Best of 2019

Yeah, really should have done this earlier in the year but 2020 is 2020 and I procrastinate, get distracted way too easily. 2019 was an end of an era year and compared to previous years a bit on the rough side but obviously 2020 had to go and top it. Still, it isn’t easy to see events, shows, and other big aspects of your life come to an end or change all in one year. Two of which were looming over most of year, casting a melancholic shadow over it. One being Bronycon ending after their 2019 con and even bigger was season 9 of My Little Pony being the series finale. MLP:FIM and its resulting fandom have been a big presence in my life ever since February of 2011, not quite as big from mid 2014 onwards. But still it was a constant presence with for half a year episodes coming out like clockwork every Saturday. The end was amazing and couldn’t have asked for a better farewell but it’s still a shock not having a new season to look forward to. And Bronycon was my big vacation every year since 2015 and I’d grown quite fond of Baltimore and its museums. It was the main thing I looked forward to every year and the thought of it not happening anymore and not being able to visit some of my favorite museums every year as well was a reality that’d take some time to sink in.
 

But 2019 kept piling it on. First and next biggest blow was my local anime convention Shutocon going under. True, probably should’ve seen it coming with the drama, them being unable to get a new contract with the convention center (resulting in 2019’s being crammed into a hotel), and the falling crowds. But still it wasn’t like they’d announced before the con that this would be the last one so for a couple months there was an expectant hope of them being able to come back and rebuild. Like it could be a kind of anchor until I’d found a con to replace Bronycon in the coming years. But early summer brought those hopes to a sudden and disappointing end with a single facebook post. Shutocon was my 2^nd biggest event of the year and it and Bronycon always went hand in hand for me. I first attended both in 2015 and had grown very fond of both. But with Shutocon it was super nice, I could sleep in my own bed and it was only a 15 minute bus ride to the convention center. So having both ending the same year left me adrift a bit. Though compared to 2020 these feelings seem a tad petty. And I guess this was a bit of a hidden blessing for 2020. I mean I still had Capital City Comic Con and Motor City Comic Con but I’ve never had as much emotional attachment to them as the others. So when conventions started being cancelled all across the board thanks to covid I was rather detached and only mildly disappointed.
 

But when things start going down it always piles on. Next big thing was the news That the 3g phone networks would be shutdown in 2020 and I’d have to replace my faithful dumb phone that I was quite content with. It doesn’t help that I needed a phone with a physical keyboard and there was hardly anything that I liked that could also use Pokemon Pass. I mean yeah there were blackberries but I barely used my cell phone for more than an mp3 player so I did not want to spend hundreds of bucks on an oversized mp3 player that can make the occasional phone call or text. I ended up settling for a Samsung Galaxy S7 since it has a detachable Keyboard case that works well. It’s nice but it was a stress I’d rather not have to bother with.
 
There were other changes and annoyances like all the trees in the neighborhood getting chopped down or trimmed in the ugliest way possible. The whole national dex controversy with Pokemon Shield turned what should have been a bright expectancy into another stress.
 
But all that is kinda small beans compared to what 2020 has dished out but they were significant at the time. And despite these it was still a pretty good year. All the conventions were a lot of fun despite their hiccups and impending demises. Lots of good movies, tv shows, games, and such. And a bright spot was going to see Babymetal in concert in Detroit in September, as well as several museums. Though my biggest regret is not taking the opportunity to see Sabaton when they were playing in Detroit. But that choice was under the frugal assumption that conventions and concerts would be happening in 2020 and I needed to save up for them.
 

Events

1. The Last Bronycon

Despite the overarching gloom of it ending, the issues caused by 10K attendees in a smaller than usual space, and some autograph hiccups. I had a really good time at the last Bronycon. It was a bit crowded but I still got a lot of good cosplay pics, I got Rebecca Shoichet’s autograph, and got to see a whole bunch of fun panels. True I did wait in line for over two hours trying to get Britt McKillip’s autograph only for it be closed down when I was 7 people away but these things happen with larger cons I guess. And I had a great time rooming with friends, it’s so nice not going in blind. Yeah didn’t have as much time for museum going but I came to terms with not being able to visit American Visionary Art Museum every year and got to see both Baltimore Museum of Industry and the Dental Museum. It wasn’t quite the bank breaking end it all bash I had been expecting but it was still a good time. And if it had kept going for a round in 2020 seeing it fall to Covid would’ve been devastating.
 
2. Baby Metal Concert/Trip to Detroit
This mini vacation in September was a lot of fun. True Babymetal isn’t in my S-rank tier of favorite bands it was amazing seeing them live. Just so much fun and a spectacular show, despite not having the best view. Even the opener band Avatar was pretty good, even though I’d never heard or seen anything from them before. True the Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit being between exhibits threw a bit of a wrench in my plans I got to enjoy most of the Detroit Institute of Art as well as this scrap metal sculpture park that was near the lodge I was staying at. But man did not think DIA would be as massive as it was. Also didn't anticipate almost running out of batteries for my camera. Still regret not going to the Sabaton concert that was down there a month later.
 
3. My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic ending
I already said quite a bit about MLP:FIM ending but it still impresses me how good the show was even after going nine seasons. I’m sure many disagree but I think they did a really good job at maintaing the show and episode quality despite how long it went on and whatever new toy Hasbro wanted to get on the show. True it wasn’t quite as good as it was in seasons 4 and 5 but it was still pretty great, especially the ending. I’m super thankful that it was able to wrap things up well and have a proper, satisfying ending. That it didn’t get cancelled before it could reach its full potential or end up like those unfortunate shows that are forced to keep going on and on like a zombie, get stale and end up parodic shells of their former selves. Even still it’s hard to say goodbye and let go of something that’s been such a big part of your life for so long. Though I’m still a bit upset Equestria Girls ended on some winter shorts rather than anything adventurous that gave the series a satisfying ending.
 
4. The Last Shutocon

It was a fun con despite being packed into a small hotel. I mean it was kinda a shell of its former self but they made it work, had the basics of what every anime con needed and despite its smaller size I got some amazing goodies, one of which was one of my favorite things I’ve ever gotten at con. That’s a pokeball terrarium with clay figures of a couple of my favorite pokemon in it. It had a some really good panels and I discovered a couple new shows in the viewing rooms. I’m still a bit confused why the contract for the hotel went one year longer than the contract with the convention center but I’m just glad we got something. Still wish it would’ve survived because it was a great con and there was always so many amazing cosplays. Heck sometimes it seemed like there were more cosplayers than non cosplayers. To the point you kinda felt a bit awkward going in regular clothes. It’s what got me into casual cosplaying. It was always a good time for me and I’ll miss it. But I’m glad it ended in 2019 since I’m not sure it could’ve survived a Covid postponement.
 
5. Motor City Comic Con
This was the first year that I actually went to more than one day. I usually just go on the Friday with my uncle and try to go through all the vendors in the time we have. Which was no small feat seeing how much larger it was thanks to the new wing on the convention center. That’s what happened on Friday but a bunch of Star Trek actors were there on Sunday and I really wanted some autographs and fortunately a friend was going there on Sunday. It was super crowded on Sunday and the pre-registered line was super long but I got in and got a good haul of autographs as well as a few vendor goodies. I got George Takei, Jonathan Frakes, Pom Klementieff (Mantis from Avengers), Linda Larkin (Princess Jasmine), and Joonas Suotamo (the new guy who plays Chewbacca now). Also this was one of those rare cons where I barely had any post con buyers regret
 
6. Quest for a new Phone
I kinda already told the story of my search for a new phone. Partly due to 3G being discontinued but mostly due to the pokemon company saying they’d be using Pokemon pass for special distributions rather than the scratch off code cards they had been using before. It was a real bother and an annoyance that kept popping up all through the year. But the funny thing is now I pretty much have it with me all the time when I leave the house but that is 100% because of Pokemon GO. I wasn’t too crazy about it at the start but it grew on me and with all the improvements that make it easier to play from your home I’ve been using it even more. But that’s 2020 business. But even in the nearly 11 months I’ve had it I’ve only made a couple calls and half a dozen texts. So it’s pretty much just a Pokemon GO/Pokemon Masters game console that can play mp3s.
 
7. Chris Greathouse’s Wedding
It’s always nice to see old friends again and go to their weddings. It was a great ceremony and a nice reception. But it always makes me feel like a lazy bum loner. And well it can be difficult to socialize at wedding receptions but it’s still a good time and glad I could go. Though there was that awkward point when I was going from the bus stop to the reception hall and ran into some Jehova’s Witnesses. I awkwardly crossed the street after telling them I was already a Christian. It turned out we were heading in the same direction and their destination was a short block before mine.
 
8. Lego Dusting, Taking Apart, and Putting in Storage
I had been thinking of doing this for a while but whenever I feel I’m ready to take apart and bag up some of my childhood lego sets the Lego Movies always came out and made me super reluctant, too guilty to go through with taking them apart. That seemed the same until Thanksgiving when my brother showed interest in taking some of his sets down to his family. So eventually we found the time to dust, wash, take them apart, and bag them and a few of the less interesting ones. Still unsure about a few of them but it did give me some room for figures but still, they were displayed in my room for so long I it’s hard to take them apart, for sentimental reasons. And with the ones that are left on the shelf, which is still the majority of it, I don’t think I could bring myself to take them apart unless my nieces and nephews showed interest in them.
 
9. Capital City Comic Con

It may be a small one day con but every year I go it keeps improving and getting better and better. And in a year when everything seemed to ending or falling apart it was nice to see something that was on the upturn. It was fun, saw some good panels and got some good stuff. But it’s always been a more chill con. It’s a kind of cool off after the excitement of Bronycon and the sheer massiveness of Motor City to end my yearly convention season. I was really hoping it would’ve happened in 2020 since they moved to a larger venue. But hopefully things’ll be calmed down enough for cons to be a thing by next fall.
 
10. Family get togethers
Whether it’s the monthly visits of my uncle or the holiday visits from my brother and other relatives I’ve always enjoyed whenever we can get together. So these are always a good time. Though last year felt a bit sparse on visits. But not as sparse as 2020 is.
 
Honorable Mentions: Getting a switch, How-to Halloween 2019
 
 
Fandoms

1. Pony

2. Anime
3. Pokemon
4. Metal
5. Speedrunning
 
Honorable mention: Doctor Who
 

Before we get into Movies, TV shows and the like I have to say not all of these came out in 2019. But rather 2019 was the year I finally watched, discovered it. So a note before anyone complains this or that didn't come out in 2019. Also there are fewer pictures in this than I usually would have since this is an actual blog rather than an obscure facebook function. I'm only using screenshots, pictures I've taken myself and not all systems are screenshot friendly. 

 
Movies

1. Avengers Endgame
This was just absolutely spectacular and an amazing season finale to the first era of the Marvel cinematic universe. It hit all the points it needed to hit and that ending battle. Haven’t seen a battle that epic since the Lord of the Rings movies. There isn’t much to say that hasn’t been said about it. Loved it and wrapped up the stories of the main group very nicely. Looking forward to what they have in store this ‘season’.
 
2. Godzilla: King of the Monsters
This was amazing and you can’t ask much more from a Godzilla movie, outside of maybe better lighting. There were plenty of awesome monster vs monster fight scenes spread throughout the movie that they actually show this time. The human characters weren’t super annoying either with characters and stories that didn’t completely bore you or make you want the monsters to squish them. True it does have a few goofy concepts and things but that’s kinda par for the course for Godzilla movies. Definitely an improvement over the first.
 
3. Detective Pikachu
This was phenomenal, true I’m a Pokemon fan so I probably enjoyed it more than the average movie goer. But still. Personally I think this is one of the first really good video game movies. It was pretty hilarious and had some surprisingly dark humor at times. I loved scanning the crowd and backgrounds to see all the Pokemon they put in and how they looked in a live action world. And surprisingly almost all of them looked really good, keeping most of what made that mon in the games and translating it to 3d without them looking awful or creepy, which is a major accomplishment. But what was especially good was the world, how it looked and how the pokemon seemed to fit so seamlessly into it and felt like that's what the world would look like if Pokemon were real. Pikachu was hilarious and great and this is coming from a guy who usually can’t stand the yellow rodent. It was neat seeing how they adapted the Detective Pikachu game into the movie and what changed.
 
4. Star Wars: Episode IX – The Rise of Skywalker
This was a bit of a train wreck. An enjoyable, fun one though. I enjoyed the spectacle of it all and it wrapped up the mess of a trilogy fairly decently. But still, a lot of wasted potential with the characters, story, everything. I had a good time with it and it had some good empotional moments but some bits felt a bit too similar to major points in Avengers Endgame. Just kinda wish they had gone into the trilogy with a story to tell rather than doing whatever would make them the most money.
 
5. Toy Story 4
A lot of people feel this was unnecessary but I feel it was. Toy Story 3 wrapped up Andy’s story but this wrapped up Buzz and Woody’s character arcs very nicely. Since there were questions like how the gang would fare under a new kid with the new hierarchy it would bring and such. It was a lot of fun with some fun new characters. It kinda showed them growing as they discovered what they wanted most out of life and finding their places in their new world. Also I was one of those that was upset that Bo Peep was absent in 3 and she and Woody weren’t together at the end of that one.
 
6. The Lego Movie 2: The Second Part
This was aamazing and a lot of fun as well. TAlmost as good as the first, not quite, but still a great entry into the series. I was not actually expecting them to pick up more or less where the first ended. It was an enjoyable movie of two worlds clashing, things not being what they seemed, and such. It was great. Batman was still one of the best parts but the Queen was pretty great too. It’s just too bad they decided to stop making the Lego movies but still, what we got was all around was pretty awesome. The music was great but the songs from the first were a bit catchier.
 
7. Frozen II
It was really good. A fantastic sequel that takes and tests the characters and pushes them to their emotional, moral, and physical limits. It does what a sequel can do well by getting into things quickly and building off the foundations of the first one. While the songs may not have been quite as catchy or iconic they were great. But I still can’t believe they actually had an ‘I Don’t feel so good Mr. Stark’ moment. I know a lot of people didn’t like it but I think it’s a pretty great flick.
 
8. Shazam!
It was really good and pretty hilarious. Yeah a bit juvenile at times but that's kinda to be expected from a kid super hero. It had a lot of heart and charm. I’m glad DC finally has their act together and is putting out stuff that can give marvel movies a run for their money. It was a lot of fun.
 
9. Spider-Man: Far From Home
It was a solid Spider-man movie. I enjoyed seeing what they could do with Mysterio and how things would be in a post-Endgame world. The humor was pretty great and the action scenes were spectacular as usual. It wasn’t the best but I’d say a solid Opener to the second season of the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
 
10. The Addams Family
This was a fun heartwarming movie. Yeah a bit of the typical modern family movie stuff but still a lot of fun, hilarious. A twist of some usual themes in an unusual setting but the characters were lots of fun in their spooky way. I also enjoyed that the villain was a suburbanite home renovator lady. Not spectacular but definitely worth a watch.
 
Honorable Mentions: Men in Black: International, Airplane, Dark Phoenix, Captain Marvel, Hellboy 2019
 

TV/Anime

1. My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic
There isn’t much to say here that I haven’t said earlier. I will reiterate I couldn’t have asked for a more epic or more satisfying end to the series. While not a perfect season I loved some of the more villain centric episodes. And we got a lot of what was on our episode wishlists like a Celestia and Luna episode but I still wish we had gotten another Diamond Dog episode or had an episode exploring the Zebra lands like they did for the Kirin. But that’s what the comics are for I suppose.
 
2. Gravity Falls
I fell off the truck on this show a couple times despite it giving MLP a run for its money when Gravity Falls was airing. This was all due to its wonky airing schedule. But I finally got to see the rest of season 2 and a couple of the season 1 episodes I missed or only caught a part of. It’s an amazing show that’s just so fun. The characters are amazing and experienced a surprising amount of character growth. And the thing is they could’ve let this show go on and on for seasons upon seasons but they had a story they wanted to tell and told it. It takes guts to make an amazing super popular show and end it on your terms. Definitely one of my top shows ever.
 
3. Kemurikusa
I loved Kemono Friends 1 and Tatsuki hit it out of the park with this one. It was absolutely amazing, just as good if not better than KF1. It's very atmospheric with everything being a post-apocalyptic wasteland of robot bugs and red fog. It has a charm similar to KF1 but in it's own way. Definitely more serious, action-oriented, and brutal at times but with a lot of twists and mystery. Yet there's still a lot of humor and character to everyone. Yeah would've been nice if it was better animated and they didn't have to rely on still shots so much but honestly those are just minor gripes that don't detract from it too much.
 
4. Gurren Lagann
Honestly this was spectacular, amazing, and completely over the top and ridiculous in the best ways. I loved almost every minute of it. The epic of one man taking on first the world then the whole universe to save humanity and his girl. It was great and honestly for a while it looked like it had stolen #3 from Kemurikusa and was giving Gravity Falls a run for its money. But just one scene at the end, one bullcrap scene only a couple minutes long soured just so much that it left a bad taste in my mouth. Like almost all the rest of the epilogues were great and fitting except one. One out of character scene that denied a happy ending to one of the ones who deserved it the most. Could’ve been one of the best of all time but one moment of B.S. that soured the ending and put a damper on the rest of the show. I don’t know, maybe the English dub made better sense of it but still I don’t see how it could.
 
5. Chernobyl
It was an amazing show. Eye opening, sobering, brutal, yet kinda beautiful its own way. Just the intensity of the disaster and the heroic efforts to uncover the truth and prevent the radiation from spreading. It was a masterpiece. Still, it was very disturbing at times with the carnage, gore, and things they had to do to prevent the spread.
 
6. Battlebots
This is always one of the summer highlights and it’s always a blast. There’s nothing like remote controlled robots beating the crap out of each other. Just always a great time.
 
7. Sonic Boom
This was an absolutely hilarious, light hearted take on Sonic. As usual Eggman steals the show with his over the top personality and schemes that aren’t always all that threatening. Like one day he's a mad scientist, albeit an incompetent one, out to destroy Sonic and the next he's his obnoxious neighbor. I love knuckles being a muscle bound idiot but my favorite character is Sticks the Badger. She’s adorable and hilarious being the resident paranoid conspiracy theory nut. She’s the best. They have the right amount of referencing the fact that it's a cartoon and such. I'd say season 2 is the better one.
 
8. Inari Kon Kon
This was a fun anime about a girl who ends up with god-like powers. It’s fun, charming and the characters are great. And it has the appropriate amount and pace of ramping up as the show neared its climax. Not spectacular but a pretty good show non the less.
 
9. American Ninja Warrior
Like Battle Bots it’s a summer staple I always look forward to. This year’s was pretty great and entertaining as usual. And someone actually beat the course this time. Though it did irk me when in the previews they said someone would be going home with the win. As if someone beating Stage 4 is something that happens all the time. Kinda took the suspense out of Stage 3 and 4 knowing someone would get through. Didn’t know who would but still it’s the struggle against the course that’s exciting, not the competition between the contestants.
 
10. Tenchi Muyo War on Geminar
This was a fun mecha/harem combo anime. It was kinda standard towards the middle but it was always interesting and towards the end it got pretty epic. It’s one of the better shows my uncle shared with us on his visits.
 
Honorable Mentions: Land of the Lustrous, Tokyo Magnitude 8.0, Full Metal Panic Fumoffu, Pop Team Epic

Video Games

1. Miitopia

It was a super fun casual RPG that was a lot better than it had any right to be. Though I think what made it fun for me was that I could import the characters, apartment dwellers from my Tomodachi Life save and use them as my battle party. It had a similar quirky humor but what made it even funnier was for the story characters it took miis from a cloud database of ones people created and stuck them in yours. So I had characters from all sorts of franchises popping up. I had Ganondorf as a little kid. Fat Albert and Lil Gideon were royal guards. Squidward as a shady merchant. Bob Ross as a wizard. Nicholas Cage as a genie. Waluigi as an elf. And All Might from My Hero Academia was a Gameshow Host. It got pretty wacky at times. But it was the perfect game to play on my breaks and lunches at work like Tomodachi Life was.

The character classes were pretty odd too. In the end my team of 10 was my avatar who was a Swordsman but had also been a scientist and a cat; Grim Reaper as a Chef; Fluttershy as a Cleric and a Vampire; Callie (from Splatoon) as a Popstar and a Cat; Gothorita as a Mage; Robbie Rotten as a Thief; Lilligant as a flower; The Rancor as a Tank and a Popstar; Honey Hatter (from Howl's Moving Castle) as a Princess; and Genesis (one of the offspring from Tomodachi Life) as an Elf and an Imp. I also liked you could give them battlecries so it was funny seeing them shout them in fights.

The team that got me through the gauntlet was Robbie, Callie, Fluttershy, and Gothorita since they could replenish the healing items and keep the mp up over the long haul while dishing out some decent damage. Outside the gauntlet I'd say my toughest fight was in one of the daily post-game quests, the quest giver being Marie from Splatoon. It was two spicy hamburger boss monsters at once. These guys' gimmick was they'd eat one of your characters and spit them back out half a dozen or so turns later. It isn't too bad when there's one but with two they were able to instantly cut your party in half and wail on the remaining two and once those two were gone they'd do the same to the others. But it was super satisfying to see them go down. But all that suffering was because Marie was tired of having to eat salads all the time and wanted some cake.
 
2. Occupy White Walls

A really fun, addicting museum building MMO. It’s a bit tricky getting the hang of it at first but once you get going and have a vision for how you’re gallery should be it gets fun. It is definitely a podcast/outside music listening to game. It has it’s quirks but I was playing it in semi-beta and they’ve been constantly improving and adding to it both in art and building selection. I do have some issues like being unable to refund area blocks you accidentally get or don’t want anymore as well as them not having corners, pillars that match each room style. Plus there’s always the issue if your gallery gets to big it can cause some serious lag and long loading times. But I had a blast making mine, at least until somehow my gallery stopped loading one day. A few months ago I created a new gallery and my old one loads fine on that one but I haven’t gotten the motivation to get back into the game and figure out the problem yet. Still, a good game if you’re into that sort of thing.
 
3. Yokai Watch
A solid monster catching game. Not quite as good as Pokemon but I had a lot of fun with this one. It took a little while to get used to to how frantic and active the battle system is but it’s really fun once you get the hang of it. And it required a bit more strategy from me since I couldn’t just spam healing items whenever. The story is loose and casual. The pacing is a bit off with it speeding up rather quick at the end and most of it is fulfilling various quests from townsfolk with a main quest in each chapter. I ended up being a bit overpowered at times due to my habit of doing all the side quests I could before doing the main quests. I had to make an entire 2^nd team to act as exp sponges so my main guys wouldn’t be ridiculously overpowered. The yokai selection was decent though most had at least one or two recolors, clones. It was annoying that there weren't too many evolutions, fusion or otherwise, which makes it harder to keep early game yokai on your team in later chapters and post game. I did like that they had their own personalities and voices, which was fun.
 
My biggest gripe with it was how RNG reliant things were, especially befriending new yokai. I always had mon that increased befriending chances and followed a guide on what food to feed them to make them more likely to join you but still. You could have several yokai with the befriending ability and give them the best food that they liked and you end up with a "Thanks for the free meal chump, later loser." kinda situation. And that's when you're actually able to find that specific one, which can take a good while itself. It's even worse when it's a post game rare one that you can fight only once a day that's as tough as a boss fight.

I did really enjoy the fishing and bug catching mini-games though the stealth terror time minigame thing was annoying. Like I'm just trying to freakin' fish, why can't these frickin' Oni just leave me alone. Some of the quests were a bit vague but they were usually pretty fun. And after you complete them you see these little clips and depending on how much you mash the A button or tap the touchscreen you get different outcomes. The failure and jackpot ones are absolutely hilarious.
 
For those wondering my main team was Jibanyan (the pikachu of Yokai Watch), Cadable (my starter named Jotaro), Chatalie (team waifu), Tattlecast (named DJ Tatta), Pinkipoo (Healer), and Castellius Max or Benki as the tank. Other notable ones who I used were Blizzaria, Shogunyan, and my alternate team in Komane, Voronica the Nagatha, Buhu, Cupistol, Moskevil, Scrinja the Blandon. There were more I wanted to use but had grown too attached to my long time main team members.
 
4. Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening DX
I loved this one. It really had a classic Zelda feel. And it was one I hadn’t spoiled myself on the puzzle solutions by watching randomizer speedruns. It took some getting used to the controls and figuring out but it was a lot of fun. It had a weird sense of humor and it was a bit odd seeing Goombas and evil Kirby lookalikes running around. Still I had a blast. But it would be my luck that a few weeks after I had finished playing it Nintendo would announce a remake of it for the Switch. Still, had a great time playing it; despite getting stuck and confused more than a couple times.
 
5. Spyro Reignited Trilogy: Spyro 2 (1^st World)
This one is a bit of a cheat since due to various things I got dragged away from playing it after one world but it was still amazing. Forget exactly why, probably just too exhausted from work to fire up the PS4. I miss some of the old voices but the new ones are almost as good and just the designs and graphics are spectacular. Just like the remake of Spyro 1 this has been amazing and gorgeous. It didn’t need quite as much help as Spyro 1 did but I loved every moment of it. Though I do feel they made Hurricos a bit too sunny and it should’ve been more overcast. The levels seem to go by faster, feel a tad smaller despite the amazing graphics though that's probably just my video game skills being much better than when I last played it. Also I’m probably a bit biased since Spyro 2 was one of my favorite childhood games. Probably would’ve been higher on the list if I’d actually finished it though. I do have a bad habit of occasionally just suddenly quit playing some games no matter how much fun they are.
 
6. Kirby’s Dreamland 2
This is another game I almost exclusively played on breaks at work. I had played Dreamland 1 and had expected this to be similar so I was shocked to see it was basically a full length Kirby game. I had a lot of fun with it, despite how hard it got sometimes. But honestly it’s hard not to have a good time with a Kirby game. I absolutely love the victory jingle/dance. Though I will admit that I used the 3ds virtual console’s savestate function to its fullest extent. Especially with the final boss. Was not expecting a gauntlet that long and that intense. But even with save scumming it was a challenge. It was overall a fun, happy game and I liked the three helpers you had along the way.
 
7. Pokemon Masters
I’ve always been wary and skeptical of mobile games with all their microtransactions and such but Pokemon Masters is pretty good. It never has any ads and it rarely ever tries to force microtransactions down your throat like other games. You never really need any of the microtransactions to fully play it anyway. And to be honest all the microtransactions are for the trainer gacha game bit so they aren’t actually all that useful. The game is pretty fun. The battle system takes some getting used to but it’s fun enough. One of the funnest parts is getting and interacting with your favorite gym leaders, characters from the games. There’s usually some sort of event going on so you rarely have to worry about resources. It can be a long time, pain to get your favorites sometimes or special seasonal ones but unlike other games they’re always there just with a very low chance of appearing. The story is interesting enough. It doesn’t stand up to full playthroughs of regular pokemon games but it’s a fun side thing that requires less effort or money than Pokemon GO. There have been a lot of changes recently but this is focused on my 2019 experiences with it. And in 2019 I was enjoying it quite a bit and much more than Pokemon GO.
 
8. Pokemon Ultra Moon

This is one of those games that I just suddenly stopped playing for no apparent reason. True I had already played Sun and the ingame stuff felt mostly the same but I’d been having fun with the story I make up for my mon as I always do with Pokemon. After about a year of it just languishing I finally picked it up again and finished the last island, rest of the story and the postgame events. And Sun/Moon are definitely the superior games storywise. While the Ultra Recon Squad was a fun addition it kinda screwed up the amazing story Sun/Moon had and ended up watering it down. I had a lot of fun with the game and I loved the photobooth, surfing, and the flying through the wormhole minigames as well as the Rainbow Rocket bit but they’re things I’d really rather have had them in Sun/Moon as DLC. I don’t think we needed two more games near identical to the first ones but with weaker retellings of the story. I had fun with it but I guess I’m just sad we didn’t get to see the Alola League in action and didn’t get to find an older Lillie as champion. Also I feel they could’ve done more with the whole Team Rainbow Rocket thing. I had a good time with the game but not as good as the other ones I had played up that point.
 

But a lot of my time playing was spent shiny hunting the Ultra Beasts. I’m glad I persisted and got them but man it was just a pain in the neck and took ages upon ages and several times I almost thought about giving up on the whole endeavor. Guzzlord took me the longest to reach via the wormhole but I practically found it’s shiny right away. Xurkitree and Celesteela took the longest overall though. The constant routine of entering battle and soft resetting got me paranoid I'd find a shiny but wouldn't be paying enough attention and accidentally reset on it. And all this was with the shiny charm. A real pain but still worth it.
 

9. Donut County
It’s a fun little game I played one afternoon. A bit too short in my opinion. It has a strong Katamari Damacy vibe to it but a bit more puzzle-y. It’s lots of fun figuring how to get big enough for your hole to get big enough to gobble up everything on the screen. The story is pretty cute and hilarious as well. The raccoons and the Trashopedia entries were an absolute riot. Hopefully they make a sequel that’s longer.
 
10. Pokemon Rumble Blast
It was a pretty neat, fun game with a lot more, deeper story than I expected. It was fun and novel experiencing Pokemon in a beat-em-up style of gameplay, albeit in a simplistic toy style. One thing about this game while it was super fun playing as my faves I couldn't get too attached to them since the mon don't level up and to get stronger you have to get stronger ones and such. So you had to find ones with moves that fit your play style rather than simply your faves. Still, something fun to occupy your time with. I was fortunate with this one since it was Gen 5 focused so some of my faves were semi reoccurring. I enjoyed the different styles of challenges: the levels with a big end boss, the gladiator arenas, army battles, and fortress assaults. Also story wise it did a few things I didn't expect from a cutesy styled game like it is. I mostly played it while watching livestreams that didn't require my full attention.
 
11. Streetpass Mii Plaza Games

The streetpass games are the streetpass games. Fun little things to pass the time with occasionally. Mostly useful at conventions while waiting in lines or taking breaks. But it was kind of a wrap up year for me with them. I grew one of every kind of flower in Flower Town, not all the colors but a lot of them. I got through Monster Manner a couple times, this one was my favorite. I got over a trillion dollars in Market Crashers. And while in line for the closing ceremonies of Bronycon I finally beat the army building Warrior’s Way, one loop is good enough for me. With the switch out and conventions not being a thing in 2020 I don’t see me playing these much in the future. Especially with cellphone games kinda filling their niche. But still these were pretty neat and I’m glad I played them while the 3ds was still active. Monster Manor and Find Mii were probably my faves out of them all.
 
12. Mighty Gunvolt Burst
It’s a fun little Megaman-esque game. But the best part is you can create any kind of weapon you want and as you go on they can get pretty over powered. It’s a comparatively simple game that’s surprisingly fun. My weapon of choice was drills that almost endlessly bounced off the walls. I started it while waiting in line for autographs at Motor City Comic Con this year. Definitely worth a buy.
 
13. Detective Pikachu
This was another game I had started early in the year but ended up not finishing it until late November. It’s a fun almost point and click mystery game. It isn’t too hard but it’s pretty fun. Detective Pikachu with his snarky hardboiled detective attitude was the best part. It has a much more suburban, light hearted feel to it when compared to the movie. And much more episodic with lots of smaller case slowly building up evidence for the big one. The characters are fun and charming though a bit one dimensional at times. Still it was pretty fun and a good buy for pokemon fans.
 
14. Glass Masquerade
Glass Masquerade is pretty fun. It's basically putting together puzzles except the puzzles are stained glass windows. It's a bit tricky since the pieces are blacked out on the choice wheel but it's pretty fun, good when you have stuff to listen to. Took me two evenings to finish it.
 
15. Gorogoa
Gorogoa is a puzzle game that's very hard to explain. Kinda the weird, mind bending kind that is weird but very cool. Like you have several pictures you can zoom in and out of and depending on how you do it you can seperate layers and combine the pics so your guy can advance and gather these magical fruit things via dimensional shenanigans you do with the pics. It has a slight pretentious aura towards the end, at least story-wise. But it was satisfying when you figured out the crazy solutions.
 
Honorable Mentions: Pokemon Shuffle Mobile, Pokemon Go, Bloons Tower Defense 5

 

Audio Books/Productions

So this is a semi-new section. I started regularly listening to the HorrorBabble youtube channel and was exposed to a lot of these old pulp horror short stories and weird tales so I thought I’d list my favorite new ones from 2019. Carnacki is probably my favorite series among the bunch I discovered though it isn’t always the kindest to animals in them. And yeah some of these old pulp sci-fi/horror/weird stories can be rather racist at times. But they’re still fun to listen to, at least the good ones.

1. Carnacki: The House Among the Laurels – William Hope Hodgson
2. The Glamour of the Snow – Algernon Blackwood
3. The Tale of Satampra Zeiros – Clark Ashton Smith
4. In the walls of eryx – H. P. Lovecraft
5. The Treader of the Dust – Clark Ashton Smith
6. Carnacki: The Horse of the Invisible – William Hope Hodgson
7. The Arctic Death - Wilford Allen
8. Phone Call from the Mausoleum – Jill Hand
9. The Portal – M. D. Vickers
10. John Silence 3: The nemesis of Fire – Algernon Blackwood

Honorable Mentions:

• The Immeasurable Horror – Clark Ashton Smith
• The Fire of Asshurbanipal – Robert E. Howard
• The Tree-Men of M’Bwa – Donald Wandrei
• Pigeons from hell – Robert E. Howard

Music

Probably the first year in a while the the list hasn’t been 100% heavy metal. But as The Friendship is Magic finale closed in I got back into brony music for a short time so a few of those as well as some of the show songs appear on the lists. Also this section, specifically the songs is why I moved these from the Facebook Notes blog thing to a proper blog. Just wasn’t enough control over line spacing there and with the songs list being my top 50 rather than top 25 it just would’ve made this too long.

 
But this was a pretty good year for music, despite the Brothers of Metal album being delayed into 2020. We got new albums from Sabaton, Babymetal, and Dragonforce. The Dragonforce one rekindling my excitement for the band. For the longest time I expected one of Sabaton’s new songs to take song of the year. But the MLP:FIM finale had to drop the emotional bomb that was ‘How the Magic of Friendship Grows’ to steal it away. Also one interesting trend was a sgharp increase in Spanish metal music showing up in my weekly lists. I hadn’t realized before that Chile was something of a hub for heavy metal bands down there.
 
Songs
 
1. How the Magic of Friendship Grows – Daniel Ingram
2. Seven Pillars of Wisdom – Sabaton
3. In Nomine – Opera Magna
4. Aces in Exile – Sabaton
5. Riders of the Dawn - Twilight Force
6. 82^nd All the Way – Sabaton
7. Got the Music in Our Hearts – Royalpony5300
8. Death Incarnate – Eleine
9. Devil Dogs – Sabaton
10. Shanti Shanti Shanti – BABYMETAL
11. If it Bleeds We can Kill It – Dragony
12. Highway to Oblivion – Dragonforce
13. El Cruzado – Legado de una Tragedia
14. Hootsforce – Gloryhammer
15. The Great War – Sabaton
16. Clear the Way (December 13th, 1862) - Iced Earth
17. Tonight - Sunset Neon
18. The Future of Warfare – Sabaton
19. Dawn of the Dragonstar – Twilight Force
20. The Last Dragonborn – Dragonforce
21. Black Horse Rider – Metalite
22. Devil is a Loser – Lordi
23. Sanctus Dominus – Powerwolf
24. Unforgivable – Arion
25. El Reino de los Suenos – Sylvania, Ruben Kelsen
26. Super Sonic Samurai – Victorious
27. Njord - Brothers of Metal
28. Wasteland Outlaw – Majesty
29. Hunting Pirates – Turisas
30. Dim Days of Dolor – Sirenia
31. First Lance in Spain - Dark Moor
32. Return to Lemuria – Visions of Atlantis
33. Incarnation – Dynazty
34. Lotta Little Things – Daniel Ingram
35. The Unicorn Invasion of Dundee – Gloryhammer
36. The Gathering – Delain
37. Thunder - Human Fortress
38. Bismark – Sabaton
39. Better Way To Be Bad (Frenemies) – Daniel Ingram
40. Moonlight Shadow - Deathlike Silence
41. The End of the Rainbow – Daniel Ingram
42. Hate of My Life – Skiltron
43. Stossgebet – Powerwolf
44. Fields of Verdun – Sabaton
45. Solo Depende de Ti – Dragonfly
46. The Place Where We Belong – Daniel Ingram
47. Twilight of the Gods - Blind Guardian
48. The Final Solution – Sabaton
49. Wind of Morrigan – Leverage
50. Birth of the Sun - Dark Moor

Honorable Mentions:

• Come With Me to the Other Side - Orden Ogan, Liv Kristine
• Being Big is All It Takes – Daniel Ingram
• I Am The Tyrant - Frozen Crown
• Run to break Free - Jess Furman, Jessica Vaughn, and Dan Whittemore
• Brothers – Gladenfold
• Let it Rain - John Boyd, Jess Furman, and Jessica Vaughn
• End of Days - Cryonic Temple
  
• The One We Shall Follow – Elvenking
• Eden – Battle Beast
• Cemetary Gates - Power Quest

Bands/Artists
1. Sabaton
2. BABYMETAL
3. Twilight Force
4. DragonForce
5. Daniel Ingram
6. Dalekium
7. Little V Mills
8. Freedom Call
9. Dark Moor
10. Odyssey Eurobeat

Honorable Mentions: Gloryhammer, Dynazty, Powerwolf, Parry Gripp

Albums
There weren’t too many full albums I regularly listened to, mostly playlists build from my Spotify Discover Weekly finds.

1. The Great War - Sabaton
2. METAL GALAXY – BABYMETAL
3. Extreme Power Metal - Dragonforce
4. The Lego Movie 2: The Second Part Soundtrack
5. The Soundtrack to the Great War - Sabaton

Honorable Mention: M.E.T.A.L. – Freedom Call


Internet shows/channels/events/Personalities
1. GrayStillPlays
2. Vinesauce
3. Mic.Feedback
4. Vargskelethor
5. Speedgaming
6. Horror Babble
7. AlternateHistoryHub
8. Games Done Quick Marathons
9. Desert Bus For Hope
10. Lumpy Touch

Honorable Mentions: RTGaming, Robomaster Tournament, Vinesauce is Hope, Oversimplified, Jelle’s Marble Runs


Internet Videos
1. The Blue Shell Incident – Vinesauce Joel/Vargskelethor
2. Garfield Gameboy’d Complete – Lumpy Touch
3. Robbie Rotten is Communist – William Sale
4. Untitled Attorney Video – iKiwed
5. Super Mario Larva Bros. – Lumpy Touch
6. Whoa, Slow Down Maurice! – IamAwakeify
7. Blend W - MowTenDoo
8. SHAGGY BALL Z (Dragon Ball Z Parody) - Mashed
9. Baby Yoda – Toto Africa – Radorian
10. 20th century birb – spacefrog

Honorable Mentions:

• Sonic the eggdog – zamsire
• Detective Pikachu Dancing but with no music – The Selchies
• John Wick with Lightsabers – ImmersionVFX
• You Ate His Face – SandwichAndCereal

MLP Tribute Videos
1. Memoir of Season 9 - Pompeii PMV – ACRacebest (Rapidly Changing Images)
2. PMV | This Is Not The End – TheLightLeavesThee/LuckyDragon
3. The producers: Goodbye - A my little pony sendoff to season 9 – AnontheAnon Inc
4. Twilight's Final Message - MrDeLoop
5. A Tribute to Friendship Is Magic (Endgame-Style Credits) – Goat Bloke
6. A Horsey Journey – MrPoniator


Memes

1. Tim Curry is escaping to the one place that hasn’t been corrupted by capitalism
2. Scottish Pokemon Trainer
3. Gorefield
4. Baby Yoda
5. Abbaccio joins the kicking
6. Peppa Pig’s/Olaf’s heights
7. Bunji the Frog (Vinesauce)
8. Unsettled Detective Pikachu
9. Rem Lezar (Vinesauce)
10. You cheated not only the game, but yourself

Honorable (?) Mentions: Kevin Ghidorah; Maclunkey; Do not cite the deep magic to me witch; Hulk gives ant-man a taco, Me and the Boys