#dimps writes

[melloggd]

Review: Sonic Boom: Shattered Crystal

Sanzaru Games • SEGA • 2014 • Nintendo 3DS Read it on Backloggd: (x)

Sonic's always had a strange, yet interesting history on handhelds.

Its history spans five different developers, from Sonic's birth in 1991 to his 25th anniversary in 2016, with each year marking a gradual change in what the games are even supposed to be for. In the 90s it was Ancient and Aspect, trying to replicate the creative, varied, ball-rolling and feel-good adventures or Sonic 1, 2 and 3, cramming them into tiny 8-bit Game Gear games. While they aren't fantastic or even, good, really, you get a sense that they really tried to capture what people were enjoying about Sonic on the genesis at that point and time, and distilling it into a new format. You see this further with Sonic Pocket Adventure by SNK, a lovely tribute to the Genesis games that gets really close to actually feeling like them despite its 8-bitty visuals, yet feels somewhat restrained by not being much more than just a recreation. From there you get Dimps' Sonic Advance games, now latching onto Sonic's striking new identity after Sonic Adventure: It was still a series about feel-good adventures, of course, but now there was a bit more flair to it all. Sonic in Adventure wasn't just a cool design with a cheeky idle animation, he now had a voice, several fluid animations, strikingly expressive graffitti-esque art, he comments on situations and does cool breakdance tricks after beating levels. Somewhat like the Game Gear games before them, the original Sonic Advance became a game trying to distill the essence of Sonic Adventure, the style, the vibes, even the dramatics in the game's memorable Egg Rocket stage, into a format befitting of a handheld. Advance 2 and 3 are obviously much the same thing but for Sonic Adventure 2 and Sonic Heroes respectively, with Advance 2 channelling the high-octane adrenaline of SA2 levels like Green Forest and Sky Rail into a 2D sidescroller plane, and Advance 3 taking Heroes' team-up mechanics into its own direction.

Yet with Sonic Rush, things began taking a new direction. Not only had there not been a big new Sonic game to try and channel after Heroes, but Dimps had also begun finding their own voice. Sonic Advance 2 had been a monumental triumph in terms of both sales and reviews, and its bold adaptation of 3D gameplay into 2D gave Dimps a somewhat unique basis to build off of – to make Sonic games entirely their own. Even when SEGA would try to reel this back after 2008, instead only having them work on games specifically branded as derivative of others, Dimps now took these games on with a distinctly their-own approach, seen in games like Sonic Colors DS, Sonic Lost World 3DS, and most infamously Sonic 4. In short, Sonic's handheld games had gone from cute imitations, to games driven by their source, to full on original games, to original games using their source as a baseline.

Which now brings us to our fifth and last, developer, for the final Sonic handheld ventures: Sanzaru Games, and Sonic Boom on 3DS.

Shattered Crystal was always going to be fighting an uphill battle compared to its handheld siblings: Mainly, it had little to no foundation to build off of, with Boom as an entity being made specifically to reinvent the series, in a more Americanized direction. For the big debut home console game, Big Red Button was a great choice for this: Jak & Daxter-ifying Sonic with some of that game's lead developers at the helm, whilst not seeming like a great direction to a lot of Sonic die-hards, at least seemed like a great way to get a solid product out. Thing is, unlike games like Advance and Pocket Adventure, Shattered Crystal didn't have a pre-existing thing to try and replicate: Due to being developed in parallel with Rise of Lyric, Sanzaru didn't have much to work off of beyond a few core concepts for the world, and a general idea of teamwork. On top of this, unlike Big Red Button or even Dimps, Sanzaru were in no way known for their excellence in 2D game design, or even known as good developers in general. And so, in a way, Shattered Crystal ended up a hodgepodge of all the different eras of handheld games, trying to both share the brand identity of its console counterpart, yet also be its own thing, but still building its foundations off of some core ideas from the main game, althewhile being fertile ground for the games' developers to grow and learn.

I wanted to give that rundown both because I find it incredibly fascinating to think about, but also because it makes the end product of Shattered Crystal make a lot more sense. Its a messy little game, filled both with ambition to be like what handheld Sonic once was, yet also embrace elements of the 2000s western-made platformers. The game's levels are uncharacteristically large for one, and a lot of the game is focused on exploring them to find collectibles manditory to unlock later levels. The other playable characters, Tails, Knuckles and Sticks, can be switched to on the fly, yet all they really offer is unlocking passageways or access to aforementioned collectibled. Its a very arbitrary inclusion of multiple playable characters, and it combined with gargantuan levels you're forced to explore could have very well ruined the game to be as bland and boring as its Wii U counterpart. So its a good thing, then, that they somehow managed to make Sonic himself feel absolutely fantastic to control. I'm serious: I have no clue how they did it, but Sonic controls like such a dream and has so many movement options, yet remains at a comfortable enough speed to make exploring levels still feasible compared to Dimps' best outings. Its a distinct feel to the character, yet immensely fun to play around with, mainly due to the fun interplay between the airdash and double jump.

To break it down, at any point in midair Sonic can dash either to his sides or straight up, after which he regains his double jump if it was used before. After a double jump he can airdash one additional time, but not in the same direction as the previous airdash, and this repeats until you've airdashed in all directions. What this means is that you can get crazy airtime by doing all of these interlinked airdashes and double jumps correctly, giving you more distance than Tails' flight in most instances the game wants you to switch to him. Jump, doublejump, airdash forward, doublejump, airdash up, doublejump...its reminiscent of those cool strings of moves you execute for long jumps in Mario Odyssey, only far more compelling due to being attached to get-to-the-goal speedrunning stages that still have a lot of options on how to best progress through them. What this means is that when the level asks you to switch to Knuckles to tunnel up a steep cliff, or switch to Tails to cruise over a bed of spikes, and so on, you can almost always execute it faster and more satisfyingly through mastery of Sonics controls. Add to this the fact that the doublejump maintains all of your speed, and the fun Enerbeam that has some really satisfying swinging physics, and you get some levels with some genuinely great flow to them. It takes a similar formula to the Wisps in the mainline Sonic games, switching to far simpler playstyles to clear very specific-to-them challenges, and instead gives you the tools to completely skip them if you're skilled enough with Sonic.

Granted, this doesn't always hold water, and the rushed nature of the game does sometimes catch up to it. Sticks exists to hit switches with her boomerang and she is the ONLY one who can do so, meaning there will inevitably be sections like the start of Scrapyard Zone where you're arbitrarily required to use her. The collectible grind can also halt your flow a lot of the time, like with the strangely out of place Tails Submarine levels where you play a slow and boring diving minigame for 2 minutes each in the middle of an otherwise fast paced game. Or rather, its a game where you can otherwise MAKE the pace faster than it in reality wants to be.

And thats just what makes Shattered Crystal so interesting. Despite everything, it holds on to so many things that makes Sonic games so fun to play, like fast movement, levels you can explore for both items and shortcuts, hell they've even got Richard Jacques – composer of Sonic R and Sonic 3D Blast – doing the music, and its often quite good! The levels themselves are super cool in theming, mostly thanks to each level having a "foreground" and "background", putting new spins on the same level theme sort of like how Sonic Heroes handles its levels. In Shadow Canyons, for instance, you go from grinding on rails and running along scaffolding by these big imposing cliffs, to being flung into the mining facility going on in those mountains. I honestly don't want to spoil the final level because it is such a cool theme for a stage with this system, that it makes the entire game feel worth it just to get to.

Because at the end of the day, for as much cool stuff there is in Shattered Crystal, for as close as it really does come to being a successor to Dimps' handheld lineage, the game is sadly just too much of a chore to get through normally. Unlike a game like Sonic Colors, the explorative nature of the stages isn't just there for optional unlockables, but rather required for progression and beating the game. By the end, you will more or less need a 90% completion rate, meaning most stages need to be both combed through but also beaten with above 50 rings and under a specific time. Its not that this stuff is bad or unfun to do, the game has a super detailed map on the touchscreen showing you where you havent been yet and where things are and I actually really like the autorunner extra stages you can do inbetween levels. It's moreso that it leads to the game feeling at odds with itself: Its immensely fun to speedrun and try to go faster in, but so much of the game wants you to instead do the fun-but-not-nearly-AS-fun collectible hunt. Then, you add that with how the controls can start to really hurt your hands after a while: There's no D-pad movement, meaning you need to slam a somewhat-flimsy circle pad as far to the left or right as it can go to move quickly, whilst also holding down Y at all times to run, whilst also asking you to be ready to use B to jump and A or X to airdash and enerbeam...

It all adds up to Shattered Crystal being a game with truckloads of potential to be amazing, that holds itself back both due to a rushed development and a need for surface-level parity with the slow-as-molasses home console Sonic Boom game it has no business associating with. But when you're able to overcome all those restrictions, when there's no longer a need to collect things, when you've mastered Sonics controls to almost never need to switch to the other bozos, and when you get a true flow going with mechanics you would never expect to be so fun for what the game looks to be on the surface...

That's when you've broken free. Because trouble keeps you running faster.

Playtime: 20 Hours Key Word: Shackled

[letsgetrowdy43]

Undivided attention—

Request: Luke has been simping over this sweet brunette girl who has the cutest dimples when she smiles. He decided to keep it a secret because he wanted to enjoy her all to himself. So he’s been rescheduling hanging out with his friends and brothers.

This is not my best work, but I'm pushing myself to write something!

from Luke: Can't make it tonight. Swamped with homework :/

from Mark: Boo you whore

Luke was greedy when it came to her. He would scream it from the rooftops if it meant that he could cherish her and love her away from the chirping and the pestering of his team. So he kept her his little secret, not because he was ashamed or embarrassed of her, but because he liked the privacy and the luxury of keeping her all to himself. No annoying roommates, no older brothers, just her and him in a little bubble of love without any outside voices.

Luke grinned as Y/n made eye contact with him from across the library, his phone buzzing in his pocket from the boy's complaints about how he's grown flakey over the past few months. The notifications died off as he turned on Do Not Disturb and joined the girl prettily sitting in the back of the library.

There was an array of textbooks in front of her as she ushered for him to take the seat next to her, smiling shyly under his loving stare, "you feeling okay Lukey?" she asked as he leaned in to press a kiss to her cheek. "M' doing just fine," he grinned as his thumb ran over the soft skin of her face, dipping into the dimple of her cheek as her grin made it grow more prominent.

"Let's get you caught up," she mumbled, trying to get his adoring stare off of her and onto the notes she prepared to help him get caught up in anatomy. His gaze stayed fixated on her as she organized her notes, awaiting his full and undivided attention.

"Luke" she whined and gently grabbed his face to make him look at the book opened up in front of them, "pay attention please." Luke shook his head, pulling himself out of the little trance he was caught in, "sorry," he grinned as she smiled back, "you're just too cute," he mumbled as her cheeks began to blush a dark red.

His hand came up to brush the face framing pieces of hair out of her eyes and tucking them behind her ears as she stared at him with no trace of amusement. "Stop distracting me, you need to study," she mumbled and looked from the books back at him, a pleased look on his face as he leaned forward and placed a short, but hungry kiss to her lips and then pulled away pointing at the book. "Okay, I'm ready to learn."

She stared at him, her eyes a little hazy from the surprising amount of loving he'd been giving her, flushed cheeks, as she fought off the lovesick feeling in her chest, "uhhh, okay, um where to start," she stalled and flipped through her book.

A laugh left Luke's lips as he dug through his bare for his laptop and books, giving her a second to collect herself before they actually started to study.

It was about half an hour later when she pressed a kiss to Luke's jaw as he got a question correct, and then a gasp erupted from across the room. Dylan and Ethan who had been sent on the mission of finding and trying to convince Luke to go out instead of spending his night in the library, but the sight of a pretty girl leaning up against him pulled a reaction out of the two boys.

"You skipped on boy's night to kiss your tutor?" Ethan whispered loudly as he and Dylan stood in front of the couple. Luke looked at his teammates unamused as the girl hid her face in his shoulder, praying that the blush would die down and she could hold a normal conversation without acting like some caught teenager.

"This is Y/n," he smiled as she looked up at his best friends with a nervous smile, "my girlfriend, not my tutor," he said watching as Dylan's face dropped with confusion. "You hid this from us?" he asked with a dropped jaw, "didn't even tell your best friends?" Luke shook his head at Duker's dramatics and turned to Y/n whose dimples were on display as she grinned at his roommates who were now bickering.

Ethan stopped his petty fight with Dylan to look at Luke, "please stop eye fucking her, there are people trying to study," he said watching as Luke looked at him smugly and sat back in his chair, arm wrapping around his girlfriend to pull her into his side as Dylan looked between the two of the distraughtly. "How long has this been going on?" "A little over two months," the girl finally spoke up as Dylan's eyes went wide. "I can't believe you Hughes, you really hid this from us, your roommates for this long!"

The people around the room were staring at the scene causing Y/n to shrink in her seat of embarrassment, Luke laughed at how shy she suddenly grew and then back at the boys, "Okay you guys gotta go, we need to finish studying." Both Ethan and Dylan looked taken aback at that statement as their brows furrowed, "Study?" Ethan laughed and then turned to the girl he just met, "What have you done to him?" "Oh fuck you, go home," Luke said and shooed them away as both Dylan and Ethan said their goodbyes to Luke and the girl before heading back to the sophomore house to tell Mackie and Mark the news that Luke wouldn't be going out.

"Sorry about them," Luke said kind of embarrassed as Y/n shook her head and grinned at him. "they seem lovely," she said while pressing a kiss to his shoulder before flipping to a new page in her notebook. "You'll think less highly of them once they're all in a room, or once they've had a few beers," he mumbled and looked back at her who was still smiling up at him.

Those damn dimples, he thought to himself as he squeezed her thigh and tried to focus back on the terms list in front of him.

-

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[tacorerooster]

Long Thread Shadow and Amy Rose. So with Sonic Movie 3 continuing the trend of Sega (or at the very less Sega of America) not giving a shit about Amy Rose, I’m gonna list all the shit she SHOULD HAVE BEEN IN, but was left out of

First off Every 90’s Dic Animated Cartoon (SatAM, AoStH and Underground), Amy around during each one of those productions yet she doesn’t show up, yet Tails and Knuckles both do, even tho A. She came out the same year as Tails and B. Showed up BEFORE Knuckles

Next would-be classic games collections minus Gems & Origins. Amy & her debut game Sonic CD for a long time was excluded from many of the Classic Collections, like Sonic Mega Collection, the DS collection & the Sonic's “Ultimate” Genesis Collection which had Archie & Spinball

Then we get to the modern era and oh boy this is fun. She’s in the 1st Sonic adventure as a playable character, all be it a Slow Character but still relevant, In SA2 she is not playable but has plot relevance, which I will get to later when talking about Movie 3

From there you have Heroes, Shadow, & 06. In Heroes she is a speed type like Sonic & Shadow, but can’t do ring dash or wall jumps & as many fans make clear she has the least popular group. Thank you, Shadow, for being So popular & taking Rouge from being apart of OG team Rose.

In Shadows game she is in 1 level & a cut scene at the end, even tho AMY was who got Shadow to be himself, Shadow Fans forget this. Tails & Knux who he has no history with get many. Heck Maria & Omega get more then Amy, despite being flat characters that exist to prop up Shadow

Next up 06, same before she in 1 level but gets 1 extra mission in the hub world. Whereas Shadow gets himself a whole campaign + vehicles, + his side characters get cooler gameplay than Amy. What does Amy get? Will she’s not long fast & for some reason can turn invisible. Clearly one of them got more attention during development. It also didn’t help Amy’s status as a love interest with Elise being there.

Now for the handheld games and it somehow gets worse for her. Dimps, the developers behind the Sonic Advance Trilogy + the Sonic rush Trilogy DID NOT LIKE AMY AT ALL! She gets to be the slow gimmick character in 1 & is not part of 2 but instead the hidden unlock you get the emeralds for.

In Rush, Dimps, makes Cream the Sidekick/Tails to Blaze even tho in the last game Amy & Cream where the female Sonic & Tails. They even write Amy as being abusive to Cream, A THING AMY WOULD NOT DO. Which is even dumber bc Marine shows up next game as the Tails to Blaze’s Sonic.

Now we have Sonic Battle, which does even less favors. Made by THQ (Not Sonic Team) you a cool Sonic fighting game, you let Amy form a Mother Child bond with a Robot, you give her some GODDAMN COOL ROCK LEE TRAINING WEIGHTS & Cream even says Amy is the strongest Women she knows.

But you have Amy starve herself for Sonic, not treat it seriously or for her friends to show concern. All her Attacks are Sonic driven, she thinks up a physical copy of Sonic to fight Rouge (which Fans use to say she is Crazy or Weaker than Rogue, both of them beat each up)

Finally in Handhelds is Sonic Rivals 1 &2 by Backbone Entertainment & Sega Studio USA. In 1 she is captured at the start ALONG WITH TAILS & saved at the end for Sonic to say he forgot about her & be creeped out by her. She’s not even in 2 so a good thing, can’t mess her up

We than get a period of time where Sonic games only have Sonic & Tails in them. So can’t mess her up like that (Unleashed is great for Her). In Sonic Forces while this point is minor, She along with Knuckles are leading the Resistance but Knux gets to be on the box & Amy doesn't

But I think the most damaging thing would be Sonic Mania. It makes itself out to be a celebration of all the things you loved about Classic Sonic from 1, 2, 3, Sonic & Knuckles, Knuckles Chaotix, Mean Bean Machine, Spinball and CD. But Amy somehow was not in any of it.

Hell I would say that Sonic Mania takes a good chunk from CD but no Amy. You get Amy Doll which explodes when it hugs you. (Get it the joke is that Amy is crazy & explosive and you don’t want her to hug you and should always run away from her ha ha so funny)

Fang Bean and Back get full sprites in Mania not Amy. Oh yeah and Mighty and Ray get to be playable but not Amy. There was even a hashtag for Amy to be added, only for Christin Whitehead or Sega to say - nah. (This is also why Origins and Superstars are better than Mania, Amy)

A pattern with all this is when people who aren’t Sonic Team write for Sonic, Amy usually gets the worst treatment (not to say she is the only 1, just the worst. Sonic X in Japanese is Great for Amy. But the English try & mess it up, but you still you get good stuff for her.

Not getting into Archie because if we are grading quality of how Amy is treated, that is dead last. PS Fleetway Amy Sweep and IDW Amy is Canon which I’m happy about.

This all to say and go back to my main point about Sonic Movie 3. I have like the Sonic movies so far, 2 was fantastic, but with the Knux show, the flaws showed to it & the movies. All of it is just marketing. The movie universe isn’t here to tell stories its here to sell stuff.

Wondering what I mean by this. So far the main Sonic character in the Sonic movie are Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, Shadow and Eggman. 4 being mobians & 1 human. When looking at the merchandise for Sonic as a whole you see it plan as day it is always Sonic Tails knuckles & Shadow. (Only recently has Amy been include but she still gets left out from time to time.)

Amy is supposed to be the fourth member of team Sonic, NOT Shadow. He not only has his own team he doesn’t even like Sonic, Knuckles or Tails. Hell straight up has a vendetta against Tails. But marketing keeps pushing them together

That’s what Sonic Movie 3 is MARKETING, not a story, bc if it was Amy would be in it already. Bc we have Sonic, Eggman, Echidna Tribe, Tails, Knux, Chaos Emeralds, Pac, Shadow, Maria, Gerald, GUN & no Amy. & Shadow Fans will say it is perfectly fine he needs all that screen time

I want to like Shadow, but he just sucks up any light from others. Rogue on Team Rose, no Fans want Shadow alive again, Amy Rose game? No Shadow Game. Other playable characters, no only Shadow. More Sonic Characters in a Sonic Movie? No, only characters tied to Shadow. But yeah

[justsomefluff]

hello! are requests open? if yes can i request ateez reaction to you having dimples, please? I love your writing!

Dimples are the cutest you lucky duck! <3

Trigger Warning: use of term "love-handle"

Hongjoong:

your smile is his favorite of all your features

especially when he knows that he's the reason for it

and youre dimples just seal the deal

loves to leave little kisses on your dimples whenever they appear

like if youre watching a movie and theres a scene that upsets you

your dimples will appear when you purse your lips

and he's just gotta kiss em

also takes uber artsy photos of them

like if youre sleeping, he'll get his camera out

lowkey creepy lmao

but he will get really close to take a picture of like, the corner of your mouth and snap a picture the second a dimple appears

and they actually turn out really well and he gets them printed

carries one with him on tour

Seonghwa:

when he holds your face

hold on, give me a minute before I cry

he uses your dimples to put his thumbs in

calls them love handles

but on your face

because he can hold you so easy and comfortably

even if he can't see them because your face is relaxed

he will just put his thumbs there and wait

it's impossible not to smile when he does it

and if you're having a rough day and not in the mood to smile

you at least humor him and tense your cheeks so your dimples appear

I'm crying anyway don't touch me

Yunho:

okay I know he doesn't really have dimples

but when he smiles his cheeks fluff out and theres like

a place where his smile lines will form one day? when he gets wrinklies?

and he'll put your hands on his smile line thingies

and then he'll poke your dimples

and say that your dimples would fit in his smile lines

and his smile lines would spoon your dimples lmao

cute but lowkey crack

bc wtf is he talking about

he will proceed to launch into a rant about how every part of you guys fit together so naturally and perfect

gets cheesy with it really fast lol

Yeosang:

the babygirl-est of the babygirls

he has lil soft baby dimples yk?

like you really need to pay attention to see them

and he doesn't really care about his own anyway to be honest

but if you say you like his then he will drag you into a mutual obsession with each other's dimples

he starts drawing all his hehetmons with lil dimples omg

will draw smiley faces with dimples on sticky notes to leave on your stuff or around your apartment

will have his makeup artists highlight that feature of his

and if you wear makeup he'll ask you to do the same

enjoys when you point out his dimples in his fancams

San:

okay this boy got some DIMPS

if he notices that you have them too he's endlessly endeared

will do more subtle things to show his appreciation for them instead of outright telling you he loves them on you

will kiss them... but then also press kisses to the rest of your face

will trace them with his fingers... but then brush some hair behind your ear

not as subtle as he thinks though

when he's drunk, or so tired that he feels drunk, he will definitely tell you

like "you know my favorite part about your face"

excuse me, wtf

"your dimples"

oh

Mingi:

we all know he don't be wearin' his GLASSES

so literally won't notice you have dimples until like... week 3 of dating you

but when he does notice?

OMG why didn't you tell him sooner

rages on about how he's missing all the beauty in the world

can't believe he never noticed

becomes a lil playful argument about why he either needs to wear his glasses, or invest in some contacts

he refuses because he'd love you even if he couldn't see at all

wait... did you just say you love me?

Wooyoung:

listen

will bite you.

He will, I swear

notices a dimple one day and the cuteness aggression is just too overwhelming

puts his teeth on your cheek and sees if his teeth fall into your dimple oh so perfectly

and they do

will make it a little game

will tell you to stop smiling and then gently put his teeth on your cheek and tell you to smile again

just to see if he can guess where your dimple shows

definitely an activity he gets a little overzealous about when he's drunk lmao

Jongho:

gentle sweet boy

will never tell you that he loves your dimples while you're paying attention nono

closeted soft boy

will trace them and kiss them while you're sleeping though

or at least while he thinks you're sleeping mwahaha

but you'll never tell him you know he does that because you never want him to stop

you may also notice that his lockscreen is always a photo where your dimples are extremely obvious

but please don't tease him he'll cry

[miloscat]

[Review] Sonic X Shadow Generations (PS5)

A wonderful 13th anniversary celebration of a 20th anniversary celebration.

The latest release in the Sonic series packs a remaster of Sonic Generations—considered by some to be the peak of the franchise—with a new game tying into the year of Luigi Shadow that revisits the concept from the ultimate Edgehog's perspective. Sonic Gens is still solid and benefits from a few tweaks but Shadow Gens rises above the level of side-content companion piece, feeling like a true next-generation (pun intended) Sonic game.

This is my second time playing through the [console version of] Sonic Generations, only this time I've actually played most of the games it's calling back to very recently. This let me appreciate much more what they're doing, creating new levels using iconic concepts from previous games. These levels definitely have the budget and design to be top-shelf 3D Sonic, and they gave Sonic Team the excuse to revisit cool ideas and up the ante, adding detail and bombast (like the souped-up City Escape truck chase, or the vibrant Rooftop Run with its new festival flair and Spagonia University being rendered within the level) or in some cases, actually make it good this time (like the Shadow and Silver boss fights). It's true that an unusually high proportion of stages are based in cities, but there's an effort to make them distinct. It is still a 3D Sonic game, so sure, I fell through the floor a few times, but this still remains excellent and highly polished, easily the best of the 3D boost formula, with some great [non-sluggish-feeling] classic-style takes on levels too.

As far as changes in this rerelease go, it's nice to see Generations shine with higher quality graphics, faster loading times, etc. The dialogue script has been updated a bit with new Ian Flynn writing replacing the Colours Chuckle Brothers quips; some of the changes have the anti-woke chuds up in arms, but Amy is in line with her more recent non-creepy characterisation and there's more acknowledgment of the past, fitting for a game built around that concept. Lives have been removed [yay!] but can be toggled back on, the drop dash is added to both Sonics, unique Chao have been added to each stage as collectibles, and the pinball DLC is included by default. The updates and additions are minor but they add up to make the package a bit smoother and more full-bodied. Like a fine wine, Generations has aged gracefully in 13 years.

This time I appreciated the selection of music that can be played over any stage or challenge; the vocal version of Endless Possibility is included despite not being available on streaming, and the vocal His World is also here despite not being in Frontiers, but Right There, Ride On from Rush has been removed, probably due to rights issues (this also affects Almost Dead in Shadow Gens, sadly).

My only real complaint is that this presented an opportunity to incorporate Dimps's 3DS version, and it's been completely and totally ignored for this release. I gave it a replay alongside this, and I love its Sonic 4-style take on Classic Sonic with a homing attack alongside its Rush-style Modern stages. I love its robust Mission mode, and the choices for stages that broaden the representation of the source games. It also has unique gallery images and unlockable music tracks that aren't in the console version. It has different boss choices, Special Stages, a Vs. mode, more fun Wisps in the Colours stage, and the final boss is less ass. None of that is in this remaster, and I think that's a shame.

Now, Shadow Generations is the other half of this package, and it's a doozy. Building on the events of Sonic Gens, it proposes that Shadow was in his own White Space thanks to the Time Eater while Sonic was doing his business. It complements the main event well by incorporating characters who were missing there: Omega, Big, Orbot & Cubot, [Rouge shows up too,] and a surprise time-shifted appearance by Maria and Gerald! The latter two in particular bring lots of opportunity for drama, character development, and lore, although all have interesting things to say as the plot progresses, so it's worth going back and chatting to them. Thanks Ian Flynn!

In Shadow's case, he has levels based on his major game roles: Adventure 2, Heroes, Sonic 06, and Forces... also there's a Frontiers level even though he had no presence in that game whatsoever?? It's a good level and cool to reinterpret that game's iconography into traditional-style gameplay, but it's an odd choice for a Shadow-focused game. Even odder is the lack of a specific Shadow 05 level, although there is overlap in that game with locations from SA2 and Heroes, I guess. The stages are lots of fun, mostly with Act 1 being a big setpiece-driven 3D affair and Act 2 being a more straightforward 2D experience. These are then fleshed out with smaller challenges just like in the Sonic portion, although all are mandatory this time. A DLC update also added a single-Act level based on the Sonic 3 movie, with Shadow (with a movie-inspired look and Keanu Reeves voice) running through Tokyo. It's inconsequential to either plot but still a fun level and a nice bonus.

In between levels the White Space is now an explorable 3D area, taking some cues from Frontiers' open zones. I loved zooming around this place, finding collectibles and doing little challenges, and it continues to open up as you make progress. Shadow's new abilities play into this as he gains new movement tech by accessing his Black Doom-derived biology. These are mostly contextual, like a water surfing power or a kind of octo-morph for traversing goop, which make for a change of pace within levels and exploration keys in the overworld. I thought these were implemented better than gimmicky Wisp powers, since they're always available once unlocked and don't intrusively change the gameplay too much. The equivalent to a Super state is some grody alien wings that sprout from his back; these cost rings to use but let Shadow fly in a straight line to totally cheese certain levels.

Just like Sonic Gens, the represented locations and setpieces are enhanced from their original appearances; everything looks fantastic! Aside from the explicit references, I thought I detected some Lost World influence in the tunnel sections, and even got some Rise of Lyric vibes from some of the overworld stuff... that might just be me projecting though. During most levels, Black Doom (he's back!) interrupts proceedings to taunt Shadow and warp the world, with some fun and surreal kaleidoscopic effects as the environment bends and shifts; this felt like an expansion on the idea of Inifinite doing similar things in a Metropolis level in Forces. Sequences like this and others are accompanied by brief cutscene-like events, which can be a little annoying if you're replaying the level for goodies or a better time, but they're pretty quick so it's not too bad.

Speaking of Infinite, I think it's a shame that he has no presence in this game at all when his conflict with Shadow is the most significant thing Shadow has done in a game since 2008 or 9. The game is otherwise pretty stacked with great boss encounters, with Biolizard (in a much more expanded fight than the Generations 3DS rehash), Metal Overlord, Mephiles (who wants to restore his existence to the timeline while Shadow doesn't remember him [Sonic does apparently remember the events of Sonic 06 though??]), and a final battle with Black Doom.

Shadow plays great, even with new abilities piled on like Chaos Spear projectiles and a Chaos Control time-stop. Unlike Sonic Gens, you can rail-hop with the shoulder buttons, although oddly you can't use the D-pad to move in 2D sections. Shadow Gens carries over some of the player-controlled movement tweaking that Frontiers had which is a nice touch. I didn't really use him much in Forces, but here in his own game with a raft of unique powers, Shadow does stand out as more than just a faker.

Giving an opportunity to delve into his character is very welcome too. Shadow Gens really makes a case for him as a compelling character in a way that very few Sonic games have before (Battle and Shadow 05 are the main ones I'm thinking of). This is aided by a 14-minute anime prologue called Dark Beginnings which showcases some awesome animation and sets up the premise, as well as flashing back to Shadow's time on the Ark. Don't miss the fight scene with Emerl! I'm glad I dipped back into the Dreamcast-and-beyond era, since this all hits that much harder with that context, and once again we have Ian Flynn to thank for bringing it home with the story and writing.

I wasn't too impressed by this package at its announcement, but the more I've immersed myself in the Sonic seas the more appealing it became. Revisiting Sonic Generations came at the perfect time for me, and Shadow Generations is a great expansion that brings so much more to the table... I just wish it was even bigger and not relegated to a kind of side dish! (My normal playthrough was a little shorter in Shadow's campaign, but doing all the extra side stuff doubled that length.) It also fires the imagination... what would a Blaze Generations look like?? Or a Big X Froggy Generations???? Keep an eye on those prolific fangame creators...

[toomagazineperfection]

What's a beauty of courage? What's a war? A war-in lay. An administration girl. A company. She's beautiful. A lie. A thing we all know of hope. A hope in war. A war in lay. A lie. A thing. A nice. A God. Her. Her height. War-supernova. A technology-superlative. A heaven in charge of her. A thing we all know for surprise. A thing. A putty. Her lie. A thought-of her becoming. A lie. A thing in lay of surprises. A writing. A fare. A war. A lay. A light. A loom. A leap. A leaf. How is beautiful courage? It is not. It mixes and tinges. Beauty forseen underground capacity of war is the time required to leap. A laid-in capacity of the sher. A lie. A diamond lie. She was eight. Her height capacity. Her mouth. Her sitter. Her lie. Her mouth to the becoming war is she. A lie to the war is he. His love and life is the moon becoming rice of the said world. A lie. A thought. A mouth. A become. A groom. A her. Lie. Silver-told lie. A liar. In become. A mouth. Her. Her lie. Her thought. Her space. Her moon. I love you. I love her. I loved her lone. Her first love. A love lifed his eye. His car-manes of all. Measuring author spices. Her height. Become. Her war. A hooping measure. A lie. A heaven. A sight. A leave. A loaf. A bread. Her. Money mint. Paper dimp. Her. She.

Sunidhi

[fernthewhimsical]

Sources on Dutch deities masterpost

I've been researching the Dutch pantheon (if you can call it that) for about 13 years now. I had dreams of writing a book, but I don't see that happening. So instead I am sharing the sources I have amassed with your all. I'll keep updating this when I have the spoons. If you have sources that I don't please get in touch!

[D] means that the source is in Dutch. *means that I know of its existence but have not gotten my hands on it yet.

General Books and Articles: Antwoord op de vraag, door het Zeeuwse Genootschap de Wetenschappen (book) – Jona Willem te Water [D] Over de beoefening der Nederlandse mythologie, naar aanleiding der jongste tot dat onderwerp betrekkelijke geschriften (book) – Johan van der Wal [D] Verhandelingen over het Westland (book) – Derk Buddingh [D] Nederlandsche volksoverleveringen en Godenleer (book) – L. Ph. C. van den Bergh [D] Goden van de Lage Landen (book) - Gardenstone/Gunivortus Goos [D]* de Goden der Germanen (book) - Jan de Vries [D]* Volksgeloof en Volksleven (book) – H.W. Heuvel [D]* Friese Volksgebruiken weerspiegeld in Europese Folklore (book) – Dr. J. van der Ven [D]* Folklore der Lage Landen (book) – TJ.W.R. de Haan [D]* Teutonic Mythology vol.1 to vol.4 (books) – Jacob Grimm Teutonic Religion (book) – KveldúlfR Gundarsson* Godinnen van eigen bodem (book) - Ineke Bergman [D]* < please verify everything

General Links: Reginheim - Forgotten Gods Het Rad [D] (also an extensive book list available) Goden van eigen bodem [D] < so good! Stam van de Vos [D] < please verify everything

Baduhenna: the Annals (book) - Tacitus Baduhenna, Godin van het Slagveld (PDF) [D]- W.A. Braakman De alde dyk (PDF) - Anneke Koers [D] Hoe de Godin verdween uit Oldholtpade (direct .doc) - W.A. Braakman [D] Taaldacht (webpage) - Baduhenna [D] War-goddesses, furies and scald crows: The use of the word badb in early Irish literature (webpage with link to PDF) - Kim Heijda The Valkyries and the Irish War-Goddesses (JSTOR) - Charles Donahue

Nehalennia: Deae Nehalenniae (booklet) - Kooijmans, L. & Stuart, P. e.a. [D] Nehalennia, AO Reeks 1340 (booklet) - P. Stuart [D] Nehalennia. Documenten in steen (book) - P. Stuart [D] Nieuw Licht op Nehalennia (book) - Annine v.d. Meer [D] De Drie Dames uit Duitsland (book) - Annine v.d. Meer [D] Wat is Nehalennia zonder schip (book) - Dimp Nelemans [D]* Nehalennia, godin van de zeekust (book) - Gunivortus Goos [D]* Nehalennia, het laatste offer (fiction) - Martinus de Kam [D] Nehalennia; De geheimen van de lichtkracht ontrafeld (book) - Demi H. Quins [D]* < please verify everything De Nehalennia reliëfs (article) - H. Hardenberg [D] Over de naam van de Godin Nehalennia (article) - J. E. Bogaers [D] Waar bleef de Nehalennia verering? (article) - H.J.M. Thiadens [D] Nehalennia, een Zeeuwse Venus (article) - Frank de Klerk [D] Nehalennia, taalkundige oplossing voor een Zeeuws raadsel (webpage) - P.A. Kerkhof Nogmaals Nehalennia (archive) - E. Thevenot, H. Hardenberg [D] Once More Nehalennia (JSTOR) - H. Wagenvoort Nameless or Nehalennia (archive) - Frank Jenkins F.S.A. The Journey of the Souls of the Dead to the Isles of the Blessed (JSTOR) - H. Wagenvoort Nehalennia and the Souls of the Dead (JSTOR) - H. Wagenvoort Livius.org (website)

[beevean]

And onto Rush Adventure now:

-Tbh at first i wasnt sold on the materials grinding for ships but later liked how it gives you a reason to improve your scores on the levels so you can get more. Idk i usually dont care abt scores but w the external motivation? Yea

-Same w the misions, good way to have lil extra stuff to do (that said why did they block the sound mode songs behind misions. Game pls my internet makes opening youtube an odyssey and now this too? Cruelty 😔)

-Oh and also the ship minigames! Its fun to have a map you can explore, and the races w Jhonny for the chaos emeralds are way better than the Surely Existing special levels (also srry if i got his name wrong lmao)

-Onto the soundtrack; its more broad compared to rush, and each song does matches well the enviroment. I like the tropical coastal vibes of the main town n training level, and oh man. Sky babylon and deep core my beloveds who literally got engraved in my neurons so hard i was struggling reading hours later bc the darn tunes kept playing in the background of my skull. Well scratch that all the tunes keep playing on the bg of my skull rn, what kind of eldritch curse is this). So yes good ost 👍

-Overall the aesthetic n vibes are also more broad with that tropical relax overtone, its quite nice. The difficulty is also way more forgiving (i mean i played on easy but that's the mode the game came in) and the tutorials with the controls are helpful (yes i struggled with the jump dash in the previous game how can you tell)

- The story is also more calm and silly goofy but in a good way (can def see what ppl mean by the diff eras in sonic writing there). I also liked Whisker being the main but kinda dumb villain for funnies vs the eggmans being a bigger threat)

-I liked the scene in the coral cave where Blaze appears bc my mind was half "haha i knew we were in Blaze's world, neat" and " weeee hi Blaze, game of the year :D"

-Marine was also neat, liked her silly dynamic of cheerful kid who is a bit too full of herself and is kind of a brat abt it, and how she later learns to admit her own limits :) And the koala villagers were neat too i like their designs :)

Overall thank you for letting me ramble into your ask box abt these games, its been fun :D

lmao yeah it's a nice incentive! I think the only other game that gives you a reward with higher ranks is Unwiished (another Dimps game), where the higher the rank the more medals you get.

also sonic 🤝 hector:having to earn their crafting materials

The missions are a good way to extend the gameplay, but IIRC some of the Sol Emerald missions were brutal... I have flashes of the Blizzard Peak mission.

The waterbike was genuinely really fun and I hated that it was considered the "worst" vehicle for travel :( I don't like the submarine, let me travel the world on my tiny waterbike while the best music plays :( also yeah the Special Stages with Johnny are original! Certainly more than Half Pipe 50.0

SRA'S OST was composed by veterans Tomoya Ohtani and Mariko Nanba while trying to recreate Naganuma's style. Definitely unique and underrated. Sky Babylon used to be my favorite too! But there are so many tracks that IMO deserve more love, like Haunted Ship, Blizzard Peaks, the boss theme and Whiskers & Johnny <3

Funny to think SRA came out one year after '06, widely criticized at the time for being too melodramatic :P Whiskers is also a nice case of Eggman being the twist villain for once! Although the credits of the "bad" ending spoil him and Nega, lol. Not that Whiskers looks mysterious himself... eh you get it.

Marine seems to have been reevaluated recently, like many things from the 2000s. I remember that back then no one could stand her and her Aussie accent lmao, precisely because she was an annoying brat. She is still mildly underrated, but I think the modern fandom generally "forgave" her because they understood that she was meant to be a foil for Tails, who is more insecure.

(two fun facts: in some countries, SRA initially got a 12+ rating because Marine says "bugger", which is pretty mild for Aussie slang but is much stronger for American standards. Also, Marine is Australian because in original she speaks in Kansai-ben, and I guess that was a way to recreate the cultural connotations! That and koalas :P)

You're welcome, you're free to rant at any time <3

[crusherthedoctor]

To be fair, Eggman reusing badnik designs completely was rare in Sonic Team games until Colors. 1991-1998 only the CD needle bug was reused in Chaotix, and Egg Robo for R, making it very rare that period. Metal is distinctly a unique class

2000 Pocket Adventure cuz Dimps was new is the first case to reuse entirely. Internally it seems to be intended for Jam's release

Then 2000s;

-SA2 E-1000 reuse Gamma/Zeta's base. The new Unidus and Spinner from SA1 return. Also Green Hill for 10th anniversary

-Advance has some Adventure 1 enemies since ST and Dimps were bringing forth a new 2D era and needed a base early levels. Advance 2 replaces most of them, with only 2 (Stinger, Spinner) being used in all 3

Rush reuses some Heroes enemies (Flappers, Pawns, Hammer, Magician), though Rush Adventure replaces em fully

06 and Riders had new robots

Unleashed similarly is completely new

Motobug wasn't even ladybug based initially until Colors/Gens

Colors, Gens, Sonic 4s, LW, and Mania unashamedly reuses many Sonic 1-CD + 3K enemies.

Forces brings new enemies, bar the reused Egg Dragoon (though that's a boss/mech)

*It's important to note many share design similarities for gameplay

All this shows Eggman for a good chunk of his career was innovating. Sadly romhacks spam the same exact designs/enemies, despite him moving on, until early 2010s

Sadly "Classic" Eggman is just stuck with 1-3K enemies for branding after. Hurray for nostalgia pandering

Again, I don't have a problem with classic robots and mechs being used in itself. Having all new Badniks or new variations of old ones is great, but I'm okay with old ones reappearing so long as there's a decent amount of new ones alongside them, which is the case with... most of the newer games. (I feel it's harsh to take Generations in particular to task for it since it's already about revisiting old levels. Mania has a similar justification, albeit to a different extent.)

The reason I take issue with it in IDW - aside from it coming completely at the expense of new Badniks and inventions - is because they're clearly being used for brownie points by crewmembers who don't know the games nearly as well as they and their stans think they do. Stuff like Eggman in the Egg Emperor VS Starline in the Lost World mech, or obscure Game Gear/Advance Badniks hanging around in the background doing nothing, or multiple Egg Viper recolors, makes it easy for fans to be all like "See? They know the franchise so well! They're True Fans just like us!", even though they're constantly misremembering what happened in the games and getting the characters wrong.

Nostalgia "pandering" is one thing, everyone has their views on that one way or the other (considering the complaints of such tend to come from fans who suddenly approve of it when it's the Adventure Era's turn...), but using classic likeness to distract from writing fuck-ups is where I call bullshit. It might be minor in the grand scheme of IDW's list of faults, but as an Eggman robot connoisseur, I don't appreciate it when they're used in such a cynical way.

[jlf23tumble]

Do you think Harry and Taylor were really together? Before these vault tracks I believed it was a 3 month pr stunt but now I'm not sure. And some fans are saying they were on off for a year or 2. She sure did write a lot of songs about him i could believe it

Personally, no, I don't, and I have seen some timelines from the non-harr faction, non-this fandom faction, full stop (heh) give it more legs than 3 months, but that said, I don't think the length of time really matters, it served what it had to serve! Everyone got what they needed! I'm in the camp that thinks it was a mutual bearding sitch, she had her lady with the green eyes, accent, dimps, etc., and the under relationship synched up with the over one (my god, the whole In Style Dianna cover shoot with the sly boots lyrics/timing to Style, WHEW). I need to check in with that camp to see how they're reading these new tealeaves, but even if they aren't connecting dots, the whole thing gave some good grist for a particular mill if you're a creative writer, and my god, she is!

[unlimitedtrees]

u ever heard of Pepsi in Sonic 1

(alternative title for this post: the weird rom hack i made 6 years ago)

hello. at the time of me writing this opening paragraph, it is november 7th, and my old rom hack 'Pepsi in Sonic 1' turns six years old today.

you probably have not have heard of it. if you have, you probably either watched somecallmejohnny play it once, or you ran into it while looking up sonic rom hacks on youtube, or you got a random DM from me asking "u ever heard of pepsi in sonic 1" for no reason other than because its funny.

if you already know me, you know i am bad with words and conversation and stuff. but if you dont, i hope that helps a bit of understanding in why i might randomly ask u if u heard of this weird little rom hack. i am bad with starting a conversation ! and my dumb little sense of humor thinks it's funny to bring up a rom hack that doesnt even represent any of the things i currently do !

anyways, even though i joke a lot about this rom hack now and for a few years even Hated its very existence... i also have a deep love for it, as it was one of the few fangames ive made that i feel were made of pure, unrestrained passion. and i dont think i would be the same person i am now if not for this dumb little hack existing.

so, if u wish.. you can click the little 'read more' thingy to learn a bit about this crazy sonic hack i made when i was like, 13.

Alright, so Pepsi in Sonic 1 is a rom hack of (you guessed it) Sonic 1 that i made in 2016 for the sonic hacking contest. at that point, i had only been making games for 2 years and this was one of my first rom hacks ive ever made...

On the Surface, it looks like just a simple joke hack that replaces Sonic with a can of Pepsi. there's also a ton of other sprites that get changed into random little jokes, with some of the more notable changes being Big the Cat replacing Eggman, Jimmy Neutron replacing the Newtron badniks, and the wrecking ball sprite being replaced by a sprite based off Somecallmejohnny's "amiibo face". The game also has a ton of other silly little jokes, such as changing every level's names to something dumb or changing the level art slightly. And the people who played it pretty much wrote it off as just that... just a weird little joke hack that you may or may not have found funny.

but let me tell u.. there is more to this dumb little rom hack than u think ! one of the most major changes to the original game is that every level has been edited to have almost completely new level design.. and honestly a lot of the levels hold up pretty well. the Are some problems which come from the way they were designed.. for u see, i still didnt know a whole lot so a lot of the levels are built on top of the original Sonic 1 layouts, with some sections in some levels being kept the same, as well as all of the levels being forced within the original size limits of the levels (on Top of me having to deal with all the hardcoded bullshit from certain levels like Labyrinth and Scrap Brain).

So, some levels like 'Not Green Hill Zone', 'Dimps Place Zone', and 'Pepsi City Zone' have some really huge changes to the level layouts, while the rest of the game is still a little recognizable from the original Sonic 1 levels.. but i managed to make enough changes to where the whole game feels wildly different from vanilla Sonic 1. Not Only are all the levels different.. but all of them have a hidden "emerald monitor" which u can find to unlock one of the emeralds. they're in pretty difficult to find places, and when u collect all 6 emeralds they give you extra lives when destroyed. The only problem with them is that you can keep collecting the same emerald monitor in a level by dying... so you could cheat and get all 6 emeralds in one level. Still, it's a nice little thing that i put a lot of effort into making.

another one of the main big things in the hack is the Playable Characters. the main character is just a Pepsi Can who is basically just a sprite replacement of Sonic, However there are three other characters in the game that you can play. there is Pepsiman, who's main gimmick is that he can't actually do Damage while spinning. he's basically the game's hard mode, and you actually have to explore the third act of each level to find an invincibility monitor, as he also can't do damage to the bosses. he is the Running Hero, after all ! his only desire is to quench your thirst.. oh and also he can destroy eggman monitors without taking damage from them so. Yea.

You can also play as Classic Sonic, who is his own separate character and uses sprites from the 8-bit games. unlike the other characters, he actually has his own special move: The Drop Dash. You See, in the middle of the hack's development, Sonic Mania was revealed. So, as soon as i saw the drop dash in that game i just Had to implement it in this game. And Well, with it being one of the first instances of the drop dash in a fangame, it is implemented Very Poorly. But It Exists ! and there's actually secret paths you can take using it in the levels (something i wish Sonic Mania did but oh well..). Something that Classic Sonic doesnt have that the Pepsi Can and Pepsiman have is that they can perform the 'Shield Double Jump', in which you are given the ability to double jump while having a Shield. the double jump is pretty powerful, but it stops your speed. i didnt give it to Classic Sonic for Balancing reasons (AKA: i wanted there to be a reason to actually play as the other characters)

the only other character is actually a very hidden secret character: a Very Broken version of Knuckles. all of his sprites are broken and also i think it plays loud music while u play as him. thats all there is to him LOL!

Anyways. Um Yea. i put a lot of work into this rom hack back then. i was still pretty new to ROM hacking, with this being my first time using a disassembly. so i had to both learn basic ASM aswell as figure out how a ton of tools worked just for this game.. and i didn't even understand how most of the stuff worked by the end of it ! and i spent pretty much every weekend Exclusively on working on the hack. also, i had pretty much No Help with this game, with me having to rely on the Very Old and Outdated sonic retro wiki aswell as old forum posts just to implement the things i wanted (and there's still a ton of ideas i didnt get to implement)

when the game finally released at the hacking contest, i was very proud of it but also very Burnt Out. there was still a Ton of issues with this game... for One, all of the pixel art was pretty Bad. not only that, but my method for implementing artwork was very Confusing and Time consuming, with the different playable characters being a huge hassel as i did not know how to make them have different "mappings", which made making the different characters very restricting. there's also little problems with the level design, such as certain "chunks" being misused at some points and also Labyrinth Zone being not as edited as the other zones

i think one of the biggest mistakes i made with this game is with the jimmy neutron sprite... You See, in the original Sonic 1, the Newton badnik has two variants with different behaviors. one uses the first palette line, which contains the colors used for Sonic and most of the objects in the game. the Other varient uses a separate palette line specific to Green Hill Zone, which gives it a more green color scheme. You See.. the jimmy neutron sprite wasnt implemented until the Very End of the game's development... and i never bothered to check the other variant of the jimmy neutron sprite to see if it worked with the new palette and Um..

Yeah . it is not supposed to look like that. this is something that i didnt realize until awhile ago when i replayed the hack for this post. i feel pretty stupid for not noticing it sooner.

anyways. part of what made me hate this game for awhile is The Humor. you see, when it came out, a lot of the people in the hacking community thought it was Unfunny and Dumb. So, by extension, i also started Hating it for being a Dumb and Unfunny rom hack. And well... i made this hack when i was 13, so there Are a lot of dumb unfunny stuff in this hack, like replacing the Points sprite with 'GAY', or having one of the sprites be of ken penders' face.

a lot of things in this hack havent aged well, but i think ive grown to accept this hack's existence. its one of the first things ive made that got Some sort of public knowledge, even if still very few people have played it. And i think, if it werent for me making this hack and joining the hacking community, i wouldnt have ended up in the crazy situation i am in today..

i may joke about askin people if theyve heard of pepsi in sonic 1, and although i would prefer if people checked out my newer stuff, i also hope at least Some One, Some Where, can appreciate the dumb little hack i made. this hack was very important to me when i made it, it was made before i even fully interacted with the hacking community. it has all sorts of dumb little ideas that i tried to do despite all the restrictions i had.. and it was a little soul crushing back then when no one payed much attention to the game i spent Months working on. nowadays, i think ive come to accept being a niche little game dev.. but also i cant help but wonder if there are people out there who like my strange little creations as much as i do...

anyways. Idont know. i probably am missing out a lot of things that i wanted to say. this whole thing is probably incomprehensible (i am currently writing this paragraph at 1 am on November 13). it has been Very Hard for me to Do Things or to even Write Down my thoughts on things. but i hope you appreciate this little thing i wrote about the thing i made.

Oh, And By the Way, pepsi in sonic 1 is open source on github. mostly for archival reasons but if for some reason you wish to mess around with it... it is there for u to do whatever u want with it. Lol.

that is all. goopbye

[the-unlucky-trevor]

I've decided to completely forgo AI when it comes to writing, so I will share my revamped version of Twiġræċe. Is there anything I should do next?

The World of Twiġræċe.

Races

The Dimp is an odd creature. It is an elflike creature with a pair of horns akin to a pronghorn antelope in adulthood, and a thin tail. They are descendants of the human, who went extinct long ago. They are able to blow smoke from their nose if angered. The plural noun of the Dimp is Dimpen, and the juveniles and infants are called Dimplings. They have a rivalry with Wolf people that lasted an ungodly amount of time, to the point of trafficking them and the situation on the Oak Continent.

The Wolf person retains the appearance of an average Timber wolf in the Human Realm, but unlike their more mundane counterparts, they walk on two legs and are more intelligent than them. They are divided into two sub-races, including the Coyotes and the Foxes. Their race also includes hermaphroditic sexes that can reproduce. However, like in the Human Realm, hermaphroditism, or, less offensively, being intersex, is a spectrum, meaning it varies from person to person. They have a long-lasting rivalry with Dimpen to the point of abducting their children to either kill them or eventually turn them against them. The juveniles and infants are called pups.

Despite popular belief, trolls aren’t that bad. Sure, they are an obscure race, but several accounts say that one species akin to white-furred hippos, albeit squishier, is rather friendly, thus is no threat, while another group that looks like goats cause mild amounts of trouble for the heck of it. Dimpen have also been reported living among them

The Half-Wolf is a rather rare race resulting from a Dimp having a child with a Wolf person. They are highly frowned upon, and they are often killed in infancy, the most notorious case being in the Oak Continent.

The Demigods are the result of a god creating a mortal child. They have the average appearance of their assigned race (e.g, Wolf, Dimp or otherwise) but they do show signs of unusual powers, such as being able to control certain elements, like water, earth, fire or air. They say that the non-gods with magical abilities are descended from the demigods.

The Weredimp takes on the appearance of a Dimp, but during full moons, a loss of control, or sometimes voluntarily, will turn into a wolf. It is a relatively new race so not a lot is known about them

Continents

The world of Twiġræċe is made up of multiple different continents, including the Taiga, Oak, Ocean, Rainforest, Desert, Flowering, and Tundra continents, named for the majority of plant life on each continent. However, in a bizarre example, the Ocean continent is made up of multiple different subcontinents that broke up long ago. However, the Oak and Rainforest Continents are of a rather large concern.

For 1,000 years, Twiġræċe was in a sort-of global conflict between the Oak continent, ruled by a line of dictators known as the Raptos Dynasty. Their goal was to wipe out every single Wolf person and other related races in the realm. At some point they took over the Rainforest continent and made it into a police state, where even the smallest crimes could earn Wolf people the death sentence, and if pups were to commit one, they would be trafficked until age 16, or if the slave owner wants it, have them killed.

On the Oak continent, the Raptos Dynasty has an innumerable number of followers known as the Wolf Trappers to aid them with their attempted genocide. Now, here’s where the war comes in.

When the Wolf Trappers and Raptos wanted every Wolf gone, they MEANT every. Wolf. Gone, so they started invading other continents to wipe them off the face of the Realm. Some fought against it, like the Tundra, Taiga, and Flowering areas, but others just didn’t want to deal with the Trappers. They didn’t like them, but they didn’t contribute to the war, like the Desert and Ocean areas, and some provinces of the Taiga continent.

Magic

Magic isn’t like the stuff in Harry Potter or stuff. It’s more of an ATLA-style magic system, with some laws. Those descended from demigods are able to control one element at a time. The Avatar doesn’t exist. Yet. Though controlling elements is present in all cultures, you are not allowed to use them as a form of unjustified assault, such as bonebending, bloodbending, or otherwise. You are not allowed to impact the world negatively as a result of playing God with elements, and you are NOT allowed to use them as weapon of war.

[angry-garden-gnome]

Chapter Summary: Peridot begins to feel that maybe winter break is a lot longer than it should be, and she's not prepared to deal with the consequences.

Word Count: 4,556

Start here

[digitalindiamissionprogram]

The 5 Best Google SEO Strategies for 2022

These are five useful ideas that you may use to boost your website's organic search traffic. These are some of the most useful hints we've acquired over the last 6 months. Many of these will be included in our own SEO strategy.

Meta descriptions

The dreaded meta descriptions now need to be worked on. This is an old-school SEO technique. However, according to a recent survey, just 30% of websites currently include meta descriptions.

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However, writing clear and concise meta descriptions can actually entice users to click, which means using descriptions that include your focus keywords that people are actually searching for so that when Google uses your meta description, it encourages those clicks and acts as additional marketing for your brand and website.

Restore high-performing content

After a few years, content can become obsolete. This is how things generally go. You have a blog, you update it with new content, and you share it on social media. After then, the majority of people will forget about it.

So go back through your top material over the last few years, as far as you want to go, and see what you can relaunch by improving it without changing the URL. Simply relaunching some of your previous content with a few new tweaks can result in significant increases in organic clicks.

Improve internal linking

When it comes to increasing clicks, Seo companies normally concentrate on two factors. A good title tag and meta description can generate more clicks, but an enhanced internal linking strategy can also boost clicks. There are certainly some internal linking chances on your website that you haven't considered yet.

Update old content with new links

Replace old links with new ones in your old material. This step is often overlooked. When you publish a new blog post or piece of content, make sure to go back and update your existing material with the new links, especially your best-performing older blog pieces.

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Delete unnecessary links

Remove any links that aren't necessary for your website's content. That's PageRank sculpting at work. SEO page ranking causes varied emotions among people, but it is effective to an extent.. It's not the same as sculpting a page with no-follow links.

It's only a matter of eliminating any links that aren't necessary. Is it required for every page of your website to include a link to your team page? Is it absolutely required to have a link to your contact form on every page of your website? The answer is usually no most of the time.There may be circumstances in which it would be appropriate, however. When you delete the irrelevant links, it's easy to convey more link equity to the ones that matter, and those links are a better Google ranking signal.

Core Web Vitals

Invest in the most important aspects of your website. These are some of the latest page experience cues that Google has highlighted and will continue to focus on in 2022. In the near future, this will very certainly be a ranking element. This one boils down to site performance and providing a positive page experience. Because some of these issues are extremely technical, Google provides tools such as Lighthouse to assist with website development.

[obanaispy]

¡ twenty88 !

< adult audience only >

who?: exhusband!eren + brat!y/n

wc: 1k

plotline: marriages aren’t promised to last forever.. so why does it seem like the marriage perks are never ending? y/n and eren hookup and deepen the connection without much care week after week but i mean shit.. you can’t break something that’s already broken. might as well get some dick!

warnings: toxic behavior , slight anal <thumb in butt> , choking , mentions of breeding, spanking, the urge to go back to your ex , degrading

notes: really just got the urge to write this and decided to roll with it! send in requests for more thoughts or simply tell me how you’re doing today. enjoy xx ps. you have a tramp stamp & back dimps in this babe

music to listen to: <click me>

“let me come get my clothes and i swear you won’t hear from me again”

“this bitch thinks i’m stupid..” y/n stared at the message, blinking before simply giving it a thumbs up reaction— throwing her phone on the bed.

the cycle was repetitive. eren left whatever he could from hair ties.. to socks.. down to a piece of fucking paper. as stupid as that sounds, y/n would let him in each time.. the ending result never failing to be bomb sex. this time would be different though! she was really over this man and his lame ass excuses.. though her actions did go against this mindset as she changed into the two piece set he loved when they were together. the cropped hoodie slightly showed the tattoo that sat below her breast while the matching shorts hugged her hips firmly— tramp stamp prominent.

eren showed up in about 35 minutes, hands fiddling with the car keys in his pocket as he waited at the door, teeth biting down on the inside of his cheeks as he suppressed his smirk. his eyes immediately fell down as soon as y/n opened the door, licking his lips without much thought. “sup..” he murmured, sighing out as she simply rolled her eyes and turned to walk back into the house. “just hurry up and get your shit” y/n bluntly stated, turning to face him with her arms crossed.

running his hand through his hair he sighed, approaching her as his arms went around her waist— pulling them in slightly. “you should know i don’t give a fuck about those clothes, y/n.. you know what i came here for..”

y/n could do nothing but scoff, her head turning to the side but her body staying stuck in place. “well i guess you’re leaving empty handed and unfucked.”. chuckling, eren brought his head down to her neck as he allowed for his lips to trail along the spots he had learned throughout the years— lovebites being left as he reminded y/n of whose she was. she could do nothing but bite down onto her lip, eyes fighting the urge to flutter shut before ultimately failing. bringing a hand up to the side of his face, it trailed to lace into his hair as she allowed for her body to slightly relax into his touch— words still refusing to leave her mouth.

“silent treatment?”. without warning, eren lifted her up before beginning to walk to the bedroom they had once shared. throwing her down on the bed he immediately went to grip the back of his shirt— ripping it off in one swift motion.

“let’s see how long until i have you begging.”

bitch. you could’ve at least lasted until he put the tip in.

y/n was a moaning mess as soon as he started to slurp on her clit. her ass was tooted into the air as his hands sat on their hips— thumbs pressing into the faint dimples in her back. the pillow pressed against her face could barely muffle her whines, her lack of control causing eren to let out a vibrating chuckle against her cunt. that stunt alone caused her orgasm to reach its peak, body jerking back into his mouth as he worked to slurp all of her up, a hand moving from her hip to smack her ass. eren was sure to not come up for air until he had drained her of every drop. “i missed this..” he thought, brain flooding with each memory of her from their days of constant fucking. each intimate position. every single type of moan she had and what actions made her make which ones.

eren took a moment to line himself up with her awaiting hole, one hand pumping his leaking cock as the other went up to his mouth— lips closing around his thumb to wetten it. sliding the thick digit into her ass he let out a shaky breath at the way the tight button hugged him. “ready for me sweetheart?”. sinking into her pussy he groaned, head falling back as his hand went to grip her ass harshly. “fuck.. missed this pussy so much.. can tell she missed me too..” eren growled, hips quickly picking up the pace. his head came back forward to gaze at the way her cunt hugged his dick, visibly pulling him back in each time he pulled out.

with each slam into her y/n let out a squeak, eyes crossing as her arms struggled to hold up her body. “harder eren..” she demanded, shrieking as a hard spank came down against her ass. “who?” he questioned, body crouching over so that his hand wrap behind her bare neck— fingers tightening around the sides as he pulled her up with him.

“e-eren” she smirked, mouth quickly falling open as his strokes sped up, the grip around her neck tightening as the thumb in her ass left so that the hand it accompanied could pull her back into his thrusts. bringing his lips to her ear, eren darkly chuckled.

“you should know better than to test me, slut. try again.”

y/n thought she could remain strong until she felt his strokes slowing down, cock not filling her as much as it did before. “daddy.. daddy please m’ so so sorry.. fuck your pussy harder. promise i’ll be good” she choked out, earning a satisfied hum from him. “much better. make sure you never try that shit again, fuckdoll.” suddenly, he allowed for her body to fall back into the bed, hands immediately positioning themselves back onto her hips as he pounded deep into her. “know. your. place.” he gritted, cock pressing into her between each word.

as the night continued, the strokes never faltered even though it felt like he had filled her pussy up to the brim. “breeding you up so good.. gonna trap this pussy up forever” he muttered, sweat dripping from his face down onto her breasts, hands pushing her knees up into her chest. at this point, her brain was liquid. y/n could barely let out a shaky ‘shut up’— the comment being simple amusement to him. “you think i’m gonna listen to some slut whose been fucked silly? cmon i’ll give you another attempt at that” he stared down at her, eyes dark and lips slightly parted. blinking away her blurry vision to view him, her eyes watered as she opened her mouth to try again— only to be cut off by another moan from a sharp thrust. “ tsk tsk..yeah.. that’s what i thought you said. shut up and take this dick”. eren rolled his hips forward , cock hitting her gspot just right as he approached yet another orgasm. y/n could do nothing but bury her face into the sheets beside her, tears rushing out as her cunt creamed out against his throbbing cock. the action caused eren to spurt out his seed without warning, brows furrowing as he kept up his pace until he drained himself dry. staying plugged into her, he gently turned them over to where he spooned her limp body. before y/n knew it, she had passed out.

y/n would awaken the next morning sore, covered in a shirt that smelled strongly of him. rolling over with a groan she immediately noticed he was gone— honestly not surprised at all. her expression didn’t lighten up into a smile until she checked the message awaiting her on her phone.

“i’ll come back for my shirt tomorrow.”

[miloscat]

[Review] Sonic Colours Ultimate (PS4)

Lipstick on a pig.

Next on my Sonic chopping block is Colours, originally released on the Wii in 2010. I've played the DS version by Dimps (the unofficial "Sonic Rush 3" although I think of it more as a 2.5) and thought it was fine; sadly even with the enhancements in this Ultimate rerelease I don't think the console version even manages to get that high in my esteem.

As relayed in an opening cutscene that plays after you beat the first level(?), Eggman has built a giant amusement park... er, again. Eggmanland is never brought up once. Anyway, this one's in space! Inexplicably, six mini-planets are tethered together in Mobius's orbit and the new alien mascot blob creatures Wisps have been enslaved to power it all. Sonic and Tails team up with the non-verbal Wisp Yacker to stop Eggman's plan which involves mind control or something.

Well I say Yacker is non-verbal, but they do speak in Wisp language. Tails's role in the story is to build a translator machine so they can communicate. This leads to many (many) "hilarious" translator gags. Ugh. Colours marks the point where a new team was contracted to punch up the writing in the games, and their initial effort is a gigantic fumble. The dialogue is constantly cringe-inducing, with anaemic quips that get driven deep into the ground through repetition. I'm told that Eggman has some good lines delivered over a PA system that runs in the background of stages, but they're mixed so low that I could never make out what he was saying!

Eggman's new minion bots Orbot and Cubot exist solely for wacky hijinks, which also rarely lands. And I've now named all the characters in the game. Eggman's unnamed orbital park feels so empty; cutscenes are often just Sonic talking either to himself or an unresponsive Badnik boss, or filling the air with mind-numbing banter with Tails. This is the peak of the era of paring the cast back to the bare minimum for no reason, and the game really suffers for it. The DS version at least had a bunch of folks popping up briefly; here they're conspicuous in their absence. There's not even nameless imperilled citizens, and this is supposed to be the opening day of a theme park!

As for the gameplay, we’re firmly in the “Unleashed Day” mould, with boosting and so on. Colours is so stingy with boost though; you don’t get it from collecting rings, or doing game actions, only from white Wisp capsules (and defeating certain enemies but not others??). And it feels like later on they just forget to put boost Wisps in, so I often felt lacking. The Ultimate release tries to alleviate this by awarding boost meter for good timing on homing attacks but this only gives the merest pittance, so it doesn’t solve the problem.

The balance of 3D and 2D also feels off, with many of a given zone’s six acts being almost mini-levels that are solely in 2D. Others are a mix but it leans heavily on 2D sections. This may be a symptom of lower budget since asset-heavy 3D segments are expensive. It also is likely a concession to the big new Wisp gimmick, which give Sonic temporary transformations; the majority of them only appear in sidescrolling parts, I guess because they couldn’t figure out how to make them work in 3D. They don’t seem to have quite figured out how to make them fun in 2D either but that’s just my opinion.

The game is quite short; I just tore through it. Well, some parts of it are too long like the gruelling final level—an autoscroller with a lack of checkpoints—and certain dragging boss fights (and by the way there’s only three bosses for six worlds because they recycle the designs). A side mode offers co-op play in bland “virtual” levels, unlocked by collecting red star rings, but it doesn’t extend the play time by much.

The Ultimate version has a handful of enhancements worth noting. Lives have been eliminated (thank you!), replaced by balloons which have Tails rescue you from pits without returning to a checkpoint. A new Wisp has been added, as well as races against Metal Sonic (glorified time trials, one per world, taking place in existing levels and needing to be unlocked). A new token collectible lets you buy cosmetics but it’s a much shallower system than Forces’ fun customisation. There’s also a newly arranged soundtrack, although I preferred the original which is thankfully now a selectable option after a patch.

I can’t speak to the performance of the Wii original but this rerelease looks great and runs solidly. The cutscenes are a letdown by being quite crunchy, upscaled in some way from the Wii’s SD FMVs. But the world of Colours is very, erm, vibrant, the environments popping with, uh, various hues. So it lives up to its name in more ways than just the spectral-coded Wisps.

It feels a shame to have another misstep just as Unleashed seemed to be getting things onto a better footing. But Colours despite some artistic flair and a polished movement system is stacked with unforced errors. The Ultimate version has a bunch of tweaks but all told they don’t amount to a true and deep addressing of the weaknesses of the original game. Not to mention the additions Dimps made to the DS version not present here or on Wii: its expanded cast of friends, the Mother Wisp, new bosses and the extra postgame boss fight, special stages, more Wisps, the concept art gallery… maybe that version is the real definitive release!