#and I only recently got 3 on my 3ds (it’s a ds game)

[fairladybellaphram]

Wooo I can add on about Rune factory to because I’m sooo normal about it!!

Rune Factory 1 and 2 aren’t bad. But they’re the earliest games in the series and it’s very obvious while playing them. I also haven’t played Frontier/Tides of Destiny/any of the specials so I’m probably more normal about the series than I think.

RF3, 4, and 5 all have map icons. RF5 even has icons to tell you where to go for character events! This is not as good of a thing as it sounds like in my opinion.

Quests also don’t expire in any of these games! You are limited to how many quests you can take in a day, and you can only take one at a time, but really you aren’t going to run out of things to do. I don’t remember how they work in Rune Factory 5 as that’s the one I’ve played the least of. (This is a lie I only just caught! Rf5 is still the one I’ve played least recently.)

There is no penalty for not sleeping in these games. You have a sleeping skill that goes up when you sleep, and it fully restores your health and stamina. But you don’t technically need to. It would be a hindrance if you did because some of the later dungeons are so big you’ll spend a couple days in them the first time through.

There are plants and crystals out in the fields and dungeons that respawn every day that refill your stamina (technically Rune Points but who’s counting) Your crops can also make rune orbs when you harvest them. They can also make runeys, which are spirits that randomly level up one of your stats. (Again I don’t remember if these are in RF5) Baths are also dirt cheap. Money is not an object in Rune Factory after like the first season.

You have a diary in all 3 games. And there are save points outside of all the Dungeons. I’m pretty sure RF5 also lets you save wherever. I think it has autosave too?

Rune Factory 3’s tutorial is a little handholdy in the very beginning if I remember correctly? But it only lasts a day I think? Rune Factory 4 has a very brief one and all the rest of the tutorial type stuff is handled in requests. I do not remember what it’s like in rf5.

As for the progression! Story progression unlocks new areas and dungeons to explore. Not only that! All of the games systems connect to eachother. Rf4 does it the best but all 3 games do it well. Leveling up your farming skills raises your stats and RP, which you’ll while exploring the dungeons. You’ll need food or healing potions in the dungeons which you’ll want to cook because food is expensive which means you’ll need to farm and tame monsters! To raise your monsters stats to take on adventures with you you’ll need to feed them upgrade crafting materials, which you’ll need to get from dungeons. But for the dungeons you’ll need to get gear! Just like food you can buy it or craft it. Good gear is expensive. To craft gear you need materials from dungeons and your farm. I just really love in RF4 specifically how well the systems work together. You really can engage with them as much or as little as you like.

You start out with storage that you can upgrade when you need more space. You’ll also be able to buy more specific storages later in the game (refrigerator, weapons rack, bookshelf etc) you also start of with a much larger rucksack. (It’s driving me crazy right now in fields of mistria how small the starting inventory is. The only games I’ve played that are as bad or worse are the original more friends of mineral town where you only have TWO slots for forageables in the beginning and stardew valley where the first bag upgrade is cheap) RF4 definitely pulls from your storage when crafting, I can’t imagine this isn’t a feature in RF5 and I honestly do not remember if it is or not in RF3.

NPCs all get unique dialogue the day before and event, and NPCs will tell you about upcoming birthdays if their friends or family with whoever’s birthday it is. They even give you gift ideas. (I’m pretty sure they do in RF3 and they 100% do in RF4 and 5)

Also adding on! The biggest reason I do not like Stardew is I think all of the characters are super boring. It’s why I ended up buying mistria, I heard that the characters are super fun and have a TOOOOONNN of dialogue. And they do! Rune factory is the same way. Not a single rune factory character is normal they are all weirdos and they have SO MUCH to say. Sometimes mini events will happen where everyone in town is talking about something that happened the day before, like someone baking some really terrible cookies or the bath water being hotter than usual which sounds incredibly mundane but it’s so funny. I find that the non-romanceable NPCs will repeat dialogue sometimes, but not terribly often. And the marriage candidates rarely so. Of course the writing isn’t going to be for everybody but I just love all of the Rune Factory characters.

Rune factory 4 is the first one you can play a girl in (technically 3rd? 2 you can be a girl in the second half of the game, but you’re a kid. And I think Tides of Destiny let’s you after you beat the game? But I haven’t played that one so I don’t know how it works) Rune Factory 5 is the first one you can be gay in. (There’s a work around for this in rf4 but you need a save game+) they are all great games but RF4 is probably the best one.

OK sth I really, really love about fields of mistria is how accessible it is for an adhd hoarder that also forgets everything and what I was doing in like 5 minutes, like myself

the map has npc locations by default! so even if their schedule changes, you can always find them!

quests never expire! you can work on them at your own pace, and even hold onto one's that require a seasonal item that you didn't have enough of before the season was up, until the season rolls around again!

they don't take your damn money or items when you pass out or die because you lost track of time or are bad at combat!

there's free soup in the tavern that restores a little stamina, and a fountain behind a breakable boulder that does the same! the baths are also pretty cheap, and you even get a few free usages after a certain quest!

it starts with storage in your house, AND! anything you had in said storage can be used for crafting without having to go and retrieve it!

if you don't know where to get an item for a quest, talking to various npcs can tell you where it is!

if you need a certain item for the museum collection, you can check out hints on where to get those in the museum itself! and every item that can go in the museum has a tooltip when you over over it, to tell you if you have already donated it or not!

items don't despawn! you can just toss stuff on the floor and come back for it later when you have the inventory space!

if you forget to check your calendar, that's fine! the npcs will tell you about any upcoming events a few times before it arrives, and the start of a new day will tell you if it's someone's birthday!

they give you tutorials in a narrative way, gradually introducing new systems and mechanics as you progress! and these are done via quests that you can go and complete whenever you're ready!

the village progression gives you plenty of rewards and things to help you with your farm, which is very encouraging to keep at it!

the upgrade system just builds up along with doing normal tasks like farming! and you can spend these points however, whenever you like, with many being available right from the start! and you can have all of them if you want, so no need to worry about indecision!

you can go to your diary at home and save whenever you like, and even make another one so you can place them in other areas!

little heart notifications pop up over npc's heads when you progress the relationship, so you have a quick reference on how close you are!

every friday (and saturday after you fix the bridge), all the npcs are in the same place! this makes chatting to everyone and handing out gifts easier if you have trouble remembering to do so!

you have to hold down the button to eat an item! so you don't accidentally poison yourself!

other accessibility options ive really been appreciative of are: being able to turn off rain/snowfall, flashing, screenshake ect. for those with sensitivity, sight, or neurological issues that don't play well with those.

[wayfayrr]

Hello!

Its about self aware au link i want to ask,,

What do you think about how link reacts when i play two games at the same time?

Like for example, recently ive been re playing totk and try to do all the side quests and grinding like dragon farming(waiting time so long) and to distract myself while im waiting for it to recharge, im playing OoT in my 3DS(and maybe even saying to the tv "look linkyyyy its yours distant grandpa") 😭

How will the two links react to it? Will they be upset? Confused? Making some weird plot? I do wonder😭😭😭

I need two games at the time to maximize busyness

I hope the ask wasnt too long! I hope you have a good day!💕

Me when I pause anything to play colourful stage on my phone 💀 Zelda is good but nothing can break the hold Miku has on me, and you gotta do those daily challenge missions right? I did one while answering this and was ONE note off of a full combo I almost cried

I think he'd be less bothered by the fact that you didn't completely turn off his game to play another yk? it'd be one thing if you were going between totk and a Mario game - or god forbid totk to sksw or botw

you're still somewhat focused on the link who's on the main screen, he's just taking a backseat as you wait for the dragons to recover. It's fine, he's fine, not jealous one little bit. Not even as you pull out your ds and... You're playing with another link? Sure he's still there, standing around, waiting, with his strings cut. Standing still, maybe facing the screen if he was lucky with how you left him - could he dare move himself to face you if he wasn't already. No he couldn't you'd notice something was off with him wouldn't you? Yeah you're still focused enough that that could cause issues. Until the dragon starts glowing again. And you're still focused on that other guy.

Meanwhile little time (that's something intresting too, should it be proper lu time back in a child's body or would he be someone different again. Maybe for different playthroughs... also the angst of baby time getting out and seeing what should have been his fate with the hero's shade??? sobbing) is relishing that you see him as being worthy of more attention. Well until it hits him that he's only a placeholder for you to wait out a ten minute timer (yeah I've done the dragon wait a bunch - my go too was writing or revising during it sdgsfdgvs)

in other words I think they could both be bitter at each other and if it wasn't for the fact that they're older and (possibly) more mature, I think it would be a very very similar situation to what menace wrote out here Heck if we're going with a younger time I could see him getting into trouble to draw your attention back onto him with tears maybe even retaliating if it carries on long enough. But the only reason there's an issue is because it's explicitly another zelda game. if it was a different one or another genre entirely then it wouldn't be any issue whatsoever <3

anyone who thought to check this out gets to know that toya aoyagi is my voice claim for tears :) I love him and his voice is just *chef's kiss* I also got his birthday card in 30 pulls :3

[ecargmura]

Japanese Tales Fans Vote Their Favorite Tales Games In Recent Survey

Japanese website Net Lab has made another Tales related survey for fans to vote; the topic this time is favorite Tales games. The poll ran from June 27, 2023 to July 4, 2023 and has a total of 10, 344 votes overall.

Before I reveal the results, there are three things I want to let you know:

This is a Japan-only poll because the admins did not want overseas fans to vote due to possible illegal voting.

Fans can vote up to three games.

Please do not be vocal about the games/titles you hate or don’t particularly; if you don’t have anything nice to say, keep it to yourself.

Here are the results from 1st to 24th (I’ll add in the number of votes the game has received and a comment that pertain to the respective game translated via Google Translate and me trying to make it as cohesive in English):

Abyss - 1176 votes

Comment: Bamco, are you seeing this? I’m forever waiting on a full remake of Abyss.

2. Vesperia - 1035 votes

Comment: My favorite is Tales of Vesperia. My first Tales game was Legendia, but Vesperia is the first one I’ve cleared. The Switch version is super packed and I have beaten the secret boss. I had a super hard time with that boss battle. I love Yuri so much.

3. Zestiria - 983 votes

Comment: It’s been a long time since I graduated from the Tales series, but Zestiria made me want to come back. There may be times where I feel unreasonable, but I’ve come to like this work, including that “do-it-yourself” thing. I really like it.

4. Symphonia - 962 votes

Comment: Before I played the first 3D game, I was a little worried, but when I opened the lid, I was hooked on the perfection that surpassed the previous work. I love the characters, the story, the music and the system.

5. Phantasia - 701 votes

Comment: For me, it’s Phantasia, which I played for the first time and became the most memorable. I want it to have a remake like Destiny.

6. Eternia - 693 votes

Comment: One vote for Eternia with a smooth battle system!

7. Destiny - 601 votes

Comment: Just remembering that scene with Leon breaks my heart. My favorite work of all time. I want to play again, so I’ll be waiting for a port!

8. Berseria - 529 votes

Comment: Because the first game I played was Tales of Berseria, I got hooked onto Velvet.

9. Graces F - 528 votes

10. Xillia 2 — 508 votes

11. Destiny 2 -  456 votes

12. Arise - 367 votes

13. Rebirth - 311 votes

Comment: I love Rebirth’s battle system and characters so much!

14. Legendia - 294 votes

Comment: Legendia, when will you get a remake or a port? I’ve been waiting…

15. Xillia - 176 votes

16. Luminaria - 171 votes

Comment: Luminaria is the best! I want to see the continuation someday!

17. Innocence R - 168 votes (tied)

Comment: Tales of Innocence (DS version) makes me want to play regularly. A work that I love and value so much that I lose my vocabulary.

17. Dawn of the New World - 168 votes (tied)

19. Crestoria - 148 votes

20. Hearts R - 134 votes

Comment: Tales of Hearts for DS is my favorite work, not the remake version of Hearts R.

21. Narikiri Dungeon - 91 votes

22. Others - 68 votes

I’ve seen people say “Radiant Mythology series”, “Asteria”, “Versus” “Link”, “The Rays” and “Warheit”.

23. Tempest - 56 votes

Comment: I will always love Tempest. Please remake it.

24 - Summoner’s Lineage - 20 votes

What are your thoughts about the results?

What is your favorite Tales game? Let us know in the comments below!

[mfporky]

I feel like people forget just how many Nintendo IPs got proper revives on the Switch, so I made a big fat thread about some

The biggest one in my eyes, a series that holds strong importance to me, is Pikmin. After getting a pretty damn good game on the Wii U back in 2013 the series was propelled into a limbo-like state with Pikmin 4 being "On My Way!" for a decade straight. Mainline wise, nothing, we don't talk about Hey Pikmin. Absolute crickets for awhile and then almost overnight it became THE system for Pikmin games. Pikmin 3 Deluxe, which is way more than just a port, with a bucket full of new content and an alternative campaign, released October 30th 2020. Back to crickets for a few years until all of a sudden, Pikmin 4 and ports of Pikmin 1 and 2 released on the same day of July 21st 2023. All incredible games in their own right, the supreme ports of all, insanely proud Nintendo treats their small fish franchise with such delicate care; if you're using this list as a game suggestions list, check out Pikmin you will NOT regret it.

Famicom Detective Club, which was one damned to eternal obscure Nintendo fanatic knowledge hell, has arose from its grave and is unironically making strong waves. The last original game being made in 1989 and then having "Super Famicom Satellaview Remasters" in the mid 90s, which are damn hard to find proper info on. Other than that, tombstone. Only real thing of note being that it was the first project Yoshio Sakamoto sunk his pen into, other than that it was doomed to niche oddity and a footnote in gaming history. The Switch changed all that, with remakes of the first two games being bundled together and released May 14th 2021. That's not all, a brand new game in the series, "Emio - The Smiling Man", is currently set to release August 29th 2024 as of writing

F-Zero, technically got a new game! It's pennies compared to everyone else's quarters and dollars, but after a 20+ year hiatus its worth a mention. With the last game in the series, ironically called F-Zero Climax, released on the GBA there were crickets after that. Gone but not forgotten, it got the occasional rerelease onto the latest system's virtual console, and it still had a spot in Smash Brothers. Granted if you were me growing up you'd figure that Captain Falcon was just some wack original character, but shit the representation matters. It was like that until September 14th, 2023, when a brand new game in the series with online got announced and released later in a Nintendo direct! Sure it was just a battle royale game, another drop in the bucket with the 99 subtitle, but it counts for this list.

Metroid, the series infamous for its dry spells, has been an oasis of new content recently. The last chronological game in the 2D Metroid series was Fusion, released in 2002, with the Metroid Prime game getting its third installment in 2007. In terms of original games, that was it. There was a remake of Metroid 1 on the GBA, and a remake of Metroid 2 on the 3DS, and there were spinoffs here and there (Metroid Prime Pinball is my GOAT baby); other than that, nothing. That is until the Switch came along, with Metroid Prime 4 being announced within the same year of the Switch's release. It took literally 7 years to get more info about Prime 4 but its with confidence to say that the game is coming out, sometime in 2025. 2D Metroid, long dormant and stagnant and almost two decades without a game got a surprise announcement in a Nintendo Direct; the highly anticipated and teased Metroid Dread, long thought to be a cancelled DS game but emerging in the flesh brazen as ever. Released October 8th, 2021, Metroid is officially back after what felt like centuries of wait.

2D Mario has been stuck in a rut of unoriginality for a decade and a half now. Since the release of New Super Mario Bros for the DS in May 2006, 2D Mario was stuck in a loop of distilling the same damn game over and over, with it getting stripped more and more of what once was in such a short time. It hit a boiling point in November 2012, with the release of "New Super Mario Bros U", the second New Super game to release that year. After that, nothing. People were sick of what felt like the same damn game, sure they were passable but it felt emblematic of everything 2D Mario shouldn't be. Then, almost like an angel from the heavens, came Super Mario Bros Wonder; the antithesis of New Super, it had original concepts in boatloads and felt like a proper evolution of 2D Mario. New concepts in spades, so much extra content, brilliant new artstyle in a new kingdom. It feels like going from store bought freezer pancakes from Walmart to a French chef from a 5 michelien star restaurant making you your breakfast.

The Mario & Luigi series, although a cult classic series, never quite got the mainstream attention it deserved. Even with classics like Bowser's Inside Story, Dream Team, Superstar Saga, the financial backing from the public and internal was just never quite there. After Dream Team (sleeper hit, if you're interested check it out!), it was the beginning of the end with the release of Paper Jam. Reused assets, real basic baby story, padding aplenty, dialogue that hits the senses like pulling teeth (fuckin leave Luigi alone), there's no way this was anything other than a cash grab. A collaboration with Paper Mario too, another cult classic series, it was insulting to both Paper Mario fans and M&L fans. After that, no new original games. Alphadream pumped out two remakes, which are pretty alright, and them they went bankrupt. God bless Alphadream, but the writing was on the wall when they kept making 3DS games long after the Switch came out. It was a dark time, felt clear as light that the M&L series will remain to be past tense and just a footnote in the large conglomerate that is Mario now. Until recently, with the announcement of Brothership; a new spanking game in the M&L series releasing in November of this year.

Genuine generational run Nintendo is going on right now. List could've droned on for easily triple the length, and I might make a sequel to this one day. Could've been even more if i talked about new Nintendo's new IPs or just how much better everything's gotten. It rules we live in this time now, especially after the dark ages of the Wii U.

[conspire24]

Why a Kalos game actually makes sense right now (crack theory)

So, I'm super excited we're getting a Legends game in Kalos featuring Zygarde. As a longtime fan in the XY anime, I always wished Zygarde was done justice in the game side of things, and once Legends Acreus came out, I knew another Legends game would be the perfect way to give Zygarde they're dues.

That said, this was definitely out of left field! Literally everyone was guessing we were going to get a Johto or Unova game this gen, since they're the only two that have yet to be remade in 3D. At first, skipping straight to Kalos makes no sense. But the more I thought of it, the more I've noticed a pattern, a pattern that I will now present as:

THE POKEMON GENERATION MULTIPLES HYPOTHESIS

The idea is that the region that gets remade is influenced by its age as well as whether or not the region's generation number shares a common denominator (that isn't 1) with the current region's generation number. I know, I'm bringing math into this, but trust me it'll make sense when we go through it.

Let's start simple, the first gen to get remade was Kanto (gen 1) during generation 3. Easy enough, it was the first gen where it made sense to remake past games, and oh look, 3 is a multiple of 1 (though to be fair everything's a multiple of 1).

Then we get to gen 4, where after the sinnoh games, we got a remake of John (gen 2). Oddly enough, 4 is a multiple of 2.

Then there's gen 5. Now, 5 is a prime number, so the only factor 5 has is 1, but gen 1 has already been made available on DS (along with every other gen, so it's not like they could do much anyway).

But then we get to gen 6, followed by the Hoenn remakes (gen 3), and 3 is a multiple of 6. Now, 6 also a multiple of 2 and even shares a common denominator with 4 (that c.d. being 2), but it seems gen 3 takes the precedent because it is the earliest set of games to have been released, since Johto and Sinnoh had games out more recently.

We move to gen 7, and you know, I remember back in 2017 when everyone thought we were gonna get Sinnoh remakes next. But why would we? 7 isn't a multiple of 4, 4 and 7 don't share a common denominator. 7 is a prime number, it isn't a multiple of anything - except for 1. And wouldn't you know it, this is the generation where we got a set of Kanto remakes - and 1 was the only thing that could factor into 7!

As we go to gen 8, suddenly it's apparent what would get remade next. Sinnoh was the region that had been out of circulation the longest, and 4 goes into 8 just fine, meaning now is finally the time to give Sinnoh another spot in the limelight with BDSP and Legends Arceus!

And now, we have reached gen 9, and again I say we all had thought we would get a return to Johto or Unova, but why? I mean, 9 isn't a multiple of 2, or 5. Rather, 9 is a multiple of 3. And you what else is a multiple of 3? 6! And since gen 6 had come out a year before the Hoenn remakes, it seems Kalos was the earliest game to pass the threshold for a modern reimagining.

So, in short, it appears that the region that gets remade or reused next coincides with whether or not the generation number shares a common denominator greater than 1 as well as whether or not the region's last release has been longer than other regions'. If this theory holds water, gen 10 may yield some interesting results, as 10 is a multiple of both 2 and 5. Though, there has been more time since the last new Johto games than there has been since the last new Unova games, so by my logic, Johto would be the next to be remade. Though if you count the Johto VC releases on 3DS, maybe that would mean Unova has spent more time out, so maybe Unova would be next on the docket?

Either way, I just think it's interesting that all the generations' numbers line up this way. Who knows, maybe each generation, GameFreak has been playing a simple numbers game when deciding their remakes.

Well regardless, I'm happy that we're getting another step into Kalos next year, and in a way, maybe the timing makes more sense than we realize. That said, definitely take this theory with a grain of salt. I highly doubt the numbering of generations (which I don't think GameFreak has ever actually acknowledged officially) truly factors into how GameFreak and the Pokemon Company greenlight what projects. But if nothing else, it's fun to notice those kinds of patterns. I'd take this in the same vein as that fire starter zodiac theory from a while back. It's probably not true, but it's funny how well it fits together!

That said, I'm calling it now, a Legends game in Johto is gonna be the game for 2028!

[smashwolfen]

hello i am so in awe that you have collected all the pokémon games (i finished my collection of 3ds ones a bit ago but i considered a lot of the other ones out of reach) and i was wondering how long it took? i know especially the older remakes are insane to get so i’m super curious

(This got incredibly long i'm so sorry for the wall of text my guy)

In relation to this post

Hello there! :D

Believe me, I still can't believe it myself that I managed to pull it off considering who I had to get ahold of! Been happy dancing to myself ever since I got the last game~

God it feels like it was longer ago honestly, but I only really began trying to finish the Pokemon collection just a year ago! Had to check back in my DMs with my buddy, but the day I began to seriously search for the rest of the authentic generations was May 5th 2023, the day I discovered my copy of Platinum was a repoduction, ya watch ONE video regarding reals vs. fakes and it all went down from there when I looked over the ones I owned already, luckily Platinum was the only one who was fake ;w;

I had passively over the years been picking up games as I went, but from that day last year til recently I looked where I could for the games I was missing, to be fair I had about half the collection to begin with just from growing up and finding ones out and about, I only needed to find the pair of whatever I owned already, besides gen 5.... since I somehow never played gen 5 growing up. Funny enough I didn't have to look too far, every single game I found had all been local! Facebook marketplace saved me big time I just had to wait and compare prices til I was happy with what I was willing to pay for! I scrutinized every single copy I got my hands on and triple checked everything before I was satisfied XD

The 3DS titles were very easy to get thankfully, and the same goes for you too good on ya for getting your 3DS ones! Hardest for sure were gens 3-5, specifically ALL of gen 5 they are the WORST to get since no one wants to sell them and they're required to be able to move anyone forward to the 3DS and then to the Switch! I think It'd be easier to list who I owned and who I hunted for in the year of the search.

So I owned:

Red, Blue, Yellow, Gold, Silver, Crystal, Leafgreen, Emerald, Diamond, Pearl, X, Alpha Sapphire, Moon, UltraSun, Sword, Violet and Arceus (some I had gotten as gifts growing up and others I had gotten through yardsaling and thrifting by chance as I grew up, Emerald was 70 at a yardsale!)

The ones I got from the year of the hunt:

Ruby, Sapphire, FireRed, Platinum, Heartgold, SoulSilver, Black, White, Black 2, White 2, Y, Omega Ruby, Sun, UltraMoon, Shield, Lets Go Pikachu, Lets Go Eevee (I DID own Eevee before but traded it in before the hunt) Scarlet, Brilliant Diamond, and Shining Pearl.

Now knowing who I had to get, we all know it costs a pretty penny, so I essentially sold things myself to fund the hunt, like my amiibos I didn't really need or want, a handful of random collectable things I picked up and kept over the years (notably a masterchief helmet from the legendary collection I got for free like 10 years ago lol) and some odds and ends I didn't need anymore and to declutter the home! I think out of my own pocket I only paid maybe 40 bucks total so I paid for everyone that way! It was all mostly luck finding everyone and keeping an eye on marketplace, and some of them I had gotten from folks I knew! Black and Black 2 actually came from one of my managers at work who sold them to me for insanely cheap, and Sapphire I got for free as I mentioned in the games post XD

If you do try to go for the complete collection, I say have a gameplan for how to pay and build that piggybank of funds, go for what you can afford! So if you see a game without a case thats usually better, you dont NEED a case or have a game CIB really, a bunch of mine dont have a case or box and I'm alright with that! Look locally at second hand stores, vintage ones, marketplace or any other local yardsale or fleamarket type thing you may have in your area, and I say this with caution, but if you HAVE to, you can consider ebay, but I strongly suggest not to when it comes to the games. I had originally tried to get a Brilliant Diamond copy from there and well, dude never sent it at all and got my money (ebay fully refunded me but that still bites). And finally get well versed in learning how to authenticate to the best of your abilities, 3DS and switch I don't think can be faked but everything else can be! I used this as my guide to figure out who was real and fake in my search and it worked very very well! Twas my bible of knowledge

End of the day it didn't take as long as one would think, but luck played a HUGE roll in this endeavor, I was smart with my money, and I was very very VERY stubborn and wanted them all XD

If you go for the complete collection like I did then I wish you the best of luck my friend! And thank you very much for the ask! It kinda got away from me while typing but yeah thats the story and process of how I got all the main series titles!

[duskwingmoth]

God. The PS5 Pro news really is the last straw for me I only got this console because I REALLY wanted to be on that VII Remake train. Which seems so silly to me now, but it just isn't a sure thing the games will be on PC -- even less so that they'll be worthwhile ports. The fact that it mostly does run PS4 games a lot better was a big bonus to me, but it wouldn't be enough on its own to justify 500 dollars (in a year where we ALSO spent like $3k to build this PC!!!) It was a very tall ask. I just can't justify buying these things to myself anymore. They're tearing out the disc drive, they're building them like ass, they're gouging you on the price in the process, and the exclusives are all the goddamn same slop. I've taken a lot of bullshit as a lifelong Sony pony, as a born Nintendrone, as a girl who has a lot of sentimental attachment to these silly little specialized bits of hardware and the games I played on them, but it's all specially designed to push me out at this point. They are going to lose so many very loyal customers like me, and they SHOULD care about that. They don't.

The fact that I'm very likely going to drop Nintendo too makes me profoundly sad tbh. I'll hate on them all day long for their cruelty towards their own fans or not dropping prices on anything ever, not that it means anything when I turn around and pay their Nintendo tax every year. But Nintendo always does -- or used to do -- interesting and fun things with hardware. DS. Wii. 3DS. Wii U. All the stupid and underused (but conceptually cool) peripherals they've been doing ever since they entered video games. I love that shit. I love the sheer mechanical joy of playing a first-party Nintendo game, and couple that with their second-party developers' genuine care for storytelling for truly unforgettable experiences, so many games that changed what I thought was possible with games. But the bad stuff has really worn on me, and the long tooth on the Switch -- a console I actually don't like -- with no end in sight has made the gulf between Nintendo and the rest of the industry too stark for even me to ignore. They're sunsetting development on Splatoon 3 with no news of a successor, and as someone who has very much enjoyed that series, I want a refresh, I want better maps, I want them to shift the paradigm of Splatoon itself a little bit. I have little faith that they will, because I know Nintendo. Fall 2017, I got the Switch for my birthday, rather unexpectedly what with the scarcity at the time. I really wanted one on the recent promise of Metroid Prime 4. The long wait and the soft confirmation that it's a next-gen game first and foremost leaves a very bitter taste in my mouth. I'm frustrated, I'm tired, I'm bereft of money that could have improved my life. I am out of patience. I'll just build another PC specifically for games instead, and hook that up to my TV. I will be a little sad in the process. It won't be the same.

[munchboxart]

what was your first kirby game

I don't remember if it was either Kirby's Return to Dreamland or Kirby Super Star Ultra. I'm kind of leaning to Kirby's Return to Dreamland as my in-law gave me an emulator on my PC to play Super Star.

Despite being a big Kirby fan, I think I got into Kirby surprisingly "recently". Only reason I would count it was recent is because I think RTDL was the start of Kirby's "modern era". I don't remember if that's actually a thing or something I made up. Maybe it's because it was the first "proper"/consistent step of Kirby taking a 3D look or something. Regardless, I'm happy RTDL was one of my first games (if it isn't my first) to introduce me to Kirby, it's such a solid game with really really good music. I often look back to it whenever I think about playing Kirby.

If SSU was my first... Uhm... I hate the Great Cave Offensive <3 LMFAODFGJGKDBJKDFGB I remember having such a hard time playing that game, maybe it doesn't help that the fact I was using an emulator over a DS but regardless. I don't think I fully 100% it, mainly because I... Still have a skill issue with the True Arena, even despite being able to play it on my DS now LOL (I had it on my R4 but I think the memory on the mini SD card got wiped and now I can't play shit. MY POKEMON MYSTERY DUNGEON SAVE..... Whatever I was hard stuck in a cave level)

[donkeykongbongodreams]

A collection of official pixel art Waluigis

So I was playing Mario Party-e the other day and was like "oh my goodness is that an OFFICIAL WALUIGI SPRITE??"

Because I rarely see those. And so I looked into what games you can find him in pixel form, and it's a lot more than I thought! Thank you so much to the fine folks at https://www.mariowiki.com/Gallery:Waluigi for listing all of them and I've linked the Spriter's Resource sheet that I got them from if you want to see the rest of the sprites from that game

Also for clarity I'm excluding any sprite renders of 3D models or 2D artwork

His first pixel appearance is the Game Boy Color version of Mario Tennis (The N64 version was his first game)

Next up, he was in Game & Watch Gallery 4 on GBA. I really love the Game & Watch Gallery series because they remake old Game & Watch games using pixel art Mario characters and it's so charming! Nintendo crossover stuff always makes me happy ^^

Mario Party-e (e-reader / GBA Peripheral) - as I was typing out a description of Mario Party-e I realized it would probably be better to make that its own post so look out for that!

Mario Tennis Power Tour (GBA)

Mario Kart DS (DS) - He is a 3D model in game but he's got a few sprites!

and as a bonus here's his carts :)

Mario Hoops 3-on-3 (DS)

Look at himmmm :D

Mario Party 8 (Wii) - Using a Bitsize Candy

Itadaki Street DS (DS) - The Wii game Fortune Street is actually part of a usually Japan-only series, Itadaki Street that goes back to the Famicom (basically the Japanese NES) days!

Mario Party DS (DS)

Mario Party Island Tour (3DS)

Super Mario Maker (Wii U)

And that's it! That's all the pixelated Waluigis I could find. I'm so happy this guy has gotten some awesome renditions over the years, even as recently as 2015! What a champ

Thanks for witnessing!

[solar-tl-27]

You said you have a collection of old electronics, can you show some?

I can! It’s very small and not that impressive but i’m a bit of a nerd. (It’s��. It’s all Nintendo lol and not old old)

FIRST OFF MY CONSOLES

I personally own

An original gameboy i recently got from a family member because they were clearing out stuff and knew i liked old stuff. It’s coroded and needs a good clean for it to properly work again but I honestly just want it for show because i own the gba sp which hurts my eyes less.

My gameboy advance sp i have owned since i was little this thing is a champ! It doesn’t power on normally and i have to do a whole start up ritual but she’s strong!

Then we have my ds lite. Iiii used to own like 3 of these but my last remaining one recently decided it had seen enough and …. Snapped in two. It survived a very rough life for a while i was an extremely clumsy kid and that thing got dropped… so often. I actually managed to score this new one for like 25 euro’s at a con. Cuz it didn’t come with a charger or stylus, but thankfully i own plenty of stylus’s. And another fender SOLD THE CHARGERS FOR CHEAP! I also got 2 games and ended up with a whole new ds lite for like 50 euro’s!

And finally my baby my problem child… my new 3ds xl. I was originally gonna get a 3ds for my birthday but when at the store the guy told us that if we waited just a little the new 3ds would actually come out so waiting for that would probably be better (and more expensive) so we did! This bad boi has survived sooo long. The paint on the back started to chip so I actually got an accessory that works as a stand and a hand grip so your hands don’t cramp up. and it has had a screen replacement and a joystick replacement. But he’s still going strong!

I also own a switch but it’s not really old and didn’t have it on hand.

Next up the games

I got these with the og game boy i got from family so tbh they aren’t my choices tbf

Out of all of these I’m probably the most interested in kirby. So these are also more to look at in comparison to my other games.

Then we have my gba games! And Pokémon silver but I couldn’t find it.

First up my copy of Pokémon fire red! I got it for cheap plated it a bit then restarted and for a second I thought my screen had finally quit life because i was face to face with a yellow ratata THANKFULLY I actually like ratata and raticate on my team so i threw a ball at it… only to be transported to the pokedex menu and go…. Wait a minute…OH MY GOD! So I accidentally caught a shiny 😅 i named her Shimmer and haven’t touched that save file since.

Then we have 2 games I bought PURELY for nostalgia

A barbie game to get hyped for the barbie movie

And disney princess royal adventure I LOVE THAT GAME honestly if anyone wants to just play a feel good cozy walking game with little minigames this is such a nice game the graphics are fantastic and it’s just soooooo cozy (it is a glorified walking sim though…. It’s mostly walking walking and more walking)

A true delight tho!

Next up

DS GAMES here my true personality shows!

Pony friend and professor layton I owned since i was little and I finally completed professor Laytona few years ago! I’m not a puzzle person but godddd i love prof layton games!

Furthermore lps beach friends, lps garden and style boutique are recent purchases!

I got back into lps a while ago and am very excited for the new 2024 peta but they made me soooo nostalgic for the games so at a local con I basically ordered my friends to help me look for the games! I ended up finding lps beach friends together with style boutique another franchise i adore and later purchased lps garden online! The games are great! You also may have burned down a bakery in the friend’s series BUTTT THATS NOT IMPORTANT lol

Style boutique I purchased because i am on a quest i’m on the hunt TO OWN EVERY VERSION i own 1 and 3(technically 4) so i just need NEW style boutique and new style boutique 2!

And finally

The 3ds games (i also used to own Skylanders trap team 3ds but I LOST THE GAME)

Not including tomodatchi life and new style boutique 3

I was a Pokémon guy i loved it a lot

Pokemon x y is definitely my favorite from the 3ds era… not cuz it’s good…. But because lysandre and sycamore are just the best characters pokemon has eve made lol and i can see the potential in it (also furfrou my favorite Pokémon)

Oras is definitely the game i replay the most because it is a really good game

I love moon and ultra moon a lot aswell!

Zelda actually funny enough i ��� ended up bugging the game so hard in the first 30 minutes of playing…. I hard locked the game and I couldn’t progress 😅 that’s ehen I knew I wasn’t a zelda guy

And monster hunter story OMG ITS SO GOOD the anime was better at the execution of the story BUT THE GAMEE OOOOOOOOOO i wanna replay it so bad BUT I’M SO ATTACHED TO MY CHARACTER I JUST CANT RESET he’s my boi! MY SON!! I love the game and I’m playing 2…. But i never finished it due to reasons but from what i did play ITS GOOD but it destroyed the ending of the first anddd i dont like that.

Also i’m so excited for fashion dreamer to come out and i will get it(probably for Christmas as a little treat) and i will be super inspired and use it as outfit inspiration forrr my winx stuff! So that’s exciting!

I would own a lot more old old stuff if it wasn’t for the fact that static hurts my ears and my eyeballs also don’t like old screens SO MOSTLY JUST MY NINTENDO STUFF cuz i was the Nintendo kid from my town. My brother had a playstation my neighbors a pc and a close friend and xbox the great divide!

My favorite playstation game was tony hawk pro skater 2 lol

BUT THATS ALL FOR NOW THIS WAS SUPER LONG OKI BYE!

[originsofevil]

Intro <3 !

I go by Michelangelo or any variation of that

(usually michael/mikey but names dont mean much to me)

but i recently found out that i'm the host of a system so if any tags are signed off with a different name thats why

dont care too much abt pronouns but i typically use he/him, ve/vir, and xe/xir/xem. mix it up, get creative. typically dont use she/her but ynever know

body is 21, we're an aries if u wanna make any judgement off of that, autistic + adhd if that wasnt obvious

i do post occasional nfsw/suggestive content, never anything too crazy but if youre a minor id prefer if you didnt interact with those posts, i have no way of enforcing this as i dont check my notifs unless theres tags but i am a full adult, i do pay rent and bills and taxes. on that topic i probably wont follow you if youre under like. 16/17ish. no hard feelings i just am an adult and im not around kids very much as the 2nd youngest of 4 so. if youre under 16 dont do drugs stay in school all that good stuff. i love you, go to bed on time. i've been on this website since i was 11 and it shows. dont be me.

dms are always open ! i'm not amazing at holding a conversation unless its abt my current hyperfixation (rn its zelda/lu) but i love to yap. if you follow me and we're not mutuals dm/ask me and ill follow back! I don't rly pay attention to my followers so i typically don't follow ppl unless theyre consistently posting abt one of my interests and i remember to

I talk in the tags a LOT feel free to <- prev or rb addressing my tags but i typically assume no one will read them all the way through. i'm writing whole essays. im oversharing. call op a college admissions office bc I'm telling my whole life story. if my tags make you uncomfortable on your post please let me know and i will apologize/delete them if you wish. i dont have a concept of tmi and tend to misread/miss social cues/the vibes so i apologize if i misstep

please let me know if i reblog any stolen artwork/ai generated anything/ etc

‼️‼️i am not spoiler free for anything (even if i myself havent seen the content) i dont have any sort of tagging system ‼️

list of my active fandoms! old hyperfixations tend to creep up on me so this is not complete

- bungo stray dogs (bsd beast fans pls follow me i adore beast)

- legend of zelda (all games + lu/links meet aus)(legend fans pspspsp)

- the witcher (mainly the show but i got attached to a character thats not even actually in any of the games. aiden i love you.)

- cars (2006, 2011, 2017)(yes entirely unironically)

- Voltron legendary defender. (again. yes. unironically.)

- star wars (mainly the main series and animation since i havent read thr or played the games)

- jujutsu kaisen (2nd years stan)

- the magnus archives (gerry delano fans i love you)

- percy jackson (mainly the books and musical, i dont care for the show much but i adore the actors)

- gravity falls ! (i actually just got into this like, last month. binged the whole series in like a week at age 21.)

- my hero academia (my hs best friend made me watch s1 and i got attached to aizawa hawks and the todorokis sorry)(im convinced the todorokis were based on my family. im literally natsuo. dont ask abt dabi unless u think you're prepared)

Non Fandom Interests

- I write ! once i start uploading ill link my ao3 here but its rough out here (microsoft word)

- I draw ! i mightve posted my art a few times but as i mentioned i dont have any tagging system so maybe I'll make one for art or link another social at some point

- this mostly falls under loz but i love video games :3 i MOSTLY play loz but animal crossing, minecraft, and random silly da games ive collected over the years are my pride and joy. i want to play the witcher games but i have assassins creed black flag and im really bad at it. (i only have nintendo consoles (ds, 3ds, switch) rn but i want a decent pc at some point. the sims calls to me.

- Politics! my politics are very important to me as a leftist so if you're right wing we will not get along. if i find out that youre racist/homophobic/transphobic/a zionist (i am jewish)/sexist/etc i will probably block you. id say no hard feelings but i dint mean that.

I will probably update this as needed/whenever i remember to <3 ty if u read this and i love you have a great day

[bahamutgames]

AFTERTHOUGHTS - ROUNDUP ROUND 3

April 2023

Nintendo Switch Online Edition!!

HELLO EVERYONE! Yes, you right that right, NSO Edition. This time I'm gonna split the round up into 2 different posts. In April I spent most of the month moving. It was a particularly hard move but we managed to make it through. And some days I wouldn't have a car so I would just be sitting around with my Switch, and even after the move was done I did a lot of just sitting around cause I injured my feet during the move! So, I found myself playing a TON of Nintendo Switch Online games. I've mentioned before that I can't afford the expansion pass, but I was actually able to get 8 people who could all send me $10 each, so we were able to finally afford the $80 family plan!

As such, I've been finally getting to sink my teeth into those other emulators and try out stuff that isn't just on the default version. So get ready for a lot of N64 and Genesis stuff haha

As always, these aren't reviews just thoughts yadda yadda yadda. If you wanna play any of these play them. They're all easy to emulate (I think? Idk how good N64 emulation is atm). Anyway enjoy.

Kuru Kuru Kururin (March 21, 2001) - Gameboy Advance

Of course, we start with GBA first. I'm obsessed with this console and it's actually insane how few games on this console is available on Switch! But one of them is Kuru Kuru Kururin! Which is a game I've actually wanted to play for YEARS cause it's an assist in Brawl. But it never made its way over here (but I found out the day I played it that it WAS released in the UK so... I could have been playing it the whole time. Oops.)

But yeah now that's I've played it, I think this game is pretty cute! It's short and sweet, only having around 30 levels or something around that range. But it can be TOUGH to make it through! The game is all about patience so if you're like me, it's tough to make it through. And if you're like me, you'll use rewinds a LOT to make it through this cause you suck at waiting. Regardless, yeah, this game is fun! Cute music, cute visuals, and you can customize your ship!

Only real complaints is that some of the levels are like straight up mazes, so they can be really hard to navigate. And also in general the game is a little frustrating but I think generally people will find it very easy. Again I'm just not patient. Glad I finally got to try this one out! Would have loved to see this get a sequel on DS or 3DS or something. Oh well. Look at my custom ship! The red parts blink on and off like a warning light :)

Yoshi's Story (December 21, 1997) - N64

And here we go with some games I replayed! Recently I said in my first attempt to do a podcast (shameless plug) that I don't have a lot of memories with the N64. But getting NSO just totally brought everything back. I never forgot how much I loved Starfox 64, Paper Mario, ect ect. But I completely forgot about just how many games on this console I ADORE! One of which being Yoshi's Story!

I was OBSESSED with this game as a kid, I played every level in the game and this also spawned my love for the Black and White Yoshi! And I'm happy to say that, yeah, this game still holds up. I see SO many people say this game sucks. But honestly, I don't agree. Maybe if you payed $60 for it back in the day it'd be disappointing. And while it is easy there's a lot of levels to play and trying to get the high score can be really really tough in certain stages like the piranha plant level or the level with the big fishes.

Regardless, I still think this game is incredibly charming and fun! Great music, great visuals, i ADORE the characterization of the Baby Yoshis. This game really makes them feel like puppies? They growl and act so much like little dogs and I LOVE it. The story book aesthetic rules. I think the gameplay is great. And honestly, this might still be my favorite Yoshi game if you can believe it! My only major complaint when coming back to it is that the switch version makes a lot of the graphics look REALLY odd. This game gets the 2D stuff messed up more than anything else on the service. Very odd.

Starfox 64 (April 27, 1997) - N64

Here we go! Here is one of my all time favorite games EVER! Honestly... I don't even really think I need to write up my thoughts on it as I'm fairly certain the last time I beat this game and talked about it was just last year aha. Without a doubt, Starfox 64 is one of my all time favorites and is easily the game I have played to completion the most. I ADORE this game. So, yknow a quick run of it again wouldn't hurt right? I have NSO now anyway so I might as well...

And now we're here. Yeah, I'm not gonna sugarcoat it. This game still absolutely RULES! It's such an amazing game and shmup (do on rail shooters count as shmups? I think they should... 3D Shmups). Even all this time later and after so many playthroughs the game never fails to scratch that itch. Great music, great levels, great characters, great gameplay. And that ending. Augh, gets me every time.

If anyone is curious my favorite route is

Corneria > Meteor Herd > Starwolf > Solar > Macbeth > Area 6 > Venom. Always my favorite set of levels to run through!

Pokemon Snap (March 21, 1999) - N64

Another all time favorite! I mean... This is basically an on rails shooter, if you think about it. Just with VERY different objectives and the bullets are, yknow, photos. So it's only natural I would love this Shmup classic! For real though, if you know me you know I LOVE taking pictures in game, so I love games all about taking pictures!

I used to play Snap a TON back in the day. And after I was absolutely madly in love with the sequel that took way too long to come out, I was interested in revisit the original for a bit now. I will come out of the gate and say it, New Pokemon Snap is better by leaps and bounds. It's got tons more content and things to do. But this only speaks to how good New Pokemon Snap is, because the original still holds up great! It feels fantastic to play, it's super cute, great music, lots of lovely scenarios to take pictures of. And it's made at that cute time period where the Pokemon brand was still figuring itself out. Honestly I think seeing Pokemon just living in nature is one of my favorite ways to see them and now I REALLY wanna play more NPS!

My only real complaints outside of just, not as much to do as the sequel that came out YEARS later is that the stages are SO short! I forgot how insanely short they are! I would love them to be a little longer with more Pokemon, but again that's what the sequel is for I suppose!

I had a bunch of really nice photos I wanted to show off but I deleted my save data before the final boss so I had to play the game a second time and didn't really feel so intense to take many pictures. eh.

F-ZERO X (July 14, 1998) - N64

I feel like I NEVER get to talk about it but I LOVE FZero! It's a series I totally adore and find super fun to play! And with the small amount of games in the series (crying and dying and coping and seething) it's also not very often I get to play a game in the series I've just NEVER played before! But here we are!

I've wanted to try this game for ages but just never could really get my hands on it for one reason or another. But now I didn't really have any reason not to try it! I'd still say it's not as good as GX, but it's still REALLY good! And it's crazy to me that they were so close to the insanity of GX on the N64. Game feels AMAZING to play and has TONS of characters, alt colors for each of them, and lots of tracks! And of course the OST is SUPER GOOD but that's not surprising for FZERO. I'm not a music guy but the guitars in this game sound really good and cool. And it has the fantastic cover of Rainbow Road if you've never heard that.

Off the top of my head the only issue I really have are kinda nitpicky. it's not amazing looking, but I totally understand that it just kinda can't look crazy good on N64, it's a big game with a lot going on and it's not gonna look as good as GX I'm not stupid. But a larger problem I had is that there are SO MANY KILL PLANES! I was trying to jump around the track and kept dying super high up or the collision for the road wouldn't load in cause I guess I skipped checkpoints. Frustrating. LET ME GO NUTS!!

But yeah, good game. I played as Pico and did every track in the Novice Class cause I suck

Dr. Mario 64 (April 8, 2001) - N64

Another game I've been interested in for a while but never got to play before. This one is very odd. it's Dr. Mario so of course it's good but it actually has a story mode with 2 very slightly different stories between Dr. Mario himself and Wario! Yeah this game actually features TONS of Wario Land 3 characters which is so weird and was a big reason I wanted to check it out.

Not much to say on this one. It's Dr. Mario so it's good. But it's just Dr. Mario. Story is cute. Although I didn't have the energy to play through both stories on higher difficulties so I didn't see the true final bosses. It plays fine, looks cool, has a good amount to do. I think the game is a little brutal though. I've never played VS Dr. Mario believe it or not. And I actually think trash blocks in this game are totally detrimental to you if you're not the best at it (like me) so the enemies had a pretty easy time just filling my board with garbage. Ah well. Still neat. Wouldn't mind a new Dr. Mario with a Story Mode and maybe more stuff like Miracle Cures from Miracle Cure on 3DS.

Kirby's Dreamland 2 (March 21, 1995) - Gameboy

Random Gameboy Jumpscare! Yeah last time I played Dreamland 1 so... Why not run through Dreamland 2? Yeah, this one is a LOT better than Dreamland 1. It's got copy abilities, and a whole game set up more similar to Adventure (or Nightmare in Dreamland if you're like me aha) and it has some animal buddies from Dreamland 3! Who, of course, all have different ways of using the copy abilities so there's LOTS to see and experiment with!

Cute sprites, some really honestly very cute and nice looking environments. Good soundtrack. It's honestly pretty dang good feeling and looking for a Gameboy game! I think something that really surprised me with this one is that there's a LOT of unique and cool boss battles in this that I've never really seen before as a casual kirby fan? Nruff, Sweet Stuff, and Ice Dragon are monsters I've seen before but never as bosses. It was neat and actually surprising to not only fight whispy and stuff. I know a lot of Kirby games have new bosses. But still!

Only complaints are stuff like. Ah not enough copy abilities or animal friends. But it's still gameboy there's only so much you can jam pack into it. No, my biggest issue is easily the final boss. Which, if you've played this game you might see the screenshot and realize I didn't fight! Every game in the Dark Matter saga (DL2, DL3, 64 as far as I'm aware?) all do this annoying thing where you can only challenge the final boss after 100% completing the game. This doesn't bug me all the time as I did this for Super Princess Peach and Demon's Crest, but I wasn't like ecstatic to do it in those even though I adore those games. And while I really like these Kirby games. I'm just not crazy enough about it to sit down and try to do EVERYTHING in them at the moment. But that's just me I'm sure Kirby fans could probably 100% this with their eyes closed. And if I ever do sit down to play the entire franchise, I will make an effort to try and grab everything and finally fight the true final bosses to these games.

Pokemon Stadium (April 30, 1999) - N64

Ah now here's a game I have a lot of nostalgia for! Despite not ever doing a full playthrough of the original RBY until last year, I played Stadium a BUNCH growing up! The minigames of course, everyone did, but I actually played Free Battle with Rental Pokemon a LOT for some reason. I was really into it and I remember really wanting Stadium 2 and whatever the GC and Wii ones were called but I never got them.

And something I tried as a child but never managed to do was beat Gym Leader Castle! And now I'm happy to say I did! Did it all with Rental Pokemon of course because they... dont have RBY on Gameboy Online for some reason which is a HUGE mistake by the way. I'll just come out and say it. With your own team I feel like this game would be REALLY exciting. But looking back, with Rental Pokemon. It's REALLY boring. It feels so slow to get through and I totally understand why I just didnt have the energy without save states as a kid.

BUT this game is still nice in a lot of ways. Very charming little title and I ADORE the animations made for all 150 Pokemon. They all have tons of personality, are fun to watch, and are just plain cute. I know Pokemon Company has said there's no reason to make a game like this now that Pokemon main series games are 3D but I disagree because a game like this really allows them to showcase unique emotions and quirks in the personalities of the different species. If that makes sense. Game looks good, music is nice, and of course the announcer is LEGENDARY.

No I am not unlocking Mewtwo, I thought you got him for clearing Gym Leader castle. You do not. I looked it up, you have to do EVERYTHING. I am not doing that.

Also if you wanna see the team I took on Gym Leader Castle with. All rental Pokemon of course. But still neat! (x)

Pokemon Puzzle League (September 25, 2000) - N64

Gosh now here's a REALLY weird game. For years I've seen people say this game is absolutely awful and... honestly it's not. It's just Panel De Pon so it's good objectively. But it still sucks but like, in other ways? Like. I don't know how to describe it the game is just really weird. It's fully based around the anime, which is rare. It has one or two original animations made just for the game (I think they're made just for it)? Which is neat. And it has covers of music from the anime which is neat! I was particularly blown away by the inclusion of Catch Me If You Can from the first movie which is a song I liked a lot in highschool lol. (no Free Up Your Mind or Brother My Brother though 0/10)

But I'dunno even though it plays fine and it has a lot of stuff to do including making your own boards for people to solve which is neat. The game just feels so lame? It looks like a PowerPoint presentation and while you can pick a Pokemon to bring into battle as far as I can tell it has 0 impact on the actual battles which is a HUGE waste because the blocks have type icons on them so I feel like there's a huge missed opportunity for a Panel De Pon game with like elemental weaknesses? Idk how to describe it but it really feels fake, or maybe like a flash game you would have played on the official Pokemon website back in the day. It's not bad but even playing it for free, I'd rather just play Panel de Pon lmao. Sorry Puzzle League.

THAT BEING SAID, I did randomly beat it twice so I could get the better ending. Which I didn't bother doing for Dr. Mario 64, so that's gotta be worth something.

Pulseman (July 22, 1994) - Genesis

Speaking of Pulseman, here's a game with no Pokemon in it! I'm sure I don't have to tell anyone this at this point but Pulseman was made by Gamefreak and even has a lot of the art done by Ken Sugimori which is very neat! This is a game I've actually enjoyed for a bit as I bought it on Wii Virtual console a loooong time ago. But I could never beat it sadly. Thankfully I finally managed to get through it!

Pulseman is VERY cool! I like the character designs of Pulseman and his sidekick girl a LOT. Pulseman also has a lot of really interesting abilities, I think the ability to run fast and build up static to super charge your moves is SUPER cool! There's even some voice acting which is REALLY neat. The game feels very advanced in a lot of parts. And the game has a lot of impressive visuals and looks very good for the most part!

For the most part though. I honestly can't help but feel a little disappointed in Pulseman now that I've played it? I think a lot of the levels don't play to Pulseman's cool abilities enough, I think a lot of the levels in general kinda suck. A lot of the game looks kinda headache inducing with tons of flashing lights instead of focusing on the REALLY nice sprite art if that makes sense. I don't really remember most of the enemies and bosses. And I don't recall any of the music. Idk I hate to say it cause I love Pulseman's design and a lot about the game. But I can't help but feel like this game didn't bring out the concept's full potential.

PERSONALLY I think Pulseman REALLY could use a sequel and honestly, it's not too late. I know Gamefreak is kinda eh on not doing Pokemon every year or so but I really think Pulseman is a game that could go SO nuts nowadays with some cooler levels and expansions on Pulseman's abilities and giving him new tools he can use and upgrade using the static electricity stuff. Ah well, it's still worth playing as an interesting piece of history!

Street Fighter II - Championship Edition (March 18, 1992) - Genesis

Can you believe I've never beaten this game before? Yeah despite how much I love fighting games I only really got into Street Fighter during covid when I played Street Fighter 4 and really found myself loving Juri Han. And while I've been REALLY wanting to get the Capcom Fighting Collection, which includes this, I've just been kinda strapped for cash so I'll have to go with the NSO for Street Fighter II!

Yeah it's fine. Not mind blowing but it is REALLY interesting to go back and play this and see how much of it is still accurate to modern day fighting games? Either the genre hasn't changed much or this game just hit the nail on the head so well (probably a bit of both) but yeah it's neat that it has a lot of modern day fighting game trappings and while it feels outdated, it doesn't feel as outdated as you would expect such an old console port fighting game to feel? Idk how SF2 feels in general though cause I've barely played it. But yeah it's neat. Looks good, has good music, stuff you would expect for Street Fighter. I played as Blanka cause Cammy isn't in this version. Neat :)

Super Fantasy Zone (January 14, 1992) - Genesis

Ah never a bad time for Shmups! I have a little bit of history with Fantasy Zone as I used to LOVE playing my bootleg NES cartridge of it as a kid! Fantasy Zone is very reminiscent of Twinbee with its cute bullet hell stuff and also having a living ship. I love OpaOpa.

This game pretty good, feels great to play, looks adorable, has great boss fights, nice music. And I especially LOVE how many upgrades you can buy for OpaOpa! I just wish they were all permanent or at least lasted longer? I also appreciate that it had a kind of out of nowhere ending with a really cool and edgy dark matter concept and villain, I guess I need to research more Fantasy Zone lore!

My only problem with this game, and while this may feel stupid, I think it's fair to bring up. This game feels like it would be impossible without rewinding? It's 1 hit and you're dead, and it's a bullet hell where it can be really hard to tell where everything is including your ship (which is REALLY important to tell where that thing is during bullet hells aha). With rewinds it wasn't a problem, but I genuinely don't know if it would be possible without them. Still, it's fun so if you have NSO (or an emulator which is free btw) it's a great time!

Ristar (February 16, 1995) - Genesis

Last, but absolutely NOT least, is Ristar! HEY!! RISTAR ROCKS!? WHY DID NO ONE TELL ME THIS GAME RULES ACTUALLY!?!? I've seen it around a lot but idk the game just never really looked like something I'd enjoy. But I figured, why not? Let's give it a go. And I can safely say I was WRONG! Ristar is a FANTASTIC platformer I'm sad I never sunk my teeth into before (well, I never owned it I dont think. But still)

First off, Ristar is ADORABLE. I didn't like how he looked on the boxart but he looks GREAT in game and has some lovely animations (him making snowmen in the ice world killed me.) The music is also fantastic, the bosses are cool, and the whole game is full of really cool ideas! It's even got a neat albeit small story. But particularly, the visuals. Oh my god. This game is GORGEOUS! Ristar has such AMAZING sprite art I was honestly totally blown away by every part of the game's visuals! A part that really made my jaw drop when I first saw it is when you beat a world, the cutscene that plays when Ristar flies to the next planet looks AMAZING and also has some really beautiful music! Honestly, Ristar looks like an indie game trying to look like a Genesis game, but massively overshooting what the Genesis could actually do. And I mean that in the best way possible!

I have some nitpicks with it, I think the final boss had some attacks that were really stupid to dodge? And there were some stages that just... Weren't hitting. But I think my biggest issue with the game is similar to Pulseman's issue. Ristar has cool abilities. He can stretch his arms out and launch things around by bouncing into them like a sling shot. But, this just kind of never gets used? You use it for the spinny things but that's it? I feel like I should be able to angle enemies when I grab them to sling them into eachother, or just be using these abilities in ANY additional ways. Also the game is SLOOOOW, it's REALLY slow game. I think Ristar is another game that REALLY could use a second go around. Ristar 2 could really add to Ristar's abilities and turn up the speed! I think there's so much you could do with grappling and slinging with this character that hasn't been explored yet. PLEASE GIVE US RISTAR 2!!

[tomyo]

Tomyo's Backlog Adventure: 1 Year Later

How it's going

It's been a little over a year since I made the backlog list. Admittedly I did not get through it much simply because I was extremely busy as an artist all that time. Initially I think I hoped I'd get a decent chunk through the DS games only to really never break through much.

What I got/played since

So what are the games I haven't listed?

Well let's see; Sonic and The Black Knight, Wii Music, Pokemon Pearl, Some Japanese Gameboy games of Hamtaro and Tamagotchi, the Dream Eye, Style Savvy Trendsetters, and as of this week, Tomodachi Collection and a substantial amount of Sim 3's content. (Edit: I can't remember if the islands HM DS games and sonic free riders were added on since) There is also a number of switch content that I just refuse to mentally process. Part of making the list was to address how I had gone feral with game collection but was not actually playing the games. I would say in some ways having that list helped me curb my unchecked spending which as you can guess got widely ignored for switch downloads. The irony is I would say I did a lot of switch gaming as well. Notable releases like Sonic Frontiers and Tears of the Kingdom were some of the games I ended up borrowing from the library and spending way too much time on. During the start of the year I was heavily gaming Splatoon 1 only to fail at my mission to collect all the gear before the servers went defunct. There's also been a part of me that spend the last 6 or so months hyper fixating on Tamagotchis. While not traditional games, they do indeed simply function as mini game systems and part of me sees the progression in them as my "gaming time".

What I want to get

Admittedly the urge to buy is flickering in me somewhat. Why? The rise is 3DS game costs. Now with the e shop closed, there is a renewed interest in content that had gone untouched for a while. The big wake up call for me was hearing Tomodachi life now goes for around $100 these days. My other experience in the last year is hunger for 3 things; The sonic games I missed during the GameCube/Wii era, Cooking Mama, and the Japanese series model debut. So here's my list:

Legend of Zelda Ocarina of Time and Majora's Mask remakes

Legend of Zelda: A link between Worlds

Project Mirai with Cards

Nintendogs 3DS (while I have a digital download, I want physical)

Yet another copy of New Leaf

Story of Seasons

Pokemon Sun and Ultra Sun (the only two 3ds games I don't have from the mainline)

Pretty much every Cooking Mama game

Smash for 3DS and Wii U

ZombiU

Ducktales Remaster

Sonic Riders Zero Gravity

Shadow the Hedgehog

Sonic Shuffle

Loosely a few Japanese games like the soul eater one or the switch model debuts

Fashion Dreamer

Various Tamagotchis and Gigapets

Pocket Sakura

That Sega Eyetoy game

What I want to do

Some of the biggest hurdles are playing through Pokemon and Bokumono games on my list for very different reasons. Bokumono games are always a struggle because the require time being set aside to both plan out the game period and to marathon game days, especially during the 3DS era where this is a lot of mechanics to juggle. On the opposite end there is Pokemon to which most of the games on the list I want to stream my playthroughs as it's in part a ribbon master challenge. Pokemon games will probably stay put aside for an undetermined amount of time but I do want to clear out a lot of Bokumonos.

Right now I have been working through ANB to dizzying results. At some point recently I became very frustrated with the loop and set it aside leading to a hyper focus on FoMT's remake which is super easy and will likely hit my clear in just a day or two more of gameplay(my majors goals are to go through mining and fishing in the upcoming winter season and return to go for endgame houses and achievements at a later time). Admittedly I want to return to the battle that is ANB despite its frustration; feeling like I'm creating the progress is half the enjoyment is the struggle. Part of me even forgets what my end goal reach is for that one but my best guess at the moment is mainline story completion, yuri romancing, and full transition.

Onwards from that would likely be tackling either Trio of Towns or Animal Parade. Animal parade is certainly the harder of the two to pick up since it often requires the most effort to set up but of the two, I find it the more accessible story wise as simply every trio of Towns is overwhelming.

As for the casual dailies; Wild World and My Little Shop have been hard to call finished but also do not really have enough to move forward with. MLS is a pretty repetitive mini game series with a vague end goal of achieving clovers so I might just declare it finished with anyways. Wild World slowed to a crawl simply because I missed certain bug and fish seasons and on top of that is hard to enjoy when there is so little to do in game for progression outside of nonstop fishing/bug catching. Wild World might end up ending prematurely with just the encyclopedia completions since the act of endless money making for a house/charity doesn't appeal deeply to me when it is just an end goal. What might start up instead is a series on Nintendo's (and friends) various fitness trackers; My personal trainer walking, my weight loss coach, Wii fit U, the pokewalker, pocket Pikachu, pocket hello kitty, Pokemon go pikmin bloom, and for funsies the Fitbit and my phone's step tracker cuz it's cute. There's a personal love that Miiblr just exists here there's a good number of fitness things that exists around the miis. Part of me can loose the idea that I enjou watching the meters go up on these devices as the gameify walking. My Wii fit U meter has been carried with me for a while now as the goal to see the distance walked and the heights climbed is a huge enjoyment. Seeing as there are other counters, I see myself wanting to just reach a point carrying all of them for the fun of it.

Some games to stream; Pokemon Channel, Wii Music, Space Channel 5, Sonic Adventure, shenmue, and Time Stalkers all make the cut. As obviously mentioned so would most of my Pokemon games if not for being put on the back burner. Possibly towards the end of the month, I might return to some tiktok streaming with Wii Music and Pokemon channel (especially since this one is pretty camp themed). The dreamcast games are a little more tricky because I have a set up in mind but it's just hard to achieve currently. The other thing preventing streaming is my aforementioned job which takes up most of my nights these days. While most of these games are pretty easy to play in one sitting, the bigger rpgs might have difficulty.

And then finally friend plays; sonic 06 has been long on hold as I keep not visiting the very friend that lent me his PS4. At the same time, the latest game has not been decided for my yearly D trip yet; the choices stand as almost certainly Sonic Free Riders, Time Stalkers, Nintendoland, and shenmue.

As it stands I'd like to get out of the way 14-20 games on the list this year; a bunch already half played, some simply shallow games to begin with, 2-4 with the power of friendship, and about 4-7 requiring actual time investment. Additionally out of the 76 on the OG list; at least 7 of them are going to be shelved for now (the Pokemon ribbon master play throughs). Of that 69 (nice) left, 7 are known hold off, 6 are wrap ups, 3 require additional meddling, and 12 simply required setting aside time to play. There's still tons of games but since my art career is a bit on hold atm, I would like to delve into these games more this year.

[greenjokwe-blog]

Monthly Greejily Media (January 2024) - The First of Who Knows

God I hate Twitter. I mean I still use it way more than any other social media, but I'm so tired of it man. From all the recent mistakes, to how posts get popular, to how it and TikTok's business decisions have infected the entire tech industry at large. All that and more is good enough reason to move my media threads away from that platform, but truth be told I'm only so moved by these things in that regard. Nah, more than anything, the format for media threads on that site just got tiring for me. Feeling the need to fit in everything into a single tweet, the want to put every single media I've consumed in one place even if I'm not particularly moved or interested in the updating process. So, I thought this'd be much nicer. Having a little section on my Tumblr dedicated to the stuff that's interested me the most, on a monthly basis. A lot more appealing! And that way I can talk about whatever I want for as long as I want. Fantastic. This probably won't stop my full reviews (there are still a few I want to write, but writer's block is getting to me right now), but this is definitely a more flexible format for me at least for now. Let's start shall we?

I might as well start with video games, as it's the thing I tend to talk about most on this blog, but truth be told I haven't actually beaten a single game this year yet. There's one game I'm currently working on beating, but because I'll be taking a more casual approach to that one (as well as gaming in general this year I imagine), I'm not comfortable talking about that one yet. Two games I'll talk about for now though, and will definitely probably come up again I will discuss though, one of those being Picross 3D.

I've never been invested in Picross but I've always found it a good time. I love all kinds of old puzzle solvers and Picross/nonograms in general have been a great, shockingly modern version of that that fit amazingly for video games. Picross 3D has felt like the perfect culmination of what Picross has achieved for years, and seeing the praise for it I knew this would be a great step for me getting into more of Picross in general, and I was right.

There's not much I can really add here, I feel no need to explain what Picross is and not much to add to it's actual gameflow other than its so addicting and there's so much of it here. I'm approaching halfway through right now and this game has nearly 400 puzzles. Each puzzle is like a trance, they all have logical and sensical solutions, and the satisfaction of finding a discrepancy, deleting/saving blocks as needed, and realizing you've just opened a whole new set of options for yourself feels amazing.

I only have two issues with it as of right now, one of them being because this game was made with a DS in mind, and because there are no zoom-in options for the game, trying to get the correct block to delete can often feel very finicky. The other issue being, well I can't play too much of it! I start seeing Picross when I close my eyes and it comes up with unsolvable puzzles! I'll talk about my future adventures with Picross no doubt in the future though, so get ready.

Another game I've been into, and you should expect to see again in these posts, is Burnout 3: Takedown. Again, probably not gonna say much on this for now, but I already have over one hundred gold medals for the courses in this game. This game has such good variety, despite having a fairly limited number of tracks it makes real good use of it, and it's technical ability for a PS2 game can only been the work of gods. Also it feels amazing to play holy shit. I get why there's never been a new one of these, but the worlds been worse without it.

One thing I will say though, don't be surprised if I write a full review on this game where I inevitably tear the latter Gran Prix to shreds, cuz holy shit the last one I did was so fucking hard. The game has great feel, design and good tells for a PS2 game, but it's still a PS2 game. You can be a god at this game and still get fucked over. But the fact that the game is so tantilizing and the amount of fuckups that can happen with you having a smile on your face... yeah I'll have to make a full review on this game when I 100% it, watch this space.

All right, next up films and television!!!

This is the section I was really excited for. I haven't talked about film at all on this blog, and I wanna make up for it. There's still a TON of films I watched last year that I want to talk about, so don't be surprised if I start making tangent posts about those at some point. More than anything, I want this year to be my film and book year, so expect it to take over all these upcoming posts from now on.

To start with, the show I finally finished, Gundam 00! This was the Gundam series I always wanted to watch even before I knew what the UC was, and now being a huge Gundam fan it's made watching the full series an... interesting reflection. I did post my opinions on the first season after finishing it last year, and I'll stick by those. Despite its problem with plotlines and characters, this show is a great response and reflection of what led to the Iraq war, as well as the war on terrorism in general. Season 1 also ended extremely strong, so Season 2 had a lot to live up to. A lot that I knew, based on a general sense and public opinion that it wouldn't. It ended up with me dropping the show for a few months until I eventually picked it back up after watching Wing rightfully thinking "it can't be any worse".

Thankfully it wasn't! The show picked up a fair bit after the second half, and included a lot of interesting arcs and stories (mainly, the stuff regarding the ALAWS) to consistently keep the show fairly solid. However, there was still a ton of problems. Plots were even messier here than they were during the first season, a huge portion of motivations just got cut in half, the characters are even less likeable here (aside from the worst ones, which are nicer now by comparison), and the main issue of the villains being a LOT less compelling here than they were in season 1, to the point of both detriment of the show and making it feel a lot more standard-Gundam faire, compared to S1's striking originality. However, there's still a lot to like! Again, a lot of the plotlines I liked such as the ALAWS and everything with Marina, the Gundam designs and effects are still solid, animation is nice (even if at points I'd prefer more clearer and concise boarding and battles), and it still carries over a lot of the themes that made Gundam 00 so solid to begin with. So despite it's weakness I'd still say that season 2 is worth the watch, if anything else for more of Setsuna and Graham.

Oh yeah and I uh, watched the movie as well.

OK, slight spoilers ahead, but I'm just gonna get through this very quickly here. This film is dumb. All of the political intrigue of the show is basically gone to make a James Cameron-inspired dumb anime blockbuster. The main villains are a cross between Xenomorphs and Terminators. It's got quip dialogue. There is a scene where they somehow make the comical approach to Allelujah's mental illnesses even more comical by giving him this Hulk-style action switch sequence. The film largely focuses on characters that get no payoff, with Setsuna being the only strong focus throughout. It's dumb. It's shallow. It's a mess. It's also kind of fun??? I can't say it looks visually much better than the show, but what it does have is a fairly simple but strong premise that fits the world fairly well. And whenever something cool happens it manages to make it REALLY cool. So that's always nice. Somehow, still a very satisfying conclusion to the series despite everything that it is, and probably up there somewhere in the middle of the Gundam films I've seen so far.

That was the first of the three films I saw this month, with the other two being not quite as schlocky. In fact, on the complete opposite of the "war is bad" scale, we have the 1957 Soviet film "The Cranes are Flying".

While a much-beloved classic by prestigious classic by many, I knew essentially nothing about this film an hour before I decided to start watching it. When I started watching the film, I was fairly disappointed in how, premise-wise, this film doesn't really have much different from what I wasn't already used to from a variety of war history, poetry, and sad mid-2000s webcomics. As stunning as this film could be with its technical prowess for the 50s, I was worried that this film wouldn't really do much for me. That was until I reached about the halfway point.

The small little trick this film plays with you (that's not really much of a trick, mind you), is extremely potent and gives this film relevancy to this day. Not being just a film about war-torn lovers, this film focuses well and truly on it's main character, Veronika, and all of her strifes and problems that arise either as caused by the war, or by her family. This film goes in to a lot of issues of women's suffrage and plight that you would not expect a film from this era to discuss, and does it with great decorum and respect (although, this came out the same year as Nights of Cabiria, which, wow, what a year for feminist film). There are some scenes in this film that are filled with harrowing emotion that I can definitely see why it's considered such an underground classic, at least as far as the west is concerned.

I think because of the general content of the film there's only so much I can enjoy though, if that makes sense? But that's just an issue for me and old movies in general, nothing against the film itself. I would still absolutely recommend this film to anyone who is interested, as relevant and ever-present now as it ever was. Man, I hate war. And warlord fascists.

Any way, final film that I watched this month, and this one's one for the BOYS!!!!!!!!!!!!! YEAHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Uh, spoilers for this one too, by the way.

One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest is a weird one for me to talk about, because if it wasn't for the (admittedly few) caveats that I have with this film I could easily see it being one of my all-time favourites. Had I watched it a few years back it probably would be! The acting is fantastic, portraying each character and their differences wonderfully. The characters themselves are all extremely likeable and each has their own interesting quirks and interests that keep them apart despite the amount that there are onscreen. The technical ability in this film's phenomenal, loads of wonderful shots here, and the way the more compact scenes here move in-and-out of focus is absolutely wonderful. Pace, soundtrack, general story and motivations, all solid stuff.

But... at the same time... I mean, it's not that big of a deal, but like... I was only half-kidding when I called this film a "boys movie" earlier. Not that it's an innate issue! But let's say, I wanted to make a really dumb and unfavourable view on the film, you could definitely theoretically make a Letterboxd review complaining how this film is a contrived story about an evil matriarch trying to destroy "the boys" fun at all opportunities, the evil bitch! This, in and of itself I don't think would be a real issue for me with this films plot alone, but the film constructs itself with this plausible deniability aspect to it, the possibility that these men are just here to chill or self-improve! It puts some of the films accolades and themes and misunderstandings (mostly from guys) into a different context.

This, along with some other issues I have including a couple of character arcs like the Chief, and general ambivalence to certain topics as a whole, apparently don't exist in the book (from what I've been told). It's definitely something I want to read at some point! HOWEVER, all that being said, I don't hold much of this too much against the film, mostly because one, the story is still pretty damn good, and two, god there aren't many other movies out there that treat those with problems and mental illnesses with the humanity and respect quite like this film does. The way the film manages to make sure that each character deserves their own urgency and respect, and makes sure to put blame and point at the terrible ablest structures that demonise and trap them...

I think the best example of this in the film is during the beginning of the film, where the first group therapy meeting is held. The scene manages to perfectly represent the circle the main cast surrounds themselves in, where the previous good mood and vibes of the previous 10 minutes starts dimming. When Mrs. Fletcher asks Mr. Harding about his wife, with the set implication that she was being unfaithful. Harding tries to avoid the question, particularly when the topic of abuse comes up, leading to deflection, however, as the conversation goes on, the emotion from great late actor William Redfield becomes more and more potent. It starts to become more clear that even if he is deflecting, he is truly looking for redemption and self-improvement, and, truth be told, the fact of him being abusive, or even her cheating both start becoming irrelevant (the film never states if they were or not). This is lost on the other patients though, who see this session as just another time of him yapping about his wife, strictly against Harding's wishes. This turns into a shouting match, all the while Mrs. Fletcher and the other doctors do nothing but watch. Despite how this has clearly happened before, despite the fact that it's strictly not working, they let it continue not necessarily because they personally believe it helps, but because they believe it's best to follow the systems and rules set in place by the hospital, even if it only hurts and victimizes the patients who are there just to get help.

So yeah I like this film a lot, I think it's fantastic. I know I kinda went on about it for a bit for a film that's been talked about to death, but whatever. Definitely would recommend, good film good film.

And laaaastt uppp uuhhhh albums I guess? Truth is, I'm gonna have a similar issue with this section that I did last time where I'm not gonna know what to write that much, so I came up with a solution. Most of the reason I did what I did last year on Twitter with my relistens was to make up for lastfm mostly being irrelevant for me now. So, I decided instead I'd make my own lastfm 5x5 charts based on what I listened to that month, either being new albums or relistens. So, here it is:

There'll be times where I probably go on tangents here. For example I FINALLY got around to hearing Quaranta and I of course ended up really liking it. Same with Genesis' Trespass, Far East Suite, and that Funkadelic album. And there's still issues with this format like I might have to differentiate what was new for me and what was a relisten. But I imagine the format will end up changing a lot as the months go on and it might not even be the same next month so, we'll what I do next I suppose, if I scrap this idea don't be surprised, it's probably cuz I didn't listen to that month or something I dunno.

Anyway, that's the update done! God knows if when I do this next month it'll be even remotely as close to as long as this one was. There might be months when I decide to dedicate an entire section to one single piece of art I enjoyed. Maybe there won't be one some months and I just try to put out a review or something instead, or I just choose to shitpost a whole month cuz I REALLY have nothing to say. We'll see. I imagine this'll be a fun format to experiment with, either way. Thanks for reading!

[blazehedgehog]

Did you play Ocarina of Time on release and do you still feel it deserves all the praise it got then even now?

I did not play Ocarina of Time at release, but I suppose it was probably close enough. A quick rundown of all the game consoles I had (since I just typed this out somewhere else recently):

Started with an Atari 5200 handed down from an Aunt in the mid-80's

Mom got us an NES in 1988 with SMB1 using her tax return

Older brother got a Genesis in 1991, took it with him when he moved out that same year

Begged for a Genesis of my own, got a SNES for Christmas in 92

Finally got my own Genesis in 1994

Mom dragged me to Bingo Nite in 1996, I won enough to buy a Sega Saturn

Became entranced by Final Fantasy VII and Parappa, got a Playstation for Christmas 1997

Brother sent me $200 for Christmas in 1999, bought a Dreamcast

My Mom got me a hot pink N64 for Christmas in 2002

Brother sent me $200 for Christmas in 2004, bought a Gamecube

Won a Gametrailers competition in 2006, bought a PS2, DS, and Xbox 360

Won a Microsoft giveaway in 2010, sold part of the prize and bought a Wii

Went halfsies with TSSZ to buy a Wii U to review games for the site in 2013

My "Definitive Way to Play Sonic Adventure" video blew up enough that I bought a PS4 in 2017

My "Definitive Way to Play Sonic 3" video paid for my Switch in 2019

When I got the N64, my Mom got a BOATLOAD of used games with it. In terms of "opening a new game console on christmas morning" it was maybe the best one of those I ever had. As I recall, she got me Super Mario 64, Mario Kart 64, Perfect Dark, Donkey Kong 64, Pokemon Stadium (with GB adapter), Diddy Kong Racing, and Ocarina of Time. Seven games, when most of the time, I only had one or two games with a new console.

Ocarina of Time came out in, what, 1998? 1999? And I think I ended up playing it in 2002 or 2003. So not exactly in the moment, but close enough.

In the moment, maybe I was swept up by the zeitgeist, because I loved it. It was everything I hoped for and more. Fun and cool and creative, though it should be noted it was a game I slowly worked my way through over the course of a year. I specifically remember tracking it down to where I finished it within a week of starting it almost exactly one year later. It was maybe one of the first games I can remember owning where it was something I slowly chipped away at.

A few months before Breath of the Wild came out in 2016 I was gripped by Zelda fever and I think I happened to find Ocarina of Time 3D on sale for like $15. Knowing how rarely Nintendo games go on sale, especially for that cheap, I jumped on it.

Replaying it on the 3DS I found the game to be very, very, very slow. If you know me, I complain loudly about how sluggish Twilight Princess was. Revisiting Ocarina of Time on the 3DS showed me it isn't much better. Though it lacks a lot of the slow diversionary stuff that bogs down TP's pacing, it's still an incredibly slow, plodding game, with long stretches of tediously watching Link push rocks or whatever. I had to force myself to finish it, which just reminded me how long it took to finish the N64 version originally.

I still don't want to say it's a bad game, but I would not say it still retains the "greatest game ever made" moniker people used to give it.

[transgirl-gaming-thoughts]

3DS Downloads To Get Before the eShop Closes, Part 2!

I know, I know, I already did this topic, but I recently got several more digital exclusive games, and felt it necessary to mention them! eShop exclusives are the lifeblood of many consoles, and the 3DS had some great ones! Credit card support ended in March 2022, and as of August 2022 you can't use Nintendo gift cards anymore either. However, if you link your Nintendo account with your Nintendo Network, you can add funds through your Switch and use them on your 3DS. Once the shop closes, you can redownload previously purchased software, but you can't get anything new! Without further ado, here's 3 more eShop digital-only games you should get before the eShop closes in March 2023!

3: Mega Man Legacy Collection ($14.99) I know in my last post on this topic, I said that retro gamers should pick up some Virtual Consoles. While I still support that statement, don't buy Mega Man Virtual Console!! You'll be better off buying the Legacy Collection! It features all six NES Mega Man games in one program, alongside save states and extra content (no spoilers here~!). Each of the NES Virtual Consoles are ~$5, so to get all six Mega Man games is roughly $30, but the Legacy Collection is only $15!! As far as retro games go, this one is a bargain!

2: Mighty Gunvolt ($3.99) I know I just talked about Mega Man, but this game is very similar! Mighty Gunvolt is a run-and-gun platformer very much like the classic 8-bit Mega Man series. There's also a sequel, Mighty Gunvolt Burst, which can be a sort of honorable mention here. This game is a ton of fun, and I highly recommend it if you're into the classic Mega Man games!

1: Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney ($19.99) "Hey wait, isn't that a DS ga-?" Yes, yes it is! Let me explain... The Ace Attorney series started with the Phoenix Wright trilogy on the Gameboy Advance in Japan, and on the DS internationally. That trilogy got remastered years later, and is actually the #1 spot on my first list of eShop games! On that list, I also mentioned Ace Attorney 5 and 6 (Duel Destinies and Spirit of Justice). However, Ace Attorney 4 was another DS game, and received a rerelease on the 3DS eShop! That's right: with this, you can play the entire Ace Attorney main series downloaded on one 3DS! As an Ace Attorney fan, that alone was enough to convince me to buy it. The 3DS is basically a 6-in-1 Ace Attorney device!

The closing of the 3DS eShop is tragic, because we're essentially losing 3 libraries of games with the 3DS Downloads, DSiWare, and Virtual Console all seeing their final days. These are just a few more of the games I was interested in picking up, though it's nowhere near my full library!

Thanks for reading! Hopefully this can be of at least a little help to some people picking up digital titles for the 3DS! I hope everyone gets a chance to pick up all the games they’re after before the deadline gets here! I hope you enjoyed reading this, and be sure to ask questions and suggest new post ideas in my ask box! Stay safe, stay hydrated, and God bless!

~Alex