User blog:Jacked Maverick/Top Ten GOOD Things Pixelberry Did In 2019

Helloooo! I'm Jacked Maverick. Writing is my passion and I love making reviews!

You know, we hate on Choices a lot these days. To file another complaint against them is just beating a dead horse. But we often forget that this is a talented company that has brought us quality content! Today, instead of filing yet another negative blog, I want to do something different and focus on what positive things Pixelberry made from 2019 to present day. Why 2019? Because many see it as the worst year they’ve had.

I will try to keep any “personal” feelings out of this. So without further ado, here are ten GOOD things Pixelberry did in 2019 (up to today). Ranked from good, to great.

10: Making the Freshman Side Stories Free.
I’ll be honest, I’ve had trouble making a top ten list. Haha. This one is pretty self-explanatory, there's no point to keep it paywalled anymore. No one really cares about Freshman anymore. It’s just old news now. Previous generation. Most people would agree that it simply “overstayed it’s welcome”.

Now that that’s out of the way, let’s move on to “real” reasons. Lmao.

9: Standalones.
Let’s face it, there were a lot of awful new books in 2019. This was officially the year Pixelberry moved to genderlocked pure romance books. And the ones that weren’t genderlocked or pure romance were still pretty terrible (but they were bad in a different way).

Eight (with Mother of the Year not axed right away) out of the twelve new books we got were one-shots.

I’m not saying all of the 2019 newcomers were repulsive, but the quantity and quality of the bad books overshadows the rest of the year. Making most of them one-shots is the best decision, really.

8: Mother of the Year.
This may be a controversial entry, when Pixelberry announced Mother of the Year, people went raging on yet another genderlocked sappy story; let me explain.

They could have half-assed this. They could have made it just another cash grab to satisfy the tweenie-boppers who love romance. I personally was not going to give it a chance. Keep in mind what was going on with the app. Nightbound and The Elementalists got cancelled within 48 hours of each other! Everything on the app now were just romance stuff. Realistic fiction romance! There should have been a stretch. I was supposed to have a long hiatus. The Elementalists 2 was going to be the last “weekly” one I read until Blades of Light and Shadow. I only gave Mother of the Year a chance because I wanted to laugh about it with my friend on how bad it is. But what we got… oh man. I don’t want to go too in depth on why I absolutely adore this book, because I think it deserves it’s own review. But it was not “purely” romance. It had the chance to be lazy and opt out for the “sickly sappy” route, but in my opinion, this is the most raw book we’ve gotten this far. Not particular the darkest, but definitely the most raw.

This book was a fluke, okay? It did not deserve to be as good as it was!

The fact I can talk so positively about number 8 goes to show how passionate I am! Both for Mother of the Year and the upcoming entries.

6 & 7: The Art & Soundtrack
Might as well lump these two together. Sure, we’ve had a couple of bad books, but they were at least pleasant to hear and see. Even going as far as to Pixelberry making a playlist for select books on YouTube.

Platinum even went the extra mile to make their own original songs! With actual lyrics suited for both Avery and Raleigh’s gender! Even if you don’t like this type of music, the production design was impressive! They at least TRIED.

The set and character designs in most of the 2019 books were colorful. Bombastic!

That’s not to say previous years haven’t had good art or soundtracks. But as much as we all degrade Ride-or-die, the artwork is pretty vivid. Bachelorette Party got Las Vegas themes down, Nightbound was still pretty to look at. Just not the words. Haha. Platinum even had its own glamorous feel to it!

5: Sleeping Around
Is it just me, or have the sex scenes gotten better? 😅

More descriptive, understanding that "sex sells", more X-Rated… you get the idea.

In an effort not to get demonetized, I’m going to leave it at that and move on.

4: Villains
There seemed to be a significant leap with the villains this year! Look who we got this year! Jason Shaw (fight me), Kane, Gaius, Rheya! And others! They seemed to be more compelling and all around more memorable! Even the stories I don’t like, I at least got behind the villains.

Of course not all the 2019 villains were excellent, but when you compare them to the ones from 2016-2018, are you starting to see my point? Raife, Azura, Nathan. We had some gems, sure. But the villains we got just gave us a more memorable performance. Quality, over quantity.

3: Bloodbound’s Finale (NO SPOILERS!)
Holy hell. The ending was amazing! Let’s face it, Pixelberry doesn’t exactly have the best track record of sticking the landings of other books. Not that they were bad, but just really underwhelming or leaving us wanting much more. So, it was a surprise Bloodbound’s final chapter was as good as it was.

It’s hard to explain just how incredible Bloodbound’s ending was without getting into spoilers. But it is just a (close to flawless) masterpiece.

2: Watching Ads in Exchange for Diamonds.
I considered putting this one in my number one spot, but the thing is, this was inevitable. It was only a matter of time before Pixelberry made diamonds more accessible to people who don’t want to shell out real money.

1: Making Bianca & Slater Love Interests.
Our top spot goes to a decision people have been clamouring for since the summer of 2018! Bianca was instantly a fan favorite, and Pixelberry decided to make “cookie cutters” our love interests. Slater was a newcomer in America’s Most Eligible, Book 2, and fans once again fell in love with him, especially with his screen time.

Pixelberry didn’t HAVE to make them official love interests in the end. But they did! Sure, it was “too little, too late” (really? Sex with Bianca fully clothed?) but at least they TRIED. They went the extra mile and gave the people what they wanted with Bianca & Slater.

I only wish they did that so much earlier. They would have definitely made more money if they did it earlier.

So, that was my top ten list of things they got right. Am I missing any? Tell me what good things they did in your eyes down in the comments below! And let me know if you want to see a top ten WORST things they’ve done in 2019.