Monthly Archives: December 2022

My Little Pony: A Maretime Bay Adventure Review

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When I saw this as one of the games on sale at GameStop I knew I had to grab it! While I may not have kept up with the latest My Little Pony series….pretty much at all since the movie I still knew this would be a very wholesome adventure which is perfect for Christmas. It’s a very short game though and you can tell that there wasn’t a whole lot of content put into this one. It’s absolutely not worth paying full price for but when the going rate is around 15-20 you have to snag it.

The game involves a pony mysteriously defacing a lot of posters all around the festival. The Ponies are just trying to have a good time here with all kinds of events going on like fashion shows and aerial tricks but this is putting a damper on things. Sunny has to stop this pony but when the evidence begins to point to her friends she has to wonder if she really should solve this mystery. Her friends should have no cause to spoil such a grand day for her right? The time is ticking as the case gets more and more serious.

On a fundamental level the game is very sound. It doesn’t try to do a whole lot but what it does do is very smooth. I would say this game is aimed at a very young crowd, even more so than the Mario and Sonic games at least from a difficulty perspective. There is no way to lose or take damage in this game. There are a few events like herding animals and running but they are given to you with very generous timers to make sure you can clear them. Even obtaining the Platinum trophy is something that you can do very quickly. You should get it within 15 minutes of completing the game since you just have to complete one post story race.

It’s good for there to be some games for the kids. I think this one does the job well but the only sore spot is the length. Short games are nothing new of course but it just feels like they did the bare minimum for this one because they figured most people wouldn’t be playing it. You’ve got a really big hub world here but most of it is just empty. There isn’t really anything to do outside of the story. So as a result by the time you’ve completed the story there aren’t other side missions to finish.

The story itself is fun though with full voice acting and solid cinematics. The graphics here are absolutely top tier with the CG looking just like the real character models. They do have that CG gimmick where the eyes appear a bit distorted so the characters almost look scary at times but all in all I thought it was rather sharp. The graphics continue to look good during the game as well. I’d say some of this can also be attributed to the art direction which was really on point. The soundtrack is a lot more bland though to the point where large chunks of the game are completely quiet. It’s a little eery since you think of music when thinking about MLP ordinarily.

So the silence is almost deafening. We do get a song for the end credits though so that was neat but the game should have embraced this a bit more. I appreciated having a real villain here but I’d say for the sequel they can take it a little farther while still keeping the game as kid friendly. Friendship is Magic had a lot of big villains after all and you could also have the characters have some disagreements if you don’t want to go the full villain angle. This will help extend the game and if you can get the sequel to more like 6 hours then you’ll really have more bang for your buck.

There’s a case to be made that the longer the game went on, the more the cracks would show. That’s certainly possible so it is a risk but at the same time you have to throw the players a little bone. When they can complete the game in an instant like this it just overshadows all of the work that went into the animation and gameplay here. It doesn’t matter how smooth it all is if there’s just nothing to do after a while. Give us a bunch of extra minigames and story content and you’d have yourself a winner. As a result there’s not a ton to talk about here though.

Overall, My Little Pony is always a fun franchise and it’s nice that it got this game. It just would have been nice if the devs challenged themselves to add some more content here. If this was sort of a trial game to see how things would work then I’d say it succeeds. The gameplay is really on point and it succeeds in all technical aspects but I can’t imagine buying this one on day 1. I would say the company should still want to maximize sales and for this game to do well you really need to put a little more effort into it. If a sequel were to show this then I’d definitely be glad to pick it up. Until then I’d only recommend this game if you see it’s still on sale or the price has been permanently lowered. Then it’s a good amount of fun.

Overall 6/10

He-Man: Power of Grayskull Review

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It’s time for a classic He Man game! It’s been a long while since this one came out so you could say that it’s about time I got to play it. The franchise has so much potential for video games so it’s a shame that it doesn’t have more. This one’s fairly short and I wouldn’t say that it’s the highest budget GBA game out there but it still does the trick. I had a good time with it at least. You may finish it at turbo speeds but you’ll have a good time and there are no slow parts in the game.

The basic plot is that Skeletor is up to no good and He Man has to stop him. I mean that may be oversimplifying a bit but that’s what is boils down too. Different characters like Cringer and Teela get captured so you have to save them. Along the way you get to face off with all of the classic He Man villains as our hero takes them down one at a time. Nobody is ready to handle the Man of Might as He Man just keeps going to town on everyone. There is a reason why he is known as the strongest in the 9 realms after all. His power just never stopped rising and with the sword he is unbeatable.

It is nice that they got some voice acting here for the iconic “I have the power!!” moment. That was really cool and I’d like to see them keep that up. That is the only real voice acting here but it started the game on the right note. Now when it comes to sound effects the game is a bit lazy because there is only a single damage effect used for every minion and it’s not the most flattering one. It’s not a deep growl or anything but more of a whimper. Surely they could have switched that up a bit.

The graphics are pretty solid though. I thought they looked good for the GBA era. Each character is clearly defined and you won’t have any issues navigating through the levels. The soundtrack may not be very memorable but it’s not bad either. It’s just a little limited which is what holds it back here. I’d like to throw in some more songs, maybe even the opening to the TV show for the final level but I realize that is pretty much unheard of so it’s not something you’d expect.

The game has 13 levels and they are split between normal platforming levels and racing ones. Racing levels are extremely easy so you shouldn’t have any trouble there. Just keep on moving and you’ll make it to the end eventually. It’s an overhead racer so you’re just moving side to side and jumping. You don’t need to worry about going fast since you’re automatically moving as it is.

As for the platforming levels, usually you have to get somewhere which means beating up a bunch of villains. The villains are limited and don’t respawn so don’t worry about fighting them. Sometimes it’s nice to get them out of the way so you can concentrate but other times you can just keep it moving. Each level lets you know the full stats and what you may have missed there. There isn’t a lot to each level so you could 100% complete it if you want to. The game shouldn’t take you longer than 2 hours and you’ll probably beat it well before that.

The only really tricky boss would be the final one I’d say. Skeletor hits hard and he can also heal himself by using the green orbs in the room. Each orb restores your full health and does the same for Skeletor. So the trick here is to position yourself in front of the orb. When you are going low on health, just use it first so that he can’t. Then run to the other orb and repeat the process. You can win this with pure button mashing as a result and it only gets tricky if you let him get to the max health. That’s when it’s all a bit dicey. So long as you keep outsmarting Skeletor then you should be in good position.

Of course the length is the main drawback against the game so that’s the only thing to consider here. If the game is a lot of money then you may want to wait since 1-2 hours is all you’ll be playing this for. There aren’t any unlockable levels or post game to extend the timer for either so the main story is it. Once you’re done with that then you are done with the game. Also there are no save files so you actually do need to put in a password when you turn the system off. Fortunately someone wrote down the passwords for each level online so you can do that if you forgot to write it down. People are definitely dedicated with writing things down which is always appreciated. Trying to write it on your own would be possible of course but it’s nice to not have to worry about that.

Overall, He Man is a fun game. It may not last long but the fundamentals are there. With more of a budget I’d like some more attacking options and more sound effects but it does well enough. There are no parts that dragged on and of course I like the He Man franchise so that part was definitely a plus. If you’ve still got a GBA or a DS lying around then I’d recommend picking this one up. You can probably get it for a fairly decent price and it’s unlikely that we’re getting a big He Man game anytime soon so you have to enjoy it now while you can. It’s also got that retro GBA overhead fighting game feel that’s hard to replicate.

Overall 7/10

Madden 23 Review

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Madden is back!! Yesssss. Now I’m caught up and of course this has always been a thrilling series from cover to cover. In many ways it is completely unchanged from Madden 22 so you can really just jump right back into the mix without learning any new combos or things like that. As always to test the game out I played a full season. Only difference from usual is that I decided to play the season as a custom made QB in face of the franchise instead of doing a normal season. I have some issues with the mode but at the end of the day it is an elite game as you would expect.

First off the graphics are top tier as you’d expect. A whole lot of work goes into the visuals and it was certainly worth it. Everything just looks very modern and the presentation is really nice while playing. You get highlights, stats, and announcers talking the whole time. It feels like a very genuine Football product. Then the soundtrack may never be my favorite for the menus but the sound effects while in the game are on point. Those are the ones that you want to watch out for after all to make sure it feels real and it does.

There are a ton of modes to play here. If you have PS+ then you can jump online for some games which is absolutely what I would do if I had it but otherwise playing offline will still get you unlimited enjoyment. The fun never has to stop while you’re here and you can quote me on that. Switch things up by changing your position or playing a different mode. You can even mess with the camera angles now to change things up.

The gameplay is fantastic as always and the games go fast so lets talk about the small things that I didn’t like. One is what I’d consider to be a major oversight. In the face of the franchise mode there is no way to see the league standings. You can look at each individual schedule one by one and calculate this or pick apart the records but the fact that there is no league standings to view is really crazy. It’s the kind of oversight you just can’t believe you’re seeing because it feels so obvious. I cycled through the menus so many times before finally googling it and saw people came up with the same issue all over the place. That’s just crazy, I’m still pretty shocked about it.

Then the other one is that the camera tends to break down randomly during the franchise mode. I’ve noticed this usually happens on the first play of your possession if the glitch triggers. Basically the camera goes in front of you so you can see your backfield but nothing in front. This makes passing the ball impossible because you literally cannot see where you’re throwing. I would always audible to a run and calling a time-out works but it’s a very odd glitch. I didn’t really know what to make of it.

The Madden series definitely still has a bunch of kinks to fix. It seems like most glitches just stick around year to year because they don’t want to fix the source code. It’s something fans have complained about for a long time now and you absolutely get it. That said, fortunately these bugs are not ones that you are likely to run into on your daily adventures. While playing through the game I didn’t encounter anything crazy outside of the camera after all.

In terms of gameplay the only thing I would like to see if the receivers get more aggressive. It’s very impractical to throw any deep ball unless your receiver is massively wide open because otherwise the cornerback starts sprinting and just jumps for the ball while the receiver waits for it the whole time. It’s not a great look for the offense and it means you will usually be throwing small slants and screens. It works but it doesn’t feel like the most realistic way to play the game. You don’t want to be gunning it every down but it’s something that really separates the older Maddens from the newer ones. It’s why I loved Madden 2004 so much and still consider it to be the best.

As always scrambling is a blast though. I absolutely recommend playing a team with a fast QB because nothing beats just getting out there and running a lot. It’s why with my self made QB I prioritized speed over power and accuracy. I wanted to be able to get a 1st down with my legs when I had to. Unfortunately I didn’t make the playoffs as I finished my year 9-8 and lost out due to a tiebreaker but I got it close. There was just one losing streak early on that hurt me a lot as I was getting used to the 3D camera. Once I went back to the standard view then I started getting the good wins again. All Pro is a very fair difficulty to use where you have a challenge but it’s not too crazy.

Overall, There’s not a ton more to say beyond that as this is still the Madden that you know and love. It hasn’t changed much but that’s part of what keeps the appeal going for so long. I do hope they sit down one day and really try to optimize this as the best game it can be but in the meantime I’ll still be around and ready to buy the game whenever the new title comes out. There is no better game to simulate the Football experience after all. It may have some issues but it’s still supremely entertaining to watch and I do feel like there is a good budget here for the technical elements. I’d highly recommend checking it out.

Overall 9/10

Armed Emeth Review

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I wrapped up the next Kemco game just in time with the big Christmas batch coming up. This one has a lot of the fun parts of the Kemco formula but it also dropped some of the fun quality of life features that had always made these games stand apart. As a result I would not call this the strongest title in the lineup but you’ll still have a good time with this one. You’ll also feel the RPG horror of maxing all of your characters to level 99 but still being unable to defeat some of the bosses. Whenever that happens you know things are getting tricky.

You play as a guy who is a golem bounty hunter. Basically it’s like being a normal bounty hunter but he also goes after golems and will use them in order to fight. Think of them as old time mech suits that you can use to dish out a whole lot of damage. Well one day he comes across a Golem/Human hybrid who says that the hero’s mother has been kidnapped by an evil organization. The two weren’t particularly close but the hero still can’t let this stand. He will have to trust this golem for now and head out. Along the way he will meet a bunch of allies who are here to help him out for when the going gets tough.

The game does utilize the golems into the gameplay which I thought was a good idea. It helps make the story hit a bit more since you actually see what it’s like to be fighting in a mech. As you can probably guess the mechs help you deal a whole lot more damage than when you are out of it. One thing that I liked is when you r mech is destroyed you can keep fighting as a human rather than instantly dying as well. It is almost like having a second health bar. The golems also have their own equipment and everything so you want to train for them in addition to your actual character. They don’t have level ups though so you don’t need to worry about that.

As I mentioned, getting to Level 99 is not enough for you to win every fight. It helps a lot but the best equipment on the block is something that you will need in order to get further. Additionally it helps to buy items from the store that increase your stats. It takes a while to earn the shop currency though so make each purchase count. I recommend buying the double EXP items as soon as you can though, you can worry about the rest once you’re actually level 99 and not before. You have your basic attacks, supers, and combo moves here as well. It’s a classic turn based combat strategy and you should pick it up before long.

The game is reasonably long although there is a bit less replay value than usual. I ended up platinuming the game right after beating it which is certainly rare. There were still a few more guild missions to complete that weren’t needed for the platinum though so that’s always something that you could do for the championship. Just saying, it is definitely an effective way to go about it! Not like you need that though, the main game is still long enough where you’ll feel the value was worth the price.

One thing that’s missing here is unfortunately the characters don’t have illustrations for the cutscenes. Usually you see a character portrait which is nice because it stands out and you get to see how the characters are meant to look outside of the sprite. This one just goes back to normal text so there are no cinematic cutscenes like that. I feel like they’re a benefit so I would have liked to have kept that. In some ways this one just feels a bit older than some of the others. The map is unlabeled so sometimes it can be extremely difficult to know where you are going. I got lost on several occasions which was unfortunate.

A map is really important in any big adventure game like this so I was hoping it could have been better. Ah well, most of the other quality of life features were here like the auto battle and speeding up effects. So it’s not like it lost all the charm or anything like that, it could have gone a bit higher but I can’t really say much in the end. The gameplay itself is still a lot of fun after all.

The graphics are good even f they’re missing illustrations and of course the soundtrack is great as always. These Kemco games always have incredible soundtracks so I was not surprised that this one was also really good. There are a ton of great fast paced themes all throughout the game. So you’ll never find a slow moment here. The game’s story always feels like something is happening so you’ll be engaged all the way through.

Overall, I may have had some issues with the game like removing the illustrations and having a map with no locations marked on it but it still had all of the core fundamentals that I would expect from a Kemco game. I appreciated the smooth gameplay here and the series in general is always just very enjoyable to read. I’d recommend picking this one up if you’ve liked the other games by them. These are almost like light novels where the titles may be shorter than a normal RPG but they still pack a punch regardless.

Overall 7/10

2022 Christmas Haul

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With Christmas over I have compiled all the games I got. It was a pretty good haul of 20 games this year with a lot of high powered titles here. I’ve attached an image below as well as a written list of all the games. It’ll definitely be a little while until I have completed all of these of course so this should last a while. It’s a good variety of games among different consoles.

As a console milestone, the 3DS caught up to the Switch as I now have the same amount of games for each console. Pretty impressive I must say but ultimately I see the Switch winning this one as they just have a lot of games that we haven’t gotten yet. No other console took a lead yet but PS4 got the most new games here with 8 so that console continues to rise quickly.

Mario + Rabbids Sparks of Hope
Legend of Zelda Link’s Awakening
Mario Party Star Rush
Detective Pikachu
Legend of Zelda Link Between Worlds
Final Fantasy III
Children of Mana
Golden Sun: Dark Dawn
He Man and the Masters of the Universe
Madden 23
My Little Pony Maritime Adventure
Doug Flutie Maximum Football
Astria Ascending
Spongebob Squarepants Battle for Bikini Bottom Remastered
Nexomon Extinction
Trial of Mana
Need for Speed Payback
Star Ocean The Last Hope International
The Nightmare Before Christmas: Oogie’s Revenge
Rengoku The Stairway to Heaven

Cuphead Review

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Cuphead is one of those games that made a lot of waves when it first came out. This was known as the ultimate platformer with a high level of difficulty. You don’t see too many crazy hard platformers like this nowadays and Cuphead lives up to the hype. It is very difficult and some of the bosses will take a whole lot of tries but the game is so well designed that it’s never frustrating. It’s always difficult in a fair way where you know that you can defeat the opponent eventually and the levels aren’t very long so you don’t mind retrying over and over again.

The game starts off with Mugman and Cuphead getting a little too overconfident and making a deal with the devil. If they win the game then they’ll get rich but if they lose then he will claim their souls. Naturally they lose so all hope is lost but the devil gives them a deal. If they steal the souls of a bunch of people who escaped then they can get theirs back but an elder warns the heroes not to be fooled a second time. So instead they will get the souls and then try to defeat the devil, but do they have the power to pull this off?

One thing that stands out about this game is that it’s basically a big boss rush. You constantly go up against all of these absolutely massive bosses and you have to defeat them before they defeat you. There are no health upgrades or levels to grind. You have to use pure talent to try and overcome the boss. The only thing you can switch up are your weapons and much like a Mega Man game you will find that some weapons are best for different circumstances. None will deal extra elemental damage but the way they work is different.

For example you have the homing gun which is really weak but will go after an opponent anywhere. So if you are confident in your dodging skills you should use this one. It will prolong every fight but you can focus completely on dodging while holding down the shoot button since it won’t matter what direction you’re facing. I used this one for a pair of bosses because it was handy. Then you have the shotgun spreader which does a ton of damage but it super short range. I liked using that one as my sub weapon near the end so when the boss would gloat or stop moving I would run in and start blasting.

I didn’t use the rest of the weapons though. For the vast majority of the game I stuck with the normal peashooter because it’s really a terrific balanced weapon. It’s like using a Mega Buster in Mega Man and gets the job done. Additionally I think it’s the best for practicing your fundamentals because you have to fight carefully in order to use it well. I would say to usually use the first round or two to just focus on learning the enemy attack patterns and then after that you can really go in and start playing aggressively. You just don’t want to do that at the start because you’ll be taking damage like crazy that way.

As I said the levels are short though and they’re a lot of fun. You really feel a sense of accomplishment when you go through the bosses and learn how to get around their attacks. There is also a parry system to block but I never got too good on that one so I really focused on dodging instead. For me at least that seemed to be a better approach. There are also a few normal platformer levels which are always fun to play through. They were never as difficult as the boss battles but they still had their own challenges to be sure. The enemies all keep on respawning there so you have to do your best to work around them.

The graphics here are really solid. The game is bright and colorful as it goes for that very retro appeal. The cutscenes are also drawn like a very old Disney cartoon. If this gets a sequel I’d like to see more fully animated cutscenes but the game really focused the attention on gameplay and that’s never a bad move. The soundtrack is also really fun. I like the little intro quotes from the narrator at the beginning of each boss battle and the characters have great intro animations as well. There are a lot of small touches like that which help to take the game to the next level.

The physical version of the game even brought the DLC along with it so that was cool. It’s pretty short but more content is always a good thing. I don’t think I’ll be getting the Platinum for this game though. You’d have to S rank every boss which sounds incredibly difficult. I didn’t get a single S rank after all so I was quite far from that. It does help the overall replay value of the game though. It’s not the longest title out there but the sheer difficulty should extend the playtime. I consider myself to be a master of bullet hell and platforming games and even I had to retry some bosses a significant amount of times. So don’t worry about trying to blast through the game and just enjoy each attempt. Failing and trying to improve are part of what makes the game so much fun after all.

Overall, Cuphead is a great game. I definitely had a lot of fun with it and I’d really be up for a sequel at some point. There’s a whole lot more that you can do with the Cuphead mythos after all and nobody else has really jumped on the idea of a platformer game that focuses on bosses so Cuphead can still grab that as its main gimmick. Who doesn’t like boss fights right? I’m sure it’s difficult to create so many unique ones like this one did but it worked perfectly. I definitely recommend playing through this one 100%. It doesn’t get much better than this!

Overall 8/10

Ranking all of the RWBY Volumes based on episode rankings

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This is it guys! The moment of truth, I’m going to take the average scores of each RWBY volume based on their episode placements from the comparisons. So that each volume has an equal amount of episodes and placements I am only using the first 10 episode comparisons and then the finales as they are the 11 instances where all 9 volumes were active. I’m going to first list the episode rankings by each volume and then we’ll get into the actual placements.

Volume 1

3 7 7 5 3 6 6 6 6 3 4

Volume 2

5 6 9 2 5 8 7 4 5 8 6

Volume 3

1 1 1 1 1 1 2 1 1 2 2

Volume 4

7 9 6 9 9 3 1 9 9 9 8

Volume 5

9 2 8 6 8 4 8 3 4 4 5

Volume 6

4 8 5 7 2 7 3 8 8 5 7

Volume 7

8 4 2 8 7 9 4 5 3 1 3

Volume 8

6 5 3 3 4 2 5 2 2 6 1

Ice Queendom

2 3 4 4 6 5 9 7 7 7 9

Now lets get into the rankings and really dive into these stats. I always like looking at stats, the whole thing is just fascinating and this is a good way to really see how things stack up on a more detailed level than me just saying how I would rank the volumes.

9. Volume 4

Highest Placement 1
Lowest Placement 9
Average Placement 7.1

It’s not too surprising to see Volume 4 here. It came in last place 6 times out of 11 rankings after all and it only placed higher than 6th twice. It’s really the price for being more of a lore volume. At the end of the day it’s tough competition going up against the other RWBY volumes too. Still, it did make it to 1st once which is already impressive on its own. That Tyrian vs Qrow battle really helped bring the average up quite a bit. It was the first big fight against a pro villain from the cabal after all so there was a lot of hype there.

8. Volume 2

Highest Placement 2
Lowest Placement 9
Average Placement 5.9

Volume 2 never quite managed to come in first as 2nd was the best it could do but it was still fairly consistent. It had only one last place finish but for the most part it was still just placing too low to get much higher than this. This volume introduced us to some of the really iconic villains like Neo and the food fight was iconic. This would be the last volume that was more of a 50/50 action and comedy split as things would continue to get more intense from here. Definitely a volume that you don’t forget and I always note the really solid animation improvement from volume 1 with the colors and shadows.

7. Volume 6

Highest Placement 2
Lowest Placement 8
Average Placement 5.7

I guess the evenly numbered Volumes are losing out so far. Volume 6 was more stable than the last few as it didn’t come in first or last place so all of its placings were between 2 and 8. Even with that it only had a narrow edge over Volume 2 with the average placement. It has some sow moments in between the big battles which allowed the other volumes to gain ground but the climax with Adam was really intense. That’s the kind of thing that will help the volume big time if this had gone past the initial 10 episodes. In some ways being a longer volume actually holds you back in this kind of thing which is something important to note.

6. Volume 5

Highest Placement 2
Lowest Placement 9
Average Placement 5.6

Volume 5 did come in last a least once but never in first which kept it from going higher. The climax is spectacular but of course that isn’t factored in here so all told this one really did quite well. I always think of Volume 5 as the big plot volume. 4 had the lore, 5 developed all the plots, and then 6 would get us back in on the action. I talk about the budget enough so I’ll avoid that here. All in all I still had a great time with this volume and it’s the first one that I got to watch live so that’s always a very memorable part of the experience.

5. Ice Queendom

Highest Placement 2
Lowest Placement 9
Average Placement 5.4

Much like the actual show you can see how Ice Queendom started out near the top but then by episode 5 it quickly started to plummet into the lower rankings. The original plot could still be fun but was a lot weaker than the actual RWBY plots so maybe they should have stuck to those a little more. We did finally get more Weiss fights like her vs Ruby and then against Blake so that was cool though. I’d like to see the heroes spar more in the future and the anime is still a great introduction for the few who haven’t started watching RWBY yet. This is your chance!

4. Volume 1

Highest Placement 3
Lowest Placement 7
Average Placement 5.2

The most balanced volume yet. It never reached the top two spots or the bottom two. Volume 1 was always closer to the middle and that worked out well for it. I’d say it tracks well since it was just a really fun volume. Its peaks are lower but so are the drops and that’s why it’s a great way to get hooked on the series. There are no points where it loses steam or you start to lose interest. It’s a great way to get into the series and introduces the characters well.

3. Volume 7

Highest Placement 1
Lowest Placement 9
Average Placement 5.1

Despite being so high, Volume 7 was one of the extremes where it came in first and last. Taking any 1st place away from Volume 3 is always very impressive so that’s definitely something to keep in mind. The climax was fantastic with the fights against AceOps and a lot of great Ironwood development. To date he is probably one of the most well developed characters in all of media. You really see how his character arc goes through its processes and while Volume 8 may have mishandled some parts, he was perfect in this volume. Just enough moral gray thrown in there where you didn’t know if you should trust him or not.

2. Volume 8

Highest Placement 1
Lowest Placement 6
Average Placement 3.8

Volume 8 was very strong from start to the finish. For the most part it would just stick to placing in the top 3 and only on occasion would it drop further than that. That’s when you know that a volume is really up there. In a way this was the next big Volume 3 moment as all of the villains showed up to cause a lot of chaos and put a few thorns in the heroes’ path. That’s not something that can be easily done. The music was top tier and it was really a great end to the journey. Volume 9 will likely be taking the heroes in a different direction as they’re stuck on a different world so we have to see how that’ll go.

1. Volume 3

Highest Placement 1
Lowest Placement 2
Average Placement 1.2

Volume 3 has arrived! Never coming in lower than 2nd is absolutely crazy. It shows just how broken this volume was in a good way. Just about every episode had a massive fight and lots of great things going on the whole time. It is and has always been my favorite volume for that reason. The series just wouldn’t be the same without this one and the heroes really got taken to their absolute breaking point. It was when characters like Adam, Qrow, Winter, Ironwood, and a bunch of others really got involved. This was the ultimate groundwork for the ultimate series.

So there goes it. That’s how the volumes rank based on the episodes. This was definitely a really fun project to go through and nothing beats watching all of the RWBY episodes yet again right? Hopefully I bought enough time to make Volume 9 come closer. Some people think it’ll be coming out in around 2 months or so. I’ll be hoping that this is the case because the adventure must go on!

Ranking all of the RWBY Season Finales

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So this is it, we’ve made it to the finales for each volume. It’s been a fun ride but now we can see once and for all which volume ended in the best way. It’s going to be a battle for the ages and it’s nice to see all of the volumes back in action for this one. I’ve already done the breakdown for most of them so I’ll probably keep it short on the reruns.

9. Ice Queendom

Ice Queendom had a lot of big fights and action towards the end but the final episode is more of an aftermath which puts it at a considerable disadvantage here. It just doesn’t quite have the fight scenes needed to get a higher spot. The food fight was cool but it was more stylistic than actually combat based like in volume 2. It was a great way to cap off the journey regardless though and I hope we get a season 2 at some point because there are lots of other adventures to be told here. We can’t just let it end like this.

8. Volume 4

Volume 4 ended off with the big fight against the Grimm that took out Ren’s village so it was definitely personal. It was a good fight that used a lot of strategy up but this was when they were still finding their footing with the new animation engine and so it couldn’t quite keep up with the newer fights. You also never felt like the heroes were in much danger from a Grimm no matter how big and strong he was. They still had the speed advantage the whole time and sheer numbers. Ending off with finally getting sent over to Haven was good as it felt like the journey was complete. Volume 4 may have had a lot of exposition but it was still a very complete adventure.

7. Volume 6

Volume 6 would have been higher if this was just one episode earlier with the Adam fight. Ending with the giant mech wasn’t quite as intense although I know it was fairly strong. Getting Ruby to finally master using her eyes was definitely her biggest achievement here and the song was a lot of fun. It’s still a very climactic way to end things off and 6 was a really fun volume. The finale may be a little low in the ranks but ultimately it still puts up a good fight all the way around. It was great seeing all of the heroes team up again like the good ole days. Going forward the team would finally be united instead of being split apart.

6. Volume 2

Volume 2 allows us to see a bunch of characters all fighting off an invasion which was cool. We saw how the students would step up as needed to protect the city. None of the individual fights may have ever had the heroes in danger here but the fight itself is still rather large scale. When Coco shows up she certainly makes a splash in the power levels with how she downs so many Nevermores with a single strike. Her machine gun is really quite impressive, there aren’t almost any weapons that could keep up with that. Surprisingly Team RWBY doesn’t get quite as much to do since this is a showcase for the other characters but they’re still taking down a lot of Grimm in the background. Deep down you figure RWBY could have solo’d the invasion eventually.

5. Volume 5

Volume 5 closes out the big battle with Hazel here as the heroes gain the upper hand. Unfortunately almost all of the fight is off screen. We get a nice conversation with Yang and Raven though. Yang may have been pressing her luck a whole lot there but at the end of the day Raven isn’t so evil that she would destroy her own daughter here. Raven’s definitely a villain and one who has made the wrong calls over the years but she has also done a great job of surviving. You probably want to have her on your side at the end of the day. It was also nice to see Adam a bit as always although unfortunately I wouldn’t say that he was super impressive here. I suppose he stalled Sun for a second or two but is that really something that’s big enough to really praise like that? His dialogue is always top tier though.

I always have some issues with the volume’s climax and how things were handled but at the end of the day it’s still fairly high up in the ranks because the story is just that good. You are super invested in what is going to happen next and that is absolutely a very impressive thing to be proud of. Not every title could say the same.

4. Volume 1

The original volume is here at last! Ending things with a solid Blake vs Torchwick battle was great and of course we got to see Sun fighting a bit. This was the best fight of the first volume and the final episode ended things on a high note as you would expect. I also liked that Torchwick could actually fight a whole lot. He isn’t just someone in the shadows who gives orders but someone who could go out there and dish out the pain as needed. The episode may be shorter than the average finale but there was no shortage of action and it’s super nostalgic. This one absolutely earns its place near the top for those reasons.

3. Volume 7

We get our next big maiden moment here as Cinder goes up against the dying winter maiden and Penny gets the powers for a bit. It’s a solid way to end the volume and I liked that Ruby was ready to use her silver eyes right away. With the heroes no longer on the same page as Ironwood and the Ace Ops it really made you realize that the future was only going to get a lot harder for them on all sides. The episode also had a really dynamite ending song to show just how fierce the villains were looking. Cinder has had her share of losses over the years so this was a great way to get her back in the mix as a top threat. Even without using her maiden powers all that much she was overwhelming Winter who is one of the most skilled fighters here.

2. Volume 3

Volume 3’s finale is really iconic. I’ve seen it many times as the ultimate ending to my favorite volume. Seeing Pyrrha go up to the roof to fight Cinder even though she was outmatched was excellent. It really showed how she had a hero’s drive through and through. Nobody was going to stop her from doing her best to try and stop the incoming threat. We got to see all of the students band together here and the ending felt like a true ending to the original saga. This was the turning point for the series to really become very story based. Throw in the ending with Salem’s true reveal and the amount of hype here just could not be contained.

1. Volume 8

Isn’t it fitting that Volume 8 should win this round? The series really ended things off on the highest note imaginable and it’s why the wait for Volume 9 has felt so long. It’s going to be hard for 9 to top this one but we’ll see how that goes. Cinder takes on basically the entire cast in this episode and we really see just how far she has come along. I have major issues with Jaune taking out Penny though. It was the wrong call then and it’s still the wrong call now. He has to be able to find another way and just say no in that situation. Then of course we have the Ironwood vs Winter fight with a lot of spectacular dialogue the whole time. You can feel how frustrated Ironwood is the whole time with everything caving in around him. It would have been cool if he fired one shot to take down Cinder though. It wouldn’t have worked but I’d have liked the attempt.

There was a ton of drama and intensity here all the way through. Not only is it the best season finale but it’s one of the best episodes in all of RWBY. I’ve seen the fights here so many times since it came out. The music, the animation, it’s all flawless. This is exactly why you would have picked up the series in the first place. Volume 8 capitalizes on everything that you could ever need.

So there you go, we’ve now ranked the episodes from each volume for each episode number. It was quite the journey but no worries, RWBY will continue! Expect a post soon taking the average scores for each Volume so we can truly see how each one ranked. I’ve always said that Volume 3 is the best volume, but will the numbers support this or have I been underestimating one of them? Either way it’ll be fun to check that out and see how this goes. See you next time!

The Christmas Contest Review

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It’s time for the next Hallmark Christmas movie! This time we get a contest between exes who did not split up on the best of terms. As a result there is a whole lot of bitterness in the air and you can tell that things are going to get a little tricky for these two. I like the premise since a contest is always fun and it’s a cool change of pace. Some parts of the film definitely don’t work as well as they could have but at the end of the day it’s still a wholesome movie with a lot of fun parts.

Lara is a girl who is too busy for Christmas nowadays. She’s a super successful business person now and has even become the COO and she just doesn’t look back at the past. Unfortunately she will need to confront it now as her mother asks her to enter a Christmas contest. So she reluctantly enters and of course her ex Ben is there as well. Now she really needs to win this contest to make sure that he doesn’t get the last laugh but it won’t be easy. This guy is also really good at Christmas trivia. Still, if she doesn’t defeat him then she will never know peace from her past.

The contest has different phases. The first round was a quiz show, then you have the baking competition, a singing competition, and the final one is to decorate a Christmas tree. I actually thought it made for a fun contest even if some parts of the contest weren’t too well thought out. For example, last place gets the same prize as third place which is $1000. Why would that possibly be the case? What’s the incentive to coming close to first? That was a bit of a mistake if you ask me because there is just no way that this should be right.

Then towards the end the film starts to get a little cheesy as the characters feel that competing at Christmas against each other isn’t something that they want to do and it really feels like they are throwing the contest under the bus. These guys worked hard to set up this Christmas contest and did their best to make it a lot of fun. You’re going to throw it all out just like that? That’s just bad sportsmanship and the company shouldn’t have let them get away with this. Sure, it’s likely that the contest was rigged by the time the finals were around since the check was already printed with both of their names but it just doesn’t feel deserved.

If I was the guy in charge of the contest, I’d have handed them an empty check. If they don’t want to properly complete the contest that they signed up for then they don’t get to have any real money. It’s as simple as that and it would have been 100% justified. That’s the crazy part here. It’s still meant to be a feel good moment of course but I was a little salty on behalf of the competitors who tried their best but lost out. They didn’t lose just to see this happen.

It goes without saying that the romance is on the weaker side here. Lara and Ben were already together and it didn’t work out. Sure they’re both feeling festive for the holidays but that’s even more reason to think that this won’t last and this is just them being very emotional. It’s a super risky move to restart the romance again and I actually think it would have worked a lot better if they had just stayed as friends. Trust me on this, the whole movie would have really been executed to perfection if that was the case. Just make it a fun competition and they see that they get along really great as friends. It was never going to happen but I can dream right?

After all the best part of the movie is when they are having a lot of banter at each other. The two characters can’t help but constantly take shots at each other whenever they’re on screen. The shots never go too far though and it’s just enough to keep them on their toes. Lara may have been reluctant to enter but ultimately she does a good job and makes for a solid heroine. She really wants to win and ultimately stays classy about it like not badmouthing Ben in front of his mother when her cake gets sabotaged.

Then we have Ben who is a little more openly manipulative like with getting kids on his team to win brownie points from the audience. That’s why it took me a little longer to realize that he would be the main love interest and not the mean ex who gets defeated by a childhood friend. Gradually Ben starts to be a little nicer and I guess we can just interpret it to his being desperate to win. It still makes for an odd subplot though because it’s hard to root for Ben since he doesn’t seem to care about the kids nearly as much as he should. Not exactly the role model of the year right? Well he knows his Christmas knowledge at least.

One of this film’s strengths though is that it takes up a decent amount of time to give the side characters some development as well. I could have done without the subplot for one of the kids who was worried that he would mess up and cause trouble for everyone. The plot barely went anywhere. Then we had Ben’s mother who was always very set in her ways and didn’t want to make friends. This was a good story arc as Ben shows her that you’re never too old to shake up the routine and have a good time. I’m not sure I picture myself making any new friends when I’m older but you shouldn’t be cut off to the possibility.

Then we have Lara’s mother who was always very business focused and tried to get the heroine on that path. I thought she was solid and at one point Lara is too dramatic with how she tells her off. This is a trend I’ve seen in more than one Hallmark film where the leads blows up on the parent(s) for being too controlling but the problem is that the movie never showed them being anything other than super nice so the moment kind of falls flat a bit. It doesn’t feel as earned as it could have been.

As always the film is fairly short and with so much going on the pacing is on point too. While I had some issues with the film, you could say it’s also because I was really invested in this one. I always love contests and the writing was really good here. You still get your usual Christmas backdrops and baking but with the addition of some fun banter. I’d say there was a lot more of it than usual due to the story and that was a big plus.

Overall, The Christmas Contest is a pretty good film. Hallmark delivers as always and even if you know how the film will play out, you will enjoy the journey there. At the end of the day that is always the most important part for any movie since you need to be able to enjoy it. I’d definitely change the ending but would still recommend it to anyone looking for a fun Christmas movie. You may even learn some Christmas trivia. I assume the trivia here was legit but you’d probably want to look it up just in case the movie is messing with you.

Overall 7/10