2018, however, was a very different year for Nintendo Switch owners. Prior to the end-of-the-year combo of a new Pokemon game and the release of Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, Nintendo mostly let other developers and publishers run with the momentum. Indie hits like Dead Cells and Celeste provided lots of challenging, side-scrolling action. Fighting games like BlazBlue Cross Tag Battle and Dragon Ball FighterZ proved, for the first time in a long time, that fighting game fans have a home on a Nintendo platform. In addition to all of the great games we've gathered below--all of which scored an 8 or higher on GameSpot--we've also got an in-depth feature that recaps the year that was for Nintendo Switch in greater detail.
Bayonetta 2 arrives on Switch with everything intact from the Wii U version, but with the added convenience of portability and a more consistent frame rate, making it the definitive version of the game. Thanks to the confident execution of seemingly unbridled creativity, Bayonetta 2 remains a game that shouldn't be missed, just as it was when we first reviewed the game on Wii U. -- Peter Brown & Mark Walton [Full Review]
Batman: The Enemy Within - Episode 4 - 9/10
Episode 4 of Telltale's Batman: The Enemy Within has top-notch writing, thoughtful depictions, and impactful decision-making moments. It leaves Bruce, Batman, and you to grapple with questions and uncertainty. Between the future of Joker, the nature of Amanda Waller, and the potential fallout of Bruce's mission on his allies, Telltale has set the stage for what could (better) be an explosive finale. -- Tamoor Hussain [Full Review]
BlazBlue Cross Tag Battle - 9/10
Whether playing through the story mode alone or against hardened opponents online, Cross Tag Battle is an absolute joy with a surplus of possibilities within its wide roster and versatile fighting system. Even with all the ridiculousness of the overarching plot, I reveled in the charm of my favorite characters and embraced the many moments of fan service. It's a masterful unification of styles and mechanics from four different universes that compels you to dig deeper and dedicate the time to getting the most out of the beloved members of this cast. -- Michael Higham [Full Review]
Celeste - 9/10
It's a testament to convincing writing and ingenious design that after playing Celeste I felt like I'd been on the same journey as Madeline. Her struggle is one made easy to empathize with, her low points painful to watch, and her high notes exhilarating to experience. Her tale is delicately told and beautifully illustrated, confidently coalescing with the satisfying, empowering game it lies within. Not bad for a game about climbing a mountain. -- Oscar Dayus [Full Review]
Dead Cells - 9/10
Even if you can't make it all that far, Prisoner's Quarters is simple enough that you'll have plenty of opportunities to "bank" cells for the aforementioned upgrades. That gives you a sense of constant progress, even when you bomb a run. In fact, the only real issue with the adventure is that some of the better upgrades can take substantially longer than they should. It stalls progress in the mid-game a bit and can lead to a feeling of grinding your wheels. Besides that, though, Dead Cells is a phenomenal effort to blend together some very disparate genres into a tight, cohesive whole. It's one of the better examples of how to remix ideas without losing their individual strengths. -- Daniel Starkey [Full Review]
Diablo III: The Eternal Collection - 9/10
Diablo 3 is a game about long term goals accomplished in short, thrilling bursts. It's rewarding and subtle. It's flashy and boisterous. I have spent six years enjoying it, and will likely spend six years more. As far as video games go, that's a long time--I came into the Eternal Collection expecting a eulogy for one of my favorite games. Instead, I stumbled upon a celebration. -- Mike Mahardy [Full Review]
Donkey Kong Tropical Freeze - 9/10
Tropical Freeze isn't a heavy-hitter from Nintendo in the same way Breath of the Wild or Super Mario Odyssey are, but it's a fantastic platformer that's bursting with creativity and expertly designed challenges. It's tuned just right--always tough but rarely frustrating--to ensure that even the most common moments feel great. If you missed out when the game first debuted back in 2014, give it a shot today. It easily stands the test of time. -- Peter Brown [Full Review]
Dragon Ball FighterZ - 9/10
FighterZ is complex and distinct enough to be enjoyed by fighting game competitors, but there's no question that it's been designed to tap into the hearts of Dragon Ball's most dedicated fans, and no doubt those same qualities will win people over who've never given the series a chance. Where past games attempted to get there through huge character rosters and deliberately predictable trips down memory lane, FighterZ has bottled the essence of what makes the series' characters, animation, and sense of humor so beloved and reconfigured it into something new: a Dragon Ball fighting game that can go toe-to-toe with the best of the genre. -- Peter Brown[ Full Review]
Gris - 9/10
Gris understands intrinsically how magical video games can be and continually pushes your imagination until you're almost bursting with joy. The ways in which it reinvents itself as you gain powers and dive ever deeper into this world is truly special, and just as it knows exactly when to pull back the camera or introduce a new song, it's keenly aware of when it's time to say goodbye. Like a comet streaking across the sky, Gris is full of wonder and beauty and leaves you with a warm glow in your heart. -- Tom Mc Shea [Full Review]
Guacamelee 2 - 9/10
Everything about Guacamelee 2 comes off as smarter and more thoughtful than the first game, even while indulging in its self-aware shenanigans and Rick & Morty-esque dimensional hijinks. The game never stops finding new ways to hook you in, to the point that even the most painstaking and intensive playthroughs feel like they just fly by. Saving the numerous timelines in Guacamelee 2 is just as much about partaking in a marvel of devious, meticulous game design as it is about saving Juan and his family from peril. -- Justin Clark [Full Review]
Hollow Knight - 9/10
Hollow Knight feels exceptional because so many of its smaller, expertly designed parts fit so well together over an extraordinarily long adventure that could easily have fallen prey to poor pacing. But its expansive enemy roster and routinely surprising areas and platforming challenges ensure that your journey through this fallen bug kingdom is one you're unlikely to forget. Hollow Knight offers a surprisingly large and harrowing adventure, and it's a treat that every bit of it is just as divine as that last. - Alessandro Barbosa [Full Review]
Iconoclasts - 9/10
When Iconoclasts' end credits begin to roll, it's bittersweet to see the journey come to a close. After solving every puzzle and witnessing the finale of its poignant narrative, you can't help but reflect on the growth of its characters and your impact onto the world. The game will shock and surprise you with how gripping its story is, and it's likely to do so again in subsequent playthroughs of New Game+ with your expanded knowledge of character histories and events. Iconoclasts may be a callback to the style and mechanics of old-school games, but it's also a sincere and compelling adventure that anyone with respect for fantastic storytelling and 2D-action can enjoy. -- Matt Espineli [Full Review]
Into The Breach - 9/10
There is so much strategic joy in seeing the potential destruction a swarm of giant monsters is about to unleash on a city, then quickly staging and executing elaborate counter maneuvers to ruin the party. Into The Breach's focus on foresight makes its turn-based encounters an action-packed, risk-free puzzle, and the remarkable diversity of playstyles afforded by unique units keeps each new run interesting. It's a pleasure to see what kind of life-threatening predicaments await for you to creatively resolve in every new turn, every new battle, and every new campaign. Into The Breach is a pristine and pragmatic tactical gem with dynamic conflicts that will inspire you to jump back in again, and again, and again. -- Edmond Tran [Full Review]
Night In The Woods - 9/10
From beginning to end to epilogue, Night in the Woods is ultimately open to individual interpretation. How you relate to it depends on your own experiences and choices, including Mae's dialogue and who you decide to spend time with. Though its charming and angsty story works well on its own merits, it's special because of how it prioritizes conveying emotion over telling a straight narrative. -- Kallie Plagge [Full Review]
Owlboy - 9/10
Owlboy is consistently charming and surprising, and when its final act doubles down on every front, it's bittersweet to see it end. As you relish the outcome of the final battle and watch the closing cutscene, you can't help but reflect on the beginning of your adventure and how far the world and its inhabitants have come. You'll never be able to play Owlboy for the first time again, but the memories of its magic moments stick with you. This is more than a treat for fans of old-school games; Owlboy is a heartfelt experience that will touch anyone with an affinity for great art and storytelling. -- Peter Brown [Full Review]
Rocket League - 9/10
For people new to the game, they have a lot to look forward to regardless, as it's one of the most fascinating sports games in memory. Nevermind if you don't like soccer or couldn't care less about the growing esports community. Rocket League is a unique game that redefines the concept of what a sports game can be, and Psyonix continues to support it with new content on a regular basis. It's been around for a while, but now that it's on Switch, there's no better time to give it a shot. -- Peter Brown [Full Review]
Super Smash Bros. Ultimate - 9/10
An inconsistent online mode and situational downers don't stop Super Smash Bros. Ultimate from shining as a flexible multiplayer game that can be as freewheeling or as firm as you want it to be. Its entertaining single-player content helps keep the game rich with interesting things to do, as well as bolstering its spirit of loving homage to the games that have graced Nintendo consoles. Ultimate's diverse content is compelling, its strong mechanics are refined, and the encompassing collection is simply superb. -- Edmond Tran [Full Review]
Yoku's Island Express - 9/10
Yoku's Island Express takes two unlikely genres and combines them into one playful, natural experience. The game's audio and visual design is simply joyous and the large game world seamlessly combines its pinball puzzles with some brilliant level designs. While traversing the large map does get frustrating at times, Yoku's Island Express' main quest never drags, and with its slate of fun abilities, quirky supporting characters and a generous amount of optional content, Yoku's Island Express is a unique journey that's refreshing and just straight up fun. - Alexander Pan [Full Review]
Armello - 8/10
Armello picks and chooses a variety of elements from board, card, 4X, and role-playing games without demanding either a familiarity with or a fondness for any genre. It also leaves a lot of room to engage as deeply as you want with the game's guts without feeling like you're floundering if you don't. Whether you're bumbling your way to the top or playing all your cards right, Armello makes regicide ridiculously entertaining. -- Janine Hawkins [Full Review]
Attack On Titan 2 - 8/10
Despite its slow start, Attack on Titan 2 offers exciting gameplay along with a deep and intriguing plot that, melodrama aside, tugs on the heart strings. It's well-paced and offers some impressive spaces to move through. The unique combination of the movement and combat mechanics combines with a gripping story to make Attack on Titan 2 one of the more surprising releases of the year. -- James Swinbanks [Full Review]
Battle Chasers: Nightwar - 8/10
Beyond the challenge of combat, Battle Chasers is sustained through the strength of its story, a rollicking tale that takes our heroes literally to hell and back. It's bolstered by some sharp dialogue, gorgeous artwork, and an ensemble that plays extremely well off of each other. Lots of work has gone into Nightwar since its first release, and the balancing improvements make it an easy game to recommend on all platforms. -- Justin Clark [Full Review]
Broken Sword 5: The Serpent's Curse - 8/10
Even now, Broken Sword 5 still looks gorgeous, and although its murder-turned-conspiracy story feels somewhat rote these days, its characters and dialogue are still great fun to watch as the drama unfolds. The pick-up-and-put-down nature of a point-and-click adventure works especially well on Switch, and the excellent use of touch screen controls enhances the experience even more. -- James Swinbanks [Full Review]
Captain Toad Treasure Tracker - 8/10
Despite a smattering of minor complaints, Captain Toad stands as a pint-sized version of Nintendo's stellar first party pedigree. It's among the best Mario spin-offs around and a delightful iteration on old ideas. -- Daniel Starkey [Full Review]
Chasm - 8/10
Even when its flaws are obvious, Chasm is a well-crafted adventure, and during the more than 12 hours I spent playing through my first time, I got lost only once. That's a huge bonus in a genre where getting lost is often the most frustrating aspect. Even after I finished, I was eager to venture forth on a new adventure, to test my combat mettle against harder foes and find the one secret that eluded me the first time through. It's a shame the randomization of the world isn't that big of a deal and the challenge could be better balanced, but the superb combat and visual design ensure your time with Chasm will be well spent. -- Tom Mc Shea [Full Review]
Child Of Light - 8/10
It has been more than four years since Child of Light first hit consoles. The somber tone that permeates the adventure still resonates deeply, using its delicate visuals and wistful music to capture a feeling of melancholy that still feels incredibly rare. The passage of time hasn't undermined the sadness that makes this game so welcoming because there is still nothing quite like Child of Light. The transition to the Switch hasn't hurt the experience in the slightest. Whether docked or in handheld mode, the beautiful artistic design shines through and the controls are smooth regardless of which controller you use. -- Tom Mc Shea [Full review]
Cities: Skylines - 8/10
Cities: Skylines remains the best city-builder on the market right now. The game's presentation is stodgy, but it is all but guaranteed to provide you many hours of carefully crafting cities, laying out zoning, and establishing districts for specifics residential and industrial uses -- Brett Todd [Full Review]
Dark Souls Remastered - 8/10
While Dark Souls Remastered on Switch possesses some odd quirks and isn't as technically impressive as its current-gen counterparts, it still retains the heart of what the original game is all about. To this day, Dark Souls remains a watershed moment for the action-RPG genre. Getting to re-experience many of the game's most nerve-wracking and iconic moments can be satisfying in its own right, but coupled with the Switch's flexible playstyle, this equally haunting and triumphant game becomes an even more involved journey. -- Alessandro Fillari [Full Review]
Dragon Quest Builders - 8/10
The flexibility to mold the land and vanquish endearing monsters on a large screen and on the go offers a welcome level of convenience the PlayStation versions lacked. While this is obviously a benefit of all Switch games, the involving nature of Dragon Quest Builders, particularly the sense of player ownership in carving the land to your liking makes this game a strong match for the Nintendo platform. -- Miguel Concepcion [Full Review]
Football Manager 2019 - 8/10
It's still not the most welcoming game for newcomers, stacking systems upon systems upon systems, but for veterans and those willing to put in the effort to learn, there's never been a better time to hop in and entrench yourself in the virtual dugout. Football Manager 2019's tweaks will have you happily settling in for another mammoth play session of juggling egos, pipping your rivals to the signing of a wonderkid, and smashing in a 90th-minute winner to capture a league title in triumphant fashion. -- Richard Wakeling [Full Review]
Full Metal Furies - 8/10
Full Metal Furies is primarily a brawler, and a good one that promotes teamwork instead of button-mashing. But it's also a very hard puzzle game, one that challenges you to perceive each level, as well as the game's mechanics and characters, in new ways. It's a shame most of the Furies are so two-dimensional throughout the main campaign--especially Meg, who's arguably the most lovable of the bunch--but the story is consistently witty with its humor and an absolute joy to watch unfold. And while coming up with strategies to handle new enemies and piecing together the clues for each puzzle is fairly difficult at times, it's a rewarding and deeply satisfying challenge. -- Jordan Ramee [Full Review]
Hyrule Warriors Definitive Edition - 8/10
Hyrule warriors is a delightful, bizarre outing that opens up the Zelda series, taking us places we've been before, just with thousands of monsters and awesome, screen-clearing magical attacks. -- Daniel Starkey [Full Review]
Kirby Star Allies - 8/10
Star Allies is yet another Kirby game, but it's up there with some of the best. It's an artistic showcase, and a great opportunity for co-op platforming. The one real complaint you can levy at it is that it gates off its more challenging aspects, but the fact that they are present to begin with will please anyone who's grown weary of the series' painless platforming. -- Peter Brown [Full Review]
Lumines Remastered - 8/10
Lumines is the kind of game that temporarily rewires your brain, splicing together its ability to recognize visual patterns and audible rhythms simultaneously and forcing you to do the hard but delightful work of putting that ability to use. Having that experience so lovingly presented--and on the Switch, having Lumines handheld again for the first time in six years--is an occasion worth celebrating. -- Justin Clark [Full Review]
Mega Man X Legacy Collection 1 & 2 - 8/10
In a way, the entire collection itself is the museum--an entire series, with all its beauty and its blemishes, on display for its audience to judge and assess years later. Parts of this legacy have aged horribly, but they're still undeniably a piece of Mega Man X history. We've been told that the upcoming Mega Man 11 was greenlit thanks in part to fan interest in the original Mega Man Legacy Collection. If Capcom follows with a proper sequel to Mega Man X, this compilation provides valuable lessons on what the series is, what it isn't, and what it can be when given the chance. -- Steve Watts [Full Review]
Minit - 8/10
Minit's lives might only last 60 seconds, but its extremely well-thought-out world design and engrossing loop of progress make it a curse-filled adventure that is worth dying the world over for. Its throwback to classic visuals aren't done for aesthetic alone, as none of its gameplay systems scream antiquity. It's a slickly presented adventure that continually manages to surprise you with every new area you uncover or item you procure, pushing you to pick away at its seams to uncover every drop of what it has to offer. With a delightful ending and more promised after its first run of credits, Minit is far more than just a collection of seconds. [Full Review]
Monster Boy And The Cursed Kingdom - 8/10
Monster Boy and the Cursed Kingdom not only pays faithful homage to Wonder Boy, particularly The Dragon's Trap, but by refining the solid foundations of its spiritual predecessors with modern affordances, it becomes a rich platforming adventure in its own right. With a well-realized world filled to the brim with secrets and excellent platforming mechanics that always keeps things interesting, the Cursed Kingdom is a place you will want to discover every corner of. -- Alexander Pan [Full Review]
Octopath Traveler - 8/10
Despite the lackluster stories that pull you through the world, Octopath thrives on its character progression and the temptations of high-level challenges and rewards. The promise of new jobs, exciting boss fights, and powerful gear will inspire you to poke around every corner, and there are no shortage of discoveries to strive for. And all the while, you're treated to one of the most interesting and effective re-imaginings of a retro aesthetic around. Octopath will likely be a divisive game due to its fractured storytelling, but it's one worth playing despite its lesser qualities. Its high points are simply too good to ignore. -- Peter Brown [Full Review]
Overcooked 2 - 8/10
Overcooked 2 undoubtedly shines in local co-op and the versus arcade modes. New recipes and obstacles provide a fresh challenge for veterans, but it remains approachable for new players with simple controls and short playtimes. The new throwing mechanic, too, adds a new dimension to both strategy and the inevitable chaos without overcomplicating things. It's a strong foundation, and with the right friends, Overcooked 2 is one of the best couch co-op games around. -- Kallie Plagge [Full Review]
Pac-Man Championship Edition 2 Plus - 8/10
Just released on Switch in a slightly enhanced "Plus" version, Pac-Man Championship Edition 2 feels perfectly at home on the portable system. It retains all the same game modes, features, and good looks of the previous console versions, but smartly adds a two-player mode, where the sense of teamwork is more palpable and there's a distinct sense of accomplishment when two players work together to trap a whole string of delicious frightened ghosts for big points. -- Jason D'Aprile [Full Review]
Pokemon Let's Go Pikachu & Evee - 8/10
Despite these concessions, Pokemon Let's Go Pikachu and Let's Go Eevee are delightful reimaginings of the series' origins and a deep RPG in their own right. It makes a lot of smart improvements on the original Red, Blue and Yellow while holding on to what made them so special in the first place. Fans of the series might be let down by the lack of features they've come to expect, but Let's Go Pikachu and Let's Go Eevee take the Pokemon formula in some exciting new directions. -- Jacob Dekker [Full Review]
SNK 30th Anniversary Collection - 8/10
Digital Eclipse proves once again that it's the right team for the job of both preserving and resurrecting classic video games. For SNK and its fans, the team has elevated some of the company's most important milestones. It's responsible for more than just Neo Geo games, and though not every game that came before is worth replaying on its own today, the addition of supplemental materials and revitalizing modern gaming conveniences make them feel more interesting than they have in years, and in some cases, decades. -- Peter Brown [Full Review]
Street Fighter 30th Anniversary Collection - 8/10
That's more or less the story of the 30th Anniversary Collection. It won't satisfy every specific demand, but it's still a big collection of awesome games and behind-the-scenes content that no Street Fighter fan should miss. Street Fighter is a series worth celebrating and Digital Eclipse has managed to do so in a manner that feels respectful to the series and to the people who keep the spirit of arcade battles alive. -- Peter Brown [Full Review]
The Banner Saga 3 - 8/10
The Banner Saga 3 won't have the same kind of meaningful impact if you haven't experienced the rest of the series. But if you've taken the time to journey with these characters from the very beginning, this finale is a worthwhile and cathartic end to your long journey. -- Edmond Tran [Full Review]
The Gardens Between - 8/10
It may only take two to three hours to see everything The Gardens Between has to offer, but the warm and fuzzy feelings from start to finish ensure that your memories of playing it will live on. The expressive faces of the two teens and the relatable memories they share will speak to anyone who's ever had a close childhood friend, and while the puzzles won't go down as the most ingenious or demanding, they nevertheless give you more time to spend frolicking in a nostalgic and heartwarming world where friendship is all that matters. -- Peter Brown [Full Review]
The Messenger - 8/10
The Messenger takes the best parts of the action-platformers it takes influence from and reinterprets them well. With clever writing, well-designed levels, and balanced difficulty curve, the game continuously hooks you with enticing skill-based challenges and satisfying payoffs. Your character might have an immediate imperative to delivering a world-saving scroll, but the journey there is definitely one to savor. -- Alexander Pan [Full Review]
The Missing - 8/10
The Missing is smaller and more mechanically conventional than Deadly Premonition or D4, but its components remain focused on distinctly a Swery game: a dark, idiosyncratic experience that tells a deeply personal story that's as confronting as it is sincere. It is absolutely not for everyone, but as the game reminds us, there is nothing wrong with that. -- David Wildgoose [Full Review]
The Walking Dead: The Final Season - Episode 1 - 8/10
Beautiful things are possible in the new world and the new ways to play that Telltale has laid out in Done Running. But something ugly and horrifying is likely to happen first, and it is going to be captivating to watch. -- Justin Clark [Full Review]
The Walking Dead: The Final Season - Episode 2 - 8/10
We leave The Walking Dead on a Telltale firmly willing to make mechanical and tonal risks, nearly all of which pay off well in this episode, hinting towards a bright future we may never get to see. If this is the last time we see her, the fact that she, and this series, have become what they've become is maybe the closest thing to a Happily Ever After as can be expected from The Walking Dead. -- Justin Clark [Full Review]
Transistor - 8/10
Transistor remains an absolute joy to play on Nintendo Switch. The system's screen has no issues with readability, though the game is best enjoyed in docked mode, where its visuals--which remain striking nearly five years after its original release--have room to flourish on a big screen. Its turn-based combat and relatively brief encounters are well-suited to short bursts of gameplay in handheld mode, though the strong writing and pacing are likely to pull you through extended sessions. -- Chris Pereira & Carolyn Petit [Full Review]
Valkyria Chronicles 4 - 8/10
Ultimately, this is a return to form for the Valkyria Chronicles series as a whole. It stays so true to the franchise's first iteration that it'll feel as if almost no time has passed in the decade or so since the original game first came out. In revisiting the concerns and the environments of the first, it makes the most of those parallels and invites comparison in a way that highlights its strengths. -- Ginny Woo [Full Review]
Wasteland 2: Director's Cut - 8/10
Wasteland 2 is still a very special outing. If you haven't spent your time in this irradiated desert just yet, this is one of the best times to do so--especially since the portability of the Switch reissue lets you take the journey on long treks of your own, or as a dense RPG to curl and nestle in with, as you might with an excellent book. -- Daniel Starkey [Full Review]
West Of Loathing - 8/10
West of Loathing's visuals are monochromatic, but there's enjoyable comedy painted between every line, a pitch-perfect Spaghetti Western soundtrack, and a full spectrum of role-playing possibilities to choose from that make it a consistently enjoyable madcap cowboy jaunt. -- Edmond Tran [Full Review]
Wolfenstein 2: The New Colossus - 8/10
As long as you're able to play the entire game in docked mode, The New Colossus is the same fantastic game it is on other platforms. It runs well and, despite some minor visual compromises, it still looks pretty good. Handheld mode is unfortunately far less optimized, and the Joy-Cons simply don't feel as good to use as the Pro Controller. -- Kallie Plagge [Full Review]
For better or worse, Hollywood is not very interested in entirely original movies. For decades, the big studios have played it safe by using existing, popular properties on which to base their movies and TV shows, whether it's sequels, remakes, reboots, or adaptations. And while it's a shame that more original product isn't made--after all, even Star Wars and Ghostbusters were new once--you can understand Hollywood's reluctance. With theater attendances falling over the past two decades and increasing competition from the big streaming services, a recognisable pre-existing franchise or property that has previously proven popular with audiences is a lot safer if you're spending millions of dollars to get it to the screen.
As with every year, 2018 has offered plenty of remakes, reboots, and adaptations of varying quality. This year saw some long-running but dormant classic movie franchises return to the big screen. After decades of mediocre sequels and divisive remakes, the Halloween series was brought back to life with incredible success, which will inevitably lead to more sequels. Unfortunately the same could not be said of The Predator, which flopped at the box office, left most fans distinctly unimpressed, and probably killed the franchise for some time.
There were a variety of book adaptations too, from classics such as The Haunting of Hill House to modern favourites like Annihilation and Mortal Engines. Plus some older and foreign-language TV shows were reworked for modern American audiences. Of course, there were plenty of average remakes as well--movies and TV shows that, while entertaining, added little new to the existing material. So as entertaining as Lost in Space and A Star is Born were, they're not included here. But there were some undisputed stand-outs and others that really are best avoided--let's looks at the best and worst adaptations, reboots, and remakes of 2018...
BEST: Widows
Crime writer Lynda La Plante is known for Prime Suspect, the long-running TV police thriller that gave Helen Mirren one of her best roles. But before that, La Plante wrote Widows, a hugely popular show that screened on British TV back in 1983. The story was updated and reworked this year as a superb movie directed by 12 Years A Slave Oscar-winner Steve McQueen. Gone Girl writer Gillian Flynn remains faithful to the basic storyline, in which a group of women come together after their criminal husbands are killed in a bank robbery shoot-out. But by transplanting the story to modern day Chicago, Flynn and McQueen are able to give the movie a social subtext, which weaves issues of political corruption and police brutality into a gripping heist thriller.
WORST: The Predator
The original Predator is an '80 classic. It combined sci-fi horror thrills and exciting, violent action, and helped make Arnold Schwarzenegger one of the biggest stars in the world. But unlike the Alien or Terminator series, the quality drop from that first movie was fast, and none of the following films are anywhere near as good as the first. So expectations for a rebooted Predator in 2018 should not have been high. But the fact that Shane Black was on board to write and direct suddenly raised hopes that he might actually deliver something to equal the first movie. What would the writer of Lethal Weapon and the director of Iron Man 3 do to revive this series? Unfortunately, as it turns out, not very much. The Predator is just as mediocre as its predecessors, and was badly hurt by an inflated budget, extensive reshoots, and incoherent editing. The film has its moments--the cast is good, there are some funny scenes, and some of the early action is exciting. But it gets worse as it continues, and emerges as what we should have guessed it would be all along--yet another not-very-good Predator movie.
BEST: Halloween
When is a sequel also a reboot? The latest movie in the long-running horror franchise is technically a direct follow-up to John Carpenter's 1978 slasher classic, ignoring every movie in-between. But the fact is that the Halloween series wasn't exactly ood shape before this new one came along. It had been 20 years since the last good movie in the franchise, and Rob Zombie's much-derided remakes was the final nail in the coffin for many fans. So David Gordon Green's 2018 update was very much a franchise reboot, introducing a new, younger audience to the character of Michael Myers and proving that in the right hands even the most generic material can be a hugely entertaining, extremely successful crowd-pleaser.
WORST: Death Wish
Director Eli Roth scored one of the biggest hits of his career in 2018, with the spooky family fantasy The House with a Clock In Its Walls. But seven months before that he had another movie in theaters--a truly terrible remake of the '70s vigilante thriller Death Wish. The original is a cult favorite that made a star out of Charles Bronson, but the remake is just woeful. Bruce Willis takes the lead role as a normal man forced to avenge his murdered wife and daughter, and Roth turns the movie into tasteless, idiotic revenge fantasy with none of the moral complexity of the original. It's a movie that feels trapped in a different era, and a career nadir for all involved.
BEST: Suspiria
Some films are so distinctive and individual that it seems pointless to attempt a remake. Dario Argento's 1977 Italian horror masterpiece Suspiria is such a movie; its incredible visual style and thunderous score are so vital to what made it a much-loved classic that a remake seemed redundant. But Call Me By Your Name director Luca Guadagnino was too smart to copy Argento's style and went in the opposite direction instead. The plot remains the same--a young American ballet student discovers that her German dance school is actually a coven of witches. But by stripping away the visual and sonic extravagance and expanding the narrative, Guadagnino made a movie that feels so different that it stands in its own right as a strange, scary, unforgettable experience.
WORST: Robin Hood
There have been many adaptations of the Robin Hood myth over the decades, but few as terrible as this turkey. The latest version starred Kingsman's Taron Egerton as the legendary outlaw, and the fast-moving, flashy style was clearly an attempt to appeal to the same audience as the Kingsman movies. But like last year's equally unsuccessful The Legend of King Arthur, the filmmakers clearly thought that flashy editing, excessive CGI, and irritating, wise-cracking dialogue is a good substitute for a coherent script, likable characters, or any real sense of entertainment. Robin Hood is one of the year's biggest flops, and while we'll almost certainly get another Robin Hood movie in a few years, we can only hope it's an improvement on this one.
BEST: Maniac
Netflix's Maniac was one of the best new shows of the year; a funny, strange, and moving sci-fi drama that featured stunning performances from Jonah Hill and Emma Stone. But it actually began life as a Norwegian show with the same title in 2015. In the original series, a mentally unstable man finds himself in a series of hallucinated situations, while staying in a psychiatric hospital. Showrunner/writer Patrick Somerville took the basic set-up and themes of mental health, and transplanted them to a futuristic setting, where the hallucinations are part of a mysterious drug trial. Maniac is the best kind of adaptation: one which shares a thematic and narrative base but which takes the material in a bold and original new direction.
WORST: The Darkest Minds
While Young Adult fiction is hugely popular, filmmakers have had less success adapting it to the screen. The Twilight movies set a standard that's been hard to follow, and The Darkest Minds is one of several flop YA adaptations in the last few years. It focuses on a group of kids with incredible powers living in a world where 98% of all children have died from a mysterious disease. Unfortunately, this boring, formulaic sci-fi stinker was hit by terrible reviews (it has 17% on Rotten Tomatoes), dismal box office returns, and quickly disappeared from the theaters.
BEST: Annihilation
Annihilation's writer/director Alex Garland was already an acclaimed novelist before he moved into directing with 2014's Ex Machina, so knew exactly how to tackle Jeff VanderMeer's acclaimed book Annihilation for the big screen. VanderMeer gave Garland his permission to make major changes to the source material, and as a result, the movie stands as a fantastic achievement in its own right. The novel was actually the first of a trilogy, but unfortunately Annihilation's ultimate fate--being sold off to Netflix by the studio--means that we probably won't get another installment. But what we have stands as a trippy, tense, scary, and thought-provoking sci-fi thriller, and one of 2018's best movies.
WORST: Mortal Engines
Peter Jackson incredible achievement with the Lord of the Rings trilogy means that his place in cinema history is assured. But that doesn't mean that he's not above putting his name to a bad movie. Mortal Engines is adapted from Philip Reeve's award-winning steampunk novel and certainly delivers visually. Reeve's futuristic vision of entire cities on wheels is stunningly rendered, but the generic characters and overly familiar storytelling meant that there is little to offer beyond the dazzling vfx. Perhaps it might have been better if Jackson had directed instead of producing (Christian Rivers helmed this movie), but it's doubtful. Mortal Engines was a big commercial failure and another potential franchise that stalled at the start.
BEST: The Haunting of Hill House
Shirley Jackson's classic ghost novel The Haunting of Hill House has already been adapted twice, and the 1960 movie The Haunting stands as one of the greatest horror flicks of all time (the less said about the 1999 version the better). So when it was announced that Gerard's Game director Mike Flanagan was adapting Jackson's book into a ten-part Netflix series, it was unclear what new he could bring to this story of a legendary haunted house. As it turns out, Flanagan kept the character names and location, but changed almost everything else, creating his own stunning vision. His show is as much a moving family drama as a spooky horror story, and stands alongside both the first movie and the novel as a major achievement in horror.
It's been nearly nine years since the first How to Train Your Dragon film arrived in theaters, launching an animated franchise that has spun off into sequels, a TV series, and a number of short films. Now, with February's How To Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World,, the adventures of Hiccup and his best dragon friend Toothless are coming to an end.
This third and final movie--for now, at least--will give fans a closure that a lot of other franchises don't get the luxury having. "I think they're gonna be simultaneously sad and satisfied," star Jay Baruchel, who voices Hiccup in the films and TV series, told GameSpot.
It's not just the fans that will have to come to terms with the end of the franchise, though. Baruchel himself is saying goodbye to a character he's played longer than any other. "It's hard not to get a bit kind of wistful, a bit melancholy," he said. "You know, I auditioned for this movie when I was shooting a movie called Tropic Thunder... There's very few things I've done for this long. I've been a son for 36 years. Been an actor for 20 some odd [years]. [I've] never played a part for as long as I played Hiccup. So it's gonna be [melancholic] to say goodbye."
Still, as producer Brad Lewis explained to GameSpot, it's best to go out on top. "When you fall in love with characters and you fall in love with a world in a story, obviously, you don't want that to end," he said. "At the same time, you also don't want it to get cheap. You don't want it to feel artificially extended, and relationships start to meander, right? You want it to have an intense emotional focus. So, for me, the great thing is we've been really focused on taking this trilogy and having these characters and these stories really have a conclusion to them."
Like Baruchel, though, Lewis expects there to be a bit of sadness from the audience, now that it's coming to a close. "Like all great endings, there's bittersweet aspects to it," he teased. "There's things that you're happy about, things that you wish emotionally that were really tough to accept. But that's, you know... if we can do that to an audience, then we've really done our job."
How to Trains Your Dragon: The Hidden World hits theaters on February 22.
Fortnite is now in Week 4 of Season 7, which means there's new challenges to do for those precious Battle Stars. Among the paid Battle Pass-exclusive challenges is a multi-stage one that begins by tasking players with search for the letter 'O' west of Pleasant Park. There's a further three parts to this challenge, with each one requiring players to find a letter. While the game provides the name of the location where these can be found, we've got more specific details that'll help you get to them quicker.
First up is the letter 'N', which under a frozen lake. One glance at the map and you'll know that can be found in the bottom left of the island, but if you aim yourself to land at the grid reference C7 you'll see there's a number of black floor panels in the middle. Equip your pickaxe, destroy those, and you'll fall into the area below where the letter can be found.
Next up is the 'O' in Pleasant Park, which is at the grid reference B4. You'll need to look for the house, head left of the gate, and you'll find it tucked away in the corner. Simply walk up to it, search it, and it's on tot he next one.
After that, it's the letter 'M' at Dusty Divot. This one is pretty easy to find as it's at the very center of the forest at grid reference G6. In the top left of that grid block you'll find a collection of what looks like metal containers and small white buildings, and there's a door in. Pop inside and you'll find the 'M' waiting in the corner of the room.
Finally, the letter 'S' is at Wailing Woods at grid reference I3. At the very center of the hedge maze is the wooden shack with the "Leave" sign on it. Smash the barrier directly below it and head inside, and you'll want to find the room in the north with old computers and the colorful lockers next to them. In there is a smaller room where you'll find the 'S' waiting for you. With that done, you'll have collected all the letters, which spell "NOMS" and you're done.
Fortnite Letter N, O, M, S Locations
Letter N: North of Polar Peak (C7)
Letter O: House at Pleasant Park (B4)
Letter M: Center of Dusty Divot (G6)
Letter S: Center of Wailing Woods (I3)
The other tricky challenge for Season 7, Week 4 involves taking out enemies at Expedition Outposts. We've put together a guide for exactly where you can find these outposts, and the the best way to give yourself the edge for when you get there.
While you're completing these, it's also worth taking a look at our 14 Days of Fortnite event guide, which breaks down all the special challenges available until January 2. They're quite easy to complete and you'll get yourself some nice cosmetic unlocks for doing them.
We might be in the Christmas break period but that doesn't mean the Fortnite challenges are on hold. We're now in Season 7, Week 4, and the latest selection of challenges have gone live for players to grind out and earn Battle Stars. As always, they're split into the free and paid Battle Pass categories, and in the former there's one that'll need you to head to very specific locations on the map, then eliminate enemies there.
Those specific locations are Expedition Outposts, which look like little red bunkers with a globe icon surrounded by arrows on them. They're usually surrounded by X-4 Stormwing planes, which are visible from quite high up and thus serve as good markers. In total, you'll need to take out three enemies at Expedition Outposts and, to make things easier, we've got a list of all the places you'll find one.
Of course, getting to the outposts is the easy part; eliminating enemies is where it gets difficult. To give yourself the edge focus on being quick, as these locations often have chests with good drops in them. If you're lucky enough to get to a chest before others, you may be able to grab a good weapon and take out enemies with less powerful guns at their disposal. Take a look below for the full list of Expedition Outpost locations.
Expedition Outpost Locations
South east of Lazy Links (F3)
North east of Pleasant Park (D3)
South west of Pleasant Park (C4)
West of Dusty Divot (F5)
West of Lonely Lodge (I5)
West of Paradise Palms
South of Shifty Shafts (D8)
With this challenge done and dusted, you can move on to the remaining ones. We've got a full list Fortnite Season 7, Week 4 challenges and, as you'll see, there's a few you can complete while doing this one. Specifically, the challenge that involves doing damage with a pickaxe. If you're bold enough, you may be able to get your outpost eliminations using the pickaxe.
Don't forget to take a shot at the 14 Days of Fortnite event guide challenges too, as they're quite simple and will unlock some very cool cosmetic rewards. Once you're done with all those, you may feel like mopping up challenges from previous weeks, and you can use our full Fortnite Season 7 challenge guide for help with that.
Get up off that couch and warm up those Fortnite fingers because there's another batch of weekly challenges for you to complete. We're now in Season 7, Week 4, and that means there's new Battle Stars to be earned, and doing so will level up your Battle Pass and get you one step closer to unlocking all those cosmetic rewards.
As always, there's two categories of challenges. The first is available to everyone, while the second is exclusive to those that have a paid Battle Pass. In the free section players will need to use an X-4 Stormwing plane in five different matches and launch fireworks three times for five Battle Stars apiece. The harder challenge in this group involves eliminating three opponents in Expedition Outposts, which will net you 10 Battle Stars.
For the paid tier, meanwhile, players are tasked with starting off a three-stage challenge by destroying 80 chairs. When you've done that, you'll unlock the second stage, and completing that will reveal the third and final stage in turn. After that, they'll need to get up-close and personal with enemies to deal 100 points of pickaxe damage for five Battle Stars.
For the remaining stars there's another multi-stage challenge which begins by searching the letter 'O' west of Pleasant Park. That's the first part of a total of five stages, so there'll be more to do after that. The final challenge tasks players with taking out three enemies at either Happy Hamlet or Pleasant Park. Take a look below for the full list of challenges.
Free
Use an X-4 Stormwing plane in different matches (5) -- 5 Battle Stars
Launch fireworks (3) -- 5 Battle Star
Eliminate opponents at Expedition Outposts (3) -- 10 Battle Stars
Battle Pass
Stage 1: Destroy chairs (80) -- 2 Battle Stars
Deal damage with a pickaxe to opponents (100) -- 5 Battle Star
Eliminate opponents at Happy Hamlet or Pleasant Park (3) -- 10 Battle Stars
Stage 1: Search the letter 'O' west of Pleasant Park (1) -- 3 Battle Stars
If you haven't been keeping an eye on Fortnite, you may have missed the 14 Days of Fortnite event that's been happening. Every day until January 2, developer Epic Games will be updating the game with one challenge per day which, if completed, will unlock a new customization option. We've been updating our 14 Days of Fortnite event guide regularly and, based on what we've seen, the challenges are quite simple, so they're a quick and easy way to score some cosmetics.
If doing these challenges has got put you in the mood to grind out some more, we've got a comprehensive Fortnite Season 7 challenge guide that'll help you with all the trickiest challenges from previous weeks. If you're planning to unlock everything in the season 7 Battle Pass, you'll want to get it all done as early as possible, as the last week rush to finish everything can be brutal.
Christmas has come and gone, which means the big shopping frenzy has drawn to an end. Thankfully, you can still get some great deals on video games if you know where to look. This week's sale at Best Buy finds discounts on a number of big games for PS4, Xbox One, and Nintendo Switch. Let's take a look at what kind of deals area available between now and December 30.
Fans of tiny retro consoles can get a killer deal on the PlayStation Classic this week. This plug-and-play system comes with two controllers and 20 games, and while it normally retails for $100, it's on sale this week for just $60, bringing it more in line with the pricing of Nintendo's Classic consoles. In other hardware news, if you buy any new Xbox One S or X, you'll get a $50 e-gift card for free.
As for the games, some of the fall's biggest titles are on sale for steep discounts this week. Fallout 76 is down to $40, as is Assassin's Creed Odyssey. Both of those games are big enough to keep you playing well into 2019. Battlefield V is even cheaper this week at $30, and it's scheduled to keep getting free updates for months to come.
Earlier this month, a quickly-deleted tweet from Netflix suggested that the acclaimed sci-fi anthology show Black Mirror would be returning to screens before the end of 2018. It turns out that the tweet was accurate, and the one-off Black Mirror "event" titled Bandersnatch is set to hit the service tomorrow, December 28. A trailer has now been released.
The trailer confirms the rumors that Bandersnatch will be set in the 1980s, and will focus on the creation of a new video game. Fionn Whitehead (Dunkirk) plays a developer who is hired by a software company to work on a game based on a novel titled Bandersnatch, whose author "went cuckoo and cut his wife's head off." It looks like a typically weird, futuristic nightmare--check the trailer out above.
The episode also stars Will Poulter (Detroit), Alice Lowe (Prevenge), and Asim Chaudhry (People Just Do Nothing). There have been rumors that Bandersnatch will be an interactive "choose-your-own-adventure"-style episode, in which viewers can make certain choices to affect the direction of the story. While we are unlikely to know for sure until tomorrow, it would make sense given what we know of the plot.
Season 4 of Black Mirror hit Netflix in December 2017, and in March it was confirmed that the show will return for a full fifth season in 2019. For more on Black Mirror, check out GameSpot's guide to the most WTF moments in Season 4.
If there's one thing that's been a hallmark of Vikings since the very beginning, it's the deaths of major characters that viewers hold near and dear. Still, in the latest episode-- titled "Hell"--a death came that was particularly surprising, even to the show's creator Michael Hirst.
It was only the end of Season 4 that saw the introduction of Heahmund, who became enamored with Lagertha (Katheryn Winnick) in Season 5. So it comes as something of a shock that he was dispatched of so quickly. "It was a bit of a surprise for me," Hirst told GameSpot. "These things sometimes, you have different possibilities in your head and then you think, not just about that character but how they fit into the pattern--the general pattern of where you want to take the other characters."
And while Heahmund's death will have a lasting impact, especially on Lagertha, his death also meant something to the tale being told about the bishop himself. In the episode, he saw visions of Hell that led him to believe his soul was doomed, after aligning with the pagans and falling in love with one. For Hirst, that's what was so surprising. He didn't realize that in writing Heahmund's story the way he did, he was also crafting the most logical ending for a bishop and a warrior for Christ.
"Because he felt he was a great sinner and that he was bound for hell, itt was difficult for me then to think how I could regroup and where I could take it," he admits.
In the end, though, Heahmund died in a way that was true to himself, regardless of where he may have ended up in the afterlife. "He's not particularly, political and scheming he's a warrior--a warrior for Christ," Hirst said. "And so when all those things were added up, then it made sense, that he should die, spectacularly, and he should die recognizing that, although he was going to hell, he loved her. He loved her. To me, that was a beautiful thing that despite his real fear of going to hell he was willing to admit that he was in love and that was great."
Still, Hirst admits it would have been nice to keep Heahmund around, should it have made sense in the story. "I thought Johnny was brilliant," the writer said. "He's absolutely wonderful, but it just seemed a kind of natural place to do that, poor guy."
As is usually the case with Vikings, though, nobody is truly safe or eternal. Viking history is long and caked in the blood of the fallen. From Ragnar Lothbrok to Christian monk Athelstan. When the time comes, everyone in this world faces certain death and chances are it's not going to be pretty.
But for as much as we've already covered 2018 in entertainment, there were still some things we didn't quite get to spotlight the way we wanted to. For this list, each editor on GameSpot's entertainment team chose something close to their heart that we didn't otherwise get to cover extensively, and put their thoughts down here to explain why these movies, TV shows, and more were great.
As much as we discussed Boots Riley's Sorry to Bother You--a quirky sci-fi comedy that we named one of our top movies of 2018--it wasn't the only movie set in Oakland that really captured the spirit of the greater San Francisco Bay Area this year. The other was Blindspotting, and it arguably did it just as well, if not better.
After playing Lafayette and Thomas Jefferson in the original cast of Hamilton, musician and actor Daveed Diggs turned his sights homeward, back to the Bay Area. He and longtime friend Rafael Casal wrote, produced, and star in Blindspotting. The movie follows Diggs' character Collin, who's just days away from the end of his parole and trying to stay out of trouble when he witnesses a messy police shooting in the streets of his hometown. The incident threatens to tear him apart from his best friend, Casal's Miles, who has his own struggles with parenthood and identity in an increasingly gentrified city that he barely recognizes despite having grown up there.
Wow, that sounds really grim when I type it out. But Blindspotting is as charming and funny as it is touching and serious. The creators' and stars' real world experiences come through in every heartfelt conversation, each stupid decision that leads to unintended violence, and every impromptu freestyle rap, from the funny ones to the climactic scene that's so tense you'll be sweating. Blindspotting was undoubtedly one of my favorite movies of 2018.
Chris E. Hayner: Anna and the Apocalypse
Who knew the thing we, as a society, needed for Christmas is a funny horror musical starring a bunch of Scottish kids? Anna and the Apocalypse is essentially Shaun of the Dead meets High School Musical, set at Christmas, and it's fantastic. The cast is made up largely of unknown actors and singers who populate a strangely realistic world for a comedy musical about the zombie apocalypse, but that's what helps make it click so well.
As the titular Anna, Ella Hunt is downright delightful. She's the picture perfect disgruntled teen who can't wait to escape her dreary hometown. That is, until her hometown all but dies, leaving Anna and her friends to survive the apocalypse while singing a string of ridiculously catchy songs. Seriously, I dare you to not be tapping your feet and singing "Turning My Life Around" in the car on the way home from the theater.
This is the kind of movie where I assumed I knew what was going to happen at practically every turn. After all, I've seen enough zombie movies and the Shaun of the Dead vibes are strong in this film. However, time and again I was proven wrong. Characters I thought would go the distance met their undead end halfway through the film, while others I expected to definitely be zombie chow, somehow went on to become heroes in their own right.
Even with few survivors and heroes, Anna and the Apocalypse is an uplifting story. As an early song tells viewers outright, there no such thing as a "Hollywood ending" in this world. That's a big piece of what makes Anna and the Apocalypse such an interesting tale to follow. Whether they survive the movie or not, these characters are ultimately doomed. And yet, they're going out singing in a movie that's having so much fun in the face of the horrible world on display that it's as infectious as a zombie bite.
Mat Elfring: The All In PPV
I went to a few live wrestling events this year, and I watched a whole lot more from the comfort of my own home. Nothing this year from WWE, New Japan, Ring of Honor, etc, had the same effect on me that All In did. In case you're unfamiliar, All In was the largest indie wrestling show of all time, taking place outside of Chicago on September 1. The show was run by The Elite, an off-shoot of the famous Bullet Club stable from New Japan, who have an incredible weekly travel vlog on YouTube--where they documented a lot of putting this show together. I understand we're getting deep into non-WWE stuff, but bear with me, as the show was a tremendous success. The 10,000+ seat Sears Centre sold out in less than 30 minutes, and that's saying something for a first-time go at promoting a wrestling show.
The PPV itself was easily the most fun I've ever had attending a live wrestling event. Every single match on the card could have been the main event for a show, and never in my years of going to wrestling events have I been surrounded by so many other fans who were so welcoming and friendly with each other. People from all over the globe flew into Illinois to attend the event, and it was a show that embraced what people love about wrestling. It truly was a love letter to the sport, and from start to finish, it was a huge triumph. I finally got to see Joey Ryan, the Young Bucks, and Jay "Black Machismo" Lethal live, and there wasn't a single moment during the evening that didn't have me on my feet, chanting something silly, like "Rest in Penis."
That's not a joke, that's something 10,000+ people shouted, in unison, during the show. Nothing else in wrestling in 2018 could compare to how amazing All In was, and this is coming from someone who interviewed Daniel Bryan in his hometown and went to the WWE Performance Center this year, which are huge highlights of my year as well.
Dan Auty: Widows
Director Steve McQueen had already proved himself to be an impressive director of serious, acclaimed dramas (Shame, 12 Years A Slave), but Widows showed he was equally adept at making slick, commercial thrillers too. It's an adaptation of the British '80s TV show and features an incredible cast that includes Viola Davis, Colin Farrell, Michelle Rodriguez, Liam Neeson, and Daniel Kalua.
Every element of Widows was thriller perfecton, from the powerhouse acting and McQueen's stylish, inventive direction to Gone Girl writer Gillian Flynn's gripping screenplay. In fact, it's all so good it seems almost effortless, but the way McQueen and Flynn slowly draw together a sprawling cast of characters and several seemingly unconnected plot-strands is masterful. The movie ticks all the boxes of an exciting heist thriller, but also includes an impressive social undercurrent too, as it explores the economic divide in modern Chicago and how political corruption and organised crime are inextricably linked. Widows was not the box office success that it should have been, but it's unquestionably one of 2018's finest movies.
Meg Downey: Rise of the Black Panther
2018 was a pretty ridiculous year for all things Black Panther, and you'd be hard pressed to find a better summation of just how and why that matters than the six issue mini series Rise of the Black Panther by Evan Narcisse, Ta-Nehisi Coates, Paul Renaud, and Javier Pina. It's a thoughtful, concise, beautifully rendered look at the history of the Black Panther mantle as it dates back well before the reign of King T'Challa, exploring the ins and outs of the complicated family tree that makes up the Wakandan royal family. Better yet, it's a perfect place for new fans--even people who have never picked up a Black Panther comic in their life--to jump on, laying out even the most complex of Wakanda's major historical moments in easily accessible terms.
Rise of the Black Panther tackles the mantle from all angles, picking apart the life and times of T'Challa's father, T'Chaka, and mirroring him against other Marvel favorites like Namor, Captain America, and the Winter Soldier. It dives deep into the parts of T'Challa we'll likely never see on the big screen--like his romance with X-Man Storm and his diplomatic contention with Latverian ruler Victor Von Doom. It fleshes out the life of T'Challa's biological mother, his grandfather, and his friends. In just six issues, it makes a compelling argument for the history of Wakanda being one of Marvel's crowing worldbuilding achievements, and an even better one for the role of Black Panther being one of the most critical heroic mantles of the modern age. Narcisse and Coates weave together a story with detail and care that Renaud and Pina render with stunning precision. If you only read one Marvel mini series from this year, this is the one to pick.
Dave Klein: Overlord
This movie was a bit of a surprise for me, as I went into it with absolutely no expectations. When I first heard the premise--pretty much Nazi Zombies from Call of Duty--I was honestly pretty skeptical. While it was a fun game mod, I didn't think that would translate to a good movie. However, the trailer looked good, so I went in anyways hoping for the best. And I'm happy to say Overlord more than delivered.
What I found was a legit World War II film that just happened to include zombies. The film made the smart choice of taking its premise entirely serious, which surprisingly works. We watch a gritty drop into France during D-Day, as the terrors of war obliterate a team trying to destroy a radio tower. The horror peaks when the surviving team discover the Nazis are experimenting on people, turning them into zombie-like super soldiers.
And while it would have been so easy to overuse this and watch our protagonists fighting off hundreds of residents turned into zombies, the film keeps the zombie action at a minimum. Somehow, Overlord ended up being a great fictional World War II movie, that just happened to have zombies. It's dark, it has great claustrophobic action, and is a ton of fun to watch. My expectations were exceeded, and Overlord became one of my favorite films of the year.
Chastity Vicencio: Eighth Grade
Eighth Grade is one of the most cringe-inducing movie experiences I've ever had, because it feels like a personal attack on my painfully awkward pre-teen experience. This comedy drama, written and directed by Bo Burnham, follows the life of introverted eighth grader Kayla Day (Elsie Fisher) as she is about to graduate middle school and move on to high school. Elsie Fisher gives an impressive, honest performance as young Kayla, and you can feel her anxiety and social awkwardness in your bones.
Kayla makes videos that get no views on her own fledgling YouTube channel, where she gives advice on qualities in herself she doesn't actually have--like how to be confident. She's obsessed with social media and is always attached to her phone. She has a crush who she awkwardly lies to about her sexual experience in an attempt to impress him. She is forced by her parents to go to a party she's not actually invited to and has an anxiety attack in the bathroom. Burnham perfectly captures the reality and struggles of adolescence in its truest form seen on film without much of the typical Hollywood coming of age story tropes.
The film has garnered critical acclaim, earning a Metacritic score of 89, and Fisher has been nominated for a Golden Globe for Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture. Eighth grade is a hellish time for anyone, and watching this film will definitely transport you back to painful memories. But there's beauty in how honest and genuine Eighth Grade feels to watch.
Greg Thomas: Pose
It's safe to say that Ryan Murphy is having a pretty great year. Murphy signed a multi-year mega deal with Netflix back in February, The Assassination of Gianni Versace is poised to snatch every trophy during awards season, and American Horror Story had a well-received return to glory with its eighth season, Apocalypse. With all that listed above, Murphy's greatest accomplishment for 2018 is arguably his newest drama for FX: Pose.
Created by Ryan Murphy, Brad Falchuk and Steven Canals, Pose is a story about the ballroom rivalry between the House of Abundance and the House of Evangelista. The series focuses on an assortment of characters, including Blanca Rodriguez (by M.J. Rodriguez), who breaks away from the House of Abundance to establishing a house of her own and making a mark, much to her house-mother Elektra Abundance's chagrin. Don't worry, you don't need to know much about the ballroom scene, as Canals and crew do a great job at explaining the setting and rules in the first few episodes.
The largely unknown actors are exceptional. Pose features several trans women of color as its leads--No matter the order in the top billing promos, Rodriguez shines as the show's star, chewing up screen time in the scenes that demand your attention. Rodriquez, just like the series, does not waste time or opportunity. With such a wonderful cast, we can't forget about the incredible performance from Kinky Boots Tony winner Billy Porter as house emcee Pray Tell. Porter's charisma and nurturing presence onscreen is something to behold.
Pose is touching, funny, and a very accessible viewing experience, whether you're well-versed in the ballroom community or your only point of reference is a few episodes of Rupaul's Drag Race. Of all the shows on Ryan Murphy's stacked 2018 plate, Pose may have snatched the crown as his best series on television.
Ryan Peterson: Killing Eve
There's no shortage of cat-and-mouse thrillers in television and film, yet BBC America's Killing Eve was a timely, unique, and welcome take on the genre. Both the hero and the sadistic, yet charming, villain were played by women.
The show is based on Luke Jennings's Codename Villanelle novella series and brought to life onscreen by Emmy nominated writer Phoebe Waller-Bridge. Killing Eve follows its titular character Eve Polastri, played by decorated actress Sandra Oh, an MI5 officer with an obsession for female killing machines. She spends Season 1 tracking down the extremely efficient Villanelle, and Jodie Comer's work as the merciless psychopath with an insatiable taste for high end fashion solidifies the character as one of the best villains to ever grace a television screen.
Aside from the excellent performances by these leading women, the story itself evolves into much more than your run-of-the-mill crime drama. While the hunt heats up, the show examines the human psyche, including the desires and curiosities of the fateful pair. Their respective jobs turn into a mutual and passionate obsession, as the role of cat and mouse swaps throughout its run.
The chemistry between Oh and Comer is obvious even without them sharing the screen all that much. Thankfully though, we're rewarded with an incredible face-to-face showdown by season's end. It's the Heat diner scene with shepherd's pie. Once you finish the first season of Killing Eve, there's no doubt that you too will join the ranks of the obsessed.
But that pendulum swings the other way, too. For all the great entertainment in 2018, there was also plenty that didn't live up to the standards we expected. These were movies and shows that we were excited for--however tentatively--and that turned out to be huge letdowns.
These were the biggest disappointments in entertainment of 2018. You may not agree with our choices, and that's what the comments section below is for. Drop us a note and tell us what disappointed you this year, then check out some of our other end-of-year coverage.
1. Jessica Jones Season 2
The first season of Netflix and Marvel's Jessica Jones was easily one of the best examples of the collaboration between the streaming and comics giants, possibly even the best of all these shows. We were excited about Season 2, right up until the point we actually watched it.
Trying to do a Marvel superhero story without an actual villain is a bold idea that could have paid off. Unfortunately, it simply didn't in this case. The season's main plotline and massive twist was ruined by bad casting--Janet McTeer and Krysten Ritter had absolutely zero chemistry as alleged family members. And every storyline was a total bore. Unlike the other Marvel/Netflix shows, Jessica Jones hasn't been canceled yet, but that will likely change soon. -- Mike Rougeau
2. American Horror Story Apocalypse
The eighth season of American Horror Story had a great premise: Not only was it the end of the world, but it also promised to finally tie events from the show's previous seasons together, from the original Murder House to Coven and beyond. It even got off to a promising start, as the first couple of episodes of Apocalypse set up plenty of mysteries we couldn't wait to learn the answers to.
But after those opening episodes, Apocalypse took a wrong turn. Yes, it felt like a fun twist at the time, but the following episodes proved disappointing week after week. The show started providing answers, but they weren't the ones we wanted. It spent a half dozen episodes in flashbacks--way too long when all the action we wanted to get back to was in the present. By the time Roseanne star Sandra Bernhard joined the cast for a terribly cheesy turn as a Satanic cult leader, I was done with this season of American Horror Story. -- Mike Rougeau
3. Venom
Venom is a movie that feels like it was written in 1998 by a 7-year-old, then buried in a time capsule, unearthed 19 years later, and made into a movie without a single revision to the draft. It is truly a movie from another time, and all that's missing is someone doing a kickflip over a set of steps while Korn plays in the background. From Tom Hardy's accent choices, to the movie turning into an over-the-top action flick where the final battle is filled with muddied CG, those who were looking for a great Sony spin-off movie found themselves a bit disappointed, even though this movie made $800 million, worldwide.
As for the story, it went a number of directions, many of which could have been a good movie of their own. Eddie Brock working as a journalist and ruining his girlfriend's career: I'm into that story. Brock trying to rebuild his life and take down the Life Foundation: I'm into that story. Brock losing his mind when the Venom symbiote is taking over, creating a horror aesthetic: I'm also into that story. Wacky buddy cop movie starring Eddie Brock as the fall guy covered in black oil that talks funny and wants to eat livers: You've lost me entirely, Venom. The weird comedic choices this movie made killed it for so many viewers. Why does Venom need comedy? It doesn't.
However, with the announcement of the home release of the movie, fans of the Venom character were desperately hoping for the rated-R cut of the movie. However, upon its release, fans got three deleted scenes, some behind-the-scenes footage, and that's about it. As much as we wanted an extended scene of Woody Harrelson in a red wig, this wasn't what the people wanted to see. Venom is one of the few movies in 2018 that disappointed people twice. -- Mat Elfring
4. The Predator
The original Predator is unquestionably an '80s classic--it combined sci-fi horror thrills and exciting action, and helped make Arnold Schwarzenegger one of the biggest stars in the world. But unlike the Alien or Terminator series, the quality drop from that first movie was fast, and none of the following films were anywhere near as good as the first. So expectations for a new Predator movie in 2018 should not have been high. But the fact that Shane Black was on board to write and direct suddenly raised hopes that he might actually deliver something to equal the first movie. What would the writer of Lethal Weapon and the director of Iron Man 3 do with this series?
Unfortunately, as it turns out, not very much. The Predator was just as mediocre as its predecessors, and was badly hurt by extensive reshoots and incoherent editing, as well as the controversy about certain casting choices that Black had made. The Predator has its moments--the cast is good, there are some funny scenes, and some of the early action is exciting. But the film gets worse as it continues, and emerges as what we should have guessed it would be all along--yet another not-very-good Predator movie. Time to skin this franchise and hang it upside-down for good. -- Dan Auty
5. Westworld Season 2
Westworld Season 1 was easily one of the best seasons of sci-fi TV ever, which made our hype levels for Season 2 off the charts--maybe even a little too high. Maybe there's a parallel universe where Westworld Season 2 lived up to our expectations, but that proved impossible in this one.
Where Season 1 was a carefully plotted, well-paced exploration of well-trod science fiction themes, Season 2 was a total mess in comparison. The tone was uniformly grim, the characters we used to like were unrecognizable, the plot was muddled beyond comprehension, and important details were withheld for no reason other than to string viewers along. The show's creators must have been mad at the Redditors who guessed all the twists in Season 1, because Season 2 seemed designed mostly to befuddle the show's most dedicated fans. By the time it reached its conclusion, we didn't want to know the answers anymore--we just wanted it to be over. -- Mike Rougeau
6. Fantastic Beasts 2: The Crimes of Grindelwald
In The Crimes of Grindelwald's third scene, a character who we never learn anything about despite her constant presence throughout the entire movie murders a toddler, for no reason, just off screen. Even Michael Myers, famed slasher movie villain of the Halloween series, didn't sink that low, although you could tell in the most recent one that he considered it for a moment.
This moment perfectly sets the tone for the rest of this movie: a grim, overly dramatic, mean-spirited entry into the Harry Potter universe. Fantastic Beasts 2 can accurately be described as a loosely connected series of mostly sequential events, though it's often unclear how it gets from one scene to the next or why the characters do any of the things they do. Often, the next plot point just happens to appear wherever the characters already are, seemingly to save the filmmakers the trouble of establishing a sense of time or space. The movie also abandons almost every rule we know about magical spells, places, and people, trading the series' long-established internal logic and consistency for large, ugly, confusing CG set pieces, like magical blue fire that inexplicably burns some people and not others, and eventually turns into several large dragons that attempt to destroy Paris.
Maybe worst of all, The Crimes of Grindelwald has no sense of wonder at its own magical world. Millions fell in love with Harry Potter because the wizarding world felt like a place you'd want to live, despite its bad elements. Inhabiting this movie's magical alternate history for a couple of hours will just make you want to get obliviated so you can forget the whole thing. -- Mike Rougeau
7. The Cloverfield Paradox
The Cloverfield Paradox starts out riffing on the early structure of movies like Alien and The Thing, with some cursory efforts to establish personalities and relationships for its half dozen or so characters. They're all basically interchangeable by the end, and you'll be hard pressed to remember most of their names by the time the credits roll. But the movie really starts to fall apart once the crew activate the particle accelerator--a poorly explained attempt to solve an energy crisis back on Earth--and find themselves suddenly staring at a star-filled void where the Earth used to be.
There are some memorable moments early on, like when a mysterious stranger arrives on the station by apparently teleporting into the interior of a wall, wires and power conduits spliced through her hands and legs like vines that grew through her. The movie's few moments of body horror--like another scene involving a character's eyeball--are its high points. But The Cloverfield Paradox quickly devolves into total camp nonsense from there on out, and it never recovers any of its early poise. After 10 Cloverfield Lane, we were excited to see where the Cloverfield universe would expand next, but no longer. -- Mike Rougeau
8. Mute
From Netflix and Duncan Jones, Mute promised to be a return to form for the director and writer behind the instant classic 2009 mind-bender Moon (and, more recently, the less-than-classic Warcraft). Unfortunately, Mute turned out to be a cartoonish, nonsensical, tone-deaf, derivative, outrageously awful nightmare without a single redeeming quality.
Here's a small sampling of actual lines from this movie, all from relatively early on since the entire thing is like this and at a certain point you have to stop transcribing every single thing that every single character says:
"That's a real sexy hood ornament you've got dancing up there tonight."
"If my mom tried to stop me talking, I would f*** her up. And she's in a wheelchair."
"He doesn't need words. He's kind. Why wouldn't I love him?"
"School girls, babe. Itty bitty titties and smooth little p***ies. Then they grow up."
That last is said with a big sigh by Justin Theroux's character, a pediatric surgeon who's also a pedophile. The line is accompanied by an actual upskirt shot of a nearby school girl, the camera lingering on her behind as she bends over to pick up a bowling ball. Do I really need to describe any more of this movie? -- Mike Rougeau
9. A Wrinkle in Time
A young scientist disappears, leaving behind a wife and two kids. Years later, his daughter embarks on a magical journey--with the help of some celestial fairy godmothers--to rescue him from the far reaches of outer space. That's the makings of a fantastic fantasy story, especially considering the impact and cultural importance of the 1962 Madeleine L'Engle novel on which A Wrinkle in Time is based. But it winds up being wasted potential.
But A Wrinkle In Time turned out to be a disaster of galactic proportions, a two-hour jumble that sometimes borders on incoherent while striving for emotional greatness. It's unabashed and unwavering in its conviction that it has Something Important To Say, and granted, its heart is in the right place. But without a single real moment of levity or self-awareness, A Wrinkle In Time is just self-serious and noisy. Even fairy tales need to follow some internal logic and rules, and A Wrinkle in Time has none. It's all fluff, zero substance, and a total waste of time. -- Mike Rougeau
10. Pacific Rim Uprising
There was something magical about the original Pacific Rim's giant monster battles, glossy, rain-slicked colors, and seemingly effortless world-building. It's possible the sequel never stood a chance at living up to that, especially since visionary director Guillermo del Toro chose to focus on The Shape of Water, which won the best picture Oscar for 2017, instead of returning to direct Pacific Rim Uprising. And sure enough, Uprising was a disappointment.
Most of all, Pacific Rim: Uprising is just confusing. If you haven't seen the original, it's unlikely much in this sequel will make sense. Concepts like Drift--the way Jaeger pilots mentally link with one another--are poorly explained, despite this movie spending plenty of time attempting to recap and revisit past events. And if you did like the first Pacific Rim, you'll likely wonder what happened to all the distinctive side characters, the stylish action, and the flashy aesthetic. Pacific Rim: Uprising might have seemed like a pretty good giant monster movie if it didn't have to live up to the gigantically cool original, but unfortunately, it simply can't escape its predecessor's massive shadow. -- Mike Rougeau
11. Solo: A Star Wars Story
Solo: A Star Wars Story made nearly $400 million at the box office. But in the franchise era, when film companies spend hundreds of millions of dollars to make hundreds of millions more, this was considered a box office flop, especially against the film's $250 million budget.
Yes, Solo was poorly marketed; it came out five months after The Last Jedi, which prevented it from building steam. But Solo's failure also confirmed a problem that was present in the prequel trilogy and present in Rogue One: We do not need answers and backstories to the most granular details of the original trilogy. They're better left to the imagination.
We don't need 30 minutes of CGI to explain why the Kessel Run is important. We don't need to learn how Han got his dice, or how Han got his blaster. These things lose their mystery and their specialness when they're over explained, and they cheapen rather than enrich the source material. Nostalgia is a poor substitute for narrative, as Solo unfortunately demonstrated. -- Kevin Wong
12. Game Over, Man
Game Over, Man is a sobering Netflix moment. In theory, creators getting creative freedom on a streaming platform like Netflix is a very cool idea. However, as Game Over, Man shows, some creators might be better off with someone holding the reigns just a bit. This movie from the guys behind Comedy Central's Workaholics was a major letdown as a Workaholics fan.
It's as if there was nobody there to tell them that maybe they were going too far or relying on too much graphic and shock humor for their film to actually connect. Instead of being a funny spiritual successor to Workaholics, Game Over, Man includes a scene of a guy's face getting cut by a meat slicer and a surprising amount of unnecessary nudity that serves no real purpose. If this is the kind of governance Netflix plans to use on all of their creative talent, the first show Ryan Murphy does for the streaming service is going to be absolutely unhinged. -- Chris E. Hayner
13. Super Troopers 2
17 years after Super Troopers was unleashed upon the world, fans of the original got a sequel. In the latest romp, the boys of the highway patrol have a new job, working in a formerly Canadian town that is now part of the United States, while the town transitions from Canadian to American. The movie isn't bad by any means. It has its funny moments--and some of the jokes about Canadians and Americans are very, very funny. Really, this whole movie is about putting the cast in silly situations, so we can all share a laugh together, which is exactly what happens.
However, it's a bit more of the same. Both Super Troopers and Super Troopers 2's stories revolve around ending drug rings, and we just saw a very poor version of this story in 2017 with the Baywatch movie. It's a story that's been done to death and by the time Super Troopers 2 rolled around, it didn't do the solid comedic writing any justice. It became a paint-by-numbers plot. It's even a bit more of a bummer when you learn the original script for Super Troopers 2 had the cast playing their fathers in the '70s, which sounds like a much more entertaining story. At the end of the day, Super Troopers 2 is a fine movie for folks wanting to watch something under the influence of narcotics, but it just doesn't live up to how good the original movie was. -- Mat Elfring
14. Riverdale Season 2
The second season of Riverdale is a cautionary tale for most TV shows that find massive audiences in their first season. Season 1 of the Archie Comics adaptation was 13 episodes jam-packed with weird, interesting, and dark storylines that made us insanely interested in these characters. Season 2, on the other hand, was a mish mash of nonsense as characters lost their way--or changed their personalities entirely--to service a disjointed main plot that changed halfway through the season, only to return to the mystery again toward the end for some reason.
Perhaps the biggest issue with Riverdale is its episode order. The first season's 13 episodes were perfect. It forced the writers to contain their entire season in a small capsule. When Season 2 expanded to 22 episodes, the show kept its breakneck pace and introduced even more story elements that were just confusing. We went from trying to figure out who the Black Hood was to the arrival of Hiram Lodge and Archie joining the mafia, for some reason. Thankfully, Season 3 seems to be getting back on track, at least a little bit. However, Season 2 left a terrible taste in our mouths. -- Chris E. Hayner
15. WWE in General
The year started off well; there was a wonderful Royal Rumble, followed by a fantastic Wrestlemania. But history will remember 2018 as the year that WWE got caught with their pants down. They put dollars over ethics with their ongoing Saudi Arabia partnership. And when their top star, Roman Reigns, relinquished the Universal Championship to fight a recurring battle with leukemia (get well soon, Big Dog), WWE hit the panic button and put the belt back on Brock Lesnar, a part-time, rarely-seen-on-TV champion. This is what happens when you're too singularly focused on a single wrestler, to the rest of the roster's detriment. No one is ready to step up.
Smackdown is consistent. Developmental league NXT remains consistently brilliant. And the women's roster, with Becky Lynch and Ronda Rousey at the forefront, is firing on all cylinders; they'll probably main event Wrestlemania in 2019.
But across the board, the men's division needs better writers and more compelling reasons to fight one another. Monday Night Raw, in particular, is going through a rough patch, running an "evil Authority" playbook that the company has copied, ad nauseam, since 1998. The ring work is phenomenal -- better than it's ever been -- but the narrative stakes feel low. And these performers, who risk their lives for our entertainment, deserve better. -- Mat Elfring
Nintendo has announced the next in-game event for Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. This week's Spirit event is titled "Oh Yeah! Mario Time!" and it features a variety of characters taken from the Mario series, as well as a handful of exclusive Spirits you can't get otherwise.
Unlike the previous two Spirit events in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate thus far, both of which were only available for three days, the "Oh Yeah! Mario Time!" event kicks off at 10 PM PT on December 27 (1 AM ET / 6 AM GMT / 5 PM AEDT on December 28) and runs until the same time on January 1, giving you five days to take advantage of it. During that period, an assortment of Mario Spirits, such as the Legend-class Pauline and Dry Bowser, will appear more frequently on the Spirit Board. You'll also earn additional Gold for defeating these Spirits.
On top of that, the event will also feature a couple of exclusive Super Mario Party Spirits: the Novice-class Dice Block, the Advanced-class River Survival, and the Ace-class Golden Dash Mushroom. These three have not previously been available in the game and will appear at set times every day throughout the event, so you'll want to add them to your collection while they're still around.
Nintendo is holding a different Spirit event in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate each week. Last week's event was the first part of the Fire Emblem Fest, which made Fire Emblem characters such as Azura and Eliwood appear more frequently on the Spirit Board. Nintendo hasn't announced the date for the second part yet, but it is slated to take place in January.
Super Smash Bros. Ultimate has been a big success for Nintendo thus far, breaking sales records for the series around the world since its launch earlier this month. The game was also met with widespread critical acclaim. GameSpot selected it as one of our 10 best video games of 2018. "There are so many wonderful things packed into Super Smash Bros. Ultimate that, even in the short time between its release and our Best Of The Year discussions, it has filled us with an immense amount of joy," we said.
No comments:
Post a Comment