Today is March 10th, better known as Mario Day to Nintendo fans due to the way the date looks with the abbreviated month. And as part of that celebration, both LEGO and Nintendo teased a Super Mario theme on social media and I have thoughts. First up though is the tweet that set the world afire:
Secondly, these are the licenses that LEGO should be going for. Not the utter trash (not the word I’d use but I’m trying to keep my language digestible to younger readers) like Trolls or Minions. Established video game franchises are just as beloved and have just as a loyal fanbase as Star Wars and Harry Potter. There is not a single game developer out there that hasn’t paid homage or was influenced in some way by Mario. LEGO needs licenses with longevity to up their game and keep their brand out of the dumpster. Also, Nintendo seemingly targets the same audiences that LEGO does. It’s always been viewed as a kid-friendly brand. They do occasionally publish titles that are intended for more mature audiences (Bayonetta comes to mind), but LEGO has too. A partnership seems like a natural fit.
Thirdly, all that being said, and as much as I am drooling over the possibilities, what is being teased is a LEGO Super Mario theme, it says so right there on the last half of the teaser video:
Nintendo has a lot of properties under its belt: Mario, Zelda, Metroid, Pokémon, F-Zero, Kirby, Yoshi, and the list goes on and on. Not to mention the games that are tied to those chracters. Can you imagine karts from Mario Kart as little 10 dollar sets? Can you imagine a Guardian set from Breath of the Wild? Robo Kirby? Pokémon sets that don’t fall apart? Man! The possibilities!
Fourthly: what the hell is thing supposed to be?
I created this composite image from a couple of screen shots from the teaser video, hence why the bottom half has that motion blur.
The arms look super fake. The body is super wide. Why does the head look that way? Why are the teeth the way they are? The legs and feet make it look like a Duplo figure. I’m not sure why the question block is one a 2×2 round plate with center stud and not inline with the bricks on either side. Was this weird figure made to be a one off, to hide what the actual minifigure will look like? Will it be in fact a Duplo theme? Why is the teaser posted on Mario Day? Shouldn’t this have been teased earlier with an official announcement released today? Wouodn’t that have been better? I really don’t know what to make of that figure. If anything, it’s tempering my expectations quite a bit.
God, I have so many questions. I wanted this theme to be real for so long, and for it kick ass. But not that figure. I don’t want that to be real.
As part of the 40th anniversary for LEGO Trains, Shop@Home is offering a free GWP set, 40370 LEGO Trains 40th Anniversary set. The threshold to get this item automatically added to your cart is a bit high, $99 or more before shipping, but it seems worth it, even to me who is not a train guy in the least.
The back of the box shows the original set this one is based on, 7810 Push-Along Steam Engine from 1980. A few of the parts have been updated to make use of the the modern library of elements like the train axles and stickered elements. That’s really not a knock against the set. I’d expect anything old remade for today to be made with updated parts. The display stand has attachment points to make sure your train doesn’t roll off. All in all, another great GWP.
The promotion started yesterday on March 1st and ends on 11:59pm EST, March 15th, 2020 or while supplies last. Again, you’ll need at least $99 worth of merch before getting it. What’s funny is that new Fiat 500 LEGO set won’t work as it’s $89.99. Strike two against that set.
LEGO sent us a sample of the train set. And FBTB may make a small commission if you click through any of the links in this article and make a purchase. As always, we thank you for your support.
You know, the Fiat did not sell well, at least here in the U.S., so this new Fiat 500 Creator set coming into existence can solely be attributed to the European roots of the Danish company we all know and sometimes love. The Fiat was a small cheap car, popular in Europe, and brought to the North American market to appeal to those who were considering a Mini Cooper but wanted something uglier.
Despite me hating on this thing, I will give credit where credit is due and the model is pretty spot on earning LEGO an A+ for execution. Still, it’s not enough to make me reconsider not recommending this thing. However, had the set been based on the much sportier, meaner-looking Abarth edition, well then they would have had something there and my opinion would have been the complete opposite.
10271 Fiat 500 is priced at $89.99 and comes with 960 pieces.
It’s not for me and maybe if you’re still interested, you’ll click through some direct links to the product page and make a purchase, because we need the support and every purchase helps even if it’s something I hate. Go ahead and buy it, I won’t judge. You do you, you Fiat-buying machines.
At LEGO World in Copenhagen, The LEGO Group unveiled a new series of official lighting kits and calling it “Night Mode”. Five kits in all were shown off tailor-made for 71043 Hogwarts Castle, 10260 Downtown Diner, 21318 Tree House, 10265 Ford Mustang and 41374 Andrea’s Pool Party. These were previewed to gauge reaction and possible demand but given the pricing it would be a hard sell. Brickset is reporting 1449DKK (approx £160 or about $200 USD) for the Hogwarts Castle set and the Tree House kit as priced at 649DKK (approx £70 or about $90 USD).
They are bat-ess CRAZY to consider charging that much. Given the prevalence of lighting kits from third-party vendors all over Amazon and eBay, LEGO’s entry to the lighting market comes a bit late. The only saving grace to that they are officially branded a LEGO item, and because of that, integration into an existing model might be better. But at those prices they are a tough sell. Similar kits for 71043 Hogwarts Castle on Amazon run from $89-$140. Buying the castle and the Night Mode kit together, assuming the exchange rates are true, you’re looking at $600.
LEGO’s offered lighting before but they were expensive and clunky. Seems they are staying true to their roots by keeping it expensive.
I like the idea of Night Mode, and it might be worth getting on some of the more expensive display pieces that would never be broken down into parts. The Mustang in particular looks pretty neat. But the cost, man, the cost! That’s a lot of dough for an already expensive hobby. Still, despite that I am curious how the integration will be, what one gets in a kit, if it’s battery operated or if it can be plugged into an outlet.
I apologize for not using the below image as the featured image forcing a clickthrough, but I’m breaking internet etiquette and hotlinking it so that LEGO can go bother eBay.co.uk about taking it down. But here it is:
Found out about this via Facebook a bit late, but seller legi6862 listed a new, as-of-yet unannounced LEGO Creator Expert set 10271 Fiat 500 on eBay. The listing closed due to the following reason: “This listing was ended by the seller because the item is no longer available.” So either they sold it offline and cancelled the listing or LEGO really didn’t like that a product leaked ahead of any official announcement or on-sale date. I’m leaning towards the latter theory on this one.
What’s interesting is that the listing is on eBay’s UK site but the packaging is the v39 version, meaning bound for the North American market because of the piece count printed on the front of the box. Curious indeed! Makes me wonder if these were lifted from a shipment bound for the colonies. The seller also has 0 feedback, no doubt to protect their identity. I’m wondering if the seller did this to get some eBay messages and do private sales offline.
But yeah, I doubt it’s a fake and probably is the real deal. LEGO doesn’t like stuff leaking out early. Also, I can’t think of an uglier car that they could make into a set.
Like in years past, LEGO Shop@Home is offering a new GWP set themed after the Chinese New Year zodiac animal. Last year was the Pig, the year before was the Dog, this year it’s the Rat.
This is a free gift with purchase for all LEGO purchases $80 or more. That $80 is threshold is not insignificant since the number 8 sounds like an equivalent word in Mandarin meaning ‘wealth’, ‘fortune’, and ‘prosper.
As usual, FBTB may receive a small commission from any sales from clicks through our affiliate links in this post. And as always, we thank you for your continued support.
If my wife and Google are correct, Chinese New Year will be celebrated on January 25 this year. And to get in on some of that sweet CNY merch action, LEGO is releasing two new themed sets centered around just that.
1,664 pieces – $119.99 – 13 minifigs plus a baby fig
The number of minifigs included in each set seems abnormally high.
If you still can’t get enough, there are Lucky Cat and Dragon Dance Guy BrickHeadz sets too. They couldn’t figure out a better name than Dragon Dance GUY? Pretty soon they’ll start naming Star Wars grounds crewmen “Mechanic Dude”‘s. Anyways, the Dragon Dance Guy is sold out online, but may be available in store.
As usual, FBTB may receive a small commission from any sales from clicks through our affiliate links in this post. And as always, we thank you for your continued support.
So, we just wrapped up walking through the past decade, and we’re going into the new one. The juggernaut that is pop culture and entertainment never stops, so that means there are plenty of things to look forward to in the coming year. Here are some completely arbitrary picks for the things we are looking forward to. There will be a lot to surprise us that certainly isn’t on this list, so we have that to look forward to as well.
Video Games
2020, especially Spring, is STACKED. Not to mention, around Christmas, when the next generation of game consoles begins with the Xbox Series X. Y’all better get your wallets ready.
Ace’s Picks: When I first started writing my part for this section, I started this paragraph with “There is only 1 high-profile game I’m looking forward to.” Then I remembered another and changed it to “There are only 2 high-profile games I’m looking forward to” and then I remembered another and another. I’m up to 5 things now and I’m hoping that’s it. Not sure I even have the bandwidth to get through them all, but here’s my list shown in trailer form:
1. The Last of Us Part II (PlayStation 4)
I’m currently on my 3rd playthrough of the first one.
2. Hollow Knight: Silksong (Nintendo Switch)
God I hope a release date is set soon.
3. Final Fantasy VII Remake (PlayStation 4)
Still not a fan of the English voiceover. I’m hoping a Japanese language track is an option.
4. Metroid Prime 4 (Nintendo Switch)
While I’m hoping for things, I might as well hope for the first trilogy to be available on the eShop at some point.
5. PlayStation 5 – no trailer for this one. I’ve never bought a console on launch day except for the Nintendo Switch. The PlayStation 5 will be the second one I ever do that. I’ve enjoyed my PS4 a lot so I’m looking forward to playing the PS5 version of The Last of Us Part II even though I’ll have already played it on the 4.
This list doesn’t even account for any indie titles that may pop up here and there.
Speaking of bandwidth, other than the four games listed out above, the other thing I’m looking forward to in video gaming is completing more of my backlog. I’ve slowed down on my purchasing of games and in some cases it’s helped me save some money since they all eventually go on sale at some point. Looking back, completing the few games that I did seemed like a Herculean task.
Eric’s Pick(s):
In no particular order, let’s hit it:
I’m talking Baldur’s Gate III. Made by Larian Studios, who were behind the brilliant Divinity: Original Sin games.
I’m talking Ori and the Will of the Wisps. I talked in a recent article about the big boys of platforming – Celeste, Super Mario World, and Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze. I forgot Ori and the Blind Forest, which, while not a strict platformer, is so darn imaginative and clever that I’m willing to say it is one. Will of the Wisps looks to be more of the same.
I’m talking Resident Evil 3. I’m playing through the Resident Evil: REmake right now, and it’s spooking the heck out of me (and I usually say worse than that when zombies pop up). It’s has a bit of that old-school frustration, though, so I welcome in the modern remakes of RE3 to play here soon.
And even though no release date has been stated, I’m talking From Software’s open world, George R. R. Martin designed, Elden Ring. Ooh, boy. Ooh. Ooh I’m ready.
Nick’s Pick(s):
The problem that I’m running in to here is that I set up this post, then got distracted painting miniatures, so a lot of the games I would have picked have already been put above. I would put Last of Us II smack-dab at the top of the list; I already talked about how amazing I thought the game was back in our 2013 retrospective. I love the Baldur’s Gate series, and own all of the re-releases on the Swtich, so the third installment would most certainly be here.
Cyberpunk 2077
Confession time… I don’t really care all that much for Cyberpunk stuff, Shadowrun, or the like. I like the idea of Steampunk, mostly as a joke, but not enough that I’ve ever invested in it past making contests on this site with Don.
That being said, CD Projekt Red (assuming they’ve really gotten rid of all the crunch garbage in their culture like they say they have) makes games that are simply amazing. Even if I don’t care for the setting all that much, this will be an amazing game that likely defines the very idea of the genre. I’ll likely play it on PC, and wait for the inevitable next-gen port to show up shortly after the new consoles launch.
Watch Dogs: Legion
Okay, this one makes me a little bit nervous at this point. Ubisoft had done a lot to improve their overall image in recent years, making the outstanding Assassin’s Creed Odyssey and Origins before it. But they’ve rolled out a few duds this year, like the so very disappointing Trials: Rising and the downright broken other Tom Clancy Ghost Recon Breakpoint… yet another open-world looter-shooter live service game that no one wanted. Seriously, AAA industry, live services are garbage and need to die in a fire.
This was probably the game I was most excited for coming out of E3; it was recently delayed out of its March launch to sometime in the 2020/2021 fiscal year (which for most game companies, runs March-Feb, for whatever reason). My suspicion is that part of the delay was to put it more in line with the next-gen console launch… but also, given the state of how terrible some of Ubisoft’s games were this year, more time for polish is great.
Senua’s Saga: Hellblade II
Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice, was one of the most terrifying games that I’ve ever played. I don’t even like horror, as a general rule, so thankfully Eric is around to cover the Resident Evil games… but I love a good psychological thriller. The original is a game that shows the simple power that audio and sound can have in a game, and if you play it with headphones on (the suggested way to play by the developer), it will play with your mind.
This is presumably a launch title on the next-gen Xbox (series X or whatever they decide to call it… Microsoft is really bad at naming consoles), so it will be stunning looking, and I look forward to playing it.
Next-Gen Consoles
I made the mistake of purchasing the PS4 on launch day… and that was the last time I purchased a console at launch. Looking back, in the long run it was a fantastic console, but it was not worth the money at all for almost a year after it came out. I got the Xbox One a few months later, with the release of Titanfall (a mistake in itself), and I waited a few months on the Switch as well. I would not have regretted the Swtich purchase in retrospect, but don’t feel bad about a slight delay.
I’m in a weird spot with those consoles, though… my Xbox One has been slowly failing for some time. The drive doesn’t work, and hasn’t for more than a year. The wifi has been starting to fail on a weekly basis, requiring totally rebooting the console to make it work. The fact that the next-gen Xbox is backwards compatible to everything Xbox makes this somewhat of an easier purchase for me… I can play my old games on the new console and hopefully the older one hobbles along until Winter 2020 when it shows up.
The PlayStation 5 is a little different… we’ve yet to see what the launch lineup will be, but it’s also supposed to support PS4 games, so long as I can move my library forward, I’ll likely do it to. It was a launch day, and recently had a little bit of “excitement” when my son decided to put a couple of credit cards inside of it because that’s the same as a DVD, requiring me to pull it apart. The drive works again, but it’s very long in the tooth and I wouldn’t mind the upgrade.
Movies
You know, I don’t know how much any of us here are ever just sitting around, counting down the days to the release of a movie. I mean, sure, Endgame and Star Wars… but they’re also done. There isn’t a Star Wars release on the horizon or even in production as far as we know, and the MCU will continue, but until we see the new stuff, we have no idea of the direction. Still, there’s some fun stuff coming up, and we’ll likely cover them here.
Ace’s Pick: There’s only one I’m super looking forward to:
The lightning-lasso swing is so over the top I love it.
Eric’s Pick(s):
WOW 2020 will be full of a bunch of beautifully heartless movies with great CGI. I could not care less. Only two movies fill me with anticipation, and that’s because I’ve been keeping up with it since 2017.
Directed by Denis Villeneuve (Blade Runner: 2049). Written by Eric Roth (Forrest Gump). With a legitimately all-star cast. I haven’t read Dune yet, but those factors enough make me ready to go ahead and grab my ticket.
Weathering with You.
Because I’m a filthy American trash man (sorry to disappoint you, Ace), I like the English dub version of Japanese movies. Your Name was one of the most beautiful movies that I finally got around to seeing last year. So another movie from the same studio (with the same band, RADWIMPS, doing music, no less), is enough for me to get all hot and heavy. And, lucky for me, Weathering with You comes to theaters in beautiful, filthy English on January 15th and 16th, so I don’t have to wait long.
Nick’s Pick(s):
Bill & Ted Face the Music
This movie will probably be terrible, but there’s something about seeing them together again, and the silliness that was the original movie and the so-dumb-it-is-fun of the sequel, that makes me think this is exactly the movie that we need in 2020. In a year that’s going to give us the Stranger Thing’s version of Ghostbusters, this is the 80s classic I’m actually thrilled about.
Mulan
Okay… hear me out. The live-action Disney movies have been pretty much garbage… a shameless cash-in that doesn’t require anything effort or creativity for the most part. At the same time… but there’s just something about this particular movie that makes it feel like it could work. IÂ love this cartoon… it’s easily one of my all-time favorite Disney movies, and this feels like that rare circumstance where the live-action treatment will enhance, rather than just repeat, what came before it.
TV Shows
We didn’t put any TV in our “Best of” lists, mostly because I (Nick) didn’t think about it when I started that whole thing. Which is weird, because, supposedly we are in the golden age of TV… despite so little of it being watched on actual TVs. That being said… the Mandalorian has proven that this might really be the golden age of television, or at least the golden age of nerdy television… and that’s what we care about here.
Even if I do own all of Friends on DVD and the Office on digital. Don’t you judge me.
Ace’s Picks: More Mandalorian. Season 1 was so satisfying and saved Star Wars for me after that train-wreck known as The Rise of Skywalker.
More Stranger Things. It’s one of my favorite shows on Netflix. Season 3 made up for the questionable story elements of Season 2. And given that the show was originally envisioned to be just 4 seasons long, the next one may be the last. And I’d be okay with that. Better that a story has a satisfying end than be dragged out longer than it should have.
Eric’s Pick(s): I don’t keep up much with new TV shows, but there are two big hitters I can’t wait for.
On September 10th, the cast and crew of #WOTonPrime got together to read the first episode of The Wheel Of Time. Production is now on its way and we are VERY excited to see this show come to life! #TwitterOfTime, this is for you. pic.twitter.com/FmWA4zeh2r
Although technically without a release date announcement, I feel it’s a safe bet to say Amazon’s Wheel of Time series will come out in late 2020. So far not a lot is known – the cast announced, a few details revealed – but with how strong of a story that Robert Jordan’s book series is, I have no doubt that this show will be top-notch.
And a series with somehow even fewer details: Amazon’s The Lord of the Rings. If you haven’t picked up on it, I love Lord of the Rings. I have no idea if this will come out in 2020, but, by God, I’m going to find a way to talk about Lord of the Rings more on this site. That’s my new Year’s resolution.
Nick’s Pick(s):
This year is more notable for shows that I love that are ending… BoJack Horseman and the Good Place will both air their final episodes this year, and it both excites me and bums me out. That being said… there is absolutely one show that I’m just counting down the days for, and if you’ve seen what I’ve talked about in the things I like, it probably won’t be a surprise…
It is such an amazing time to be a fan of the “big two” Star-related shows… we just wrapped up the first season of the Mandalorian, which has done more to energize the fan base than the movies ever have. With Star Trek, Discovery has been a great addition, and the last season was fantastic with the addition of Anson Mount as Captain Pike.
I’ll be honest, I wasn’t all that enthused about a new Picard series when it was first announced. I love JL Pipes, but I felt that the story was well wrapped up and wanted something new. Or so I thought… then they dropped that preview and saw we’re getting some returning characters, plenty of new ones, and a dog. They had me at Seven of Nine… CBS is getting my money.
LEGO Sets
Yeah… this was going to be a tough set. If our best-of lists didn’t tip our hand… despite this having its roots as a LEGO site, most of us just really aren’t into LEGO any more. We buy them from time to time, but it’s not our primary hobby, not by a long shot. It’s a consequence of getting older, but also LEGO hasn’t exactly made it easy. The Star Wars line has been stagnant for years, Super Heroes is barely a thing, and the company itself has made them kind of hard to enjoy the product.
Ace’s Pick: I just want a $150-$200 set of the Razor Crest. That’s it. Do the ship justice. I’m sure we’ll get a bunch of Mando-inspired sets, like another X-wing, a couple of landspeeders, but let’s get a proper Razor Crest. Shoot, just make it a UCS scale. I’d buy that in a heartbeat.
Eric’s Pick: I’ve looked through Brickset’s 2020 sets list, and the only set that really stuck out to me was 10270: Bookshop. It has a very You’ve Got Mail feel to it.Â
Though I question LEGO naming the bookshop “Birch Booksâ€. Yeah, it’s next to a birch tree, but it seems a little close to another word…
Nick’s Pick: Yeah, I got nothing. It’s just depressing to walk down the LEGO aisle any more and see the lack of creativity and the absurdly high prices. Maybe there will be something that I end up grabbing, or something that Ace asks me to review… but it takes something unique for LEGO to excite me anymore, and I don’t know that LEGO is even capable of that anymore.
I mean, what’s a series of retrospective lists looking at “the best” without putting them all together and trying to pick out that one thing that we loved more than anything across ten years? You have to pick a winner, right? It’s how these things work! Of course not, but it is fun to look back and say “this is the thing that sticks with me the most.” The last decade was one of change for everyone, and it sort of runs the whole field when you look back at it.
Ace’s Pick: As much as I love Smash, I have to hand the crown off to another Nintendo IP:
I’m not even picking Splatoon 2 based on hours played. I’m picking it because of how original it is. Everything inside the game is built from the ground up: the characters, their races, the languages, the fashions, the music, the fonts, and last but certainly not least, the gameplay. You shoot paint to make your enemies explode in your paint color and try to cover as much ground in your team’s color as possible. Their ranked matches give slight twists on familiar game modes, and even their take on the zombie rush mode is pretty neat and unique. It’s a franchise that I hope will be as loved and adored as Mario, The Legend of Zelda, and Metroid, and a series that I hope will be as fun both casually and competitively as Smash and Mario Kart.
Eric’s Pick: Booyah, we’re back.
While Dark Souls might have been my favorite gaming experience of the decade, Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain is by far the best game of the decade. Everything about this game that isn’t gameplay is basically a hot mess, but the gameplay is so solid that it doesn’t really matter. I love sandbox-type games that give you a mission and a billion tools, and Metal Gear Solid V, honestly, I don’t think will ever be beaten at that core concept.
Nick’s Pick: It came out at the start of the decade, but I need to stick with Mass Effect 2 as the best game of the decade. It might very well be my favorite game of all time… if not, it’s certainly in the top five. I keep coming back to play it, at least once a year… and every time I have just as much fun as I did before.
It still makes me sad, knowing that Bioware and EA aren’t capable of this level of greatness now, but once upon a time, they made a game that has managed to stand and last the test of time.
I’m Commander Shepard, and this is my favorite game on the Citadel.
Movies
Ace’s Pick: The other night while at home with the kids, we were browsing our home movie library and came across a bunch of the films I picked over the past 10 articles. We decided on what to watch rather easily. This is the only movie that makes me perk up every time:
I don’t think I’ve ever been so excited at the prospect of a franchise as I have been with Spider-Man: Into The Spider-verse. I think the idea of having multiple dimensions opening endless possibilities of Spider-Man stories is the real draw. While the major beats of Spider-Man’s origin story remain the same, the finer details, the settings, and the enemies can change. And just the idea of tying or all of them together in some fashion can really open up a possible “Spider-Verse Cinematic Universe”. That is, of course, just a fantasy of mine. I’d be happy with just a sequel. And even if a sequel is never made, I’d be content with just the one movie. There are movies I really like, that I can leave on in the background while I’m doing something else. This is not one of those movies. The visuals of its unique comic book art style are such a major treat that it’s hard to tear your eyes away. You want to drink in every tasty frame. Whether Sony decides to adapt this animation style to other movies remains to be seen, but I’m selfish and I don’t want to share. It’s such a signature look for the film and was so key in giving it that comic book feeling, I’d think it would be difficult to accept it for any other movie that isn’t based on a comic book.
Eric’s Pick: I’m a sucker for a movie written and directed by the same person, and there’s no better option than:
Winner of the Oscar for Best Screenplay (which I personally think is more important than “best picture”), and about a billion other awards, Get Out is the type of movie I wish I could see more of. It had a $4.5 million budget which is stupendous with how great it looks and feels. It set Jordan Peele up to make 2019’s Us (which was…not as good) and The Twilight Zone Reboot (I saw the first episode, it’s not bad). Jordan Peele, like Taika Waititi and Denis Villeneuve, is one director whose movies I will always drop everything to go see.
Nick’s Pick: This was honestly the hardest one for me to pick, because there were so many great movies, some that may have not made the cut for an individual year, but when I go back and look I think “this may be the best.” Arrival is still a mind-bending Sci-Fi movie that I will probably watch many more times over the rest of my life and still find new little details. We got to see where Disney could take Star Wars with movies, and we likely saw the future of where it will go as the decade closed out with the Mandalorian. There might be better, there are a ton worse, but I’m going to go with the movie that I think that will have some of the most lasting effects to a genre I love…
One weird thing… this isn’t my favorite Marvel movie, that goes to Into the Spider-Verse; the only reason I’m not putting that into this spot is because this movie has likely changed and defined how comic book movies work for Marvel from here on out. This wasn’t some token diversity effort, it was turning over a full story and creative control to people who never get a voice in big-budget blockbusters, and what a story we got. It was beautiful, stylistic, and gave us a compelling villain unlike any others we’ve gotten in a comic book movie.
At the same time, the movie, which “conventional wisdom” in Hollywood (which is simultaneously liberal while being backwards and conservative) that should have failed – but instead made $1.347Â billion internationally, enough for the 9th highest grossing film of all time and the 3rd highest grossing MCU film. It was the first comic book movie ever nominated for Best Picture, and deservedly won three other Oscars for production design, costume design, and original music.
While we’re seeing movies like Star Wars just keep dropping back to the status quo, we can look forward to Marvel continuing to push boundaries and prove that what moviegoers really want, despite the cries of an annoyingly loud minority of toxic fans, is new stories. That they give a voice to a minority group that rarely gets them was just awesome, and looking at the slate of upcoming Marvel films, we can see it was the first, but most certainly not the last.
LEGO
Ace’s Pick: And the award goes to:
Again, this isn’t based on sheer number. But really, if my collection caught on fire, there’d only two sets I’d be sad to lose. The original UCS Millennium Falcon and my collection of Space Marines. LEGO’s released that armor in other colors in other minifig packs, but none held the same panache for me. The only other one that was interesting to get was part of Lex Luthor’s power armor in that one polybag set. This Space Marine was the pinnacle of the shoulder armor part usage.
If Get Out is my favorite movie on the decade, Lord of the Rings are my favorite movies of all time. Getting the brief chance to see them as Lego sets in 2012 – 2013 was a magical experience, and I wish I’d had the foresight to buy every set, because now they’re way too expensive on Bricklink. I hope that, somehow, once the Amazon series begins to air, Lego will return to this series like they did with Harry Potter last year, and give us more wonderful sets.
Nick’s Pick: In a decade that saw Star Wars as a thing revitalized, and so many new fans brought in… it feels fitting to pick a set that resonated with me on such a personal level. Return of the Jedi isn’t the best Star Wars film, but it will always be my favorite. It’s full of contradictions and has some pacing issues, but there’s something about the wonder of it that just makes me smile. The same is true of 10236 Ewok Village… a set I need to put together again and display.
Okay, this one will end up being a whole lot longer than the rest, because it’s more of our annual-ish year-in-review article mixed with the looking back series we did leading up to this. Of course, because we kind of screwed up some basic math, it’s showing up in 2020 instead of 2019, but only by a couple of days. I mean, at this point, we’re all still writing the wrong year in any date 80% of the time, so I’m going to just say that this is 80% on time.
It was been… a year, that’s for certain. We’ve gotten a bit political, even more snarky than usual, and tried to branch out in the stuff that we covered. At the same time, we had actually LEGO reviews multiple times, and we saw the end of the Skywalker saga – maybe by the time this goes up maybe we will have gotten all of the ranting out of our systems for that particular film. (Side note: we haven’t)
Gaming was looking pretty shaky when 2019 started out… it opened up with the simmering dumpster fire that is Anthem. I don’t even think you can call it a full fire, since EA seems to have forgotten it existed at all. Bethesda released Rage 2, which brought the most deceptive trailer for a video game this side of Dead Island – it was a dull and tedious game that was forgotten within a week of coming out. Far Cry New Dawn was basically Far Cry 5 but a bit more phoned in, and some studios that were among those I loved, Blizzard and Bethesda, were terrible to the point of me (Nick) stopping any support for their titles.
On the hardware front, we got Google delivering the “yeah, this will be discontinued in a couple of years” Stadia, a product for basically nobody. Sony and Microsoft both announced their next generation consoles, and continued to frustrate by saying they’ll be coming out around the same time: Holiday 2020. Details are somewhat sparse, but we know that the PS5 will be backwards compatible for the PS4, and the Xbox will be backwards compatible for all Xbox titles and support Xbox One peripherals.
If I had to pin any particular product or service that really came into its own in 2019, it would be the Game Subscription services. I’ve been a long-time skeptic of such services, and a bunch of them are still pretty terrible, but Microsoft’s Xbox Game Pass is simply an incredible value, and Apple Arcade gives you a ton of value in the mobile gaming space. Sony and Nintendo are playing catch-up on this front, and it remains to be seen if either will take the steps to actually compete on this front.
Ace’s Pick: Not so much a game, but a gaming service is what gets my pick:
Do you know how refreshing it is to play a mobile game without suffering through interstitial ads, or being shown a “limited-time deal”, or to feel like you have to pay to play competitively? SO refreshing. Apple Arcade offers quality games and takes out every toxic element that made mobile gaming a trial of wills. Mobile gaming is fun again. And the fact that a family subscription to Apple Arcade is a measly $4.99 a month or $49.99 for a year makes it absolutely worthwhile. Google immediately responded with a knee-jerk reaction with their own arcade style subscription package, but all it was was a selection of games that were readily available in the Google Play store and didn’t follow the same “no microtransactions or advertisement” guidelines that Apple Arcade games follow.
Eric’s Pick: In the same vein as Ace, I want to first shoutout Microsoft bringing Game Pass to PC. Being able to experience games like The Outer Worlds or Gears 5Â on launch day for $5 a month…well, there’s nothing quite like it. I’ve played some standout hits via XGP on PC, and I can’t wait to see what other games Microsoft brings out in the next year. If this is the route that gaming is going, I’m all for it, so long as we can keep actually buying the games to keep them if we want to stop subscribing.
Anyway, on to the actual games!
Considering how keyed-in we are to games on the site, I played a surprisingly small amount of 2019 games. Death Stranding had a really solid base game and concept, but the story got in the way. The Outer Worlds reminded me for the fourth time that I just really do not like Bethesda-style games. Super Mario Maker 2 is a fantastic game that falls apart online.
But aside from those three, that was really it. I’m still, to my chagrin, playing Overwatch. I played through MGSV again and realized how much I love it. I’ve been playing through a bunch of old classics ported to the Switch, and I got really into Minecraft again.
Yet one game that actually came out this year stands supreme, and if you’ve been keeping up with my rankings throughout these “Best of” posts, then it shouldn’t come as much of a surprise:
The sixth entry in From Software’s crushing games catalog, Sekiro actually managed to change things up quite a lot. For one, no custimzation, which streamlines the game considerably. Now you’re fighting enemies exactly how the developer intended. You can no longer cheese a boss with specific exploits – you gotta get up there and kick their ass proper. Combat is completely different, no longer about managing a stamina bar that runs out, but instead a posture meter that builds up. Blocking enemy attacks with perfect timing is the only way you’re going to get through this game. I can say without hesitation that it has the best combat in any game ever.
After Dark Souls III, which was a bit of a mess, I’m glad From Software took some time off to rethink and refine their systems, and the game has done absolutely smashingly in sales, especially for this kind of niche game. However, I noted 2019’s all-inclusive game climate when I talked about Celeste for the 2018 post, so I should bring it up.
A big debate that came up with the release of Sekiro was an “easy mode”. Although a laughable idea at first, considering these games are kinda known for their toughness, in retrospect it’s not a bad idea. If the goal is to have as many people playing the game as possible, and having a good time doing it, then accessibility is a major consideration. But…at the same time, From Software’s games are very specific about how they’re supposed to be approached. Success through immense opposition – which I talked about in my 2011 article. And without the dozens of weapon options of Bloodborne and the Souls games, Sekiro, in a way of thinking, is more accessible than ever. I recommend checking out this Game Maker’s Toolkit episode if you want to hear more about this debate.
Nick’s Pick: Okay, wow, this is going to be a tough year for game. There were a ton of games that consumed a ton of my time. There was the first good Star Wars game in more than a decade with JEDI: Fallen Order. I mean, I should pick it in this spot just because EA made a game that wasn’t terrible and laden with microtransactions. After more than a decade of telling us that single player games were dead and don’t sell, they released a press release about how it was the best selling digital release they’d ever had. I look forward to them telling us in their earnings report early next year that it was below expectations after saying it was great up until that point.
Past that, we got a new mainline Pokemon game, Sword and Shield, which should have been awful, but somehow, inexplicably, was actually pretty great. I’ve been working on the review on and off since it came out, but would need to stop playing it in order to do that. Speaking of the Switch, we also got Link’s Awakening, which very likely might be the most beautiful game that has landed on the Switch, stylistic through-and-through, and just a joy to play.
I was seriously considering going with Untitled Goose Game here, to be honest… because it was equal parts fun indie game and cultural phenomenon, and that asshole goose was just so much fun to play. It’s a game that is pure guilty pleasure, and scratches an itch that games like Donut County and Grand Theft Auto have in the past, but did it with style.
In the end, though, I’m going to give it to a game that’s the best Fallout game made in ages, maybe ever… only it’s not a Fallout game, and the studio that made it is better than Bethesda has ever been (I pitch this book a lot, but read Jason Schreier’s Blood, Sweat, and Pixels and you’ll see just how terrible Bethesda was to Obsidian in the development of Fallout: New Vegas). The Outer Worlds, quite simply, was a revelation, a game that was lovingly crafted and designed, was fun to play, and legitimately made me laugh more times than I can count.
That it was also a blistering indictment of late-stage capitalism, something that is pretty on-brand for me at this point, just made it even better.
Movies
Ace’s Pick: There were two movies that came out this year that I’ve been DYING to see: Once Upon A Time In Hollywood and Parasite. Unfortunately, due to time and kids and probably a various other reasons, I never made it to the theater. One of those would probably be filling up this spot right here, and it probably would have been Parasite. But if I’m being honest and pick a movie I actually saw, well here it is:
Alita: Battle Angel was an adaptation of the Japanese manga Battle Angel Alita. The movie rights were purchased by James Cameron years ago, he just needed a director to helm the project. Robert Rodriguez answered the call and in the end, we got a nice treatment that did justice to the anime adaptation of the manga. While I disagree with the decision to Disney-fy her eyes, I got used to it and decided it seemed appropriate given the setting of the film. The action sequences were exciting to watch and the underlying story and character development made the film a little more than just a CGI-laden popcorn flick. I was a huge fan of the anime and was a bit worried that a live-action adaptation would go the same route as Ghost In The Shell did, but Robert Rodriguez did an excellent job and did not disappoint.
Eric’s Pick: Honestly…I don’t have a favorite movie of the year. I thought Endgame was fine, and wrapped up the main story well. I still haven’t seen Rise of Skywalker. And without Moviepass, my theater viewing have gone down the toilet. Being home for Christmas, I’ve been trying to catch up on some of these big hits. I watched Parasite because Ace was talking about it, and it was great. JoJo Rabbit is another worthy film of the Taika Waititi name. Uncut Gems was…intense. But other than that, honestly, that’s all I’ve seen this year. I yield the rest of my time to Nick.
Nick’s Pick: 2019 was kind of a down year on movies for me. I didn’t hate Rise of Skywalker as much as Ace did, but I didn’t really like it either. When it was over, I was mostly of the mindset of “well, that was a thing.” We got the event that was Avengers: Endgame, and I honestly still don’t know how I feel about that movie or where I rank it. It was a stunning thing to behold, but it had a ton of plot issues… it just sort of falls apart when you think about it. There were plenty that I enjoyed, like Spider-Man Far From Home, John Wick 3, Hobbs & Show, Rocketman, but none of them are in that stunning realm that some of my other picks where.
There is one movie that did stand out for me, and if you’ve been following my work here when I talk about my favorite characters in comics, it shouldn’t be a surprise… Captain Marvel.
I’m not even going to call this the best MCU movie, but it was a great take on the character that did what it set out to do extremely well. It wasn’t made for me, and that’s awesome – I love seeing things targeted at other groups… it’s far more interesting than just watching the same stories over and over. Just getting this movie was great, and the thing that really got me excited after it was done is the promise of where it could go next.
LEGO
Ace’s Pick: Going over the list of 2019, I think I might have bought just a handful of sets. I have just a few of those built and ready for review, but given my lack of enthusiasm for the hobby these days, it’s hard to motivate myself to get around to finishing them. So it should come as no surprise that this is my pick:
Free, low effort acquisition, and awesome. That’s pretty all it took for PS4 Spider-Man minifig to get top spot for 2019. The game this figure is from came really close to being my top pick for last year. Never did I think that we’d get a minifig of that version of Spidey but here he is in all his glory.
Eric’s Pick: I went for my annual Lego Store visit in around June of this year, and they had this set out on display, and I knew it was a hit.
75810 The Upside Down is just such a weird set, and that’s why I love it. Honestly, I would have never expected Lego to make a Stranger Things set, but here we are. And, best yet, it’s based on Season 1! Bravo for taking a chance on your adult fans, Lego.
Nick’s Pick: I actually wrote a few different reviews this year, and got a few LEGO sets… though only one of them, 10266 Apollo 11 Lunar Lander, wasn’t given to my daughter as soon as the review was done.
I wrote most of my thoughts on the set the review for the set, and I still have it up and displayed on our fireplace mantle. It’s a brilliant set that was a joy to build, and captured something so singular and special that it will be on display for a long, long time.
I created this composite image from a couple of screen shots from the teaser video, hence why the bottom half has that motion blur.
