Top 20 anime series of the past decade!

So 10 years have passed since 2000 and I think it's time to do a top 20 of the best anime, OVAs and movies of said decade

20. How about a drink? - Bartender
Let's start off with the most relaxing anime I can imagine. Joh Araki and Keiji Nagamoto's Bartender is an incredibly relaxing anime about a bartender who heals the souls and eases the worries of his customers by mixing drinks and talking in a calm, soothing voice. I can't really do this series justice since it's not so much about the plot as it is about the atmosphere that calms you the fuck down.

19. I laughed, I laughed - Lucky Star
Kagami Yoshimizu's Lucky Star is pretty much the child of Azumanga Daioh coupled with otaku culture. It's a 4 panel comic strip (yonkoma) that focuses on the everyday life of 4 (arguably, 3) high school girls who spend their time doing nothing important. This is probably the only moe anime I can actually tolerate, since it's funny and has interesting references. My favorite character, who might not really be a Lucky Star character would be the Anime Tenchou, a hotblooded store clerk who's a parody of characters like Domon Kasshu and Guy Shishioh, and when you see him do something, it's fucking incredible, altough he doesn't have enough screentime. Also, Anime Tenchou is voiced by Tomokazu Seki, which makes him automatically awesome.
Also, fuck Hirano Aya.

18. mesmerizingly mundane - Azumanga Daioh

Azumanga Daioh, by Hirohiko Azuma, is another slice of life school anime, but I think it's the definitive one, the definitive slice of life. While I do think Bartender had better atmosphere and Lucky Star had funnier jokes, Azumanga Daioh had already seeped in to my mind, because it created interesting things out of nothing (whereas Bartender is more like taking ritalin or smoking weed to relax and Lucky Star tries hard to impress).
Whereas the characters of Lucky Star tried to appeal to it's otaku audience with it's moe-moe cast that was made for pedoforks to lust after, Azumanga Daioh has more of a cast that is not so much to target demographics (of nerd) as it is just to have interesting characters.
I might have also considered Azuma's other work, Yotsuba&, which is also groovy.

17. I don't know why she hasn't been raped yet - The Melancholy Of Haruhi Suzumiya
Last of the animu I will mention that's about school life. To be honest I don't know if I really like the anime adaptation as much since it had a gimmick of airing the episodes in mixed order and then releasing a second season which was complete cakadookey.
I won't talk about the plot since it's kind of stupid when you put it vaguely,
But I bought the novels, and I think the novels are fantastic.
The thing that makes the novels so good in my opinion is that it's entirely in first person by the protagonist, Kyon. And he's snarky and sarcastic as fuck, and knows how absurd the things that the titular heroine makes him experience are.
The anime capable of immersing you in to that character, which is why they had to try something else. Also I don't like how people consider it to be more than just another high school drama.
Also, fuck Hirano Aya.

16. Love is not that, derriere isn't love! - Excel Saga
Rikido Koshi's Excel Saga, developed by the super awesome fucking director Shinichi Watanabe, AKA Nabeshin.
Excel Saga is a parody anime to the very core, and it's very lolsorandom, but also witty to some extent. Kotono Mitsuishi makes the character of Excel very memorable by delivering lines in a hyperactive machinegun pace.
There is no real plot to speak of, but each episode is a parody of something with a different theme to every episode. The closest thing to a plot at the very end is the director's ironic yet badass self-insert in to the series, Nabeshin, teaming up with a dead south american imigrant named Pedro and his 8 year old son, Sandora, to do the triple Nabehameha, an attack powered by the power of the afro, to kill a yakuza guy who's given name is That Man.
No, but in general it's just funny, altough it doesn't have any real vulgarity to it, unlike...

15. Kuso fucking bitch tenshi - Panty & Stocking With Garterbelt
Newest anime to make the list. From the man that brought us Gurren Lagann and FLCL. Panty & Stocking With Garterbelt is a parody anime that parodies both american and japanese cartoons and is all about vulgar sex jokes, poop jokes and other obscene shit. And... you know... I think it's awesome.
Panty and Stocking isn't so much graphic compared to anime like Queen's Blade, but the obscenities said or done are much more vulgar. The only other media where I've seen a zombie horde be killed by dildos by someone dressed as a stripper cop would be Dead Rising 2. And I definately have never seen god's giant lower body come down from the clouds and stomp on a giant demonic penis that's been possesed by a bondage-loving homosexual.
It's about slutty fallen angels named Panty and Stocking, who can fold weapons out of their underwear and use them to kill ghosts in a wild, wacky comedy adventure certainly not intended for the whole family.
Also, the soundtrack by Taku Takahashi and Teddyloid? Fucking fantastic.

14. You ran out of FMA? Fine, I'll take D.GM instead - D.Gray-Man
Hoshino Katsura's D.Gray-Man is pretty much the successor to FMA, in my opinion. They both have very similar themes going on and have similar art styles. But calling D.Gray-man a ripoff would be stupid.
D.Gray-Man, like FMA, has a large cast of interesting characters and has a very similar feel to it. To be honest I mostly just picked it up due to needing something to substitute to FMA and it did not dissapoint.
Altough I only read the manga.

13. LET'S GO DRIFT AROUND MOUNTAIN ROADS WHILE LISTENING TO AWESOMELY TERRIBLE MUSIC - Initial D 3rd Stage and Inital D 4th Stage
Shuichi Shigeno's Initial D series is about illegal street racing on mountain roads around Japan. I did not include 1st Stage and 2nd Stage both since they are from the 90s and since I don't think they're as good.
It's the story of Takumi Fujiwara, a street racer who drives the legendary AE86 (toyota sprinter trueno) of Mt. Akina, and his races as he becomes a part of the street racing team Project D. I like 3rd Stage since I like the finale where Takumi is in a car chase, chasing his girlfriend and her abusive ex-boyfriend on a snowy mountain road.
But 4th Stage is my favorite, since that's the one where the training wheels come off and it's time for the real deal, since in all previous seasons (which were based off of very early parts of the manga), Takumi is very much posed no challenge in the races due to just being way better than local competition.
Also, Takumi Fujiwara might be my favorite Shinichiro Miki performance.

12. Look at those fucking noses, goddamn - Kaiji and Akagi
















Nobuyuki Fukumoto is a mangaka who over the course of his life has made 3 mangas with very similar themes, those are Ten, Akagi and Kaiji. Akagi (full title : Mahjong Legend Akagi : The Genius Who Descended From The Dark) is the story of Shigeru Akagi, a genius gambler who knows no fear and proceeds to play mahjong against all kinds of gangsters to earn big money and to engage the ultimate battle of wits. Akagi is set between the 1950s and 1960s, when Japan recovered from the war and was steadily rising from the ruins.
Kaiji (full title : Ultimate Survivor Kaiji : The Suffering Pariah), on the other hand, is the story of Kaiji Ito, an unemployed loser with several million yen in debt during the Asian economic crisis at the end of the 1990s, and how he has the choice of ether doing slave wages for 15 years or to go to a cruise ship called Escoir and gamble like he has never gambled before to make not just his debt money back, but also make a few million so he could escape the hopeless dead end his life is in at that point.
To be honest, I prefer Kaiji to Akagi, both the series and the characters. Akagi as a series is pretty predictable and unchanging, since the only game they play is Mahjong (which I still have no idea how to play) and Akagi is so fucking hardcore he never loses.
Now, Akagi is way more badass than Kaiji (who has been nicknamed Cryji due to how frequently he sheds tears), Akagi is fearless (not fearless brave, but fearless balancing between genius and insane) and doesn't give a fuck about anything besides raping faggots hard at mahjong and destroying their wills.
Kaiji, however, is nowhere near as skilled as Akagi at gambling. But the thing is, I couldn't really understand Akagi's reasoning, I was just as dumbfound at him destroying his oponenets as his oponents and everyone around them was. Kaiji is a much more human character, showing things like fear, doubt, joy, anger and his goals and reasoning were much more understandable. And most importantly, he can fail.
Altough both take place in seperate decades and nether of the main characters appear in the other's series (which makes sense, since in Akagi, Kaiji would be not born or a baby and in Kaiji, Akagi would be a 55 year old man who has so much money he wouldn't need to interact with unemployed people who don't play mahjong).
Also, both Akagi and Kaiji were portrayed by the same voice actor, Masato Higawara.

11. The fuck is a Nonoriri? - DIEBUSTER aka Aim For The Top! 2
The sequel to the classic Gainax OVA Gunbuster, made 20 years later. Diebuster is... well to be honest it's just the prototype to Gurren Lagann.
Diebuster has much more in common with Gurren Lagann than it does with the original Gunbuster. The original Gunbuster was a super robot series, but it had a certain sense of realism, such as the impelentation of time dilapitation as a central plot element and not to mention Gunbuster itself was a super robot that they gave an intricate and complex design to spite toymakers.
Diebuster, on the other hand, is like ''let's see how absurdly over the top we can get''.
But really, Diebuster just has really great animation which makes the battles an absolute joy to watch on a big screen.
But the most interesting part in this series is the way they connect Gunbuster to Diebuster despite there being 13000 (I did not make up that number) years between them, in fact, both series end at the same exact moment. Wrap your mind around that one!
Despite being very different from each other, both series supplement each other, so to get the full experience, you should watch both.

10. Remember when vampires were cool, instead of sparkly boytoys for fat girls who smell like meat lockers? - Hellsing Ultimate (+maybe the 2001 series)
Hellsing is an old favorite of mine. The 2001 Hellsing TV series was kind of cool, Hellsing Ultimate is the definitive version. The 2001 series had incredibly little material to work with, not even knowing who the villains of the manga are.
But then, a few years later, they started the Hellsing Ultimate OVA series, which is a volume by volume adaptation of the manga. As of writing, we are up to episode 7 out of presumably 10.
It's just a joy to watch, because they are literally adapting the manga and maybe adding some extra scenes here and there. It's pretty much a love letter to the fans, since it knows exactly what they want.
Everyone's favorite unkillable vampire in a red coat is back, and he's ready to kill nazis!
Also... Alucard might be the strongest character ever. And Anderson is just fucking awesome.
Only real complaint I have is the gigantic gaps between episode releases. It's been atleast 5 years since this project was started.

9. It's so great not to be depressed anymore! - Rebuild Of Evangelion series
We talked about this one before, but I have to reinstate. Rebuild Of Evangelion is the Evangelion that I think is the best.
I can gush on about the production values and shit, but on a more thematic level, I just like the Rebuild movies since they are not so much about the psychological issues of the characters and how they fuck each one of them over, and more about them getting over these issues and finding the will to carry on.
TV series Shinji Ikari is a little bitch who I could sympathise with, but refuse to, since his constant wallowing in self pity and struggling constantly with even the simplest interaction with other people got on my nerves.
Rebuild's Shinji is also plagued with super-low self-esteem and fear, but I find myself being much more sympathetic to him since he's able to overcome these fears to some extent and actually improve, and by the end of 2.22, he does something really badass, which is something that I would never associate with the TV series one.

8. It's SHOWTIME - The Big O (well, the last episodes of season 1 and the entirety of season 2 was made in the 2000s)
The Big O might be cheating, since the first 13 episodes were made in the 90s, and those said episodes might be the better, but I still want to include this on the list, so there.
The Big O is a tribute to film noir and retro science fiction movies, and Batman. It's about Roger Smith (voiced by Mitsuru Miyamoto), who is like Bruce Wayne if Bruce Wayne had a robot and didn't feel any need to have a superhero identity, and he pilots The Big O, a mysterious mecha from an age noone remembers. Also, Roger is joined by the android, Dorothy, and his butler, Norman. The first 13 episodes had an episodic format with self-contained stories, altough there were some reocurring characters, like Angel, Schwartzwald and my favorite, Jason Beck, a fabulous criminal voiced by Hochu Othsuka, who is awesome.
The other 13 episodes, made in 2002, are a direct sequel to the point of even having the same opening and ending songs. Here the story stops being episodic and becomes a story arc, and the truth behind the mystery of the world of Big O is revealed, or maybe an even bigger, existential mystery is shown but not explained fully.
Also I kind of liked the ending, altough it was one of those Evangelion-style ''everything in existance will never be the same again'' endings with vague explenations. And the twist regarding Roger and Angel kind of reminded me of the twist regarding Tidus's existance in FFX.
The Big O is one of the few Super Robots to actually make sense as a machine. Big O is all about the firepower and hitting hard. Big O moves slowly, with a lot of weight behind it's steps. While the Big O might not be a mecha that they would actually build in real life, I have a feeling that it's still more likely to resemble what a real mecha would work like, as opposed to any AU Gundam. This also makes Big O interesting, since it's design is unique and memorable. Also an interesting thing is that it doesn't have any voice command attacks and they do spend time showing how exactly Big O works, with a fairly plausible and realistic, since it has to change modes and controls to do different things (as opposed to just yelling the name and maybe shining or having some kind of cosmetic change). But the fact that it's very much a machine doesn't lessen the mysteries surrounding it.
But in general, I like the series since it's well made in every aspect, with good production values, good actors, a nice soundtrack, good designs, an interesting plot and an art style that stands out.
Kazuyoshi Katayama and Keichi Sato, I tip my hat to you guys, since you have created the most memorable, original and compitently constructed mecha anime series Sunrise has done in the past 15 years.
Mark can talk shit about this series as much as he wants, but he should just go get raped by Apex Twin. In the bum. And Mark wouldn't even resist, just look away and cry. The pretentious philistine homosexual of incredibly poor taste.

7. How about an INTELLIGENT shounen? - Fullmetal Alchemist (2003 series) and Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood
Hiromu Arakawa's Fullmetal Alchemist was adapted in to a TV series in 2003. The 2003 series was good, but it, like the 2001 Hellsing series, had to have an original plotline and ending due to the fact that the manga was still kind of in it's early stages.
The story, set in what is an alternate universe 1910s Europe, is about Edward Elric and his brother, Alphonse, who have made a horrible mistake by trying to resurrect their mother with alchemy, which resulted in them creating an abomination that they had to kill, and also taking Edward's leg, and Alphonse's entire body, forcing Ed to sacrifice one of his arms to bind Alphonse's soul to a suit of armor.
Edward eventually regains his composure and has outfitted with an automail arm and leg, automail being mechanical prosthetics combining alchemy with medicine and technology. Then, Ed and Alphonse join the state military as government apointed alchemists on a quest to initally find a Phliosopher's Stone to be able to return what they have lost, but as the truth behind the Philosopher's Stone is revealed, and a plot involving the homunculi, artificial, immortal superhumans made by alchemy, named after the Seven Deadly Sins, the country's government, the events that destroyed a civilization 1000 years ago and millions of human lives is uncovered, they start to understand that there are bigger things to worry about than just themselves.
Also a central character is Roy Mustang, Ed and Al's commanding officer, who initially appears as an arrogant dick, but as you learn of what he had to do in the Ishbal war and the true reason why he wants to become the Fuhrer of the country and the things he has to suffer through, you become sympathetic towards him.
The 2003 series was pretty good, and now that I think about it, I liked it's ending, but I also think they shat the bed with the sequel movie, Conqeror Of Shamballa, by having a really shitty ending that might not have been needed.
But in 2009, since the Fullmetal Alchemist manga was nearing it's end, studio BONES decided to make another adaptation that follows the manga plot to the very end, in fact, the anime and the manga ended in the very same month (June 2010).
The 2003 series was kind of dark, it wasn't grimdark, but it was darker than Brotherhood. Brotherhood still had a fair share of dark elements, but the tone was less hopeless. The ending of Brotherhood had a lot of OH SHIT moments, but they weren't quite as OH SHIT as 2003's ending.
In Japan, most of Brotherhood's cast (except for Edward Elric, who will always be voiced by Romi Park) is changed for other, similar sounding voice actors. I like Shinichiro Miki's portrayal of Roy Mustang in Brotherhood better than I liked Toru Okawa's in 2003, but also the fact that 2003's Mustang is much more stern and less likable doesn't help. I'm a bit heartbroken that they didn't have Junichi Suwabe play my favorite FMA character, Greed, and instead have him played by the less awesome Yuichi Nakamura.
I'm not quite sure which one I like better, since I like the serious and dark tone of 2003, I also like the more positive tone of Brotherhood, and they have more or less the same characters with similar characterization. But the thing I like about FMA in general is the fact that it's character interaction and the plot are what moves the series forward, so the fights happen for a reason, and every fight has an impact on the plot, while an average shounen drives it's plot forward so that it could once again get to the ball-numbing, mindless fighting.

6.The best goddamn teacher you could wish for - Great Teacher Onizuka
We've talked about this one before. But I just still like it so much. The perfect combination of comedy, drama, action, philosophy and boobs. The manga is what you're looking for, though.
But in general, Onizuka has taught me more about life than 12 years of Latvian literature classes could ever. As over the top Onizuka might be at times, it's still realistic when it comes to it's characters and the things they experience. Onizuka is also Wataru Takagi's best role.

5.What's this salty stuff coming from my eyes? - Gungrave
Gungrave is an anime based off of a budget video game called Gungrave. The game was a balls to the wall action shooter with character designs by Yasuhiro Nightow (creator of Trigun).
Then it was adapted in to 26 episode anime by the god tier studio Madhouse, oh and they also got my favorite anime composer, Tsuneo Imahori (Trigun and Hajime No Ippo) compose the soundtrack, altough to be honest I think this is his worst work.
But instead of making it just in to like an over the top, absurd gun violence anime (which I would still watch), they made it in to a very serious gangster drama with scifi elements. The game just had something resembling a plot by having basic character relationships between the characters (Brandon and Harry were once best bros, Brandon protects Mika since she is the daughter of his love interest and his boss, who he was loyal to, Bunji is Brandon's rival and equal in terms of capabilities etc etc).
But the anime took these basic elements and made it in to a really compelling story about friendship, loyalty, duty, betrayal, vengance and love spanning across about 20 years from start to finish.
Also the construction of the anime kind of reminds me of the Golden Age arc from Berserk. Both series start in the present, talking about vague things and showing what the characters are like now. But then, you go to the past and show a simpler, happier time when the characters don't deal with the more fukked shit, which helps immerse you by having a realistic world, where they deal with normal things for their line of work (mercenary work, mafia jobs). But after a while, shit gets real when in their past the more fukked shit appears suddenly (Berserk's case : demons. Gungrave's case : dead people revived as superhumans, and the monster-like Orgmen). Then there's a betrayal which results in everyone besides the villain getting fucked over.
A long time after that, the main character returns for vengance.
But the strong point of Gungrave is the dynamic between the characters. The central theme across the series is the relationship between Brandon Heat (later known as Beyond The Grave) and Harry MacDowell, who were best friends, and by that I don't mean no stupid ''Rios and Salem are best bros since they killed a million dudes together and fist bump afterwards and also say no homo since they don't want their 12 year old userbase to think they're gay'' friendship, but an actual friendship that you truly feel. And then comes the betrayal. So because you feel their friendship, that's what makes the finale of the series so fucking emotional and makes it one of my all time favorite endings.
Also another character I really liked was Bunji Kugashira, who thinks of Brandon as both his best friend and the person he wants be killed by. Bunji was just totally badass and the fight between him and Brandon was the best fight in the series.
But really, this series just makes you invested in it's characters and there's a lot of emotional scenes with great direction. I'll always remember (spoilers) Bunji and the stray cat that was the only creature that Bunji ever showed affection for, Bunji's death, both when he thanks Brandon, and as he fades away in the reflection in the cat's eyes.

(oh yeah and also, this image is related to the next entry)

This is my reaction to the scene just remembering it. Originally, I put Gungrave at number 13, but that fucking scene, man... that fucking scene. And that fucking ending. Masterpiece.

4. THIS FIST CREATED EVERYTHING! - Shin Mazinger Shogeki! Z-Hen! (Shock! True Mazinger - Z Chapter)
I like Go Nagai and I like Yasuhiro Imagawa, and Yasuhiro Imagawa likes retro super robot series and Go Nagai pretty much created the genre, so this is a match made in heaven. Yasuhiro Imagawa's G Gundam is my personal favorite in the Gundam metafranchise (altough 0079 is the true best).
The story is about Kouji Kabuto, a young man who's grandfather, a scientist, who had built a very powerful mecha called Mazinger Z, which he leaves with Kouji before his death, so he can fight Dr.Hell, a mad scientist who commands an army of ancient mecha. That's the basic premise. But then the story is also about the past sins of Kouji's grandfather, Juuzo, Kouji's father, Kenzo, Tsubasa Nishikiori and their past ties to Dr.Hell. But the story is also about Baron Ashura, a revived superhuman made from the left half and the right half of two mummies of dead lovers who were a part of the ancient Mykene Empire, and what happened to the Mykene Empire and how Zeus had betrayed the empire, and his loyalty to Dr.Hell who had given Ashura new life, but also the loyalty to the Mykene Empire.
So anyway, Shin Mazinger is a reimagining of the definitive classic super robot series, Mazinger Z. but like Imagawa's OVA Giant Robo : The Day The Earth Stood Still, he does a job to tie it in or to atleast reference other Go Nagai works, or to add more to Mazinger's plot itself by adding elements made in other spinoff mangas or remaginings, such as connection to Zeus that Mazinger has, more light shed on what exactly the Mykene empire was or the Kedora biomecha.
But the biggest addition is that they make Tsubasa Nishikiori and the Kurogane House, all characters originally from Violence Jack, which is unrelated to the Mazinger Universe (but spoilers : it is related to the Devilman universe). A lot of fans complain about Tsubasa being a central character when she should maybe not even be in this series, but to be honest I don't mind it since Kouji's motivations and character, as well as they are developed, are quite simple and don't need any expanding, so having a character with more complex motivations that's aware of the past ongoins that she is directly actually related to is welcome.
But the thing that makes Shin Mazinger so fucking fantastic to me is that they make Baron Ashura, who was originally just a crazy, murderous, evil monster with obsessive loyality to Dr.Hell, and they made him (I keep using the word him altough he is half woman) in to a deep character, who's motivations, loyality and inner conflict are truly compelling.
The series had an absolutely fantastic ending that I refuse to spoil, but it makes you feel a whirlwind of emotions, mostly regarding Ashura. And in the end... dat... cliffhanger...
The two complaints some have is the slightly slow pace the series has, such as the inital assult on Atami where Mazinger is revealed, Juuzo dies and the battle is finished takes 3 episodes, when it could probably have been done in 2 or even one episode, but I think the pace is very good, slow - yes, bad - no.
The other complaint is that the fights are kind of bad at times, which I agree on.
This series might not be for everyone, though.
But the series has fucking astounding direction, writing, production and music. I'm sad that there might not be a Shin Mazinger Great Chapter (based off of Great Mazinger, the sequel to Mazinger Z) due to poor ratings and DVD sales.

3. What is a human, anyway? - Ghost In The Shell Stand Alone Complex and Ghost In The Shell SAC 2nd Gig + Solid State Society (plus maybe the unrelated movie Ghost In The Shell 2 : Innocence)
Ghost In The Shell SAC is my favorite form of Ghost in the Shell, having seen both Mamoru Oshii movies and read the mangas.
This is a somewhat recent addition to the list, in fact, I'm still watching the DVDs at the time.
The characters in the manga were fun people, but they weren't serious enough for some of the more philosophical, existential issues present.
The characters in the movies were really serious and mature, but at the same time they were very stoic and didn't have any fun to them.
SAC balances this, by having the characters be more human and fun than the movie ones, but at the same time, be more mature than the manga ones.
Set in a not so far away future, it's the story of Section 9, a black ops devision of the Japanese government, and their work daily work fighting crime involving fighting cyborg, robot or hacker-related terrorism cases.
While I like the anime for it's character presentation, the thing that I like the most about it is that it deals more with minor cases they deal with in one episode, since these one shot stories I find more interesting than the bigger cases spanning across the entire series (altough I really like the Laughing Man case) due to the fact that they reveal more about the universe of GitS, since while I really like Major Kusanagi, Batou and Togusa, and I find the Tachikomas intreguing, and the other members of section 9 are kind of interesting, it's the universe that interests me the most.
The series has the cast from the movies reprise all the characters, and what a cast it is, Atsuko Tanaka, Akio Otsuka, Koichi Yamadera and so on.
The music was composed by Yoko Kanno, who is a god tier music composer.

2. Who the hell do you think I am?! - Gurren Lagann
Gurren Lagann is epic in the true sense of epic. It's a struggle and a hero story much larger than life, deciding the fate of both the earth and the universe. It's very much about bravery and spirit overcoming the largest odds, but unlike GaoGaiGar it's not corny with the things it does.
Now to be fair, it's not really original, but it at the same time it makes everything it takes work in the new system so wonderfully that it doesn't matter.
It has designs that stand out and memorable mecha, but the thing that makes it so special is the sense of scale it has and makes you care about it.
It has the Gainax money machine behind it, so it has amazing animation and production values. It has a cast of mostly newcomer voice actors who do a great job.
The final fight in the series is so over the top in the sense of scale that it probably has lead many people to despair since they couldn't come up with anything more over the top in that way.
However, at the same time, it has a very unsatisfying ending. So unsatisfying, that I'm considering knocking it down a few places.

1. I'm gonna be strong... be strong and... I... I... - Hajime No Ippo : The Fighting (+ Hajime No Ippo : New Challenger)
Hajime No Ippo : The Fighting I have talked about extensively about, but maybe not exactly why it's good. For one thing, it's inspiring. It has the best goddamn story pacing I have ever seen due to it being at a solid pace that never has inconsistent rises or slumps in speed. It has a very memorable cast of characters that, like the characters in Onizuka, stand out not due to hypercharged character traits or character designs that stick out (both are, however, present in the previous entry), but rather because they feel like real people through subtile character development. To anyone who's watched it, if you look at the first episodes and the last ones, you see how Ippo has changed. But he hasn't changed with a ''BROTHER IS DEAD'' monologue in which he changes drasticly, but he has changed through his experience across the entire series. Ippo is still the same person, but he's changed.
And the cast of other characters is also well developed, my favorite being Takeshi Sendo, who might seem like the typical fight loving HURR MUST BE STRONGER guy, but he has a lot going on. In fact, my favorite moment in the entire series is when Sendo has small flashbacks that show everything you need to know about his past and his motivations with three simple still images, some very simple, yet vague words and a fantastic voice delivery by Masaya Onosaka who plays Sendo. Anyone who has seen this will know the exact moment.
Also notable would be Mamoru Takamura, who is fucking badass. He even beats up a bear, kills it and eats it at one point.
The humor in the series is also great, altough it mostly concerns dicks.
Hajime No Ippo is very much a story of life, not a story of adventure, but a story of life.
The sequel anime, New Challenger is not as good, I mean, there is noone who would prefer it over The Fighting, but it's still pretty cool, altough Ippo isn't the main character and the final fight between Takamura and Bryan Hawk, as fucking amazing as it is, starts to wander a bit in to Namek territory.

ALMOST MADE THE LIST
FLCL
Full Metal Panic? Fumoffu
Eyeshield 21
Air Master
Fist Of The Blue Sky
Guyver : The Biobooster Armor
Cromartie High School
Detroit Metal City
Mazinkaiser
New Getter Robo
Baccano
Shaman King

DEBATABLE QUALITY BUT I KIND OF LIKED
Claymore
Trinity Blood
True Savior Legend Fist Of The North Star
Legends Of The Dark King : A Fist Of The North Star story
Naruto
One Piece
Yu Gi Oh Duel Monsters

THIS IS TOTALLY FUCKING TERRIBLE BUT ALSO AMAZING
Musashi Gundoh

WOULD HAVE MADE THE LIST IF IT WASN'T MADE IN A DIFFERENT DECADE
Berserk
Trigun
Cowboy Bebop
G Gundam
Gundam 0079
Gunbuster
Dragon Ball Z
Shin Getter Robo - Sekai Saigo No Hi

WOULD NEVER MAKE THE LIST, REGARDLESS OF DECADE
MD Geist
Bleach
Gundam Wing
Tenjou Tenge the anime

WOULD MAKE THE LIST IF IT HAD A GOOD ADAPTATION DURING THE DECADE
JOJO'S BIZARRE ADVENTURE
Berserk (chapters beyond the Golden Age arc)
Trigun

video games, motherfucker! Linearity, handholding, freedom, easy and overindulgant analogies

Alright so I played some Assassin's Creed Brotherhood and I realized the true genius behind it's design and why I like it.

Now a lot of people say that Assassin's Creed is a really easy game. But then I thought : but how many times have I failed a mission or died? A lot. Did I care? Nope!
Assassin's Creed actually has decent diffuculty, but the way it's designed is that it doesn't fustrate you when you fail. The game is like a dad who willingly feeds coins to the arcade machine so you can beat Double Dragon, because the game isn't interested in seeing you give up.
The game is built not to be fustrating by not giving you any backlash for failing. The game is like your friend who tells you ''it's cool, bro''. Now compare that to, say, Super Meat Boy, which is a game built to rape you and make you feel it when you lose. AssBro has no interest in seeing you give up since it wants you to see it's world, because it's been designed so that you see it.
Now compare that to Call Of Duty, which is a soulless cash in made to get as much money as it can. So that game's more like a doctor who doesn't care about it's patient, a tour guide with no interest to actually want to tell you anything or simply a prostitute. They don't actually care about the player, they just want your money. Why do I buy it? For the multi, ofcourse, since multi is unpredictable and good since it's always changing. But the single player in CoD is very much like something implemented in there out of obligation by law to be there. It's just like ''Oh, you're here?'' and then it grabs you by the hand and drags you through a linear, scripted 6 hours of meh. I haven't actually even beaten the new CoD's single player since it was boring.
Now Mark, who is a master of stupid, might say ''hah, all games are made to make money, ALL OF THEM!''
Well duh, but games are also art. And art is created because someone actually wants to make their vision come true. Games like MGS or Resident Evil were made out of a genuine fondness for american movies and maybe wanting to troll you a bit. Games like Yakuza and Shenmue were created since somebody wanted to create a world that might actually feel real. Assassin's Creed was made since they wanted to recreate a place and time that you will never truly experience, but also present it in an interesting way.
With CoD I really don't feel that at all. I can feel that Bungie wanted to make the best goddamn Halo game they could with Halo Reach. With CoD, they were more like with a check list

1. Do you shoot guys? check
2. Are there a lot of explosions? check
3. are there a lot of set pieces? check
4. do we have some big names to play some military dudes? check
5. is there a plot that involves shooting russians? check
6. is it 5 atleast 5 hours long? check

That's it. At this point, everyone is buying these anyway so there's no actual reason to actually want to do anything artisticly.
In fact, if they made a mutli-only CoD I'd say go for it, since if there is no soul behind anything, there's no point. The multi might not have soul, but atleast the people I'm facing, fucktards all, atleast have souls that all want to shoot me and feel buttfustration whenever I sneak up on them and jam my knife up their assholes.
AssBro is easy in that it's not fustrating, but that easy is not what I call hand holding. A linear, scripted one-way-to-win game is handholding to me. This very much applies to CoD, but I'd also say that applies to The Legend Of Zelda to me. Why? Since there's only one actual way to win in that game, which is by finding the obligatory dungeon item and using it to defeat the boss in an automatic pattern.
AssBro, however, allows me deal with any situation how I want to do it. Do I want to hammer this dude with my blades? Do I want to beat him with my fists? Do I want to sneak up on him and instant kill him? Do i want to posion him? Do I want to kill him from the distance with my ranged weapons from the comfort of being a rooftop or two away? Or do I want to singal my subordinates to do the job for me? Or do I just say ''fuck this'' and just wave my hand to kill everybody with a rain of arrows? That's choice, yo! That's freedom!
That's also the reason why I want the new Deus Ex. Since at this day, there's ether the linear handholders or the open world games that are not so much about creating an interesting world with all kinds of variables as much as they are simply a giant sandbox filled with nothing but sand, which gets old after a while. I want a game that constructs maybe a world that's not as super-macro as GTA4, but a smaller world that has more variables with what you can do.
Also fuck moral choice systems, since they're much too black and white. Maybe I want to kill the evil guy (evil choice) not since I'm vengeful but because I'm doing it for the greater good so he can't return to eating babies. Maybe I'm an evil dude who saves someone (good choice) so I can make them my slave later on (otherwise known as the Yoichi Hiruma method).
But yeah, I see why there's not as much games with freedom beyond black and white moral choice systems. It's since designing things with every variable are much harder to do than an on-rails rollercoaster experience.

Also, happy new year.

Video games, motherfucker! MOST ANTICIPATED OF 2011

ALRIGHTY THEN, let's talk about the most anticipated games of next year for me, altough to be honest this mostly reflects on the first half of 2010. Also imagine the numbers and titles read in a booming video announcer voice with some digitial effects.

NUMBER T-T-T-T-TEN!
I won't lie, this game is kind of a placeholder. But still, Uncharted 2 was a pretty cool game, altough I didn't like the last levels.
Still, Uncharted is a pretty cool franchise and it's kind of interesting to see a Indiana Jones-like game that isn't shit (see : Tomb Raider).
So yeah, I'm kind of looking forward to this but it's kind of a honorable mention.

NUMBER N-N-N-N-NINE!
Also kind of a placeholder, but more anticipated. This game seems to abandon some of the pre-existing Pokemon formula to try something new, and by all means, let them do it. I look forward to sinking in a large amount of time in this game.

NUMBER EEEEEEEIIIIIIIGHT
DEAD SPACE 2.
Also a placeholder, but eh. This game looks pretty cool. I probably won't get it at launch but I'd play it.
NUMBER S-E-V-E-N
Semi-placeholder, but I want this game. inFamous was a pretty cool game, altough it had technical imperfections, a shitty story, bad character designs and a protagonist that makes me alergic to american comics, but then also it was just a really fun game where I could sort of live out my fantasies of being a motherfucking god of thunder and being a friend of justice just like ma boi Kamen Rider.
When I first saw the trailer for inFamous 2 in E3, I was like ''That's Cole? He doesn't look like a skinhead potato and actually talks like a person, a douchy person, but a person noless? COOL!''
But then they fucked it up by making him bald and more grimdark again. I BET THE PEOPLE THAT LIKE KRATOS DID THIS.

NUMBER SIXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
MARVEL VS CAPCOM 3 : FATE OF TWO WORLDS
To be honest, I'm not the biggest fan of Marvel Vs Capcom. Capcom VS SNK was my prefered versus game (but SVC Chaos can eat a dick).
But maybe the thing that turned me off of Marvel was the fact that MVC2 was so incredibly broken and by the time I got to playing it, it was disected to the bone marrows, leaving no secrets left.
But even shittier is the fact that MVC2 was unbalanced, making only like 8 characters from the 50 character roster viable, and was a game all about the zoning, which is something I don't want to do.
But still, I'll give MVC3 a try since maybe I can actually have fun with this game when it's fresh and the internet is full of new players who have yet to discover broken as fuck combinations like MSP.

NUMBER FIVE
Now here's a game nobody has heard about and probably doesn't really care, but all I needed was this trailer to convince me that I must have this game.

HOTBLOODED GODFIGHTING! CROSS COUNTER! CHOUGINGA GURREN LAGANN-SIZED MECHABUDDAH! ALSO THAT SOUNDTRACK! WHOA SHIT!
It's like they know exactly what I like! FUCKING A
Also I think this CyberConnect2's true coming out party, since all previous games were ether niche RPGs like the .hack series and the Naruto games (which, as we know, the PS3 ones are good games).

NUMBER F-F-F-OUR-R-R-R!
YAKUZA 4! Okay so as we all know, I'm a Yakuza superfan. And this game looks even better than 3. You now get to play as 3 new main characters, each with their own stories and gameplay styles. I played the Japanese demo this February and it was pretty interesting how Shun Akiyama plays with his incredibly fast and fluid kicks (and my guess that he's probably the easiest to play as character in the game). But the other characters are also interesting, Masayoshi Tanimura is a very technical character, Kazuma Kiryu will probably handle the same way as he did in the previous game, and Taiga Saejima, who is strong enough to pick up motorcycles to beat dudes up.
I'm kind of happy I held off importing this game.

NUMBER THREEEEEEEEEEE
DEUS EX : HUMAN REVOLUTION, which I stubbornly continue to call Deus Ex 3. Now neckbeards are complaining about things how they gave it regenerating health and a very brown color palette, and they're also butthurt about Square Enix publishing it.
But now, I'm a man of hope, and I think there is a serious chance this game will be great, just judging by the production values.
Also I really like the Ghost In The Shell-like asthetic this game has.

NUMBER TWWWWWOOOOOOO
MASS EFFECT 2. Now I really want to play the Mass Effect series due to how much I hear about how fantastic it is. Not a lot I can say, but in one month I get to see what's up.

NUMBER OOOONNEEEEE
NINTENDO 3DS! Fucking fantubular, I want to see what the hell is this shit about. I'm not even sure what the launch titles are, I just want to see what the hell is up.

ABSENT FORM THE LIST : FINAL FANTSAY VERSUS XIII, KINGDOM HEARTS 3, PERSONA 5, METAL GEAR SOLID RISING

Video games, motherfucker! BEST OF 2010 EDITION! and misc. achievments

SHINY COIN WITH A HOLE IN THE MIDDLE WITH A STRING TIED TO IT, DANGLED IN FRONT OF A 5 YEAR OLD AWARD FOR BEST GRAPHICS (oh god I sound like such a douche) :
Final Fantasy XIII! I can talk shit about the linearity all night, but I do also think this game had the best graphics out of any game I played. The graphics are really what they promised in the trailers, which is where Gran Turismo 5 failed to deliver. But also since this game doesn't feature any hyperrealistic grime like most of the things that the west shits out.
Runners up : Vanquish, Assassin's Creed Brotherhood and Naruto Shipuuden Ultimate Ninja Storm 2 (which would win if it was BEST CELL SHADING).

''FUCK YES, THIS IS AWESOME'' AWARD FOR BEST GAMEPLAY :
VANQUISH! Vanquish is probably my favorite single player shooter this generation, providing me 6 hours of pure balls to the wall action that was fun and made me better at video games. I never expected to enjoy bullet time ever again but this game made it fresh again, and made it a core mechanic that makes this game super fucking awesome, man.
Runners up : Bayonetta, Pac Man Championship Edition DX

'' AWW YEAH, TURN THAT SHIT UP, BRO'' AWARD FOR BEST MUSIC
And the winner is... noone!
There are a few soundtracks I liked, like Bayonetta's, FFXIII's, Scott Pilgrim and even Fist Of The North Star Ken's Rage had pretty cool. But none of those I would rank as high as I rate, say... Guilty Gear XX... Now maybe I should nominate Panty and Stocking's music?
WAIT
NO
I GOT IT!
SUPER MARIO GALAXY 2! You deserve it, my friend.

''DOGG, SHE WAS WEARING PADS THE WHOLE TIME AND IS ACTUALLY FLAT AS A BOARD'' AWARD FOR MOST DISSAPOINTING GAME
LOST PLANET 2. Okay then, this game was just a letdown. It's, once again, not unplayable, but also not very good. If I can get people to play it with me, it's kind of fun, but alone I refuse to play it, since alone is just sucks analbarf out of a colostomy bag.
Runners up : FFXIII and Gran Turismo 5

''DIGITAL IS TOTALLY THE FUTURE, DAWG'' AWARD FOR BEST DOWNLOADABLE GAME
PAC-MAN CHAMPIONSHIP EDITION DX!
I really have to thank GiantBomb for showing me this game, since the concept of a new Pac Man is like ''what? I can play that on flash, what's the big deal?'', but no. This game reinvented Pac-Man in to a game that makes me feel like I'm tripping balls while hooked up to an IV of caffine.
There's just something oh so satisfying of having a ghost train of 30 ghosts follow you, and then devour them with a power pellet, and how the game becomes faster and faster, and the point count higher and higher as Pac Man eats more and more ghosts in a way that makes me wish it won't stop.
Nonbelievers! Try this game! You'll thank me after that.
Runners up : Super Meat Boy (which I'm not good enough for), Worms Reloaded, Beat Hazzard and the list goes on and on

''VISIONS ARE WORTH FIGHTING FOR, ED WOOD'' AWARD FOR MOST AMBITIOUS GAME DESPITE LIMITATIONS
DEADLY PREMONITION! Okay I might be cheating since I didn't actually play this game, but I did watch the Giant Bomb crew play it start to finish so I guess my point is still kind of valid.
They main asthetics of this game are pretty B-grade. The Dreamcast-level graphics (in the year 2010), the gameplay which copies better games but fails to reach that level of quality. The not so memorable soundtrack, minus, the acoustic track Life Is Beutiful, which I whistle sometimes.
But where this game excells would be it's story, characters and the fact that this game had some ambition to be something more than just another budget title. I daresay the director, Swery 65, who is a poor man's Suda 51 in every sense, had more ambition with this game than any developer working under Activision (blame Bobby).
In fact, I think the protagonist, Franics York Morgan, is the best new character of 2010.
The plot of the game is very much a tribute to Twin Peaks, but is also somewhat remniscent of Shutter Island.
By the end I was invested in the story and it's characters, something that games like Red Dead Redemption, Final Fantasy XIII and certainly not Blops could do.

''TELL ME A STORY, MR.GAME!'' AWARD FOR PLOTS I GAVE A SHIT ABOUT
ACE ATTORNEY INVESTIGATIONS : MILES EDGEWORTH
Okay again it might be cheating since this is a game that's like one step above a VN. However, the Ace Attorney universe is full of interesting characters, and the detective aspect of the game is genuinely interesting and the plot was well written.
Runners up : Assassin's Creed Brotherhood, maybe Yakuza 3

''GAME I THINK IS COOL AS FUCK'' AWARD FOR BEST GAME
Assassin's Creed wins again, and if there's Assassin's Creed III next year then it'll be a hat trick. As much as I love Yakuza and am addicted to Pac Man, Assassin's Creed is my favorite.
Runners up : Yakuza 3, Dead Rising 2, Vanquish

THE ''NOT REALLY AN AWARD'' AWARD FOR GAMES I SHOULD PROBABLY GET AROUND TO PLAYING
So I have not touched my Wii for more than a year but maybe I should dust it off.
Wii games : No More Heroes 2, Super Mario Galaxy 2, Tatsunoko VS Capcom
PS3 games : Demon's Souls, 3D Dot Game Heroes, Blazblue Continuum Shift. God Of War III

TUNE BACK IN SOMETIME LATER FOR TOP 10 ANTICIPATED GAMES FOR 2011

JIKAI MO, TANOSHIMINI!

video games, motherfucker : games I played in the other half of 2010

PART TWO MOTHERFUCKERS! WOO WOOO!

Transfomers War For Cybertron is a game I picked up since I have this genetic disorder that I have to play atleast one not so good game every year.
Despite being a toy collector, I don't have any real fondness for Transformers, Beast Wars yeah, Transformers no.
Really, the reason why I picked this up was since it was the dead of summer and I needed something mindless to chew on until Q4 finally hits.
I don't really reccomend it to anyone, besides maybe hardcore transfags. The game is compitent but very bland shooter with incredibly same-y levels.
The thing that dissapointed me the most is that the Autobot and Decepticon campaigins are identical and there is no real difference betwen any of the characters from ether sides. You get the archtypes of Leader (Optimus, Megatron), the medium-armed guy, the medic and the scout. Also each campagin has one level where you play as flying transformers such as Starscream and Jetfire, but playing as them is forced in those.
But the thing is, the game isn't broken or awfuly designed, it just lacks imagination and actual spirit (kind of like the transformers toyline nowdays).
Also boss battles were horse shit.
6/10

Resonance Of Fate is a JRPG by Tri-Ace, published by SEGA. Now TriAce's last RPG, Star Ocean IV The Last Hope (or something, I forgot) was pretty shitty as I heard. But I picked Resonance Of Fate (AKA End Of Eternity in Japan) and was kind of pleased.
The setting was fairly interesting and kind of reminded me of The Big O (which I just had finished when I picked this up) in a way since it's about an isolated, sophisticated city sheltering people from an apocalyptic wasteland that nobody really knows how it became like that.
But that's about as far as I can tell you about the game's plot since I haven't gotten too far in the game.
But the designs are pretty decent since the people dress like actual people instead of bellends like in anything that Nomura gets his hands on.
The combat system is pretty interesting and reminds me of Valkyria Chronicles with lockon but in a Random encounter form.
If you want to wash your mouth out from the bland taste of FFXIII, I'd say this is the best console JRPG this year.
8/10
Alright, now we're getting serious, motherfuckers. DEAD RISING MOTHERFUCKING NUMBER TWO.
The last game that Keiji Inafune made for Capcom, which was a co-production with Blue Castle Games, makers of the MLB something-something series of baseball games which are supposed to be baller (if you like that sort of thing).
Now I love Capcom, and I know a person who loves it even more. But Capcom's sequels in the past few years were good, but not as good as their predecessors (see RE5, DMC4), and their outsourcement has resulted in some collosal failures (see Bionic Commando 2009 and Lost Planet 2), so Capcom is kind of degrading (see Keiji Inafune's statements), but DR2 and SFIV are evidence that not all hope is lost.
I didn't play Dead Rising 1 since I don't own an Xbox 360, and I didn't play the Wii version since I didn't want to catch poliosyphilis (a disease made by terrorist scientists, combining syphilis and poliomelytis).
Now, Dead Rising is an interesting experience, since it combined two of the otherwise most hated game elements of escort quests and time limits (missing only forced stealth and underwater for a tetrafecta of terrible), but it's implemented in a way that you begrudingly accept since it's a part of the construction that makes the game what it is, and without it there would be no point. Don't expect to be able to beat this game before atleast before a few resets when you get to level 20. Don't expect to be able to beat every sidequest AND the plot, ether.
As a dicking around simulator, it's fantastic, it feels just like Dawn Of The Dead, where you can go around do things in a mall you couldn't do every day, and find various interesting ways to murder zombies.
New to the table, there's the combination mechanic where you can combine two items in to weapons of death. There's obvious ones, like Bat + Nails or Bowie Knife + Broomstick, but there's also some creative ones, like Supersoaker + Gasoline, and some that only the most nerdiest would imagine, like Gem + Flashlight (which makes a lightsabre).
However, a lot of these weapons require scavenging, which takes time, which you don't have. Nailbats and other really common, yet effective combos will be your bread and butter for mowing down zombies, and if you're lucky, some sort of uncommon weapon you can stumble upon.
Also something that bounces between shit tier and WHOA SHIT would be the psychos. The psychos are living people who have went peanutbannanashitsandwich crazy and decided to kill both the living and the dead. My favorite psycho would be the one clearly based off of Chris Chan. I was like ''woah shit it can't be.... can it? OH MY GOD IT IS. ERNESTO, CHECK THIS MOTHERFUCKER GODDAMN! IT'S FREAKIN' CHRIS CHAN!''
''BRO, I DON'T KNOW IF THIS IS AWESOME OR NOT! IT'S FUCKING EMOSAWA! (not a japanese word, but awesome spelled backwards, which means awesome, but at the same time not, invented by me).''
But the bullshit part about the psychos fights is that they're not the least bit fun. There is no strategy or tactic to defeating them. Instead you better just stock up on healing items, stock up on things to bludgeon them with and just tank them. Jesus fuck it's like a boss battle from the NES era or what being a tank in WoW is like, in my opinion.
So yeah, Dead Rising 2... There's a lot to love and a lot to hate. I suggest you pick it up, but I wouldn't be surprised if you didn't get it. The game is very Japanese with it's design philosophies.
Also the game has co-op, but it's jump in jump out and the host is the only one having actual progress, the other player is also Chuck Greene but only gets money and exp. But you know what? I like it. For a game that's meant for dicking around, that's perfect. It's a lot like Saint's Row 2 co-op, which I think is groovypants, but not a miracle of game design.
I give it a 9/10 but you have to put it in perspective.

Casltevania Lords Of Shadow is a reboot by Mercury Steam.
Now take my perspective. I'm a Castlevania fan since Symphony Of The Night and I love Castleroids. So I awaited Lords Of Shadow with some fear, since it's not my cup of tea since it follows God Of War, which you might picked up on that I'm not really a huge fan of.
But judging this by it's own merits, it's actually a great action game. Not very original, but still a somewhat epic quest.
But it doesn't have that much actual familiarity or similarity in tone with other Castlevanias. Castlevania started out ever since the NES as a tribute to monster movies and the horror genre. in fact, the first game's credits have the entire development team credited under campy aliases referencing actual horror icons.
So my biggest complaint is the fact how the game takes everything very seriously, which is something I can't do with Castlevania. Altough it's kind of neat to hear Sir Patrick Stewart narrating everything dramaticly, I just flashback to Oblivion and am reminded why I don't like the more generic western fantasty fiction that much ether. Castlevania has always been a campy joke mixed with my favorite kind of 2D gameplay.
The lore of Castlevania is a joke, but the failure is that they fail to see it as such.
If you want a good god of war-like game with a pretty long duration then get it, but if you're a Castlevania fan, chances are you'll hate it.
Naruto Shipuuden Ultimate Ninja Storm 2 is an anime game based off of the second part of Naruto, the manga all 12 year olds think is amazing. Now, I have a special place in my heart for Naruto, and I played the first Ultimate Ninja Storm, which I think was the best anime-based game this generation up until UNS2.
A thing I don't know I like about this game more than I liked in the first one would be the world. UNS had a completely open recreation of Konoha (the village/city that Naruto and his friends live in), and it was great because it had great freedom, letting you scale the highest buildings and it was just fun to dick around the rooftops. It was no inFamous or Assassin's Creed, but it was still very nice.
In UNS2, you see much more of the world of Naruto, taking you through several locales outside of Konoha, like The Land Of Wind where Gaara lives, several of Orochimaru's lairs and Amegakure, where the base of operations of Pain and the Akatsuki is located, which is groovy, but the world is mostly just barren corrdors with some collectables and you don't have the same freedom to your movements as the first game in the overworld.
The actual fighting is a lot like the first game, but it's not a rehash, since every returning character has new moves to reflect on their abilities at that point in the series (and original ones for characters with a not so wide list of known moves, like Asuma) and new models to show how they've changed (there are exceptions, like Kakashi and the other jounin, Jiraya, Tsunade and Orochimaru, and members of the Akatsuki present in the previous game).
But the gameplay is still pretty much a button masher, but hey, this is a game you're supposed to drink to and say things like ''hey, remember when Rock Lee fought Gaara?'' or ''remember when Naruto was good?'', not play competetively (something people on Gamefaqs fail to undestand).
The highlights of the game would be the chapter end boss battles against (mostly) the members of the Akatsuki, and these boss battles are standard fights by themselves but feature quick time event sequences that are in my opinion, some of the best QTE I've ever seen, and makes God Of War eat a dick. These sequences do much more justice to the fights than Studio Perriot could ever do with the anime.
The game covers from the beginning of Shipuuden to Naruto defeating Pain, and also has a small epilogue about Sasuke encountering Killer Bee.
This game was the game that reignited my love for Naruto and it's seriously one of the best anime-based games I've ever played, since they tried to make more than just another anime cash in, while still trying to keep it accessable to it's stupid core audience.
Now I'm really interested in CyberConnect2's next game, Asura's Wrath, which makes me think they secretly love me and want to tailor make a game that fits my tastes. (look up Asura's Wrath on youtube and you will have your mind and jaw scattered across the floor).
Also the story mode is pretty robust, clocking in at 30 hours to beat, and still having other things to do. If you want to buy DBZ Raging Blast 2 instead, I will call you a retard and remove your penis.
8.5/10
Vanquish. Okay so you might have read my other post on Vanquish but to be honest I was sleep deprived and slightly drunk when I wrote it. So let's try again.
Shinji Mikami's Vanquish is in my opnion the best single player experience I've had this year. More so, I think this game genuinely made me better at video games. It improved my reactions, aim and coordination. Most importantly, I beat this game in two sittings, which might be a record for me.
Now granted, the game is 6 hours long, which might be a dealbreaker for some people since they want a money to time exchange smaller than 10 dollars per hour (in which case, you should get the aformentioned Naruto or Castlevania). i wish this game was longer, but I also think that the 6 hours I spent were fantastic and I should probably play again.
So I dunno, I'm pretty sure I probably won't convince bros low on money to get it for a price above 20 quid, but for that price I really say you should play it, since it is fantastic. I mean, none of you bitch about the shortness of DLC, so...
The game's climax isn't as good as the rest of the game, though... but I dunno. I really want people to play it.
8.5/10, would be more if it was longer.
Fist Of The North Star Ken's Rage is a Dynasty Warriors spinoff by Koei Tecmo. It takes the cult classic manga and adapts it to an action game. And it's actually a pretty good match, altough Koei Tecmo isn't really a good developer by any means, and this game isn't really ether.
The game is a faithful adaptation of the manga and takes you across the stories of the more important Fist Of The North Star characters, in most cases up until their deaths.
Altough I wished they had incorporated some of the more expanded Hokuto No Ken universe. such as the Gaiden mangas about the other characters. It would have been pretty cool if Raoh had a story mode based off of his Gaiden, which is the most prominent piece of Fist Of The North Star's expanded universe, after Fist Of The Blue Sky, which is a whole other story.
The game isn't good, but it's not broken. I just played it since I'm a fan of the series and it was kind of cool seing a Fist Of The North Star game at this day and age outside of Japan, altough I'd personally prefer a PSN port of the fighter made by Arc System Works.
I don't really reccomend it to anyone, but it's not horrible.
6.8/10
Call of Duty Black Ops is the latest installment in the cash cow franchise by Activision. I bought it mostly since my cousin was coming over and I was pretty sure he wouldn't be interested in playing most of the games I have since he's a filthy uncultured swine.
But I also bought it since I wanted to play some Blops mutli. Now, whenever I buy a multiplayer game, I'll always look for the one with the largest community, so this one automatically became much more favored against Bad Company 2 and Medal Of Honor (lol). I'd prefer Halo Reach to this but sadly no Xbox 360.
I watched my cousin play the single player and I thought it was alright. I should probably finish it some day.
But really, the only reason why I'm weary about CoD is since it's money goes to Bobby Kotick, knows jack shit about actual games and development and only cares about maximum profit disregarding actual artistic value. (eat a dick, mark)
8/10
Assassin's Creed Brotherhood (or Ass is Red Bro Hood, or AssBro) is the direct sequel to my 2009 game of the year, Assassin's Creed 2. Now, Assassin's Creed 2 blew away every single expectation I had about it and I fell in love with it. When I heard they're doing a direct sequel, as opposed to Mark, I was positive, since I was happy that I could find out what happens next to my dear friend Ezio.
And the game is even better than AC2. You have the gigantic city-state of Rome where you can jump around rooftops as much as you like. You have new gadgets made by Leonardo to fiddle with. You have more nigs to stab. You have more ways to stab nigs. There's even more variety and imagination in the missions and mission types. You can recruit subordinates who you can summon at any time to help you stab nigs. There's just so much stuff. Goddamn.
And in this case it's just as much Desmond's story as it is Ezio's.
I haven't beaten the game yet, but I damn sure will.
But I really do think the next game should not feature Ezio, atleast not prominently, since after this his story is truly over.
10/10
Gran Turismo 5 is the last game on my list, altough we still haven't touched up upon the DL games.
So I was anticipating GT5 pretty hard. Am I dissapointed? Meh.
Game is wast and expansive, but also very Japanese in terms of design philosophy (and driving games are where I don't want Japanese-ness). There are too many menus, and they could have been easly optimized and min-maxed in to a lot less button presses.
But the driving aspect itself isn't all too bad.
So the driving aspect itself is really good, but the game around it is not great. This is certainly not a bad game, but even more certainly not the titanic supergame to end all driving games.
Right now I think of Kazunori Yamauchi in the same way that I think of Peter Molyneux.
8/10, but dissapointing.

So these are all the disc based PS3 games I played this, year, I might also do another post on the downloadable games I played.

Video games, motherfucker : games I played in the first 6 months of 2010

As we all know, I play a lot of video games. Let me talk about them. Cool. Also I hope this will lessen the claim that I only talk about Japanese things

Bayonetta is an action game by Hideki Kamiya, the man who made DMC, a game that defined the way action games worked 10 years ago (but did not participate in DMC3 which was the best one).
Bayonetta leaves me with mixed feelings. On one half, the gameplay is good as fuck, I mean goddamn, DMC now feels slow in comparision and also I really appreciate the over the top factor this game has by trying to be insane in ways video games have not tried yet, and I really like the soundtrack since it's pianos are distinct.
On the other half, Bayonetta's character designs, enemy designs, voice acting and the way the characters behave is fucking obnoxious. While it is funny at first when Bayonetta drops those ''oh you naughty boy do you want nanny to give your bottom a good spanking'' lines, but by the 4th hour it really starts to annoy me since that is the only real traits they had given her.
And then there's the silly, silly pretentions to sexuality that the defenders of which like to think that it intimidates the kind of people that play games like Rapelay, but I don't know. When I think of a strong woman from Japanese media, I think Motoko Kusanagi from Ghost In The Shell or Maki Aikawa from Air Master or maybe Claire from Claymore, not Bayonetta.
You can tell me to cry on classic white haired Dante's grave as much as you like, or you can tell me that the gameplay is all that matters. Well, I don't agree. Gameplay alone only mattered back in the Atari days and maybe the NES days when technology wasn't good enough to make actual living worlds to immerse yourself in so they had to rely on the basic instinct of IT FEELS GOOD TO DO THIS. Saying that gameplay is the only thing that matters in games is the same as saying that in a movie, the only element that truly matters is acting and other elements are to be disregarded (which I would argue to be true in old theater, maybe).
Also another thing that messed with my enjoyment of the game was the shit-ness of the PS3 port, which fucked with me hardcore.
Which is too bad since I really looked forward to what is in terms of gameplay the best action game of 2010.
8/10

Yakuza 3 is a game that made me go on a quest to get as much of my nigs to play, since I genuinely think it's Sega's best franchise.
The Yakuza series is the spiritual successor of the Shenmue series, in that it's sort of like a Japanese open world game that prefers immersion over scale.
Actually, I played this game in 2009 after I imported it from Japan (along with Ryu Ga Gotoku Kenzan, the samurai spinoff of Yakuza), but I really looked forward to the western release so I could fully understand what's happening and be able to do things other than the main plotline.
The game lets you play as Kazuma Kiryu, ex-yakuza who runs an orphanage and overall man's man in a truly manly sense (see Gears of War and God Of War's main characters as examples of what 12 year olds think is manly, but isn't quite).
I don't really know how to classify Yakuza, but I suppose the most accurate description would be an action-adventure RPG. The combat is a brawler but there's also leveling up, character upgrading, items and crafting in the mix, altough a realistic take on modern day Osaka and Tokyo's criminal ongoings aren't quite what you think of when someone says Action RPG.
Also the game has a wide range of minigames that have more dept and craftsmanship in them than what you would find in a Wii minigame collection. My favorite one was the billiard minigame.
So overall, Yakuza has an immersive and expansive world that recreates Japan pretty well, and by Japan I mean actual Japan, not animu Japan. Actual Japan with love hotels, perverted salarymen, corrupt politicians, miserable otaku and bars manly with rich, old dirty men soliciting sex from the hostesses and yakuza henchmen forcing out an apology from you if you so much as to look at them wrong.
Yakuza is sort of an aquired taste, it doesn't appeal to the average whitey gamer since all the voice acting is in foregin, but it also doesn't appeal to the average weaboo since it isn't the glorified animu japan they dream of (spoilers : they are just as despised in Japan as they are in the west), with a cast that is entirely ether men around the ages of 30 and + or kids that don't call you ''oniichan'' and ask you to do seemingly innocent things that end up in sex, and the general fact that the modeling is fairly realistic, with not a single hint of animu.
9/10 would play again if the disk wasn't damaged.

Final Fantasy XIII is the analdump that was considered the RPG to save JRPGs before it came out, but was ultimately the bullet in the leg that made Squeenix's stock collapse (and FFXIV was the one that took off the tip of the shaft).
It has fantastic graphics and a really nice soundtrack.
I won't really complain about the cast ether, since while they're not perfect, FF always had semi-shitty casts (don't let nostalgia tell you otherwise).
But the thing I cannot forgive is the lack of freedom in both traversing the world and in the actual combat. Kingdom Hearts had several worlds and gave you the freedom of do whatever you like in them, they were mostly just sections of corridors, but atleast they made you feel like there is a large, expansive universe. FFX (which I might remind you, is the best FF) might have had a turn based combat system, but atleast it had actual tactics instead of MASH ATTACK OH BUTTERNUGGETS THIS MENU IS UNINTUITIVE. Also FFX was composed of mostly just long hallways, but they atleast resulted in the feeling of what was a large, epic quest that took you across an actual world. FFXIII just felt like it was holding your hand the whole time. They say that the game gets better after 20 hours and everything opens up, but by the time I hit 20 hours I could have played (and probably beat) some other game, or an even better analogy : that's like saying it's awesome to have sex with prostitutes after you get over the STDs.
6/10

Pokemon Soul Silver is a remake of Pokemon Gold/Silver, which you might consider redundant, since Pokemon is already a series that is bedfellows with the concept of rehashing. But I digress, I play every one of the main Pokemon games.
But I have a particular connection to Silver since it was the first Pokemon game I played and beat. I have a certain fondness for Red/Blue but I honestly think Silver is the best and the remake of which is groovypants. It's great to reexperience the adventure but it's not quite the same, but then again what is when you're not 10 anymore.
But what I like best about Silver that annoys me about the other Pokemon games is that Silver was the only one to let you revisit the territory of the first game, which is awesome, since it gives you that feeling of ''hey it's cool to be here'', doubles the places you can visit to waste time and the developers don't have to work really hard to expand the game significantly, which is good for both the player and the developers.
8/10
Ace Attorney Investigations : Miles Edgeworth (which was rumored to have the more awesome title ''Miles Edgeword : Perfect Prossecutor'') is a spin off of the Ace Attorney visual novel series. Ace Attorney is the only visual novel series that has continued to keep me interested without a single exposed nipple because of the prospects of having a wank. The previous Ace Attorney game, Apollo Justice Ace Attorney was kind of good but did not satisfy since it pushed aside the beloved protagonist Phoenix Wright in favor of Apollo Justice, who is just like him but not him.

But while Phoenix's story is probably done, there is still one character who is worthy of his own Ace Attorney game, and that would be Phoenix's rival Miles Edgeworth.
Furhermore, Ace Attorney Investigations changes up the gameplay a bit by having you actually navigate the world instead of just clicking static pictures, and also there's the logic system, which has you put threads together to create deductions, which give you a clearer image of what exactly is going on, instead of just have you blindly present evidence without being sure.

The story has Miles Edgeworh joined by his sidekick, detective Dick Gumshoe (might as well call him Cock Condom) and the female sidekick, the kaito (phantom thief) Kay Faraday (who is exclusive to this game so far) (since every Ace Attorney main character has a teenage girl hang out with him). And through five seemingly unrelated cases about a detective being killed in Edgeworth's office, an foregin agent investigating smuggling being murdered on a plane, the son of a millionare being held hostage in an amusement park by unknown assilants, a flashback case in which Miles, Gumshoe, Franziska Von Karma and Kay Faraday were involved and finally the case in which it all shows the full picture of the Yatagarasu case that intervines the entire plot of the game.

A flaw that Apollo Justice had was that it abandoned a large part of the cast of the first three VNs. AAI does a better job. Altough nor Phoenix nor any of the Fey family or any characters directly associated with Phoenix's story don't make an appearance, there is still a fare share of familiar faces like Dick Gumshoe, Franziska Von Karma, Ema Skye and even Manfred Von Karma make an apperance. Phoenix is even given a really well done nod to in a crucial moment without actually mentioning him. Oh yeah and the two comic relief scapegoat characters Larry Butz and old hag Oldbag reappear.
But the new characters are also pretty cool. I like Kay, but my favorite would be Shi Long Lang, the detective from the east, who just leaks Junichi Suwabe(Archer from Fate/Stay Night, Grimjow Jeagerjaques from Bleach)/Kazuya Nakai(Roronoa Zoro), who is just totally awesome, and mostly antagonizes Miles by providing arguments, but at the very end does a clever ploy to help Miles solve the case of the Yatagarasu.
Also honorable mentions to the embassedor of Babahl, who's name escapes me, but he was helpful, friendly and with the best intentions, so in other words, a bro.
Sadly, Ace Attorney games have no replay value unless you play them like several years later.
8/10 will read again

Super Street Fighter IV is the updated version of Street Fighter IV, and an overall better game. Now, Street Fighter IV is my favorite multiplayer game of the generation, and one of the most important games this generation since it single-handedly revived the popularitiy of the fighting game genre, a genre that had not been doing so well since the death of arcades.
And Super Street Fighter IV is an even better thing, adding 10 more characters and expanding the move sets of every character, having even better multi, redoing the anime cutscenes to be less shitty and generally giving more content.
Also a thing I like is that it gave character themes to the entire cast, whereas in vanilla only a few characters had their own character themes and for some retarded reason the composers made unmemorable stage themes instead. And maybe the new character themes not so much, but the rearranges of existing themes are pretty awesome.
I'm most thankful for the addition of Adon, a character from the very first Street Fighter and Street Fighter Alpha, who suits me entirely by being very rushdowning, entirely melee focused, a QCF character and easy to use. In fact, after going from Fei Long to Adon, I had the same feeling as Takumi Fujiwara from Initial D when he drived his dad's Subaru Impreza after spending so much time with the AE86.
Oh and did I mention that the game was 25GBP at launch? Now that's a fantastic deal!
10/10

First true dissapointment of the year, Lost Planet 2 is a mishandled concept that could have been fantastic. The idea was this, co-op alien monster slaying shooter action! Monster hunter like looting! Feel like a badass while slaying giant monsters! Ride mecha!
But they kind of fucked it up with not very good, cluttered controls and a general lack of polish. Which is a shame, because with actual dedication this could have been a really great co-op game.
A lot of people hate this game to death, I personally don't think it's terrible, but a big letdown. It's fun to co-op, but then again everything is.
The online is inhabited by Japanese people who are also probably masters of Monster Hunter. And Monster Hunter, too, is a game that has a great concept, but is kind of fumbled and failed but still adored by the Japanese.

Red Dead Redemption, the new Rockstar game that sweeps all the GOTY rewards. Okay, this game is good, but maybe I'm missing part of the picture. You see, as someone who originates from an ex-soviet country, I didn't see a lot of cowboy movies because they were kind of irrelevant to me both because of age and ethnicity.
This game is... well... kind of boring to me. I'm sure an american could appreciate the arguable authenticity of being able to play around in what feels like a John Wayne movie, but I don't.
Game has a lot to do and the world is expansive, but at the same time it's very slow moving and there's a moral choice system which fucks with me, because on one hand I know that the wild west is most fun when you beat up women, hang negros and shoot people over a game of cards, but at the same time I want to be a friend of justice like ma boi Kamen Rider.
Game is well crafted, but doesn't quite hook me in. If the game had a smaller, but more detailed world like Yakuza, then I think it would work much better for me personally.
Also I couldn't give a shit about John Marston (who certainly is no Ezio) since he was boring and even less a shit about the characters around him and the plot.
But I do still think there should be more history-based games, that is a pretty cool concept.
8/10

Tune back in tomorrow for the other 6 months of the year, with a lot more games.