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 first false copyright claim: CoPeerRight Agency - Italy has made my list.

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

Thank you Jim for introducing me to this beautiful symbol of displeasing disgust.

 Well it finally happened people, some slimy little weasel decided to lie to Youtube and try to take money from me. It happened on March 16th 2017 when I was editing my Lets Play/ Walkthrough videos when I noticed a Copyright Claim on Part 10 of my Ratchet and Clank Lets Play. 

Now if Insomniac Games (you know the people who own the actual rights to Ratchet and Clank) were the ones to make the claim then I might have some cause for concern. But as you can clearly see the claim was made by some filthy little pieces of gutter trash calling themselves CoPeerRight Agency - Italy. 

 Who I know full well have nothing to do with Ratchet and Clank and certainly have no legal grounds to try to steal money from me for trying to entertain all of you. Now this isn't my first Copyright claim but at least the first one you can argue that the holders might have some grounds.

Now the first claim was on Part 1 of my Lets Play of the Demo For Jojo's Bizarre adventure Eyes of Heaven that I did a year back. Normally I would have filed a counter claim and did a whole article about the ordeal but I took a step back and thought to myself. First the claims in question were over a cutscene that most likely would have been blocked for recording of the full game due to it being pretty spoiler heavy, the second being the character intros before the fight which is more bullshit but whatever. The main reason why I didn't counter claim is that A it's just the demo and profiting off of that is more questionable then others, B they made it so I can't monetize and left it at that, they didn't just put adds that I can't earn anything from to pour salt in the wound, C I figured that I'd dispute it later once the hype for the game died down and Namco Bandai would forget about it, the 30 days would come and go and no harm no foul. Lastly, D the claim was made by the company that actually owns the rights to the fucking game! 

 But then comes along CoPeerRight Agency-Italy with the one two punch of blocking me from making money off of my video but also putting adds so that they can make money off of my work. That is where they crossed the line (on top of them not owning the rights to Ratchet and Clank) so I filed a counter claim and here we are now. I did a little bit of research and apparently I'm not the first guy these slimy little bastards have tried to steal from. A Youtuber named called Sam Kan also apparently had an encounter with these clowns, though it was far worse since according to him CoPeerRightAgency-Italy issued about 10 claims far after the videos were put up. 

 If you've uploaded videos to Youtube you know that if anything is considered in violation of Copyright Youtube lets you know the minute it's uploaded as was the case when some videos of certain Walkthroughs were flagged for having copyrighted music in them. (Even though the music is in the game footage itself and not added by me. But in that case I just used Youtube's music removal program so the offending music is just muted or lowered so no harm there.)

 So let's go over the facts kiddies, My video was published On April 1st 2016 and then CoPeerRight Agency- Italy made the copyright claim on March 16th 2017. Get the air fresheners because I smell a big flaming pile of horse shit! 

Not to be too unoriginal here but these people are the Parasites that Andrew Ryan was talking about all though-out Bioshock. These "people" with their lack of morals, decency or honor try to steal from those who put in the labor into what we do. Whether it's a Walkthrough, original piece of art or what have you if you put the effort into making something new or transforming someone else's work with your commentary or jokes then who should profit off of that labor of love? CERTAINLY NOT YOU Says the Parasites! And why not, Youtube has no legal penalties in place for these blood suckers so why not go for the gold and steal from anyone whose trying to get ahead? 

 Now I normally ask people to share the links to these articles but I absolutely must insist in this instance. So everyone who reads this I implore you, speak out against not just CoPeerRight Agency - Italy but anyone else whose stupid, greedy and depraved enough to steal from your passions and see their "businesses" foreclosed and burnt to the ground! Though some part of me is actually glad about this recent development. Since I'm now apparently gaining enough ground on Youtube for these slimy little toads to try and take my money off of my work. Though again I haven't seen a dime from my videos since I'm far too scared to try and earn money off of my videos since 1 I don't know how, 2 I know next to nothing about copyright law so I don't know what would and wouldn't fly (especially in such an unfriendly environment like Youtube where they are content to keep the Right-holders happy while screwing over the people that made them the #1 video uploader in town.) 

 But most importantly is #3, I don't know how to attract more people to my channel aside from sharing links with far more successful Youtubers and hoping someone is bored enough to click on my videos and watch long enough to see a dime roll my way. Speaking of does anyone have any tips to attract more viewers and readers? Though if your answer is "just keep going and eventually you'll find your audience" I've been doing that for at least 3 years I need something more substantial then that. I truly am grateful for those who have shared the links for my various Articles and videos don't misunderstand me but I just need more concrete numbers. I'm still going to keep going and doing this till something clicks, I've come too far to just give up but seriously folks one click on two buttons at the bottom of my videos and articles can do wonders for me and anyone else whose trying to make something of themselves. Though it may be just a matter of creating the right content at the right time, so maybe once Persona 5 comes out and I start my LP of it then maybe things will pick up.

Update March 20th 2017:

They released the claim, I knew they'd see things my way. I read on twitter that these copyright claims are seen as just an evolution of spam emails. I can definitely see why. So if this problem happens to you just counter claim them and all should be good. Especially if they don't have a leg to stand on, because like a kid they have to fess up once you see their hand in the cookie jar.

Bioshock is owned by 2K Boston, 2K Australia, Take-Two Interactive, Ken Levine, Alyssa Finley and 2K Games.

Jojo's Bizarre Adventure is propriety of Hirohiko Araki, David Production, Tokyo MX, Warner Bros Entertainment and Viz Media.

Ratchet and Clank is owned by Insomniac Games and Sony Computer Entertainment.

Video Game Review: Top 10 best Video Game Sequels Part 1

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

 Now before you say anything yes this is in response to the Nostalgia Critics second sequels month and yes there will be a followup of what I consider the worst sequels. Now there will be some rules for this list. First it has to be a direct sequel so games belonging to anthologies like Final Fantasy and Shin Megami Tensei don't count unless the events are directly continued afterwords. Second it has to do something better then the game that preceded it, because sequels are supposed to improve in someway over their originals so cut, copy and past sequels don't count. Third only one sequel per franchise if not then every Ratchet and Clank sequel will be clogging up the list. Last and most importantly it has to be a sequel that I've personally played so if you don't see your favorite on here then simply put I haven't played it so there. So with that out of the way let's get started.

#10 Batman Arkham City

 Before you say anything the reason this is so low is because I preferred Arkham Asylum over Arkham City. I preferred the tight close terrifying atmosphere of the old Asylum over the open space of Arkham City. The first game felt like if Batman were trapped in Rapture from Bioshock, Arkham City still captures the feel of being Batman but I guess the first game just made a better impression on me. Though I can't deny the open world gameplay and the new freedoms that it grants me in Arkham City as well as the other improvements in the story and boss battles. 

 The first Arkham game had very few and far between bosses with the best being Poison Ivy and the worst being of course Titan Joker. So you may be wondering if I've had nothing but praise for the first game why is the sequel on the list? Well I honestly can't deny the improvements in gameplay and freedom that Arkham City grants the player. They've improved the combat system with new gadgets, tightened the counters and improved the flow. Even the stealth sections have improved significantly by adding enemies that can jam and detect your detective vision and even set mines on ledges so you couldn't just camp out and pick your enemies off one by one. This also carries over to the boss battles with the highlights being the battle of brawn with Ra's Al Ghul to the mental struggle of Mr Freeze. 

 Though another reason why Arkham City is so low is due to the Riddler challenges. Not just in the main game those you can beat with a youtube guide and patience but the challenge content is long, tedious and requires expert precision and perfection. I may be an amateur completionist but that is just too much for me. Also the game tried to hold the Catwoman content to pre orders and later 5 dollar DLC and that can't slide by me. So Arkham City may be on the list but for every two steps it took over Asylum it took a step back.

#9 No more Heroes 2 Desperate Struggle

  The frist No More Heroes was my very first encounter with Suda 51 and WOW was it an experience. The crazy boss battles, the story that never took itself too seriously and was delightfully tongue and check, the combat that actually made the Wii's motion control tolerable for me. But best of all is the badass Otaku assassin who doesn't give the slightest amount of a fuck unless you're in between him and getting some tail or cash, Travis Touchdown. The sequel which I honestly never thought was going to happen improves the combat with the alternate Beam Katanas actually feeling and performing differently. It also does us the favor of removing the tedious mini games and replacing them with awesome throwbacks to the 8-bit era as well as chucking out the empty pointless open world. On top of that we get more crazy boss battles, three of which we can take out with different characters including Travis' "apprentice" Shinobu Jacobs and his estranged Irish brother Henry each with their own skills and fighting style.

 The story does actually give Travis a better motivation then just grabbing some ass with his best friend Bishop getting killed by the #1 UAA ranked Assassin Jasper Bat Jr. as revenge for Travis killing his brothers and father in the side missions last game. Even though the game does retcon a few things such as making the UAA a real organization the game itself doesn't really care and quite frankly we appreciate it. But it's still tied down by the Wii controls and while the game promises us 50 assassins we only get around 15 and only 13 of them are fought by Travis. That and not adding anything to replace the removed open world does bring it down a notch in my books. Travis you made the list, but barely. Now if we can finally see you fight against Henchman 21 in Deathbattle we would be especially grateful.

#8 Ratchet and Clank Up your Arsenal.

 Now you could argue that Ratchet and Clank 2 should be here instead, and to a degree you'd be right. The change in gameplay between the first and Second game is undeniable. It got rid of the 4-8 hit health bar and replaced with 100-200 HP, introduced upgradable weapons and weapon mods. But why I'm putting the end of the original trilogy instead is for a few reasons.

 1. we get to customize your fighter ship giving you your own flavor to how you fight in space. 2. you actually got rewarded for playing the last two games with store discounts if the previous game's save data was on your Memory Card, this was the second time I've ever seen that in a game (The first being R&C 2 of course). 3 We actually got some character development for Quark, where he finally started to act like the hero he always thought he was. 4, the last reason why I put this game over Going Commando, this game introduced Dr Nefarious one of the funniest villains in gaming. I mean this guy is such a hilariously over the top cartoon super villain you can't help but love him. 

 What makes him even better is that he shares the same voice actor with Andrew Ryan from Bioshock Armin Shimerman  Learning that fact just makes me want to replay Bioshock but pretend that it's Dr Nefarious instead of Ryan. Which just makes all his scenes go from chilling and menacing to hilarious. Also Lawrence is the perfect straight man to Nefarious' Nicolas Cage esq scene chewing. So kind of a shallow reason but hey this is my list so there; take it up with me personally squishies!!!

#7 Sly 3 Honor Among Thieves.

 Yet another PS2 trilogy ending entry on the list. Now don't worry from here on out we do start to diversify but I just have to say that Sly 3 is my favorite of the Sly Cooper games. First and foremost we actually see the consequences of Sly 2 carry over and isn't just swept under the rug. Murray after failing to keep Clock-La's beak from crippling Bentley goes on a vision quest to find himself and comes out a much more calm and focused man with made up Dream Time powers. The van comes back after drifting away during Jean Bison's Lumberjack games (not important but had to mention). 

 But best of all Bentley becomes 1000 more awesome after ending up in his wheelchair. No really he outfits his chair with various weapons and gadgets and can seriously handle himself in a fight despite what you may think. He even gets a girlfriend who's a match for him intellectually, can hold her own in a fight if need be and the two just click. (which makes what happens in Sly 4 all the more exasperating, I'll get to that on the next list trust me.)

 We also get new playable characters for some missions, both old and new faces including The Guru AKA Koala Yoda. The old faces were the real treat, Dimitri who becomes an informant for several cases and eventually an official member of the Cooper team, Muggshot who you can finally beat down like a real man with the awesome Inspector Fox. But the last member was the biggest shock for me as a kid, The Panda King, the man who helped kill Sly's dad and buried mountain villages in hundreds of pounds of snow was recruited to the team. And believe me Sly was not happy about it initially but the once member of the Fiendish 5 would go to any lengths even working with the son of the man he killed to save his daughter from one of the most hateful villains in the franchise. 

 Another refreshing change of pace is that the villains weren't all part of the same group, just random crime bosses that the team had to deal with to recruit the people needed for the Cooper Vault heist. The negatives however seem small but make up for quantity with quality. This game got rid of the clue bottles, recon photos and the treasures. The clue bottles were just a personal favorite of mine, a little bit of a collectathon that wasn't too long, not too short but just long and challenging enough that it didn't overstay its welcome. The recon photo mission may have been repetitive but did help the framework of the team and show their competence as a gang of master thieves.

 Now granted some of their jobs might have seemed straight forward but as Sly 2 showed these jobs never go exactly as planed and recon photos could be the difference between 10 figures in your bank account or 10 to life in jail. On the note of immersion wouldn't a thief like Sly want to steal everything valuable belonging to these guys that isn't nailed down? Besides now that the easy cash source was gone we had to rely even more on pickpocketing for new upgrades, which means more time and less fun in some peoples' cases. But the biggest gripe I had was the 3D, I absolutely hate 3D and when the only way is with those old stupid red and blue glasses it only served as the icing on the annoyance cake. In the immortal words of everybody's favorite fuck mothering vampire "It's a stupid fucking gimmick and everyone knows it!" So with those Sly manages to take the #7 spot

#6 Kingdom Hearts 2.5

Now I'm going with 2.5 because it is the complete definitive version of Kingdom Hearts 2 (At least until it re releases for PS4. Square Enix, seriously either give those who bought the collections for PS3 a major discount or don't even bother because knowing that I dropped cash for a last gen collection only to find out a few years later they're getting re-released for PS4 is nothing short of piss boiling. Now don't get me wrong I will get that collection eventually but not Day 1 and not with my money. Because, just like how I got the Bioshock collection these collections do make for good Christmas list filler as well as the price going down pretty far in the intervening months between release and Christmas so HO HO HO Square! )

 Ok rant over on to the good parts of Kingdom Hearts 2. We don't just get new worlds to explore we get world exclusive forms as well. My favorite levels are of course The Pride Lands, Space Paranoids and The World that never was, with Sora being a lion for the first, getting a Tron esq outfit for the second and the general creepy, intimidating and impressive atmosphere for the third. Outside of the world exclusive outfits Sora can also channel his inner Shouichi Tsugami and has access to a red power form, a blue long-range mode (I know Agito's blue form was mid-range but you get the geist), a midrange power form, a white shinning final form and in 2.5 a form borrowing the powers of his old set. The combat system get action commands added which adds unique flair to defeating enemies and the Gummy Ship segments are much shorter and streamlined. (Though I do prefer the Gummi Ship in the first game but the removal of the need to travel between worlds until you get the wrap upgrade is a nice touch, once you beat the course once you technically don't have to do it again unless you really want too.)

 The extra bosses in this game are mean, nasty and will cause you to snap your controller in half. I only need to mention two names, Data Luxord and The Lingering Will; anyone who's played this game especially on the hardest setting will be sent into a world of pure anger, madness and evil the likes of which nobody has seen before. But for everything good in this game the bad parts are just criminal. I personally would have liked to play in the Timeless River for longer then we did, but nope one level and boom done. But that was just a small gripe compared to the two parts of this game that really smashed a Keyblade against my skull.

 First (literally) being THE FIRST 6 HOURS OF THE GAME WITH ROXAS!!! Oh my god that was the longest, most boring and most tedious tutorial level I have ever had the displeasure of ever playing! I almost gave up the first time I played it if I'm remembering it right due to the sheer tedium of those first hours. Now, Pop Quiz kiddies what is the purpose of the tutorial and first level of games? Introducing the mechanics in a quick, entertaining and immersive way that doesn't overstay its welcome in a way that once the player knows which buttons do what they can just go on their merry little way. So Kingdom Hearts 2, 1 out of 5 questions right, F please see me after class!

 Then the cherry on top of the sundae, they made Atlantica into a musical rhythm level with some of the most annoying music around. Though thankfully you can just press the mute button and follow the button prompts so it's not as bad as it could have been. But holding out on the extra content for the Japanese audience while leaving the rest of the world with the bare basics until this rerelease? Smooth Square-Enix, smooth, one small constellation in this new digital age is that updates and new features for games is but a click away. But regardless Kingdom Hearts does stumble in a few places but improves over the first game and Chain of Memories enough to make the 6th spot of this list. But do keep an ear out because next time I'll give my honorable mentions as well as my personal Top 5 Video Game Sequels.

Ratchet and Clank is owned by Insomniac Games and Sony Computer Entertainment.

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

Sly Cooper 3: Honor Among Thieves is owned by Sucker Punch Productions and Sony Computer Entertainment of America

No More Heroes 2 Desperate Struggle is owned by Suda51 (Goichi Suda), Grasshopper Manufacture, Ubisoft and Rising Star Games.

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.

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