Balatro (2024)

Hello everyone I'm XboxClown89, my brother bought me some stuff on Steam. I previously wanted the newest DLC for Puppet Master: The Game. He also bought me a game I previously discussed in here not long ago. Balatro, I figured I voted for it in The Game Awards 2024 within every category. I may as well play the actual game for myself.

Balatro (2024)

I will be honest, I don't have many card games. I'm a huge fan of Resident Evil VII's 21 mode. I previously owned both Poker Night games. You know the crossover Telltale Poker games? You would think I wouldn't struggle much in Balatro. You actually would be quite wrong about that. Balatro is a rather unique take on poker.

One guy over two years developing this made an roguelike poker game. Which quickly became one of my favorite indie games in years. I am quite serious, Balatro turns poker into possibly the most exciting thing ever!!! Of course, you have access to the typical deck of cards. Then that's when things quickly becomes more interesting.

Balatro also adds trait cards as well as planet cards into the mix. Also Joker cards are notably presented in this too. All of them adds to the overall experience in so many ways. Trait cards all differ in what they do. My two favorite trait cards are Fool and High Priestess. Fool card automatically gives you the recent planet or trait card yo used.

This could be a double edge sword. But assuming you worked this into your strategy like I did. Then using this could be a god send. High Priestess card gives you two random planet cards. Planet cards in general level up your combination you can draw during matches. For example if you want to increase your overall points to win matches.

You could level up a single pair or double that. Yes this also applies to Flushes and Straights too. Before we get into the true uniqueness of it all. I still got to discuss the remaining stuff with the shop. You also can buy more cards which includes additional bonus versions. Yes some of those bonuses stack on top of each other.

The best part is unlike both planet and trait cards, these will reappear within your deck by default. Which means you can eventually use em again. You always have the option to add in more cards to better your chances. You also can buy Vouchers that differ things to a degree. They usually on a slightly higher price range.

Also every set which there are three each has an Voucher you can buy. Now all of that out the way, I bet some of you dying to hear about Joker cards right? Easily the best cards in the entire game. Sure, not all of them are winners for many reasons. Some requires particular combinations played in order to work. They notably differ in what each Joker card brings to the table.

It's very critical you get the right five Joker cards. Even having four of them that works amazingly well will get you further into runs. One or two not great Joker cards will quickly end runs. You also have the option to skip most of a set through buying those skips. Personally I don't recommend relying on skipping.

I rather go the longer route with my upgrades being more higher leveled. I finally can discuss the main points system. You get a blue side that represents amount of chips that can get multiplied. The red side virtually is the multiplier itself. Which can be notably increased to better your chances. I had so many failed attempts at trying to win just one run.

Before anyone asks this game forces you to start from the easiest difficulty. You can push yourself to get the harder difficulties. I should mention, you also get different decks with a notable change. A couple of them are simply in a different color. Balatro does have more unique designed decks you can unlock.

I also wanna say Joker cards really has personality to em. You can tell the developer really had a thing for Jokers or clown characters in general. Somehow all this additional complexity works in a surprisingly much simpler method. At first starting the game you got so much to learn. Obviously you are going to lose a lot before you start to truly understand how the game works.

Just in case people wanted to know. Which Joker cards are among my favorites. Misprint Joker has randomized multiplier. I also kinda liked it's design as well. Popcorn Joker is great for bigger point multiplying in matches. The only real issue I have with that is at random the card disappears. My personal favorite Joker card is Burnt Joker.

This card in the right hands can destroy a good amount of this game. Burnt Joker involves your first discards within matches. Whatever combination even High Card automatically gets leveled up one. This obviously comes with a risk. At the same time, the right cards to discard can make all the difference.

The better part is considering you can stack. You could get two similar Joker cards that levels up your multipliers. Just imaging Space Joker with Burnt Joker. Speaking of Space Joker, he's among my favorite Joker cards too. Space Joker at random among doing any combination even High Card will level em up.

This also means you can be quite creative how you go about increasing the multiplier. Balatro is heavily about being creative with your moves. Not a single match is boring in this whatsoever. In every possible way the perfect balance of everything imaginable. I really can't directly criticize anything because the game automatically balances itself out.

Balatro is virtually an 9.5 game right off the bat. I know some people didn't like an card game made it into Game of the Year awards. Hell it even won a particular Game of the Year award. I can strongly say this game truly deserved it's nomination. This reminds me in a few ways to REVII's 21 mode. Look I know I'm about to compare an Black Jack mini game to an poker game.

I'm more of a Black Jack person myself. I still wanna say Balatro is the one way I really wanna play poker. To me, this game was really refreshing as well as inspiring. Again one person made such an game, I'm deeply impressed. This is exactly why I recently found indie developers more impressive. Balatro already on most platforms, I played it through Steam.

I would love to own this on GOG. Balatro is a game you wouldn't believe works this mind blowing well. Especially considering all the information you need to take in. Eventually you quickly memorize enough of it to play the game well. There's also additional skins for decks, which I haven't tried yet. I'll give an example considering Death Battle about to do Among Us vs Fall Guys episode.

They have an Among Us skin for the decks, I love that!!! The best part is this game amazingly cheap as well as being notably smaller than most Game of the Year nominees. You are getting everything right off the bat justifying it's price. In comparison, most of them are notably a lot bigger than Balatro. You actually need to free up a lot of GBs off your platform of choice to play em.

They are much more expensive with some having DLCs too. It's nice to have a game that gives you everything for much less. Of course you should know the famous saying. "Big things comes in small packages." Which perfectly describes Balatro in a nut shell. I am deeply proud to given this game my votes in The Game Awards 2024.

Balatro is never boring at all even during the first matches. Where you need to earn 300 points to continue on. No upgrades prior you can still lose this. Roughly 8 out of 10 times you'll win. Then again I didn't go beyond the second lowest difficulty at the time of writing this review. In all honestly, Balatro made something like poker into one of the absolute greatest indie games I ever played!!!

Renfield: Bring Your Own Blood (2023)

Hello everyone I'm XboxClown89, I been planning a few video game reviews for some time. I will confirm the biggest one among them going to require a lot more hours. Before I can even begin to write my review on it. The game in question is that good I really want the actual review to be as close to perfection.

I figured to start things with the vampire game I also put a lot of time into. I played a little of a few similar games. Vampire Survivors and Brotato respectively through Game Pass. I kept eyeing up this particular movie game. It's loosely based on an movie called Renfield. You know that Nicholas Cage Dracula movie. I still haven't seen the movie.

I'm glad Universal didn't rush this game out. They were guilty doing that back in the PS1 era. Renfield is a game I really wanted to talk about. I still felt like I need more vampire games in my collection. I played plenty of everything else horror related especially demons and zombies. I wanted to show respect towards vampires this year.

Renfield: Bring Your Own Blood (2023)

This game actually had an early access period within the same year it gotten released in. Which is kinda crazy considering some games I previously bought that were early access took a few years. Before they officially left early access to release. Renfield is a roguelike shoot em up style game. Roguelike is a rather unique genre.

I actually already planning to review another game that's a different style of the same genre very soon. Roguelike is virtually randomizing majority of the game. At the same time, you will be given upgrades. You can choose which upgrades you wanna use. There's no run going to be remotely the same period. This alone adds so much to the overall experience.

You either could be notably weaken or chosen too many of the not great upgrades. You really want stuff that works very well together. Especially in the later levels with some notably difficulty spikes. Simply having the right weapons with enough upgrades. You actually could destroy levels in no time. You also get some familiars that each have their own health bars.

Like Brotato, each level does have an end. You constantly fighting through waves of enemies. Like Vampire Survivors, you also can use points earned to upgrade many stuff. Therefore, you will be bettering your chances before going back in. But it also gets crazier than expected. You also unlock upgrades for familiars.

There's also characters as well as outfits you can buy. A lot of characters to choose from including two versions of Dracula. Personally I'm a bigger fan of Sun Kissed Dracula version myself. At one point in the levels, another character you play as shows up. They simply move around not doing much. They are automatically protected because after you survive that wave.

You will be given a choice save or kill em. It's not quite like the first two BioShock games with that system. I don't see much of a real difference other than choosing kill route. Those characters dies off screen screaming. There's a decent amount of levels with no true path to go. The bosses are notably different from each other.

I really like I can play this game with just one hand. You have no idea how rare that is for me. I could be drinking some of my favorite drinks with one hand. At the same time I'm playing Renfield it's kinda awesome. You can believe this game is filled with enemies. I recently came to like roguelike games such as these.

Just imagine back in the 90s more of those existed. Especially on consoles I grew up playing. I probably own too many of them by now lol. Renfield is a surprisingly decent licensed game. There's the right level of challenge making it a truly fun experience. My favorite level takes place at the apartments.

This is set up vastly different from the other levels I played. It's one big open area that doesn't lead to additional locations. I know some people might find that a little boring. But when the action really picks up here wow. This level actually an endless level by default. This means the level keeps going until I lose.

I even maxed out leveling during one of my first runs on that level. Renfield might be the best licensed Dracula game I ever heard of. Just imagine if this would've gotten release back in the 90s. It would've blown people's minds in a great way I'm not that sick. This is easily among the most replayable indie video games I ever played!!!

I kinda felt some aspects to me were done a little better than Vampire Survivors. Look I know that has a couple DLCs, it recently gotten an Castlevania one in fact. I do wanna confirm this game isn't an knock off that in any possible way. Yeah both sorta play on vampire concepts with similar mechanics. I felt most that played both games agree they are still quite different from each other.

This is a loose recreation of a movie. Which in itself was a loose adaptation somewhat spin off story to the Dracula novel. You actually play as two versions of Renfield with the later named "Robert" among my favorite characters. My actual favorite character is Bat Head. "Hey you can play as Batman!!!" Just kidding folks, it's more similar to one of Batman's enemies, Man-Bat.

He's a humanoid bat character that has a loud scream attacking. I should mention every character by default has one weapon. Some has a few additional stuff but that's about it. Mostly an ability that plays into their play style. Let's be honest, they all can virtually play the same to a degree. Just how it all begins with those characters the only true difference.

I also liked they went with a meat golem character. When I found out about this character, I was a bit caught off guard. I previously knew the concept from Castlevania series. I strongly felt in every aspect this game truly deserves an 9.5 from me. I absolutely loved every single minute I played of it. I highly recommend you try out this game soon, it's truly amazing stuff.

My thoughts on Treehouse of Horror Presents: Simpsons Wicked This Way Comes

Hello everyone I'm XboxClown89, I just watched the new spin off episode within The Simpsons' Treehouse of Horror series. I ended up watching it twice, I'll explain more on that shortly. I originally didn't go in with high hopes. I will say this quickly won me over. I'm just happy to have a few Treehouse of Horror episodes within the same year.

Treehouse of Horror Presents: Simpsons Wicked This Way Comes (2024)

The Simpsons goes to a circus while Lisa wasn't happy. She wonders off meeting the fired Illustrated Man. This character voiced by Andy Serkis. You may remember him in many movies including Marvel Cinematic Universe films. They played off of a tattoo person telling their stories represented by their tattoos.

Honestly it kinda worked for this Treehouse of Horror episode. Just before the stories started, I quickly recall a similar set up Simpsons episode that's also non canon. Lisa's Wedding from Season 6 where Lisa almost got married. By now The Simpsons done a lot of what if future scenarios. Not the reason I mentioned it in this comparison.

In that episode Lisa meets a fortune teller at the Renaissance Fair. Who shows Lisa a vision of her what if future. The first segment is called The Screaming Woman. It heavily plays off of that famous concept of a boy who cried wolf. Bart was in the woods when he heard a woman. He tried to convince his parents something wasn't right.

All these segments are based on stories written by Ray Bradbury. His name directly reference as the name of the circus. I kinda missed that on the first watch. I do liked they tied his name into this like that. I just wish he might cameo like Stephen King does in several adaptations of his works. This was a surprisingly done tribute to the author.

Of course, they didn't believe him causing Bart to go to his bedroom upset. I do liked they went for some classic phone jokes with Milhouse. I also gotta mention, Pamela Hayden who voiced a lot of Simpsons characters retired. This was among her final episodes of the show. This also means her last Treehouse of Horror episode.

You start to feel bad for Bart who usually isn't this caring. It's once in a blue moon in canon Simpsons stories. This kinda reminded me of a classic Simpsons episode. Bart the Mother from Season 10, Bart shot the mom bird killing her. He takes care what he thought were her eggs. A twist happens they were actually lizards.

This is sorta playing on a similar emotion concept. In both situations you feel bad for Bart. It turns out the mysterious "woman" in the hole actually Milhouse's dad. The police let his wife off the hook over something I viewed to be stupid. Honestly, for the first segment within 2020 Treehouse of Horror episodes.

It's among the best of them hands down. I do like they went with this story. But at the same time they found ways to make it their own. I would even dare to say it's way better than The Information Rage. This clearly had enough time to finish properly. I would even consider rewatching this more. I still think the other two segments are better.

The second segment is Marionettes, Inc. Treehouse of Horror episodes done some similar concepts before. We got Send in the Clones where Homer kept cloning himself. Eventually his clones started to do it to the point they became a threat to the world. Lout Break also involving Homer causes a viral outbreak.

Most of the world becomes infected to transform into Homers. Intrusion of the Pod-y Switchers, aliens swapped places with humans that caused chaos to a degree. Obviously there's also The Thing and I, Bart had a twin brother. It was no surprise they were going to do another doppelganger take. Superintendent Chalmers takes advice to get a robot doppelganger.

In a twist, Principal Skinner also gotten his own robot doppelganger. Carl warns them about robots experiencing emotions that's causing em to have free will. This already reminds me of a particular Christmas movie funny enough. The Santa Clause 2, Santa had to get married before Christmas. He had some of the elves makes a toy doppelganger.

Which led to the evil toy Claus becoming a dictator. This is indirectly similar to that since both of them are among the highest authority figures in that school. Both involve with children to a degree. I felt this comparison not only works but also makes sense. This had a surprisingly happy ending with everything considered.

I would say this was rather interesting from start to finish. I still think Death Tome is way better. But this was a great second segment especially among the 2020 Treehouse of Horror episodes. I actually enjoyed this one a lot, it was all well done. You actually could see this happen within The Simpsons canon.

I also liked this partly played into Futurama a bit with the story taking place in the future. This was among the best school theme Treehouse of Horror stories they ever done!!! I still prefer maybe because I'm twisted like that. School is Hell where Bart goes to school in Hell. Which also had a few versions of those characters.

Mostly I'm talking about Superintendent Chalmers and Principal Skinner respectively. I felt this was a rather clever story. It also kinda reminded me of a particular Will Smith movie. I, Robot that also involves robots going against their orders from humans. Personally I do slightly prefer that over this story.

To be fair, this is among the best performances of a few Simpsons characters in a long time. There's no question, this is a high recommendation. This is also indirectly similar to a personal favorite Treehouse of Horror story I always enjoyed. House of Whacks that also had an AI rebelling against an human. This is widely different since that's an AI controlled house while these were robot copies of people.

There's also Simpsons World that had a lot of Simpsons characters having doppelgangers. Which is also among my favorite robot theme Treehouse of Horror episodes. Also if you haven't already guessed by now. The robot Simpsons family rebelled against the theme park to escape. I also think it's among the best doppelganger stories they ever told as well.

I also gotta mention Life's a Glitch, Then You Die. Homer didn't set up computers at the nuclear power plant causing Y2K to happen. All of those are way better than Untitled Robot Parody. Which also had technology rebelling against humanity. Somehow the way it's done here I really enjoyed. I would even say among the best of them.

The third and final segment is Fahrenheit 451 is in my opinion the best segment of the episode. This was a great Simpsons parody that was among the best within 2020 Treehouse of Horror episodes. The original story it's parodying was more about people destroying books. I loved they changed it to being older television shows.

Which was the perfect direction to go with the concept. We have Homer that changed sides when he enjoyed episodes of America's Funniest Home Videos. I knew eventually in some way they had to do this. Anyone with VHS tapes of these tapes gets their copies destroyed. It kinda reminded me partly of Danger Things.

Which also had Homer wore a similar suit using an flame thrower. This kinda parodied people's view over shows to a degree, I loved that!!! Not only that, they were quite creative with this. This was among my favorite final segments within Treehouse of Horror episodes. It indirectly reminds me of Simpsons World.

Simpsons World was filled with a lot of references to the show. This is kinda similar to that except the main Simpsons family aren't robot. Also only Homer acted on destroying copies of older shows. The rest of them only watched TV that's it. They virtually used the more complex shows to control people. Homer does find the main source of these shows left in town.

This ended up playing off like a similar twist in Total Recall. The older movie with Arnold Schwarzenegger to clarify. Where Carl Hauser also known as Douglas Quaid got tricked into leading Richter to the mutants. Homer was tricked to leading the authorities to that source of media. The group decided to tell stories from those shows at a location outside town.

Obviously, Homer would tell America's Funniest Home Videos that way was pure genius. There was one writer that written the entire episode. I was very surprised how great it truly was. There's one more twist before the ending credits fully roll. It turns out the longer Lisa listened to those stories. The more of her becoming a living tattoo on The Illustrated Man's body.

Well that was kinda outside the box ending if I ever seen one. How does this compare to Treehouse of Horror 35? Honestly it was way better I'm not kidding. Even as much I loved Denim with a huge passion. They really knocked this out the park here. This was well written from to start to end in comparison.

The stories might not play off the actual horror factor within Treehouse of Horror episodes. At the same time, all of them felt more like The Simpsons. This comes so close to rivaling Treehouse of Horror 33. Which is really saying a lot I know. I actually can't criticize much about it. Probably the closest issue I had was I kinda wished we started with Lisa to the man before it happened.

In my mind, I felt they could've did a lot with the longer introduction. Especially how strangely interesting that guy turned out to be. I do think choosing Lisa to talk to him was a wise choice. Just makes you wonder if it was a different Simpsons family member. What stories we might've gotten instead.

This one change really gives you some ideas before the actual stories. It would help to give more suspense to the overall theme. In other words to help pull you in more. Other than that they should do more spin off Treehouse of Horror episodes like this. The only thing left is to compare it to the other spin off Treehouse of Horror episode.

Not It was a great parody easily among my favorite Stephen King parodies they done. It even rivals The Shinning, also based on a book of his works. I do like both of these spin off episodes are directly inspired by authors. I do know Stephen King way better. I have little to nothing to go on regarding Ray Bradbury.

I will say this Not It was broken into two parts. Which is directly parodying both It movies. This is like three separate stories connected to an overall story through a few characters. Mostly Lisa and The Illustrated Man respectively. I know some might view this as an unfair comparison. No matter how you view it, I can't do anything about that.

I would say this ended up being more interesting than Not It. I also could argue is somewhat funnier as well. Both are more of their unique point of views from the typical Treehouse of Horror episodes. I would heavily recommend rewatching both close to or on Halloween. I surprisingly had to go with the newer spin off episode.

I partly felt Simpsons characters got used slightly better. Also it was harder to predict things. Not only that, they made three stories into three entertaining parodies of the same author's works. I gotta give em respect for pulling that off. You really can't go wrong with either spin off Treehouse of Horror episodes. I already felt 2020 wise, Treehouse of Horror episodes going to easily beat out the 2010 ones.

This is exactly why I love The Simpsons so much. The insane level of creativity they had for over thirty years is truly impressive stuff. They should parody more author's works. Especially if they do it like some Treehouse of Horror episodes. Honestly, the newer spin off episode is truly amazing at what it delivers.

My thoughts on Ghostface in Mortal Kombat 1

Hello everyone I'm XboxClown89, I'm happy more video games has Ghostface. As a kid, I always wanted to play the character in them. Sadly he wasn't in any of them during my childhood, yes I checked. When I found out he's coming to Mortal Kombat 1, the kid in me was thrilled. Even with Warner Brothers Discovery going up in smoke right now, I still love his inclusion to the game.

I actually got a lot to talk about. I been keeping a close eye on anything Ghostface relating to Mortal Kombat 1. Such as his identity let me rephase that identities. Ghostface is three characters possibly a fourth through mirror match. They really went the full distance giving us movie Ghostface. We got the voice over responsible for the iconic Ghostface voice.

They went for Scream movie franchise copy rights. They also went for the costume's copy rights. For those that doesn't know even Scream franchise had to make a similar arrangement with the costume company. This also allows more Ghostface costumes into the game. Very similar to Dead by Daylight with their own Ghostface character.

Now we gotta talk about whose Ghostface in this game. Two Mortal Kombat characters you wouldn't expect are two of the Ghostface characters. Kobra and Kira are both members of Black Dragon clan. You know the same clan led by Kano. Two professional assassins dressed up as Ghostface, I never even considered.

The big surprise is the third and fourth Ghostface's identities. The main Ghostface is surprisingly the original movie Ghostface himself, Billy. In mirror matches, he's replaced by the second Ghostface Stu. We know this because of a particular intro of these mirror matches. Sadly it's kinda a huge major missed opportunity.

I wanna clarify I'm not criticizing them choosing Billy over Stu. Let's be honest, it's like a coin toss with those two. There's no real wrong answer here. What does matter is Stu would've brought a lot more funny jokes to the game. Then again I'm still surprised Call of Duty pulled off Ghostface as well as they did.

I already see Ghostface's ending, it kinda works. It also directly references one of his fatalities with Johnny Cage cameo. I felt his main finishers are all well selected for this game. It's actually done better than Freddy in MK9. Who also got a reference by Ghostface in an intro as well. Considering Wes Craven created both slasher villains, it's no secret.

I also liked they indirectly reference a few things in his ending. Live streaming his murders, Scream 4 anyone? Cage playing an Stab game could be seen as a reference to either Call of Duty or Dead by Daylight. In both games, Ghostface is played in first person. But in Call of Duty, the same voice actor reprised the role.

This is already better than Chucky getting into Dead by Daylight. I remembered when people didn't think so highly of Ghostface years ago. All of a sudden, people really can't get enough of the character. I am curious what changed over the years? Maybe I should be thanking Deadpool movies for that.

Obviously they wanna tie into Scream 7. Which mostly been mixed from what's revealed about it. I would only be surprise it doesn't suck. There's no question, they absolutely nailed the character perfectly here. I honestly couldn't be any happier with this. I am truly impressed they done the character justice.

Scary Movie 6

There's one unrelated thing I wanna add since Ghostface got referenced in the upcoming Scary Movie 6. The Wayan brothers got the franchise back. Personally, I felt they could've easily made more movies they already owned or create a new franchise altogether. Regardless, they plan to parody Scream series again.

I actually was a huge fan of the original Scary Movie myself. I probably sound like a broken record over this. I always considered it as an Scream movie for many reasons. Therefore, it's among my favorite Ghostface movies ever!!! I do think they got a shot at making it better than Scary Movie 4 & 5.

I do think parodying Scream 5 to 7 could work in their favor. People are a little mixed on those Scream movies. They aren't flat out terrible by any means. At the same time, they got plenty to work with. They even could make Scary Movie 6 more entertaining than those Scream movies. I felt this is a good direction for a proper return of the franchise.

Scary Movie series loves to parody movies. Scary Movie 2 surprisingly worked with so many movies getting parodied. I think ratio is going to be key here. You want a good variety of horror movies getting parodied. You just don't want one too many movies thrown in to screw it all up. Scary Movie 6 does have more of a fighting chance than a lot of people thinks.

If I could request a short kill scene in that movie. I really wanna see Ghostface kill Fisherman. I already made it clear I heavily disliked that huge Ghostface fight request for Death Battle. Scary Movie 1 compositive the two slasher villains together. Which actually worked better than The Simpsons doing Fisherman and an werewolf.

Scary Movie 6 should not get rush or it's doomed to fail. I hope they realize that from Scary Movie 2. Then again a lot of people just doesn't understand how parodies should to work. Let's take an game UnMetal for an example. UnMetal parodies a lot of 80s stuff as well as classic Metal Gear games. It is simply done just right for people to keep laughing as they're playing the game.

It's kinda sad doing parody games more effective to people than parody movies. Especially most of the world's population watching movies more often. I also think they can make this more of their own than ever before. They really can get creative with this movie. Not only that, Scary Movie 6 could jump start a new rise of parodies around the world too.

You just never know until it's out for the world to see. Scary Movie 6 should be more focus than the later Scary Movie entries. They need to get as much of the original cast back. Even if that isn't possible, they always could bring in new people. Sometimes a few newer faces could heavily impact things both ways.

Let's hope it notably boosts the movie's popularity up. The best part is they fully own the franchise again. They have more experience from making a lot of movies since Scary Movie franchise. It's safe to say they aren't going to hold back with the jokes. A great comedian can really go below the belt making an entire room laugh hard.

Scary Movie 6 is going to be given the care missing in the last few entries. They are going to go ridiculous, which they really need to here. I am kinda hoping for multiple endings. I personally liked how Scary Movie 2 went about that. I actually think parodying an interactive movie game could work wonders here too.

My thoughts on The Game Awards 2024 nominations

Just in case anyone was wondering no this wasn't an planned blog entry. I wrote all of this within a few hours.

Hello everyone I'm XboxClown89, I decided to take one last chance voting in award shows wise with The Game Awards 2024. Bawkbasoup's stream earlier today is how I found out about this. I will quickly go over my thoughts on most categories. Mostly I'm actually here to rip right into Game of the Year nominees.

Most of these were very straight forward not much to say. Then we get a few awards you vote for a person or an team. The very first thing I was thinking is who all these people? You barely got anything to go on during the voting process. I know I'm not the only one that had the same reaction. I felt Best Adaptation and Best Fighting Game had the best overall nominees respectively.

I confess I struggled to decide which games to vote for since most of these I never played before. Unless you wanna count games within Marvel vs Capcom Fighting Collection: Arcade Classics. I was really close voting for Tekken 8, I seen plenty of stuff from people playing that. At the same time, a particular compilation game I always wanted within the same category wow!!!

Best Fighting Game to clarify.

It mostly came down to simply more content without additional stuff to buy. To be fair, Tekken 8 is among my most wanted 2024 games. I'm glad there's a particular award for indie games. These developers are truly amazing at what they do. They should've gotten more of their games nominated in any video game awards period.

My thoughts on Game of the Year 2024 nominees

Game of the Year nominees

Astro Bot

Balatro

Black Myth: Wukong

Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree

Final Fantasy VII Rebirth

Metaphor: ReFantazio

I know you didn't came here for these quick thoughts. No sir, you want me to get straight full blown ugly about Game of the Year. Sometimes I wonder about some of my readers. This has to be the most mixed selection for Game of the Year award I seen in a long time. They recently changed some of the rules prior to these nominations becoming public today.

Now that's already oh no what did they do right? I'm not up to date with the gaming community. I don't really know which games truly deserve to be in here. I don't think half of these should be here. We got two PS5 console exclusive games. I mostly don't have much of an issue. The biggest issue being Final Fantasy VII Rebirth is one of three games in a remake trilogy.

In this case recreating what essentially would've been disc 2 of the original game. If we look at it like this then it's not an complete game nominated here. Thankfully I seen enough streams of that game to justify you still get a lot of content. You actually get a lot more than you were expecting to get. Personally I would've had every nominee playable on most platforms.

Not to say console exclusive games aren't great by any means. I just felt you are simply more limited how to go about playing those games. It's a huge risk to make games console exclusive. Unless they are amazingly great to stand out from many other games on more platforms. Therefore, I do give some respect to those games taking such a huge risk.

We're almost through the positive section of this. Three of these games I'm actually happy to see nominated here. Metaphor: ReFantazio has some personal connections to Persona series. Sadly I'm not an huge fan of RPGs myself. I am quite surprised an Sega published game made the lineup. I actually looked into it a few hours, people really love this game.

I'm somewhat interested in giving the game a try eventually. Black Myth: Wukong is the one game I knew about the longest. It's not quite soul like difficult of a game. You play as Sun Wukong, a famous Chinese God that inspired so many characters. We would actually be here all day to cover them all not I'm kidding.

If the game was somewhat cheaper or goes down notably more in sales. I may consider buying it in the near future. I love the concept of playing as this guy in a rather epic action adventure game. Believe it or not, this isn't my vote lol. You might be very surprise to hear Balatro gotten my vote. Yes I quickly looked more into the game.

I kinda forgot about it after awhile. But I already wish list it on Steam. It's a rather unique card game, people sure love card games. It's the solo indie game nominee in this category. Balatro sold me the fastest among all these games. I know some may not like a card game gotten into this category. I'm surprise it speaks for itself.

I'm more alright with a card game making the nominations. Not to mention, Balatro also up for a few more awards within the same video game awards show. I confessed I voted for it in every single category it got nominated in. I would be deeply surprise Balatro ends up winning Game of the Yeard award, it's not likely though.

Oh here it comes!!!

Before we get to the elephant in the room. I still felt like we easily could've had a better selection for this. I still would've kept most of these nominees. Earlier I stated there's a rule change. This is actually causing controversiality right now. The new rule change allows DLCs for games to be nominated within The Game Awards.

Why is this pissing people off? Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree. Before I dive straight into my thoughts on the matter. I'm actually not here to directly bash Elden Ring. A couple people told me great stuff about the game. There's no question, it deserved all the Game of the Year awards the game won. I just felt had the game got excluded, this would've been a more fair vote.

I directly have a few major problems with this being an nominee in Game of the Year award. First off, Elden Ring came out back in 2022 early February. We're currently at mid November 2024. It's almost cheating to allow an older Game of the Year nominee back in a more recent one. Second, DLCs shouldn't be nominated at all.

DLCs can differ many ways from small to being quite massive to what they bring to the table. Sometimes they simply had stuff that barely affects anything at all. For the most part, you can't access any of that. If you don't even own the games you bought it's DLCs for!!! Also majority of these nominees are the actual games.

There wasn't a category for Best DLC considering the rule change they recently done. I felt games selected within the nomination period should get nominated. In all honestly, allowing a particular DLC into Game of the Year just not right at all. This by itself caused a few more problems that could show up in newer award shows.

People will start to consider which older games with a new great DLC could get into Game of the Year. This also came off as either laziness or desperation. I'm sure there's plenty of other great games that deserved it's spot. There's no way they ran out of time during the nomination process. I would be very surprise otherwise that's what happened.

"Oh we gotta nominate a sixth game!!! Come down. No you come down!!! I got it Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree. But that's a new DLC for an older game. Sure but Elden Ring won many Game of the Year awards. Plus this new DLC really makes it even better!!! Alright let's nominate Elden Ring again with a twist!!!

Considering they actually allowed this in their own awards show. Now it begs the question eventually we may get every nominee within Game of the Year all being DLCs for different games. It wouldn't even matter if the games are a few years old or came out the same year of being nominated in. I already know many people going to love this (Sarcasm).

Indirectly it brings confusion simply because it's Elden Ring again. Yes I know this time we're directly talking about it's new DLC. Honestly, this is coming off as you like this section more than the actual game. Which itself might upset it's own fans over the nomination. Last I checked, these were meant to be the very best games of 2024.

Even Balatro is a lot cheaper than the rest of them. At the same time, I'm sure that really delivers what it brings to the table to justify it's price. You would have to be crazy enough to virtually buy the same game nearly twice over. Which is exactly what Elden Ring with it's DLC represents here. Five out of six nominees are the actual games.

Not to mention, some do also have DLCs. They are notably a lot cheaper than this. Now I know for Elden Ring, it's almost like bringing new life with almost an entirely new game inside of that. I personally don't think it's right to allow this. For all I know it might've already won Game of the Year simply because it's Elden Ring.

The very last thing I wanna say is the game a bit overrated. But Final Fantasy VII is notably really overrated oh okay. They also could've stick with the five actual games to prevent any of this from happening. Which would've worked much better than this. Regardless which game actually wins Game of the Year award here.

I strongly felt Elden Ring should get disqualify from this. Mostly due to giving more of a fighting chance. Also to say an DLC better than a game is rather ballsy. Although I confess I did prefer Duke Nukem Forever's DLC campaign over it's original one myself. The entire point of DLCs is to help gamers play more of the games they love.

On that front allowing this is an insult to us gamers as well as the gaming community. I might refuse to vote in this ever again following this one I'm not kidding. Honestly, who cares about the actual size of Elden Ring's DLC. I'm sure most of these nominees is better than the entirely of Elden Ring. Then again size only matters if it gets used right.

I refuse to even label Elden Ring's DLC as the underdog. Everyone knows Balatro is the true underdog here. Even Black Myth: Wukong won a lot of people over. Again Elden Ring as well as everyone involved with that game probably didn't need this controversiality right now. Another negative thought I had regarding all of this!!!

It could be even possible they only nominated Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree just to upset people. Sometimes pissing people off works wonders for things. It was a major factor how fast Mortal Kombat's popularity grew in time. Maybe by doing that they were attempting to cause the same chain reaction.

Another possible factor is they strongly felt that DLC too good to not nominate for an award. But they couldn't figure a better way of doing that. Which resulted in this situation we're in right now. I didn't even expect to put this much thought into this. Well congratulations Elden Ring for this. Obviously it felt like they're playing it safe option.

Whatever happened to no risks, no rewards? Sorry there was virtually no way I was going to vote for that. I don't care how great the main campaign is. Allowing this into Game of the Year nomination kinda made the actual category a joke. I'm sure many people already viewing it that way. Sadly the damage already done, the back lash could get a little worse from here.

Just imagine most of a particular nominated game was terrible. But you only cared about the beginning or ending portions of that game. It's coming off being rather strict how you rather enjoy your games. Therefore, you really don't care about the rest of the game at all. Well that's exactly what they're doing with Elden Ring.

Personally that's a terrible design for a video game. If only the beginning or ending portions were decent. Why are you still playing it? This kept bagging so many issues I had with Game of the Year nominations. I'm actually fine with majority of the nominees myself.  Who in their right mind going to be okay allowing this?

It's almost the level of no I can't believe it as Mike Tyson loss to Jake Paul. This also goes to show they don't actually care what we think. Aren't we the voters that took some of our precious time to vote matter to you? They also alienating everyone else over this. They are just making the situation worst for themselves!!!

I mean wow Elden Ring had to be so good, it got nominated again in Game of the Year. Gaming critics already became a joke. Now video game award shows are declining like this. I'm very sure they didn't even need glasses to see what's wrong here!!! It's almost felt like they just inputted a cheat code. In all honestly, I really hope it doesn't win Game of the Year in this award show.

Also bonus points if you also voted for Balatro. Come on fellow supporters we need to get enough votes to win!!!

My thoughts on Death Battle: Bowser vs Eggman

Hello everyone I'm XboxClown89, I do have a few reviews coming soon. For right now I really gotta talk about the recent Death Battle episode. Easily, one of my biggest requests to date. Bowser vs Eggman was absolutely among my favorite villain theme episodes ever!!! This really was well worth the wait, I'm impressed.

Everything about the episode was done perfectly. I can't even criticize it not even a little bit. I would even dare to say the best Mario vs Sonic episode they ever done!!! Which is quite an statement but trust me it went way beyond all of our expectations. It's not often they do wars on the web show. It's way better than Eggman vs Wily, not sorry Ben.

It's even better than Ultron vs Sigma. Which I also called the victor in that. The actual fight animation hands down the best of the season. I mean wow I'm still blown away by it. We got to see two famous video game armies going against each other. You really do see the differences in their armies. Just think if this would've happened a lot sooner.

I would've chosen Eggman for this lol. God, I changed a lot since then. I will say this is both villain characters' best episode respectively. I always disliked Bowser vs Ganon myself. Eggman vs Wily just felt too soon of a concept to do at that time. Who doesn't want two of the biggest video game villains going at it?

They even brought in a lot of different canons for this rather epic conclusion to the debate. Most of their major reasons why Bowser won, I already knew. I may not played an Mario game in a long time. I'm a bigger Sonic fan after all, even I confess Bowser wins. There's so much going on in this war, you should watch it a few times.

There's no way you're fully going to see everything during an 1st watch. I was quite satisfied how they handled this. The results is like an handful of episodes including Omni-Man vs Bardock within the same season. They broke things into five categories that ultimately determines the winner. I will say some of their greatest points I didn't consider.

Then again I still haven't played Sonic Frontiers thanks for spoiling Death Battle lol. As for seven chaos emeralds compared to hundreds of stars logic yeah I sorta knew that. They really took the time to break it all down. I'm indirectly happy because two Sega characters in the same season. There's no way a short video could've express how I truly felt about this episode, it's too much.

You really get the most definitive answer imaginable. Yes it's going to be a bit complex to a degree. At the same time, it's not exactly clear cut either. Despite how notable flaws were for both sides. Either army had a huge chance at victory. But Bowser would've won nine out of ten times. This really felt like true fan service to us fans.

The animator really out done themselves with the fight animation. Considering this was one of two episodes revealed before their kickstarter met their first goal. The better fight was saved for a better time to shine. It's a shame such a great episode isn't the season finale. I already express my feelings towards Among Us vs Fall Guys.

I hope we get more war theme fight animations. Especially if they're done like this!!! I also confess I'm a bigger Robotnik fan myself. At least if they were to do the live action movie counterparts. Movie Robotnik would easily win. In all honestly, this was truly inspiring stuff. This was a really great episode I heavily recommend people to watch.

Death Battle Fight Prediction: Fall Guys (Fall Guys) vs Among Us (Among Us)

Hello everyone I'm XboxClown89, I'm currently 2-1 in this thing with Uncrowned Otaku. Whose not doing well in them but I'll still give him credit for what he brings to the table. I will be brutally honest about something else though. I am not happy about the season finale fight at all. We could've had some truly amazing fights to end an season with.

I called Omni-Man and Bowser winning.

Update: I mentioned the wrong poll. The actual poll Among Us vs Fall Guys was in. Loss out to Discord vs Bill Cipher.

Instead what we actually gotten is more or less a famous joke fight. I wasn't happy with the last time they ended an season with a joke fight. Still one of my least favorite episodes in fact. This upcoming fight loss in a poll where Discord vs Bill Cipher won a few years ago. They did discussed this on their podcast show. A fight I originally didn't even plan on predicting until now you are welcome by the way.

Fall Guys vs Among Us, I am quite serious. We're about to get something this unusual to happen on the show. Usually they use characters video game wise that's notably similar. We just gotten Bowser vs Eggman, a fantastic episode at that. This is so incredibly different many might enjoy it for that alone. I will try to explain both of them despite never actually play em.

To clarify, yes on different PC services I have access to them. Fall Guys is an competitive obstacle game. You play against a lot of players while adapting on the fly. Among Us is more like not quite Dead by Daylight or games similar to that. Ideally you do have a killer role that could be a few people or just one person.

It's more directly similar to Scream movie franchise as well as Scream show. Personally I kinda see the show being sorta two similar shows rolled together that might be just me. Back to this, Imposters are hidden among a group of people with the goal of killing everyone. To me, the premise is way more interesting.

We got this rather light, competitive multiplayer game against a more serious, darker multiplayer game. This became huge in the early days of COVID 19. Let's be honest, most people were staying home. Thus, the rate of this becoming popular actually increased at a faster rate. I will say it is no question an outside the box idea, I'll support that.

At the same time, it kinda doesn't make much sense. It's likely going to be an team battle. The last major one excluding the recent war we gotten was Red vs Blue. Yes as in the famous web show before Rooster Teeth went down for good. I do see a lot of people enjoying this. I really wish it wasn't the season finale. It's not going to get labeled as the worst by default.

I will still label it among the most disappointing season finales. Yes even not seeing the episode prior to me stating that, how criminal of me? Obviously this isn't going to be an one on one fight. The best way to portray both franchises is doing an team battle. This would also help showing the possibilities. This quickly became very clear cut.

Verdict

Fall Guys

There's a lot of notable factors I couldn't ignore here. For starters, Among Us characters will constantly become more paranoid overtime. There could be one or more trying to kill em all. They are used to being on an space ship. Thus, they are more used to a more limited, closed environment. In vice versa, all of that is virtually the exact opposite.

Fall Guys is more friendly competitive. Imposters trying to manipulate em is kinda pointless. It's obvious Among Us characters are notably smarter. At the same time, I also could argue they have characteristics that's more cartoony like. They can easily break through walls as well as tank a long fall. This by itself limits their options especially Imposters' kill methods.

Not a lot of people knows rubber can easily withstand force to a degree. Therefore, don't be surprise rubber gets reference a lot within the actual episode. They could make an argument, Fall Guys' bodies can easily tank bullets, knifes and more. If they can survive a long fall with no problem. I don't think they would have trouble being out in space either.

The only weapon that made me question things is laser beams. Which vaporized a normal Among Us character's body more over half their total body mass. Impressive but they gotta compare that to an Fall Guys' body biology. It's possible they might be harm by laser beams. The crazier possibility being laser beams simply bounce off of them as well.

Fall Guys are often competing in a series of events outside. Which also helped in giving them the stamina as well as speed advantage in this fight. Obviously, Fall Guys is more about physical sports while Among Us plays heavily on paranoia as well as suspense. Among Us characters are more likely going to turn on each other.

Which would be bad considering this is an team battle. There's a few notable abilities Among Us could be given access to. Keep in mind, each role has stuff only they could do. Sadly none of them is game changing enough to truly matter here. Sure, an dead Among Us character could use Guardian Angel to protect one of the living Among Us characters.

There's also shape shifting that doesn't include direct characteristics of biology. They could hide inside vents as well as turn invisible to a degree. Most Fall Guys characters are virtually the same across the board. Imposters won't get far trying to bite em either. Imagine a small person size chew toy for your dog.

This also means they can't break their necks either. How can you considering they're rubber like bodies? Fall Guys characters do have skeletons. But having an biology similar to rubber is virtually pointless. They could be attempting this for hours to not get far at all. It's more or less brains vs brawn. Where usually brains wins over brawn on Death Battle.

Although Asta previously beaten Deku on their show. The deeper view of how Among Us characters works ultimately made this a surprisingly straight forward outcome. Fall Guys could be careless to causing the space ship to crash. They easily survive the impact while some Among Us characters won't. Stats wise, Among Us characters isn't even close.

If you wanna be technical about it. Let's do this the correct way then. Among Us characters do offer more variety of abilities. Despite a lot of those plays into different roles. They are notably a lot smarter than the more simple minded Fall Guys characters. Mostly the evil Among Us characters has a few kill methods that simply won't work on em.

This fight likely going to happen on their space ship. You would think this might throw Fall Guys off their game. Well you would be wrong, dead wrong. Yes Fall Guys characters would be a lot more predictable. They are also more trusting towards each other. The exact opposite situation for Among Us characters.

Once again stats virtually speaks for itself. Not even close, Fall Guys stomps here. It also doesn't help Among Us characters can't keep up with their endurance as well as intensity. You got to realize Among Us is a much slower pace game. Even the more supernatural abilities Among Us characters has isn't that game changing.

Even if they were to have possession, it still wouldn't help much. Shape shifting is more or less used as a deception towards other Among Us characters anyway. Team work is going to be a huge deal for later on this fight. Among Us is essentially fighting them as well as themselves. It's inevitable Fall Guys going to come out on top this team battle.

Winner: Fall Guys (Fall Guys)

Another possible factor why people had to request this. These characters do look similar to a degree. Both their multiplayer games is still popular today. They also had a few crossovers. I am kinda glad indie gaming getting represented on the show. Honestly, not my favorite team battle concept. But at least it's so unusual enough to surprisingly work in an Death Battle episode.