Now this might have been the toughest list I’ve ever had to write here. Food is difficult to make a top 10 of because there are so many variations. How deep do you go? For example, there are hundreds of different pizza flavors. If I went that far into detail it would take up all 10 slots. Then you’ve got things that are really similar like Cheese fries with normal French Fries, Macaroni Cheese vs Fettuccini Alfredo, etc. I did my best to just capture the 10 types of foods I enjoy the most without going into the specifics. I’m also thinking of it in terms of averages. For example, Chef Boyarde makes the greatest Spagetti and Meatballs I’ve ever eaten. It would be enough to put that dish in my top 10, but otherwise it wouldn’t even be close. So I’m putting the top 10 that are typically great no matter where I have it. That seemed like the best way to go about this. So without further ado lets take a look at what we got here!
10. French Fries
This is definitely an old standby. You just can’t go wrong with a good French Fry. First off, they go well with almost any condiment. Cheese sauce, Honey Mustard, Ketchup, Blue Cheese, BBQ, etc. Naturally they taste great by themselves as well. Another thing that really helps them rank up here is how they are so versatile. You can put them in a sandwich or on a pizza and you’ll be all good. It’s the perfect option to kick off the top 10.
9. Potatoes au Gratin
This one’s a more obscure option, but a fantastic one nonetheless. Few items go together as well as potatoes and cheese. Most of the recipes I have made over the years use both for that reason. A good Au Gratin should be extremely cheesy and filled with the diced potatoes. It’s an amazing combo and it a good substitute for Lasagna if you aren’t able to eat pasta. Tomato sauce is optional for this dish but it definitely does work out quite well.
8. Cheeseburger
This is another classic dish. I typically like to have my Cheeseburgers with bacon but just about anything works out really well. My favorite burger place of all time is McDonalds, but just about any will do. My preferred way to cook them is well done to really get that flavor in. I really enjoy all of the special burgers the various chains have been coming out with lately like the Breakfast burger that usually has a fried egg in it, any with fried onions, triple cheese, etc. Burgers are just amazing and I could eat them all day. It goes without saying but any item in the top 10 is one I could go for on just about any given day.
7. Cheese Calzone
A Cheese Calzone is really just a pizza without sauce. If you’ve got some marinara cups on hand then this essentially is a pizza. I really enjoy Calzones and the only reason I don’t have them more often is because I’m typically enjoying a pizza instead. A good Calzone should have a lot of ricotta cheese and ingeneral will be stuffed with flavor. I also enjoy the Ham and Cheese version of the one with Pepperoni in it. It’s pretty similar to a Stromboli to be honest so you could interchange them. A Cheese Calzone is usually a side item for me, but you could use it as a main one as well.
6. Mashed Potatoes
This is one of the gold standards of food. Not only is it an amazing dish, but it is absolutely mandatory for events such as Thanksgiving. Potatoes are one of the greatest foods out there and as a base ingredient, it may only be behind pasta and cheese. Good mashed potatoes only need some butter and you are absolutely set for action. You can also add some other items though, I once had a really good Mashed Potatoes with bits of bacon thrown in. It goes without saying that cheese and other meats go well too. Almost every fast food place has this as a side order for good reason. There’s not much to say about Mash because everyone already knows how good it is.
5. General Tso’s Chicken
It’s time for a sweet addition. General Tso’s Chicken is pretty nostalgic as I still remember the first time I had it in the Manhattan Mall. To date that was the best version of it I’ve ever had. People make this dish in a variety of ways. My personal favorite is to have a very thick sauce accompanying the chicken. It should be sweet, but have a good impact that you won’t soon forget. The only counter side here is that I can’t eat a sweet dish for too long without getting full so I need a lot of white rice with it. That’s why this is the perfect accompaniment. It’s not uncommon to have it with pizza or Mashed potatoes. One of my personal favorite combos is to put it with Macaroni and Cheese. Part of why this one is ranked so high is because the taste is so amazing and unique. You can’t really find anything quite like this.
4. Boulders of Justice
There is no official name for this that I know of so I coined the phrase. I think the closest thing to a name would be calling this Cheese Balls. It’s effectively Mashed Potatoes with Cheese chunks embedded into it. You roll the potato into a ball, puncture a hole in it and then fill it with cheese. You cover it with more potato, wrap in breading and bake/fry til done. It’s my personal favorite recipe and it took a lot of tweaking until it was just right. Now it’s something I could eat all day every day. On my best day I’ve eaten around 20 of these at once. It mixes all of my favorite tastes together into a wonderful dish of bliss. I highly recommend messing around with potato and cheese until you find a balance that works for you as well.
3. Lasagna
Now we’re heading into the big 3 and these guys are in a class of their own. I’ve literally eaten so much Lasagna that I got sick for a very long time. (Ate almost a full tub of Lasagna) It’s definitely a dish that is dangerously addicting with how good it is. The best part is that it’s super easy to make and it will taste great. I add as much as cheese as possible going up to almost a full pound. I could still eat a full tub of it but I like to think I’d show more restraint in the future. This is one dish that is never a side order, it’s definitely the main star of the party at all times.
2. Macaroni and Cheese
This was actually number 1 for me for many years. I think Pizza only passed it maybe 2 years ago. Macaroni and Cheese is just sacred. It’s pasta and cheese which may sound simple, but the flavor is quite complex. Whether it’s from the box or from the tin this is great. I find that it’s impossible to mess this one up. So long as there is cheese this dish will always be amazing. I even got to taste a sugar Macaroni and Cheese once which I had never heard of before, but was eager to try. It was actually really good which really supported my theory that it will always taste amazing. Naturally the more cheese the better, but this dish goes well al dente or soft and mushy. I’ve experimented in so many ways with this dish and had a blast doing it.
1. Pizza
This is the ultimate dish. You simply can’t beat a good pizza. I could eat this every day all day and not get tired of it. I once went a whole summer to Mike’s $1 pizza. Literally every week day I went there and got my slice while still having pizza on the weekends. Pizza is the epitome of perfection and I doubt we will ever be able to create a dish that comes close. There are limitless amazing flavors like Pepperoni, Macaroni and Cheese, Steak, etc. I may do a top 10 Pizza varieties or pizza shops at some point. As we speak I am getting hungry for more pizza. Frozen, Store bought, homemade, I don’t care which I just want some good pizza!
So those are my top 10 foods. All 10 are naturally amazing. The top 3 certainly do break away from the other 7 quite a bit, but all of them are dynamite 10/10 dishes. I’ve never gotten to try having all 10 at once and even for me that would be difficult, but it is something to think about someday. On my Birthday I usually have at least 4 out of 10 so that’s a start.
It’s time for a pretty surreal film. Right from the title you probably could have guessed that though. Santa’s conquering the Martians?? Now, don’t get your hopes up for a Star Wars type film where Santa goes in guns blazing as he takes out dozens of aliens. This sadly isn’t that kind of film. It would have been pretty amazing if he was going around blasting everyone so you can imagine my disappointment when it didn’t happen. It’s still a pretty entertaining film at times, but also boring at others. That may sound contradictory but basically some scenes age really well because of how cheesy they are. The scenes that aren’t over the top just tend to be pretty boring. Some of the main characters are also kids who can’t really hold their own story.
The film starts off by showing us the planet Mars. The parents aren’t happy because now all the kids do is watch Earth TV. Interestingly they aren’t happy about this because the kids are always getting distracted and decide that they need to bring in Santa to give them some more freedom. I don’t see how the solution really helps to be honest. I’d understand if you wanted to turn off the TV, but wouldn’t bringing in Santa just make it worse? He’ll introduce them to the spirit of Christmas and will get them to embrace their individuality but that goes against the planet’s system. If anything you’d think that the people would be more against that. I suppose I shouldn’t examine the plot too much….but it was still an interesting start.
The two kids the martians happen to run into are Billy and Betty. Kimar figures they can help him find the real Santa Claus since the Earth is filled with tons of fake ones. The kids know that he is in the North Pole and assist with finding him. The martians aren’t of one mind with this though. While Kimar and Dropo like the kids, Voldar wants to destroy them and stay with the old ways. Fortunately the kids have Santa to help them out…but is he really that helpful?
The kids are pretty cheesy and oblivious to everything. As a result they really aren’t my kind of characters. They just tend to slow down the film and get in the way of everything all the time. I was just waiting for them to get with the program. As for Santa, he’s definitely a little more “down to earth” than most. In his first scene he’s smoking a cigar which may have been a common thing to do back in the day, but it’s rare to see Santa doing that. It’s a bad influence for the kids so you wouldn’t really expect him to do that. I’d also have liked to see him act with a bit more urgency on Mars.
There’s nothing bad to say about Kimar. He’s trying to do what’s best for Mars and even if it involves crossing planets he is ready. I suppose he can be a bit oblivious to Voldar the whole time, but that’s about it. He’s just a good leader. I certainly preferred him to Dropo who doesn’t work well as a comic relief character. It goes back to how part of this film’s humor worked while other parts do not. I think the parts that were intentionally trying to be funny ended up falling flat while the film in general had a nice campy atmosphere even if it may not have been intended.
To expand on this, just look at the martians. Their costumes are so terrible that it’s a little funny to look at them. It’s like a Star Trek design from the original show, but with poor effects. The Star Trek aliens have aged really well, these have not. Then you have the fact that the government actually knows about Santa to the point where TV gets him on an interview. So that acknowledges that there is a guy who travels the whole world in a day and gets everyone presents. How is that possible? It’s not so something doesn’t add up here. My guess is that the government helps him deliver all of the gifts. It’s also nice to have aliens visiting Earth and not going around trying to murder everyone for a change. These guys just want to have a nice Christmas.
As for the villain Voldar…I guess he checks off the right boxes. The guy is really over the top and his goal doesn’t really amount to much more than he doesn’t want to have Santa on board. He’s fine with the current system. If put to a vote I would have imagined that most people on the planet would feel better, but the sage agreed with Kimar which probably had a lot of sway. Going back to the plot for a sec, I still feel like there were so many more ways to help the kids than to bring Santa. Why not think up some activities for them or let them do what they want? The main reason why they would have been stuck is because they wanted to stay traditional but bringing in Santa goes against that either way so then it becomes a non issue.
Overall, Santa Claus Conquers The Martians is a reasonably good film. I definitely wouldn’t call it a very good one or anything just because it can get dull. The absurd premise is really what will need to hook you. If it doesn’t then you’re basically out of luck. It’s the kind of plot that I tend to enjoy so the film works for me, but I will acknowledge that they could have done a whole lot more with the premise. Santa did “conquer” the martians with his idealogy but I would have liked a physical takeover. An easy way to do it would have been to have most of the planet agree with Voldar as I mentioned and Santa has to break his way through the city. It would have been a very different film of course, but definitely one that I could get behind.
Overall 6/10
It’s time to look at a video game that I hadn’t actually heard of before. It’s a pretty new one and doesn’t appear to be super mainstream so I’ll cut myself some slack here. It’s definitely got an interesting cover and with a name like this you can’t help but get a little interested. It’s definitely a pretty good game with a solid plot. I’d definitely be up for a sequel to this one.
The game starts off by introducing us to Rei and her little sister Mirai. They both wake up in a demonic world and don’t know how they get there. Unfortunately this leads to a monster showing up and the only way for Rei to defeat him is to open up a contract with the two leaders of this realm. They reveal that this world is Purgatory and that doesn’t bode well since Mirai ended up getting destroyed during the chaos early on. Her soul is now flying through purgatory and if it reaches the gears of revival she will be lost forever. Purgatory’s rulers give Rei a simply contract. They will give her the power to fight through the underworld and save her sister but in exchange she must destroy the Revenants that plague the world. Rei is determined to do whatever it takes to save her sister so while she doesn’t trust these self proclaimed demons and thinks the contract is suspect, she doesn’t have much of a choice.
As you can tell the game’s plot is pretty deep as usually I could summarize the whole thing in one paragraph. As you may guess from the term purgatory this is a world you only enter if you are dead. The only exceptions are that revenants can suck away living humans into this demonic world in order to eat their souls. Technically revenants can also go after other revenants and dead souls, but a living one is worth a lot more so it speeds up their quest for revival. One they have attained enough for revival they will be able to go back to the real world and resume their life or potentially use their power to destroy it. It’s why the Executors (People who have signed a contract) are told to destroy them to keep the balance.On one hand, you’ve gotta take these guys down because they are eating all of the good souls as well. When someone dies if they forget their identity they become butterflies. Ones that retain some identity eventually level up into becoming a special butterfly or a revenant.
Ironically the ones with the strongest wills are the ones who are hunted. Strong mental fortitude is one of the most important traits for a soul to have in order to escape this place. So there are a lot of things to think about when targeting all of these souls but at the end of the day there doesn’t seem to be another way to save Mirai. For my two cents on that, the people are already dead and the ones who are mindless are just monsters at this point. Most of the revenants are completely evil as well and it would be hard to take them to prison. I do think it’s the right move not to destroy the good ones but of course it is tough since they all tend to lie quite a lot to get you to lower your guard.
As for the gameplay, it’s a 3D best em up. You travel through maps that are created like a maze as you search for the exit. You rarely have to fight enemies but I recommend taking on most of them since the level ups are important. If you get to some of these bosses at a low level they’ll just end up crushing you with no mercy. One hit would be enough to finish you off and that’s not putting yourself in a great position. If you just fight all of the enemies you come across during your route in the game then you’ll be just fine when it comes to these challenges. You’ve got your standard attack, power attack, and a bunch of special moves. The power move is extremely slow though so I don’t recommend ever using it. It just never comes in handy and is so much slower that the slight increase in power is not worth it. This is partially due to the fact that you can dash cancel your standard combos. What I’ll do is throw out 3-4 hits and then immediately dash to continue the combo. A lot of games that use a dash feature end up having this feature so I always try for it. You always feel like this can’t be intentional because it really extends the combo, but if it’s there then I’m gonna use it.
I ended up beating the game at a relatively early level as I hadn’t even hit 30 yet. It wasn’t bad though and I could still deal a good amount of damage. The equipment you have is the important part and I also bought a lot of food to amp up my stats during the fight. Leveling up will certainly help you beat bosses easier but it also makes the levels a lot longer so you just have to decide how to want to play this. I got to enjoy using all 4 characters throughout the game. Rei is definitely the most balanced one and my favorite for taking on minions. When the bosses would show up I liked Kokoro because while her attack range is terrible her power is through the roof. When she lands hits the bosses definitely feel it. Sen’s a good all around attacker so she’s good to switch in as well. Nanana is pretty broken with her projectiles but they deal an extremely low amount of damage. Put it this way, you can beat any level/any boss with ease using her, but it’ll take a super long amount of time. Keep her on the bench for emergencies.
The graphics are definitely solid here. In game it’s got a very goth/end of the world feel to it. It makes for a good atmosphere and the colors really stand out. I was also happy to see a full anime intro to the game which was pretty cool. The soundtrack is also pretty good. It’s not super extensive or anything, but it complements the game well. The game is definitely pretty somber the whole time so don’t expect to see too many bright colors or happy themes. The happiest theme is probably when Rei is at home, at least that part feels pretty normal.
As I mentioned the story is pretty dark. The same goes for even the normal levels as every enemy you face used to be human. When you destroy them they tend to throw curses at you hinting at how they died. Pretty much everyone has a tragic backstory here with everyone’s souls constantly crying at you. Crying is how you get stronger so prepare for a ton of that. I dare say it crosses the line a bit when one of the animals gets involved. The game handles it as well as something like that can be handled since there’s no blood and at least it happened painlessly in the human world, but I still did have to strike away a star for this. It really wasn’t needed in the game and the whole thing would have been better off without it.
As for the characters, they are all pushed to the breaking point as the game goes on. Rei definitely handles this the worst from all of them. I still don’t really buy into her stabbing the wrong person by accident the way she did. I’d like it if the game implied that someone forced her to do this, but surprisingly that didn’t happen. The whole game was someone’s plan so it’s reasonable to say that she did something, but it’s hard to confirm that. Regardless Rei cracks quite a lot as the game goes on. Everyone is always messing with her, but you still have to put a lot of blame on her.
Kokoro is a fun enough character aside from her Rei antics. She does a good job of moving past her origin story and keeping a lid on things. She’s a dependable ally to have. The climax of her character arc is similar to Captain America: Civil War’s so you’ll have to choose which side you’re on. I have to say that I’m on Kokoro’s, but it’s written well so you can understand where both characters are coming from. Sen’s a good character who’s justice angle is solid. She’s probably the most heroic out of the group although by the end her justice appears to waver. It’s a personal situation, but doesn’t change the fact that it goes against her ideals. Then we have Nanana who gets a smaller role than the other 3, but is a lot of fun.
She probably gets the roughest hand out of the group though because most of her scenes are people being mean to her. She’s always nice in response though so it gets pretty emotional. For supporting characters we have Mephis and Pheles. They’re more annoying than anything, but I suppose you need cryptically evil characters to balance things out. The one with glasses at least plays it straight though and gives some actually useful info. The other one just trolls 24/7. There are more characters but you should really play the game to get the full scoop. It has so much story that it’s like watching an anime or a movie.
There’s a lot of replay value here. For starters the game has 4 different endings. Beating the game once took me around 11.5 hours. Fortunately you don’t need to beat the whole game again for the different endings, but I fully expect you’ll be at 30+. Then if you want the Platinum it’ll take even longer. So there’s definitely a lot to enjoy even after you beat the game here.
Overall, Crystar is definitely a really solid game. It’s certainly very different from your average beat em up game. The whole thing really felt like Madoka from the abstract drawings to the contracts with the demons. I dare say that the game is even more grim as nobody really gets a happy ending here. Granted, I only played the default ending so I’m sure the true ending probably gives everyone a better conclusion. I’d definitely recommend checking this game out, but if you don’t like sad stories then this one won’t be for you.
Overall 7/10
Stats time!
Play Time 11h 17m
PS4 Trophies 30/51
Ordeals Cleared 23
Torments Obtained 79
Memoir Collection Rate 18.5%
Torments Purified 17
Sentiments Fused 22
Sentiments Modified 11
Aggressive Sentiments 14
Protective Sentiments 16
Bolstering Sentiments 8
Enemies Defeated 1039
Max Chain Count 321
Max Damage Dealt 1231
Character Levels
Rei Level 25
Kokoro Level 22
Sen Level 23
Nanana Level 24
I’ve finally started the Ultraman manga! It’s definitely off to a pretty great start and I’m really enjoying the fight scenes here. I can see this being the definitive Ultraman adventure and I will have a review up as soon as the series finishes.
Overall 7/10
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