#WELL then i found it and i got the wii u working SO all that can stop now ��️👁️ ok ive fr gone on too long

[7-ferrets-in-a-coat]

Hello Suspiciously Tall Person Who Definitely Isn't 7 Furry Animals in a Rather Large Coat™!

First of all, how does that work. Do the (totally not real) ferrets stand on top of eachother? Is there a pulley system? Are they all okay and well fed? I can bring snacks

Second of all, I have to ask. Did you use references for your COTL Miiposting or have you really played that much Wii Sports Resort to nail the faces that good. It disturbs me how well you drew my whole childhood (With 2 of my 3 favourite sports from that amazing game shout-out fencing and the airplane adventure so okay 4 sports) I'm being dead serious maybe this is a silly question idk

If they were coloured in the Mii skin tones I would've genuinely believed it was just a screenshot of you playing Wii, the facial expressions were perfect.

Thank you for your time, hope you (all 7 of you) are well and nourished and energised and contented love your art okay bye

Ok i just saw this ask, i dont check my uhh askbox that often

HAHAH what do you mean ferrets hahahs what wh no one said anything abihyt rodents ( there's one for the "head", 2 for each arm and a log as the bust) (we are well fed ! we just had a burger and quite often revel in the joys of eating a well seasoned salad !! We love salads )

i actually never owned the disk for wii sports resort, however i have spent SO much time playin on my silly little wii with the basic wii sports and the mii creator that i have indeed memorized the faces and variety. I actually have my main mii have the same face as the one i made for the lamb ! the whole kitty :3 and all !! I found that for the little line that connects the nose and 3 mouth you can use a beauty mark and just move it below the nose and resize at will, so i know a Decent ammount about. the mii faces

It really isnt tha tsilly of a question, i truly believe that nailing mii faces from memory is an art in itself, i just happen to have spent a lotta time in the mii plaza

(also i did play the resort, but like way later in life and totally not modded by my father onto our normal wii)

(also also i am Not tall im literally 5'1, barely can qualify as 5'2, so u got that wrong /silly)

Greetings and Salutations from the Very human person !!

[tails-artwork]

Gaming Thoughts - October 2023 - Xenoblade Chronicles X

Ever since the announcement of the Wii-U's internet being discontinued, I had found myself going back to this game after so many years. Also, knowing me as a small disclaimer, you may be seeing this game a bit from me as well. XD

I had actually picked up XCX back at Launch and played it quite a bit, but because things got busy and also there was a point that I was stuck in the game, I had put it down for a period of time and said that I would come back to working on it later when things calmed down a bit. Well...now became that later so I may be a little scrambling to get things in it somewhat gone through. At least get some of the online-only content in there at the least before it is no longer accessible. (I know that Pretendo could be an option in the future, but I'm not 100% confident on if they will be able to get XCX up and running through their service since looking at their roadmap it isn't quite a priority yet and also I just have great skepticism on fan projects of this large of a scale ever getting finished as well, so it is more or less a 'I'll believe it when I see it deal')

Though coming back to this game now, I've been enjoying it a LOT more now that I'm finally able to understand certain mechanics. The game does jack-shit to explain how some mechanics with the battle system works (ESPECIALLY Overdrive most of all) and the digital manual is like a pain for me to even go through as well (and why I miss physical manuals in games, dammit) either way, after a bit of research and such I've been finding myself highly enjoying it more and more now at this point. It already was my favourite game as it was even with how difficult it was being before, but now only just cemented it even further.

Just as a note for anyone that may want to try to get into the game, DON'T ever approach it the same way you do with normal JRPGs, if you do and just try to go at it entirely for the main story and only hit the side missions here and there, you will find yourself disappointed since the main story itself doesn't present a lot of development for the other characters as it was with the exception of one. You get more of your development of the characters and even of the world itself through the affinity missions and the side missions most of all. Even most of the sidequests have a lot of their own little storyline to them as well too that helps expand more on the world and everything.

I actually wish this game will get at the very least a port to the modern consoles, though. Or even at least Nintendo's next console since because it was on the Wii-U it hardly got a lot of attention as it was and not a lot of people would have played it, but more of all, I would actually also would love to see there be a sequel as well considering there are so many things that are still unanswered as well that I would love to find some resolution to.

Anyways, when I played this game, I made my primary OC, Conrad, being my custom character as well. So I tried to draw him with at least the equipment that I have currently in-game. Out of the weapon types that there are, because of some of the prior things that I have done with him, I felt that out of the weapon options in the game, the Sniper Rifle was still the best one that did fit him as well and I'm still keeping that as being the main weapon that I'm basing my build around. (You have a LOT of options of how to make your build and a few different weapon options to use. You have to have one ranged and one melee weapon in your setup, but with how the game is designed, you really cannot balance your build between the two and it becomes more of one being your main damage dealer and the other being essentially there for support because of the arts that are available to it.)

Either way, odds are likely I'll be playing this game quite a bit either until I get a lot of things finished up finally or after the end of April, whichever comes first so if I end up needing to cover this game again because of this, I'll try to at least make it more on that month's summary as opposed to the game as a whole. XD

(All in all, I don't think I will ever see this being dethroned as one of my top favourite games anytime soon)

[tomyo]

LoZ Minish Cap

I've been really thinking about my backlog again over as I've moved on from Harvest Moon game collecting into Sonic game over collecting and figured it was time to revisit what I currently owned on my Wii U.

So yeah, Minish Cap. Gorgeous game. To be honest I only stopped playing it because I got stuck and this time I had to look up a guide because I couldn't even remember what was wrong.

From my previous session I had just passed the Minish dungeon and at this point I've ended up just before the Hylia section. All in all, that's....two more dungeons? LoZ and I have always struggled with this love hate relationship. I love the design, hate the gameplay. I am not a gamer despite what this adventure may or may not inform you about me. I feel tense whenever basic combat comes into play. In fact I loved the switch saga simply because I could do the elements I found fun while avoiding puzzles and being lean on combat. I think it says a lot I have never challenged a dungeon or boss in either game too.

However, every time an online store goes down I'm confronted with suddenly needing to wisely spend a large sum of money across a large catalog of games, dlc, skins, and avatar goods. Side tangent but I deeply regret not buying a digital copy of Sonic 06 now realizing my og copy might be showing signs of disk rot. Either way, the 8th gen Nintendo console closing led me to a lot of retro game downloads and Minish Cap made the cut.

Why did it? I think most obviously the graphics. I am that person who romantacises my Gaelic heritage and no other Zelda game leans into the aesthetic more. A lot of the Celtic braiding, the kin stones, the Minish, and so forth. But even beyond that, the pixel art is some of the most stunning work on the GBA. It's not too surprising since it's coming out of Capcom who also produced the disgustingly gorgeous Oracle games. The singular graphical complaint I have is for Link himself who looks a little like they based him off a 3D model . Did they? I don't know. It's still amazing that his tiny form manages to work so well though so we can look past it all. The tiny segments though, fucking masterpieces.

Gameplay again, isn't bad it just isn't me. I think I've hit my put down point and it's not the game's fault but I don't think I'm particularly worried about playing more at the moment. As far as I can tell I'm halfway through with 3 more dungeons before the finale. Like usual though, Zelda's side quests shined amazing and the kin stones and gacha were my favourite part of the experience. I liked the feeling I was changing the space of the game though stones and there was calculated strategy what to choose. The gacha however is this somewhat vindictive task because I happened to see a guy talk about how unfair it was and while I'm not saying he's wrong, I just want to prove a point. Currently I have 50/130 with just what I had on me at the time. If I finish this game, it's to spite that video.

What can I say, it was a solid experience but not really me.

[miloscat]

[Review] Severed (PSVita)

A very modern dungeon crawler for touchscreens!

I'm currently suffering through my first bout of Covid-19. It's been a miserable week so far, and one of the ways I've been getting through the days is playing portable games in bed. The Vita is so underappreciated and ticking this off my backlog helped me appreciate it all over again: the clicky buttons, thin and light form factor, and especially the large and gorgeous OLED screen. Severed is a game made for the Vita. Well, and for smartphones, 3DS, Wii U, etc... but the Vita is definitely one of the best ways to play it, probably.

Severed comes to us from the Canadian dev Drinkbox Studios. I loved both their Guacamelee games, and the art style of this is very similar: lots of bold colours, no outlines, otherworldly creature design. The atmosphere and tone here is darker though, with little humour outside of a slightly quirky NPC or two. This grim tale of a young woman in some kind of oppressive afterlife world, searching for her lost family, is a far cry from Juan and Tostada's bombastic adventures—although they do have some themes in common come to think of it—but told with just as much care and impact.

The gameplay is an interesting take on old first-person dungeon crawlers. You move between nodes or rooms, turning and stepping through them with the D-pad as you solve gate puzzles and navigate the labyrinthine structures. On the way you're frequently stopped by monsters in encounters that are preset so once you've cleared them you're free to explore and find secrets at your leisure. The minimap in the corner of the screen is so useful that I often found myself looking at it alone, and missing out on the lovely art of the main screen! It can also be expanded to plan your route which helps since there's no fast travel, but a small game world and the occasional shortcut can help if you want to backtrack.

Of course the main point of the game is the combat, which plays out via the touchscreen. Each monster type has particular ways to tackle them, and there's clear communication of their weak points, when to parry them, and so on. All this is done by swiping strategically: you can do flurries of short swipes, more damaging long swipes, and you'll gain the ability to charge or use spells to stun them or steal their buffs. Most encounters also feature multiple monsters that you have to constantly rotate between. It can be a bit overwhelming at times!

This whole mechanic is very polished and fun to engage with, although I had to step up my game later on as monster packs became more intimidating. Swiping on the responsive Vita capacitive touchscreen worked very well, although I'm partial to the precision of the Wii U's resistive touch with a stylus, so I'm sure it would be great there too. After defeating a monster is where the title mechanic comes into play (although the player character Sasha also lost her arm in the inciting attack, so it works on multiple levels).

By building up a focus meter you get a brief window to sever the limbs and appendages of monsters after killing them. There's a large variety of these sourced from the bestiary of baddies, and you can then spend your stock on a skill tree. I liked expanding my abilities and trading for parts to get an edge on the next battle, I felt it was well balanced. Exploring also can net you more parts or expansions to your health and mana, and the difficulty was tuned such that these felt rewarding, even necessary, although it's also possible to just... get better at honing your swiping reflexes and responses to particular monster behaviour.

I'm glad I lifted this one out of my backlog and finally gave it a go. It's very well made, the gameplay and presentation are slick and enjoyable, and it's got that unique combination of mechanics that make it stand out. The length also seems just right, the three dungeons plus backtracking taking me about six hours. I recommend this one but only if you take breaks to rest your wrist which has to hold the console while your other hand is swiping away... the Vita might actually be the lightest platform it's available on in fact, although resting your device on a cushion is also a good option.

[zaptap]

now that xenoblade x is coming the list of wii u exclusives is getting even shorter (at least limited to just first party and some second party. it probably gets a lot longer when you include third party. apparently it got a yokai watch just dance game in japan?)

dr. luigi (i feel like this is maybe the most likely remaining exclusive to get ported. not a hugely complex game and afaik nothing about it makes it only work on the wii u. next time nintendo does a big celebration about luigi it's coming back)

nintendo land (probably not getting ported since it's basically a wii u tech demo)

game & wario (also probably not getting ported for similar reasons)

splatoon 1 (since splatoon evolves as a series and already incorporated a lot of s1 stuff into s3 i don't think it'll get ported)

smash 4 (similar to splatoon. yeah there's smash tour and stages that ultimate doesnt have but like. how are they supposed to sell the "not everyone is here" game alongside ultimate. it's not old enough to get people to buy it from being retro or whatever like 64 and melee probably could. and brawl has subspace which would be a big selling point)

star fox zero (i havent played this but between the weird wii u focused controls--iirc the tv had a third person view and the gamepad had a first person one and you had to like. look at them both?--and the fact that people didn't seem to like this game, i doubt it'd get ported

star fox guard (it would be funny if they ported this though)

animal crossing amiibo festival (yeah ok. why not)

paper mario color splash (i remember when this came out nintendo was telling people it was a lot like splatoon. maybe they were right in the sense that it won't get ported either)

kirby and the rainbow curse (i guess this would work well in handheld and maybe decently with gyro controls docked? they could port it)

mario party 10 (wasnt the big thing about this game that one player used the gamepad and had a different gameplay experience? very wii u centric. unlikely to get ported. i mean i guess mario party just gets minigames ported anyway? i dont really play mario party. maybe they already ported all of the minigames from this game)

pushmo world (never played this series but glancing over wikipedia i guess this could get ported. intelligent systems did a few of those pushmo games. maybe they'll release a collection someday)

sports mario or whatever (i think they made one of these. maybe 2 or 3. i wasnt paying attention sorry)

wii fit u / wii party u / wii sports club (idk i never played any of these but they're technically there and i dont think they're coming back. like i feel like if anything they'd go for the more popular wii installments of those series. maybe the switch successor will have a pressure sensor under the screen so you can stand on it to use as a balance board in handheld mode. i guess that would be more like footheld mode though)

also worth mentioning

mario maker 1 mystery mushroom costumes (these were apparently not in the 3ds port)

nes light gun games - duck hunt, hogan's alley, wild gunman (these aren't on switch online. this was actually the only time they were on virtual console--they made it so that you could use the wiimote as the gun)

ds virtual console (idk why the switch doesnt have this but if gba is already behind the expansion pack ds would be too so i wouldn't get it either way lol) (it did also have wii games but that's a backwards compatibility thing so it's understandable the switch can't. mario 3d all stars and skyward sword were modified from the originals and only partly emulated and people with hacked switches have found it struggles to emulate gamecube games well. so it's definitely not getting wii games that aren't ports)

wind waker hd / twilight princess hd (not on the first list because they're already remakes) (maybe next year. nintendo likes to do zelda games every year it seems. or maybe they'll wait until the uhhh 40th anniversary in 2026? didnt it just turn 30 what the fuck. pokemon will also be 30 that year. that cant be right.)

[everygame]

Mystery Tower / Tower of Babel (Famicom)

Developed/Published by: Namco Released: 18/07/1986 Completed: 26/09/2024 Completion: Beat all 64 levels, though I looked up tips, eventually, for a lot of them…

Mystery Tower has a strange release history. Originally released as Tower of Babel in Japan for the Famicom in 1986, it was passed over for any sort of release in the west (despite having ports to the arcade’s Vs. System, Game Boy, and even Playstation) until 2023 when it was just sort of dumped out randomly by Nintendo in one of their Switch Online batches.

Assumptions could be made that this had been intended for release in the west at some point in the past considering it’s got a new logo on the title screen and everything (which would seem a weird thing for Namco to bother doing now) but The Cutting Room Floor notes that they’d previously changed the title screen in Japan for a Wii U release (lol) and then, quite oddly, in an update for the Japan-only Namcot Collection. Which further raises the question of why they didn’t include it in the western version of Namcot Collection (Namco Museum Archives) if they were going to release it at all.

Anyway, I suppose that doesn’t really matter that much, because, well, it’s possible to play, so I played it, and you can too. But first I have to raise the horrifying spectre of… Lode Runner.

I’ve mentioned Lode Runner in the past, giving context to Super Mario Bros. 2: The Lost Levels as a game that stagnated itself into irrelevance, but to talk more personally of it, Lode Runner represents a particular kind of game design that I simply do not like: the “pressure/puzzle platformer.”

In Lode Runner, you play a wee guy running around a 2D, side-on level where you’re trying to collect all the gold before the enemies that are chasing you get you. You can’t jump, but you can dig holes to the left and right of you that eventually refill (oh, and climb ladders). Enemies can’t be permanently killed so while the game is a puzzle of trying to work out the route required to get all the gold without being killed or doing something stupid (like trapping yourself by falling into a hole you dug) you are constantly under pressure to move around, and the enemies can “force” you into situations where you actively fuck up your own solution. And levels can be absurdly strict in how you can actually complete them in timing or order of actions, meaning that you’re constantly “jarred” from one kind of mental work (puzzle solving) to another (survival).

It’s possible that these games are for brainy Mensa types who relish switching streams; people who read books on astrophysics while listening to Beethoven like they’re a stupid person who just got hit on the head/electrocuted in an 80s movie. Well, listen. I’ve only ever been mildly electrocuted (be careful when you pull out a US-standard plug from your UK adapter, pals) so that isn’t me, and I, frankly… I hate it.

So it’s kind of bizarre that I’ve beaten Mystery Tower, really. Designed by Hiromu Nagashima (“At that time, challenging puzzle games like Sokoban and Lode Runner were popular, so I wanted to make a home game in that vein that was even better…”[source]) Mystery Tower keeps the “no jumping” and aggressive, endlessly respawning enemies of Lode Runner but merges it with a block game that, of course, does not preceed Tetris, but which will remind you of it without being inspired by it.

 In Mystery Tower, you get only blocks shaped like an L (which can face either direction) and on every level you simply have the goal of getting to the exit. The exit might be blocked–which requires that you collect crystals found in the levels–but in basically every situation you are just trying to stack these blocks in order to climb them. There are a bunch of quite quickly understood rules as to how they stack and how you interact with them (you can’t fall while holding them, for example, as you’ll be crushed) but the game, almost entirely, boils down to learning the many different ways you might have to turn blocks pointing in one direction to the other, as your hero, the hilariously named “Indy Borgnine” can only climb them from one side. That’s basically it, though the game (of course) quickly makes this as challenging as possible, either by stacking blocks in ways that are hard to untangle or just, well, throwing enemies at you.

If you’ve followed these articles for a while, you’ll be aware that I play pretty fast and loose with how I class my completion of games. In general, I’m trying to get to the “ending” not master the game, and that means that I will often take shortcuts with these older games in terms of save states and even rewind, but I always try and be fair–not necessarily to the game, or even the spirit of the game, but to my own enjoyment. I mean, consider the last game I played, Salamander. I was having a great time with it trying for a real one credit clear, but once I hit the part of the game where things just got frustrating, I started letting myself have saves at the start of levels. The argument being, of course, that if I was able to get there once why do it again? And then, as it got more frustrating, I started to let myself have checkpoint saves during levels. Again… I was able to get there once!

Might seem odd, but playing Mystery Tower really brought the place of this second layer on older games–our ability to break and ignore their rules over deaths and continues–into focus for me.

You see, this second layer has emerged for me as I’ve played through older games in a near-chronological fashion. It would be completely nonsensical to use save states or rewind in, say, Space Invaders, because of the goal of your time with the game is the play. But as games evolved, even only into the mid 1980s, the goal of the game wasn’t in the moment. It was seeing the ending, or more charitably, seeing all the content.

There’s a major difference between playing even Xevious (1982) versus Gradius (1985). In Xevious, you quickly see all of the “content” and the goal is to keep playing–that it gets more difficult is the challenge. In Gradius, content is gated by difficulty. Sure, they both have a high score, but in the latter, it feels almost vestigial.

So this second layer in the modern experience ultimately represents the sea change in video games from their earliest era: the change from video games as games to experiences.

I think seeing like this could make me question everything, or make me toss seeking a range experience to double-down on play; only ever playing an (arguably perfect) video game like Cinco Paus for its purity. But actually, it makes me realise that if games are, ultimately, not “games” but experiences, what matters is how you choose to experience them.

That’s not to say there isn’t a tension. While saving or rewinding ultimately lets the player experience their mythical “ideal” single playthrough, granularity matters. In Salamander, if I saved every second, rewound after every imperfect move, didn’t play through post death to see if I could catch my options and keep on, I’d be losing something, and it would, actively, be play!

There’s no perfect equation, and I think it simply comes down to trying to meet the game for what it is or what you recognise it to be, and going from there. Yes, the author is dead; no one says you have to read the pages in order.

Which returns me to Mystery Tower.

What I don’t like about “pressure/puzzle platformers” is the pressure. I hate that you die and you have to start over again. To me, it’s like doing a crossword, and if you wrote down a wrong word (as we all do) you had to rub out the entire crossword and start again. Does that make any fucking sense?

No. So with that in mind, when playing Mystery Tower, I just… let myself rewind.

It’s absolutely not in the spirit of the game, but it turned something I hate into something I… well, I won’t say I think Mystery Tower is great or anything, but I had a perfectly acceptable time. In the game as designed, you can literally end a screen that has taken you tens of minutes by placing a block down slightly off where you intended to, or by an enemy just suddenly making a move you didn’t expect. In the game I played, I could noodle about, trying different block movements here or there, without punishment–and as a result I was actually able to solve levels!

Look, I’ll be honest–I lost patience with a lot of them. And the game is still very much a Famicom game from 1986. While it doesn’t feature any warps(!!!) the controls are absolutely horrible (I felt off the vines you can climb literally every time) and the game requires you to do completely obscure things to actually complete it (Tower of Druaga klaxon.) At least the game limits the obscure actions to every 8th level, and each of those levels very obviously wants you to do something weird, but they’re all completely impossible to work out in the best Tower of Druaga fashion unless you really want to just push every direction at length on every screen (don’t bother, just look it up.)

One thing to note, actually, is that the game is a little forgiving in that it has a password system for every level, but you only have two lives so if you really wanted to raw-dog this game you’re going to end up typing in passwords a lot. If there’s one thing you should have learned from this article is that it’s not 1986. Just play the game how you want to!

In context of its era, Mystery Tower is an imperfect, frustrating puzzle platformer, one that I could imagine only Lode Runner maniacs responding to. Now? Well, it’s still an imperfect, frustrating puzzle platformer. But you can make it playable!

Will I ever play it again? Absolutely not. For getting the real ending you actually unlock another 64 levels, but I’d rather not. I was actually pretty disappointed that there were no warps in this to get through it a bit quicker–but doing something like putting the password for the last level wouldn’t count. You’ve got to play the game to play the game.

Final Thought: I haven’t put enough focus on the fact that the hero is called “Indy Borgnine.” I mean… where did Borgnine come from? I mean, Ernest Borgnine, obviously, but why? He was in a few adventure films, but I wonder which had the influence on the developers. Maybe they just loved McHale’s Navy, I don’t know.

Wait… was fellow Indy-a-like Earnest Evans also named after Borgnine? Oh hang on, different spelling.

Every Game I've Finished 14>24 will be released in print on October 21st, 2024! You can pre-order it on kindle, or epub/pdf now. You can also support Every Game I’ve Finished on ko-fi! You can pick up digital copies of exp., a zine featuring all-exclusive writing at my shop, or join as a supporter at just $1 a month and get articles like this a week early.

[arsenalsquid]

Idk if I ever made a post about how retro game prices are extremely bullshit, but I have a wonderful story about a seller at a flea market.

This lady has been here forever. Many years ago I bought Trauma Center 2 from there for $15. There was no written price on the dang box or a sticky sticker on it, I think all the Wii games were equally priced. $15 for a Wii game in the middle of the Wii U era, you know, maybe for $10, but hey it looked okay, had the manual, and Wii games were still a little relevant.

I went there recently and saw their stand as usual. Even back then they still have the biggest collection... but, now, they also have the worst prices out of the entire flea market. I mean, WOW, Resident Evil 2 for PS1: dirty case, sleeve is okay but normal wear, no inserts, uhhh $140. What?? Huh??? $140 for a lovingly used game?? And I don't even know if the game works!

But look, I've been knowing they have bad prices for a while now. I know they probably price checked the games and slapped the high price without realizing that's for clean and good condition games. I mean dear lord, $60 for Gamecube games where the sleeve is COMPLETELY washed of all color.

But I wasn't looking for any of that. No first party Nintendo game or popular Playstation game. Literally all I was looking for was The Spongebob Movie Game for Gamecube and Hot Wheels Beat That for Playstation 2. Licensed games. Something I don't expect to be freaking $70 or whatever.

So, no Spongebob in the Gamecube section. Alright. Playstation section. And, wow, they actually do have it. But then I look at the price. $40. Fucking... what? Fourty? For a dumbass Hot Wheels game? For a game I bet NO ONE is desperately looking for and therefore shouldn't have such a high price. But, yeah, wow, fuck, $40. Oh but it's old! Old = expensive! Retro!! Ohh it's so hashtag retro! God. No I didn't buy it. Ugh..... well, I do need a new Wii remote. I ask how much it is, it comes with a Nunchuk so that's cool. And- okay, $15. I just leave.

Extra story. Before we visited that stand, we went to a different seller that also focused on selling games. Nothing crazy or a lot, but I found SSX Tricky and got it for $7. No set price, it was made on the spot by him. I mean, DAMN. I am,,, literally stealing from you. However, it kinda baffles me because he knows his old gaming stuff too, he knows how the market for this stuff is, but didn't jack the price to hell to me. I was with my younger cousin and he got OG Xbox Halo 1 for $5 and Atari Donkey Kong for $5 too I think. I was really surprised because I thought such prices were long gone, but, I think he did appreciate us for liking these older things and genuinely wanted us to enjoy what we bought. Would he have sold the same things higher to a much much older adult? Maybe, but I don't know for sure. But he was really cool.

[cardboardluigi64]

So over the course of about a week, I had extracted the game roms from the various Virtual Console games I had bought on the Wii, 3DS, and Wii U over the years when their online stores were still up. (Well actually, my brother had bought Final Fantasy 1, Circle of the Moon, Minish Cap, Phantom Hourglass, A Link to the Past, and Super Metroid, but whatever. We shared the consoles.)

Now I can do whatever I want with these roms, whether that's using them in an emulator, or putting them on a flashcart or some other rom loader to play them on authentic hardware.

Some of these were easier to get than others. For the Wii U Virtual Console games, I used the Dumpling homebrew application to dump all of the games, and from there, it varied depending on the game. For N64 and DS games, I just had to find the files and rename their extensions. For NES, SNES, and GBA games, I used a program called wiiuvcextractor that converted the proprietary formats they used to more common formats used in emulators (.nes, .sfc, .gba). It was pretty easy to use. And then for the Wii games, I used a program called nfs2iso2nfs to stitch the files together to make an ISO. It was easy enough to use once I knew what I was doing by reading a guide a bit more carefully.

The 3DS Virtual Console games were a bit more complicated to do. I had to go through GodMode9's file explorer to go through the files for each VC game to export the roms. The Game Boy and Game Boy Color games were easy enough to deal with (just had to rename the extensions). The one Game Gear game I had bought, Sonic Triple Trouble, I had to decompress with an application called mdfTools. I don't remember whether or not I just dragged and dropped it or used a command prompt, but it wasn't hard either way. And then there's the one NES game I had on 3DS, The Mysterious Murasame Castle. It was a Famicom Disk System game, and hoo boy, was it quite a doozy. First of all, I had to use a hex editor to copy and paste the actual game data without the filler data to a new file labeled .qd, and then I had to download Python specifically so that I could use a specific Python script so that the .qd file could be converted to a regular ol' .fds file.

It was quite a hassle, and technically, it would probably be the hardest one to do, given that some very basic hex editing shenanigans had to be done, but somehow, I found extracting the roms from the Wii Virtual Console games to be far more infuriating.

After some trial and error trying to extract files from the .wad files I had extracted from my Wii (with mixed results), I had found out about a Python program called vcromclaim, which streamlined the whole process, but I had to provide a NAND dump to use it. So after some more trial and error trying to find a program that could create a proper NAND dump, it took even more fiddling to get it to work because I have a monkey brain, but eventually I was able to get it to work... except I wasn't able to extract the one Neo Geo game I had, The King of Fighters '98, because it used a specific kind of compression. According to the readme on github, I would've needed some Python thing called PyCryptodome installed. I don't know what it did, but if I wanted to get every Virtual Console game I owned, I would need to install it. This took several attempts, but I had to reinstall Python outright because it turns out I didn't install it right the first time, but eventually, I got it to download, and got King of Fighters '98 properly extracted, too. And as an added bonus, I got all of their respective digital manuals as html files, so that's pretty neat.

So I know what you might be wondering after reading all of this, because I've come across the same comment trying to look up guides and tools for this whole process.

"Why go through all of this hassle just for a couple of game roms? Wouldn't it just be easier and faster to just go to [INSERT ROM HOSTING SITE HERE] and download the same games?"

To which I say:

Anybody can go onto the internet and download game roms. I should know. I've done it plenty of times myself. But it was never about the games. It was about wondering if it was possible and seeing if I could do it myself. Life's a journey, not a destination.

[mysmashplaythroughs]

99 Problems but F-Zero ain't one of them

I see Tumblr's joined the group of websites that felt the need to make their layout even more irritating with no actual gain. Well anyway, yeah another 'off-topic' post rather than something substantial. Admittedly, this has probably been my least productive year yet when it comes to my Smash Bros Playthroughs (Ironic that rereading my post at the end of last year I said I might actually be able to finish everything up to the Spirits etc on my list yet I've not even finished Tales of Symphonia yet...) I've beaten 3 games on my list and two of them I was barely able to justify being on the list as they were new releases (Pokemon Scarlet for the Pokeball item because it's the first main series game where you actually can manually throw a Pokeball to make a Pokemon appear and Fire Emblem Engage because of stage related reasons (there's no spoiler tag it seems on here so I'll hold off specifying). Beyond these though, I've been playing just new releases really including Tears of the Kingdom (the third on my list but I'll hold off why), Xenoblade Chronicles 3 Future Redeemed (which was fantastic) and I finally was able after all these years to play Spider-man on my new Steamdeck which took up a large chunk of my game playing this year (didn't finish Miles game yet though.) There are two other games I've mainly played, (besides every so often doing a few Mario Maker 2 courses which is part of a big project I've been working on for that) the first of which is finally relating to the dumb title I've used above. F-Zero 99 isn't what F-Zero fans wanted but it's still been great to play imo and I've been playing it far more than I thought I would. Hopefully this will be a sign of some possible attention for the series as a whole as it seems to have attracted quite a few casual players as well as F-Zero fans.

I thought I'd managed after what I mentioned last time to get every game I wanted to on the eShop before it closed on 3DS and Wii U, and I did manage that for my Smash list, but I was missing a game I'd always meant to pick up but never got around to... and I realised far too late that meant the only option now was trying to track down an overpriced copy on Ebay or something. I did however manage to win a copy in an auction (I wouldn't like to admit how much, just that it was below at least the prices for every other copy I saw on there) of Project X Zone 2. Because of this I've been playing that a lot recently, I've made it a fair way in, there's more characters than I expected that I at least knew the name or look of but it's definitely got a lot of ones I had to ask my friends who play a lot more obscure games about. With that said, since Phoenix Wright didn't get into Smash it is fun at least having him in something like it and I have been enjoying it. I've mentioned before I believe sometimes just liking crossovers even if they're things I've never heard of, I guess because in a sense it allows me as a newcomer to see it from the eyes of the other characters who've never met before and so I learn what they learn. Either way, that's been mostly taking up my playtime atm, which try as I might I haven't currently found a way of justifying to be on my list (granted, honestly adding it might be reaching too much even for me.) All of this however, has led to a problem that means I might have to change plans fast...

Nintendo's announced that the Wii U and 3DS will be losing their online almost entirely next year, with only redownloads of software you own, updates to software and Pokemon Bank I believe to still remain after next April (and Bank is stated to end sometime after...) This announcement made me realise I had to heavily look at my list and see if there's something that will make impossible. I worried about Federation Force and Triforce Heroes but those do seem to be at least playable in single player (definitely not ideal but not completely unusable) however, it's the other thing that has me concerned, Pokemon Bank closing. Due to this, I've realised I have to do what I originally planned to do after finishing the items on my list, which is to capture every single Pokemon that's appeared in Smash Bros in any form (Pokeball, stage background, Trophies, Spirits) but in it's home region. I was then planning on transferring them all to Pokemon Ultra Moon and using that game to get screenshots of them (with their region exclusive photo backgrounds in the game). Due to this therefore, I plan to start very soon playing through the final two Pokemon games I had on my list, Emerald and Crystal. Admittedly, Emerald isn't one I plan on actually using to capture Pokemon specifically, it's far far easier for me to use ORAS to do so, but for my actual playthrough of the game's plot etc, I plan on playing the original Emerald on GBA. Crystal is one I've been looking forward to for a while as it's my favourite Pokemon game ever and on my list of top 10 games of all time (the majority of which are on my Smash list) I do also have Sword and Shield on my Smash Bros list as well as Legends Arceus and Let's Go, however since they're on Switch I'm going to hold off on those till I was originally going to play them. Also because it's almost impossible beyond hacking or using complicated means from what I've seen to get certain Pokemon, I will settle for simply having ones like Celebi or Mew rather than specifically getting them from their regions, basically as you can probably guess I just mean I'll get what I can.

So yeah, that's where I'm at basically, I'll probably update my list after posting this as I've added a fair few things (Daisy for example is going to have Super Mario Bros Wonder become her actual game now seeing as it fits her in Smash a lot more than Super Mario Party did on my initial list) so yeah. I guess if I have an aim for this by the end of the year, I highly doubt I'll beat all the games I have on my list for Mii Costumes (from Tales of Symphonia to DOOM 2016) but I do plan on going back to a few I've skipped over either because I couldn't play them at the time or didn't want to burn out too much on one series (numerous Final Fantasy and Kingdom Hearts games I've skipped over for now regarding costumes or stage elements for example) so at the very least I'd like to end this year with that looking a little bit more respectable. Typing this out has made me decide to finally stop holding back on this and get a move on with it, so I'm hoping perhaps by the end of the year I might finally write those last two Melee character posts and have good news on my progress after that. Either way, I guess in honour of Charles Martinet, I'll try and stick to the mantra of 'Here we go!' (Yes, feel free to unfollow me after that)

[svtskneecaps]

sunset in a bottle

(gender neutral) reader x lee seokmin

genre: fluff, and about three paragraphs where it gets a wee bit of angst in it ; words: 3.3k

horse camp!au; listen in the interest of full disclosure i ripped most of the mystery aspect from the Barbie Horse Adventures: Riding Camp wii game alright, anything in 'single quotes' is more or less quoted directly from the game. also, my knowledge of horses begins and ends with that game (and about twelve total hours on a horse over the course of my entire [redacted] years of life) so if you know stuff about horses. please stop.

note: HEYA @escapewriter I GOT YOU BABY, I BE SANTA, SORRY LAKJSDFLKAJSFD MERRY HOLIDAY BUD I HOPE THIS IS GOOD also hope that tag works anyway love u <3

(also thank u yellow for struggling to title this bad boy with me and coming up with the one seen here, let's just all agree not to think too hard about it thx)

You wanted so badly to be mad. You wanted to be huffy, and you wanted to sulk, and you wanted to rail against your mom for kicking you off to some ridiculous horse camp on some ridiculous island a million miles from everything you’d ever known, but damn it all, the island was just too pretty. It was too hard to stay mad when the sea glittered everywhere you looked, and the distant sound of the waterfall serenaded you to sleep. So you wanted to consume yourself in angst--but you couldn’t.

C’est la vie.

The horse riding wasn’t too bad, either--once you stopped gasping every time the horse picked up speed. At least the horse was patient with you. The woman who ran the camp--Ms. Roberts--seemed unsurprised by your hesitance towards picking up speed. Apparently your grace in the saddle once you finally crossed that little mental hurdle was more surprising, although you didn’t hear that from her directly. You only found out when she sent you to saddle up.

“Try to find my nephew,” she said. “Ask him for Breezy.”

And you did as she’d said, pushing through the stable doors and looking for the stable boy you’d been introduced to on your first day.

“Seokmin!” You didn’t yell it as loud as you wanted, wary of startling the horses, but it was a big building and you weren’t about to keep Ms. Roberts waiting.

“Polo!” he called back.

You snorted, rounding the corner to see him grooming one of the horses--one you recognized as way above your skill level. “Shouldn’t that only come after Marco?”

“They’re both names, aren’t they?” He set the brush down, turning to face you with a smile. “What can I do for you?”

“Ms. Roberts said to ask you about ‘Breezy’.” Saying it aloud landed you with conflicting feelings--either you sounded like a spy, or a total dork.

Seokmin’s eyebrows shot up. “Wow, already?”

“Already?” you echoed. “Am I about to live my ‘main character in a horse girl movie’ dreams?”

He shook his head. “No, Breezy’s a total sweetheart, but usually my aunt keeps new riders on Tammy for another week.”

“Well, I swear I’ve never been on a horse before,” you said, holding up three fingers. “Scout’s honor.” You’d never been a scout, but he didn’t need to know that.

“That I could tell.” He laughed, but it didn’t feel mean. He gestured to the horse he’d been grooming. “This stunning beauty is Breezy.”

You felt your own eyebrows shoot up, but you tried to soften the sudden fear. “Bit narcissistic to compliment your own work, huh?”

“It’s not narcissistic if it’s true,” he countered.

“I’ll give you that one, she truly is stunning.” You chewed your lip. “She’s also way out of my league.”

“Not if my aunt said to ask for her,” he said, grabbing the saddle hanging on the wall. “She thinks you can handle it.”

“Well I sure don’t.”

But he was already adjusting the stirrups, paying your naysaying no mind. “Ready to mount up?”

“Um,” you said, articulately, staring the horse in her sleepy, terrifying eyes. “What happens if I say no?”

“Then we’ll saddle up Tammy and you can practice until you feel ready.” He set a hand on your arm and smiled. “But for what it’s worth, my aunt believes in you. And so do I.”

For once, your lack of air had nothing to do with horses.

“Okay,” you said, when you finally found your voice. “Let’s give it a shot.”

It took you a couple tries to mount up. Breezy was taller (and terrifying) but you got it, without help, even, although it was offered. You found yourself beaming as you walked the horse over to Ms. Roberts, and you barely gasped at the speed changes and found yourself at ease in a steady trot by the end of the lesson.

Overall, an excellent day’s work, in your opinion.

--

Pretty quick, you were cleared for free riding across the island. You’d been strictly instructed to keep to the main trails, but otherwise you’d been allowed free reign (ha. free rein). And it was exactly what you needed; careening around the scenery at a walk or a trot or--very rarely--a gallup was a balm to your soul. You’d graduated from Breezy to a horse more equipped for the long rides you craved--Buckshot. You thought that’d be the kind of name given to a sprinter, but he seemed to enjoy long walks on the beach as much as you did, which was good, because one of your long walks uncovered the bottle.

At first you thought it was just trash, which kinda pissed you off.

“People have no respect,” you grumbled, swinging your leg over Buckshot’s back to hop down and grab it. Brushing the sand off it, you realized there was something inside--a paper. The cork in the bottle was stuck pretty tight, but with enough work you got it out of the way. It must’ve been ancient, since it fell apart under your fingers. Fishing the paper out of the bottle was the work of seconds.

You heard the callout while you read, “Marco!”

“Polo!” you hollered back, still skimming the page.

Seokmin appeared over the hill, reigning Tantor to a halt. “It’s sunset, time for campers to be back at the stables.” Then he blinked. “What’s that?”

“Message in a bottle,” you answered.

“Ooh, really?” He dismounted with grace you could never hope to match. “What’s it say?”

“Not gonna lie, it’s pretty depressing,” you said. “It says, ‘To whoever finds this, it looks like our boat is going down, and I will never see my beautiful island again. I was so scared to go on the boat, and now I know why. They’re getting the lifeboats ready, but I’m still scared. So if anyone finds this, you can have the jewelry I hid in the heart of the old place. Momma’s calling now. Think of me. Signed--” you squinted, trying to decipher the curlicues “--Hannah Roberts’.”

Seokmin’s eyebrows shot up. “Hannah Roberts?”

“Is she related to you?”

“Yeah, she’s my great-great aunt.”

You huffed a breath. “Oof, sorry to have read her final words out of nowhere.”

“Actually, those weren’t her final words.” He grinned. “She actually survived and lived a long and happy life at her destination. They shipped all her stuff back after she died of old age.” He frowned. “She was right about one thing, though. She never did come back to the island.”

“Well that sucks.”

He shrugged. “She seemed happy out there.”

You frowned at the note. “Wonder what she meant by ‘the old place’.”

“Are you thinking about trying to find it?”

“Well, if she never came back to the island, it’s probably still there, right? Family heirlooms should be with the actual family.” You shrugged, rolling your shoulders. “Besides, I need a project. Just something to focus on.”

“Blasting through ribbons faster than any camper on record isn’t enough for you?” he teased, moving to mount his horse.

You rolled your eyes, attempting to mount Buckshot and succeeding on the third try. “I’m not that impressive.”

“Sure you are!” He swung himself onto Tantor’s back, on the first attempt.

“Uh huh,” you said.

He sighed, shaking his head at you. “You can’t compare yourself to me,” he scolded. “I grew up here.” He wheeled his horse around, patting you on the shoulder. “Trust the horse boy, you’re doing amazing.”

Then he grinned. “Race you to the stables!” He clicked his tongue and Tantor took off like a shot.

You gasped, looking down at Buckshot. “We’re not gonna let that stand are we?” With a click of your tongue and a gentle squeeze, he took off after Seokmin.

(they beat you there, of course, but you didn’t fall off or panic and he didn’t even seem to be handicapping himself, so you’d count that as a victory of your own)

--

You met up with Seokmin after the first jumping lesson, throwing yourself dramatically to the porch next to his chair with a groan. He looked up from his book.

“That good, huh?”

“Curse you for inflating my ego with your repeated assurances that I’m a prodigy,” you grumble. “Do you have any idea what I’ve been through today?”

He pretended to consider, before smiling. “No clue!”

“First, Jeonghan had me set up the course by myself, even though I’ve never done it before, and I still haven’t figured out if it was a teaching moment or if he just didn’t want to do it himself--”

“The second one.”

“--And then I spent the morning toppling on my ass, and the afternoon icing my bruises.” You threw a hand over your eyes. “My pride is too wounded, I can never ride again. I will never move from this spot. I’ll become one with the moss. Remember me as I was, and not as I am. My strength. . . it’s failing. . .”

“Well, I found Hannah’s diary.”

You sat up. “My strength returns.”

He laughed and it sounded like a sunset. “You wanna see?”

“Am I allowed?”

He shut the book and stood, offering you a hand up. “Of course you are.”

You took his hand.

--

Reading the diary was an adventure. You kept cycling through emotions--from guilt over reading someone’s private thoughts, to giddy over witnessing this slice of history, to analytic as you scanned every passage of the diary for some hint as to what ‘the old place’ meant. The wild shifts made Seokmin giggle, but he was just as bad as you were, so you didn’t feel bad about it in the slightest.

Seokmin grabbed your arm, pointing at a passage. “Look, she mentioned the bottle!” He bent over the page (he was better at reading cursive). “ ‘Now that I’m safe, I wonder if anyone will find that message in a bottle I threw overboard. I would hate to lose my jewelry forever. Of course, they would have to find the Rainbow Waterfall and the cave painting I made in order to figure it out.’ ”

You chewed your lip. “There’s only the one waterfall on the island, right?” That trail had scared you far too much to attempt it.

“Yeah.” He suddenly seemed unsure. “But the storm caused a lot of damage across the island, and that path is treacherous on a good day. If you’re not careful, some of those bridges could snap right beneath you. It wouldn’t be safe.”

You sighed. “Then I guess the adventure ends here, until the trail gets fixed.”

“Guess so.” He patted your shoulder. “On the bright side, we’ve still got a ton of history to go through.”

“True!” You brightened. “I wanna see how she met her lover.”

“Her lover,” he echoed, faking a swoon. “You say it so romantically, it really is like the days of old.”

“Well I don’t know who she married!” You defended. He opened his mouth and you shrieked. “And don’t you dare spoil it!”

“I wasn’t! I swear!” He leaned back over the diary. “Come on, she’s going to that dance she mentioned a couple entries ago. You’ll miss all the drama.”

“If she didn’t manage to upstage Tiffany Greenwood the world has no justice.”

--

In your defense, you’d intended to keep the agreement. You stayed to the well trod trails, focused on your riding, careened over hill and dale, until you left everything in the dust and Marco, Polo became less of a joke and more of the easiest way for Seokmin to find you, when sunset finally came.

(by this point, you knew enough to start heading back by then, but he still came out to find you. truthfully, you enjoyed racing him to the stables in the twilight, and seeing him grin at you as you hurtled across the terrain affected your heart rate more than the adrenaline)

But you completed the camp requirements for a jumping ribbon, and you blasted through the Roads and Tracks ribbon, and there was only one ribbon left to work towards, and it scared you. When that was done, what was left?

And then it was visitation day.

And your mom came to the island.

And she took one look at your ribbons--four ribbons, obtained faster than anyone in the history of the camp--and said, “Well. It took you long enough.”

The sun didn’t set right, that night. You didn’t leave the bunkhouse. You didn’t see Seokmin. You just laid there, staring at your ribbons.

(took you long enough)

And then you were on the mountain trail, staring down a wooden bridge--barely visible between the faint light of a crescent moon and the vapor from the waterfall--with the reins clenched in your fists.

You dismounted, heart pounding. You wouldn’t put Buckshot in danger. Thinking was difficult, over the beating of your heart and the echo in your head (took you long enough), but you had enough sense to know that this was stupid--that putting anyone else in danger was stupid--and you patted the horse on the side and stepped closer to the bridge.

And then the call echoed up the mountain, “Marco!”

You froze.

Again, “Marco!”

You hesitated, but called back. “Polo.”

Seokmin guided Tantor up the mountain at a canter, dismounting with that grace you didn’t have--that you would never have--and hurried over to meet you.

“What are you doing out here?” he asked, and his eyes shone with worry.

“How’d you know I’d be here?” you said, instead of answering.

He started, stopped, hesitated, and then said, “I missed you at sunset,” he said. “And I was going to stop in and see if you were okay, and you were gone. The mountain was. . . just a hunch.” He placed a gentle hand on your arm. “But you didn’t answer my question.”

You looked away--you couldn’t meet his eyes. “It’s. . .”

You wanted to be honest. He made you want to be honest.

“I wasn’t fast enough,” you said. “I spent too much time being scared and falling off, and I didn’t get the ribbons fast enough.”

“Says who?”

The outburst made your eyes snap up to his face--his expression shifting from flabbergasted to annoyed and back, every second.

“You’ve advanced faster than any student we’ve ever had at this camp,” he said. “It took me a whole year to earn my Roads and Tracks ribbon, so you listen to me and you listen good.” And he took you by the hands and looked you in the eye which made it very hard to listen. “Not only are you fast enough, you’re too fast. I mean-- leave some for the rest of the campers, come on!”

You snorted, and he grinned.

“No,” you said, “it’s all mine. They can fight me for it.”

He laughed, squeezing your hands. “That’s the spirit.” He bumped your shoulder. “And I’m the resident horse expert, so you know I’m right.”

You glanced over your shoulder at the misty bridge. “Guess we better get back to the stables.”

“We could, but we’re already up here.”

“And it’s dangerous. You said so yourself.”

“I said it was dangerous for you. And that was before you finished the Roads and Tracks ribbon.” He mounted Tantor, wiggling his eyebrows. “How ‘bout it?”

He would be the death of you.

You swung yourself back onto Buckshot. “Let’s do it.”

The trail was as treacherous as was advertised, but the horses were careful and you made it to the top of the mountain with relative ease.

You dismounted, staring across the island.

“Pretty cool, huh?” Seokmin said.

It was no sunset. “It’s sure pretty,” you said, watching the thousands of stars.

“We’ll have to come up here before sunset sometime. You’ll love it.” He nudged your arm, then turned to an outcropping. “If Wii Sports Resort taught me anything, it’s that there’s gonna be a cave back here-- aha!”

“Wii Sports Resort?”

He seized your hand and tugged you behind him. “I can’t believe I never found this place before!” He yanked a flashlight out of his pocket, flicking it on to reveal the small chamber--and the painting.

“That is a big tree,” you said, staring at the mural overtaking most of the wall. Despite the years, it hadn’t faded really at all.

“For a cave painting it’s really detailed.”

“What I don’t get is why you’d leave a hint in a cave painting at the top of a mountain.” You shook your head. “It seems like a lot of unnecessary steps.”

“Shh!” He waved a finger at you distractedly. “Don’t look a gift horse in the mouth!”

“Didn’t that lead to the fall of Troy?”

“Shh!” He surveyed the cave wall, and then pointed. “There’s a heart on the trunk. That seems important.”

“Didn’t she mention something like that in the bottle? In the heart of the old place, right?”

He shook your shoulder, bouncing on his heels. “There’s only one tree on the island she could mean!”

“The Ancient Oak,” you finished.

“We gotta check it out. We gotta check it out now!”

“Since when was I the voice of reason?”

“Oh come on, you’re with me, and if we find the jewelry there’s no way my aunt will be mad at us when we get back,” he whined.

You laughed. “I was convinced from the minute you said it. Race you once we’re clear of the mountain?”

“You’re on!”

--

Going down the mountain was harder than going up, somehow, and while Buckshot was an angel, he was not a racer, so naturally Tantor and Seokmin won the breakneck chase to the tree.

“Check it out, it’s shaped like a heart!” He pointed at a knot in the trunk as you trotted up. “It’s the thing, it’s gotta be!”

“Is the jewelry in the tree then? Or like, buried under it?” You swung yourself off your horse.

“In it I bet, she said in the heart, didn’t she?” He inspected the knot. “Yeah, there’s a hole there!”

You poked the knot, and the wood dislodged, revealing a small space behind it. “How long did it take to hollow this out? That’s nuts.”

He giggled. “Tree pun.”

You snorted. “Unintended, I promise.”

He shoved his hand into the space, fishing around. “I’m not feeling--oh wait!” He yanked his hand out, shoving it towards you. “I found it! I found the thing!”

“A necklace, huh?”

“A locket,” he corrected.

You made a face. “The locket is the thing on it, it’s a necklace with a locket.”

He ignored you, fumbling for the clasp. “There’s a drawing here. It’s her! This is amazing!”

“It’s her?”

“Her and her friend I bet, the one from the island.” He laughed. “And their horses, of course.”

“They’re valued members of the team,” you said, thinking of Buckshot and Tantor tramping over the mountain with you when they could have been snoozing in a warm stable.

Seokmin beamed at you with that sunset smile. “You’re a valued member of the team. I don’t think I’m exaggerating when I say you’re the best thing that’s happened to this island in a long time.”

“Well, I don’t know about that.”

He crossed his arms. “Not convinced, huh? Well you’re sure the best thing to happen to me. Have fun debating that one.”

He would be the death of you and damn, you’d sit back and watch it happen.

“The feeling is mutual, may I assure you, detective,” you said, pretending like your head wasn’t singing.

“We certainly cracked this case, partner,” he said.

“You sound like a cowboy now.”

He shrugged. “I think I prefer that to a detective. Not enough room for horses in a mystery novel.”

“The horses are the most important part.”

He coiled the necklace chain, placing it carefully in his pocket. “Guess it’s time to get back to the stables, since we solved that mystery. Too bad there’s no sunset to ride into.”

You smiled. “Who needs a sunset? I’ve got you.”

[garybobdarkness]

Everytime i think about the Revue starlight movie, it gets better

SPOILERS for the revue movie

At the end, when they all get seperated they explore some new friendships while still being gay (probably) with their original pairs. Also I loe that Hikari is visiting EVERYONE with her suitcase (I know its symbolic of change but i dont wanna go too far into it)

Kaoruko has Futaba’s FUCKING BIKE ALKDJFAKLDS. She’s also the new leader of her dancing school thing and it makes me asdfalksfjalkjewakga. Good on her, especially her ‘DONT TELL FUTABA’ thing so she IS waiting for her so so cute.

Mahiru, TENDO MAYA and Futaba han going to the National something something is so fucking good too. Futaba han despite her insecurities actually got into there, Mahiru who used to be Karen dependant and I thought she’d be alone now has 2 friends beside her, and TENDO MAYA who used ot be the strongest stage girl out of htem all is now on equal footing with everyone which feels so nice as Mahiru and Futaba used to be the most insecure out of the entire cast and now they’re on equal footing with Tendo. But tbh the main reason I love this so much is because I love Mahiru so fucking much especially when shes at hte center good girl good character design thank u.

Also, Junna chan is in america, full on broadway star in New York. Coming to play Wicked near you, maybe. Good for her she found her own star and her being a New Yorka is funny to me. Especially when Junna and Hikari did that fucking step ball change.

Also CLAUDINE WORKING AT STARBUCKS ITS SO GOOD. She’s in fucking france. Wii wii bitch. Theres nothing much to say but all her outfits were so cute Maya looks so good in green. Like, too good in green. She even has a fucking duck/bird, even mroe gay symbolism with Tendo Maya as if her entire revue of being a lesbian wasn’t enough.

Banana and Hikari going to the same school and being in Lndon together makes me feel happy, especially after their previous conflicts and overall dichotomy. Hikari is the trigger for all the change while Banana tried to keep everything the same in the original series. Also their revue against each other was fucking good. Also Daiba Nana being in a new country makes me feel good because she was originally doing the same thing for like, maybe over 60 years  by now. HMMGHHH. I also love banana so much good shit, SUPER good shit God Bless. Amen. Yes.

Then at the end where Hikari doesn’t meet Karen because she’s busy but they are still in contact shows their friendship/relationship while Karen is more independant and reaching her own star. And then it gave me fucking goosebumps when she was auditioning for something and then went all ‘I AM AIJO KAREN, I WILL STARLIGHT YOU’ and like, alkdfadsfa shes still saying that for every audition I love her so much good character.

also the ending song is so cute I still listen to it, it’s stuck in my head.

Thanks Revue starlight you are raising the bar constantly, and doing it well. Also I’m excited for the new wild screen circus thing that looks like some kind of Revue starlight spinoff. Maybe not but its made by the same revue starlight people so i WILL enjoy it.

[hohoz]

The ones that suffer the most

I wanted to talk about this for a long time.

I’m a Resident evil addicted, I finished almost every RE game released and I must say that Capcom made some poor choices regarding Jill and Chris, they are EASILY the most mistreated characters in RE Franchise. 

But let’s explain why is that: 

Jill and Chris are survivors, they had to survive in a mansion with a lot of puzzles and zombies, while looking for items that could help them to progress and find a way to reach Brad. 

When they arrive at STARS Office, they are revolted that Umbrella did all that under their noses and innocents were dying because of that and they explained EVERYTHING in a report - but Irons made that go away. 

In the ORIGINAL RE3 we had this special file (Jill’s Diary) 

August 7th Two weeks have passed since that day. My wounds have been healed, but I just can't forget it. For most people, it's history now. But for me, whenever I close my eyes, it all comes back clearly. Zombies eating people's flesh and the screams of my teammates dying. No, the wounds in my heart are not healed yet...

August 13th Chris has been causing a lot of trouble recently. What's with him? He seldom talks to the other police members and is constantly irritated. The other day, he punched Elran of the Boy's Crime department just for accidentally splashing Chris's face with coffee. I immediately stopped Chris, but when he saw me he just gave me a wink and walked away. I wonder what happened to him...

August 15th Midnight. Chris, who has been on a leave of absence for a "vacation," called me so I visited his apartment. As soon as I walked into his room, he showed me a couple of pieces of paper. They were part of a virus research report entitled as simply as "G". Then Chris told me that, "The nightmare still continues." He went on to say that, "It's not over yet." Ever since that day, he has been fighting all by himself without rest, without even telling me.

August 24th Chris left the town today to go to Europe. Barry told me that he would send his family to Canada and then he would follow Chris. I decided to remain in Raccoon City for a while because I know that the research facility in this city will be very important to this entire case. In a month or so, I'll be joining with them somewhere in Europe. That's when my real battle begins...

For some weird reason this file isn’t available in RE3 Remake. 

But ok, here we see that Chris was doing some investigation - in the RE2RMK  you could see this letter that Chris left in a way that normal people wouldn't understand - the only thing that Claire says is that “doesnt look like him” but how normies would understand what Chris is like is he is not well represented in media ??????????????????

And Jill had all the detective work in her wall. 

So far so good - we understand the basics about them - they are Special police force, the elite, they had a traumatic experience and they survived to tell the story. 

Some problems until now:

Jill had a MAJOR personality change in RE3 RMK- I honestly like most of that, she is a badass in the originals and she is a badass in the rmk but I still dislike the fact that she swears all the time (specially because in RE1, RE Rev, RE5 she doesn't do that) 

We can tell a lot about her personality just looking at her room, but I still miss some stuff (I had expectations - so this is not a real problem. but still) like a Vinyl player (since she is probably into classical music), some letters from her father so new players can understand her origin and why is she so good in lockpicking and more about her dog (she had a pic in the original that could’ve been her boyfriend but it was replaced by a dog in RE2 rmk but in RE3 Rmk there in no dog) 

Okay - after you finish the game the only thing we see is this: 

In my opinion this is Chris since he is always associated with Green colors while Jill is associated with blue. 

So my speculation here is that she found him while in the original we had this: 

This is not a major chance but still is important (lore of course - duh) but the problem here is that while Jill is looking for him - Code Veronica is happening. 

So I can only assume two things, they did not show him because they DON’T HAVE A FACE FOR HIM or I am wrong and that is Jill, but if that is Jill so why there is no decent epilogue like the original ? 

Okay, now we are arriving in the real trouble area

I will do RE5 first and the Wii and Rev1 (even tho those two comes first in the lore) 

RESIDENT EVIL 5 

So before the game was release we had some propaganda, including this: 

So have in mind that Jill was dead, I thought that she died and RE5 would explain that shit. 

But in the beginning we see that Chris is looking for her and have in mind that Chris HAD A MAJOR CHANCE IN HIS APPEARANCE, and I’m not talking about his muscles. 

I will not address Chris in CV since he was good in that game but I the team that made CV also made the original, it had CONSISTENCE. 

Here we have Chris, he’s THE classical american soldier protagonist from Hollywood in the 80′s/90′s and he had some omage to TOPGUN

He also shares some traits with his sister

A major trait here is that HE HAS BLUE EYES, typical good looking soldier from US. 

and now let’s have a look at Chris in RE5...

Yeah... I still hate this face even tho I love his Character in this game, this ugly a** monkey looking mf and he had a lot of steroids

So we have some lore to him in RE5, Jill and Chris went to a mansion looking for Spencer (one of the fathers of Umbrella and the one that was behind project Wesker, he wanted to do this Virus so he could live forever, so RE has a good lore, it’s not just about zombies) but when they found him, he was dead and Wesker was by his side, in a fight Jill sacrificed herself to save Chris’s life. 

Chris started doing mission after mission because her body was never found, and he made a name for himself, he became a ‘legend’ inside BSAA and you can see that in the beginning of RE5.

The reason behind the muscles was probably to fight Wesker mano to mano but still is not well made, it really felt weird playing for the first time. 

So now we have a problem here, there is thing that you use in a narrative that is to make someone strong af powerless, and they did that to Jill. (a good example of this is in TWD- Ricky is a fucking legend and Negan made him powerless in the face of a event) 

Jill was used in a Boss fight and that is it... She is not in the game as a character, she is being manipulated and her whole design was changed, she looks like Nina from Tekken. WTF. - BTW, the fact that Wesker had mind control over her created 1000 fics of sex 

 So that is it, my main problem here isnt Jill itself, but it’s the fact that they used her character as a boss even tho she is the heroine, she never appears in RE lore again until some guy inside Capcom said “Well people are asking about Jill so let’s place a file in Rev2 saying that she is in rehab” 

The only time that she appears again is in a 3DS NINTENDO ONLY game, it felt that Capcom simply don’t care about her character. 

By the way Revelations 1 is a great game and was adaptable some years later for PC and consoles

But you think that this is bad, wait until we arrive at RESIDENT EVIL 6 

When I learned that Jill was not in RE6 I was mad... But after I played that game I said “thank you God” that game was bad, transformers kind of bad, it had bad writing, the lore was all over the place and Chris was the one that suffered the most in this game. 

He was responsible for the death of an entire squad, suffered amnesia and people still wanted him in the command 

THEY MADE HIM AN ALCOHOLIC 

The golden boy of BSAA reduced to THIS. 

By the way, the director said that HE WANTED TO KILL CHRIS IN THIS GAME to SUBVERT EXPECTATIONS - so if you liked Piers now that he died only because of that. 

So now let’s analyse what we know: 

The first 2 main characters are not well represented in media until RE6, they don’t know how to re introduce Jill in the games and Chris was reduced to a normal guy at a Russian bar;

But it gets worse... 

Capcom LOVE Leon, we know that. he is always the hero, he is the protagonist in almost every movie and he is always the cool guy so when he get’s a new model, he looks like this:

But When Chris get’s a new face he look like this: 

WHO DAFUQ ARE U, no offense to the model but he has NEGATIVE JAW LINE.

And still he doesn't look like Claire’s brother, there is no blue/green eyes and he looks younger that he was in 6 (and 6 still uses that ugly character model) 

But let’s go in the lore- we HAVE 0 info on Jill in RE6 / RE7 and no sight of her in RE8 

And speaking of which, they tried to make Chris the bad guy in the trailer so when we play we see “Ohhhh he was not the bad guy, that happened and that is why he did that” 

But still... 

If they are going to do that to his character don’t use this character, shit ! Do something with that Wesker’s son that made 0 sense in RE6 but leave Chris out of this - it really feels that they simply don’t know how to treat him right

And you may think that I may be complaining a lot because of his appearance

But this is him in RE8  

(to me this is some random dude from Russia) 

And this is him in RE:Verse (that is going to be release TOGETHER) 

So this tells me that they have 0 clue of how to handle his looks

Jill got RE3Rmk but it felt like a cheap game compared to RE2Rmk where the original RE3 was SO MUCH BETTER

And this is bad because there are so many new fans joining the fandom only to see 2 great characters suffering from poor director’s choices. 

I’m sorry about this rant, if you like Chris face and looks its okay, really, but dont tell me that Chris from 5/6/8 is the same from 1/CV and if you think im wrong about Jill its fine, but she is an amazing character that could have so much more impact in RE universe (I mean, she never even appeared in a RE movie - animations) 

But it’s sad to see so many characters that receive good representation in media and good games/lore while Jill get’s almost none and Chris is handled like random face guy. 

I was going to talk a little bit more about Rev 1 and RE Umbrella Chronicles but there is no need since Im mad right now and it seems that Capcom has 0 interest in making Code Veronica and Umbrella’s fall after that since their fav boy Leon need a rmk in RE4 even tho RE4 is not that old. 

Bonus:

Fun fact: Chris served in the Air force, so yeah, to me even Tom Cruise looks more like Chris than Chris from the games

[thankskenpenders]

Thoughts on IntiCreates? MN9 felt really off with how Mega Man's shooting and platforming was at odds with their whole dash and absorbing stuff. I feel like trying to stick with the retro style kind of gives false expectations, like how COTM has an infinitely spawning 1up so you never really have to worry about your life count, or how they want to have cool scripted moments. It feels as if they want to keep reinventing the wheel and never really feeling as polished as Shovel Knight was.

As a side note first off, I wouldn't pin any issue with Mighty No. 9 on Inti. Comcept was in charge there, and that game turned out the way it did solely because Kickstarter games always promised a bajillion absurd stretch goals back then and they overestimated what they could handle. They promised a simultaneous launch across eight platforms (Windows, Mac, Linux, Xbox 360, Xbox One, PS3, PS4, and Wii U) and the team had to do all of those in-house. Combine that with the promised online features and they simply ran out of time and money to finish the rest of the game. (I also actually enjoy the way MN9 plays, as well as the character designs and the music, it's just super unpolished for the aforementioned reasons.)

Anyway, as for the general output of IntiCreates in recent years: yeah, I definitely feel like there's something a little lacking with a lot of their games

I think when you look at the stuff they've done with other companies - Mega Man Zero, ZX, 9, and 10, mainly - they do some great work. Those are some of my favorite Mega Mans! But when left to their own devices there's often something... missing. They make really respectable 7/10 or 8/10 retro platformers, but not 9/10 or 10/10s. I found a lot of Blaster Master Zero really dull. Gunvolt is fun, but just doesn't grab me like their Mega Man work. Curse of the Moon is a cool Castlevania throwback, but it's not a game that really sticks in my memory. I was looking forward to Dragon: Marked for Death, but it got a lukewarm reception and the weird version split they did kind of put me off. The only recent-ish game of theirs that I've loved is Mighty Gunvolt Burst, and even that is clearly in a tier below something like Shovel Knight

I don't know what it is. They just don't have that extra oomph or pizzazz, that je ne sais quoi that takes a game from a fun afternoon to an experience that really sticks with me. It's hard to place, but I feel it in my gut. I know they can make great stuff, but their recent lineup of retro throwbacks don't quite feel like them at their peak

(They also make Gal*Gun, which... yeah let's not talk about that)

[ottspot]

Here's How I Got 8 Copies of Bayonetta 1 (And Why I Wanted Them)

I don't think it's that much of a surprise that I love the Bayonetta series. You could probably tell with the big trailer analysis post from earlier this year, really. But it's the truth! This is a series I've been passionate about ever since I got both games in 2016. And yes, this is where it all starts.

Bayonetta was revealed as the final downloadable fighter for Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS and Wii U on December 15, 2015. She was also revealed alongside Corrin from Fire Emblem Fates. But It was her that caught my eye. Which is honestly surprising, since I'm only attracted to men.

It wasn't her body that I saw, though. It was the high-octane action and combos in her moves, her sassy nature, and just the fact that she was from a series I had never played before. I knew that I had to play the games before she released as a fighter that February. So, I looked further into the series.

Bayonetta 2 was announced for a reprint after her fighter announcement, but this reprint would not include the disc with the first game. I knew that original version was the one I had to get. I saw it go up in price on eBay shortly after that, going for even more than the standard $60 price. Eventually, I would find what I was looking for. In January, I found that a GameStop near me had a pre-owned copy of the original version of Bayonetta 2 with the first game for around $30. I pleaded my parents to get it, and they thankfully did.

My dad opted to get a copy of Ryse: Son of Rome for the Xbox One as well. He didn't like the game.

I went home that night and started the first game. About a day and a half later, I finished it and started the second one. Same amount of time passed, and I finished that too. In just a few days, I had beaten both Bayonetta games. There was still lots more to do, though, so I kept playing them. February then rolled around and Bayonetta was released as a fighter in Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS and Wii U. Because I had been familiar with her games, I was able to fight as her with ease, and she's still my main character to this day in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate.

But that's not what you came here for, is it?

Well, I would not get another copy of Bayonetta for a while. I knew of the Xbox 360 version's existence, but I was unable to play it because my 360 did not work. But almost a year after that purchase of my Wii U copy, the Xbox 360 version of the game became backwards-compatible on Xbox One. I looked into this and read about the performance, how it was supposedly better than even the Wii U version. Later on, my dad and I went to a used game store and picked the game up. I played it on my Xbox One when I got home, and the differences were very noticeable. Areas of slowdown on the Wii U version were almost nonexistent now. This was by far the better way for me to play. It was interesting getting used to playing it on an Xbox controller instead of the bulky Wii U GamePad, though. The game would also become a free Games with Gold title that August, so I would end up getting my third copy of the game as well.

Just a month later in September, there were rumors that the game would be coming to PS4 and Xbox One natively, bundled with Vanquish. That didn't end up happening at the time, though. I went ahead and disregarded that as just another rumor.

My next copy of not only Bayonetta 1, but Bayonetta 2 as well, would be the Nintendo Switch ports. They both released in February 2018, but I wouldn't get it until my birthday in October. This would be my fourth copy of the first game, and my second digital copy. While other territories at the time got a physical version of the first game in special editions, the standard edition of Bayonetta 2 in most regions of the world received the first game only as a download code. This wasn't much of a complaint for me, as I was getting Bayonetta on my Switch regardless.

The next copy wouldn't be for another while. I think at this point I had my goal of "getting every US copy of Bayonetta" in mind, as I was determined to get every one even if I wouldn't be able to play them. In late 2019, that original rumor of a PS4/Xbox One bundle of Bayonetta and Vanquish ended up coming to fruition, releasing the following February. I held off on getting it though, as I wasn't in a rush. My next copy wouldn't be until September 2021 when I bought the Steam version for $4 on GameBillet. It was cheap, so I figured "why not".

My most recent copies of the game would arrive this month, though. A physical copy of Bayonetta 1 on Switch released late September this year, and I got it earlier this month as a late birthday present. This was released mostly because the special edition of Bayonetta 3 has alternate covers for the physical versions of all three games, and it would be weird if Bayonetta 1 didn't have one.

My next copies arrived shortly after. The PS4 copy of the Bayonetta and Vanquish bundle, and... the ill-fated PS3 copy of the game. This version is notorious for bad frame-rates, reduced image quality, and looooong load times. Even so, it was still a copy of Bayonetta. I had an eBay coupon so I only got it for around $6. With all this... I basically had every US copy of Bayonetta 1.

Though, if we were to get technical, I would still need the digital Wii U version, the digital PS3 version (which, I don't know if that even exists), the digital PS4 version, and the physical and digital versions of the Xbox One bundle with Vanquish. Though, the first three are just digital versions of copies I already have, and the Xbox One bundle is exactly the same as the PS4 version. So essentially... yeah. My goal is kind of complete now.

Is that to say I'll stop collecting copies of Bayonetta? Oh, definitely not. I already have my eyes on the Japanese Wii U bundle with both games, and the UK first-print edition of Bayonetta 2. After that, other systems in those same regions, maybe? Who knows. I might be a little insane for doing this, but I really like the series. I think it's cool to collect all the copies of one game. Even if one of them happens to be the very worst version playable. It's an enjoyable experience and I like seeing my little collection grow.

Thanks for reading, everyone! I'm so excited to get my copy of Bayonetta 3 on Thursday night. I can't wait to play it and share my thoughts! Next up: The Wait Is Over: Bayonetta 3 Review

[miloscat]

[Review] Sonic Lost World (Wii U)

Super Sonic Galaxy!

After Colours, Sonic Team went all out on Generations, refining the 3D boost formula successfully (I've played Generations before so it's not included in my current run through). This is now the era where Colours had somehow been successful and Sega were all in on supporting the Wii U... for the moment. Racing Transformed had special Gamepad modes, and soon Rise of Lyric and the Winter Olympics game would be exclusives for the system, and meanwhile the big new platformer from Sonic Team got a Wii U release and a 3DS companion game by Dimps [to be reviewed later]. In a couple of years time when the writing was on the wall for the Wii U, Sega would port Lost World to the PC, but it's a Wii U game through and through.

On its home platform, Lost World can only be played with the Gamepad. The Wisps, returning from Colours, are controlled with gyro and touchscreen [optionally, thank goodness], along with between-level minigames. Otherwise the second screen shows the usual HUD elements of time/lives/rings etc., your level progress, hints, active missions, and a half-baked inventory system. It's an attempt at dual-screen gaming but I can see how it could all be reworked or moved to a pause screen easily enough.

Otherwise Lost World represents a complete departure from all prior Sonic games. They've totally rethought Sonic's physics, the controls, the whole gameplay paradigm, all in the name of... chasing Mario Galaxy's success, I guess. Now if you're challenging something so well-received, you need to do it well. Lost World doesn't.

The gravity gimmick is the headline feature, with 3D spaces often taking the form of long cylinders or small spheres that freely rotate as you move through them. 2D sequences have some measure of curving as well, but they're usually straightforward sidescrollers. To be perfectly honest I think the whole thing is implemented better here than in Galaxy itself as it doesn't push it too far, keeping it as mainly an aesthetic/structural feature. The returning Wisps remain gimmicky but they actually managed to make most of them work in 3D this time, whether it's old colours or new ideas. They're maybe a step up from their implementation in Colours itself and have less of a focus which also helps.

As for Sonic's movement, he has a run button now, maybe for the first time? The fact that he doesn't conserve momentum at all feels odd but is probably for the best with the type of platforming required. A parkour system is supposed to complement this by letting you run up walls and grab ledges; this is a good platforming crutch but often will misfire, only making things awkward and interrupting flow instead of facilitating it. There's also a wallrunning mechanic and dedicated parkour stunt button, neither of which I ever found useful, intuitive, or fun.

Sonic can spin dash which is used maybe a few times, and there are for some reason two separate homing attack buttons: one is a kick and can't snap you to the ubiquitous bumper launchers, the other is chargeable and combo-able and the key to doing any damage to bosses. The game didn't adequately explain this so I got through the first world or so only using the kick, which made the first boss miserable and janky... but I thought that the game was just like that! In the end though it still was a bit like that.

The game plays out one a Tiny Planet-esque landmass called Lost Hex, which is visually made up of floating hexagons. Well, it is in the map screen anyway, I don't think this really carries over into any levels... It consists of your typical platformer environments skinned over the same core gameplay: plain, desert, jungle, ice, lava, etc. but everything looks quite nice and unlike many other 3D Sonic games it runs consistently smoothly. Individual levels do a decent job varying the biomes, while some bonus levels get a bit more surreal and there's even a truncated boss rush themed after Sonic Team's Saturn classic Nights Into Dreams. The Wii U version also has some fun extras in the form of a short 2D level with a Yoshi's Story aesthetic that plays like a quite bland Yoshi's Island, and a Zelda level with a sort of hybrid Ocarina/Skyward Sword aesthetic that has a mini-open zone Hyrule Field and a sort of mini-dungeon that reskins Lost World's "tube interior" gameplay style. Modders have added these to the PC version so there's no reason to miss out.

The story is building off Colours, with the same writers returning with their weak jokes and shaky characterisation. This time there's more interaction between Eggman and Sonic as they're forced to team up; I like the concept although their dynamic plays out weirdly. Orbot and Cubot are a bit more fleshed out, and Tails is... participating. Amy and Knuckles exist, if only to call Sonic on Facetime twice to try and instil some stakes. Meanwhile the villain squad represent a new nadir for the franchise. The six Zeti have weird cartoonish designs and offensively stock personalities. For example, one of them is big and fat and likes eating and always talks about eating. Funny! Another one is the token girl; she is vain because she's a girl and get this, because she's a girl she's obsessed with her hair and makeup! Wow! Somebody get these guys a Bafta!

For the first time since I think Adventure 2, the animals that can be rescued from defeating Badniks have a gameplay purpose, even if it's just unlocking the final act of each zone. But they make for a persistent counter that marks your progress and a reward for minigames. In a level your rewards are Red Ring collectibles that unlock more minigame stages (these got old for me about halfway through) and lives. You can quickly go through lives on some sections but the game also throws a lot of them at you, and the DLC stages are a quick and effective source of life and animal farming.

Omochao's missions are a nice bonus for doing various actions, but you can only hold three at a time and I spent half the game with the same uncleared set because I couldn't figure out how "ceiling running" worked or be bothered to replay older levels that uniquely had certain kinds of Wisps. These reward items that can be redeemed mid-level but aren't very useful, and again there's a limit of five. Get any more and the game tediously prompts you to discard it or send it to another player via the now defunct Miiverse feature. Other mission rewards consist of various cosmetics for the co-op feature, which I think is similar to the Mario Galaxy "younger sibling" type of "multiplayer". And speaking of this era of Nintendo, Lost World also has the patronising "skip ahead a checkpoint" prompt if you die too many times, which I only ever activated by accident thus cheating myself out of gameplay. Thanks game.

The soundtrack by my new favourite person Tomoya Ohtani ranges from pleasant to "rivals Rooftop Run", which is high praise. I was bummed to discover that there is no new main vocal track this time as those have been highlights of his soundtracks, but Forces and later Frontiers make up for it by having tons of them.

Totally reworking your core gameplay concept is a big gamble which can either pay off (eg. Unleashed Day stages), or it can backfire (eg. Unleashed Night stages) [your mileage may vary, of course]. In the case of Lost World, on balance it's more the latter. There's certainly potential here but it's a shame to seemingly throw away the progress that had been made in getting to Generations. At least they picked that back up and hit a sweet spot for me with Forces, which makes Lost World a one-off that gets consigned to the "failed experiments" pile with the Storybook games. I guess over the long term the franchise is constantly reinventing itself and I respect that, but they can't all be winners. But before we dispense with Lost World completely, there's a 3DS version created by Dimps that I must investigate! Until then...!

[1tsnoya]

✧･ﾟquarantine activities with karasuno✧･ﾟheadcanons

i found this while going through my drafts (i have a bunch of requests LOL) and realized i never posted it! here ya go!

this is also a long one so i added a mark!

pairings: hinata x reader, kageyama x reader, suga x reader, daichi x reader, asahi x reader, nishinoya x reader, tanaka x reader, tsukishima x reader, yamaguchi x reader

hinata

you guys are SO bored together

all this boy wants to do is play volleyball but he cANT

u tried passing to eachother inside but almost broke a glass table hsjksjsj

so u guys pass time by doing whatever u can think of

u make SO MANY tiktoks with eachother it’s wild

lots of binging disney movies

cuddles after !! duh

u guys spend lots of time with natsu too awh

kageyama

also pretty bummed that he can’t play volleyball

he usually just sets a ball against the door

but let’s face it. he’s pretty clumsy and a little dumb

when he almost broke something, u were like “ahh okay its time we go do something-”

so. much. cuddling. baby boy is LOVING IT

he’s always liked cuddling in private so this is just ideal to him

lots of naps too

u try to help him out with online school but he’s just so unmotivated. he wants to SLEEP

u guys also run out of icecream/milk very quickly

suga

he picks up baking while ur stuck at home

he’s just the type yk

will always ask u to sample something for him

“is this too sweet?” or “does this need more flavor?”

the house always smells like cookies

he gets tired after baking so he’ll fall asleep right after

dessert and ur boyfriend is asleep in ur lap?? win win !!

overall just loves helping and taking care of u

daichi

when u get frustrated with online classes, he’s always there to help

a shoulder u can always lean on

he’s pretty average when it comes to school so sometimes he’s even more confused than u are

when ur both just fed up with the work, you’ll go start a new show

he gets INVESTED into this show. no matter what it’s about

whenever there’s a new episode on tv, you’ll drop whatever just to go cuddle and watch

also ur emotional support buddy during this boring time

lots of deep talks with eachother

asahi

cuddles to DIE FOR

everyone describes him as a giant teddy bear and i can 100% agree

u guys become the pros of self care

HE JUST SEEMS LIKE THAT KIND OF GUY AND ITS CUTE OKAY

always makes u tea or coffee

lots of spooning aw

when his hair got super long, u offered to cut it for him

he was lowkey nervous ab that LOL

“ahh no it’s okay!”

he had u braid it instead🥺

noya

HE IS SO FULL OF ENERGY ALL OF THE TIME OH MY GOODNESS

he’s insanely bored so tries to come up with the weirdest things to do together

LOTS of all nighters

dance parties as well🥺u guys even have a playlist

he’s also a tiktok addict

will definitley pull little pranks on u that he saw on the app

u noticed and started getting revenge

and it turned into a prank war hhshjs

u guys now have a small competition to see who’ll get more likes/followers on tiktok

tanaka

1000% games

and tries to get u into gaming

even if they’re super simple or cute

just loves spending that kind of time with u

u guys sleep in quite a lot

LATE NIGHTS WITH HIM OMG

likes distracting you from your schoolwork

LOTS of watching scary or action movies

u know that thing on tiktok? where it’s a themed dinner at home?

def does those with u. he knows u miss going out so he sets them up when ur sad🥺

tsukishima

here me out pls...

he definitley smokes weed

y’all smoke weed together and just talk

SUCH A TEASE WHEN HES HIGH ??? AND SO FLIRTY WHICH IS STRANGE

you stay up late and watch the sun rise

and then sleep in late

during those late nights, u guys play the Wii

specifically smash and mario party

ur sleeping schedule is fucked up but it’s okay. you guys like it that way

let’s j say that,,, u two are quite intimate yk yk(;

yamaguchi

UGH HES TOO CUTE

wakes up early with u and you two make breakfast

or if ur tired and don’t wanna wake up, he’ll make u breakfast

^^pancakes w strawberries is his fav to make u🥺🥺

you, yams, and tsuki are the ultimate trio so you play cards against humanity online over skype

i feel like he plays stardew valley

so he gets you hooked on it too

TALKS TO U SO MUCH HE LOVES TALKING TO U PLEASE TALK TO HIM🥺