#but maaaan this really sucks

[running-in-the-dark]

I'm sooo annoyed. I was finally painting again. then my brother asked if I can help my niece study for her math test (which is tomorrow. somehow it's always the next day, what am I going to do that's helpful the day before??), so of course I said yes. I've been waiting for them for over an hour, I've put my stuff away and everything. there's basically no way I'll still have enough energy to get back to it when we're done now and it's really frustrating.

[minthara]

the more i see of da:tv the less excited i get 💀

[lecliss]

I finished the special story in Connections and it got me to bawl my eyes out so bad. That story was so much more meaningful and emotional and impactful than the entirety of Naruto itself. What the fuck do you mean it was written by Kishimoto????? He did NOT write something for a side story in one of the ultimate ninja storm games and make it better than anything he's ever done before. There's just no fucking way.

[peapod20001]

Haha I’m so </3 lonely

[feenxpit]

Hazbin Hotel Characters as John Mulaney Quotes ★

✧˖° Maaaan, I really wanted to start writing some fics today, but I had zero ideas. So now, you guys are getting this. Isn’t that fun? This is my first written impression on this fandom? Great. Welcome to my first written post outside of an introduction. It gets dumber from here! <3

** I tried really hard to do multiple quotes for everyone, but unfortunately, some only have one.

───────── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ─────────

— Charlie —

“Woah! That tall child looks terrible! Get some rest, tall child. You can’t keep burning the candle at both ends!”

“I try to stay a little optimistic, even though I will admit things are getting pretty sticky.”

“The more you do stuff, the better you get at dealing with how you still fail at it a lot of the time.”

──────────────────────

— Vaggie —

“Brush your teeth! Now, boom! Orange juice! THAT’S LIFE!”

──────────────────────

— Angel Dust —

“He wanted guys to take their shirts off in his apartment. You’re all uncomfortable now, but I’m way over it. And also, if you think this story ends with me being like: And I said absolutely not— you’re about to be SO disappointed!”

*being asked his name by police* “They call me Baby J out on these streets!”

“If you eat enough ass and suck enough dick, one day, you can sell drugs.”

──────────────────────

— Husker —

“I’ll keep all my emotions right here, and then one day, I’ll die.”

“For those of you who don’t know what it is, blackout drinking is when your brain goes to sleep, but your body gets all ‘Eye of the Tiger’ and soldiers on.”

──────────────────────

— Sir Pentious —

“You could pour soup into my lap and I’d probably apologize to you!”

──────────────────────

— Cherri Bomb —

“Hey, do you want me to kill that guy for you? Because it sounds like he sucks, and I will totally kill that guy for you.”

──────────────────────

— Lucifer —

“When one feels like a duck, one is happy!”

“We all got divorced, and now our reputation is different!”

“I am very small… and I have no money… so you can imagine the amount of stress that I am under.”

──────────────────────

— Alastor —

“I said no. You know, like a liar.”

*Hotel residents talking about the time they asked Alastor for McDonald’s* “He pulled into the drive-thru, and we started cheering, and then he ordered one black coffee for himself and kept driving.”

“He was a man most acquainted with misery. He could look at a child and guess the price of their coffin.”

──────────────────────

Bonus (because it was too fitting)…

— Susan —

“Beat it, bozo!”

───────── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ─────────

Thanks for reading! ~ <3

[theclearblue]

Please go ahead and be an atla live action hater

Maaaan I've only watched 20 minutes but the decisions that are being made 😭😭😭 It starts off 100 years ago and shows the content from The Storm episode which...isn't a large part of that to show a parallel between Zuko and Aang? How will this affect Zuko's character later on??? The Storm is not just one of the best episodes in season one but in the whole series, who asked for this change? What sucks is it's also just a worse version where it focuses more on firebenders killing airbenders rather than Aang's character moments aljdfsl. It also cuts it down to where Aang finds out from Gyatso that he's the Avatar, and then dips just a few hours later? The isolation he feels from him friends and the mounting pressure over time from the other airbending masters is why he leaves, why would he leave when nothing has changed for him yet!! They also made the change where every airbending master from the other temples is also there for the "Great Comet festival" (ok..whatever lol) and like, I understand the firebenders have an advantage with the comet, but you have EVERY master airbender there and they could do nothing against them?

I really wanted to come in as neutral but these writing decisions are already highly suspect, it feels like they wanted to show off "cool and gritty" action scenes (which, it's a genocide, so gross) without the weight these moments deserve while also cutting out the character moments that everyone loves from the original series in order to make it an exposition dumping ground as well.

Edit: Apparently I misinterpreted/missed the part where it's not Aang fully leaving, he just wanted to go out for a few hours and then come back. Unfortunately this is still a stupid change imo so it helps nothing.

[findafight]

Hello! I've been plagued by thoughts of Starbara. I would love to know how you think the bathroom scene between Robin and Steve would go if Starbara was a thing. Like, I really, really love Starbara, and I really, really love Stobin as besties, so I am desperate to be able to combine the two without either relationship losing too much depth and connection. Thoughts?

Many. MANY thoughts. @momotonescreaming and I have actually talked about the bathroom scene! (both of them hehe) The Starcourt bathroom scene is like. Holy Stobin Texts okay. I refuse to water it down, ever, but tweaks must be made.

so with the starbara au, sometime before s3 Barb decides to rekindle her friendship with Robin, who is a bit weary of it a little. But anyways Robin is at the very least friendly but not close with Barb, and still holding a a grudge against Steve (love her being petty). When they get jobs at scoops, Robin just tells Barb she's working at the mall, and Barb goes haha Steve is working there too! Maybe you'll see each other! (and then they did)

First day at Scoops Steve walks in and goes oh! Barb's friend Robin! hi Robin! :D and Robin is just. gritting her teeth. Of course then she spends time with him and discovers he is just a goofy lad. She tries so hard to keep him as her nemesis but she simply cannot because even though she has the "you suck" board to tally the amount of longing sighs Steve does while Barb isn't in the store, he grows on her. She can tell when barb told Steve she'd try to come by because he glaces at the clock and perks up. He gets all sappy when Barb comes in and they flirt and he gives her free icecream and Robin is stewing like HELLO. she is TRYING to be BITTER. if those two could stop being SICKENINGLY in LOVE that'd be great.

Steve has the worlds most devastating squish on Robin he wants to be her friend so so so bad, and Barb teases him about having a crush on her and he's like "Barbie 🥺 how could you say that? You know I 'm in love you🥺I just want to make her laugh and share a backyard with her so our kids can all play together and be best friends too 🥺"

anyways blah blah blah s3 happens they're in the starcourt bathrooms. Robin blurts the first semi invasive question of all time, because as soon as she finishes "have you ever been in love?" she's like yes obviously he has. he is.

and Steve answers affirmatively "Yeah. yes. Barb, of course. maaaan. She's amazing. I'm gonna marry her one day."

and Robin huffs a laugh because yeah, that's a pretty unsurprising plan from Steve. "Yeah? Tommy gonna be your bestman? or are you gonna shake it up and have Carol there?"

Steve sighs "nah. I don't...I don't think so."

"Why not?"

"Because...Tommy and Carol are my friends and I love 'em, but...I think I've found someone better for that part? Like someone we could split custody of a cat with, or my kids could call auntie, y'know?" Robin thinks she might throw up again, actually. "And I wish I would've been hanging out with her the whole time. She's hilarious, I've laughed more this summer with her than with nearly anyone else besides Barb in a long time." There's no way he'd be saying this to her if he knew.

"And she's smart. Way smarter than me. Able to crack a Russian code ina couple days, kind of smart, Y'know? She's unlike anyone I've ever met, and I really hope she wants to be my best friend too?"

It's so sweet, and so very Steve who's been sappy with Barb and goofy with all those kids, and now he's point blank asking her if she wants to be his best friend. She doesn't know what to do. She feels gross and sick and dizzy and hurting, but she could lie. Whatever was making her and Steve unable to keep their mouths shut has...well it hasn't worn off, but she'd definitely be able to resist it.

She doesn't want to. She wants to be brave, and honest, and vulnerable.

"Robin? You, uh, you OD over there?" Steve sounds nervous.

"No. Uh, I'm still alive..."She doesn't want to fuck this up. Doesn't want to lose Steve or Barb.

Steve slides under the stall wall. Says he can't get any worse that the blood and puke on him.

"So what do you think? About this girl?"

She gives him a wobbly smile. "she sounds awesome"

He smiles through his split lip. "She is awesome. And the guy?"

"I think he's coming down from being drugged and isn't thinking clearly. Cat custody? Really?"

He looks at her seriously. "I think he's thinking pretty clearly. Cat custody aside."

"He doesn't know this girl. And if he did, if he really, really knew her, he wouldn't want her anywhere near his wedding, let alone his hypothetical kids. I don't think he'd want to even be her friend."

He shakes his head. "That's not true. No way is that true."

She thinks fuck it. They've been tortured (she's not thinking about that). There's Russians under her feet probably still trying to kill her. She's going to be brave.

She tells him that she really likes him. About Clicks class. About Tammy. About how she was still trying to hold onto some resentment even when she was reconnecting with Barb, but he made it very difficult.

And then. Steve just. makes fun of Tammy Thompson. Sings like a muppet. And he makes her laugh.

When Dustin, Erica and Barb all bluster into the bathroom, they laugh more, at their faces, at being caught, at the ridiculousness of the entire situation.

Steve stands up and stumbles into Barb, holding his hands out to help robin up. Once she stands with him, Steve tries to rest his face on Barb's shoulder but winces. He giggles again. Turns to Barb.

"Ohh Barbie Robin's my best friend now and is gonna be my best maaAan and also our kids' godmother. She said so herself"

"I did not."

"Didn't say no, though, did you?"

To which Dustin scoffs and shoves them all out of the bathroom.

that's how I think the Stobin bathroom scene happens in the starbara au hehe

[whosname]

[Id. a sketch comic. 1. a bank employee saying, with a know-it-all tone "First, we need to see if there's a problem with your card." The guy has an arrow that says "condescending prick" pointing to him. 2. Me, in full Ginpachi sensei cosplay trying to speed things up saying "but… I just bough some mangas with it without problem." 3. Guy takes his glasses off and pinches his nose "sigh… look, sweetheart…" 4. me looking shocked whispering "…sweet…" 5. Me, annoyed saying "Sweetheart?! Really?!" 6. now i am angry "SWEETHEART MY ASS!!" End Id.]

This happened to me yesterday, my bank's atms suck and it was asking me to change my card so I went into the bank to ask for some help, knowing the card should be alright 'cause I've just used it like 15 minutes earlier (also, anxious 'cause i thought i gotta leave the con or something). But this guy, this patronising bank employee prick I've just saw answering and explaining the same thing to a guy like 5 times, just decided he gotta be an absolute ass and call me, a grown ass person, "sweetheart". Maaaan, even if i look younger than i am, even if i just look like a weirdo 'cause i'm wearing a white/blue wig; don't you dare to "sweetheart" me, you, piece of shit sir, are a patronising asshole.

[meownotgood]

20 fic writing questions, thank you for tagging me @hash-slinging-slasher-trash 💪💕

1) how many works do you have on ao3?

14 total works!!

2) total ao3 word count?

253,421.... damn... I haven't checked so I didn't expect it to be so much lol (that's a lot of aki)

3) what fandoms do you write for?

chainsaw maaaan (aki man) but I hope to write more for bg3 in the future because I really enjoyed it!!

4) top 5 fics by kudos?

#1 quiet dream with 1,009 kudos

#2 arrival in tokyo with 568 kudos

#3 fired with 473 kudos

#4 a little death with 413 kudos

#5 cherry waves with 389 kudos

the way my fic with the most hits and kudos isn't even aki... it's a dan heng x reader fic I wrote in like three days... 😭 I suppose it's because I wrote it right when hsr came out so I got in on it early... either way it makes me laugh LOL

5) do you respond to comments?

I try to! I read every one just sometimes too busy to reply

6) what is the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?

the end x3 and last act are pure angst all the way thru. last act is definitely my fic with the darkest or angstiest ending (and also my least popular fic, interestingly) (I don't blame u for not wanting to read about aki dying we read to get away from that ok)

7) the fic you wrote with the happiest ending?

happy does not exist in chainsaw man world so the gale fic I recently wrote has to be up there. gale please marry me so we can live happily ever after

8) do you get hate on fics?

not on my fics on ao3 I don't think but I've had anonymous hate mail telling me my writing sucks or whatever, it's to be expected at least once on tumblr so it doesn't bother me in the slightest haha

9) do you write smut?

hahha.... me? noooooo.... I'm innocent... (LYING)

10) craziest crossover?

never written a crossover fic but I've had a lot of dreams about aki meeting other characters if that counts

11) have you ever had a fic stolen?

......... unfortunately 😭 (let's not talk about the incident) (every time I see l*on k*nnedy I hear the voices)

12) have you ever had a fic translated?

not to my knowledge

13) have you ever co-written a fic before?

not exactly but I helped my beloved f1gments write her fic detour and she helped me a lot with under the influence, it wouldn't be a thing without her help!!! ily 💓💞💕💞

14) favorite ship?

me x aki (or akiangel I suppose)

15) a wip you want to finish but probably never will?

I wrote 10k words for a gun fiend fic that never ended up happening, he's quite difficult to write lol...

16) writing strengths?

writing a lot and being unshamefully crazy 💪

17) writing weaknesses?

dialogue is so hard for me 😭 also I need to have more confidence in myself!!

18) thoughts on dialogue in another language?

it's hot.

19) first fandom you wrote in?

if we're talking on ao3 it's chainsaw man, but if we're talking in general... I wrote my fair few of madoka magica and warrior cats fanfictions back in the days.....

20) favorite fic you've written?

I'll always hold a little death close to my heart <3 it was so fun to write and truly when I fell back in love with writing I think. I would have given up if it wasn't for the experience I had creating that fic

not sure who to tag but! anyone is welcome to join!

[swimming-guy]

i love the piece u made with ninten and ness but i wanted to tell u that the thing your friend told you about mother 1+2 changing the year mother was set is just not true, its 1988 in all versions of the game

aw really? maaaan that sucks but oh well, ut can still be canon in my heart 💔 (I'm really glad you like the drawing though, it's means a lot!!)

( @mega-magolor lying arc?? misinformation pilled fakemaxxer era?????)

[aloera]

Man mannnnnn when I tell you everything you write makes my heart fucking cLEEnch like you have no idea like have you seen videos of people packing plushies or like pillows airtight and sucking the air out of the bags???, THATS how I feel, maaaan my heart, it’s really specific the kind of krbk you bring to the table and I’m eating that shit up like Christmas dinner my man istfg, thanks for existing and blessing our little eyes with ur funny words magic man

Side note, would you mind it at all if I were to make art of ur fics ?? Asking cuz one never knows, I’m just a little artist with dreams at the end of the day

ahh thank you so much thats so sweet!! i appreciate it :)

and yes ofc omg i would be so honoured!!! if you make anything please tag me in it so i can see!!!!

[anemia-rp]

(Maaaan it just hits me again that I'm so pissed off about the fact that one [or actually more, but let's focus on just one of them] of the faceclaim of one of my muses I played a lot some while ago is literally not giving me any new material to inspire me and motivate me to play them anymore. It sucks so hard because I'm so damn proud of the portrayal and think I would have more courage to play him as his best self these days. More approachable, probably charming, and having more interest in people. xD This guy is one of the most fascinating persons I've ever seen and I captured him so well ahhh. He's got a lot of things in common with Fuji but still he's different from him. He speaks differently from him mostly. His facial expressions are more vivid and his behaviour more theatralic. He's got this era where he's been really like a feral, untamed, dirty little beast and then this era where he's been mixing elegance with the feral attitude. Damnnnn, if I wouldn't be so dependend on external input most of the times. But guess that's what a muse is about: To get inspired by them and them lighting the spark in you. At the same time I wrote so much with him that nothing felt new anymore and the challenge is gone. I still hate it. I suddenly have the urge to play him again, but every time I give him a new chance the motivation doesn't last long. But I don't give up on hoping the spark will fully return one day. Luckily I've found Fuji who delivers sometimes such amazing material that I could scream. xD Anyway, maaaybe I'd give him a try again, but only in a sort of twisted scenario. Not a casual hello, nice to meet you-scenario. I'm brave enough now to write him as really undomesticated again like I did in the very beginning, living in the woods etc. I just noticed I horribly missed primal play and muses with animal features. xD I'm finally in the mood again for more twisted things. Some of you kissed it awake. ;))

[footballshowrot]

season 3 ted lasso, just pissing some thoughts after watching the finale. talkin about things they fumbled unbelievably hardcore this season jsyk.

- the unrelenting force of forgiveness and tying everything up with a pretty bow extending to both the sam's restaurant being destroyed storyline and the james tarttt sr storyline. just wooooooof... Terrible. sam and jamie i'm literally gonna get u out of there.......

- keeley's plot this season was So disappointing. she used to be a driving force and here she felt like an afterthought, and i don't know if it was because KJPR was separate from the club, but she was just so disconnected. they dropped shandy, they dropped jack, hard. thank god for barbara because i liked a lot of her and keeley's scenes [snow globe :)]. and then in the finale relegated keeley to role of object of affection for jamie and roy to fight over👍awesome😐 love triangle plotlines suck ass majority of the time, and maybe jamie and roy in the finale could have been played funny for me [sorry to royjamie brain it for a sec, but they alone still are. intricate rituals and all that. that ripped shirt, bloody nose combo etc etc lmaoooo] but because the show has continually fucked keeley over this season it leaves a bit of a bitter taste. her kicking them out her house like yesssss literally. get their asses outta here. idk, romantic relationships aside, it just felt shit that for keeley's last episode she didn't even get to reap any positives of the platonic relationships she has with roy or jamie. [at least we have rebecca. society if keeley kissed rebecca in the finale] lol not really but u knooow. just after the shoddy love bombing plotline with jack, and the way her relationship with jack concluded and this in the finale, i hope she stays single for a while, and i think the show settled on that at least which okay.👍 she's literally keeley fuckin jones waaaaoough....

- the fucking locker room information PSA's........ maaaan i Know the show is cheesy feelgood tv but season 1 was not just morality lesson central with characters talking like npcs delivering do good greeting card messages one after another.

- ted's marriage plotline was dogshit 👍 just yaaaaaaawns all round idk. rewatching scenes from season 1 and bein like? this dude used to make me chuckle! what happened..... thank god they didn't fumble the bag on sending him back to kansas to be with henry. [henry having the same strip number as jamie was a nice touch]. i just wonder that if this season had some more jamie ted scenes [that weren't him telling jamie to forgive his father 😐] that it might have strengthened that ache to get back to his son even more, as opposed to reopening a perfectly concluded plotline with michelle because oh no....she's... dating?

- naaaaaaaate. my guy nate waaaaaaahh. they sidelined you so fucking hard. did not know what to make of nate's plot this season with jade. i think they had sweet scenes together but concerning the actual footie of the show [the football show in question] they made nate a fucking afterthought too. some episodes it was like and uhhhh... yeah... quickly !! show the west ham building and get a reaction shot from nate!! we forgot we set him up at the end of season 2 as an antagonistic force for richmond to go against. like come onnn man. think that international break was nate's strongest episode outta the whole season, what with his depression slump, attic rummaging, family photo album reminiscing, violin playing, father reconciliation, will apology with lavender, just a really solid nate episode all round. its just sad it came so late in the season.

yeah that's the main thoughts spinning right now i guess lol. BOSH.

[ddaeng-angmoh]

Okay, okay, so I finally educated mysef on the James Corden X BTS conflict. I wanna say first, his joke of all fans being 15 y/o girls is so irritatingggggg. Not because it's rude but because it's such a normalised perception that boy bands are just for preteens and young teens. I've spent years being made fun of and judged for loving kpop, and boy bands. (High school was not fun fam lolololol) I still pretend I'm buying stuff for friends when I grab BTS merch at shops cause I'm 26 and know people gonna judge. (I'm working on it jrifooof hard to be nice to myself when I was a pariah for everything 🤣🤣🤣)

His joke wasn't inappropriate as a whole (societally) because that's the perception of boy bands. I think that's something that pisses me off the most. I'm glad BTS is helping normalise the love of boy bands in all age groups. Even if it's just in one area, we need to stop pinholing people's interests based on things like age, gender, experience, etc, etc.

Honestly, I'm more offended by how he nonchalantly said BTS didn't belong at the UN. He could have spun it to say the boys got there because they're not just a boy band, they're humanitarians. Instead he was like "ROFL boy band at UN, bubble heads with sparkles got brains???" (Not literally tho lmaoo, that's just the vibe I got 🤣).

I died watching his apology cause at one point he grabbed Jimin's hand and the boy just let his hand be floppy, and eventually Corden just let go. Jungkook kept doing his tongue in cheek thing and tilting his head (the way he does when things don'tmatch up), and Jhope's eyes were just coooooold. His smile was weak too, the boy sucks at hiding his emotions. Yoongi, oooof, he did NOT unfold those arms. Sope was really reacting like the whole apology was a joke in and of itself. Seokjin??? Wooow, I never thought I would see contempt on his face. But he, wooow. Certain moments I could see being used for yandere prompts cause boi was not pleased. RIP Taehyung cause he was obviously trying to be cool but kept slipping. I think he had really liked Corden before they got to see how he was off the show :/

They were pissed, and rightfully so. Sucks that I'm the internet explorer of cultural moments though 🤣🤣🤣 I am always late to the party. Would have been nice to be active when it was booming and see other people's opinions.

Maaaan, I just rarely see the boys angry or upset so this whole mix was crazy for me. I keep rewatching and (absently) wondering how people can accuse BTS of being personas because wooow, they are so open faced. Actively just wanting to see them pissed tho for quirks 🤧🤧🤧

[hahniana]

Ok, so, nightheart word salad. TL;DR i think he sucks in almost every way possible.

To clarify, i dunno maaaan... From the perspective of Me, A Real Person, reading A Character, Just A Culmination Of Text And Perhaps Images, he fucking sucks! He does not interest me! I think he is annoying! The other POV characters have significantly more interesting things going on. frostpaw having to bear the burden of being Kinda In Charge + her doubting her role as a medicine cat apprentice and sunbeam having a billion interpersonal conflicts at once (which, admittedly, isn't as interesting to me compared to frostpaw's nightmare but it's still p good imo) while nightheart is like... just being a pathetic meow meow over a legacy name and pissy towards his relatives, mostly the women.

Sure sure i can see the appeal to a degree and being honest i was compelled initially under the impression that he was supposed to be an unreliable narrator, but lo and behold, the story team dropped an article where they... Well, they don't say he isn't an unreliable narrator, but it doesn't give me much hope.

Like based on everything we've seen so far i do not have any hope that we're going to get a satisfying resolution to his character arc, assuming he's gonna get something resembling a character arc. That said, some of Sunbeam's thoughts in the Shadow excerpt do intrigue me, like ohhhh please tell him off.. please. But that won't necessarily mean it'll stick if it does happen. Sure we're only about to be three books into the arc, but failing to hook a reader into caring about a character beyond "oh i can't wait for him to die or something" by the second book isn't good!

I don't really know where else to go from here. He's just not an interesting character. He just pisses me off. He's not even a character you love to hate. It's just regular annoyance. Boo tomato tomato tomato 🍅🍅🍅🍅. He's nothing!

[greenjokwe-blog]

Zack and Wiki: Quest for Barbaros’ Treasure - Finished 01/04/2023

... I really, REALLY need to vet these games before playing them.

Zack and Wiki was high up on the list of games I needed to play for a WHILE. I bought it YEARS ago for preowned £12 back when the Wii was still relevant, I heard RAVE things about this game from places like Official Nintendo Magazine when it launched. As far as I’m aware, the game is still considered a hidden gem in the Wii library to this day. I left my Wii backlog abandoned for a while, so when I decided to finally dust off my Wii U (it wasn’t that undusted, was replaying some BoTW recently) and finally beat it, thinking a break with a nice, casual, children's point-and-click game...Fuck man, part of me makes me almost think I’M the issue.

Okay, compliments first cuz there’s a LOT to love about this game. The visual presentation is absolutely lovely. The models look great, colours gorgeous, animation is lovely, and honestly this game feels like to the Wii what Mega Man Legends was for the PS1. In fact I’d say this game has a lot of the best of Capcom’s default charm. Everything pops out and makes sense, there’s an inherent “kick” to how things feel to use and interact with, and in general, there’s just a great sense of creativity with the amount of game mechanics that fit into the structure of the game. This game has a ton of ideas and feels pretty unique for what it is, the best way I could describe it is like a fusion of Mega Man Legends, Ghost Trick, Secret of Monkey Island, and your standard early Wii game.

And when I say early Wii game, holy shit do I mean it. What’s nice about the puzzles in Zack and Wiki is that they are very beginner-friendly and easily solvable, but maaaan that does NOT follow up in actual execution. This game controls entirely via the Wii mote, and a lot of actual interfacing with the mechanics requires a variety of different motion control actions. Which, don’t get me wrong, at the time, SUPER cool, especially with how they’re integrated into the levels and the items it can feel super immersive, but it makes things a strain at certain points, especially towards the end of the game where it feels like half of the controls don’t even work like intended, leading to a lot of unintended deaths.

Oh yeah, dying in this game sucks. Instead of having your standard life system or using checkpoints, this game needs you to buy lives with gold, you don’t get any for free. What at first seems like an interesting idea to play into the games score system for solving puzzles, turns into immediate frustration very quickly, as large amounts of progress can be reset due to a mechanic not working or an accidental misclick, and your only reprieve is that you didn’t waste your money and have enough lives, which still resets your score, so you might as well reset anyway. It sucks cuz what could’ve been a convenience was turned into the exact opposite.

It’s so frustrating. If these features felt less broken, felt more considered and just, worked? I feel like this would be one of my favourite games on the Wii. And who knows, maybe it’s because of the final boss that really frustrated me and broke the straw, but man it’s hard for me to even look at the great parts of the game without thinking twice. I did really like the game at its best though, fusing great child-friendly point-n-click mechanics without the inherent puzzle-solving arbitrariness that may turn people off. I love games like this, I LOVE unconventional games and, if not limited by the pre-Motion+ Wiimote or maybe a better money balance for hints AND lives that didn’t require you to replay levels, I’d be suggesting EVERYONE check this out. I can still definitely recommend this game just cuz the good parts manage to be so incredibly impressive, unique and charming, but only with the pre-warnings I didn’t really give myself. I really really wanted to fall in love with Zack and Wiki, but all the things against it just make me never want to touch it or its post-game ever again. An EXTREMELY neat game worth remembering and looking into, but nowadays will need to be judged by new players to see if it’s worth the dive.