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

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 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.

Personal Post: My media recap of 2016.

Please be sure to read, comment, spread the links, re-tweet and follow me on Twitter @OnDavidsBrain! and support me on Patreon.

My Christmas haul for this year. Some of which will be for your benefit in the up coming year.

 What else can I say about 2016? It's been a big year, several anniversaries for various franchises, I finally moved on to Lets Plays, reviewed the Sentai series that premiered on the same day I was born which was Jetman and I'll just leave it at that. Oh and I also managed to get Madoka Magica Beginnings and Eternal on DVD for a somewhat reasonable price, thank you holiday sales. So for this list I'll just be going through the pieces of media that were released in North America in 2016 that I've played/watched in no particular order.

 This isn't a best of worst of list I'm just going through new movies, video games, anime what have you that I've seen which premiered in 2016. Though I'll only count remasters or HD remakes if they've made a significant change compared to the previous version of this product. But I won't include Demos that I've played since by definition I haven't played the full game and thus feel uncomfortable giving my thoughts on a full game based on the first hour or so.

My Favorite movie of 2016, good continuation of the MCU story, brilliant adaptation of the Civil War comic and just the perfect thing for people to cleanse their palates after ingesting the garbage fire that was Batman Vs Superman. But if you want a more detailed account of my experience with this movie, here you go.

I've finally finished this game and surprise, surprise it's really good. Now I still don't want to give too much away but we do see some good character development, the bosses can kick your teeth in if you have no idea what you're doing and Dagda is one of the grand poobahs of dickery. Read my review of my first impressions, get both SMT 4 games and have some fun. 

Essentially Iron Man with magic instead of technology but by the Emperor are the special effects impressive. Also it reveals one of the Infinity Stones so if you're a hardcore MCU fan this is required viewing. Especially for the upcoming Thor Ragnarök. Review post, like share subscribe moving right along.

It's Pokémon's 20th anniversary game, of course it's really good. The Kahunas are an interesting reinvention of the Gym Leader concept, Team Skull is my second favorite villain group behind Team Plasma, and I love the concept of regional variant Pokémon. My personal favorite is Aloan Marowak. Though I wish these games could provide a decent challenge like Hard mode in Pokemon White 2 and Black 2, please Nintendo, bring back Hard mode for the next games, pretty please? Here's my thoughts on Sun, me and my Fire Kitty are almost to the end.

I've played this since Day 1 so take my advice. Don't ever go for Free to Play, unless you have great patience and self control with your money. I do I only limit myself to deals or exclusive events but for the rest, you may want to just watch a  Lets Play. Or since Kingdom Hearts 2.8 has HD cutscenes of all the important events of this game, just wait for that. You can get by without purchasing new Medals, but only for so long. Sure there are Events that give you great medals but unless you know what you're doing and log on at least once a day to contribute to your party for events you'll be out of luck. But hey it's better then Final Fantasy All the Bravest. 

A great remake of a Point and Click Classic. I've never played the original game back in the day I was more of a Putt-Putt, Freddi Fish, Pajama Sam kind of guy. I was a little kid can you blame me? Back on point this was a real brain scratcher and while I have a Lets Play of this game I may want to avoid making another one in the future since they take time, I want to beat them without walkthroughs and I doubt all you members of the PC Master Race want to see this filthy console peasant miss what was OH SO OBVIOUS on my walkthroughs. But all in all a good game, an interesting experience and you should definitely check it out for yourselves. Also it has the original Maniac Mansion in the game so 2 games for the price of 1, can't beat that.

GET THIS COLLECTION RIGHT NOW!!!
Seriously this is a compilation of three of my favorite games of all time, in HD, with all their single Player DLC and minus Bioshock 2's pointless and irrelevant multiplayer. You will not regret this. But even if you don't since next year is the 10th Anniversary of the franchise guess who has two thumbs and is going to do Lets Plays of these games and their DLC because he is a humongous fan? d o_o b This guy!

My favorite game of 2016. Though I couldn't show it the way I intended. See I originally wanted to do a lets play of this game but for some reason I couldn't upload any clips from my PS4 to Youtube. Though the few I could were flagged down by copyright because they had clips from the failed movie. But I do want to show my love for this game somehow so why not here? I personally view this as non-cannon to the main series due to Quark telling this story to a fellow inmate and; let's face it the guy is about as unreliable a narrator as you can get aside from the Cybernetic Ghost of Christmas Past from the Future so you have to take this story with a major grain of salt. Besides we still have the original games, they're not going anywhere and I do still have a lets play of the original game so I can at least show how far we've come.

Now for your viewing pleasure my first impressions of the game as well as a small sample of my constant failures at the Hoverboard track before Patch 1.03 that actually made the minigame winnable. The others you can see on Youtube.

I'm betting that you all forgot this came out this year and quite frankly I don't blame you. This is almost a textbook example of what NOT to do in a sequel, reuse gags without the proper context of the original, pointlessly reset character progression, jumps the shark even more then the first you name it it's here. The only time laughed watching this flick was whenever Will Ferrell was on screen. Just give this flick a you-googly and move on.

Technically the worst movie I've seen this year, but that's only because I haven't seen that many movies and the few I have seen were really good. So all I have to say about this movie is that it was just kind of "meh". Though I will agree that Jerod Leto had no business being the Joker. I get what they were trying to go for with him but every-time I saw him I wasn't seeing the Joker I was seeing a pusher for Dr Rockso. Besides at least this wasn't Batman Vs Superman Dawn of Cheap Cash-ins. Also I really liked the part in the final fight where Diablo turned into an Aztec Fire monster to duke it out with Incubus. But aside from that, just meh.

I honestly wanted to review this movie in my usual style but well life happened and I wanted to talk about other stuff. However I do think this movie is decent. Not great but decent mostly coming off as Toei trying to make an apology (somewhat insincere but an apology nonetheless) to fans of the Showa Era with Hiroshi Fujioka's name slapped onto the writing credits. But considering how he hated Takashi Hongo's depiction in Kamen Rider Taisen and the retcons included in the Kamen Rider Yongo netmovies that remove that and Grand Prix from cannon I can see why he'd want the chance to set Takshi Hongo back on the right path. It's certainly better then the last Taisen films as at least this does seem like we're watching Takashi Hongo fighting Shocker to save Tachibana's granddaughter who is essentially his Goddaughter.

A man on his last legs desperately fighting to save the family of the man who helped shape him into what he is today, and like most Inoue scripts while the execution may be clumsy I get the emotion and sentiment trying to be conveyed. But there are somethings wrong with the movie. Mainly the new look for Kamen Rider #1. I really don't like the over-muscled look and he looks like "he's been hitting the roids bro!" Also thankfully while Ghost and Specter are in the movie they don't overshadow Takashi, since this really is his story just with elements from Ghost crammed in. So all in all better then what we've got but could have been far better.

Speaking of Hiroshi Fujioka we have Project X Zone 2. I enjoyed the first game due to the crossover madness seeing characters from various franchises and three different companies fighting against familiar and new (and sometimes sexy, hello Saya) evils trying to conquer or destroy the muliverse. Hell it even motivated me to Pick up Endless Frontier to see the intro for Hawken Browning and Kaguya as well as how Reiji, Xiaomu and KOS-MOS were so familiar with them and Phantom. I've also been watching a let's play of the original Namco X Capcom on Youtube to see how the whole fiasco got started, that shows how much I've been hooked.

Project X Zone 2 has the crossover fun of the first Project X Zone game as well as really botched localization. If you have at least some knowledge of the Japanese language and hear the clips you can tell that they went off the reservation with some of them. Now I can get that directly translating languages involves various constraints like how Japanese is very contextual and English not so much but Bandai of America has a bit of a reputation of not giving the slightest amount of a shit with their localizations these days. But those who've played this and Digimon Cyber Sleuth can attest to this claim.

Also, Sheath, oh dear. While I do like to see Vilenesses who are cute, strong, competent and not an evil, hateful, irredeemable bitch who doesn't know how to crack a joke, did we really need one who was a Weeaboo Squealer? I get the joke with her but still the boarder between Parody and reaffirming stereotypes is paper thin (see the Dave Chappele "Racist Pixies" sketch for evidence of that). I can tell she was meant to be a parody of the American fanbase who petitioned to have the first Project X Zone game brought into the international market but if it wasn't for the scene where Chris Redfield and Jill Valentine reaffirmed Reiji and Xiaomu that not all Americans are like her it would have been the developers biting the hand that feeds them. Pedantic complaints aside these games did inspire me to check out some of the games these characters come from, like Devil May Cry, God Eater, Xenoblade and Strider for example. So all in all get these games, see if there's a franchise that looks interesting and give it a try if only to expand your horizons.

And now my list of characters that I really want to see in Project X Zone 3. Now some of these may sound silly but then again this whole series as basically an interactive fan fiction so might as well get into the spirit. If you have suggestions I'd love to hear them.

Heroes:

Viewtiful Joe and Sylvia
Alastor (Viewtiful Joe)
Amaterasu (Okami)
Asura and Yasha (Asuras Wrath)
Axl (Megaman X)
Atoli (.Hack)
Sonic and Tales
Knuckles
Shadow and Rouge (Sonic)
E-123 Omega
Flynn and Nanashi (SMT 4) (Sega owns Atlus which made SMT, both SMT4 games are on 3DS so it makes some sense.)
Isabeau (SMT 4)
Guile (Street Fighter)
Dan Hibiki and Blanka (Street Fighter)
Trish (Devil May Cry)
Kamen Rider Ex-Aid and Kamen Rider Brave (Well Namco-Bandai's letting Toei use Pac-Man in Ex-aids movie and Ex-Aid is based on Video Games so I hope that'll happen. Probably not but not outside the realm of possibility)
Kamen Rider Lazer ( Yes I know he's dead but this series is known for using time slips so again not impossible.)
Jotaro Kujo (Part 3) & Jolyne Kujo (Namco-Bandai published Eyes of Heaven and Cyberconnect 2 developed it so all they'll need is Araki's blessing, or some negotiations with David Productions; again a man can dream)


Villains:

Jet Black (Viewtiful Joe)
Orochi (Okami)
Deus (Asuras Wrath)
Sakaki (.Hack)
Dr Eggman
Metal Sonic
Krishna (SMT 4)
Walter/Lucifer (SMT 4)
Johnathan/Merkabah (SMT 4)
Balrog (Street Fighter)
Vega (Street Fighter)
Mundus (Devil May Cry)
Kamen Rider Genm
Kamen Rider Snipe
DIO (Jojo's Bizzarre Adventure)
Enrico Puchi (Jojo's Bizarre Adventure)
Nightmare (Soul Caliber)

Like I've said before I'm not a big Star Trek guy, but this was still a decent movie. The plot kept me engaged the characters' back and forth was witty and it didn't seem to be just a rehash of previous Star Trek movies.

It's Telltale's Walking Dead of course I think it's great. Hell I'm doing lets plays of every episode of the new season so don't take my word for it. Watch and then play for yourselves.

It's not as good as Seven Samurai, now that the obvious is out of the way I can talk about this movie on its own. Especially since I haven't seen the "original" Magnificent Seven so thus no point of comparison. It's a kickass movie, Denzel Washington is a badass, Vincent D'Onofrio is coo-koo nuts and I love it and I seriously want that gold gatling gun.

Again never really was into Gundam, my only exposure was that SD show that was on Toonami back in the day and Gundam Seed which is apparently the black sheep of the franchise. So you can tell with that kind of first impression why Gundam isn't exactly in my top 10. But I decided to check this out and holy crap this hooked me. The characters are charismatic the fights are close, hard hitting and downright grizzly. Though unlike Code Geass where that was an entire new universe I've had a bit of a hard time trying to follow the politics of IBO since I've never seen any previous Gundam series so I have no idea about half the terms they're talking about.

I do get most of it but I may just have to go through it again to grasp the full scope. Also the funniest episode was when a certain character dies when Tekkadan was attacked on Earth. I won't say who but it was soooo obvious that this person was going to die I was surprised he wasn't wearing a red shirt talking about how he wasn't afraid of anything anymore since he had two days left till retirement. I mean it was so obvious that when it did happen it wasn't like when Mami was killed by Charlotte it was more like that Steamroller scene from the first Austin Powers. Maybe not like that but it was more like a boring punchline to an incredibly drawn out joke.

Aside from that my favorite characters are Naze and Orga. Naze is calm, cool and a charismatic charming SOB who also acts a good mentor for Orga. Also yes the dude has a literal harem of hot, smart capable ass-kicking women at his beck and call and essentially a Space Polygamist. On the one hand one can't help but be teeth grindingly jealous of a charismatic dude with hundreds of girlfriends who love him as much as he does them. But on the other hand; well to quote Charles Britannia from Code Ment "I swear to god if I have to sit though one more episode of Bridezillas I'm going to saw my own arm off." Pros and cons to everything am I right?

Though speaking of Code Geass Orga is basically Lelouch but with a key difference. If I had to compare the two Lelouch would be more book-smart where as Orga was Street-Smart. Then again somebody must have thought the same thing considering Johnny Young Bosch voices both characters. Considering that Code Geass is one of my favorite anime I'm not surprised that one of my favorite characters is Street-Smart Lelouch. But still dispite some setting issues IOB gets my seal of approval. But seriously don't fuck with these guys.

I get the joke, it got pretty tiresome, thankfully there's a good story, likable characters and more then just the main joke for this show to fall back on. Saitama is basically what would happen if Goku were strong enough to beat Superman, he's the strongest man in the universe so what now? Why just be a hero for fun of course! Also possibly find someone or thing that could give him a challenge. There's more to Saitama then just his insane strength though. He does know what it means to be a hero, he's not a glory hound and will go so far as making himself look bad to make sure that the other heroes who fought before him get their fair share of credit for their bravery. This is also getting a second season in the near future so be sure to check it out.

So that was 2016. Now on to 2017 and hopefully bigger and better things.

All rights go to their respective owners.

Video Game Review: Pokémon Sun and Moon: Me and my fire kitty.

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 Honestly folks I've been looking forward to this game for a long time, not as long as Persona 5 or Kingdom Hearts 3 but eh close enough. A whole new region, new variations of classic Pokémon (proving that Natural Selection exists in Pokémon) and a brand new story telling potential since the new region Alola doesn't have a Pokémon league but 4 Kahunas. Meaning that the game can focus less on beating the eight gym leaders and eventually Elite 4 but now just the 4 Kahunas and the mysteries of the Aether foundation and Team Skull. Even how you get your starter Pokémon has notable differences that I really do like, instead of just picking one and leaving it at that the context has that only once both Pokémon and trainer have chosen each other can't they be called partners, which shows a cut scene where your chosen starter gradually walks over to you, you pick it up and thus you are now partners. And because I chose Litten the cute little fire kitty this image immediately sprang to mind.

No joke I just wanted to present my Litten like he was Simba I was even hearing "Circle of Life" in my head when I was holding him.

 So with the assistance of the new Professor Kukui, his assistant Lillie and her mysterious Pokémon Cosmog I begin my quest to explore these new island, challenge the Kahunas and their islands totem Pokémon and stop Team Skull from doing, SOMETHING I HAVEN'T RUN INTO THEM YET!!! So at this point I'll just go over the features I've encountered so far. First our new Pokédex which is possessed by a Rotom. While it may not do much as far as I can tell he can talk to you, display the map at the bottom of the screen and even show you where you're supposed to go in case you get lost.
It may show new capabilities as the game goes on but that remains to be seen.

 There's an update to the Pokémon-Amie called Pokémon Refresh which while it removes Super Training will allow you to switch between the Pokémon you groom and will also let you removes Status effects at the end of battles such as Sleep, Poison and Paralysis. We also are introduced to the Festival Plaza which for those of you who've played Black and White 2 will be familiar with as it shares functions with the Join Avenue where you help point people in the direction of attractions they want to go to and get upgrades and items from the shops there.

 While there are some features that some people disagree with, mostly the move effectiveness designator that shows whether a move you're using will be effective against a Pokémon or not. I personally don't mind it since like in the most likely case with brand new players they don't want to have their computer or a guide open to check whether a move will work against a Pokémon or not. While I can understand why Nintendo decided to include it some people are not happy. Maybe in further installments the developers could give players an option to turn that feature on or off. However there is one feature that I greatly approve of, the removal of HMs.

 Since there's no Badges there's no HMs that activate when you acquire them. So they mediate this issue by giving players Pokémon that you can ride on to overcome obstacles. So now you don't need to give your Pokémon sometimes unnecessary moves like Cut, Flash or Rock Punch. The best moves are now TMs so no you can give these moves to your Pokémon and remove them with absolutely no problems. Also aside from the Pokémon differences between the two games as usual both are on different time Axes.

 Sun is on normal time displayed on you 3ds while Moon is 12 hours ahead. So if you were playing Moon during the day it would be night in game. There's also some Pokémon that evolve differently in each version as well as version exclusives but I'll leave you all to figure those out for yourselves. As for me, my Litten and my team are off to conquer the Alola Islands as their grand champion. PRAISE THE SUN!!!

Pokémon is owned by Nintendo, Game Freak, Ken Sugumori, and Satoshi Tajiri.
Kamen Rider is owned by Ishinomori Productions, Toei Productions, and Bandai.

Manga Review: Kazumi Magica The Innocent Malice Volume 1 Part 1: For the girl who got everything she wanted. (Spoilers)

Please be sure to read, comment, spread the links, re-tweet and follow me on Twitter @OnDavidsBrain! and support me on Patreon.

In Memory of Jerome Silberman AKA Gene Wilder
(6/11/1933-8/29/2016)

 Oh this story, this was actually my first Madoka spin off that I read after watching the main series. Mostly because I heard about it from Jesuotaku's review of the show (which happened to be the last video review JO did, not a bad series to end with in my opinion.) Since this is my first spin off I have a bit of bias towards this but I will be fair and give this the critical attention it deserves but like before I warn you about spoilers so read the manga then come back.

We'll start with our cover and BY THE EMPEROR'S CENTURIBEAR WHAT IS UP WITH HER SPINE!? I've heard of hourglass figures before but this is just nightmare fuel! For god's sake kid eat a burger!!! 

 We open on a scene that I can't and won't show, specifically a girl curled in the darkness hearing about money and something going boom. She screams to get out and bursts out of a suitcase; naked. 

Did somebody say NAKED? 

 KILL YOURSELF!!! Now I could have made an Outlaw Star or Firefly reference but I chose not to so there. So our little nudist sees a guy holding a cell phone and figures he was the one who stuffed her in the suitcase and attacks him. But she notices that she's nude and her stomach rumbles. After she gets some clothes the guy explains that he's not a perverted abductor, he's just a guy that wanted a bomb to blow up a mall. 

 But she's less concerned with the the fact that she's sharing the room with a member of ISIS but is more focused of whether the food she was given was poisoned or not. Um kid I think some of your priorities are just a tad askew (Side note type askew onto Google it's funny, though not if you suffer from vertigo.) After the psychopathic glutton finishes literally licking her plate clean she comes to a realization, she has amnesia! The only thing she does remember is her name, Kazumi. The dudes phone rings again and the caller says that they have their bomb and that if the two don't meet at the mall to exchange the cases then she'll bring the bomb to the cops. Kazumi figures that the other person was the one who kidnapped her and is the best clue to finding her memories.

 So at the mall the exchange is made with Kazumi complementing the guys stroganoff and that she hopes he won't use the bomb so she can have it again. Suddenly two middle school girls show up and inquire about the switching of the suitcases. 

Their plot relevancy ratings just skyrocketed!!! This must mean something!

 The duo then open the suitcase and the guy accidentally activates the time bomb. Suddenly a detective and SWAT team arrive and confront the man named Souichiro Tachibana. The detective is about to shoot Tachibana when Kazumi busts out of the suitcase and defends him with evidence so solid that not even Jack McCoy, Matt Murdock, She-Hulk and Phoenix Wright could refute it! 

IRON CLAD; CASE CLOSED BABY!!!

 Nevertheless the time bomb is about to blow when Kazumi's earrings start to ring, causing something to happen to the bomb when Umika and Kaoru manage to send the bomb into the sky which just releases a bunch of confetti and harmless fireworks. With the crisis over Kazumi accuses the detective of planting the bomb on Tachibana; she tries to change the subject by insisting on getting Kazumi to a hospital since she admitted she has amnesia but Umika and Kaoru intervene and shows her a picture the three took together to prove that they're her friends. Apparently she's been missing since yesterday and the two are surprised that Kazumi lost her memory, so they show her to their home. The three live together in a large house since their parents work overseas and their house itself is paid for by Umika who's a best selling author, while Kaoru is an aspiring soccer star. Kazumi then manages to find her room and after the excitement of the day she just crashes and falls asleep.

Stop being so cute this instant or you'll give everyone diabetes from the pure sugar radiating off of you!

 Later that night she wakes up and finds a note left behind by Umika and Kaoru telling her that the detective from earlier invited them out for dinner. Speaking of food she feels a rumbly in her tummy and hits the kitchen to whip up her dinner. She's just about to tuck into her tasty home cooked dinner when the detective rings the doorbell. She says that she missed the two but Kazumi is still suspicious of her. Despite Kazumi's ditzy cutesy personality she's not an idiot. 

 She points out that the detective seemed to arrive on the scene a little too quickly, was quite quick on pulling her gun on Tachibana and why would she show up to their place after she went through the trouble to call out Umika and Kaoru and just show up at their place when only Kazumi is there? But it looks like she lost more then just her appetite, RUN! The phone rings but the detective knocked it off the hook alerting Umika and Kaoru. The detective explains that someone tipped her off about Tachibana and the bomb. She also said that she also received power from this person and begins to transform. 

She was converted into a Shocker Kaijin, RUN FOR IT KID!!!

 As Kazumi is tossed around by the Mantis her bell earrings ring and she has flashbacks recalling other girls and her standing in a pool of blood and corpses. The Mantis is about to rip her ears off to get the bells, but Kazumi snaps, breaks the mantis' wrist and surprisingly also transforms; into a magical girl! 

Badass intro but, yeah way to suck all the awesome out of your intro with a cute pink straw. Even the big bad beetle baddy is stunned by your reaction, and trust me she's not the only one kid.

 Despite being dazed by Kazumi's bubble headed realization the mantis keeps attacking her. She tries to fire off a spell but of course since she rediscovered her powers only a few seconds ago it's not looking too good. However muscle memory kicks in and we end our first chapter with her defeating the mantis and telling Umika and Kaoru that like Trumpy she can do magic things.

 Chapter 2 continues with Kazumi passing out, not to fatigue but hunger; cause the little silly billy never got dinner. The two shake their heads but Umika discovers something near the unconscious detective.

Whatever it is it can't be good.

 The next morning Kazumi wakes up and notices that the hole in the wall caused by the fight last night was fixed like nothing happened. Undeterred she heads down stairs when she smells something yummy.

Look for her on the premiere of Hells Kitchen Jr!

 Kaoru enters the picture and explains that Umika is just venting her writers block with cooking. However even this isn't enough to quiet the crazy in her head; as she starts doing free wording and starts to go into Sander Cohen territory.

I WANT TO TAKE THE EARS OFF! TAKE THEM OFF! PLEASE!

 Since that didn't work it's time for plan B 

 I am not even kidding the next scene the trio are at the mall. After much fluff and Kazumi wondering if Umika and Kaoru only see her as the old Kazumi instead of the today Kazumi she gets a bad feeling, the same one she got from the detective. Following that feeling she gets attacked by girls with black sludge on their face. She manages to remove the sludge with her soul gem but is attacked by the monster producing the sludge. After a wardrobe malfunction Kazumi transforms and attacks the monster but gets smacked around, literally. 

 Kazumi tells Umika and Kaoru to run, but it turns out she's not the only magical girl in town as the two transform. 

Not as cool as Kazumi's, but not bad.

 The two manage to subdue the monster but as Kazumi remembers their fighting tactics she jumps the gun and fires a spell at the wrong time nearly hitting Kaoru and letting the monster get away. Kaoru tells her not to sweat it since she doesn't expect Kazumi to be acting like her old self right away, but she just feels that all she is just a substitute for the old Kazumi. She apologizes for nearly hitting Kaoru so her and Umika agree that her punishment should be, to get some refreshment by way of Umika and Kaoru giving her a haircut, Kay?

 As they give Kazumi her haircut they give her the rundown of Magical Girls, their duties and the wish, Umika and Kaoru's for instance was to meet an editor who would respect her work and to have a body strong enough to be a top class soccer player respectively. Kazumi points out that they could have just wished to win the World Cup and become a best selling author, but they say that they wanted to achieve their goals through their own efforts. Kazumi then asks what her wish was but they say she never told them, they then bring up witches and explain that the Mantis and sludge monsters were witches they've never seen before. So with the exposition over we see Kazumi's new hairdo. 

Congratulations your cuteness levels are over 9000!!!

 She still has her little spiral hair strand which she says is sort of a witch detector, which goes off when her spider sense goes off again. The trio try to figure out the witches MO but are coming up with nothing. So Kazumi decides they need more fuel so they have a quick snack; and surprisingly it works with Umika noticing that all the victims were young girls using a specific brand of makeup.

Really? Because honestly I thought the witch was just emo judging by her dialogue.

 But sure enough there's a woman who's about to attack the crowd. The trio manage to intercede before she can make her move but also discover who the woman's sponsor is.

A magical girl creating artificial witches? The plot thickens.

 The magical girl runs off leaving the trio to deal with her fake witch. Despite some hesitation on Kazumi's part on what the old her would do the trio manage to defeat the cosmetics witch and get a similar object dropped by the Mantis witch. We end this chapter with the group discussing how everyone has the potential to become witches even with the best of intentions, but then decide to get some dinner; all in all a nice shopping day wouldn't you say? There's still some of volume one to cover but before I do I'll give you a warning. 

 Now from some feedback I've received most if not all of you haven't read these manga. So while I will keep going I want give you the chance to read these stories for yourselves before I make my jokes and observations. If you want to read this you can purchase and download it on your kindle or kindle app here. But if you want to hear my thoughts on the later volumes. Here you are, be sure to check out my later reviews of the innocent malice because trust me we're not done with Kazumi and her friends just yet. 

Young Frankenstein is owned by Mel Brooks and 20th Century Fox.

Pokémon is owned by Nintendo, Game Freak, Ken Sugumori, and Satoshi Tajiri.

Kazumi Magica The Innocent Malice is owned by Masaki Hiramatsu, Takashi Tensugi, Magica Quartet and Yen Press.

The Nutty Professor (1996) is owned by Tom Shadyac, Universal Pictures and Imagine Entertainment. Based on The Nutty Professor (1963)

Jontron is owned by Jon Jaffri and Normal Boots.