The Christmas Fallout: 2021!

Might've been a little late this year, but I finally finished my merry-making yesterday and ended up with a gut full of various Chicken dishes and a fresh pile of loot by the end. Hope ya'll were able to have a fun one this season, too. 

Now then, on to the business at hand! This is the annual Fallout post where I share my holiday haul with you guys and you can also shout out your own blessings in the comments below. We've been doing this whole shebang for four years now and it's one of my personal favorite blog traditions, so let's get 2021 wrapped (pun intended) up before next year comes a calling!

Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy (PS4)

The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge on the Run (Blu-ray Combo)

Venom 2-Movie Collection (Blu-ray)

$20 Nintendo eShop Card

Nintendo Switch Online 12-Month Individual Membership Card

Fire Mario Plush

Rolos and Reese's Trees

Spicy Slim Jims

First comes the stocking! A nice selection of the usual goodies I love to see filling it (movies, eShop cash, candy, toys) along with a surprise or two. Didn't think I'd be getting the GOTG game THIS year, but hearing all the positive buzz around it (and also that it apparently plays a bit like FFVII Remake) makes me very eager to give it a roll soon. I have also already nearly emptied that box of Slim Jims. (I usually go for the Mild ones, so I'd forgotten how friggin' ADDICTIVE the Spicy ones are.)

Sonic Colors: Ultimate Launch Edition (Switch)

Mario Party Superstars 

Metroid Dread

Pokémon Brilliant Diamond 

Nickelodeon All-Star Brawl (Switch)

Pretty varied selection of games this year as far as genres go. We've got a remake of a Wii platformer, a party game celebrating the past, the first completely original 2D Metroid in over a decade, a platform fighter where you can make Garfield battle Ren and Stimpy, and another remake, this time of a DS RPG. Very much looking forward to digging into it all (ESPECIALLY Dread) once I'm finished with the Phantom Thieves' road trip.

Pokémon: Black and White The Complete Season

Sonic Boom The Complete Season 1 (Blu-ray)

Sonic Boom The Complete Season 2 (Blu-ray)

Gotta love some physical media!

Since they recently capped off the DP seasons, the Pokémon DVD sets have begun heading into Unova. Always fun to move on to a whole new arc in my ongoing rewatch of the anime and this one in particular should prove to be an interesting one under fresh eyes. (Especially given the DP elements that return in later Unova seasons that I can now fully appreciate.)

Plus, since it's Sonic's 30th Anniversary and he's got a new cartoon coming to Netflix next year, I figured it was the perfect time to finally add his last (hilarious) televised exploit, Sonic Boom, to my shelf. (Especially since NCircle decided to put it on Blu-ray, which is an unfortunate rarity among modern cartoon releases.)

Sonic the Hedgehog Volume 7: All or Nothing

Sonic the Hedgehog Volume 8: Out of the Blue

Sonic the Hedgehog 30th Anniversary Deluxe Edition 

Sonic the Hedgehog: Bad Guys

Speaking of Sonic, here's my yearly dose of his awesome IDW comic series. Accompanying the conclusion of the Metal Virus Saga from a while back are a mini-series starring a few of the major non-Eggman antagonists from the run as well as a special one-shot celebrating the 30th Anniversary with a collection of Classic Universe stories. (Particularly itching to dig into that last one, as the art I've seen from it looks fantastic.)

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles The IDW Collection Volume 13

Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: Necessary Evil Part 1 Deluxe Edition 

Sonic the Hedgehog Encyclo-speed-ia 

More Sonic AND comics! TMNT's 13th collection caps off the first 100 issues of the IDW ongoing while Part 1 of MMPR's Necessary Evil finally picks back up with the original Rangers after the events of Shattered Grid. The Sonic book is pretty special, though. Written by Ian Flynn, writer of most Sonic comics in recent memory (as well as the upcoming Sonic Frontiers, much to my delight), the Encyclo-speed-ia provides very comprehensive coverage of pretty much every Sonic game. (Including titles like Knuckles Chaotix, Sonic Labyrinth, Tails Adventure, Waku Waku Sonic Patrol Car, and almost everything in between!) Each game's story, characters, enemies, stages, and whatnot are all touched upon and there's also a nice amount of artwork and trivia for good measure, all wrapped together in a package oozing with the usual wit and personality that Ian's writing exudes. There's even a WHOLE SECTION dedicated to the Sonic franchise stuff in Smash Bros! (Which even includes a joke about the infamous Melee rumors.) Needless to say, if you love Sonic, this is a great book to add to your collection. I can't wait to absorb every single tidbit from it in the new year.

SpongeBob Shirt

Super Mario Shirt

Some cool nerd shirts! The SpongeBob one was especially nice to see because I previously only owned one garment tribute to Sponge and his crew.

Geno Sprite Standee

Disney Classic Games Collection (Switch)

My Sister's family knocked it out of the park with my gifts this year, as not only did they get me a collection of classic 16-bit Disney games on Switch (which even included a physical manual for my favorite of the included games, the SNES version of Aladdin), but they also ordered me that AWESOME custom Geno standee! I've NEVER had any Geno representation for my shelf before (as all of the OFFICIAL merch is super rare and expensive old import stuff), so this makes the Super Mario RPG fanboy part of me EXTREMELY happy. Just seeing that standee next to my Paper Jam papercrafts makes me smile harder and harder every time.

$35 Nintendo eShop Card

As usual, my fave Cousin got me some eShop cash. Used it along with the card from my stocking to catch up on Power Rangers Battle for the Grid's DLC as well as to snag the Digital Deluxe goodies for Colors Ultimate.

$50 Amazon Gift Card

SpongeBob Comics Treasure Chest

Headphones

Last but certainly not least, the family friends who usually drop by around the holidays flat out spoiled me with Amazon cash, SpongeBob Comics, and spare headphones. Pooling the Amazon card together with the usual $50 my Grandma gave me for Christmas allowed me to order a few things (which I'll elaborate on in a future post) as well as snag the new Yu-Gi-Oh! game on the eShop. (Excited to learn the ways of the Rush Duel!)

Thus ends Christmas 2021 a week later as well as 2021 as a whole. Wishing everyone all the best in the new year!

Hauls: How the Phantom Thieves Stole Black Friday

Time to squeeze in one last tiny haul post before the annual Christmas one! (Which probably won't be posted until New Year's Eve, as my family are celebrating on the 30th this year because reasons.) I was originally awaiting something specific that was SAID to be coming in December, but I think at this point, we can safely say that it's not happening. You'll see what I've been eluding to posted here eventually, though. 🦈📦

Anyway, I probably wouldn't have even ended up making this post if not for Gamestop's great Black Friday sale this year. Not only were a lot of games discounted, but they were also running a "Buy Two, Get One Free" promotion at the same time, meaning it was the perfect chance to finally snatch up some titles I've had my eye on for a while:

New Super Lucky's Tale (Switch) (Gamestop)

Persona 5 Royal (Gamestop)

Persona 5 Strikers (Switch) (Gamestop)

The Phantom Thieves of Hearts have arrived! When Joker joined Smash Ultimate, I became pretty curious about him and the ensemble cast that supported him. So, eventually, I checked out the English dub of the anime and quite enjoyed it! I loved the entire cast, the concept of a group of abused misfits coming together to become heroes for societal reform, the music (Dark Sun. Nuff said.), and just the sheer style of everything. It was just so, SO freakin' cool. So, of course, I had to own the definitive version of the original game! Already Platted it, too! Even though I already knew the general plot from watching the anime, I was still completely sucked in by the unique RPG/life sim mix, all the different little mechanics thrown into every nook and cranny, the Confidant side plots that were largely ignored in the anime, and of course, the extra content exclusive to Royal. If you love RPGs and stories with really fleshed out, extremely likeable characters, get this game STAT. (It's still just 25 bucks on Gamestop's website! That's a STEAL for this much content!)

However, even though Royal was easily the main event, I couldn't pass up another Phantom Thieves adventure even in a different, Musou-style package, so the Strikers spin-off that released earlier this year became my second game of the deal. Rounding things out is New Super Lucky's Tale, a cute, polished little platformer I've been interested in since Nintendo showcased it at their 2019 E3 Treehouse stream. Altogether, I got everything for just a little over the full price of Royal or Strikers by themselves. Not too shabby. 

I hope you all have an amazing holiday weekend! Since my celebrations are going to be a bit late this year, I'm likely going to spend it watching the new Disney and Doraemon movies hitting the various streaming platforms on Friday. See you on the other side next week! 🎅🎄