2025: Year in Review

Whew, we're about to end another year already? Man time really is just an illusion these days...

So 2025. What a year am I right? And when I say that, I don't necessarily mean it in a good way. While 2025 wasn't as bad as 2024, it still had a lot of bad things about it, especially considering certain people in power that I won't mention here. I want to keep things fun as we finish off 2025, so no need to delve into that stuff.

This blog is about media, so let's talk about it. What was the world of media like in 2025? Not the greatest unfortunately. Don't get me wrong, we did have some big highs and noteworthy moments. These include Zootropolis getting a sequel that audiences absolutely loved (a rarity for Disney since their sequels rarely ever get positive praise), the new DC Cinematic Universe starting off strongly with the positive reception to Superman and also managing to outgross every single MCU movie released this year, K-Pop Demon Hunters becoming the latest global phenomenon that has fans still singing its praises even now, the Fantastic Four finally getting a movie that people like for once and is actually considered good, Pokémon proving willing to test the waters with its recent title's change on the franchise's classic battle mechanics, Thomas the Tank Engine celebrating its 80th anniversary in the best way possible, Jurassic World Evolution releasing a third game that improves on its predecessors and has thus given us the best game of the series, Sonic the Hedgehog finally beating Mario at his own game with the reception and ratings of Sonic Racing CrossWorlds being more positive than Mario Kart World, Nintendo released the successor to its Switch console with the awesome, upgraded Switch 2, Dana Terrace won over fans once again with an intriguing pilot to her brand new animated series she's working on, Digimon came back in a huge way with Digimon: Time Breaker becoming a critically acclaimed and successful new title, we got a legendary new record as Ne Zha 2 miraculously broke the record for highest grossing animated movie of all time and I'm sure there's a whole lot of other stuff I've missed when it comes to great things that have happened this year.

But with the good must also come the bad, and this year had A LOT of bad things in terms of media. Pixar's Elio sadly bombed, which doesn't bode well for future Pixar movies that aren't sequels, Jurassic World completely humiliated itself with an unnecessary sequel, the Marvel Cinematic Universe continues to further prove my point what a rotting carcass of a franchise it is with neither of its movies being massive hits this year, Doctor Who completely embarrassed itself with a season even worse than the last one that ended with a confusing regeneration, Pokémon Horizons officially gave up on trying to ever be good again with its recent episodes being so frustrating that I've decided I've had enough of it, Pokémon Legends Z-A getting a pretty meh DLC that wasn't worth the price paid for it, Wednesday and Hazbin Hotel getting mediocre second seasons that suggest their successes may have just been a fluke, Digimon fans using the success of Digimon: Time Breaker as a weapon to bash Pokémon: Legends Z-A, animation fans using K-Pop Demon Hunters as a weapon to bash Disney, Disney becoming a total laughing stock thanks to the failure of its horrendous Snow White remake and the baffling decisions going into its live-action remake of Lilo & Stitch and a whole lot of other things I'm sure I've forgotten about. And of course...all the celebrity passings. We lost a lot of stars this year. Let's a take a moment to remember them...

In Memoriam

Dale Wilson 1950 - 2025 (Canadian voice actor, best known for voice roles in Dragon Ball Z, Transformers Armada and Bionicle: Mask of Light)

Joan Plowright 1929 - 2025 (British actress of film, television and theatre, best known for roles in Moby Dick, The Dressmaker, April, Dennis the Menace, 101 Dalmatians 1996 and Dinosaur)

Roberto Orci 1973 - 2025 (Mexican writer and producer, best known for writing the screenplays for Transformers and Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen and as an executive producer on Transformers: Prime)

Gene Hackman 1930 - 2025 (American actor, best known for playing Lex Luthor in Superman 1978 and for roles in movies such as The French Connection, Bonnie & Clyde, The Poseidon Adventure and Unforgiven)

Clive Revill 1930 - 2025 (New Zealand actor, best known as the original voice of Emperor Palpatine in Star Wars and for various roles in theatre productions)

Val Kilmer 1959 - 2025 (American actor, best known for playing Iceman in the Top Gun movies, Batman in Batman Forever and Moses in The Prince of Egypt)

Brian Wilson 1942 - 2025 (American singer and musician, best known as a member and co-founder of The Beach Boys)

James Carter Cathcart 1954 - 2025 (American voice actor, best known for voicing Vector the Crocodile in Sonic X, Gary Oak in Pokémon, Weevil Underwood and Lumis in Yu-Gi-Oh! and many more)

Ozzy Osbourne, aka "The Prince of Darkness" 1948 - 2025 (English singer and songwriter, best known as the lead singer of the band Black Sabbath and for the TV series The Osbournes)

Ray Brooks 1939 - 2025 (English actor, best known as the narrator of Mr Benn and roles in Daleks Invasion Earth 2150 A.D., EastEnders and Coronation Street)

Terence Stamp 1938 - 2025 (English actor, best known for playing General Zod in Superman 1978 and for roles in Star Wars Episode 1: The Phantom Menace, The Haunted Mansion and The Collector 1965)

Diane Keaton 1946 - 2025 (American actress, best known for roles in The Godfather movies, Finding Dory, The Big Wedding, Green Eggs and Ham and Father of the Bride)

Drew Struzan 1947 - 2025 (American artist and illustrator, best known for designing the film posters for the Star Wars original and prequel trilogies, The Shawshank Redemption, Back to the Future, Harry Potter, Indiana Jones and E.T.)

Jeff Garcia 1975 - 2025 (American actor and stand-up comedian. Best known for voicing Sheen in Jimmy Neutron and its spin-off Planet Sheen, and voicing Pip the Mouse in the Barnyard franchise. Also did voices in movies such as Happy Feet, Rio and Rio 2)

Jim Ward 1959 - 2025 (American voice actor and radio personality. Best known for voicing Captain Qwark in the Ratchet & Clank franchise, Doug Dimmadome and Chet Ubetcha in The Fairly OddParents and Perceptor in Transformers: Fall of Cybertron)

Peter Greene 1965 - 2025 (American actor, best known for playing Dorian Tyrell in The Mask and Zed in Pulp Fiction. Also known for playing Uncle Charlie in The Continental: From the World of John Wick)

Chris Rea 1951 - 2025 (English rock and blues singer. Best known for the song "Driving Home For Christmas")

Imani Dia Smith 1999 - 2025 (American, former Broadway actress. Best known for playing Young Nala in the Broadway version of The Lion King stage show)

May all those we've lost rest in peace.

Now then, how was 2025 for me? Better than 2024 at least, mainly because I haven't lost anymore loved ones. Even now, I'm still hurting from the passing of my dad. :( But yeah, 2025 was a good one for me. I've released two more books for The Silverlock Sisters series I've been publishing, I went to Em-Con 2025 in Nottingham and got to meet Veronica Taylor, the original voice of Ash Ketchum herself and get her to sign my copy of Pokémon Sword, I've been bonding with my little nephew over playing Jurassic World Evolution and its sequels with him, I managed to sell a lot of stuff and make enough money to replace my PS4 with a PS5 and also get the Switch 2, I enjoyed a holiday cruise around places like Malta and Italy and I feel like I'm in the most comfortable position I can be in life at the moment. So yeah, not a bad year for me. I have little to complain about. I only wish everybody could've had a good year too...

But enough on the recaps. Now let's cover everything I've reviewed for 2025 and also what I haven't reviewed but seen:

Media I've Reviewed

Pokémon Horizons: Season 4: With a great first season, an aimless second season and an aggravating third season, what was the fourth season like? A huge leap in quality, that's what!

Seriously, it's almost staggering how much Season 4 was an improvement after Seasons 2 and 3! The plot finally focused back on what it had set up in Season 1, the pacing was much improved with very little filler, Liko wasn't treated like crap anymore, Roy wasn't being made out to be better than everybody else, the fights were actually well done for once with actual good choreography and weight behind them, the stakes were much bigger than before, the backstories were intriguing and the season finale was genuinely shocking and exciting to watch. Seriously, I don't think any of us expected Season 4 to end the way it did and that the villains would actually win. Too bad the next two seasons completely undermined all that, but that's another story...

The season did have some small problems like Amethio's heel-turn feeling unearned due to how sporadic his appearances were, Lucius being alive was a pointless twist that added nothing to the story and Episode 84 kinda tried to be two things at once. But compared to the problems Seasons 2 and 3 had? They're practically miniscule by comparison.

Overall, Season 4 was the best season of Horizons since Season 1 and the only season past Season 1 that can be considered good. If you ever watch Pokémon Horizons, Seasons 1 and 4 really are the only good ones we have...

Full review here: The Media Man Reviews: Pokémon Horizons Season 4

Star Wars: Tales of the Underworld: We had tales focused on the Jedi, then tales focused on the Empire, and now we have tales focused on the Underworld. Were these stories any good? Yes and no.

Much like Tales of the Empire, his is an anthology series where one story was good and the other felt unnecessary. In this case, Asajj Ventress got the short straw as her story felt like a story that didn't need to be told and feels like set-up for a potential Asajj spin-off that nobody's really asking for while Cad Bane got the better end of the deal with a story that perfectly explains how and why he grew into the fearsome bounty hunter he is today. Asajj's story would've been better if it had been an adaptation of The Dark Disciples instead of being about Asajj's post-Clone Wars life where she meets a Jedi Padawan and takes him under her wing. Some even feel her story is trying to replicate the success of The Mandalorian by yet again being a story about a grizzled old warrior taking in a youngling, and we really don't need that. Cad Bane's story has little to complain about despite its cliched rags-to-riches story. It really worked for Cad Bane's backstory or me and I like how the story (for once) didn't try to make him sympathetic or the like. It just explains how he got where he is today while still making it very clear he's a bad guy. I also love how the ending was executed in where we realize something shocking about Cad, but it's done without the story feeling the need to spell it out to the audience. That was brilliant.

Overall, my recommendation is simply to skip Asajj's story and only watch the Cad Bane episodes. As is, I wonder if we'll get any other "Tales of" shorts in future. We've had the Jedi, the Empire and the Underworld, so I wonder if there's anything else they can do with the formula...

Full review here: The Media Man Reviews: Star Wars: Tales of the Underworld

Elio: Pixar gave us yet another original movie. Does it live up to their classics? Eh...not really. But it's still a good movie for the most part, just not Pixar levels of good.

Elio is a touching, heart-warming tale of a boy who feels so lost and alone in the world that he literally wants to be abducted by aliens, which I found to be a funny twist on the whole "alien abduction" concept, yet it also had a tragic reason behind its concept to show it's not just something done for laughs. The film also has a protagonist that I can imagine many people relating to given his feelings of being unwanted, absolutely spectacular animation that only the masters at Pixar can create, creative world-building with the Communiverse, a sweet friendship that forms between Elio and Glordon and an overall touching message about family, belonging and finding your place in the world.

Sadly, it's held back from being an all-time Pixar great with its plot being way too similar to Lilo & Stitch, some predictable moments including a "liar revealed" moment, Grigon's heel-turn feeling unearned and weak comedy that isn't as funny as most Pixar movies out there. All this in total makes Elio one of Pixar's more forgettable titles and not the best they've ever made. Elio is by no means bad, but it's not the strongest movie to come out of Pixar. Its failure also doesn't bode well for the studio I fear as Pixar will probably just want to keep making sequels instead of original movies since their sequels tend to be the only successful movies they release nowadays...

Full review here: The Media Man Reviews: Elio

Nintendo Switch 2: I count games consoles as media, ergo I can talk about it here.

The Nintendo Switch 2 is an awesome upgrade from the original Switch in where it keeps all the things that made the original console great while also upgrading in certain aspects to make it stronger and faster performing too, and also including a means to chat with people online with its new C button. I love how the console's a little bigger than before and how thanks to the Switch 2's improved software, we can play Pokémon Scarlet and Violet with much better visuals and smoother framerate than before. It's also neat how it comes with a stand now and the console even has a feature that lets you use the Joy-Cons like a computer mouse if necessary, which I imagine works well for those who prefer PC style gaming. The console is just a total upgrade from the original in every way and I love playing on it. I certainly hope to play more games on it in the future and continue having fun with this console...

Full review here: The Media Man Reviews: Nintendo Switch 2

Jurassic World: Rebirth: The king of unnecessary sequels if you want my opinion.

Jurassic World: Rebirth is the prime example of how NOT to make a sequel. This is the kind of sequel that ruins past movies with its existence, much like the Star Wars sequels or The Last of Us Part II. Jurassic World: Rebirth completely throws away the status quo set up by Fallen Kingdom and just goes back-to-basics with a very generic plot that's been done to death already in the Jurassic franchise. I even said in my review it feels like a glorified remake of Jurassic Park III with how it's note-for-note the same movie and while it's a better version of this plot than Jurassic Park III, it's still not a good movie in its own right. It backtracks on the story instead of moving forward and exploring the new status quo the previous films set up, the mutant dinosaurs just exist and have very little reason from a story perspective to do so, the plot confusingly brings in a civilian family that just takes away the focus that should be on the mercenary group, the characters themselves being flat and uninteresting and the story has far too many moments of characters being dumb or dumb things happening in order for it to work. Need I bring up the infamous Snickers wrapper again?

The only thing that stops it being completely terrible is how tonally it's very true to the original source material, the dinosaurs are absolute show stealers as usual, the action is very suspenseful and intense, the visuals are absolutely stellar, the directing is great and despite how stale the plot is, I at least wasn't bored when watching the movie. But the good stuff doesn't justify this unnecessary sequel. Either the plot needed to go forward with its "dinosaurs on the mainland" plot, or it didn't need to happen at all. If we get anymore Jurassic movies going forward, I ain't interested in them. Rebirth is proof that the franchise has run its course. Now the Chaos Theory Netflix series, I bet that's a more interesting watch...

Full review here: The Media Man Reviews: Jurassic World: Rebirth

Superman: The DCEU is gone and now we have a new DC Cinematic Universe to take its place. Did it at least start off well? Eh...sort of? But it could've been a better start.

I'll give the movie credit for tonally feeling closer to what people expect from a Superman movie, David Corenswet and Nicholas Hoult nailed it as Superman and Lex Luthor respectively, the message of how kindness and decency shouldn't be looked down upon is very timely and INCREDIBLY important in this day and age, there's come clever foreshadowing and twists that can catch you by surprise, the action scenes are awesome and Krypto is an adorable dog of destruction. Seriously, Krypto in general is one of the movie's highlights. XD

But the movie is ultimately let down by an over-bloated cast, a story that feels like a sequel instead of the beginning of a cinematic universe, nonsensical moments like the Engineer somehow translating a Kryptonian message when it should be impossible to do so, Superman's parents are made into bad guys for no real reason, the pacing is too fast, a lot of the characters outside of Superman and his supporting cast feel unnecessary, Superman ends up look pretty weak due to constantly getting his ass kicked (what, did James Gunn take lessons from the writers of Pokémon Horizons in terms of handling his protagonist?) and as is typical for a James Gunn script, there's too many annoying jokes here and there. This movie should've been a great start to a new DC Cinematic Universe, and instead it felt just OK in the end. It should've been written as the start of a new universe, not in the middle of one. As is, the film's success hopefully means DC movies will be in a better place than they were before...

Full review here: The Media Man Reviews: Superman 2025 (ft. TCH2)

Fantastic Four: First Steps: A movie that's technically good, yet somehow managed to feel very boring. Talk about an oxymoron!

I'm not even kidding here. As I started in my review, Fantastic Four: First Steps is the weirdest viewing experience I've ever had. Again, there's nothing objectively terrible about the movie and it IS competently written, directed and acted, yet I somehow walked out of the theatre feeling nothing in the end. This just felt like the most "it exists" type of movie ever with a story that is just bog-standard superhero stuff with the only thing that makes it stand out from the rest being the themes of parenthood and family, characters that are likeable enough in their own right but leave very little impact, a spot-on depiction of Galactus who is an absolute show-stealer, a cool depiction of Silver Surfer that is ruined by a forced redemption arc (seriously, why can't villains ever just be unrepentantly evil anymore, especially the female ones?) and action scenes that look cool, but are otherwise just pretty standard action scenes.

The only thing I can ever say about the movie is unlike most MCU movies, I didn't hate it and found it to be better than their usual standards, but I didn't really like it either. It's just a movie that exists to me. I'm sure Fantastic Four fans enjoyed it more than I did, and I'm glad for it. I'm just sorry to say it didn't do anything for me. Still, I'll take this over the previous live-action FF movies anyday...

Full review here: The Media Man Reviews: Fantastic Four: First Steps

Wednesday Season 2: I do wish we'd stop getting shows that start off strongly and then completely drop the ball in the next season. It really makes getting into TV shows these days all the more annoying.

Wednesday started off as a fun gothic, dark-humoured, gripping murder mystery series that had little to complain about in spite of its issues. It was genuinely good television. SO WHAT THE HELL HAPPENED WITH SEASON 2?! Season 2 was an overstuffed, over-plotted mess of a series that had way too many plots to juggle, way too many characters to also juggle, rushed resolutions to its mysteries so they end up feeling unengaging and underwhelming, plot lines that should've been saved for another season instead of being dumped in with this one, Agnes being a creepy stalker that the show expects us to feel sorry for because...I have no idea actually, characters constantly blaming Wednesday for stuff that isn't her fault, Wednesday's character arc feeling recycled and a climax that rang hollow because the wrong character was the one who saved the day in the end. Seriously, why the hell Pugsley wasn't the one who saved the day in the end, I'll never understand.

Season 2 still had its good moments here and there such as the body-swap episode being utterly hilarious and showing off Jenna and Emma's amazing acting talents as they play each other's characters in each other's bodies, the meticulously crafted world-building, some of the plot-lines at least converging together well enough, Isaac Night being a pretty creepy villain, keeping the show's trademark dry wit and snappy one-liners that are still funny just like in Season 1, an effective commentary on how secrecy can be dangerous, no love triangles with Wednesday this time round, Xavier being thankfully absent, the Addams Family themselves having more screentime and great acting from the cast. If they trimmed the plot and had less characters to juggle, this could've been a fantastic season. Instead, it's let down by its overstuffed plot, overcrowded cast and many other issues I listed. Season 2 overall is...

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Medi-o-cre. Medi-o-cre. Medi-o-cre. (click click)

Full review here: The Media Man Reviews: Wednesday Season 2

Pokémon Horizons: Season 5: Gosh this show continues to be a roller-coaster of quality. Why is it anytime it has a good season, it has to be followed up by a mediocre one? At least this is still miles better than Season 3.

As is, it's still not a good season of the show. Pokémon Horizons Season 5 is the quintessential example of how fan-service can be detrimental to your story and overly focusing on trying to please your fans won't guarantee success. Too many things happen in this show for the sake of fan-service, and it's REALLY bad fan-service too with many of these things happening for no real reason other than "the fans wanted it" and it also sabotages the story-telling in places, especially in regards to Roy's sudden increase in strength and competence that comes at the expense of making Champion Nemona look weak. The season has other issues too such as simultaneously feeling padded and rushed at the same time, Ult being a pointless new character we didn't need, Liko's win rate going down (again) at Roy's expense, the Rising Volt Tacklers being brought back even though the end of Season 4 was the perfect excuse to get rid of them, several Pokémon being nerfed at the expense of others and another forced defeat for our heroes in the finale just so they can keep stretching the plot out. And let's not forget how this season has the worst animation to date that we've seen in Horizons with very stiffly animated action scenes that cause them to feel limp and underwhelming.

But Season 5 still manages to be better than Seasons 2 and 3 at least by still being focused on its plot, Liko being awesome and showing how far she's come, handling Liko's defeats a lot better since they actually feel like they have a purpose behind them, the stakes feeling bigger now the RVTs are seen as bad guys and the Explorers feel more untouchable now, Liko helping Amethio get out of his funk as he did to her back in Season 3, its tendency to make past episodes that seemed like filler at the time no longer filler and some of the show's most emotional and dramatic writing so far. If the season wasn't too focused on pleasing the fans, didn't shill Roy at Liko's expense (again!), didn't create Ult whatsoever and handled the battles better, it could've been a great season. Instead, we had a very middle of the road season, and that's disappointing. Still not as disappointing as Season 6 is at the moment...

Full review here: The Media Man Reviews: Pokémon Horizons Season 5

Sonic Racing CrossWorlds: Sonic the Hedgehog has a good track record with racing games. Sonic Team Racing is even my favourite racing game of all time. Did this game take its title? Yes.

Sonic Racing CrossWorlds is a racing game for Sonic fans made by Sonic fans, or at least that's how it feels. The game is a fun thrill ride from beginning to end thanks to its exciting racing tracks, fun character banter and interactions that can get really damn funny at times, gorgeous graphics, large roster of playable characters that even includes characters outside of Sonic the Hedgehog, DLC that adds more flavour to the game, a creative take on the racing game formula with its multiverse hoping concept, a lot of customization options and wonderful fan-service for Sonic fans old and new. This is a racing game that just gets everything right and it's so fun as a result!

The game has very little to complain about with my only real gripes being choosing the characters feeling a little redundant as they're not categorized, the cars are, the DLC characters having no dialogue so they feel like glorified props instead of playable characters, not being able to drift when in boat mode, one of the Red Star rings in Northstar Islands being borderline inaccessible without the right items and the customization could've been a little better. Also like most racing games, there's nothing really else to do once you've beaten it. As is, I still think this is the best racing game I've played yet and easily my new favourite racing game, taking the crown that once went to Team Sonic Racing. Such a super speedy fun time, I can tell ya that...

Full review here: The Media Man Reviews: Sonic Racing CrossWorlds (ft. Overkill 0526)

Pokémon: Legends Z-A: Back in 2024, we anticipated Black and White remakes and instead got a new Legends game. With how good Legends Arceus was, did Game Freak make lightning strike twice with this game? Contrary to what the internet might say...I think it did.

Legends Z-A does improve on some aspects of its predecessor by having better looking graphics, a much needed upgrade to the battle mechanics that make this the most exciting Pokémon game to date, a memorable cast of characters that have a lot of charm, personality and quirks to them, large roster of Pokémon you can catch, awesome new Mega Evolutions, enjoyable soundtrack and making TMs infinitely usable again. It's also a game that improves on the flaws of the X and Y games, which it's a sequel to. The story makes Team MZ more fun and interesting than the friends group from X and Y, Mega Evolution doesn't feel like an afterthought in this game and is much better utilized, Lysandre is a more compelling character than he was last time, Zygarde and AZ were better utilized and the game is more challenging. The fact it's a better sequel to the X and Y games and also a solid Legends game in its own right is pretty impressive.

As is, the game is held back a little due to some rough edges with the real time battle mechanics, Jacinthe being the most despicable piece of crap imaginable, the story being pretty barebones until the climax, the story's political commentary being incredibly surface level, the confusing decision not to bring back the Link Cable from Legends Arceus and make some evolution items or Mega Stones available much too late in the game, making some Mega Evolutions only available via online battles and the gameplay is mostly a repetitive cycle of beating Rouge Mega Evolutions, doing the Z-A Royale and then beating a boss. As is, I don't agree with the backlash this game is getting and REALLY don't see what the problem is. And I especially am NOT cool with people outright lying about some of the game's problems too. It's not a bad Pokémon game at all and does not deserve one ounce of the hate it gets. I say play it yourself and don't let the internet judge for you...

Full reviews here: The Media Man Reviews: Pokémon: Legends Z-A (Part 1)

The Media Man Reviews: Pokémon Legends Z-A (Part 2)

Zootropolis 2: Easily the best movie I've seen all year.

Zootropolis 2 is one of the very few Disney sequels we've actually wanted to see, and they delivered on giving us a worthy follow-up to such a legendary movie. This is easily the best theatrically released Disney sequel to date with a solid story that delivers new challenges for our heroes, meticulous world-building that changes the way you'll look at Zootropolis itself and the original movie forever, expansion of the world at large that sees the introduction of reptiles to the Zootropolis franchise, new characters that add something of their own to the story, a better twist villain than what we got last time, actual evil villains for once, bitingly relevant political commentary that's just as powerful as in the first movie, creative humour that takes advantage of its setting to give some great gags (Even now, I still find myself going "Hey bub" for no real reason) and some compelling relationship drama with Judy and Nick. It's bizarre to see a Disney sequel of all things do so many things right!

The film doesn't get it all right though. Gary needed more screentime and development, the Lynxleys shouldn't have been beaten so anti-climactically, Chief Bogo was wasted, the first act should've been slower paced and not so hurried, Nick saying "reptiles make me uncomfortable" was a pointless line that didn't go anywhere and we had too many cameos for the film's own good. As is, Zootropolis 2 is still one of the very few Disney sequels that can actually be considered good and it's so great that after Disney made a fool of themselves with their terrible Snow White and Lilo & Stitch remakes, they ended the year on a high note with this amazing sequel...

Full review here: The Media Man Reviews: Zootropolis 2

Media I Haven't Reviewed, But Seen

Pokémon: Legends Z-A Mega Dimension DLC: We only just got the main game, and already we have the DLC to play as well. Was it any good? Sort of, but it wasn't really worth the price in the end.

I did enjoy the DLC for the most part for the character of Ansha, bringing back Korrina in a way that wasn't just cheap fan-service, seeing Ansha bond with the cast, the roster of returning Pokémon, the new Mega Evolutions we got, making several Mythical Pokémon available in-game to catch for a change like Zeraora, Volcanion and more, Hyperspace being a fantastic means to grind for EXP candies and Mega Shards, unique challenges by having Pokémon that go beyond Level 100 and some very funny moments in the story. But I still consider it the weakest DLC Pokémon has released to date with its gameplay being mostly the same as the base game with no much new added to it, the gameplay being way too grindy for everyone's tastes and certain Pokémon being more difficult to obtain than others due to the annoyingly random nature of certain Hyperspace portals. I don't regret buying the DLC and playing it, but I do agree it wasn't worth the £25 I spent on it. This DLC is worth maybe £10 at most. But I'll forever be grateful to it for giving me Mega Raichu. My favourite Pokémon can Mega Evolve at last, so how can I hate the DLC for that? XD

Mech Mania: Nobody reading this blog will know what this is, and for good reason. It's only available on the Mech+ streaming service, a streaming service only Robot Wars fans like me will subscribe to. Mech Mania is essentially the closest thing we have to a new season of Robot Wars these days, and honestly? I think it's a good fill-in.

Despite being filmed at live events, the overall presentation still feels very TV quality with a lot of awesome camera angles that capture the fights, great sound design and mixing and the presenters being fun and enthusiastic about their roles. The battles themselves were great for the most part and we had some genuinely shocking moments that made the show more exciting to watch. It really does feel like Robot Wars is back again and I hope we get to see more of Mech Mania in the future. I can also proudly boast about being there to see it being filmed and having a cameo in the first episode. ;)

Jurassic World: Evolution 3: The Jurassic World: Evolution games just get better and better every time they release a new instalment. The third game really shows how much these games grow over time and continue to push the envelope of what they can do with this set-up.

This game takes everything great about the original JWE games and improves on them with enhanced graphics, more complex dinosaur behaviours, the introduction of breeding so now dinosaurs can have more than one gender, mate and lay eggs, bringing back old elements from previous games while adding new ones, a large roster of available dinosaurs that gives you plenty of options, Planet Zoo style customization options so now you can make your own buildings from scratch and really test what you can do with your parks, general quality of life improvements and so much more. This game makes the previous two feel redundant as a result because it does so much right and improves on the flaws of the originals. I especially love how this game runs better than the second one did and you're able to build decent sized parks without worrying about the framerate going down, and it also pulls its own weight amazingly. What else can I say, this is the best Jurassic park building game ever made and highly recommended to fans of the franchise!

Knights of Guinevere: Dana Terrace of The Owl House fame is back with a whole new passion project. So far, we only have a pilot to mull over. Was is a good first impression? Eh...kinda?

The pilot set off a big first impression with its dark and gloomy tone, gorgeously detailed animation and mysterious edge that has you wondering what will happen in the show going forward. And of course, it's very unsubtle about what a heavy slam it is against Disney and big name corporations in general. But as is, the pilot just felt more weird than engaging to me. I mean in the sense where by the time it was over, I was wondering "What did I just watch?" I'm sure it'll make more sense if I give it another watch, but I shouldn't need to watch something multiple times in order to get it. If my first impression is confusion rather than intrigue, then that's not a good first impression for me. Hopefully if we get an actual series for Knights of Guinevere, it'll be easier to follow and more interesting. For now, let's let Dana Terrace cook. She might be on to something...

Media I Plan To Check Out In The Future

I don't have anything to list here for this one.

Conclusion

And there we are. That's another year recapped and reviewed. I hope you had a good 2025 and here's to an even better 2026 next year. We have some big things to look forward to, so stay tuned to this blog as I cover them!

I also plan to release the fifth and sixth titles for The Silverlock Sisters series with Book 5: The Boy at Thunder Manor planned for release around March or April 2026 and Book 6: Night of the Vampires planned to release in October 2026, so don't miss them!

As for the blog, tune in next week as I cover the career of Diotoir. See you then media fans!