Suggested by Destroyer Ichigo is one of the most powerful Shonen Jump protagonists in history. His speed and power are absolutely insane and he defeats opponents that would leave most people spinning in awe. That said, Cell is still a little too powerful. He’s a very balanced DBZ fighter who has had his share of power ups in Xenoverse and DB Heroes. Ichigo can go far but ultimately DBZ is still in a different league. Cell wins.
Suggested by Destroyer Raditz returns to go up against Sonic. Sonic has a lot of speed on his side as well as his Super Sonic mode but I don’t see it being quite enough to stop Raditz. Raditz is a being of pure power in his SSJ3 mode and Sonic would not be able to take those kinds of hits for long. He would just be outmatched and it’s hard to mess with someone who has Raditz’s pure attack range. Raditz wins.
Suggested by Destroyer Raditz is a powerful Saiyan. He wasn’t always really strong but he trained and trained until he eventually unlocked Super Saiyan 3. Once he got that form it was off to the races and there were very few who could reasonably oppose him. Mega Man has had a whole lot of power ups and forms over the years but I don’t think that any of them would be a proper match at this point. Raditz’s abilities are much too great and he has the speed advantage here. Raditz wins.
No stats this time!
I got around to playing this one a bit but ultimately it’s not really going to stand out all that much among the big shooter games. The main issue is that there are too many mechanics and abilities which take away from being able to just jump in there and have some fun. It’s certainly no Fortnite as a result and I dare say that you would have a much better time in Fortnite as well. There are better free to play games to check out is the main message here.
They did an odd job of promoting this game though as if you didn’t know any better you’d think this was still the first Overwatch. There aren’t a lot of screens showing that this is the 2nd one or anything like that and the game doesn’t seem to be very different from the original except for the fact that it’s free now. Definitely the minimum amount of effort went into this one but of course if you haven’t played the original before then it’ll still be fresh at least. So I suppose that’s a consolation at least. This is a team game so get ready to have to team up with a lot of people and hope for the best. If there is a 1 on 1 mode, I hadn’t unlocked it yet although granted I never made it to a really high level.
So what separates this from the other games is that as soon as you step on the field you are given the objective of taking over a square or defending it. The other team has the other objective and then you fight it out. Expect to die a whole lot and any time you respawn you get to switch characters. That’s a nice touch at least although in general I prefer to have one life and when you die that’s it. It would make the game a lot more strategic since you can’t just run in guns blazing.
There are so many attack options as well that the game is naturally not as balanced as some of the others. Just from playing all of the characters once I could tell that much. This is not the kind of game where you can pick up any character and just have fun. Of course that also means if there’s a character you like but a teammate got him first then you’re out of luck. I liked one shadow ninja type character but for the most part the roster is very unimpressive. I couldn’t say that there were many that stood out for me.
The graphics are really decent though. The level designs are on point and you’ll have a good time running around. The energy effects are good too. The soundtrack is more on the nonexistent side though but typically shooters aren’t known for having great soundtracks anyway. They tend to be more silent so you can focus on what’s going on. I suppose there is replay value here to jump back into as many matches as you want but I don’t see this game really lasting all that long.
Additionally they want you to put in a phone number just to play the game which seems a bit drastic. I’ve never really heard of that for a game like this. I guess it’s to deter bots and multiple accounts maybe but if no other game is bothering with this then clearly the devs here are doing something wrong. You just don’t need to be that thorough and I feel like it’ll box a lot of people out of the game right out of the gate.
At the end of the day what hurts this one a lot is that it adds a lot of bells and whistles to the base shooting gameplay but does so in a way that weakens the core aspect of the game. You never get to actually run and shoot at the opponents because everyone is too busy activating their super powers. Being forced to attack or defend an area also means that you can’t have fun running around the map and planning an offensive. It forces everyone to bunch up at the same spots where it then becomes a mindless battle of shooting all your abilities at once.
It may work as a minigame or you eventually push people together to end the match but doing so from the start just isn’t a fun decision from a design standpoint. I want to be able to have fun and play the game my way, not be forced to run in like this. It’s not really my cup of tea. Maybe down the road they’ll make the gameplay smoother and change the objectives a little more but if the game is doing well then that’s unlikely. The original Overwatch may not be as big as it used to be but it still makes a ton of money so they’re probably satisfied with the system that they have.
Overall, Overwatch 2 may be more fun if you really drill down and learn all of the mechanics and such but I can’t say that I was very impressed at all. You have a lot of options and all but the game just isn’t very fun and part of the issue is that you can’t take two steps without being blasted. You can’t move fast enough to dodge much either so it just becomes a full on fire fight the whole time and without the strategy that makes it a lot of fun. I highly advise sticking to Fortnite instead which provides a much more entertaining shooting game that beats this one around the board in all areas.
Overall 5/10
Generations seems like a title that just works well for crossovers. It makes sense because it really signifies how different eras are coming together. Unfortunately this one isn’t very good and is the weakest MLP comic that I’ve read. It’s not bad but it shortchanges you on the actual crossover aspect which is a shame. The highlight of the comic is when Twilight admits that Starlight Glimmer is still more powerful than she is and that was a nice throwback to how Starlight is supposed to have the most powerful magic in the verse outside of maybe Tyrek. There isn’t a lot of action here though so it’s more about the adventure the whole time.
Grackle and Dyre are bored eating popcorn and hanging out at the Witch cave one day when they decide to attack the Ponies. They want to impress their family by doing this so they quickly send 3 evil “Ponies” over to make a mess of things. It’s good timing for them as Starlight Glimmer and the school are completely overrun by the students so they’ll take anybody. Starlight welcomes these 3 in as teachers but things start to get a little iffy when she notices that they are teaching ponies the wrong things. Their curriculum is basically anti friendship but Starlight isn’t sure how to fire them without making the ponies feel bad. Something’s not right and if the heroes don’t find the answer soon then they will be doomed!
The OG Ponies don’t show up until around issue 4 to help out. Most of this story is really about the evil ponies causing a mess of the school and really messing with the friendship students. At least this might help Starlight realize that even the current teachers weren’t doing great if the students could be led astray so easily. You’d expect them not to buy into the fake lessons but they do so right away. The Mane 6 not ending this threat in an instant because they are all busy is a reasonable way to keep the story going.
So this all sounds rather decent, why is it not getting a super high score? Well the main issue are Grackle and Dyre. They’re easily some of the worst villains in all of MLP. I dare say they are the worst but in case I’m missing someone I figure I’ll just say one of the worst. Every scene with them in it is dreadful. They’re super lazy and not even remotely a threat so they aren’t interesting. I think you could properly have some humans in an MLP adventure but you have to do something to really justify their existence. Just having them hang out and complain the whole time gets repetitive very quickly. They finally jump into the action themselves near the end but even then they don’t do a whole lot. They just hold the story back.
The evil ponies are okay I suppose. Violet Shiver, Shadow Storm, and Black Belle are the 3 evil ponies but they start to have second thoughts about the mission. After all the ponies are so nice to them and all. It may feel a bit odd to see them change their tune so quickly but you could say it’s because the spellcasters weren’t that strong so they didn’t properly create “Evil” ponies and just made Mean” ponies instead. As a result they strayed from the path. Focusing on just one of them would have probably been a lot more effective than having all 3 of them if you ask me.
There just aren’t a lot of interesting things occurring here. The plot itself isn’t super engaging since it focuses a bit too much on the students and the Mane 6 are missing out. I always like seeing Starlight but she isn’t really able to get involved much here either since she’s busy as principal. It’s just a very odd decision to have the story structured in this way. But you would immediately make the comic many times better if you just cut the two witches out of this. Remove them from the comic and substitute with any other villain and this would be an improvement.
The artwork is decent. At times there can be a lot of text that takes over the screen like when the two witches are talking but when it’s just the Ponies it works well enough. I wouldn’t say it looks nearly as good as the main series though. That one definitely got a much higher budget and of course the writing is also a lot more impressive there. On a technical level the comic isn’t bad though, it just doesn’t really pop out at you. There is something surreal about seeing the old Ponies together with the modern ones though.
Overall, My Little Pony: Generations isn’t quite able to match the hype of the concept. Its biggest issue at the end of the day is just that it can be a bit boring at times and that should never be happening in any kind of crossover. It should have been really great with all of the ponies getting together and teaming up but the originals don’t do much at all. They help with a cure for the evil energies and flowers that the villains plant but that’s about it and you could have easily done that without them. That’s a big reason on why they don’t stand out. It’s because they are very nearly filler in their own crossover and that’s always a bad thing. A crossover should maximize the talents of all characters involved. Still if you like the franchise a lot then it’s still worth checking out but you will likely be disappointed based on the premise.
Overall 5/10
It’s been a long while since I went on an all day gaming binge but it was time to do so for Sonic Frontiers and ended up beating over half the game in one shot. It lives up to the hype of being one of the longer games as it took a little under 17 hours to clear. The hierarchy of the Sonic games have changed as this one actually surpasses the world renown Sonic Forces and takes its spot as the 4th best Sonic game of all time. Only Adventure 2, 06, and Shadow the Hedgehog are ahead of Frontiers. This game is really quite excellent and Sega did good in taking their time with this one to make sure that it would be perfect.
The game starts with Sonic’s plane crashing and when he comes to, Tails and Amy are both gone. Sonic is alone on a mysterious island except for a mysterious little girl named Sage. Sonic hears a voice cryptically tell him that to save his friends he will have to destroy a bunch of giant titans and tear down some towers to remove the dimensions between worlds. Only once that has been done will they be okay. Sonic’s a bit skeptical but there aren’t any other leads so he gets to work on this. The game’s main formula here is you will obtain enough keys and memory pieces to talk to your friend for the world and then obtain all 7 Chaos Emeralds. After doing this you move on to another world. There are 5 worlds in the game but one of them is fairly empty so think of it like 4 main worlds.
At about 17 hours you can say each world is roughly 4 hours long and the mini world is 1. It’s a really good balance and right off the bat I can say that the game has a whole lot of replay value you can have fun with. There are a lot of bonus conversations you can have with each of your friends after getting the right amount of hearts needed to complete the world. Additionally there are a lot of the cyberspace levels that you won’t even have played by the time the game is over. So you will be here for a good amount of time and getting the Platinum may even take you around 25-30 hours. I’m definitely aiming for that next now that I have this game completed and look forward to going after it. Maybe if I’m lucky they’ll do some really good DLC for this game with more story events or something.
For the gameplay it’s a bit of a departure from the usual Sonic experience as it’s an open world title where you run around and do a lot of platforming beyond the usual stages. The actual stages are only a very small part of the game after all so you won’t be there a whole lot. If you’re a fan of the usual Sonic structure then I can see you missing it a bit but the open world concept was done very well. You really feel Sonic’s speed as you run around and I just found that to be really ideal. As you level up the speed you feel better and better. My speed was only around level 20 when I beat the game so I’m curious what level 99 speed would look like. That has to feel incredible!
So for my money, Sonic Forces/Adventure 2 Battle probably had the gameplay layout the best in that you just pick a stage and get right in there. Adventure 2’s stages covered a lot of different terrain and could be long as well. You don’t really need the open world and just jumping in is a blast. Still if open world is the future then I’m still all in with it. I do like open worlds quite a bit and with fast travel activated it’s even better. World 3 is the only one that can be a bit annoying with the layout though. There’s a robot that lets you fly but it’s so short that it’s basically pointless and you immediately start sinking when you use it. I question the point of it being in there.
While the gameplay may take a little getting used to as I wouldn’t say it’s quite as sharp as some of the others, put in a few hours and you’ll be maneuvering Sonic like a pro. The best addition to the series is allowing Sonic to leave a light trail before him as if this was Tron. You can move in a circle to hit enemies or activate artifacts. In general Sonic’s attacks were all really great here and you got to use his speed in creative ways. You can also upgrade all of your stats by talking to elders and rescuing little creatures. The sound effects for the creatures may be ripped straight from Legend of Zelda but I like to think of it as a homage to Breath of Wild doing the open world first while Sonic did it best. One advantage Sonic Frontiers has over other open world games is how fast Sonic moves. Most other characters can’t quite move like this.
If I have a nitpick about the game, it’s that every cutscene opens in a smaller screen because they keep a border around it to show you the option to skip the cutscene. I feel like they could have it appear for an instant and then hide or only appear when you try to press X. Why have it always appear? It’s not like I want to skip the cutscenes most times. On the 1st run I’m not skipping any so I thought that was a bit odd. Can’t say I remember any other game doing that.
Part of why this game got a lot of hype was because it was finally going to be another plot driven game. Aside from Sonic Forces we haven’t had one like that in an extremely long time. If this is the return to the Adventure days then that would be great. There are a ton of great references to the past adventures as well including Infinite. It really helps make the continuity feel strong and it also underscores this as the final Sonic game. The characters are all really mature here and each character has their own character arc. Amy, Knuckles, and Tails all make big decisions here that should have big repercussions for the future games.
The soundtrack is also incredible. There are so many great vocal themes here. Each boss has their own unique song which is rare as most games will keep to the same boss theme. They all sound incredible and it also makes this game really feel like the most ambitious Sonic game out there. This is truly end of the world type stuff and these bosses are some of the biggest that Sonic has dealt with. The graphics are top tier as well so you’re really looking at a lot of great work put into this game.
It would have been great to have seen more characters thrown into the mix and parts of the plot can be a bit vague at times, particularly Sage’s origin and more about the digital world but it does add to the mystery and intrigue of the story. Sonic also stands out in particular with how great he looks here. He endures a whole lot of pain to help his friends and is always carrying himself in a very mature way. While I may miss the voice direction he had in previous games, I do understand the logic of making him a lot more serious for this one. He feels older like the rest of the characters which works really well.
Overall, I could go on but this is one game you really need to experience. It’s top tier in all aspects and is almost certainly game of the year. It’s unlikely that any other game will even come remotely close to topping it because this is what we’ve been waiting for. The greatest video game series of all time has returned with an all star adventure. If Sega keeps this up then Sonic is about to quickly become even more of a household name like back in the days and there will be no looking back. I’m definitely eager to follow along on this adventure but hopefully the next game doesn’t take so many years to come out this time.
Overall 9/10
All right we’ve made it to the Episode 7s of the series. This time the rankings get mixed up quite a bit with some really high ranking volumes taking a lower spot than usual and Volume 3 gets dethroned this time. I figured it had to happen eventually since Volume 3 may be my favorite volume but it’s still hard to see how it can win every episode like that. I’m really looking forward to compiling the rankings later on to see how each volume really stands up. Well, lets dive in as most of the volumes begin to prepare their climaxes.
9. Ice Queendom
It’s Ice Queendom’s first time at the bottom. Mainly this episode allowed Jaune to see into the dream but because of that we’re seeing a lot of things that we already know. The Mini Weisses were fun though and then they even got to turn giant. The cliffhanger is definitely the best part though and that nearly bumped it up a spot but the volume right above this one also had a powerful cliffhanger like that. It’s nice to have Jaune in the mix but I look forward to the volume throwing in some more action in the next episodes.
8. Volume 5
This is one of those Volume 5 episodes that got the volume infamous for how long the heroes just sit on the couch and talk about things. They become more reactive to the plot rather than being proactive. Still, I suppose some of these things are topics that the heroes needed to discuss at some point. I don’t think the outrage over characters being turned into birds was really a big deal but Ruby should have asked about her silver eyes by this point. The heroes would go on to make a lot of tactical blunders by not using this time to the max. The cliffhanger was really epic though with the villains showing up to attack Raven and her clan. Weekly there weren’t a whole lot of moments that could try and top this. We had been waiting for a big Volume 5 fight and this seemed like it was about to deliver.
7. Volume 2
The dance is underway here and the first half is fairly emotional as Jaune finally stops chasing after Weiss and goes to Pyrrha instead. This ended two rather large plots from volume 1 so that’s over now. Meanwhile Cinder begins her infiltration plan which would have a big effect in volume 3 and her fight with Ruby was fun. Ruby is lucky that they were interrupted though because at this point in time she would have absolutely no chance at victory. The gap in power would just be way too much. Good way to end the episode and I always like throwing in some action at the end.
6. Volume 1
There may not be a lot of action in this one but it’s a fun episode with a lot of the retro humor from the old days of RWBY. My only gripe is with how none of the heroes step in to help Velvet at all. Given that part of the episode is the professor talking about how the Faunus are treated badly and face discrimination outside, you’d think that the heroes would prevent this from happening in school. Particularly Blake…cmon now. I do think the whole scene would play out very differently if it was newer since we know Velvet actually can fight and I don’t see her teammates being kept in the dark for long. Once they find out that would be game over for Cardin.
It’s a rough episode for Jaune though as he gets bullied a whole lot. The main issue here is that he’s super weak and knows it but also wants to have enough pride not to ask for help. It’s not a very compatible set of ideals there because then the only option left is to remain weak. We never see him training either and this leads to him getting blackmailed. You feel bad for the guy but this is very much a hole that he dug for himself which is the worst part of it all.
5. Volume 8
Volume 8 has had a lot going on so this is a bit more of a slower episode for the heroes to catch their breath. Team RWBY is berated by one of the Happy Huntresses who comes across as being extremely annoying and out of touch here. She complains that the heroes aren’t doing enough but they’ve done way more than her. At this point the team is starting to split at the seams a bit so the last thing they need is someone on the outside trying to lecture them. Meanwhile Oscar is still being beat up but seems to get through to Hazel a bit. I’m a bit iffy on Mercury letting himself be kicked around by Tyrian the whole time though. I guess Tyrian is stronger but Mercury should go down with a fight. I am looking forward to seeing his role in volume 9 though. As always with Volume 8 the overall atmosphere and intensity keeps things going at a high level even when there are no main fights.
4. Volume 7
This episode sees the team slowly start to keep more and more secrets from Ironwood. Yang and Blake decide to defy orders and tell Robyn all about his plans which was not a great idea. Sure in hindsight it may be okay but they really just took a huge risk in disclosing this all to a character they didn’t personally know all that well. Robyn seems like a nice enough person but you’re going to just trust someone like this who just lost an election and is probably not in the best frame of mind? Later on this would not help matters with trust but the quick fight was good. The constant tension between all of the characters keeps this really high up. I still say Volume 7 easily had the best plot out of all the sagas because you can see how Salem is slowly taking away every good option and increasing the pressure on the heroes. So eventually no matter what option is chosen, the heroes would be split apart about it.
3. Volume 6
We have made it to the Grimm Reaper episode. It’s actually relatively short as far as the modern RWBY episodes go but because of that the whole thing is a big fight from her old days as a huntress. I really liked everything about the fight from the choreography to the individual fighting styles and semblances. The villain with the crooked teeth really made for an imposing character and her semblance preventing damage for 60 seconds is really useful to have. It’s probably one of the best flashback stories in the series with maybe just Cinder’s coming really close or surpassing it.
2. Volume 3
Volume 3 just barely missed out on the top spot this time! We get to see how Cinder formed her group with Emerald, Adam, and Mercury. It’s a really solid episode and I also greatly enjoyed the fight with Amber, the maiden. She put up a great fight and while you know that she has to lose, you still want to see how it goes down. She was very close to winning and that’s impressive considering who she was going up against. Having a whole episode dedicated to the past like this is a bold move but it’s one that works out really well and sets you up for the climax that is going to happen. Cinder’s plan has been going on for quite a while after all so we’re about to see the payoff. It’s just a very effective way to show this off and I also liked that Adam didn’t go along with the plan at first since it wasn’t a great idea for the Faunus.
1. Volume 4
Volume 4 is nearly near the bottom so it’s nice to have it at the top. Unfortunately the volume peaks early so nothing else will rank quite as high as this one. We got the full Tyrian vs Qrow fight here which to date is still one of the best fights in the series. The new song used was excellent and the fight choreography was like something out of Volume 3. It was a high stakes fight with two professionals and we really hadn’t seen anything like that before. This was the first real time and the battle definitely lived up to that.
So those are all of the Episode 7s here! It was a really solid batch and we saw some good shakeups here. We’re getting closer and closer to the big climaxes for each of the seasons so I’m looking forward to covering those. It would have been nice if I finished this and then Volume 9 was ready but sadly it’ll probably be a while until that one comes out. In the meantime at least I’m keeping my RWBY knowledge very fresh.
I’ve finally reached a power level of 1 million! This places me in 51st place in the whole world! (Disclaimer that the rankings are separated by server so I’m rank 51 in Global Highway at least) Since last time I’ve gone up from Level 79 to 152 so that’s been a solid jump. My galleries have all nearly doubled and I’ve also nearly maxed out all of my chips. I’m inching closer to the reaching the max level in this game at 180 and then this can join Pokemon Go as two games that I played all the way through to the top!
Nebulim is a fighter who focuses on pure defense while Genos goes 100% in on attack power. So their fighting styles really contrast with each other and that would make for a good fight. At the end of the day what this comes down to is the fact that Genos would be able to punch through Nebulim’s defenses. With defense out of the way there is no path for Nebulim to be able to stand up to Genos’ speed and strength for very long. Genos wins.
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