This is the Way! The Mandolorian Season 1 review!

Do I still need to explain what Star Wars is? It's science fantasy (which let's the franchise keep the fun parts of sci-fi like the aliens and space-ships while still having classic fantasy elements like a magic system, Medieval inspired weaponry and in-depth world building). It was one of the biggest film franchises on the planet, only getting dethroned by the Marvel Cinematic Universe. It literally invented several tropes and cliches thanks to imitators trying to copy its success. There's been some controversy surrounding the franchise, most of which boils down to recent films (namely The Last Jedi) straying way too far from the overall style, as well as Kathleen Kennedy's (the executive producer for all things Star Wars) infamously poor PR response to the mixed reception. Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker was released a week ago at the time of writing, and from what I hear it deliberately course-corrects and returns to the style that most people like, for better or for worse. I have not seen it myself, but I will review it once I do. Until then, we're talking about what might be the best thing Lucasfilm has done since Disney bought them out; The Mandalorian.

The Mandalorian is a spin-off taking place after the events of the original trilogy but before the events of the Sequels, the idea being this show bridges the gap between the two trilogies. Similar to how other spin-offs such as Star Wars: The Force Unleashed and Star Wars Rebels bridge the gaps between the original films and the first three prequels. Anyway, The Mandalorian stars, well, The Mandalorian (played by Pedro Pascal), a grizzled, battle-hardened bounty hunter trying to make a living in the lawless corners of the known galaxy. Armed only with his wit, his fists, and a few home-made weapons, he goes on a variety of adventures throughout the Star Wars universe.

Things get complicated once he discovers his latest target is a baby (specifically a baby of the same species as fan-favorite Yoda). The Mandalorian may be a mercenary, but he's also a man of honor with strong moral values. So he turns in the bounty, spends all the money he got on updating his armor and weapons, breaks into his client's safe-house, rescues the baby, and runs off. I've already reviewed episode one by itself (spoiler alert, I loved it and gave it 10/10), so this review is just a general outlook on the series so far. 

Most of the series is spent with the titular Mandalorian looking for a safe haven for the baby while still supporting himself the only way he knows how; through fighting. A criticism some have of the show is that a lot of these these episodes are "filler" episodes, like in an anime series. However, the important thing you need to keep in mind about The Mandalorian is that it first and foremost a Western set within the Star Wars universe. The biggest inspirations for this series are (by show-runner Jon Favrou's own admission) Walker Texas Ranger and the various Clint Eastwood movies. Series like this back then were largely episodic in nature. Jon Favrou himself is known for his episodic, self-contained stories. And the idea that all TV Show episodes MUST be plot-relevant is only a recent notion created as a by product of streaming services letting us marathon entire series consecutively. While there is an overarching plot, most of the series is spent with the audience slowly learning more about the Mandalorian as a character, and what kind of world the Galaxy far, far away was like before the New Galactic Republic rebuilt itself. So keep that in mind. Personally, I actually really like the episodic nature of The Mandalorian. It makes the show feel kind of old-fashioned (in a good way), and I can respect that. 

Something I like about the show is how it has a strong emphasis on non-verbal acting and story-telling. The Mandalorian himself is a man of few words, and there are several episodes where he goes over a third of the episode's run time with no dialogue at all, communicating solely with body language. Which is doubly impressive, because we never get to see the Mandalorian's face save for a single moment during the Season 1 finale. He just wears the signature full-cover helmet the entire time. So kudos to Pedro Pascal's acting skills.

Something that might bother people is how the show regularly employs classic Western tropes almost to a fault. It may come across as cliche in some episodes. Episode 4 is literally just the "Grizzled veteran fighters teach an isolated village how to defend themselves" trope played 100% straight with no twists. But the important thing to remember. At the end of the day it is nearly impossible to tell a completely unique story without relying on at least a few tropes and cliches. Additionally, just because something is cliche doesn't make it inherently bad. Lord of the Rings is your typical run-of-the-mill Hero's Journey (no, Tolkien did not invent the Hero's Journey, Joseph Campbell beat him to it years before Tolkien started writing) . That didn't stop it from becoming one of the most beloved literary classics of all time, spanning a trilogy of live action films so great they revitalized interest in the fantasy genre (and a second trilogy that, while not as amazing as the first three films, were still good adventure films in their own right). Why is that? Because the execution of the trope makes it feel more innovative than it actually is. And no matter what, it doesn't matter how well thought a concept is, the execution of the concept can make or break the story as a whole.

One thing that I feel everyone can agree on is that when it comes to action sequences and fight scene choreography, The Mandalorian knocks it out of the ball park. Every shootout, bar brawl, and stealth mission is to be frank, exciting. I actually find the action in The Mandalorian to be more engaging than the action from the main films. There's a real sense of weight to everything, helped by the show's plentiful use of practical props and only using CGI when it left with no other choice. I especially like how the show manages to make the Mandalorian look absolutely brutal once a fight breaks out. One moment he shoots the controls to automatic door to cut a criminal in half, another moment he's using his grappling hook to strangle an Imperial Storm Trooper while stabbing him with a knife. The Mandalorian's grittier fighting style is a welcome departure from the poise and grace that most Jedi have during their duels. One minor criticism I have of the show is concerning the Mandalorian's signature rifle. After using it rather extensively in the first four episodes, he just leaves it behind on his star ship. While I can understand leaving it in some cases, such as in episode 6 when the Mandalorian needs to break into a prison ship to free a fellow mercenary. The prison ship is small, and filled with compact hallways with little cover. The Mandalorian's rifle is for all intents a purposes, a sniper rifle, dealing intense damage at long range, but takes a while to set up properly, and thus it would be impractical to bring such a weapon to such a tightly packed environment. But in episode 5, when he needs to help a rookie bounty hunter terminate a notorious Imperial sniper, he doesn't bring his rifle with him. If he did, he could have fired potshots at the sniper until either she moved out of cover or until one blaster bolt got lucky enough to hit. But instead, he (and the rookie hunter) have to come up with an elaborate plan to get close enough to subdue the sniper.

I also really enjoyed the supporting cast for the show. Such as the Armorer (played by Emily Swallow). And yes, I do have to refer to her as the Armorer because I trend I've noticed with the show is that a lot of the characters either don't have known names or do have names that are not spoken until a much later episode (it took seven episodes before we learned that the alien hermit Mando befriended in the pilot episode is named Kuiil, for example). The Armorer is the closest thing the Mandalorian has to a mentor, giving him sagely wisdom as well as being the person who makes all the wonderful toys that Mandalorians everywhere get to use. I remember thinking back when the pilot episode came out that when the finale came the Armorer was going to do something to prove why she is the leader of the Mandalorians (or at least the small tribe we see in the show). Turns out in addition to being a wise mentor, she is (as to be expected from a Mando) a dangerously skilled fighter, easily dispatching an entire squad of Storm Troopers by herself, in under a single minute, using nothing but the tools of her smithy. Easily one of the best fight scenes in the show (so far).

The only real episodes I didn't really care for were Episode 6, The Prisoner, and episode 5, The Gunslinger. First, let me explain why I dislike episode 6, since it's honestly the bigger offender. Ignoring the fact that it is the third episode in a row focused on world building and character development but with little advancement in the main plot, it also has probably the weakest supporting cast. Namely, Xian the Twi'lek. She was (apparently) a former love interest for the Mandalorian, and is a sociopath with no morals whatsoever. She reminds me of Harley Quinn but no in a good way. Rather than the goofy, yet sympathetic anti-villain with a jester motif, Xian seems to be channeling the Suicide Squad version of Harley. You know, completely insane, trying way too hard to be funny, and generally hamming up every second of screen-time. The actress also seemed to give the character a high-pitched squeaky giggle that got really annoying really fast. You know, I think the main fact I don't care for Episode 6 that much might be because the entire first half of the episode reminded me a little too much of Suicide Squad. That's not to say that the episode was terrible. It was just "okay". I did like how the episode turned into a pseudo-horror film once the Mandalorian gets betrayed by the other mercenaries and he decides to stop putting up with their nonsense. That I greatly enjoyed.

Episode 5, while I do like it more than Episode 6, also has a few problems. The aforementioned issue with Mando not bringing his rifle to a situation that would have greatly aided him, in addition to wasting a pretty cool antagonist in the form of Fennec Shand, an Imperial Sniper with a body-count in the hundreds. From what we got to see of her, she's cunning, manipulative, and dangerous enough to make even the Mandalorian himself reluctant to pursue her bounty. She even has skills in martial arts, easily subduing Toro Calican (the rookie hunter) and would have killed him had Mando not intervened. But there's a lot of plot contrivances that hurt this episode more than it helps. Ignoring the sniper rifle problem, there's also the issue of the Mandalorian's plan to wait till nightfall before attempting to engage Shand. And I was left wondering, "Why doesn't Shand just leave?" She knows the Mandalorian and Calican are hiding out in the sand dunes, and there's nothing stopping her from leaving, aside from giving up the cliff-side sniper's perch she's camping out on. She doesn't even have a motivation to stay in that position, she herself said (once she was captured) she was on her way to meet with a client of her own and was apparently working on a tight schedule. And then when she reveals that the Mandalorian himself has a very valuable bounty, Calican kills her and betrays Mando, figuring that bagging a Mandalorian would be well worth the street cred. But Mando says earlier in the episode, "She's no good to us dead." implying that the bounty on Shand was to bring her in alive. So my question here is, "Why didn't Calican try to turn them BOTH in?" Normally, if given the choice to do a lot of small things that add up or one big thing, most people go with the big thing. But if you do both you get the benefits of both choices. So if Calican really wanted to prove he was a capable hunter he would've cashed in the bounty on Shand and then go after Mando. But what's worse is just how effortlessly he takes out Calican. First he blinds him with a flash bang (Mando's strategy for Shand was reapplied here), then he just shoots him once with his pistol. Boom. Rookie hunter died because he bit off more than he could chew. It was honestly anticlimactic. He didn't even get a chance to trade blows. Literally every other named antagonist got a chance to at least try to attack the Mandalorian. But no. Calican went down faster than a generic Storm Trooper. Think about that.

The three biggest supporting characters in the show are Kuiil (the aforementioned alien hermit), Cara Dune (a former Rebel Shock Trooper), and Greef Karga, the Hunter's Guild leader who hands out bounties to the various hunters of the Star Wars universe. Greef Karga is the most interesting to me. He starts out as a friend of Mando, betrays him once he rescues the baby, and switches sides again when his town is overrun by the Imperial Remnant and he has no choice but to cooperate with the Mandalorian to restore the town to its former glory. He carries himself with a theatrical air, but is also host of the show's best gags. Cara, I don't find to be as engaging as Greef, but I do like her. She is the one fighter in the show who is able to match the Mandalorian himself in skill, and honestly she feels like the one person that could believably become his partner. Honestly I'm surprised that the Mandalorian didn't try to recruit her as a new Mando. She'd be perfect. Kuiil is a supporting character that I and many other fans of the show have immediately fell in love with. A humble rancher who used to be a slave to the Empire, who managed to earn his freedom by working off his people's debt over the course of "three human lifetimes." He's a skilled mechanic, makes some really good points on how droids are not inherently evil creatures, only being a reflection of their creator, and his catchphrase, "I Have Spoken" has been turned into yet another infamous Star Wars quote.

Of course I have to talk about IG-11. IG-11 is a hunter droid that's voiced by Taika Waititi (aka that one funny comedian that voiced Korg from Thor: Ragnarok). And I gotta say, IG-11 might be the best example of a competent, combat-focused droid. It can bend its arms and legs to aim its blasters at pretty much any angle, its cylindrical head gives it 360 degree field of vision, and whatever metal this thing is made out of is strong enough to take a beating from a fairly powerful laser cannon. Honestly, this thing could give the Terminator a run for its money. I also like IG-11 as a character. I remember when the show first released, I expected IG-11 to be a sidekick/partner in crime with the Mandalorian, since the two of them had good chemistry just from the little interactions from the pilot. Then they killed it off. But brought it back in the simplest way imaginable. Its a droid. Droids are machines. What do you do when a machine breaks? You repair it. Kuiil managed to fix IG-11 and reprogrammed it into a nurse droid (for the baby). IG-11 is still capable of kicking an Imperial's behind seven ways to Sunday even with the reprogramming. .

The two-part Season 1 finale was, for the most part, great. It brought back major characters from past episodes, had some fantastic action sequences, a full dive into the Mandalorian's backstory, a face reveal for the Mandalorian(!), and just about everything it needed to end the show on a good note. Now we have to wait several months before we get new content to enjoy. I won't spoil exactly what goes down, given the recency of the show. Just know that it was well worth the wait.

As for presentation, the visuals are fantastic. The use of practical effects mixed in with minimum CGI give everything a weighted sense of believability. The set pieces look gorgeous, featuring vast deserts, grimy criminal underworlds, and tranquil forests, to name a few. The costume designs are slick, and feel like a modern take on the costumes used in the Original Trilogy without trying to blatantly imitate them. The Baby is adorable, partly because of the puppet they use to portray it. It does lead to mild awkwardness when characters pick up the baby, since it becomes almost completely stiff when this happens, which might break immersion for you, or not. They do a decent job at hiding the fact that the Baby is a puppet thanks to smart camera angles. But every now and again, you get a brief split-second of the Baby going completely stiff and lifeless when someone picks it up.

The sound design and music are both really good. I especially love the high-pitched tang that is the Mandalorian's personal theme. The end credits music is also great, featuring some guitar strings that reinforce the whole "This is a Western IN SPACE" aesthetic the show is going for. The acting is great. Like I said, Pedro Pascal does a good job conveying the Mandalorian's emotions and personality without the aid of facial expressions. It's all voice work and body language. Greef Karga is over dramatic, but in a way that makes sense for his character. IG-11 is funny, because he just has the generic humanoid robot voice prevalent in sci-fi, but it's done by Taika Waititi. And again, my only real complaint here would be the annoying giggle/squeak that Xi'an makes.

In conclusion, The Mandalorian is a great show. It may not be everyone's cup of tea. It mostly depends on how much you like older shows such as Walker Texas Ranger or the Clint Eastwood films. For me personally, I honestly feel like that this show is the best thing Disney has done since they bought the legal rights to the Star Wars franchise. Is it perfect? No. Nothing is. But what it does right, it does it very well. With that being said, I give The Mandalorian 8 self-destructing hunter droids out of 10.

A retrospective on a decade of gaming (2010-2019)

Now I'm 90% certain I don't have to explain that I love video games. Nor should I have to explain that video games make up the majority of content on my blog. And with 2019 being almost over, let's look back on the past ten years, discuss the highlights of gaming, and maybe some of shortcomings. Just in time for Christmas!

This post will work the same way my "BEST and WORST Monsters in Monster Hunter" list does. I will alternate being a negative entry and a positive entry, starting with the negatives before making my way. First, some clarifications. I will rank these entries based on both my personal feelings toward them, in addition to the impact on popular culture they had. Because of this, some entries on this list I have never played myself, but still make the cut because the impact they had, whether good or bad, is just that great. Also, most of this is opinionated, so feel free to disagree. Oh, and just because I think a game is bad doesn't mean I hate it. Unless I explicitly say I dislike the game in question. Without further delay, let's do this.

BAD GAME #10!

No Man's Sky (2016). Starting the negatives list, this game is at the bottom of the "bad games" section for one simple reason. The current, updated version of No Man's Sky (titled No Man's Sky Beyond) is actually really good. That's the thing you must keep in mind. This is the decade where game developers could fix flaws with their products by releasing updates and patches. But the version I'm referring to is the original form the game launched in. Hello Games boasted about their ambitious Open-World Sandbox game with infinite planets for you and your friends to explore, space ships to pilot, and galactic empires to conquer. When the game launched, it was seen largely disappointing, since while you could explore an infinite galaxy, most of the planets wounded up being glorified palette swaps of each other rather than wholly unique like Hello Games boasted. There were also several features that straight up weren't in the game at all. While the game itself wasn't terrible, by any stretch of the imagination, it was dismissed as yet another Minecraft clone that failed to do anything unique with its outer space aesthetic. The fact that Hello Games stuck with No Man's Sky for three whole years, pumping out update after update until the game finally resembled what the company promised to begin with, is equal parts inspiring and confusing. Inspiring for the fact that a company stuck with a project with such a rocky start. Confusing, since it begs the question of why No Man's Sky launched with so little content to do. The only real theory I can give is that it was an issue of scheduling or budgeting. It's not uncommon for developers to trim what they feel is unnecessary fluff to speed up a game's development and production to meet a strict deadline. 

GOOD GAME #10!

Fire Emblem: Awakening (2013). After poor sales in America and Japanese trends pushing the Fire Emblem series of strategy games into obscurity, developer Intelligent Systems needed a big hit or face shutting down for good. They poured their heart and soul into this one game. Fire Emblem: Awakening was planned to be the swan-song for the franchise. One last game to end the series on a high note. To the surprise of longtime fans and Intelligent Systems themselves, Awakening was a massive hit, selling 3 million copies within the span of week, more than doubling its original budget. Why was Awakening so successful? Combine a cast of lovable characters, the ability to tone down the franchise's now infamous difficulty, a more front-and-center marketing scheme, and 'shipping (no, I'm not making that up), and you have a modern classic. Is the game perfect? Of course not! Out of all the Fire Emblem games out there, this one is the one that can be most easily exploited due to how forgiving it is. Case in point, with minimal grinding, the only lose condition you have to worry about, that being if the three main heroes Chrom, Lucina, and Robin are killed, gets nullified with even a small amount of grinding. Long before the second act, these three characters just naturally get so powerful that they stop taking damage from anything short of a boss's magical attack... In a game where only three bosses actually use magic. All of whom are fought right at the end of the story, so by then you should have a designated "Mage Killer" character on your team.

BAD GAME #9!

Sonic Boom: Rise of Lyric (2014). Ever since Sonic '06 was released back in 2006, the Sonic The Hedgehog franchise has been in a Dark Age. Occasionally making a hidden gem of a game, but usually making platforming games that mediocre at best. Then we have Sonic Boom: Rise of Lyric. Meant to tie into the Sonic Boom cartoon (which was apparently decent, though I never watched it myself), Sonic Boom: Rise of Lyric is a platformer in which Sonic and Friends are sporting their new character designs. Which somehow ticked off the Sonic fandom, though let's be real for a moment. Making Sonic slightly taller and giving him a bandanna is the least worrying redesign Sonic's had. See the initial reveal trailer for the Sonic the Hedgehog live action film (not the second one). But anyway, this game wasn't expected to perform well critically. In addition to releasing during the franchise's Dark Age, it was also a licensed game being handled by a dev team that had no prior experience with Sonic the Hedgehog. The result was a broken, poorly balanced mess of a game with an idiotic plot that makes no sense. "But wait a minute!" you cry. "That description sums up Sonic '06 perfectly!" And to that I say, yes. Yes it does. Because that's ultimately what Sonic Boom: Rise of Lyric is. A completely joke of a game rushed out in time for Christmas. It seemed Sega never learned their lesson after their initial fall from grace. The only reason why this game isn't higher, is because everyone expected it to be bad. Not as bad Sonic '06, but at least mediocre. 

GOOD GAME #9!

Five Nights at Freddy's (2014). Does this game need an introduction? Developed and published by exactly one person (Mr. Scott Cawthon), Five Nights at Freddy's is a point-and-click horror game that took the world by storm. An indie title in name only, with the amount of publicity and merchandise this series gets, one would be forgiven for thinking that it was a Triple-A game from a well-known publisher. But its not just the fact this series gets so much publicity that puts it on the list. From the deep, theory-spawning lore, to rarely using violence and gore for its scares (instead using psychological tactics such as claustrophobia and surreal imagery), the Five Nights franchise forever changed how horror games are made. Of course, there are flaws with the games. Namely, all of them use some variation of the concept of making a last stand in a room. While each game handles the concept differently (FN@F 3 has you defend your office with security cameras and audio lures while FN@F 4 has has hiding out in a child's bedroom armed with nothing but a flashlight), if you were to play the games consecutively you would find that not much changes between each game. But still, the fact that one man, with a painfully small amount of resources and very humble beginnings made something as impactful as Five Nights at Freddy's is a miracle. Now we just need the inevitable crossover with Nightmare on Elm Street to figure which of the two Freddy horrors is better.

BAD GAME #8!

Valkyria Revolution (2017). I remember calling Valkyria Revolution "The most underrated game ever" in my review of it a few years back. Truth be told, I did so for click bait. That was the only times I did so, and for that, I apologize. Valkyria Revolution is a spin-off of Valkyria Chronicles, a series of strategy/shooter game hybrids. Valkyria Revolution is neither a strategy game or a shooter. It's a hack'n'slash RPG, and not a particularly good one at that. The game had some very strange mechanics to it. Pressing the attack button once would make your character perform a whole combo, but you can't dodge at all until the combo is finished. And for a hack'n'slash, being able to stop what you're doing and get out of the way of an attack at any time is a crucial component of game design. The story was also a mixed bag. Sometimes being a very interesting tale of political intrigue, toying with the idea that history is written by the victors and how the consequences of our actions will affect us all for generations to come. Other times, it's your run-of-the-mill anime plot with doomsday weapons, curvy girls with ridiculous super-powers, and a brooding, dark-haired, revenge-craving protagonist who feels like a blatant rip-off of Sasuke Uchiha from Naruto. While the game runs fine (especially compared to Sonic Boom), it outranks the other "bad" games for having so much wasted potential. Valkyria Revolution had some great ideas, but the end-result is admittedly kind of a mess.

GOOD GAME #8!

Horizon: Zero Dawn (2017). I will be the first to admit that without context, the title of this game may seem ridiculous. But at the same time, Horizon: Zero Dawn is a fantastic game. Starring the delightfully snarky Aloy, this game follows an underdog Hero's Journey, and I am a sucker for a good Hero's Journey. Additionally, this game, along with God of War revitalized interest for big-budget single-player games with an emphasis on story-telling, and were released during a time where Triple-A companies were pumping out multiplayer games one right after another. Horizon: Zero Dawn was set up to become a major mascot franchise for Sony, and given the success of the game, I wouldn't be surprised if it becomes Sony's answer to Microsoft's Halo.

BAD GAME #7!

Digimon World: next Order (2016). I wrote a review of this a few years ago and never published it. Maybe I should finish it so you could understand why I dislike this game. But all you need to know is this. It has a good presentation, and a terrible everything else. A story that fails to grab your interest, a game play loop that is frustrating to deal with, and one of the worst English dubs for a Japanese game ever. Seriously, the English voice acting is torture. And I'm speaking as a Digimon fan! I love the franchise, wish it got more love, but then we get garbage like this game. Honestly the game would have been bearable if it wasn't for the fact that your Digimon have finite life-spans and can literally die of old age, forcing you to roll up a new Digimon and start from scratch. That, combined with the inconsistent power gap between levels, makes Digimon World: next Order a test of endurance to see how long you can put up with the game before its archaic and counter-intuitive design makes you drop it. To give you an idea of how bad this game was. I never played past Chapter 3. Normally I wait until after I finish the main story of a game before I review it, but next Order was so bad I couldn't bring myself to finish it. I think Bandai Namco realized how much of a bad idea next Order was, since the next game in the franchise (Digimon Survive) has a completely different style and genre from this abomination.

GOOD GAME #7!

Monster Hunter World (2018). Oh hey, my favorite franchise is on the "good" games list! This totally isn't biased or anything! No sir! But in all seriousness, Monster Hunter World is the most accessible entry in a collection of excellent action-RPG's. World was a massive hit partially due to the beginner friendly nature of the game. It would go on to sell 13 million copies, making it the most successful Capcom game ever made, outselling both Mega Man and Resident Evil (the previous Capcom best-sellers). And as someone who adores the franchise, I can say that it is definitely a worthwhile experience.

BAD GAME #6!

Might No. 9 (2016). This game is a case study on how not to market a game. Developed by Naoya Tomita, the original creator of Mega Man, given a very generous 3 MILLION dollar budget thanks to a successful Kick-starter campaign, AND riding off the adrenaline high of fellow Kick-starter success stories Shovel Knight and UNDERTALE. What could go wrong? Simple! Getting delayed multiple times, Tomita promising that he won't delay the game again, delaying it anyway, and releasing a trailer that included the line "Make the bad guys cry like an anime fan on Prom Night!" ...For a game with an anime-inspired art style, meant for a fandom that loves anime as much as gaming. Needless to say, many people were turned off by the passive-aggressive nature of Mighty No. 9's marketing. Then once the game finally released, it had to compete with widely-praised Mega Man 11. Mighty No. 9 was viewed as disappointment and waste of time, and this game was what gave people a much needed wake-up call that hey, Kick-starter games don't always work out, so before you invest in a game that you might not get a chance to play for years, consider holding off until the game is further along in development. Also, fun fact! Mighty No. 9 holds the Guinness World Record for longest end-credits of all time, all because of the people who donated money to the Kick-Starter (the end credits take a whopping 4 hours to play through in their entirety).

GOOD GAME #6!

Xenoblade Chronicles (2010). A story-driven RPG made by Monolith Soft, famous for making philosophical games that question the nature of mankind, religion, and the universe itself. A game that almost never made it to America (or Canada) due to Nintendo viewing the game too niche to justify shipping it overseas. But this was during the Age of the Internet, and when us Americans found out that a game was being withheld from us, we banded together to form Operation Rainfall, a Nintendo fan-project to get them to release Xenoblade Chronicles (and its sister games The Last Story and Pandora's Tower) Stateside. And it actually worked! Though out of the three games brought over, Xenoblade Chronicles was by far the most successful out of the three. Making almost four times its original budget back, Xenoblade Chronicles was given not one, but two sequels. The first one, Xenoblade X, was a spiritual successor in a Sci-Fi setting (compared to the original game's cyberpunk fantasy setting) and the second being a direct sequel simply titled Xenoblade 2. Featuring a beautiful soundtrack, an emotional story, an imaginative world taking place on the frozen bodies of literal Gods, and a unique combat system unlike anything the RPG industry has seen before, Xenoblade Chronicles stands the test of time as a beloved classic. Is it any wonder why one of the most highly anticipated Nintendo games next year is literally just an HD remake of Xenoblade Chronicles?

BAD GAME #5!

Jump Force (2019). Allow me to clarify something about this game. The combat system, arguably the most important aspect of a Fighting game, is decent. It uses the same style that Dragon Ball Xenoverse uses, but with the flying mechanics heavily toned down. But now for some context! Jump Force is a crossover Fighting game taking every anime and manga series Shonen Jump owns, and tossing them into a crossover adventure. But for some reason the characters are coming into the "Real" World. This translates to all the beloved anime and manga characters getting "realistic" redesigns (even all they did was put realistic looking textures on preexisting models). Some of the characters look fine, namely the ones who were always portrayed in a realistic art style to begin with (Ichigo from Bleach, Jotaro from Jojo's Bizarre Adventure, etc), but the more cartoony characters, such as Monkey D. Luffy from One Piece and Goku from Dragon Ball Z look really bad in the "realistic" art style. Apparently the realistic art style was meant to appeal to Western gamers, who typically gravitate towards realistic games. But this is the same game where a were-monkey from space can fight a pirate with stretching limbs, a kid trying to become the next Superman, a time-traveling vampire named after a 90's rock band, a goofy ninja with fox powers, and an Egyptian Pharaoh trapped in the body of a 10-year-old. The whole premise is about as ridiculous and unrealistic you can get. Honestly, they should have gone all out on the anime. I mean, this is literally the biggest ANIME crossover ever, yet it only goes halfway, and winds up failing at being both a realistic game and celebration of the biggest Japanese sensation ever. That's not even mentioning the story mode, which is filled with awkward, stilted animations (making the realistic art style look worse) and cliche-filled plot. Seriously, the only real unique thing the story does is have Light Yagami NOT try to kill the cast in their sleep with the Death Note.

GOOD GAME #5!

UNDERTALE (2015). Oh boy, here we go. UNDERTALE is what I like to call one of the Big Three Indie Games. The others are Five Nights at Freddy's and Minecraft. UNDERTALE is a relatively unassuming game. It's literally just an 8-bit RPG made by the Video Game Funny Man (aka Toby Fox). But if you look closer, its a game with more beneath the surface. Once you get past the skeleton puns, the goofy monster designs, and the playful subversion of video game cliches, lies a tragic story of a prince driven mad by the memories of his death in another life, a karmic judge who has grown largely apathetic to the plight of others, and a bloodthirsty demon who transcends reality. Strong characterization and story-telling is what gives UNDERTALE its distinct identity. There is nothing quite like UNDERTALE, and Toby Fox himself admitted that he simply can't top, or even replicate its quality ever again. Hence, when we got deltarune, a spin-off set in the same universe as UNDERTALE, it didn't even attempt to imitate its predecessor at all, aside from playfully subverting cliches once more. But that's more of Toby Fox's "Stamp of Approval" more than anything else.

BAD GAME #4!

Star Wars: Battlefront II (2017). This game is the reason why micro transactions are banned in several countries. This game is the reason why EA as a company is looked at with suspicion the same way a known con artist tries to sell a new bootleg product. This game is the reason why demand for single player, story driven games sky rocketed during 2017. Star Wars: Battlefront II while being a decent-enough multiplayer shooter game, became incredibly controversial due to the Loot Box system. Now, well-received and even popular games like Overwatch and Fortnite have loot box micro transactions. The difference? In those games not only can you get loot boxes by playing the game normally, but all they give you is aesthetic stuff to further customize your character. Battlefront II only gives you loot boxes if you pay real-life money, and the stuff inside can give people with more money to spare an unfair advantage. I'm talking weapons that deal more damage, armor that grants more health, things that give people who spend extra money a leg up above everyone else. Multiplayer gaming is a naturally competitive sport, and the knowledge that you lost not because of the other person's skill, but because they paid more money than you did not sit well with anyone. The controversy was so great that Disney had to step in, force EA to remove the loot boxes, and give everyone who spent money on them a refund... Only for EA to add them back in a few months later, this time at a reduced price, and a way to collect loot boxes without needing to pay real money. That last one sounds great doesn't it? Well, to "balance" out the new business model, EA cut the rate at which you earn in-game Credits in half, making the reduced price worthless since you still need to put in the same amount of time as before to get the same thing. Battlefront II was a victim of corporate greed and poor management. It cost EA their reputation, a good chunk of their long-time consumers, and forced the company to deliberately course correct with Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order, a single-player, story driven game with no additional purchases beyond the initial $60. That game literally exists just so EA can win back the disgruntled Star Wars fans they themselves drove away with their unethical, barely legal business practices. The sad thing is had the controversy never happened, Battlefront II would have become a beloved multiplayer shooter on par with Call of Duty or Halo.

GOOD GAME #4!

Splatoon (2014). Nintendo's first ever shooter game, and their newest First-Party Franchise since 2002's Pikmin. Splatoon became a overnight phenomenon thanks to the imaginative concept of anthropomorphic squids using paint both as a means of transport and as a weapon, as well as the distinct 90's punk aesthetic that permeates the series. And Splatoon was no one hit wonder, as its sequel (Splatoon 2) wounded up making even more money than the original. And honestly speaking, this is my personal favorite shooter. Say what you will about Switch Online, but that $20 subscription is worth it just to play the fantastic multiplayer modes. And if you don't want to partake in the multiplayer, there's an actual story campaign that is surprisingly good. How good you ask? The only DLC made for Splatoon was an expansion that adds even more single-player content. And I cannot stress enough that it is important for a shooter to have a good campaign. The story doesn't need to be Shakespearean or anything, but giving the players a handful of pseudo-scripted levels to practice is much more effective than a bland, 2 minute tutorial that only covers the bare minimum.

BAD GAME #3!

Portal Knights (2016). I want to like this game. It looks good, it runs great, and its a sandbox-RPG, a genre I quite like. But I could never really get into it. The music gets annoying very quickly, the classes aren't balanced well at all (Ranger can handle everything in the game with no problem, Wizard has to play a metaphorical game of Rock-Paper-Scissors to do anything, and Warrior just sucks because of cripplingly restricted range). Inventory management is a nightmare. And despite being an sandbox game, which are supposed to be big in scope to encourage exploration, the randomly generated islands are so small that you can cross from one side to the other in less than a minute even if you set World Generation Size to Large. I know some people love this game due to striking a balance between Minecraft's wonder and exploration and the thrill of Terraria's combat. But the game is to be quite frank, boring. And that's ultimately the worst fate a game can have. Being forgettable.

GOOD GAME #3!

Super Smash Bro. Ultimate (2018). Sakurai's Magnum Opus, and a celebration of ALL things gaming. It would be wrong of me to exclude such a title from a list of outstanding games from the past decade. If you were to tell me 10 years ago that there would be a Smash Bros game with 80+ characters, 100+ stages, a 30+ hour story campaign, and over 1,000 different songs, I would have asked you "How do we achieve this perfect timeline?". Evidently we didn't have to do anything because of Sakurai's compulsive desire to outdo his previous projects in every way. Now if only we could get Shantae, Spyro the Dragon, the Master Chief, and a Monster Hunter in the game...

BAD GAME #2!

Skylanders: Spyro's Adventure (2011). Am I biased against this franchise for the dubious business model? Yes. Am I still bitter about how Activision treated Spyro the Dragon? Yes. Does the franchise deserve to put on the list because the games themselves are bad? ...Actually no. If it wasn't for the Toys-to-Life gimmick being an elaborate pay-wall, these games are actually decent platformers. But I dislike Skylanders for the same reason the rest of the gaming community hates EA. I've never liked the idea of game developers intentionally withholding content in exchange for more money. Now if the content in question was developed after the fact, I don't mind. But Skylanders is a game where if you want to experience everything it has to offer, you'll have to spend a bare minimum of $160. The first three sequels were okay, since your characters could carry over between games. Then they stopped supporting preexisting characters, forcing everyone back to square one. And despite inventing the concept of psychical toys that directly interact with a video game, the concept is surprisingly underutilized. And all the games that tried to cash in on the short-term success of Skylanders had to drop out of the competition, and eventually Activision themselves gave up and went back to making tradition games. And thus, the shortest trend in video game history was born, and died out. Our descendants will look back at this rather peculiar franchise with the same morbid curiosity the same way we look back on our ancestors who thought that women baring their ankles was too inappropriate.

GOOD GAME #2!

Hollow Knight (2017). This is probably my second-favorite video game ever, right behind Monster Hunter. What DOESN'T this game have? An intriguing story, haunting atmosphere, precise and fluid game play, over 50 hours of content to enjoy while still being lenient enough to be finished in little over a single hour. You would expect that this game would fall into the kind of toxic indie crave that Five Nights at Freddy's and UNDERTALE fell into when those games first launched (said communities have mellowed out now, but back in the day...). But no. Hollow Knight has always had a relatively chill fandom from the moment it released. But anyway, Hollow Knight is fantastic, and is proof that Team Cherry are officially the best Australian developers ever. ...Actually I think they're the ONLY Australian developers ever. Correct me if I'm wrong.

BAD GAME #1!

Anthem (2019). Yet another reason why EA needed some much needed course-correction. Anthem is a looter-shooter developed by BioWare. BioWare is a dev team that specializes in single-player story focused games such as the Dragon Age series and Mass Effect. They have never made a looter-shooter before. EA's company policies make it so all dev teams that work for them must use the same general purpose engine (Frostbite). BioWare has never made a game using Frostbite before. On top of this, the BioWare staff were dealing with a plethora of psychical and mental health issues, with several of their most talented members needing to take doctor-mandated vacations in the middle of development. What I'm trying to say is, everything that could have gone wrong with Anthem's development did, resulting in a game that looks pretty, but launched as a glitch-filled  mess. How bad was it? There was a glitch in the launch version that if triggered, could brick your console, making not just the game permanently unplayable, but effectively killing any collection you had on the console in question. I'm sorry, but if a video game has a glitch anywhere near that severity, the game shouldn't be released publicly. At all. Not until the cause of the glitch is fixed. And it's a shame, because the concept behind Anthem, in which you and your friends build Iron Man style suits of armor and go on adventures on a mutated planet, was really good. But the damage is done. Even ignoring the glitches, the game met a lukewarm reception, and many fear that BioWare's doors will be shut down for good because of this game's failure. BioWare are still working on the game tirelessly, patching as many glitches as they can and adding in new content when they find an opportunity, and even announced that they'll be releasing a "Major Overhaul" of the game, but the question on my mind is, why? What's the point, BioWare? Anthem is a lost cause. You don't even specialize in multiplayer games. The only thing I can think that BioWare can do to redeem Anthem is if they pull a Final Fantasy XIV and rebuild the entire game's structure from scratch, while still preserving the basic concept. 

AND THE BEST VIDEO GAME OF THE DECADE IS...

Fortnite! ...Huh? Fortnite is only successful due to taking ideas and concepts from other, better games and mashing them together? Well, guess we'll have to hand the crown over to Minecraft. And before anyone adjusts their anime glasses and corrects me, I am aware that the earliest version of Minecraft was released in 2009 (albeit in the form of a bare-bones tech demo), thus excluding it from entry. However! The version most people are familiar with, Minecraft: Bedrock Edition, was released in 2011, so I say it counts towards the list. But anyway, Minecraft is the final member of the Big Three, but is much, much bigger than both Five Nights at Freddy's and UNDERTALE. A beautifully simplistic game. Minecraft has no story in it, since the ultimate goal of the game is to survive for as long as possible, turn your shelter into a wonderland, and forge your own path through the world. Minecraft is a game that has aged like a fine wine, going from a humble tech demo where the only thing you could do is move blocks around, to the single best selling video game of all time. It was the game that popularized the idea of open-world sandboxes, and it has spread like wildfire throughout popular culture. It's only a matter of time before Minecraft receives some kind of representation in Smash Bros. Minecraft is too influential on the gaming industry for Sakurai to ignore.

And that'll do it! Feel free to tell me how wrong I am for excluding Fortnite. Or you can do something productive, and share the games that you feel are the best and worst of the decade.