Thursday, 4 March 2021

Hearthstone/TCG Card Art Reuse List

Because I sometimes have too much time on my hands, here's a little collection of all the cards from the Basic and Classic set that borrows artwork from the WoW TCG. A lot of the original cards in Hearthstone (as well as the first two adventures -- Naxxramas and Blackrock Mountain) borrow artwork from the TCG because the team wasn't as big as it would eventually become, and it's not until the first expansion, GvG, that we would get unique artwork for nearly every card out there. Here we go! Some of these Hearthstone cards depict specific characters.

This was done because I did something similar for Book of Heroes, and decided to just go all the way. 

Will primarily just talk about collectible cards and tokens created by said cards. From Rastakhan's Rumble onwards, currently there are no collectible cards that use TCG artwork. 

Basic Cards:

Neutral:
Druid:
Hunter:
Mage:
Paladin:
Priest:
Rogue:
Shaman:
Warlock:
Warrior:
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Classic Cards:

Neutral:
Druid:
Hunter:
Mage:
Paladin:
Priest:
Rogue:
Shaman:
Warlock:
Warrior:
Classic/Basic Non-TCG Cards:
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Curse of Naxxramas
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Goblins vs. Gnomes
GvG is the first expansion where a huge proportion of the cards receive original art commissioned specifically for Hearthstone. Almost all the mechs, for one, get brand-new art. Artwork from the X-51 Nether Rocket is used in the trailer. 

Neutral:
Druid:
Hunter:
Mage:
Paladin:
  • Seal of Light: The Light's Largess
  • Coghammer: Vagaries of Time, an epic one-handed mace that drops from Morchok in the Dragon Soul raid.
  • Muster for Battle: Aurius, whose full name is Aurius Rivendare, the son of Baron Rivendare. As a human, he got adventurers to defeat his father, but was himself turned into an undead after.
  • Scarlet Purifier: Interrogator Vishas, a boss in Scarlet Monastery.
  • Quartermaster: Girdle of Uther, an item that drops from level 58-63 monsters. It's Uther's belt!
Priest:
Rogue:
  • Sabotage: Slash and Dash
  • Tinker's Sharpsword Oil: Superior Mana Oil, an item created by Enchanters that restores mana.
  • Ogre Ninja: Dagg'um Ty'gor. Note that a Wisp is circling the ogre, just like the Wisps in the background circling trees! He's that good of a ninja.
Shaman:
Warlock:
Warrior:
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Blackrock Mountain:
Both Naxx and Blackrock's many, many adventure mode cards borrow card art from their respective raid decks from the TCG.
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The Grand Tournament
The last expansion to have significant recycled card art, though like GvG the predominant card arts are newly-commissioned ones. There are still a couple of occassional TCG artwork after this. 

Neutral:
Druid:
Hunter:
Mage:
Paladin:
Priest:
Rogue:
Shaman:
Warlock:
Warrior:
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League of Explorers
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Whispers of the Old Gods -- Journey to Un'Goro
These expansions, due to its unique art style and theme, almost exclusively uses brand-new art. From this expansion onwards it's almost-exclusively new art, although TCG art shows up a lot in single-player modes and Battlegrounds. Karazhan has no TCG card art.
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Knights of the Frozen Throne
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Post Frozen Throne
Most of the sets after the Knights of the Frozen Throne expansion almost entirely use brand-new commissioned art, though TCG artwork continues to see use particularly in the single-player adventure modes. There are some exceptions, however, mostly among the spell cards. Notably, Rastakhan's Rumble, Rise of Shadows, Saviors of Uldum, Galakrond's Awakening, Scholomance Academy and Madness at the Darkmoon Faire reuse no TCG art.
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Arena:
Arena Event:
Arena Event (Unvoted Cards):

Taverns of Time:

Battlegrounds:  [updated to Darkmoon]
Some of the Battlegrounds-exclusive minions, particularly early in the game mode's life, reuses TCG art; as well as artwork idenfied to be produced as part of previous expansions but not used.     
Duels: [updated to Darkmoon Races]

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Single Player Content:
Presumably, to minimize the resources required on developing the art for multiple expansions every year, the single player content are also very much happy to reuse TCG artwork. Particularly Curse of Naxxramas. From Blackrock Mountain onwards, TCG art mainly saw use for hero powers and boss-specific cards, while the bosses themselves received new artwork. 

Puzzle Labs uses all brand-new art for their adventure cards. When Battlegrounds and Duels were initially released, much of their artwork were also reused from the TCG too. For Book of Heroes, click here.

Tutorial:
Curse of Naxxramas (Adventure)
Blackrock Mountain (Adventure)
League of Explorers (Adventure)
One Night in Karazhan (Adventure)
Frozen Throne:
Dungeon Run
Monster Hunt:
I would like to remind anyone reading this article to appreciate the sheer amount of awesome Worgen artwork produced for the Monster Hunt single-player mode.
Rumble Run:
Rumble Run has a lot of unique brand-new card art, but it's probably the most un-replayable among the single-player content. I'm happy to see them reused in Battlegrounds. 
Dalaran Heist

Tombs of Terror
Galakrond's Awakening
Return of the Hero:
Demon Hunter Prologue:

Trial By Felfire:
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For Book of Heroes, go to its respective article. 
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Wednesday, 3 March 2021

Series Review: Kamen Rider Double

Kamen Rider W / Double [2009-2010]

"CYCLONE! JOKER! Now... count up your sins!"

As I slowly round down my review of every single Kamen Rider show, it's these four that I've always placed above all else in my heart, the four that I feel are the most solid ones as a superhero show -- Double, Build, Ex-Aid and Gaim. The latter two certainly have flaws of their own, but these are the four that I feel are the most solid. A good baromenter of how good a show is how quickly they grip you and get you to binge-watch the whole thing, and these four shows simply latch on and never let go. 

Kamen Rider Double (stylized as "W") is everyone's favourite. I don't think I've ever seen anyone who spoke badly of the series, and even Double's detractors acknowledge that it's a solid series with a very solid cast. Double kick-starts what many people refer to as the 'Neo Heisei' or 'Heisei Part 2' series, coming off of ten Heisei series and kickstarting the second half of the Heisei era with ten more shows that have a somewhat different feel and vibe compared to those that have came before. It's hard to quantify what the real differences are since it's a gradual change, but going from Kuuga to Zi-O, you can see just how far and different the series' tones are. 

Coming off the rather poorly-received and cut-short Decade, 2009's Kamen Rider W ran for 49 episodes, had a movie that slotted perfectly into the series canon, the two obligatory crossover movies (with Decade and OOO, the heroes before and after this), two post-episode specials (Accel and Eternal, focusing on side-characters), and W tried -- although admittedly not too hard -- to set up a huge overarching antagonist for the Neo-Heisei period. OOO and Fourze tried to follow up on Foundation X, Neo-Heisei's attempt to create a new big bad, but the creators quickly realized that making each Rider series an unique standalone entity.

Kamen Rider W builds an amazing world and tone for itself, however. Each Rider show does that, having locales and sets that appear in every episode, but drawing off of old-school hardboiled detective novels and becoming essentially an affectionate parody of them, we follow our protagonist, Hidari Shotaro, a cool and smartly-dressed detective with a hat... who is everything but the competent badass he styles himself as. Shotaro is bumbling, too soft and prioritizes saving people, and the show itself continually calls him as a 'half-boiled' detective. He tries his best to be a force of justice in the windy city of Fuuto, where the underground distribution of the USB-like Gaia-Memories is essentially a PG-13 stand-in for drugs. It's actually pretty cool, with the addictive and destructive capabilities of the Gaia Memories leaving a mark on the person's body, and they become addicted and warped by the Gaia Memories into monsters called Dopants. 

The setup is pretty simple, and very much a superhero and anime version of a typical detective show or franchise. After brief glimpses to a mysterious incident in the past that led to the death of the Shotaro's actual hard-boiled mentor Narumi Shokichi, Shotaro ends up trying his best to emulate his mentor alongside the enigmatic Phillip, a mysterious amnesiac young man who has the uncanny ability to access the 'Gaia Library', a strange alternate dimension where Phillip can basically access an entire archive of information in a disembodied dimension of light, allowing him to be the source of information as long as Shotaro can find out the 'keywords' required for his lookup. Rounding up the cast is Narumi Akiko, the daughter of the deceased Shokichi, newcomer to the city and the show's loud-mouthed comedic character who's also there to essentially be the straight man to Shotaro's antics while also having some antics of her own. 

And the trio (and Terui Ryu, who we'll talk about later) essentially form the core and the heart of the show. All three of them have their own eccentricities, have their own self-doubts, but are all still energetic and possessed enough of a sense of justice to want to help the people of Fuuto deal with their problems as well as root out the mysterious organization supplying people with these Gaia Memories. The dichotomy between Shotaro and Phillip is painfully obvious -- Shotaro is extremely kind-hearted and runs around with his heart on his sleeve, but isn't too smart. Phillip, while not quite robotic, is a lot more cold and calculating, but his introvert-ness and refusal to step into the outside world is highlighted as a weakness. Akiko is the bridge between the two, and the three of them are each played seriously but have a neat balance that makes it very natural when they pull off a gag or two. 

And, of course, the most famous gimmick of the show -- Shotaro and Phillip combine into a single entity, Kamen Rider Double. Shotaro tends to be the 'face' of this gestalt form most of the time, but there's just something pretty cool about Phillip and Shotaro both pulling out their respective Cyclone and Joker Gaia Memories, slotting it into the belt, having both USB's teleport into Shotaro's belt, Phillip passing out and them turning into the very, very slick suit that is Kamen Rider Double's default form. "Count up your sins" indeed. 

Soon, a newcomer rounds up the main cast of good guys. Sure, there's a recurring duo of policemen, but Commissioner Gordon or Inspector Lestrade they aren't. And a transfer police, the utterly angry and broody Terui Ryu, ends up with the ability to transform into Kamen Rider Accel. Rightfully angry at having his family brutally and ruthlessly killed by a Dopant with ice powers, Terui is far, far more bloodthirsty than Double, and very nearly executes a young man with similar powers that's not actually the killer of his family -- something that I felt is one of the better-written character arcs in the show. Accel's rage and angst is extremely justified, as is his behaviour... but not what he decides to do with it.

The show follows a pretty simple and even more explicit two-parter episode. If you haven't noticed, 'two' and 'pairs' are the main theme of the show! And a good chunk of what makes Double so successful is, again, the strength of its core cast. Akiko is perhaps the weakest part of the first chunk of episodes, but once she balances out and gets to play off Shotaro, Phillip and eventually the super-serious Ryu, the core quartet of the show is easily one of the most well-done ensembles that I've seen in a tokusatsu show ever.

The main villains of the show turn out to be an organization called Museum, a mysterious organization developing Gaia Memories to sell as weapons to another organization, Foundation X, and they plan to use Fuuto as essentially a testing ground. Shotaro's dead mentor Shokichi (a.k.a. Kamen Rider Skull, his story told in full in movies and tie-in material) and Accel's enigmatic mentor Shroud are all fighting against Museum in their own way. 

Museum's various members, the Sonozaki family, are also surprisingly well-developed even as they vie for prominence and rulership over the organization. The Sonozaki patriarch Ryubee (a.k.a. "Terror") is kind of a generic anime villain, just enigmatic and sticking in the shadows, but he is done well and the rest of the family is so much more interesting. The first Sonozaki that's fought, Ryubee's son-in-law Sudo Kirihiko (a.k.a. "Nasca") is actually an anti-villain of sorts, bonding with Shotaro in their civilian forms over their desire to se) e Fuuto City flourish, and ultimately dies a heroic death. Ryubee's two daughters, Saeko (a.k.a. "Taboo") and Wakana (a.k.a. "Clay Doll") are two of the franchise's most well-developed antagonists for sure. Throw in the enigmatic Smilodon Dopant (he's Mick, a cat!) and the psychotic body-modification scientist dr. Isaka Shinkuro (a.k.a. "Weather"), who is a pretty fun secondary villain. Later in the show, Jun Kazu (Kamen Rider Eternal II) ends up becoming the unquestioningly evil final villain, but he's pretty cool and he's a lot better than a lot of his counterparts.

Without spoiling too much, Saeko ends up originally just set up as the sadistic psychopath but we learn that there's a lot more about her, while Wakana gets torn between her loyalty to her family, her own foul desires, her career as a popular radio host and her odd friendship with Phillip. Wakana's story is actually one of my favourite storylines in this show, and this show has a lot of great developments for its characters. Again, none of the twists are particularly novel, but like every and all good detective story, it's the way we reach the ending and the development of these characters that end up being what we're here for. The Sonozaki's utterly different ideas about their mission, the meaning of life, the meaning of memories and their involvement with Phillip all end up crafting a very, very interesting storyline. Again, all these antagonists and villains feel like actual characters and people way before they've touched a transformation device. 

There's an interesting, fun sense of 'back to basics, but with a twist'. The idea of the main plot of the villains being shadowy organizations trying to make powerful super-soldiers is very much the original intent of the Showa Kamen Riders. I really do like the very sleek but original vibe of the half-and-half rider, with its scarf and the transformation involving the winds of the city coming together. When we get to see Kamen Rider Joker, he, too, looks amazing in his sleekness and simplicity. Even in his alternate forms, the simplicity of Double's design isn't compromised, which isn't something I can say about the... iffy Saber designs more recently. There are gimmicks and weird powers, of course, especially the 'Joker Maximum Drive' or anything involving Luna, or Accel's own ability to turn into a bike, but by and by, the suits, even the somewhat-glittery super form Double X-treme and the goofy fact that they put a hat on Skull, are all handled amazingly well. 

Also, I love whoever they got to voice all of the English words in the Gaia Memories. "JOKER! Maximum do-rive!"

Double is also the show that, I feel, manages its side-projects amazingly well. The Gaia Memories of Fate A-Z and the W/Decade movies aren't necessary viewing for the show, yet it adds so much context to Shokichi (a.k.a. Kamen Rider Skull) and makes the world feel bigger while still being a standalone movie in its own right. The side-material like the crossovers, the Accel and Eternal special, all add to the side-characters, but for the most part all the major plot threads in the story like Phillip's identity, the fall of Museum, and Kamen Rider Double fighting against the Foundation X agents are all self-contained. Seeing just how utterly messy Ex-Aid is with half of its spinoffs being essentially required viewing, it's very refreshing! 

Again, I don't really want to make these stories into a summary of the show's plot and a dissection of the characters. But Kamen Rider W, in terms of action, vibe, mood and characterization, remains to this day one, if not the, most solid Kamen Rider shows I've ever watched. Even all the way to the end! There's perhaps a lot of merit to say that maybe the show would have a more powerful ending without that final scene and that it should've ended better halfway through episode 49... but I like the show very well as it is. 
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Monday, 1 March 2021

WandaVision S01E01-03 Review: House of W

WandaVision, Season 1, Episodes 1-3:


Spoiler alert for Avengers: Endgame and other MCU movies!

I had intended to review every single movie from the MCU throughout the month of March, but real life got in the way and that project had to be put on hold for the moment. I'll try to get at least Phase I (from Iron Man to The Avengers) done later this month or the next. 

Instead, we get the first entry in the Marvel Cinematic Universe's Phase Four, and I absolutely love just how integrated this TV show has been not only to the MCU, but also how unabashedly it knows that its audience will be familiar with the MCU as a whole. The show is near-incomprehensible without at least background detail on these characters, but I really do love just how much they trusted in the fandom that they would tune in and watch (and crash Disney+ with how quickly they are to tune in). And while I understand that Falcon and Winter Soldier was supposed to be the first Disney+ show, the sheer confidence that Disney-Marvel has in their fandom and their product that they're okay with releasing the... less-attuned-to-the-layman-viewer WandaVision first as their first major project? Kudos to them. 

This, I feel, is how I'll be reviewing superhero TV shows from here on out, especially since I'm no longer interested in getting a review up as early as possible. Anywhere between two to five episodes in a longer article, with more time between article releases. And since WandaVision, from what I've seen (I'm up to episode 7 at the time of writing this) is a show that seems to be neatly split into three acts, I feel like it works especially well here. 
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Episode 1: Filmed Before A Live Studio Audience
And the thing is...  the first episode? The first episode just spends its entire runtime being a black-and-white parody of 50's sitcoms. 50's? The show actually notes that each episode is a parody of a different period in American television sitcoms, a genre that I have never touched in my life, so a lot of the homages and parodies actually go over my head, and that was why I was pretty hesitant to watch this show. But I gave it a chance and... and I am going to say that Paul Bettany and Elizabeth Olsen are amazing. I always knew that they got the short end of the stick in the MCU movies proper since their roles are secondary at best. 

And, well, episode 1 feels like an utter parody, like a huge-budget sketch for a late-night show to promote an MCU movie or something. The last time we saw these characters, after all (again, spoilers for basically the rest of the MCU, you have been warned) the Vision got killed twice in quick succession, and Wanda "Scarlet Witch" Maximoff was turned into dust, revived, and the unleashed all sorts of holy hell on Thanos. Unlike the rest of the deaths in the final saga of the Avengers, Vision was one of the handful of deaths that was permanent.

...and now, for some reason, they're in a sitcom? And, egads, we have shenanigans; Vision forgets his anniversary date and thinks that Wanda is preparing for a dinner with his boss! Shenanigans! Only, instead of being a regular family in a sitcom, Wanda and Vision have to hide the fact that they're superhumans! And yet, just like the in-universe characters, the comedy of the show is so infectiously fun that you stop really questioning why it's going on and just going in with the flow. Episode 1 isn't really all that groundbreaking, mostly there to act as a parody and introduce some background characters, and without mentioning specific jokes I really don't have much to say. But I absolutely love the sense of eeriness throughout some parts of the show. There is, of course, the sudden mid-episode advertisement with a reference to Stark technologies for one. And then, of course, the creepy scene near the end of the episode where after some dinner hijinks, the question of 'where did you come from' causes Wanda to be confused, confirming that, yes, this is actually happening in MCU canon, something is seriously wrong and some reality warp/dream world/alternate timeline/personal purgatory thing is happening.

As Vision's boss chokes and his wife just laughs and says 'stop it' like a malfunctioning video-game NPC (the actress has to be commended on looking like she's panicking while her face is grinning like a happy camper), the idyllic dinner gets interrupted with superhero business as Vision reaches in with his intangibility powers and extracts the strawberry lodged in his boss's throat, and then the 'comedic episode' just continues on as normal, with laugh tracks and everything. 

And then the faux-credits to the show-within-a-show rolls, and we zoom out to see someone from SWORD (the post-SHIELD organization seen in Spider-Man: Far From Home) switch off an old-school television. Again, a pretty interesting episode, even though it's actually pretty uneventful -- this is where the TV show format really shines, because doing this in one-ninth of a movie will have us rush through the parody and not get the buildup to the 'wait, something is wrong' moment.
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Episode 2: Don't Touch That Dial
And episode 2 goes off with even more hijinks (apparently parodying the 60's this time around, but I have no idea, I'm just here for the ride), except the jokes in episode 2, I feel, landed far better with me. The magic show with a gum-drunk Vision accidentally showing his superpowers (fake-drunk Paul Bettany is hilarious!), and Wanda wiggling her fingers and pretending to make mundane explanations to Vision's magic tricks are pretty fun. And, again, for the most part, the episode is sitcom parody fun, complete with a laugh track, jokes, and wacky side-characters like Dottie the neighbourhood alpha bitch and Geraldine the nice lady that Wanda befriends. And the comedy is spot-on in these two episodes. I can't really talk too much about it because, well, describing a joke is tantamount to making it utterly unfunny, but suffice to say that I had a jolly old time watching these two episodes. 

But then there are even more things that are 'wrong' in Westview, that seems to really hint at the existence of the 'real world' outside of it. As someone familiar with the comics and Wanda's (in)famous House of M storyline, I thought that it's what they were adapting, but it's actually pretty ingenious how they managed to get the format of this show as a black-and-white period parody to work so well with the sheer unsettling vibe when colour gets introduced to the monochromatic world. 

The first thing that was wrong is a deep, bright red helicopter with the SWORD symbol that drops in front of Wanda's porch, shining and glistening and a sign that something is wrong. And later on, we get the very creepy bit with the radio talking to Wanda, asking her 'who's doing this to you, Wanda?' as the fucking creepy music builds up, and Dottie gets cut in her hand and it starts to gush with bright-red blood... while also being utterly blasé, similar to Mr. Hart in the previous episode. And, of course, there's the utterly creepy showcase of the man dressed in a beekeeper's outfit rising from a manhole, which is just such a terrifying, unexplained image. And Wanda just... rewinds the whole sequence, showing us what we expect -- Wanda has some control over what's going on in Westview. 

And that's not to mention other things that are unsettling that the episode doesn't actually point out as well -- the manhole that Beekeeper Man rises out from doesn't exist in previous shots; all the talk about the talent show being 'for the children' is particularly unsettling because not a single child shows up throughout these two episodes, and we get another odd mid-episode advertisement for Strucker watches -- Strucker, of course, being the monocled Hydra baron that turned Wanda and Pietro Maximoff into superhumans.

And then, of course, at the end of the episode, we've dealt with marriage jokes, community jokes and work jokes. We're moving straight into parenthood as Wanda becomes pregnant, and, well, WandaVision is now in colour as Wanda's magic turns the whole black-and-white world into, well, technicolour! Again, while I do have some inkling of what's going on, I do absolutely love just how ambiguous these early episodes are on the nature of the Westview anomaly, and whether Wanda is the victim or the perpetrator, and just how much she's aware of what's going on in there. The fact that both Bettany and Olsen are utterly hilarious in their roles also cannot be understated in making this series work so damn well.  
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Episode 3: Now in Color
Again, this episode spends almost most of its runtime in sitcom-land (including a unique opening sequence, which I'm going to assume is a parody -- I liked episode 2's animated one better, though), but we get even more cracks in the bizarre, idyllic world of Westview. Again, as usual, all the comedy here surrounds a basic sitcom plot, but with a superhero twist. Wanda's pregnant! Except she goes through nine months' worth of pregnancy in about two days, so some of the hijinks here involves, among others, accidentally conjuring a stork that walks around the house, creating some pretty nice coats, and trying to hide her sudden pregnancy from Geraldine. All of that, in addition to wacky jokes like fighting over names, breathing exercises and Vision practicing putting a diaper on a doll. 

The episode ends, more or less, with Wanda giving birth to two baby boys -- Billy and Tommy, which, of course, is kinda-sorta obvious to comic-book fans (I actually know who they are!) though they did go through a pretty fun sequence of the two parents cattily fighting over the names, as well as the little fake-out with post-birth Wanda's still-pregnant belly being hidden behind the sofa. 

And then there's the whole creepy sequence at the end, when Wanda talks about how she was a twin as well, recalling her dead (and, as far as the MCU is concerned, basically forgotten) twin brother Pietro. Geraldine, who has been portrayed as more or less just the friendly neighbour, then name-drops Ultron, Wanda's Sokovian accent from the movies (which I completely forgot about) returns, and Agnes slowly drops hints to Vision that something's not quite right with that Geraldine lady. When Vision returns to the room, Wanda is surprisingly serene and Geraldine is gone. And when the two gets into an argument, in one of the creepiest and coolest use of the 'fuck with the format', we get a glitch-like cut back to the earlier scene, which actually made me think that my streaming service glitched. An absolutely great usage of the format, as well as showing just how powerful Wanda's reality-warping capabilities are. Just as Vision is about to question the odd dinner from the first episode, he just gets rewound back to his clueless kooky husband self. Again, this episode is starting to point out that Wanda is at least partially responsible for maintaining this reality and delusion... but we don't get any real answers. 

Geraldine herself, an agent of SWORD, gets launched out of the city (and miraculously didn't die), landing outside the town of Westview which is covered by a magical forcefield, and there's a bunch of secret-agent people with guns outside. Ah, finally, next episode will  give us some clarity!

Again, still mostly a wacky episode, but this episode increases the amount of unsettling behaviour in the episode. The rather off-handed remark from the doctor that his vacation is cancelled because 'no one leaves' is easy to miss, but we get a scene of Vision's neighbour Herb just cutting through his fence with a chainsaw and smiling and acting like he's done something silly like, oh, walk out of the house in his underwear or something. The laugh track even enforces it! But then we get Herb and Agnes whispering and discussing about this Geraldine woman while also trying to hide something, and I do think that while Wanda did rewind time when the two of them argued in the living room, this has succeeded in planting seeds of doubt in Vision's mind. 

Again, these three episodes really work so much better viewed in one go, really painting a pretty cool picture of slowly building up to something unsettling, like something out of Twilight Zone, as we discover the creepiness behind the illusion and just how much everything that's happening here is unnatural. Throw in a whole lot of nice background details, genuinely hilarious jokes between Vision and Wanda, and the promise of something bigger that'll tie into the bigger MCU, and I am genuinely pleased that WandaVision exists and is so well-received. 

Marvel Easter Eggs Corner:
  • ...and beyond all that, we have a lot of Easter Eggs in these episodes, too! 
  • Episode 1:
    • The ad in this episode is 'ToastMate by Stark Industries', which, in addition to referencing Tony Stark and Iron Man's sound effects, is also a nod to MCU Wanda's origin of having her family in Sokovia killed by a Stark bomb. 
    • Wanda makes a joke about Vision's 'indestructible head'... which, as Infinity War shows us, is patently not true. 
    • Wanda's wine bottle, Maison du Mepris, roughly translates to "House of Mepris/Contempt", or, well, "House of M". It's even got an M logo on the bottle neck. House of M, of course, is the infamous storyline in the comics where Scarlet Witch alters reality itself and creates an alternate timeline out of grief. 
    • The episode takes place on the 23rd of August. Issue #238 of The Avengers is about bringing the Vision back to life. 
  • Episode 2:
    • This episode's ad promotes Strucker-brand watches, which, of course, is a nod to Baron Wolfgang von Strucker, secondary antagonist of Avengers: Age of Ultron and the Hydra leader responsible for the experiments that gave the Maximoff twins their powers. In addition to having the Hydra logo on the watch, the hands of the watch also vaguely resemble Loki's scepter that Strucker experimented on. 
    • The animated sequence has some bones and the helmet of the Marvel villain Grim Reaper between the floorboards. In the 2015 run of The Vision (which this show is partially based off), to keep his cover living in the suburbs, Vision's then-wife Virginia killed the Grim Reaper and buried him in his backyard. 
    • A statue of the Whizzer can be briefly glimpsed in the animated opening. Whizzer in the comics is an adoptive father figure of the Maximoff twins.
    • "Auntie A. Cat Litter" is a reference to Wanda's "Aunt" from the comics, the witch Agatha Harkness, who owned a magical cat Ebony.  
    • "57" appears on the SWORD helicopter. Vision debuted in The Avengers #57. The Strucker watch shows the time of 2:42. Vision was reconstructed in a new body in The Avengers #242. 
    • Also in the animated sequence is an ad for "Bova Milk". Bova is a cow-human that raised Wanda and Pietro when they were young. No, really. 
    • "Glamour" and "Illusion" are the names of a pair of superhero magicians, Glynis and Ilya Zarkov, minor supporting characters to Vision and Scarlet Witch in the comics. 
  • Episode 3:
    • Less of an Easter Egg and more of a plot point, but, well, Ultron killing Pietro in Age of Ultron gets brought up. 
    • "Hydra Soak", in addition to name-dropping Hydra, seems to actually be a reference to Agents of SHIELD of all things. In addition to having huge Tahiti vibes, at one point Coulson in season 4 mentions some Hydra-made mind-control soap. 
    • The opening sequence for this episode (and the closing sequence of the previous one) features a significant hexagon motif. Wanda's magic in the comics is called 'hex magic', and sometimes is displayed with hexagons. 
    • While this episode omits a few steps in-between (including being reincarnated and adopted), Billy and Tommy are based on William "Wiccan" Kaplan and Tommy "Speed" Shepard, a pair of twins magically born to Vision and Scarlet Witch. 
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Saturday, 27 February 2021

Pokemon: Sinnoh Remakes!

Well, y'all wanted it, y'all got it! Sinnoh remakes are coming, Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl. I can't say that I'm surprised! It's not something that really makes me go super-duper excited, and I'm honestly not sure if I'm going to buy this. I thought I would be all over the Link's Awakening remake but I haven't even bought that game yet, and it took me a considerable amount of time to even begin playing Let's Go Pikachu when it came out. It's certainly more of a 'me' problem, though -- I know lots of people are just happy to have this on principle, so I am certainly very, very happy for the crowd out there that wants it. Sinnoh is a gorgeous region, and I put in hundreds of hours into my copy of Platinum. 

That said, I am happy that this isn't actually a Let's Go remake for sure. Let's Go Pikachu/Eevee does a lot of things right aesthetically. It's a pretty game to look at! Walking wild Pokemon! It's also a horrible game to actually play because there's no wild battles, which meant grinding was an utter chore. Cutting out some features from the original game -- the Safari Zone being my biggest complaint -- is also not a good thing in my books. So I'm definitely happy that BD/SP are going to be apparently 'faithful' remakes. Good, so no fugly Galar stadiums are going to infiltrate my Sinnoh. 

It's going to have Link's Awakening remake style overworld graphics, which... I'm not going to lie, it's actually kinda cute. Lots of people are screaming bloody murder at this, though, but honestly, I don't care for it? I just want the game to be enjoyable, I think, is all. I do hope that they give us just a wee bit more content, otherwise I'm... I don't think I'm particularly super-excited about this one? It's like expected at this point. I guess now I know why they added a bunch of features into OR/AS back when they were hyping it up. Things like new megas, random new NPC's and the Delta Episode really worked wonders to give a bit of an extra. 

Coming out of left field and surprising absolutely everybody is Pokemon Legends: Arceus. The game itself, I mean. The concept of the game? "Breath of the Wild, but Pokemon"? Yeah, that's not something that surprises me at all. Sword and Shield already has that proof-of-concept prototype going on, and this game looks neat!

No one expected this. All the rumours (and admittedly, I wasn't looking that hard) were talking about a potential Detective Pikachu or Conquest remake/sequel; and for me personally a Pokemon Ranger or Pokemon Colosseum remake/sequel would be most welcome -- but with them already having the (very pretty) Pokemon Snap for Switch? I didn't think two side-game remakes in a row is likely. Let's Go Johto is the other huge contender, too... but who expected this? Not me, for sure. 

That said, Sword and Shield did kind of burn me by feeling so incomplete, both from a storytelling perspective and as a region. So I'm still heading into this with a bit of skepticism. And, hell, even Breath of the Wild still rubs me the wrong way, by being a great standalone game but kind of a disappointment as part of the Zelda franchise -- that's what I'm afraid of. That this thing is going to entirely eclipse the original gameplay mechanics of the Pokemon franchise. Thankfully, we're at least still having traditional battles, so we're not abandoning that, at least. 

The trailer we're seen... it's kinda cool, I guess, though not the most impressive thing out there. The grass is prettier than Sw/Sh, but the movement kinda looks a bit stilted, and you just know that there's no way they can get even half of the existing Pokemon into this engine. Honestly, with two years after Sword and Shield, they better have taken all the XY models and polished it up for Switch. Nintendo, you get a pass for one generation if you need the time to do the models. Make it happen for Generation IX. 

It's not all negativity, though. If the game's good, then it's good! And from the looks of it, the concept of the game -- a feudal Japan prequel style about ancient researchers in Sinnoh, running around with ancient Pokeballs? Plus anything featuring Arceus in game canon is 100% welcome as far as I'm concerned. The grasslands and mountains are honestly whatever, every other game out there can do that already, but I do like what little cities and beaches that we get. We know so little about the game's story, but the little we get in the premise I actually do like. And honestly, Sinnoh and Unova are two regions where I feel there's a huge minefield of opportunity for a 'prequel set in the distant past'.

And the fact that the starters of this region are Cyndaquil, Rowlet and Oshawott (three very good boys -- and perhaps, not coincidentally, three that are still unavailable in Sw/Sh, so very hopeful that the next generation will have all the Pokemon eventually) is also something that took me off-guard. If nothing else, again, I do appreciate that we're going to get more variety out there. Again, I'm not going to expect much just so I don't get my hopes crushed -- it's probably just going to be the Sinnoh pokedex and a bunch of extras.

So yeah, this game (and the new Pokemon Snap, which looks flat-out gorgeous) is pretty cool. Someone put this game as something akin to Colosseum and Gale of Darkness; which are ground-breaking graphics engines for the generation that they debuted in, which I don't think is an unfair comparison, actually! I feel like marketing this as an ambitious side-game is a pretty good thing. Personally, I'm not going to hype myself up, because this could have the potential to be very good or be underwhelming, but by virtue of being something new and unexpected? Yeah, not bad, Nintendo. Not bad. 
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Kamen Rider Saber E21-22 Review: The Reason To Fight

Kamen Rider Saber, Episode 21-22


Episode 21: Shine the Best, Full Colour
Another pretty simple pair two-parter, and... I'm pretty happy, honestly. So much of Saber is moving at a non-breakneck-pace recently and I'm so much happier to enjoy these episodes. I also like that each episode is starting to have a proper focus on one of the secondary characters without having to rely on special point-five episodes to actually give us the scenes we need to be invested in them. 

This episode's focus, sort of, is Daishinji, who gets a nice flashback to his mentor talking to him about what swords are forged for, and after finding Touma's sword lacking last episode, this episode has him find it in Touma. Touma and Mei, meanwhile, are going around investigating the disappearances, and it's interesting that we don't actually get any immediate resolution to all the missing and Megiddo'd wives, husbands, children and parents. After so many recent Kamen Rider shows have gone out of their way to be without casualties, this one was pretty surprisingly mature about it. 

Daishinji confronts Touma, talking about how if he doesn't get the weight of sacrifice and saving people, he has no right to wield Flameblade Rekka. It's a pretty cool sequence, with Slash needing to be 'convinced' by the blade. I also like that the older Ogami is also there to observe, and how he and Mei discuss about the difference between wielding a blade and becoming a swordsman. Ultimately Touma's desires to fight and protect the people end up making his blade 'resound' and while he seemingly lost the fight against Daishinji (he destransformed early), Daishinji is satisfied. Realizing that Touma has the potential to be the swordsman that his mentor taught him about, Daishinji full-on leaves Sword of Logos to help Touma. Which, honestly, is something that makes sense particularly with Daishinji's recent screentime. Plus, this also gives Touma's heroism some actual meat -- I don't think I'm exaggerating when I'm saying that Touma's motivations is murky and generically heroic in the first dozen episodes or so. He's still generically heroic, but at least we double down on that and actually make it a very strong moment. The simple act of him going and meeting the relatives of people he doesn't know and failed to safe, and that this fact weighs on him? That's a pretty good moment. 

Meanwhile, the Megiddo Three make a brand-new combined monster, the Charybdis Meggido, out of our victims-of-the-week, twins that compete in speed-eating contests. We don't see much of the twins, but only Charybdis when it starts rampaging and eating random construction vehicles. Saber gets eaten by Charybdis, leading to the debut of Kamen Rider Saikou's X-Swordman form, which... finally fills in that 'Shadow' body with bright comic-book panels. Which, frankly, is something that I should have seen coming with Saikou's obsession with his Not-X-Men comic book. In one of the more fun uses of a suit design ever, apparently with 'full colour goes to arm', Saikou moves all of his coloured parts (and presumably his power) to one limb. 

The episode ends with a relatively truncated ending after Saikou blows up Charybdis, and Daishinji ends up agreeing to work with Touma. A fun little new-power-up debut, but ultimately I do think that the meat of the content here is the Touma/Daishinji moments. 
__________________________________________________

Episode 22: Nevertheless, I Want to Save People
This time around, it's Ogami's turn to defy the organization! I still think that Sword of Logos turning against Touma is kind of rushed and out of nowhere, but it's neat to see them slowly realizing that this Reika chick isn't quite trustworthy. Touma and Mei goes off to investigate the twin-eaters, while we get a hilarious and very meme-able scene of Daishinji's attempts to 'investigate' the living sword Yuri. Including one where he jumps to the air to dive after Yuri, and talking about his 'throbbing' desire. Oh, Daishinji. 

The surviving twin begs Touma to save her sister, and we do get a little sub-plot about the victim. It's a small detail about how the twins think they're worthless without their gimmick; Touma gives them a pep talk about individuality; and at the end of the episode they decide to actually fight for themselves as individuals. It's simple, it takes up maybe a minute full of total screentime, but that adds so much more weight to us caring about these victims-of-the-week!

Ogami gets a nice little moment with his kid, telling the little boy that Touma has a reason that he has to fight apart from Sword of Logos. Ogami's own reason is also reiterated -- he's here to protect the next generation. Which is why he ends up confronting Touma. Always cool to see the Buster sword, and Touma ends up taking a finisher to the face and gets buried in rock and rubble. Touma stands up and holds his sword anyway, still determined to "save Remi-san", and even goes unconscious in the middle of it. Pretty damn cool moment for Touma! And an interesting view into Ogami's mind, I think? He's basically an old-school 'honourbound' warrior of sorts, but he's also open-minded to not completely beat up Touma. 

Ogami steals King of Arthur (I think?) and gives it to the organization... then Mami-Charybdis ends up attacking and consuming Remi, and the two fuse together. Then we get the monster rampaging part of the week! We get a three-way fight between Charybdis, Storious, Slash, Kenzan and Saikou. Apparently, the gimmick here is that the two humans are going to fuse together, and that combined mind is going to cause the Sword of Light's separation technique to be impossible. 

Poor Rintarou looks the most conflicted as he tries his best to convince himself that 'there's no choice to cut them down, right?' because he's a good egg deep within, but he's also so unwilling to believe that the organization is evil. Touma gives a speech to the sisters, allowing them to break free on their own. He does a slash while un-transformed, Saikou frees the sisters with 'Full Colour Goes To Leg', and destroys Charybdis. Again, the remaining Logos-loyalists (Ogami's basically converted, isn't he?) bugger off, and I'm interested to see who gets to join Team Touma next. 

Again, these two are pretty solid. The whole 'each swordsman gets convinced by Touma' bit is pretty fun, but I will still admit that we are losing a fair bit by already having huge scenes showing them all being buddy-buddy friends earlier in the season and the rather rushed attempt to show the supposed betrayal. Still, some great moments for Touma here for sure!

Random Notes:
  • So as the opening to episode 21 shows, Yuri and Tassel can meet each other randomly. I'm still waiting for Tassel to be relevant, honestly. 
  • We get an actually pretty animated sequence in 21 showing the war of the swords and the creation of Sword of Logos. Nothing we couldn't already infer, but one that's pretty nice to have spelled out. 
  • Did Storious's human form always had that ridiculously long lock of hair? I've only noticed it watching these episodes! 
  • Desast, apparently, was born similarly to Charybdis! A random almost-throwaway line from Legeiel and Zooius mentions that. I like that little detail. 
  • Very Ninnin-Comic vibes from the Saikou comic form, and the fact that part of the colour moves around has some vague Faiz vibes, too.
  • A bit subtle and nowhere quite as dramatic as Touma or Daishinji, but I do like the little moment of Yuri having his own reason to fight -- he still wants to save the world, but now he wants to save the people in it too. Not quite as dramatic but still nice that he gets a small moment in the middle of all this. 
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Friday, 26 February 2021

Series Review: Kamen Rider Drive

Kamen Rider Drive [2014-2015]


"OKAY! Start your engine!"

Insert your own "Kamen Driver" joke here. Haha, this Kamen Rider rides a car instead of a motorbike, how is he a Kamen Rider, haha. I mean, after we've gotten an oni Kamen Rider, one whose sidecar turns into a giant robot, Kone that rides a bike attached to a time-travelling train, one whose bike transforms into a vending machine, and Kamen Rider Accel, who just straight-up turns into a bike... is a car that much different? Drive isn't even the first Kamen Rider to use a car, that honour goes to Black RX. Post-Double very few of these Kamen Riders really use their motorbikes anyway.

Kamen Rider Drive is released in 2014, right after Gaim, and... and it's a show that I actually ignored for the longest time. Not that I dislike it or anything, but I just wasn't motivated to watch it. I saw the Drive cast both in the crossover movies for Gaim and Ghost when I went through those two series, and... I just wasn't particularly enthused with it. The show itself, though, was pretty fun when I eventually got to it. Drive was the final 'Neo-Heisi' show that I watched, I believe, either this or OOO. And... and for the most part, I don't have much of an impression either way for Drive. I certainly like it, but not enough to sing praises about it like I do some of my favourites. For the most part, what made Drive work for me are the strength of its secondary characters -- Shijima Go/Mach, Chase, and especially near the end of the show, the three primary Roidmudes Heart, Brain and Medic. Not that the main cast are terrible or unlikable! They're fun, they just... don't really leave much of an impression on me, sorry. 

Kamen Rider Drive's vibe is a fair bit more sci-fi inspired compared to the two series directely preceding it (Gaim and Wizard) as well as the one immediately after it (Ghost), and I do like the amount of world-building in this cop show. Because, yes, Drive's whole gimmick is that it is also supposed to be like a Japanese cop show... something those subtleties and parodies fly over most non-Japanese audience's head. Like me. And I acknowledge that it's a me problem and not the show's problem, but it does make a lot of the police-department scenes feel a lot more bland. 

The show's premise is pretty fun, since it involves one of those "there was a huge event prior to the beginning of the show", something that other series like Agito, Zero-One, Wizard, Kabuto and Build all manage to utilize to a great degree. In Drive's case, it's an incident called the 'Global Freeze', an incident where all time seemed to slow down while mysterious artificial robotic lifeforms called Roidmudes wreaked havoc in the city, only to be stopped by a mysterious figure called a Kamen Rider. And a bunch of sentient toy cars called Shift Cars. Our hero, police officer Tomari Shinnosuke, was investigating a case and the Global Freeze caused him to injure his partner during the whole time-freezing thing. 

And a good chunk of the show's early episodes focuses a bit on this. Shinnosuke's whole deal is that he's lost his motivation and is spending so much of his time just not doing anything. Or, to put it simply, he's "lost his drive" to do anything. As part of the Special Crimes Unit, Shinnosuke and his partner, the more no-nonsense lady Shijima Kiriko, end up being thrust into the return of the monstrous Roidmudes. With no way to fight the 'heavy acceleration' phenomenon caused by the presence of the Roidmudes, Shinnosuke ends up encountering a sentient, talking belt, who contains the digitized brain of the scientist Krim Steinbelt (what an ironic comic book superhero name), or, as we learn to call him, Belt-san. As an atoner who was one of the co-creators of the Roidmudes, Belt-san allows Shinnosuke access to him as a transformation belt, but also to the Shift Cars, as well as the powerful car whose parts can turn into Kamen Rider Drive's weapons, the Tridoron 3000. And thus was born Kamen Rider Drive. It's just a bit of a shame that after the initial "I got my drive back" storyline, he's essentially relegated to the relatable generic hero role. That does make him play off Kiriko, Go, Chase and Heart very well, but it also means that I am really struggling to think of what Shinnosuke is like a person. 

There are a bunch of other supporting characters, but they are mostly one-note and the show focuses primarily on Shinnosuke and Kiriko as they investigate the creation of the Roidmudes, the Global Freeze, and take on the 108 Roidmudes, all of which seek to achieve some 'promised number' to be the dominant species on Earth. The early episodes also have the idea that every single Shift Car is alive and sentient as they fly around the screen on edited-out strings, and you even have two-parters involving little Hot Wheels cars having an angsty police drama while the actors hold and talk to these tiny cars. It's an interesting gimmick, but they dropped it entirely around halfway through, something that I felt was a bit odd. At least in Ghost, they stuck with the idea that each collectible toy is also a character in its own right. The heavy acceleration gimmick, at least, they stuck with for a good chunk of the series, and gives the Drive enemy monsters a neat vibe. 

The series doesn't actually really kickstart until we meet the two secondary riders of the show, though. Shijima Go, Kiriko's loud-mouthed brother and the hilariously over-the-top Kamen Rider Mach (or MAH-ha! as he announces it), and the somber, enigmatic emo "reaper of the roidmudes" called Mashin Chaser or Chase. Both characters progress a lot through the story and I would say that they are the heart and soul of the show moreso than Shinnosuke himself, who feels more like the catalyst behind Chase and Go's development more than the actual main character. Go gets to learn to be mature, but it took a while for him to realize that the Roidmudes are more than just mindless xenophobic killing machines -- something that Shinnosuke and Kiriko learned pretty quickly. Meanwhile, Chase has the exact opposite reaction. Essentially a robot with no emotions, he finds strange human emotions welling up inside him as he begins to befriend Kiriko and later Shinnosuke, eventually leading to easily the best 'evil rider becomes good' story that I don't think any other Rider show before or after has ever done quite as smoothly. 

The villains of the show are also pretty fun, although they admittedly do take some time before they become truly characters of their own. The three main long-running Roidmudes Brain, Heart and Medic show up pretty early on, but for the most part they settle into pretty basic toku-villain tropes. Heart is the handsome one with spiky hair and a clear 'main villain' vibe. Brain is the smart one, but also kind of immature. Medic is the girl, all ufufufu. Oh, and Medic and Brain continually fight over Drive's affections as his main right-hand Roidmude, and this does provide with some entertainment mostly due to how hammy Brain's actor Matsushima Shota can be, particularly regarding that handkerchief. While they were pretty disappointing early on and (spoiler alert) their role gets jacked by an even bigger threat in the final ten episodes or so, they end up growing so likable and fun that when these three bickering assholes start actually working with the good guys and jumping in the way of bullets to save their friends, you really feel for Brain and Medic's respective major dramatic scenes near the end of the show. For a trio that I initially felt were a weaker ripoff of villain ensembles done better in other shows (they give me strong Greeed vibes initially) they really do come to their own and become pretty likable characters. 

Whether intentionally or not, Drive as a show does take things pretty slowly in its first half, focusing mostly on standalone two-parters and slowly building up the huge Chase redemption moment. But in a surprising twist on how most Kamen Rider shows go, it actually hits on the accelerator and gets a huge boost in tightening up its storytelling, stakes and character work in the second half of the show. A lot of the revelations about the true main villain, Gold Drive/Banno Tenjuro (Belt-san's old comrade and the father of Go and Kiriko) are delivered and paced surprisingly well -- some other Rider shows do admittedly have the weakness of making exposition about their plot uninteresting or rushed. 

Unfortunately, it's just that... Gold Drive is a supremely hateable dick of a villain, but he's just not that interesting. His plan makes some sense, and I do like his rivalry with his son Go, and I adore his final moments, but... Gold Drive (and his creation Sigma) feels more like a way to get the three good Kamen Riders and the three Roidmudes the audience is attached to to fight against a common enemy. The ending of the show is pretty solid from a narrative standpoint, and there's no part of it that felt rushed or cheated (unnecessary Kamen Rider Ghost cameo notwithstanding), but the fact that I spent the final episode going "man I wish Heart had more time to shine as the main villain". Characters die left and right near the final stretch of the episodes, and just like its predecessor Gaim, the show manages to make each loss and death feel impactful and make you realize just how much they've imprinted themselves in your hearts. 

And let's talk about more weaknesses of the show, because I have been praising it a lot. Shinnosuke being slightly flat is a bit of a problem, but I feel like his interactions with other main leads Go, Chase and Heart does work well with Shinnosuke being relatively mature and level-headed. It's just that his primary character arc -- finding his 'drive' in the world -- gets resolved very quickly in the show, and up until the final couple of episodes he ends up being pretty much stable as the more mature protagonist in contrast to the other main riders and antagonists... which also has the unfortunate side effect of him feeling somewhat more static in the middle portion of the show. He's still likable, but I do wish that he'd gotten a bit more. (On the other hand, one would argue that this is the reason why Mach and Drive are so strongly realized, so it's kind of a balancing act)

A bigger problem, however, is Kiriko. She doesn't quite fall into the "utterly incompetent damsel in distress female cop" that plagues poor Rinko from Wizard, and Kiriko gets to be a badass a lot, but after the first ten or twenty episodes her role is significantly diminished. There's no real reason why she doesn't get a rider form despite the show teasing us many times, and ultimately there's not even any huge drama between her and her father, the main villain of the show. A lot of Go and Chase's character development revolves around protecting her, but Kiriko herself regrettably remains utterly flat throughout the show. She's still likable, for sure, but I really do wish that they did more with her. After his backstory parts are over, Krim Steinbelt also basically gets reduced to getting an obligatory line or two every episode, which I felt could've been done better. 

I've also talked a bit about the comedy, but... a lot of it just doesn't work. It's not a huge part of the show, and later on we go into more traditional stuff like Brain and Medic's antics or Chase's lack of understanding of human emotions and society, but the police comedy stuff... yeah, it's not for me. 

The suits in this show is a bit of a mixed bag for me. I really, really like some of them. Drive base form, Drive Tridoron form, Mach, Mashin Chaser, Brain and Medic are all very good, but a lot of the tire power-ups and the middle alternate forms just feel awkward and clunky (I particularly don't care for Type Technic and Type Formula), and as much as I adore the character, I can't help but feel that Kamen Rider Chaser is a huge step-down from the badassery of Mashin Chaser. Also, as fun as the tire power-ups are, Drive is going to be the start of one-off minor-change alternate forms that are heavily advertised early on in the show, and almost never used later on -- the same problem that I argue also plagues Ghost, Ex-Aid, Build, Zi-O and Zero-One. 

I'm actually surprised at the amount of spin-offs that Drive has (one of them even offers a conclusion to Kamen Rider Faiz of all things), but a lot of them are neat little explorations of the original Global Freeze, the backstories of some characters, and the sequel trilogy movies (the Chaser/Heart/Mach trilogy special) is an interesting way to cap off a lot of the dangling side characters.

Ultimately, Kamen Rider Drive is very solid. There's nothing for me to really complain about ultimately that ruins my enjoyment of the show. It's just that Drive doesn't really do anything particularly spectacularly. Great characterization, great action, great drama. Still, a solid, fun Rider show that I will definitely recommend. 
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