to give their games another chance, and that's truly a shame.

 Speaking of licenses in 2016 we got the brilliant return of Ratchet and Clank on the PS4. Now while I never saw the movie that the game was apparently tied into (and from what I heard that was for the best) this reboot got most of what made Ratchet and Clank work right gameplay wise. The game had the proper mix of platforming, gunplay, puzzle solving and a good bit of humor in the writing. I would complain about how Ratchet and Clanks early dynamic was off from how it was originally but since this was being told from Captain Quarks perspective (aka the most unreliable of narrators) I can let it slide since he most likely didn’t pay attention to those parts. Though that does bring up a bit of a problem with that excuse; namely. 

 Plot wise this was a remake of the first game only with Dr Nefarious added in as the evil scientist working for Chairman Drek. Sure, while we didn’t re-explore every planet from the first game it did expand on some of the smaller details on the planets that we do revisit. From what I can gather the movie seems to have the same problem that the Warcraft movie suffered from, namely being too faithful to the source material that it forgets to create a story that it appeals to others outside of the established fan base. But again that’s just what I’ve heard, I could be wrong. Regardless of the movies failings the game itself is a good introduction point to the new fans while being a great trip down memory lane for the old fans. It definitely makes a better showcase for the PS4 than Knack that’s for certain.

 Now before I made my pick for 2017 I initially thought that it would be Persona 5, since it was one of my most anticipated games this generation. But when I finally played the Switch rerelease last year and knowing the development history; I have to name Cuphead as my favorite game of 2017, at least retroactively. Now since Cuphead DLC was included in Smash Bros one can assume most people know about Cuphead through research and pop culture osmosis; bit you know what they say about assuming so here’s the rundown. Cuphead is a hard as nails 2d side scrolling boss rush game in the same vein as Alien Solder on the SNES. It was made by two brothers who remortgaged their houses to keep the project alive and to capture the feel of the Fleischer cartoon style they did the animation for every character by hand! 

 Let me repeat, they put their livelihoods on the line to get their uncompromised game out into the world. Now add on the fact that Cuphead was so critically and commercially received that the game now stands among the ranks of Shovel Knight and FNAF as one of the icons of the indie game market and that would have been enough but for it to be just so damn fun and challenging with era appropriate music, creative and challenging bosses and all for at 20 bucks sets it leaps and bounds over any other game in 2017. If you haven’t played Cuphead you need to rectify that ASAP!

 Now 2018 had the exact opposite problem of 2015 for me to pick the best game since there was so many candidates I could have picked if my runners up for that year were any indication. But my ultimate pick for 2018 was the PS4 Spider-Man. Just like the Arkham games you truly got to be Spider-Man, but unlike the overexposed, multimillionaire Goddamn Batman who constantly drones on about how he touched his dead mother's breast, Spider-Man’s entire premise is being relatable to the observer. Though that’s what my draw to this game is since, honestly I can’t stand 616 Peter Parker. Mostly attributed to One More Day Into The Spider-verse also showed how 616 Peter’s life is a complete and utter train wreck not helped by the writers constantly trying to put him into the “escapist fantasy” box and other people who have the name of Spider-Man just carry it better than him, like Gwen Stacy, Miguel O’Hara, Dr Octopus and yes even Miles Morales are all just better than main universe Peter. 

 But in this game we have a similar Peter Parker but thankfully not an exact copy. He has a better relationship with the NYPD, Mary Jane knows his secret identity but their relationship is on the rocks and spoilers; this Peter Parker takes the “great responsibility” part seriously when he didn’t waste the antidote to the Devils Breath on Aunt May before it could be mass produced. That moment is what cinched it for me, because I knew that main Peter Parker would be that big of a selfish, shortsighted idiot to put Aunt May over everyone in New York if the whole deal with Mephisto was enough of an indication. Spider aside the gameplay here is some of the best I’ve come across in a long time. Sure the combat system may take a few notes from the Arkham games such as the spider sense but unlike the detective vision it’s not game breaking nor does the combat system guarantee a block by pressing a button; it still relies on your skills as a player. 

 Also yes, THE WEB-SWINGING IS THE G.O.A.T! Just the feeling of swinging around New York climbing to the top of Avengers Tower and free falling into the concrete jungle down below and swinging around like an urban Tarzan was just downright magical. But then again these are the guys behind Ratchet and Clank and they know how to make a fun and entertaining game through and through. If you haven’t played this gem, rectify that immediately!

 Now to wrap this up we have the one game that several of us were waiting 13 years for, 2019 finally gave us Kingdom Hearts 3. Now did this game have some problems when it came out regarding the difficulty, yes. Did the story wrap up the Xehanort saga while still having Tetsuya Nomura’s less beloved little writing quirks such as sequel baiting, leaving some parts of the story unexplained or not explained well enough that a whole new set of DLC was released to retcon those parts, yes. Did this game still capture that feeling of childhood wonder, excitement and hopefulness even if you’re not a major fan of most of the Disney worlds, yes. Did this game draw out the ire of some of the worst parts of the gaming community for various reasons, sadly yes. 

 But no matter what anyone says about this game at least Square recognized the criticism and actually did something about it with the free Critical Mode update and the (sadly overpriced in my humble opinion) Re:Mind DLC. Whereas most other companies would have just left it and forget it to drive their reputations into the ground “cough Gearbox” “cough Bethesda” “cough Warner Brothers.” Now as a game KH3 is still a fun old time, though in my experience Proud mode was a bit too easy and Critical Mode took this game from zero to Cuphead in just a few Megabytes which was fine with me and at least you can unlock the Oblivion Keyblade by finishing Critical so there’s that. Now while KH2 is my overall favorite game in the series KH3 as of the Re:Mind DLC is a very close second.  So that wraps up my list of the favorite games of the decade per year. 

 From the end of the PS3, the failure of the Wii U, the end of Steam Greenlight to the rise of the loot box and its subsequent need for regulation to the mistake that was the Stadia and the constant disaster of Fallout 76. From the birth of both the PS4 and, honestly the best console so far the Switch; video games have had a rather interesting and turbulent ten years. Now speaking of Decade; since we’re in the Reiwa era now I have to give my thoughts on the last of the Hesei era of Kamen Rider. If this list didn’t kill me than the next one will, oh well I beat Cuphead, The Valkyrie Queen on Give me a Challenge and Yozora on Critical within the span of three months. Bring it on!

Shin Megami Tensei Strange Journey is owned by Atlus, Sega and Lancarse.
Silent Hill Downpour is owned by Vatra games and Konami Computer Entertainment
Persona 4 Golden is owned by Atlus and Sega.
Rick and Morty is owned by Justin Rolland, Dan Harmon, Justin Roiland's Solo Vanity Card Productions, Harmonious Claptrap, Starburns Industries, and Williams Street
Pokémon is owned by Nintendo, Game Freak, Ken Sugumori and Statoshi Tajiri.
Ratatouille is owned by Walt Disney Pictures, Pixar Animation Studios and Brad Bird.
Ni No Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch is owned by Level-5 Games, Studio Ghibli and Namco Bandai.
Batman Arkham Knight is owned by Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment, Rocksteady Studios and DC Comics
Ratchet and Clank is owned by Insomniac Games and Sony Computer Entertainment.
Dragon Ball, Dragonball Z, Dragonball GT and Dragonball Super is owned by Funnimation, Toei animation, Fuji TV and Akira Toriyama.
Dragon ball Z Abridged is owned by Team Four Star. 
Cuphead is owned by Studio MDHR and Chad and Jared Moldenhauer.
Kingdom Hearts is owned by Square Enix, Disney Interactive Studios, Tetsuya Nomura, and Shinji Hashimoto.

Tokusatsu Review: Kamen Rider Heisei Generations Forever Part 3: The definition of insanity.

When you're done read, comment, spread the links, re-tweet and follow me on Twitter @OnDavidsBrain!, support me on Patreon and watch my Twitch Channel Every Saturday at 12:00 ET

 Here we are at last, I've been putting this off for as long as I possibly could but I just have to treat this like a bandage and rip it off as quickly as possible. But it has been a while so here's the links for Parts 1 and 2 to make sure you know exactly where I'm coming from.

Part 1 https://ondavidsbrain.blogspot.com/2019/06/tokusatsu-review-kamen-rider-heisei.html

Part 2 https://ondavidsbrain.blogspot.com/2019/06/tokusatsu-review-kamen-rider-heisei_24.html

 So where were we? Oh right Woz just slapped Riku Sanjo right in the face by inexplicably using the Gaia Library to get the Rider Ticket for where Futaros went to; January 29th 2000, one day before the first episode of Kuuga. Sougo takes Ataru, for some reason back with him in the Time Mazin but are too late as Futaros managed to get there first, by jumping out of past Ataru, before he was delivered by his still pregnant mother. Now I'm just imagining what the father's reaction would be if he saw this big, red demon looking guy jump right out of his pregnant wife. "Um Honey, were you schtupping Satan behind my back?!"

 But before they can make a joke about this weirdness Shingo (the one from before he was kidnapped) is about to be abducted by Another W when Futaros tries to fight the Another Rider off but to no avail. And it's here where Ataru finally learns what the audience did about half an hour or so ago. Now that he knows that the kid he was paling around with is his long lost brother he charges right at Another W and gets turned into Another Den-O for his trouble, in the words of Professor Farnsworth "Ah, Paradox resolved." With the two brothers under his masters power Another W makes his escape abroad the Another Den-Liner leaving Futaros and Sougo in the dust. Meanwhile we cut to the Kurougatake Mountains where Tiddlywinks uncovers the tomb of Riku, the original Kuuga and from his remains creates the Kuuga Anotherwatch.

 Geiz manages to intercept him but it's too late as Tiddlywinks uses the watch on himself becoming Another Kuuga, thus creating a future where the Heisei Riders were never real, wiping himself and everyone else in this world from existence in the process, thus never executing this plan in the first place.

 Now this is stupid for several reasons but I will give the writers credit for one thing, working around the fact that Joe Odagiri refuses to reprise the role of Yusuke Godai, the modern Kuuga by having Tiddlywinks taking the power from the remains of Riku, I have to admit that was a good workaround for the problem of creating Another Kuuga. But that's hampered by the fact that this makes no sense. According to the series' lore once an Another Rider is created in the same year that the rider was born in the Another Rider overlaps the history of said rider. Now since Tiddlywinks turned himself into Another Kuuga one day before the Grongi were released and Godai became Kuuga, his history should still be in tact. Which leads to my second problem, Tiddlywinks just became the Another Rider of Riku, not the modern Kuuga so Godai will still become Kuuga because his personal history as a Rider was not changed according to the logic we've been given.

 Also, Kuuga may have been the origins of the Hesiei Riders in the meta sense; but in universe, no the Riders would have come about regardless of Kuuga so even in concept this plan makes absolutely no God Dan Kuroto sense! But this all leads back to one of the biggest problems of the film; Tid is a terrible villain. Answer me this one question audience, why does he do any of this crap? To erase the Heisei riders from existence? Ok, then why, why does he want to do this; creating a world without riders isn't a motivation it's a goal those are two completely different things.

 We're never given a good reason why he wants to do this. Even Paradox from Yu-Gi-Oh Bonds Beyond time had a motivation for his actions, hell, even Harvest, the king of Dumbasses from the Culling had a better motivation than this idiot. Sure they were both just as hypocritical and made as little sense as Tid but at least they had a better reason for their actions other than "because I'm evil." This guy was so badly written and his motivation is quite literally non-existent that I'm just begging for the Great Leader of Shocker to show up and say that this was all a part of his plan. As overused as Shocker is (especially with Shirakura productions) at least they have the established history of wanting world conquest and have a long standing history of hatred for all Kamen Riders.

 This isn't even the first time Shocker screwed around with time travel, that was their entire plan in Super Hero Taisen GP and Kamen Rider Yongou. Sure it's lazy but you don't have to replace lazy with another brand of lazy if the result is even worse! For that matter why did Schwartz even turn Tid into a Timejacker in the first place if he knew that he'd pull something like this. For that matter where are Schwartz and his little Harem anyway? Why didn't they try to stop this if they knew that Tid was screwing up their plans, whatever they are?

 Moving on, Tiddlywinks finishes transforming into Another Kuuga and he looks like if Inferno from Beast Wars became a demon who devours the souls of the guilty and innocent alike.

INFERNO, TERRORIZE!!!! 

 Special thanks to the guys at Toku Riffs for giving me this idea (originally I was going to go with Waspinator but Inferno works so much better upon reflection.)  Ironically, Beast Wars still has better CGI than this movie. Though this Predacon is less enthusiastic about setting things on fire and is more inclined to grab his opponents and break them like the Batman. Even with Tsukuyomi backing him up in the Time Mazin Another Kuuga wipes the floor with Geiz and after trashing both Geiz and Sougo's Time Mazins retreats back to the Another Den-Liner. But the train crashes back where the movie started bringing us back full circle.

 But our heroes are now stranded back in 2000 and unless they want to do what Captain America did at the end of Endgame and take the long way back they're screwed. Later that night Futaros explains to Sougo why Tiddlywinks even targeted Shingo in the first place. According to him he's a Fixed/Singularity Point whichever one you want to call them I don't give a crap. For those who don't know, Singularity Points are people who are immune to the effects of time alteration, like Den-O himself Ryotaro Nogami and his descendants. Which explains why the creep has been stalking the kid since this whole thing got started, as long as Shingo exists and remembers Kamen Riders Tiddlywinks' plan to create a world without them will never come to pass.

 But this begs the question of why Futaros even wants to help Shingo and Ataru in the first place, maybe because he's just one of the rare good Imagin, good enough for me I guess. Back in 2018 Sento and Banjo fight their way though the fortress and confront Tiddlywinks in his throne room but he just sics some grunts on them. The Zi-O team nearly get lost in the time stream due to their slapdash repairs but get a lift from the real Den-Liner which dumps them off into the Fortress, conveniently next to the throne room. Sougo, Geiz and Futaros get their turn but Tiddlywinks just has Another Den-O deal with them instead. The three try to snap Ataru from his brainwashing but they're not getting through.

 Just as he's about to kill the three everyone except Tiddlywinks are teleported to presumably the Station of the King-Liner terminal. This is where we get the return of the original Kamen Rider Den-O (my very first rider series I finished from start to end btw so, yay) who solos dealing with the grunts and after switching between the rest of the Taros defeats Another Den-O, saving Ataru from Tiddlywinks' control. And yes, Takeru Sato returns as Ryotaro Nogami one last time to give his farewell to the Zi-O crew before warping back to the fight (while possessed by Urataros sure but we know that Ryotaro's the one doing the talking.) Also of note this scene was supervised and written by Den-O's creator Yasuko Kobayashi. While I may have a lot of issues with her original work during her overworked, burnout phase of her carrier, this was still a nice touch and shows that somewhere deep down she still cares enough about Den-O to make sure Toei doesn't do it dirty; despite Toei milking the show like the cash cow that it sadly is.

 Back to the crap, Tiddlywinks' blowing his top because these stupid Riders just won't die! But after we get some flowery bullcrap from our heroes we get a scene that is simultaneously heartfelt and dumb as all hell. See, there was another reason why we got the Den-O reunion scene, it was for Owner to re-establish the whole "as long as you live on in someones memory you'll never die" crap so that the Kamen Riders can come back thanks to the fans who remember them. This is dumb for three reasons. One, in this timeline Kamen Riders are not real so how are the fan's memories bringing them to life if they were just T.V in this world?

 Two, Gokaiger did this much better during the Gokaiger VS Goseiger 199 Hero Battle, and no it's not because its Gokaiger its because it was established much better and constant with the setting of the show/movie because it took place in a world where Super Sentai was real so it didn't seem like something out of Akibaranger like this sequence does. Lastly, this is the exact same plot point that was used to bring back the Riders in Lets Go Kamen Rider and we all know how that turned out. Regardless of my gripes, the sequence that shows all of the Kamen Riders kicking ass is pretty cool, even if Ghost does look like he's standing on a Roomba during his fight sequence. After that Sougo finally gets it into his head to use the W Ridewatch to finally destroy Another W. Tiddlywinks has lost any sanity he's had left and transforms into Another Kuuga to just kill everyone.

 Build fixes the Time Mazins and arrives to help Zi-O fight the giant Another Rider. But before he jumps into the Time Mazin Geiz gives him the Kuuga Ridewatch that he created by doing the same thing that Tiddlywinks did in Riku's tomb. So with the power of Kuuga Zi-O and Build defeat Another Kuuga, but he's not done yet as he pulls out his trump card.

No, no, no guys it's not what you think. He's just forcing himself inside of the little boy and pulling out something he never knew he had, Jesus Christ!

 All of the phrasing! After getting himself on a government watchlist Demon Jared Fogle reaches his final form, Another Ultimate Kuuga.

AND LOOK AT HOW MUCH TEETH I HAVE TO SMILE WITH, WHILE I CHEW ON ALL OF YOUR BONES!!!

 So we have an insane pedophile who has the abilities of the most physically powerful Kamen Rider to date who happens to be the size of a skyscraper, can shoot lazer beams and is screaming like a maniac who stepped on a shard of broken glass about how he's going to kill everyone on earth. How are our heroes going to overcome this beast? By everyone landing one rider kick on him. (Yes even Hibiki who never had a rider kick, hate you too Shirakura!)  So yep, that's how our big bad dies, like a bitch from 20 Rider kicks, this is almost as bad as the ending of Let's Go Kamen Rider.

 Oh and Shingo totally survived that blast and wasn't reduced to a pile of chunky salsa like Tiddlywinks, because otherwise there'd be a nice big ol NC-17 rating on this sucker. And just like Freddy Got Fingered this whole movie comes off as one of Tom Green's troll projects. After an actually nice, heartfelt sequence of Ataru and Shingo's revised history of the two brothers growing up loving Kamen Rider we end with Futaros walking off to parts unknown and Sento and Sougo just shrugging off the fact that their lives are nothing more then fiction. Roll credits with a horrible mash up of the previous Kamen Rider's opening themes and we're finally done. So that was Heisei Generations Forever and it's a Taisen movie in Heisei Generations clothing.

 While nowhere near as bad as a proper Taisen movie this still sucks hard if you stop and think about it for even a second. The villain has no motivation for his actions and is more than a tad uncomfortable with the excessive amount of physical contact he has with most of his co-stars. I get what they were trying to go for but I think that Sonic can sum up my feelings towards this character.

 Also Build really got the short end of the stick in this movie, most of it was focused on Sougo and all Sento did though out this movie were two things, jack and shit and jack left town! But another rider that got dumped on even worse was W, we never learn who Another W was, why he was working with Tiddlywinks and hell we didn't even see any of the main W cast to give Sougo the Ridewatch. Hell at the time of this review we're almost to the end of Zi-O and W and Drive got nothing in terms of a tribute arc. Though considering how most of them turned out that's a blessing in disguise as far as I'm concerned but it just seems to confirm my suspicions that Shirakura hates Riku Sanjo and is taking it out on his three series. Sure there was Fourze but his tribute arc got completely overshadowed by Faiz.

 Now my theory behind this is because Riku Sanjo's approach to Kamen Rider proves that everything that Shirakura thinks about the franchise is complete horse-shit and is being a spiteful bastard about it by throwing shade at the three series Sanjo worked on. Hell that might explain how Toqger Vs Kyoryuger turned out as bad as it did. Shirakura hates Sanjo so he put Kobayashi, someone whose political ideologies are the exact opposite of Kyoryuger and she dragged the Koyryugers through the dirt out of spite as Shirakura calculated. Bit of a stretch to be sure but given what we know about the guy it would not surprise me if that was Shirakura's mindset going into this production. Going back to the W Ridewatch for a second it being the Deus Ex Machina that brings Sento and Sougo back to the "real world" is completely unrelated to W.

 W at no point had anything to do with inter dimensional travel so it being the key to going back makes no sense. What would have worked better is that instead of Another W we have Another Build instead. Build's series ends with Sento, Banjo and the others traveling to the main Rider Earth to escape Evolt, hell Interdiminsional travel is the main plot point of Heisei Generations Final. But no, like a horny teenager the braintrusts behind Zi-O blew their load too early with Another Build being the first Another Rider fought in the series instead of W. And don't you dare give me the "Build's show was just wrapping up so they had to get the cameo done while they were still on the payroll" card, they knew the team up movie was coming, they knew that it was going to be a crossover between Build and Zi-O, they could have waited but no, like I said, blew their load too soon and now we have a big, narrative mess all over our pants, phrasing boom!

 Like anything that Shirakura is involved with the problems could have been solved if the people in charge just stopped and thought for more then 5 seconds (but lets face it, even 5 years would be far too generous for these clowns) they could have been fixed and we could have had a much better movie. Especially since this is the capstone of the Heisei Era, the last 20 years of Kamen Rider, that just makes this all the worse. This is the way your era ends, not with a bang, but with a spiteful, disinterested sneer by someone who doesn't even know what heroism is. They say that catharsis is bad for you, and I can see why. I'll be back next week with the long awaited continuation of my review of Madoka Magica Homura's Revenge, a much better story than this one despite the sudden tone shift I assure you.

Special thanks to my Patreon backer Jesse for his support.


Kamen Rider is owned by Ishinomori Productions, Toei Productions, and Bandai.
Dragon Ball, Dragonball Z, Dragonball GT and Dragonball Super is owned by Funnimation, Toei animation, Fuji TV and Akira Toriyama.
Dragon ball Z abridged and Hellsing Ultimate Abridged is owned by Team Four Star. 
Batman Forever is owned by Warner Brothers Pictures and Joel Schumacher Based off the Character created by Bob Kane and Bill Finger.
Archer is owned by Adam Reed, Floyd County Productions, Radical Axis and FX Productions.
Jontron is owned by Jon Jaffri.
The Adventured of Sonic the Hedgehog is owned by DIC Animation City, SEGA of America, Hong YIng Animation, Tokyo Movie Shinsha and Rainbow Animation.

Movie Review: Dragon Ball Super Broly: Broly now...canon

When you're done read, comment, spread the links, re-tweet and follow me on Twitter @OnDavidsBrain!, support me on Patreon and watch my Twitch Channel Every Saturday at 12:00 ET

 It's my first review of 2019 and I have a story to tell you. It's about a lone Saiyan who goes by the name of Broly.

 Now that we have a basis time to see how Canon Broly is far better than Non-Canon Broly. Our story starts off with the discovery of Broly's power levels as an infant, but instead of killing him King Vegeta decided instead to send him off to a planet filed with savage beasts to hopefully die to the planet's inhabitants. However Broly's father Paragus ignores King Vegeta's concerns about how dangerous Broly could be if left unchecked and decided to fly to that planet that Broly landed on and raise him to take revenge on King Vegeta for his hasty exile. Though Paragus left just in time as this is when Freezer decided to carry out the job Beerus gave him and destroy Planet Vegeta, but not before a Low class Warrior named Bardock and his wife sent their infant son Kakarot to a small planet called Earth so that he might hopefully have a chance at a better life, rather then be labeled a Low-class Warrior from birth.

 We then move on to the present day where after Goku and Vegeta helped save the 7th universe (though remember that Android 17 really saved the day) Goku still wants a fight since if those were the best fighters from the Universes that were up for erasure then there are far more powerful warriors in the Multiverse just waiting for him. One of which is Broly and when he and Paragus were rescued from the planet they were stuck on by two goons from the newly revived Freeza force they have their new assignments, go to Earth with Freeza and help him get the Dragonballs so he can get his wish. Of course Paragus is all too eager since he learned that while Planet and King Vegeta are dead Prince Vegeta is safe and sound with a loving family on Earth while he was stuck on a rock with rabid beasts nearly killing him if he ever slipped up, as well as the local wildlife. He doesn't even care that the Saiyans are all but extinct all he cares about is getting his Revengence on King Vegeta by proxy of killing his son. So with his inthralled and downright savage son Broly under his thumb with a shock collar he'll do just that.

 I won't go into details about what happens but I will say that, yes, the fight between Goku, Vegeta and Broly is the highlight of the show. While at the same time we get some great character comedy that seems to be synonymous with Dragon Ball Super, mostly with Bulma, Freeza and of course Lord Beerus and Whis, I won't say how but let's just say it should seem familiar to anyone whose read or seen the original Dragonball. But I will say that in Toriyama's hands he managed to fix almost everything that was wrong with Broly. He gave him sympathetic, his motivations aren't contrived and dumb and best of all the Legendary Super Saiyan isn't a literal giant f***ing baby! Also the ending is a nice way to mess with expectations and is a nice way to set up the ongoing Dragonball story like how Battle of Gods did.

 I honestly wish I could keep gushing about this movie but sadly most of it is either comedy or the Fight that takes up the second half of the movie. Like I said it's a really damn good fight scene and we all know the number one rule about revising stuff with comedy, never explain the joke.

 Like I said the comedy, fight and revised events surrounding Broly, the destruction of Planet Vegeta is all good stuff, though with the previously mentioned revised scene of Bardock sending Kakarot to earth it seems that Toriyama decided to go along with what the west did and just flat out turn Goku into Superman. Kind of annoying but hey it's presented well enough that I sips under my radar. So what else is there to say, other then go see Broly, especially while it's in theaters, this was my first time seeing Dragonball on the big screen and it really gives everything much more gravitas and with a guy as big as Broly it takes a really big thing and makes it gargantuan.

Special thanks to my Patreon backer Jesse for his support.

Dragon Ball, Dragonball Z, Dragonball GT and Dragonball Super is owned by Funnimation, Toei animation, Fuji TV and Akira Toriyama.
Dragon ball Z abridged is owned by Team Four Star. 
Batman: The Animated Series is owned by Dc Comics, Warner Brothers and Paul Dini.

Tokusatsu Review: Kamen Rider Final Form Top 18 Update Mugen Damashi: Break out the Adam West Eyecon

When you're done read, comment, spread the links, re-tweet and follow me on Twitter @OnDavidsBrain! and support me on Patreon.

In Memory of Adam West the Original Tv Batman
Sep 19 1928-Jun 9 2017 Sleep well, old chum.

 This year has been a rather turbulent one for many reasons. But those discussions will be saved for remissions at the end of the year as per tradition. Though the most recent reason as of this article is of course the passing of Adam West. Now I first knew of him as the first Tv Batman and the mayor of Quahog on Family Guy but his impact on nerd and just culture in general cannot be stated by me. So I will direct you to Moviebob's tribute to the man right here so that you can at least get a more experienced perspective of Adam's contribution to Batman and pop culture.

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bGorziAQJLg

 If I may be so bold I would like to channel what little I know of his take on the character and give a bit of a soliloquy as Adam West's Batman. "I know our time together was far too short my friends, but do not despair, though I may be gone the world keeps on turning. Times may be dark but there will be your fellow man to show you the light and help to pull you out of the pit. If not your friends, then your family, if not them then perhaps a kind hearted stranger on the street it does not matter. For you see; hope, love and justice shall always find a way if one never stops looking. Be of good cheer and keep your spirits and heads high chums."

 But speaking of tradition and on to less depressing material it's time once again for the debut of the final form for this years Kamen Rider. This time it's Ex-Aids Muteki Gamer Lv 100.

Well aside from it looking very pointy there's another detail that's unavoidable about this form.

 But as of writing this article I have absolutely no idea what this form is supposed to do. We already know Maximum Gamer Lv 99 can reprogram Bugsters so for all I know this form can let Emu turn Bugsters into rice pudding or something. Aside from that Ex-Aid itself has been proving to be an exceptional Rider series with lots of good character focus and development (for the most part, Kagami is a dumbass btw) and doing so with very few, recurring monsters. Though if you think I may be a bit biased because Ex-Aid is video game themed, well you may be right but but it dosen't matter how good, bad or ugly the themes of a series is if the writing can't carry it through. Case in point what's left of the trash of 2016 White Lantern Takeru Sato aka Kamen Rider Ghost Mugen Damashi.

Once again this form looks like the Metallic Armor from MMPR Season 3 mixed with the White Lantern outfit.

 Ghost was a very sad and troubled production; it started off interestingly enough with the first quarter but as it went on the writing just kept on getting worse and worse with Takeru constantly dying and being revived more times then the cast of Dragon Ball to gain new forms. On top of that the show had the reset button slammed on his 99 days to get the Eyecons thing. Then Mugen was supposed to debut and everything went completely down the tubes. All of which can be attributed to the Japanese Dan Didio himself Shinichiro Shirakura, on top of cutting Ghost's funding in half for Kamen Rider Amazons he apparently pulled the head writer away, leaving only the two secondary writers to write nothing but filler episodes after Mugen premiered until he came back for the final arc since he didn't leave them any notes of how the story should progress and the stalling was painfully obvious.

 On top of that the powers of Mugen are barely explained or addressed. From what we see in the show it's apparently supposed to channel the power of raw emotion but in practice it just switches on Ghost's god mode. Every single fight with Mugen is a curb stomp, either Ghost is delivering the curb stomps or it's getting spanked like nobody's business. Not to mention these powers facilitate the episodes having to reestablish Takeru's connections to the Luminary Eyecons to get a different flavor of unimpressive finisher and life lesson that he should have learned 5000 times before this. In my opinion a Rider's Final form encapsulates the overall condition of the show if the form is badly designed, has defined and poorly explained powers and has a rushed and shoddy introduction then that seems like a sign that the creators and therefore the show just doesn't care.

 I hate Mugen Damashi for not only just the reasons listed above but for the potential that was clearly squandered and misused. Ghost could have been a great series and the first quarter showed potential but as it went on it just got worse and worse and that is a true shame. So I'm putting Mugen right between Hibiki Armed (the other notable Kamen Rider Production Shirakura fucked with, not a coincidence I assure you) and Ryuki Survive.

#18 Hibiki Armed
#17 Ghost Mugen Damashi
#16 Ryuki Survive
#15 Agito Shining
#14 Decade Complete
#13 Stronger Charge Up
#12 Fourze Cosmic States
#11 Faiz Blaster
#10 Drive Type Tridoron
#9 Wizard Infinity Style
#8 Kabuto Hyper Form
#7 Blade King Form
#6 Ultimate Kuuga
#5 W/Double Cyclone Joker Xtreme
#4 OOO Putotyra Combo
#3 Den-O Liner Form
#2 Gaim Kiwami Arms

#1 Kiva Emperor Form

 Ex-Aid in the meantime still has a way to go before we get to the next Rider Series. So far Ex-Aid has definitely made up for Ghost and hopefully Muteki Gamer will not disappoint. As for my next Tokusatsu review I'll give you all some hints. One it has 5 (technically 4 1/2) Riders in it and Two, IT'S BETTER THEN PIXELS!!!! But there's also one more thing to address here, HAPPY THIRD YEAR ANNIVERSARY!!!

Special thanks to my Patreon backer Jesse for his support.

Batman (1960) is owned by DC Comics, Greenway Productions, 20th Century Fox and Warner Bros Television Distribution.
Kamen Rider is owned by Ishinomori Productions, Toei Productions, and Bandai.
Austin Powers: Goldmember is owned by Gratitude International, Team Todd, Moving Pictures, and New Line Cinema. 

Video Game Review: Top 10 Worst Video Game Sequels I've seen so far: Part 1

When you're done read, comment, spread the links, re-tweet and follow me on Twitter @OnDavidsBrain! and support me on Patreon.

For those who want to see what I think are the best video game sequels here you go

 Now while this list mostly consists of sequels I haven't played I've heard more then enough horror stories surrounding them to draw a decent conclusion. You may be asking why you would be talking about bad Sequels that you haven't played acting like you know what you're talking about. One reason, I value my time and my money and like to avoid spending either on entertainment that isn't worth it. Besides sometimes you can just tell a sequel is going to shit the bed just by looking at it. So let's go down the list of lost time and investment shall we?

#10 Final Fantasy XIII (All of them)

 Yes I'm cheating with these but the internet mostly agrees that Final Fantasy's time during the 7th console generation was nothing short of a monumental disaster. From the boring combat system, the nonsensical leveling, the criminally bad writing to the most unlikable protagonists we've ever seen in a Final Fantasy game it all just amounts to a horrible pretentious mess. Every game in the 13 line had their own problems from the first game being stuck to a giant hall way, 13-2 having a god modding Gary Stu villain on top of one of the worst time travel stories ever created. (Even considering Japan's apparently horrible track record with Time travel stories, for every Madoka Magica and Crono Trigger there's at least 20 Inuyashas and of course the infamous Endless 8 fiasco!) Lightning Returns even takes the message of FF 7, shits all over it and turns Lightning already one of the most unlikable and boring protagonists and turns her into a god damn robot. Supposedly removing all of her emotions and creating a loli version of her to cause chaos whose origins are horrible contradictory and; ugh the more I try to discuss Lumina the more my head starts to split from all the convoluted and contradicting information.

 Needless to say FF13 and its sequels seems to have almost killed my interest in the FF franchise which was pretty small to begin with. For the record I've only played 6, 8 (the worst i've actually played) 9 (aka the best one) 10, and some of 10-2. I just hope that Lighting and none of the characters from 13 ever make it into Kingdom Hearts 3. Whenever that'll come out which of course was delayed because Square for some horribly dumb reason pushed that game back to focus on shitting out these turds. So yes Final Fantasy XIII is to blame for Kingdom Hearts 3 being pushed back for so long, fuck you Lightning and the robot horse you rode in on!

 #9 Mass Effect 3

 Two words can describe every single thing wrong with Mass Effect 3, Electronic Arts. Once again the Unicron of the gaming industry has claimed another victim by getting rid of Mass Effects head writer, replacing him with a guy who hated Mass Effect with the passion of a million flaming hemorrhoids, let him take the franchise and flush it down the toilet by chucking your Shepards history out the window, retconning almost everyone and giving one of the absolute worst endings in recent history. On top of all that they slammed in Multiplayer and online passes to really piss everybody off. Also if you signed onto EA's servers you've most likely been hacked because their security is absolute flaming monkey poop.

 Now the reason this is so low on the list is that I was never into Mass Effect in the first place. I'm a Sony guy and since Mass Effect 1 didn't come out on the PS3 until the collection pack was released I never bothered to care. I mean I tried the Mass Effect 2 demo and was repelled almost immediately, from the intimidating character creation screen to the mountains of data logs dumped onto my lap with all these terms and events that I had no idea about it was just the absolute worst way to entice someone new into the franchise. It was like you were transferred to a new class and on your first day you were given a test that you had no prior knowledge about and the teacher hates your guts and couldn't give a shit whether you knew the material or not.

 Like "who the hell is Cerberus, why was I brought back to life, why did that bitch shoot that guy, why are robots after me, what is going on?!" Personal history with the franchise aside I do know a bad sequel when I hear it and when EA is involved you know it's going to suck something fierce. Now before you even ask, no I am not getting Mass Effect Andromeda because I refuse to give EA my money. All that's left is to paraphrase Spoony and say this "oh fuck you EA you killed Mass Effect fuck you!"

#8 Sly 4 Thieves in Time

 As I said before I'm a big fan of Sly Cooper and I really was enjoying this Game, especially since it gave my PS Vita something to do aside from playing Persona 4 Golden and PS1 rpgs. That is until we got to the fourth level. The villain in that level was a robot called the Black Knight and we later find out the Knight was just a suit controlled by Bentley's girlfriend Penelope. Yep she betrayed Bentley, sold their time travel technology to Le Paradox the big bad for this game and was going on about how she and Bentley could have made a fortune in weapons development but figured that since Sly was holding Bentley's potential with his moral code she decides to help Le Paradox destroy the Cooper family line. Now considering everything that happened in Sly 3 this twist comes out of nowhere and feels like a slap in the face to Bentley and fans of his, that it just drags the whole game down with it.

  Personal issues aside there's another narrative problem, namely with some of the ancestors you play as. Aside from Bob and Tennessee Kidd the rest of the ancestors have techniques that they shouldn't know namely Rioichi, Sir Galith and Salim knows Tennessee's rail run and slide techniques and Gallith and Salim knowing Rioichi's ninja spire jump. The ancestors also know their own exclusive techniques which are never mentioned before in the Thevius Racoonus. I mean if the ninja spire jumps are used before Rioichi you think they'd be written before his time where he could have transcribed how to perform his dragon jump instead of something everyone in the Cooper family would have known and perfected before him? 

 This game also has gameplay problems on top of everything else. I know most people have problems with the motion controls but you can just turn them off. But the developers clearly were trying to do something with the six axis function of the PS3 and Vita, so all that effort can just go out the window. But the biggest problem is the final boss fight. Now the Sly games have had varying degrees of success with their final bosses, the best being Dr M in my opinion. But Le Paradox, just some platforming and quick time events. Your final boss is a quick time event, that gets this spot on the list just for that. Now to wait until Sly 5 shows up and hopefully fixes this mess, you all know it's coming the secret ending makes it clear as crystal, so all that's left to do is wait and see.

#7 Batman Arkham Knight

 The PC version was complete guano and that alone deserves a spot on this list. Though there are some other reasons on top of that, most people didn't like the Batmobile and the repetitive fights against the tank drones. The two main villains aren't as interesting as the true villain of Arkham Knight AKA Joker. Scarecrow just drones on and on about fear and what not and as for the titular Arkham Knight, anyone who knows anything about Batman can tell who it is from the first time he opens his mouth. Yep angsty boy himself Jason Todd, though this is one of those cases where they use him correctly, as a villain who stands as a living reminder of one of Batman's greatest failures instead of trying to make him an anti-hero who never shuts his mouth. 

 His depiction here isn't as good as "Batman Under the Red Hood" but it's still good. Also the Season Pass and DLC was crap. Though thankfully the Riddler Challenges were nowhere near as taxing and numerous as Arkham City. As a conclusion to the Arkham trilogy it's passable but the PC version was simply unforgivable and it would be unprofessional of me to ignore such a horrible crime inflicted on 1 3rd of your paying customers. So WB can choke on the Jokers ashes as far as I care for the horrible butchering of the PC version of the conclusion to one of your biggest franchises.

#6 Kingdom Hearts RE:Coded

 Sorry I know this is technically a spinoff but there are events in this game that are cannon to the whole franchise so yes it's a sequel as much as Kingdom Hearts 2 so it's on the list. Gameplay wise this is the weakest game in the franchise and also the ugliest looking. Though considering that the game involves removing bugs from the data in Jiminys journal I can't help but think that was part of the joke. We don't even play as Sora in this one just a data copy of him that eventually becomes his own being. The only saving grace for this is that they remastered all the relevant cutscenes and plot points of this game in the 2.5 collection as a 3 hour long movie so now people don't even have to go through the trouble of hunting down the old DS game on Amazon anymore. And really when the only redeeming feature of your game is not having to play it, you know it sucks.

#5 Mega Man X6

 I know people would have expected X7 to take this spot but I can't since at least X7 experimented with the 2d to 3D gameplay. It didn't work and they hid the ability to play as fucking X behind the grinding busy work of rescuing Reploids in the Maverick stages. But guess where that mechanic was taken to its absolute worst degree? You guessed it X6, my spot for this list. 

 Keiji Inafune cleary wrote and planed for the Mega Man X series to stop with X5 and holy crap does it show here. The plot is uninteresting, the maverick bosses are boring and unnecessary as if you take out High Max in any of the stages you can jump straight to Gate's stages. But since you have to get all of X's armor parts to make it through the bosses are still required to be beaten so why even give us the option to skip them? Also yes the Reploid rescue system is back and even worse since not only do some of them have upgrade components but there's the new Nightmare Virus that turns them into enemies if you take too long. Also if they turn bad they're gone for good and so is their potential upgrade, and since most of the ones that do have them are hidden in very hard to reach places and the Nightmare is more often then not very close once you see them, you're screwed.

 Not to mention every two stages or so Dynamo shows up to fight X and Zero if nothing else because Capcom didn't know what to do with the guy after X5 and they wanted to pad the game out. Speaking of reoccurring bad guys Sigma is easily the worst he's ever been in the series here. Now narratively I get why he's all broken and crazy here but still why did you include him here anyway? I mean in X5 it was very heavily hinted that he was working with some remaining figment of Dr Wily so why not go with that? Have Wily be the real mastermind as he pretended to be loyal to Gate, stab him in the back and and admit to using Gate and Sigma as part of some grand final world domination scheme as well as completing his revenge against Light by destroying X as well as Zero, himself a failed experiment in Wily's eyes? 

 Maybe even have him play a part in Axl's story in X7 as maybe being the one who created Axl's copy chip and designed him based on Bass' designs? But no we get this poorly designed cash grab instead. X6 is my pick as the worst in the X series and that's my two cents on that. But we still have five more bad sequels to deal with people. Follow the link here to see what I consider to be the absolute worst video game sequels I've seen.

Batman Arkham Knight is owned by Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment, Rocksteady Studios and DC Comics

Final Fantasy 13 is owned by Square-Enix, Motomu Toriyama and Yoshinore Kitase.

Kingdom Hearts is owned by Square Enix, Disney Interactive Studios, Tetsuya Nomura, and Shinji Hashimoto.

Mass Effect 3 is owned by Bioware and Electronic Arts.

Mega Man x 6 is owned by Capcom and Tokuro Fujiwada.

Sly Cooper: Thieves in time is owned by Sony Computer Entertainment of America and Sanzaru games.