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

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

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

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

2010 God of War 3/ Bioshock 2

2011 infamous 2

2013 Project X Zone/Bioshock Infinite/ SMT4 

2014 Persona Q Shadow of the Labyrinth/Ni No Kuni

2016 SMT 4 apocalypse

2017 Persona 5/ Pokémon Sun

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

2019 Luigi’s Mansion 3

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Personal Post: Worst to best Another Riders: Part 3 #9-1

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

Yes there is an Another Grand Zi-o Another Watch, no it didn't appear in the show proper; just in a stage show. Wasted potential is indeed wasted. 

 Time to wrap this list up and get ready for the winter fun. Here's where the other Another Riders ranked up for those who haven't been following the countdown.

#23-17 https://ondavidsbrain.blogspot.com/2019/10/personal-post-worst-to-best-another.html

#16-10 https://ondavidsbrain.blogspot.com/2019/11/personal-post-worst-to-best-another.html

Kicking off the last part of this list is the first of the three Future Another Riders to debut, Another Shinobi.

 You know, it's sometimes the simplest things that are the most remembered. I mean how can the words evil, skeleton and Ninja not be cool when put together? From the Tekkō-kagi to the skeleton face it may be a simple design off of a kit bash Kamen Rider but when it works it works. And the contract holder being the man who eventually does become Shinobi does make for a nice bit of irony. Though whether the original Kamen Rider Shinobi will actually be a rider in 2022 is still up in the air but if Another Time: Kamen Rider Shinobi is anything to go by; I hope not.

Sound the drums for #8 Another Hibiki. 

 Honestly I shouldn’t be giving this Another Rider such a high spot on this list considering that this lead to that narcissistic, lying, arrogant, undeserving wank toad Kirya Kyosuke to become the new Hibiki. Because on top of how he behaved in the original Hibiki series; Kyosuke was responsible for Another Hibiki’s contract holder to make the deal with his blatant lying to a naive child just to stroke his own ego when we all know that Asumu is the true, rightful successor to the title of Hibiki. But putting that aside I have to give credit that the design of this Another Rider is just plain awesome. The Hibiki Riders were referred to as Oni and Another Hibiki's design truly brings to mind statues of Shinto gods to where I could defenitly see Another Hibiki riding on a thunder cloud. Sometimes you just have to give credit where it's due and Another Hibiki is a top tier designed Another Rider, despite the show it came from and the guy that beat him.

Next is one of the two most reoccurring Another Riders, one that honestly should have been the big bad given his powers but was knocked down because he was just a complete wenis, #7 Another Zi-O.

 Now if Oma Zi-O wasn't going to be the final boss (and spoilers he wasn't but we'll get to that later) than that honor should have gone to the Another Rider of the protagonist. Hell; of the Another Riders Another Zi-O is the second most reoccurring in the show. Though his powers were a little weird, now his precognitive powers are understandable considering that that was the main power of Zi-O II which debuted only a few episodes prior to his introduction but him switching between previous Another Riders sounds like something that should be Another Decade's wheelhouse. Though the design works pretty well as just a more armored Zi-O with a monstrous face. Also giving him an actual Rider belt with his Another RideWatch on there was a decent way to make him stand out among his contemporaries.

 Though sadly the Contract holder Hiryu should have been more of a threat, but with how he was portrayed (and not actually seeing how his life was screwed over with his parents being indirectly killed; just that nobody was there to get him at the hospital) he just comes off as a whiny, stupid, spiteful, narrow-minded, insane, tool. Now say what you will about Superboy Prime turning evil in Infinite Crisis but we can at least understand why and how he got to that point, Hiryu on the other hand has nothing. Also it took until Schwartz was telling him to his face that he was a pawn in his poorly constructed game and creating an alternate timeline where he rules the world as king Dickhead the 1st with his army of Another Riders to get the idea that Sougo might not be responsible for his life getting screwed over? Though according to the stage show even that wasn't enough to convince this asshole if the Another Oma Zi-O watch at the top of this review wasn't enough of a tipoff. So yes while the Another Zi-O powers themselves and the design works, Hiryu himself is just not compelling enough to get him any higher on the list.

#6 goes to the last regular Another Rider, Another Drive.

 Hopefully after the double barrels I wasted on the last guy we can keep this short and sweet. This brings us to Another Drive; the last of the non General Another Riders. Now I just love the asymmetry of its design, it looks like the regular Drive after a Blues Brothers esq Car crash. From the twisted metal, the driver that looks like it has a brain in it (since that's where Krim's consciousness was stored) and the Two Face like helmet it's like the Jackson Pollok of monster designs. Also it reminds me of the Monsters from Carranger/ Power Rangers Turbo; specifically when Rv Robo/ The Turbo Megazord got highjacked by the villains; just that Stallone sneer sells it for me.

 Also the Contractor being Roidmude 108 aka Kamen Rider Dark Drive/Paradox Roidmude disguised as Ora admittedly had me fooled. And since Another Drive is a Roidmude it can use the Heaviness to freeze opponents so Another Drive can just wail on them as well as shapeshifter into anyone they want to avoid detection. Speaking of wailing the way Sougo just beat Another Drive into the dirt after it killed Heure was chilling. So while the last of the rank and file Another Riders it certainly was one of the better ones. Now for the top 5, here we go.

#5 heralds the return of the meme God Dan Kuroto as Another OOO.

 Now as an Another Rider Another OOO is pretty standard, not really much in terms of twisting OOO's powers we don't see him switch to any forms or anything like that, but he can make Waste Yummies, so there's that. The basic design is still good highlighting the animal aspects of OOO'S Tatoba default form with the spikes on the grasshopper legs and the tiger claws, though the Hawk wings are a little silly looking, they look like big, floppy bunny ears. No, the real reason this is so high is cause the contractor is the God Dan Kuroto!!! Now while that is blatant fanboyism this series gives us very little actual entertainment so we have to take what we can get. So while the God Dan Kuroto might not make it to the very top we can at least remember the time he created Japanese Kickassia.

#4 is claimed by the twisted parody of the first (technically 4th) Heisei Rider; Another Kuuga.

 As the Another Rider of Kuuga a certain degree of importance comes with this one. Now while I would give it more credit for this being the only Another Rider that's a natural giant and that this thing is legitimately terrifying I have to keep that honor off due to Tiddlywinks being a bit of a mess as a character. I mean we know nothing about him, Schwartz doesn't mention him; what was even the point of this guy? Again I'm not counting Another Rider upgraded forms so Another Ultimate Kuuga is not being mentioned but if I was I'd actually rate him lower since he just gets the traditional Shirakura one-sided villain curb stomp. So I'll just give this CGI nightmare a rather respectable place on the list.

#3 goes to the poorly motivated final boss of Kamen Rider Zi-O; Another Decade.

 Let me get this out of the way, this thing looks like a badass. You know how all throughout Decade everyone was saying how he was the destroyer of worlds, the Devil and the unholy god of destruction? This is what I would have expected from that kind of hype instead of the smug, pink putz that we got instead. But his powers are a little weird, now opening up Tears to summon Evil Kamen Riders from universes where they won is a nice subversion of Tsukasa's World traveling powers and Diend's Rider summoning (though this begs the question of what Another Diend is going to to do since Diend's gimmick was stollen by this guy) but like I said when talking about Another Zi-O shouldn't Another Decade's powers include being able to switch between the other Another Riders' powers as well as the summon A.R Riders thing? Now since he's the final villain of Zi-O I tried not to put him at the #1 Spot by default because that would be lazy, thankfully there's other reasons why he only gets the bronze medal.

 Namely that Schwartz' plan makes no sense. So he wants to save his timeline from being destroyed, easy so far, so how he goes about this is creating Oma Zi-O. So Schwartz does this was well as recruiting the Timejackers to create Another Riders as part of a big misdirection to just let Sougo get stronger, and even then he needed the power of Kamen Rider Decade to make his plan work. He becomes Another Decade, summons Dark Riders, lets the multiverse get recked more than a D.C Comics Crisis event and when Sougo does finally become Oma Zi-O he thinks that now that he's only just shown up without the decades of experience the future monster has he could claim those powers and rule as the king of time. But in the end since all of this was actually just to spite his little sister who was chosen to inherit the Timejacker lineage and not him, he just gets curb stomped and Sougo decides to use Made in Heaven to rewrite the timeline so that he and the rest get to live out a normal life without Kamen Rider Zi-O except Woz who survives the world alteration because reasons.

 Jesus Christ and people think that Master Xehanort from Kingdom Hearts and Revolver Ocelot from Metal Gear Solid had overly long, complicated and convoluted plans. I mean yeah in terms of dumb villain plans this goes way beyond making Twin Clones of Hitler, making Nightcrawler the Pope or Dr Doom's plan from Ultimatum this is just, ugh. Back to the positives his design once again highlights the only good thing about Zi-O, with the Devil horns, the batwing where the Decade name is and the belt looking like a demonic mouth; this thing looks damn cool. So while Schwartz' plan is absolutely moronic at least Another Decade is as powerful and intimidating as a final Boss should be. But you can have the nicest looking car with a super up engine, but without a solid frame you'll have something that'll fall apart the moment you try to step on the gas. Now I know my analogy is off since I'm not a car person but you know what I'm getting at right?

The #2 slot goes to the tragic Another Blade.

 Once again the design of Another Blade is top tier. Since Kamen Rider Blade was based off a Rhinoceros battle the designers decided to highlight the Rhinoceros part of that name with the much bulkier armor and the horn that looks more like a drill. The perverted Blay Rouzer is a wondrous little treat with the buzzsaw in place of where the Rouze Cards would be on the original, though speaking of sadly we don't see Another Blade using the powers of the Spade suit Undead mostly relying on brute strength since she's being forced into becoming Another Blade. Oh and the cherry on top, the contract holder is Amane from the original series, being forced to cause havoc in the blind pursuit of her father figure Hajime just to lure out Kenzaki. Though her absorbing the powers of both the Jokers, becoming the winner of the Battle Fight and unleashing an army of Joker Undead was kind of dumb in my opinion so that slight bump had Amane settle with the silver medal.

Finally this leads us to my #1 favorite Another Rider, Another Kabuto. 

 If you couldn't tell from my list I tend to list Another Riders in terms of design, contractor, powers and story execution, by that criteria Another Kabuto is what I consider to be the best Another Rider. In terms of Design the organic Worm design of Another Kabuto makes for a perfect perversion of the technological, man made original. The Contractor is another great choice, Sou Yaguruma AKA the first Kamen Rider TheBee and Kamen Rider KickHopper being one of Souji's original rivals getting the powers of Kabuto and working with a Worm Copy of his dead partner Kageyama (Worms don't work like that) to destroy all of humanity with another Asteroid full of Worms that was summoned as a side effect of Ginga knowing full well that the Worm was using him. This makes for a rather substantial threat if you ask me. As for the powers, get this in addition to Another Kabuto he still has the powers of Kickhopper so if one rider set get beat he can just switch to the other to continue the fight and since both can still clock up only another ZECT designed Rider or Worm could stand a chance against him.

 Story-wise when we're not focusing on Woz playing around with Ginga Finally we have Kagami trying to stop him while slowly but surely getting what he wanted back in the first episode of Kabuto and become worthy of the Kabuto Zecter which he uses to put the nihilistic fake in his place once and for all. Honestly the Kabuto Arc of Zi-O was the best of the bunch and is all the more frustrating since it shows that the creators of the show could have done instead of what we got instead. But with that I'm done with reviews for 2019, it's been a long year, a long decade actually and with the holidays coming up I need a bit of a break. So with that, check back in at 2020 were I kick off the new decade with a few top lists. The top Movies, Anime, Video Games, Kamen Rider series; whatever of each year from 2010 to 2019.

 And with the break for the month that should give me plenty of time to mull those choices over. Though I will be getting back to the V-Logs and posting Lets Plays of course I'm not ready to close up shop all together here. Though I will still be doing the streams on Saturday of God of War on PS4. Though I do have a new Switch Lite and Pokemon Sword to work on so there's that. But in any case I would like to thank everyone for sticking with me for all this time and have a happy holiday.

Kamen Rider is owned by Ishinomori Productions, Toei Productions, and Bandai.
Spaceballs is owned by Mel Brooks, Brooksfilms and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc.

Personal Post: Worst to best Another Riders: Part 2 #16-10

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

The Another Riders are gonna have their wayyyy, toniiiight!!!

 Now that some of the more problematic (and downright worst) Another Riders are out of the way it’s time to get to the good stuff.

Kicking off part 2 of the list is #16 Another Wizard.

 While not reflective of a dragon design Another Wizard’s design is more reflective of a demon. From the tattered cape, the organic looking helmet that looks like skeletal hands clasped around a bloody boil to the bone hand on the Wizardriver make this Another Rider look truly horrifying. Though his contract holder is more tragic then most of the Another Riders with him just being a stage magician that wanted to help his theatre stay open with his magic. Before Sougo showed up and shook his tree he was just content to being an expert stage magician stewing in his jealousy over the theatre owner loving someone else when he never had the nerve to tell her how he feels.

 Admittedly now that I say it out loud he might have gone nuts at some point but still. Sure the contract holder may have been suffering from a massive case of the Shinji’s but at least he looked cool and was a decent match for Zi-O and Geiz.

Now to clear the skies for #15 Another W.

 It's no surprise to that all three of Riku Sanjo’s series got shat on hard by Zi-O with his most popular Kamen Rider series W being the first sign. Now the problem isn’t that he was a movie exclusive villain it’s that we know nothing about him before he/they became this monster. We hear two voices talking when he speaks but even when Another W gets beaten we don’t see who contracted with Tiddlywinks to create him. Though there are some things this Another Rider has going for it. Particularly the helmet which has the Another Rider's face breaking out from W's original face with it still hanging off the sides of his face as an inversion of Cyclone Joker Xtreme. Along with the tattered bandages on the Cyclone side of Another W paralleling the scarf on W's side.

 But then there's the fact that Another W's appearance is non cannon. Apparently according to Shirakura; Heisei Forever is non cannon because he's a coward who plays that card when the fans get uppity. That leaves how Sougo got the W Ridewatch and the creation of Another W more than a bit questionable. I'd say maybe they'll fix it with a V-Cinema but that's being far too optimistic when it comes to Shirakura. So despite Another W getting no respect I at least think the two in one demon does look cool.

The next player is #14 Another Ex-Aid.

 Now given that Ex-Aid is one of my favorite Riders seeing the goofy pink cartoony platformer like hero turned into the Predator was quite the jarring experience. From the spiked shoulder pads, the reptilian paint patterns on the green segments of the suit to the Predator dreadlocks and the sadistic smile; this Another Rider design is all kinds of creepy and twisted. The inversion of Ex-Aid's powers is a nice touch too. Instead of curing people of the Bugster virus Another Ex-Aid created a video game to track down kids who are compatible heart donors with his son, so instead of curing people of the Bugster virus he chose to endanger and potentially kill hundreds of people just to save one person. Now that may be reducing the whole situation to a numbers game but the fact still stands that this mad glitch was willing to subject innocent kids to a slow, painful death just to save one person is about as far from the gaming doctor as you can get, in summation a pretty good Another Rider.

Arriving on platform 13 is Another Den-o.

 Since Den-O will forever be doomed to be Toei's biggest cash cow we got not one, but two versions of this Another Rider. The first one I covered back in Heisei Generations Forever but both seem to follow similar patterns, though the first Another Den-O was under Tiddlywinks' control. As for the design instead of the Peach like visor for the helmet it instead protrudes like an Oni's horns to reflect Momotaros. Though speaking of Momotaros a major drawback to this Another Rider is that since Ryotaro is a Singularity Point and therefore unaffected by changes to the timeline Den-o himself can show up to deal with his Another Rider counterpart with no problem. So in combination of the show double-dipping on this Another Rider and the aforementioned weakness with his main self still being active I can't place this one higher on the list, not a bad spot mind you but still.

Ready to crash down to earth is #12 Another Fourze

 Now to pick off where I left off with Another Faiz since this is the power set that overlapped that monster to keep his contractor's power. Knowing what his deal is explains the similarities between the two with the under suit still having traces of Another Faiz' design but has the Fourze elements overlapping it. Though the most notable parts are the twisted Fourze driver that lets Another Fourze use the powers of the Astroswitches and the bat like wings on the sides of Another Fourze's normally rocket helmet. Aside from that what should have been a tribute arc to Fourze got superseded by Faiz and that show's cast including the sentient pile of garbage Masato Kusaka in yet another example of Riku Sanjo getting shat on by Shirakura. But hey at least Another Fourze gets some degree of respect from me.

Next, Another Quiz is #11, X or O?

 Next is the second of the future Another Riders and personally is the most outright scary of the three. If his ability to steal people's intelligence wasn't enough the general brain design of him can make anyone more than a bit squeamish. At bit of a cliche but the overall design with the brains as the central motif sells the this thing as wanting to go on a binge with his old pal Venom. Also this is one of the cases where the Another Rider is better designed than the rider he's based on since Quiz proper is a bit more of an obvious kit bash of previous suits. Also with Another Quiz being the jealous father of Quiz before he died leads to a nice sense of irony and leads to Quiz getting some closure regarding his father.

 Also the reason why his father acted the way he did was more than a little sad since he was so desperate to save his wife, yet ironically she died before he could make his breakthrough. But as a constellation prize this Another Rider got the #11 spot on the list.

Get down on your knees for #10 Another Kiva.

 We'll wrap this part up with the Another Rider that got shafted the most (and considering how Drive, W and Fourze were treated that's saying something) Another Kiva. First from a design perspective I do love how Another Kiva is designed, she almost looks like a proper Fangire with the stain-glass face to her torso and the giant horn like bat ears. Now how she's able to control the Arms Monsters when they're supposed to be loyal to Wataru and he's still Kiva since she was made in the present day and not 2008 is never explained but her having the three gives her a nice versatility in her attacks. But  unfortunately the Kiva tribute arc got highjacked by the paradox asshole Kamen Rider Ginga.

 Who I'm not joking was never supposed to exist, according to Tsukasa; Ginga was the result of the space time continuum getting flushed down the toilet thus never meant to exist. So, by that logic Kiva's arc was highjacked for no reason! Though at least her prolific use of Manholes at least granted her meme status in the Japanese fandom. (Just plug this into twitter and off you go. マンホールクソコラグランプリ) Even though her entire arc got devoted to an overpowered Gary Stu gargoyle and continues the trend of Toshiki Inoue's tendency to shove women into refrigerators I'm still going to give this Yandere Fangire Queen the 10 spot on my list. Now there's only the remaining 9 or so Another Riders to cover next time.

 Kamen Rider is owned by Ishinomori Productions, Toei Productions, and Bandai.

Personal Post: Worst to best Another Riders: Part 1 #23-17

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

Your favorite heroes made into hellish freaks by some of the least interesting villains in the franchise, woooo.

 The time of monsters and madness is here once again everyone and this time I’m about to do something truly terrifying, complement a Shinichiro Shirakura production! Of course given the time of year and year in question I’ll be talking about Kamen Rider Zi-O. Though I’ll only complement the one part of this production that he wasn’t involved with, thus being the only salvageable part, the Another Riders. It’s seemingly universally agreed upon that the designs of the main monsters of Zi-O were the only thing that everyone can agree was competently executed for the most part. With an anniversary and capstone of the Heiden era of Kamen Rider the previous 20 had to get represented in someway. 

 Now while the idea of taking the heroes' designs and making them into monsters isn't not original as seen in the monsters of Boukenger it is still a good one. (Before you @ me I know that the Boukenger monsters were based off of the previous Sentai teams mechs and not the teams themselves.) So from the bottom of the barrel to the top of the heap here is my personal countdown of the best Another Riders. Now this list will only include the base forms so Another Ulitnate Kuuga and Another Zi-O II are not going to be on the list, also Another Ryuki and Ryuga are sharing the same spot due to them basically being a re-skin of the suit. Plus Ryuga was originally the Dark Rider counterpart of Ryuki so there, also no, Another Zero One isn’t on the list since it was only announced recently and hasn’t debuted in the Zi-O Zero One crossover movie.

Let’s get the laziest one out of the way for #23 Another Agito.

 From the moment we learned what the Another Riders were we were all thinking of how they were going to handle this one the most. For those who don’t know, there’s already a Kamen Rider Another Agito in Agito. So out of laziness Shirakura just had the Another Agito suit for this Another Rider but just added Agito and 2019 to the suit and changed the helmet. Though his power is an interesting inversion of the main concept of Agito. Just like how the Overlord of Light spread the Seeds of Agito to people who had the potential to evolve into an Agito; Another Agito behaves more like a vampire by turning its victims into more Another Agitos.

 But aside from that the design of this Another Rider is the worst of the bunch and has the least character as well. We never even see the person that made the contract to become Another Agito in the first place. Though if I had to guess it was most likely the biggest asshole character from Agito given how his main targets were members of the G3 team. 

HOOOOOOOJOOOOOOO!!!

 So unsurprisingly the laziest Another Rider gets placed dead last on the list.

Though speaking of lazy designs we have #22 Another Ryuki/Ryuga.

 Yes, like I said they both get the same spot on the list due to them just basically being a color swap of the same suit. Now the suit itself isn’t why this is so low on the list as it is really well designed. But it’s for one very simple thing, Ryuki should not exist anymore due to the events of its series. Now when Another Ryuga showed up and it being the original Ryuga; Dark Shinji most people believed that the events of Ryuki’s movie Episode Final was the cannon ending of that series. Which made sense considering Ryuga and Dark Shinji were the movie exclusive villain Rider of that movie. 

 But then Rider time Kamen Rider Ryuki popped up and threw that idea under the bus. Since apparently the events of the show was the cannon ending even though those events caused Ryuki to never exist. For that matter where did Another Ryuki even come from? We know that none of the main three Time Jackers made him and it’s heavily implied that Shiro Kanzaki, the main villain of Ryuki (who was erased from existence I might add) was the one who created Another Ryuki. But how did Shiro even create the AnotherRideWatch in the first place?! 

 So yes while the suit isn’t bad the story behind these Another Riders just make my brain and balls hurt and I can’t let that slide. Also its Rider deck was stacked with too many copies Mirror Force to be tournament legal!

Speaking of Riders that came out of literally nowhere #21 goes to Another Kikai.

 The last of the three Future Riders and quite frankly the worst explained. Hell the Kamen Rider he’s based off of; Kamen Rider Kikai might not even exist anymore since both Kikai and this Another Rider were apparently figments of Sougo’s imagination about the future that somehow came to life. The Time Jackers never even knew Another Kikai existed until everyone else encountered it, yes just like Another Ryuki Another Kikai was apparently made by fairy farts and Chaos contrivances! There wasn’t even a AnotherRide watch of it before Schwartz made it and forced Heure into becoming Another Kikai. Though the suit itself works as an inversion of Kikai. 

 Since the Rider is a robot with a mechanical design his Another Rider is a tree monster. Basically he’s Bender from Futurama when he downgraded himself into a wooden robot. Speaking of as he once said this Another Rider can bite my splintery, wooden ass!

Moving on to #20 we have the very first Another Rider; Another Build.

 Now as the defining example of how the Another Riders worked I can forgive how forgettable the random basketball player that became Another Build was since he was just an example of how the Time Jackers worked. He also perfectly demonstrated what these false riders are, twisted perversions of past heroes in both design and powers while superseding their history. His design also demonstrated this with the mutated flesh like design of him, with the driver looking like some kind of ulcer. But I’m knocking down major points because of the other precedents that he established and how misused he was. Like I said in the Heisei Generations forever reviews I think Another Build should have swapped debuts with Another W, but I’m not going over that again so here’s the link to true part of that review that explains my stance. 

https://ondavidsbrain.blogspot.com/2019/07/tokusatsu-review-kamen-rider-heisei.html

 Not to mention the absolute disaster Another Build’s utilization caused to the timeline regarding Build’s place in it. So in short what should have been the debut of an interesting monster faction was mishandled due to Shirakura’s carelessness, as usual.

Speaking of carelessness we have #19 Another Faiz.

 Putting aside the fact that this Another Rider was literally overlapped by Another Fourze; Another Faiz demonstrated another discarded concept. With this instance we learn that the Another Rider powers can expire after a certain amount of time has past. So for the contractor to retain his power his had to have Another Rider’s powers overlap and supplement it. But apparently the Time Jackers can just make Another Riders from Kuuga to Decade no problem by just making them in the present day. So why did they even bother creating Another Faiz in 2003 in the first place if they knew that was an option?! 

 Oh yeah because Shirakura stopped giving a crap. Also the design of Another Faiz isn’t all that attention grabbing but then again Faiz himself wasn’t all that much of a “extra thrills” type of Rider design, very streamlined, technological with the Tron esq Lazer patterns on the suits. So it’s not surprising that Another Faiz can only go for the “fleshy mockery” design of him. All in all this was a Faizing waste of a suit. Now that I’m done with the ones I have the most grievances about we can move on to the actual good ones, though some will still draw my ire so heads up.

Starting with the second paranormal parody Rider we have #18, Another Ghost.

 One point in this Another Rider’s favor is the design, looking less like a slick, specter and more like a sentient Halloween costume, in a good way. The wraith like face, the torn leather jacket and him pulling a Shang Tsung and stealing souls made this beast pretty damn terrifying. That’s on top of the original contractor being a hairs breath from death with the powers of Another Ghost keeping him alive while enslaved to the Time Jackers making more than a bit of a problem for Zi-O. At least until they remembered the fact that they’re time travelers and fixed the past to destroy Another Ghost while saving the contract holder. But no matter your views of Ghost or his Another Rider Dan Ackroyd said it best about busting this ghost.

Taking the stage is #17 Another Gaim

 Setting aside the fact that Another Gaim can summon Inves and open cracks to Helheim even though he was created in the way that removes Gaim's history I do like this Another Rider. The contract holder was a decent pick with him being a Team Baron member that was kicked out using his new powers to trap Kaito and anyone else he didn't like in Helheim. He was also the second of a new type of Another Rider candidate, one who actually wants to conquer and rule as the new King of Time, though in his own way, by dancing, sure ok.  Once again the design helps sell this guy. The armor looks like it's rotting with tree branches sticking out, the bone like designs on the boots and gauntlets make you think that the armor is being worn by a rotting corpse while the armor itself looks like it was covered in dried gore.

 Ignoring the logistics of how both Kouta and Fruit Jesus Kouta both existed when Another Gaim should have erased Fruit Jesus because he's a God LOL this is at least a mid tier Another Rider in my books. With that we'll cut off here for now. I mean lets face it we still have 16 more Another Riders to cover and most of this article was me throwing shade at the show (not undeserved mind you but still.) Come on back next time as we discuss #16 and onwards. And be sure to have a Happy Halloween.


Kamen Rider is owned by Ishinomori Productions, Toei Productions, and Bandai.
Dragon Ball, Dragonball Z, Dragonball GT and Dragonball Super is owned by Funnimation, Toei animation, Fuji TV and Akira Toriyama.
Dragon ball Z Abridged is owned by Team Four Star. 
Casper (1995) is owned by Amblin Entertainment, the Harvey Entertainment Company and Universal Studios.
Final Fantasy 7 Machinabridged is owned by Team Four Star.