Mortal Kombat II (2026) - Bloody Victory

 I really wanted to like Mortal Kombat from 2022. The problem was that they took too many liberties and left the meat out of the story. They, instead, replaced it with wheat flakes. In this sequel, they fixed nearly everything! This was what we wanted! A coherent story with Mortal Kombat as a tournament, while giving us a bit of pandering. You can see the care and the fandom in mind as you watch. This movie isn't perfect, but is it the greatest MK film to date? VIRTUA KOMBAT TIME SPOILER WARNING!

This film uses and slightly misuses certain elements from the video games. If you hadn't noticed through the more recent games, there is a lot of coming to and from the land of the dead. If a character is killed, it apparently just takes some Netherrealm magic to bring them back and ready to fight. While they do the right thing and resurrect Kano, they also made it very clear that they are going to use and abuse this in a planned Mortal Kombat 3. Will that happen? Well, that's up to the Elder Gods of the failed box office. 

One of this movie's biggest miscasts is Jade. Do I want a constant reminder of Naughty Dog's biggest oncoming garbage? No, not really. It's not in my nature to like people who flip off the audience they are supposed to be entertaining. Then they went and tipped the entire spectrum up-side-down and cast Karl Urban as Johnny Cage... okay, you know what? We'll call it a draw. The fact that Cage is the main focus of the story is a point in this film's favor. In fact, the fact that they brought back Kano, actor and all, is yet another huge strike in this movie's favor. 

Then there are the massive deaths and loose ends. Jax is back, and he gives the same great performance as last time. Then he gets stabbed by the end of Shaokhan's hammer. Going to be honest, that was not expected and I didn't like it a lot. He and Sonya were great as a duo, and I can only imagine he is one of the ones they'll bring back if they get the chance. A death that was broadcasted like a UHF station very early on was Cole Young. Yeah, no one liked him from the first movie and they gave him a proper sendoff. The fact that Khan drops his tonfa into the acid pit with him was a much welcome added bonus.

Kitana was a definite plus to bring back into the Mortal Kombat lore. They played her story nearly flawlessly, other than her bodyguard. Her journey from a scared little girl to a warrior who is dedicated to avenging her family is actually rather heartfelt. In fact, this movie does the heartfelt seens rather well, especially when Liu Kang and an undead Kung Lao fight and he is forced to kill his former brother. All of these story elements don't get in each other's way because it goes with the flow of the tournament and we see how they serve the overall film. Instead of exposition and endless spoken lore, we leap from the first movie. We've seen these two were the best of friends and we feel their loss as it happens in real time. 

Then there are the comedic elements, which are pulled right off without taking away from the main plot's gravity. There are sweet and sour elements that add to the flavor, especially when we see Johnny Cage's movie from the 80's. Then we see that he fell on hard times since then as he sits at a convention and no one is in line to see him. We don't need someone telling him what happened or grind in our faces that he's washed up. We see it and we see his attitude as it is affected. This is filmmaking 101 and it is so refreshing to see. This is especially true when we see him go out for a drink and is served a shot and a beer by Bartender, Ed Boon. 

The two A and B plots collide in the tournament and the serious mixes with the humor right in front of us. Johnny is a loveable idiot but he's not completely inept. He just needs some time to start taking things seriously. Somehow, they even improved on Raiden's part of the story! He was insufferable in the first film and yet here we are actually seeing how he can help when he puts his mind to it. 

This is probably the first time we have ever seen Baraka as an anti-hero. That is one thing I never expected but it is actually nice to see him in a different, more constructive role. He doesn't play a large role, but it was entertaining and quite memorable because his antics with Johnny Cage are gold! They even made the Tarkatans actual tangible characters. The wonders that this movie pulled off is still too many to count. Characters that normally hinder and distract from the plot are suddenly well implimented element into the film that carries it well on. 

One mysterious element that never really concluded was: What happened to Liu Kang? He got stabbed in a fight with Shaokhan, vowed that he would return, and then disappeared into a puff of vapor. Whether he died is kind of up in the air, but it seemed more like... no, honestly I have no idea. That was a strange element. The violence in the film is kicked up a notch, which echoes what happened with the original games. 

For the first time, we see Noob Saibot in live action where he doesn't really suck. This was actually a very well done sequence when both Kano and Cage work together to get an amulet that holds Raiden's immortality and powers within Shaokhan. This runs parallel with Kitana's final battle against her father's pretender. Her fight with Khan is very well put together, along with a gnarly, in every meaning of the word, ending. 

From beginning to end, we finally get a coherent, perfectly violent Mortal Kombat film. The answer is, yes, this is the greatest Mortal Kombat film. It has all of the fights you could ever want. Scorpion vs Noob Saibot, Raiden vs Shang Tsung, and Shaokhan vs Cole Young as we see him get trampled, along with his plot armor. It's wonderfully gory and fast moving, while also knowing when to take a small breather. The pace is even, if not brisk. With just a few nitpicks, this film brings much more to the table than we've ever had with this franchise. Hopefully, it dodged the box office bullet. Only time will tell. Until then, this film exists in Virtua Legend.

Virtuamehameha #6 - Dragon Ball Super: The No Star Dragon Ball

 Let's get one thing straight off the bat, this is where my journey ended with Dragon Ball as a whole. After starting with Dragon Ball Z on its first run through America back in 92, it has been a very long and arduous journey through years of changed studios, long waits for the series after cancellation, and rises to heights that will never be seen again. Dragon Ball had its hayday all the way through the late 90's to the mid 2000's. It had one of the highest numbers of websites on the internet and has become something of a staple of both Japanese and American culture. There is nary a soul that has not at least heard about this series or at least knows its primary character, Son Goku. 

After the extremely long hiatus after GT ended, Dragon Ball Super was a welcome continuation of the series as if GT did not exist. At first, with the release of Battle of the God's it really seemed like they were off on the right foot. There were some animation glitches, but it was still a charming movie. Then, however, the cracks began to show early, because it turned out that there was an even worse version of this movie, and it was coming out in the actual series. They would do so yet again with the new and "improved" Freeza Saga. 

This series decided it not only needed to borrow nearly everything from Dragon Ball and Dragon Ball Z, but it needed to redo or revamp every single one of its previous arcs. The Black Goku Saga was just a "continuation" of the Future Trunks story, which should have ended with Z. If it's not stealing from the previous series, it is doing a tournament. Every single time they come up with new and improved idiotic characters like Hit or Female Broly knockoff. They kept saying that Akira Toriyama, God rest him, signed off on all of these ideas, but the thought of bringing Broly back in any capacity didn't seem like something he'd do. Anytime he was asked anything about Broly, he outright stated that he did not create him, nor owns up to the character in any way. 

The series had gotten to the point where a new form had to be reached in order to defeat the big bad guy and Goku was as strong or as weak as the plot needed him to be. Dragon Ball Super had become all about spectacle with good moments and cool fight scenes. Sometimes, they would show character growth with Vegeta or Goku but it would quickly be washed away with yet another obnoxious new character. Powerlevels and statuses got so abstract and meant nothing, so the powerscale went out the window. Any idea that there could be a number to any of them is now officially absurd. Soon, it all became about how many levels of Super Saiyan could be reached and the idea that it was hard or at all straining to turn your hair bright yellow was laughable. A brand new saiyan character who had barely even begun to fight could just turn Super Saiyan without problems.

Then comes the first female Super Saiyan, which was, again, reached without consequence. This was a very large deal for the community, as the idea of a female SSJ turning up in the series was long awaited. Now that it's come to fruition, it happened... Yeah, it just happened, party popper. Dragon Ball fans' dreams came true over and over again as we saw fanservice come at no cost to the series as a whole. We would get answers and retcons out the wazoo as if it was discounted and sold in bulk. It got to the point where there was almost at least three or four callbacks to the original series per episode. From Captain Ginyu having a brief and meaningless cameo, to Yamcha performing his death pose on a baseball field, this series had no shame.

The worst part about all of it, was the filler episodes. I love Dr. Slump as much as the next guy who knows that it exists, but Arales's return to the series was dipped into one of these. Yes, this may be where she belongs in the series, but the return was as lackluster as the rest of the content that was being put into Dragon Ball Super. There are some good gags here and there, but it's ultimately forgettable. Everything was being done for the purpose of hype and climbing the ladder in power with more and more new forms coming in seemingly every arc. Their hair turned from red to blue with Black Goku going pink, finishing the entire spectrum of Power Ranger colors for all of the memers. 

Harkening back to the filler, it got so bad that there was an entire episode dedicated to King Kai finally asking Goku to wish him back with the Dragon Balls. This is a concept so old, it could drink, but they're just now bringing it up after King Kai has been dead since the Cell Games. The entire episode is Goku having all seven dragon balls and trying to make the wish, but then getting interrupted because other people want things. This was the episode that made me officially stop taking this series seriously. Goku is about to do something selfless and something he probably should have done ages ago, but Master Roshi needs to get off. You know, because he's a dirty old man who likes ladies. Get the joke? Me neither. They brush this off with Bulma calling someone and having everything immediately delivered because money. The episode ends with Goku having taken too long and the dragon disappearing because haha funny. Dragon Ball has never reached this type of low and now it is the bar that keeps lowering. 

It's become trendy to keep latching new continuations onto the series. Even the concept of revamping Gohan back into a fighter or turning Broly into a new anti-hero has become mundane and tapped out. The only good thing to come out of this whole thing is the cool merch and occasional awesome game, but the anime has become another cash-grab that takes the soul from the series. Toriyama-san deserves a lot better. It should have ended like he wanted back in the Cell Saga. The Buu Saga was bad enough and it only spiraled downward. It is a bit of a shame but at least we have the original series and that will not be going away anytime soon.   

Batman Forever - Because Why Not?

So, since we've got the first two movies in the bag, let's keep this rolling into the Schumacher era. Batman Returns turned out to be so dark that the toy deal they had with McDonalds was cancelled and taken out of Happy Meals. Apparently a grim penguin man biting someone's nose into drawing blood and planning to kill children didn't go over well with parents. Tim Burton was immediately off the next movie and the studio decided that Joel Schumacher was a much safer bet. He set out to create a new Batman with the essence of Adam West in mind. Gotham was now colorful, brightly lit and more like a city of neon and jazz. 

Right from the start, we get a bank heist with Tommy Lee Jones acting as Two Face like he's both the Joker and a Dick Tracy villain. The dialogue took a massive hit. The civilians in this movie act so over the top and the action is so sporadically huge. Everything that was subtle and dark in the first movie are now brightly lit and Val Kilmer puts on a much more light-hearted Batman. Given better circumstances, Kilmer could have been a great lead. He even did well as Bruce Wayne. The problem was the script. He has an overly provocative therapist horning after him like she thought she was hired for an adult film and, at the same time, has two variations of the Joker as villains. 

Jim Carrey was a homerun when it came to casting. He took The Riddler to heart and he went big with it. The riddles are still lame, though, and everything doesn't seem to want to make sense throughout the runtime. Half of the stuff that happens, like how he edited a video to make it look like his boss committed suicide, or how there was already a Riddler type character with a game machine and a bobblehead, none of it made any sense. Logic went very much more aligned with the Silver Age of comic books. 

There came another addition to the cast that actually made it to the fourth film, and that is Robin. Chris O'Donnell's induction into the film was a bit sketchy. He was supposed to be Dick Grayson, who was far younger when he became Batman's sidekick. It is understandable that he would want to go after Two Face for killing his family, but the way he just shoved himself into the lore was jarring. Stealing the Batmobile, saving Batman from dying while wearing his acrobat outfit, and then the full suit he was given seemingly out of nowhere, Robin just didn't feel like a natural part of the story for several reasons, and it really doesn't get any better in the next movie.

One great thing that followed the films in all four of them was Pat Hingle and Michael Gogh and they were an anchor when we needed them. Commissioner Gordan and Alfred Pennyworth are two characters that they took by storm and God rest them both. Even when things got nonsensical, these two stayed themselves and rocked their roles like they always did. Beyond these two characters, the movie series is literally unrecognizable from this point on.

How they gave Two Face two of so many things was meant to be comical. It makes no sense for real life, but sure, go ahead and have Drew Barrymore as one of two of his wives and make everything dual colors. The Riddler's lair is not any better as the question marks are everywhere to an impractical degree. The movie is entertaining in its strange decore, and it could have been good as a stand-alone universe movie, but it branded itself as the third entry in a series that it bears no resemblance to. 

When you turn your brain off and activate your Batman fandom, you can enjoy this film as a silly Batman flick. Schumacher took what all of them said to heart and made it as safe and marketable as they possibly could. It worked. The toy sales were through the roof, the ticket sales were nice and plentiful, but the problem was that they changed everything. Parents came with the children they were with and they asked, along with the critics, what happened? This would be a massive precursor for what would come next, though. Schumacher seemingly won this round, but that inevitably led to him getting another film where he was given the keys to the kingdom. He took that control to the next level and I suppose that's the inescapable next review. I would like to escape, though. Robin, get the bat grapple! 

Top 160+ Favorite Games of all time! (Pt 8 Final)

19 Sonic and Knuckles 3

"Sonic and Knuckles 3" is not even the proper title for this game. This is Sonic the Hedgehog 3 with one of the first expansions in console gaming. It's at least the most popular expansion in the industry. This opened up all kinds of new gameplay options for the original Sega Genesis Sonic games. With the addition of a new character, you can reach new areas with his gliding skill in different ways. It also gave Sonic 3 a new layer of greatness, as Knuckles opened up all new content overall for the game. They finished the game itself and had no time to impliment Knuckles, so they just sold off that portion as a separate cartridge attachment. This was a genius move for the time, but it was a double edged sword when it came to the idea of paid DLC in gaming.

18 The House of the Dead 2

When it comes to the Dreamcast, this one hit number one after hours and hours of gameplay. There came a time when all of the secrets came unlocked and the urge to kill zombies increased to brand new levels. The graphics, the co-op play, the badguys and tons of features were improved and added to The House of the Dead. There are new bosses and returning bosses, but they did everything they needed to make it a unique gaming experience all around. The terrible voicing for the English version is parallel in greatness with the original Resident Evil and gave it that slice of cheese that made it so entertaining.

17 Metroid Prime

The Gamecube, in all of its greatness, reached its peak early on as far as I'm concerned.  You are put into the armor of Samus and throughout the game, you are given access to all of her weapons! This includes the ability to turn into a ball and plant bombs in three dimensions. The combat shines in first person, especially for a console game, and it does so with such an amazing style. The graphics really pushed the envelope for the GC and showed off its true capabilities from the very start. 3D adventuring and exploring while dodging deadly aliens has never felt so awesome before this title and that really is saying something. 

16 Metroid

It's hard to beat the original. The Metroid title for NES killed it with exploring and getting lost in levels while surviving pitfalls and listening to such an amazing and memorable soundtrack. Enhance Samus's armor, or even put in the code to give her no armor, which revealed that she was a woman in the first place. This blew our minds as kids, but it did nothing to take away from the experience. Samus is amazing and this game is where her journey began. Platforming in this game brings you to new heights in 8-bit gaming and it has earned its place in gaming history.

15 Katamari Forever

When you want a nice satisfying collect-a-thon game where you go from tiny as a softball to the size of an entire planet, this is your sauce. With a catchy music lineup and the simplest graphics, this game brings both the old and the new of Katamari to the forefront and gives you that sensation of being a tiny little giant that can roll up the entire cosmos. The king is annoying, but that only makes it better when you prove his negativity wrong and show him that you can score with the best of them. It's fun to collect all of the characters and get all of the collectibles for your shrine. Not to mention, it even has a two-player mode! If you have heard anything about this franchise and need a place to start, here you go!

14 X-men Arcade

This was a hard choice, but if I had my pick of the Konami Triforce beat'em ups, this one beats TMNT and the Simpsons. None of these games buckle under the pressure, and all of them are great in their own way. This one has the Colossus roar, though, and it is just all kinds of fun to use the X-men's many powers. Wolverine's slicing power is a close second favorite, but all of them are fun to play to some extent. The levels are memorable and Magneto's stupid dialogue has reached iconography. This is a satisfying experience and this game has gone through so many efforts to save it from obscurity, even when it was only on the arcade cabinet for the majority of its existence. It is just too valuable to lose.

13 Panzer Dragoon II

People will disagree with me up and down about this favorite in the Panzer Dragoon franchise, but the experience and the fun that this game gave me with my original Sega Saturn is something to behold. It is a wonderful experience that is only compounded as your dragoon continues to grow and evolve throughout the playthrough. The graphics are grungy and beautiful, with enviroments that show off the true 32 bit nostalgia. All three of the Saturn titles are great in their own way, but this is my piece of the pie for a very good reason.

12 Mario Kart 64

Mario Kart has stood the test of time for a reason, and this is where the franchise peaked in absolute greatness with the simplest elements. The graphics are fantastic without being overblown and the gameplay keeps itself without overburdening itself with flab. There are just too many characters to choose from at this point with Mario Kart 8, but 64 kept itself at a core roster. This bore some of the best levels and some of the most memorable tracks. This was such a huge improvement over the first game on the SNES, it basically eclypses it in every sense of the word. The Wii version and WiiU version were still awesome, don't get me wrong. This one is just what it needed to boost the franchise to greatness.

11 Quake

This is the final game that was made by the majority of the original crew at ID. After this title, John Romero was gone from the company. As much of a disappointment it was for the developers, it was a dream come true for gamers. Death Matching, rocket jumping and 3D gaming in general was brought to this peak from the very beginning thanks to the hard work of our Doom makers. Quake is gothic, and beautiful in its simplicity, even if there weren't a lot of vibrant colors. Even if the levels look very similar, they don't play the same by any means. This was not always a great thing, and sometimes you can really feel the limitations on the number of monsters, especially compared to Doom and Wolfenstein 3D. While the solo game is still great, it was the multiplayer Death Matching that made this title truly great. 

10 Doom Eternal

It's not surprising to see how many Doom titles are on this list. Doom Eternal came when it was needed the most and it delivered on its promises to give us an experience very close to Doom 4. The graphics are astounding with just the right amount of spice and detail. Killing the demons by blowing meat off of their bones with a shotgun is so satisfying, especially when you get to rip their heads and limbs off with your armored hands. This was all brought to a head with the return of the Icon of Sin, who was beautifully implimented! It's not perfect, but even with some of the more irritating parts of the game, it's a wondrous fight through Hell and Earth.

9 Doom

The advent of Knee Deep in the Dead was met with such a rousing success, it put video gaming on the map. With such an iconic title, everything after was just gravy on the taters. Thy Flesh Consumed didn't do such a great job of ending the Ultimate Doom collection, but everything within is still amazing to behold. Killing demons and creating a blood bath took what Wolfenstein 3D did and brought it to brand new heights with new capabilities in elevations and lighting graphics. Doom was a milestone in gaming, like ID would cause over and over throughout their early career. This title is still iconic, and people continue to make new levels for it to this very day as the Doom Mapping community is still running very strong. May they make until forever. Rip and Tear!

8 Spider-man

Spider-man 2 for the PS2 and Gamecube walked so that Spider-man for the PS4 could run. Coming out after Batman Arkham Asylum only made this game that much greater with its own take on such a great combat system. This game has the story, has a likeable Peter Parker, and even makes you want to 100% the whole thing for all of the spider suits. Swinging on the web feels crisp and nastural. Finding and fighting the Sinister Six feels like you're coming right out from the comics. The sequels may not be as great, but this game stands on its own merits of greatness. It's replayable, especially with New Games + and you're a webhead with some extra awesome points if you do!

7 Resident Evil 7

The loss of P.T. was terrible, but it did inspire Capcom to make this game first person and scary. The story and progression had some hiccups and the ending of the game isn't as great, but overall, this is a beautiful title. Playing this game gives you some real fear, especially when you're running from a maniac with a shovel! It's so satisfying to finally meet him in the subsequent boss battles, especially with a chainsaw fight! This game has some very memorable moments, even some that I wouldn't mind going back and playing over and over again. That's how you know you have a gem on your hands.

6 Doom (2016)

Somehow, the reboot to the franchise jumped its way up my favorites totem. It game when it was needed and it did everything it set out to do. The experience was new but also very nostalgic. The vast majority of the awesome guns were back and so many of the demon roster returned so you could put your fist through their faces! They thought that the multiplayer Quake 3 Arena type shooter and the map creating capabilities were going to be the selling point, but it was proven that the singleplayer won out tenfold! The Doom Slayer demon voice clips and the soundtrack all became iconic and this game made the power fantasy real and fun, also real fun.

5 Sonic the Hedgehog 2

This game came free with Sega Genesis 2nd Gen, and changed Sonic's fortunes forever. This game was leagues above the first title and made platforming legend comparable to the Super Mario Bros franchise! Sonic and Tails became household names and Sega truly had their mascot set in stone. Sonic 2 even threw a bone to the younger brothers in 2nd player, making sure they could help without getting in the way and local multiplayer exploded! The soundtrack, the gameplay and the level designs became iconic and this franchise was boosted to the point where Sonic games had a brand new standard to reach.

4 Virtual On

This game got 3D fighting right on so many levels. Getting great at this game is not exactly hard, but it does require a good deal of sharpening. It's just fun all around and offered a free wielding style that made you feel like you were a mech pilot trying to destroy the mech suit in front of you. This is compounded when you take on bigger machines and truly tests your mastery of the controls and maneuverability while using your unique set of weapons. You need to think fast and get accurate, so learn your machine and have a ball while doing it. This game is awesome on both Sega Saturn and Dreamcast.

3 Doom 2

This is another point where many will disagree. So many people consider these new levels a huge downgrade, but I can't see where they're coming from. There's just some great levels and some not so great levels. What you get, though, is brand new weapons and brand new demons with new level designs that not only did wonders for its own game, but made the level modding that much more fun. Doom 2 brought us the Super Shotgun and a barrage of other things like the Mancubi, Pain Elementals and the Archviles. This only built upon the foundations of an already great game and magnified the ways to play it. Doom 2 is keen as far as Planet Virtua is concerned.  

2 Mega Man 2

With one of the most iconic soundtracks, levels and boss robot battles, Mega Man 2 is hailed as the greatest Mega Man game of all time. The weapons you get, like Metal Man's band saws and Wood Man's leaves, are just flat out fun to play throughout the game. Even when Mega Man X hit the market, this is still held up as the best in the franchise. The game can get frustrating in the Dr. Wiley levels and in the Quick Man stage, but that's all just par for the course in terms of an 8-bit game. Even Mega Man 11 couldn't reach this level of greatness, just think about that for a moment.

1 Dragon Warrior

The word "simplicity" has been used a lot on this list and that is this game's greatest strength. It is a simple story with an open world map that gives you quests in order to beat the Dragon Lord. Dragon Quest's humble beginning aged like a fine wine and made its way to the top of this list. Rescuing the princess, defeating the first green dragon and axe knight, all of it is chiseled in legend. You're put in the place of a true hero and you fight your way through slimes, metal men and all forms of magical beasts trying to kill you. Search out the fabled metal slime to get lot's of experience points and look for Erdrick's ultimate weapons to defeat the most powerful foes in the final dungeons beyond the rainbow bridge. Nostalgia goggles be damned, this game wins.

So, there you have it. It took me a solid year, but I'm glad I finally got all of these lists out for one big grand ranking of my favorites. As said in the first post, this is not a perfect list and there are some games who can interchange between rankings. It's still a very complete list, even if there are a few titles that deserve an honorable mention because either I didn't think of them for the master list or I've played them since the list was originally created. Here's a nice short list of those games.

Doom The Dark Ages

A solid addition to the Doom franchise, despite the lack of notable demons and the employment of a pale BFG replacement. The shield and the weapon roster is still solid for the gameplay and it is still a fun time all around. The story doesn't really spark any inspiration, but it frames the demon killing fine. It can wrestle Doom Eternal for one of the higher spots on this list, more because it doesn't have all of the unnecessary platforming and lore heavy items throughout the entire runtime. Many will disagree, as usual, but those are my thoughts.

Retro Rewind

Management games are just plain fun work. This one, however, hits home with a wondrous return of the VHS rental store that you can customize and decorate to your own tastes. This is just busy work with a good deal of interaction with customers and time management. It's very easy to gain up to level 20 and you can even work toward 100% achievements without a lot of effort. The movie titles are a lot of fun to see and it's a joy to get new releases that are obvious stand-ins for some very iconic movies. 

No Man's Sky

It's hard to earn back the trust of your customer base, but the game devs for this title battened down and did just that over years of development after its official release. The space exploration is relaxing and you can pump up the difficulty by fighting space pirates and drones. This is not a free pass to screw up your launch and patch it after the fact, but if you're going to do it, earn your communities respect by patching it for free and listening to what they're saying. Now, you can explore new galaxies and planets, naming them and building your own base on their surface. There's a lot to do and craft throughout the game and you could do worse than giving it a look now that it's fixed.

Helldivers 2

A game that is fun to play and fun to advance. The trolls and the unhelpful players in the game can dampen the experience, as can some of the difficulty of taking on an entire army by yourself. Still, when you get into the groove, you can be killing Terminators and Starship Trooper bugs while finishing your primary missions. Get it done, kill the opposition and extract yourselves back to your own giant ship. Make Democracy proud.

Plants vs Zombies

What started as a simple PC/Mac game ported to every other system and took the tower defense community by storm. While the franchise would kill itself with greedy microtransactions in later sequels, the first game remains a solid experience that you can poor hours into. It's just fun to experiment with plants and powerups to get the most effective build in your rows to take down the zombie opposition. It's fun to see all of the plant options you can build, as well as how they affect the many types of zombies. It's just mindless fun you can play wherever for super cheap. The franchise sadly never reached this level of greatness afterward, but it's still good to have such a great title.

So, yes, I went through just over 160 games I would consider my favorite. Why did I do this? That's a fairly good question. Who really knows? Maybe I'll post another list if there's another 10 or 20 titles that make it to the list some how. Either way, this was just a lot of fun to think about and finish in exactly a year. You'll probably never agree with the rankings and that's fine. These are games I grew up with or just took a shine to as they worked their way into my constant play list. Do yourself a favor and start a tier list, you may be surprised at what you think of. Be true to yourself and don't forget to drink water.

Dragon Quest 8 - Another Peak of Fantasy

 

Every roleplaying game had to start somewhere. If that somewhere is a sequel to the greatest JRPG there is, so be it. This takes place in the same world as the original Dragon Warrior, and it is deserving of that title. This is a very story rich game with a lot of ins and outs to the quests you go on, and sometimes that works in its favor, other times, it can be a bit of a puzzler. The greatest part about this is how they bring the creatures you fought before to life in full 3D animation. The Metal Slime even makes an appearance more than once! 

So, you are [Insert Hero Name Here], and you are on a quest to help King Trode regain his throne after being transformed into a strange creature. Along the way, you start to meet your party members, even having one of them at the beginning. Your starting partner is Yangus, a thief who owes the main protagonist a life debt and the two of them have become friends and battle buddies. Jessica and Angelo are your next party members, though there is a start difference to both of these characters. That's one of the great things about DQ 8, is that the characters are very different and well written to have different motivations and goals. Jessica is definitely the more interesting of the NPC's, because she really starts to play a large role later in the story. Angelo is just your normal flirty boy but it is cool that he is a knight's templar. He's known as a screw-up to the rest of the Templar, namely is brother. 

The next strength in this title is the villain, Dhoulmagus, who you just can't help but love to hate. He is absolutely dreadful and very menacing throughout the story. He is the one who changed the king into a toad-like thing. Along the journey, you start to see just how evil he is. He goes to extreme lengths to obtain power an it just feels right that you want to stop him from doing just that. It's funny to note that he employs the same baddies as the Dragon Lord from the first game. The game is rather long, which just enriches the experience, and it always keeps you wanting to obtain your goal. 

The greatest thing about this game, though, is the artstyle. Yes, it is obvious that this is a very Pro-Dragon Ball site, and that will never change. Even after our sensei has passed on, we can still marvel in his treasures. Akira Toriyama's art in this is brought to such a wonderful view. From the very start, they wanted to emulate his artstyle and this is the game where it is clear that he was the right man for the position of Art Director. Even if they look similar, it just makes you want to watch DBZ all over again, so go ahead. You can play the game and watch some Z, there's no shame in it! 

If you hadn't guessed already, this game is awesome. It is considered the best in the series by many and it is clear as to why. Mr. Toriyama keeps showing off how watchable his art is, and the game mechanics are all here from the franchise we know and love. The magic is simple, the level progression is linear and the weapon system keeps making you want to kill more monsters to buy the higher ranking stuff. They had a proper story to go with the game, like they always do, but it is not at all as simple as DQ1. There are great characters to carry it along and you genuinely want them to achieve their ultimate ambition. Pick this title up if you ever see it on the shelf. You will be glad you got another crack at that Metal Slime. Also known as the Virtua Slime.

Resident Evil Afterlife - Downward Zombie Spiral

So, after the decent entertainment of the third movie, the story gets dumber and more nonsensical. This is when the movies really started to go belly up. This is when it became clear that Anderson didn't know where he was going with the film series. All of the potential from the earlier movies is brought to a brick wall where they set things up only to cut them off before the payoff. Where the third movie brought about a clone army, this fourth entry kills them at the very beginning. 

Yes, through semi-decent CGI to bring multiple Alices to the screen, we see all of them die off immediately as they try to invade Umbrella Corp. Wesker takes out all of them and then takes away Alice's powers, of which are still poorly defined. Okay, so now she can't use telekinesis or super enhanced agility and accuracy. Throughout the entire film, she is still basically invincible. You'd almost suspect the decision to take away her powers was brought about after the scenes where she uses them were already partially shot. 

So, the real problem with this movie, aside from that jarring batch of scenes that basically retconned the earlier films, is that it is a shelter and place movie. Alice pulls off a terribly impossible landing on top of a building. So, instead of going off to find a new community in Alaska, it turns out that it was all some random ship off the coast of a zombie apocalyptic city. Zombies are all around this one building where Alice now finds herself with a whole bunch of refugees that will become entirely superfluous in the long run. 

This movie is probably one of the worst examples of horror movie tropes. There's a pervert, a sweet motherly lady who makes sandwiches, a mechanic, the one no one trusts and on and on and on. Every single one of them, aside from Claire Redfield, will be gone and seldom ever mentioned again. They even bring in Chris Redfield, and he's played by the guy from Prison Break. Wentworth Miller literally thought they were kidding when they told him he would be a prisoner who knows a way out of the building. Apparently, they thought the reference by itself was worth putting us through some of the most cookie cutter plot devices as a result. 

Even the coolest part of the entire movie is a bit of a downer, as we finally see a cool zombie known as the Executioner. This RE5 zombie makes a small appearance in the movie, and the doublebarreled shotgun Alice uses quarters as buckshot. As unrealistic as this is, it is still somewhat entertaining. I hope you enjoy this scene if you ever watch it, because it's as good as it gets. Beyond this, it's the obvious betrayals, zombie kill jump scares and slowly coming to the realization that MAYBE they should actually listen to the guy who says he knows he has a way out. It is mind-numbing. 

Throughout the whole thing, the seemingly unpowered Alice just kicks more ass and solves every problem until she needs to be dumb for the movie to last longer. All of this leads up to getting to the ship off the coast of the city. There's some idiot refugee that betrays the others and steals the plane so he can fly... to the ship and immediately serve Albert Wesker out of nowhere. That's right, Wesker is on the ship and now he wants to literally eat Alice. He says that he is infected with T-Virus powers... like Alice... just go with it--and he needs to take in her essence to regain control because... that's how science works... maybe? 

Either way, they fight the video game boss like an actual video game boss and Alice is the only one who exists in Resident Evil Retribution. Nothing is connected and even though Wesker seems like he died at the end of this movie, he didn't. No, his actual death is beyond lame and probably would have been more prominent here. Either way, even with the semi-decent effects and the awesome appearance of the Executioner, this movie is nothing and means nothing. It is a nonsensical segway into another movie and blatantly wastes its time in an uninspired zombie city building lockdown movie. Dawn of the Dead did it much better and this is just a mess. If you're still watching the movies by this point, you should know what lies ahead is so much worse. Virtua Nosedive.

The Super Mario Galaxy Movie - And then... It Babombed!

There is no simple way of telling this, but this movie is the most horrific example of "And then..." storytelling I have seen in a very long time. There is no two ways about this, they took the idea of "Galaxy" wayyyyyy too far. If you wanted one of the most shallow ways to get through a plot, your disastrously constructed warp star has come in! Yes, I know that's a Kirby reference, but it makes far more sense than this movie! This is not a joke. It was hard to believe why so many people were having such a horrible reaction to this film, but it was very important not to spoil anything in the movie before watching it. It made no difference. The script had already gotten turned into a Yoshi egg. 

It was like they didn't know what they wanted to do with the plot, or where they wanted to set the story at all, which is understandable for a Mario Galaxy movie to see as a problem. Their solution? Make up whatever you can about the story, regardless of whether it made sense, then shove in as many references to the video games as they possibly can within an almost two hour runtime. It pains the mind to think that they probably cut out a lot more scenes of this ADHD garbage. The characters are thrown into situations one after the other. 

First, Rosalina starts talking to her star "children", of which there are many, curiously, AND THEN they start to beg her to read the Mario story when she already started with the Peach story AND THEN skip to the Donkey Kong scene AND THEN she decides to wait until tomorrow because there are planet quaking stomps heard AND THEN the giant robot attacks!!! Did you see what happened there? The addle-brained storytelling starts with the opening dialogue. The children's voices are all so mind-numbingly cute, as is Yoshi's, and it is hard to pay attention to them because they start the nagging. Take this for how the entire storyline goes. 

Yoshi is immediately found on their first mission, which takes place in the Mexican level of Mario Odyssey. The references in this movie are good. That's probably because Nintendo helped to make it. You really would have thought that at least one of them could write a competent story, much their video games, but I digress. With no trouble or real squabble, they pull Yoshi out of the pipe and he is IMMEDIATELY their best friend ever. Toad even points this out, and no, it does not make it better. If they caught him when he hatched, which would have ruined a decent gag but been more effective, this could have been resolved. No, though, they needed their joke of him having a slightly entertaining journey. Make the argument that he hatched at the end of the first movie all you want, but they have retconned more for the less. 

It does not end there, folks, oh no. You see, they have now officially introduced Bowser Jr. to the cast. While his character is handled with some grace, we obviously don't spend a whole lot of time introducing him. Nope! We need to show that Rosalina can handle herself in battle. The spectacle is where this movie shines, obviously, and the fight scenes are very entertaining. The character models are obviously spot on and the references of Big Bertha and the Giant Level from Mario 3 are all solid entries in this movie's MILES and MILES of Yoshi eggs scattered throughout. 

Going through this story felt like a fever-dream. Characters have no idea what they are doing because they are just reacting to the most random assortment of events. This is not just small little tiny shrug your shoulder sort of event, either. Everything needs to go wrong and then immediately become fixed as soon as the plot needs to move on. Trying to recall every single major plot point in this movie would be like trying to pick up every single thumb-tack you dropped with boxing gloves. It's that tedious! While it was nice to hear Jack Black again, it did not help this film at all. Yes, I am a fan of Tenacious D, but Bowser was wasted potential, especially with how he becomes big again! Villains come and go in droves and it is all just too much for the brain to process without needing to look away.

This review could go scene by scene destroying this movie's inner being, but that would be a ridiculous waste of human life. If you're in the mood to quick-run Mario's vast array of levels in a speedrun they apparently copied into this film, do not let this deter you. If you're just in it for the jokes and the gaming catalogue of quick Nintendo brand nostalgia, there is no judgement here. Honestly, this could be a decent introduction to very small children that may find out they love Mario. That's fine, but when the first movie was a mild success and more focused film all around, you could say that expectations were set a little high for whatever they thought they were doing here. Whatever it was, they didn't accomplish it. Someone needs to tell them that not every scene needs to be a knock-down dragout fight, nor does every character need to have the attention span of a Cheep Cheep. Virtua Chain Chomp! 

Dragon Ball Sparking Zero (PS5) - The Final Battle Again!

 If there was ever an immortal concept in anime, it is Dragon Ball. Even when this series went on hiatus, a small band of fans called Team Fourstar brought about Dragon Ball Z Abridged. No matter what part of history it is, Dragon Ball has existed since it started and then Dragon Ball Super came about and things got... complicated. Either way you look at it, Dragon Ball has had a long history and the story has been told to exhausting extents. Even before this game, other games have completely followed the story in one way or another. Dragon Ball FighterZ came up with a cool story of its own, which was refreshing, especially with such a good game included with it. Then there was Xenoverse and I played that since the very beginning. I'm pretty sure I still have my Goku statue from Xenoverse 2. The story was different, but ultimately the same. What was great about that was you got to play your own character customized to your liking. They fought along with the main characters of the series and gained their own abilities. 

Here is a bit more return to form, even though you're playing through the same story, it does have other perks. The combat is a little simple, but not at all boring. It's fast paced and can gain real traction when you're fighting while fully powered up. In the episode mode, you play as multiple characters. Each one of them have fights that were the largest in the series. With Vegeta, you fought enemies like Kuwi, Zarbon, Freeza, but then move onto his large battles in the Android Saga, #19, #18, Imperfect Cell and even Perfect Cell. Each one of them is familiar and well known as his largest battles in the Z Saga. Part of me hates that there isn't more Dragon Ball from the beginning, it is very nice to play some of the older characters. Then there are the newer characters, like Goku Black. He is available very early in the game and this just seems like a waste of a space that could be given to better Dragon Ball characters. His story is boring and a horrific retread of the Future Trunks Saga, which is one of the best ones in Dragon Ball as a whole. I'm sorry, but no, I'm not going to rush to play Dragon Ball Super parts of this game. 

The characters, however, are amazingly vivid and vast throughout the series that you can play as. It is very easy to grind the story for a little bit, collect experience and unlock characters without paying a dime. It's a fake currency that you gain through gameplay. After just a few hours, you can make some very choice purchases for multiple characters, including extra skins! I didn't even check if there was a way to pay real money for this, because it has been rendered wholly useless with this very generous system. Within just the first three hours of gameplay, I was able to purchase most of the characters that I wanted to play. You can customize your own version of the character through skins and extra abilities purchased for Zenni at the shop. So, you can get your favorite character, buff them up, and fight in team battles against real people or computers. 

There is a good deal of stuff to keep you busy for a long time, while also being very beneficial for other modes of the game, constantly adding content. It is refreshing to see such a system and actually did keep me entertained for the whole game. I haven't beaten every storyline quite yet and I've been at it for around 25 hours. Most of that is because it is just a lot of fun to play custom battles and form your own playstyle. It's a game that really makes you want to play it while having the graphics to back it all up. My favorite color is red, and my custom Goku can be Super Saiyan God mode, who has the saiyan red hair. Vegeta is the same way, which is also very exciting to see, because he had skipped it through the first run of Dragon Ball Super. 

From main badguys from the series to main badguys of the movie, this game has you covered, even with the extra ally characters like Tapion or Pikehan. Being able to play as a giant yellow Janemba form is also quite a strange part. Hildegarn is a blast to fight against. Being able to take down giant forms as if they were normal enemies with a lot of reach and power moves is a very satisfying experience. They seem a little easy sometimes, but then there can come a difficulty spike when an enemy constantly performs super moves. So, the impulse is to do the same against them, constantly doing Gogeta's final move he used to kill Janemba or even Vegeta's Final Flash. 

The power up system is simple, thankfully. Sometimes, like in Bodokai 3, you need to press down two buttons and for some reason, that was a bit more cumbersome. You get normal power ups and then ultimate forms take on a secondary power up that unlocks your most powerful move. The ultimate moves are a lot of fun to trip over, especially when it actually works. Goku even unleashes the Spirit Bomb on Freeza randomly in the middle of the fight to finish it off. That was strange, but still quite nostalgic that they actually decided to stick to canon before he turned super saiyan for the first time.

If you're a Dragon Ball fan, this is your game and it is beautiful. Having so many options of play and unlockables is a gratifying experience and it really looks like the put in the leg work both graphically and mechanically. The way that it sticks to the original series and then goes off deeper into the fandom is a lot of fun to relive, especially when it's with your favorite characters. Gohan seems like quite the underused character later on through the series when he grows up, but it is really cool to play with his Super Saiyaman skin! Just seeing him and Videl is another landmark of a highpoint in an otherwise disappointing saga in Dragon Ball. Sorry, I just can't bring myself to like the Buu Saga. Virtua Saiyan Bomb!