#fun fact: the background picture is just a bunch of my favorite scores

[bassicallymaestra]

Serena's conducting/magic lesson ✨

[arcanadreams]

That time you and your demon boyfriend went viral

hi yes hello obey me fandom!! my name is Gabbi and i have never played a single second of the actual game but i have read enough fanon content for the past year to have this idea swimming around in my head and now i am finally letting this accursed thing out of my brain and putting it in yours

also i’m only doing the brothers because any more than that and i’d have an aneurysm probably. oh and shoutout to @obeythebutler and @beels-burger-babe for inspiring me with their works to feel brave enough to write for this fandom

Lucifer:

You and Lucifer go viral on Asmo’s Devilgram story!

You’re in the kitchen helping Asmo with dinner duty and singing along to one of your playlists of human realm music that you like to show him.

Asmo starts filming your cute little dance while you stir the pot on the stove because you are just adorable!

About ten seconds into him filming, Lucifer appears in the doorway with quite the stern look on his face. You know, the one that comes right before a “MAMMOOOOOON” and strikes fear into the heart of all those with functioning eardrums. That one.

He opens his mouth, presumably to tell y’all to shut the fuck up, but then there’s a lull in the music and the eldest can hear your voice ever so slightly above the song’s vocalist and he freezes.

Man stops in his tracks like someone just smacked him in the face with a midair volleyball.

Asmo can be heard stifling a laugh behind his phone.

Lucifer’s face gets so soft and he almost, almost, loosens his metal-rod-through-the-ass posture before you notice him and give a little wave and ask if you and Asmo were being too loud like the considerate darling you are.

Lucifer clears and his throat and says something like, “No, you aren’t. I was just coming to check on how dinner is coming along,” and leaves, after which Asmo immediately presses the post button.

Screenshots of Lucifer’s heart eyes for you go absolutely viral because every demon on Devilgram goes absolutely feral for seeing the eldest demon brother lose his dignified composure. It becomes a meme template. “Get you someone who looks at you like Lucifer looks at MC” and “me at the delivery demon when he shows up with my spicy bat wings” posts become commonplace. (Asmo thinks the memes are totally worth getting strung up with Mammon for laughing at them.)

Mammon:

Much like Lucifer, you and Mammon end up going viral off Asmo’s Devilgram. (Noticing a pattern here?) 

He pulls a silly prank on your asses and honestly I don’t know how you fell for it. But hey, they say “idiots in love” for a reason, so...

You and Asmo are sitting in the common room of the House of Lamentation just chillin. Well, he’s chillin, you’re on the floor studying for an upcoming exam.

The video starts in the middle of a conversation you and the avatar of lust were having.

“No, Asmo,” you say. “Mammon and I don’t use pet names for each other.” Now that’s just a darn lie, and every demon and crow within ten miles of Mammon and you together knows it.

“Really? I find that very hard to believe, MC.~” 

You sigh in response to Asmo’s teasing. “Okay, he has a lot for me but I’m just not much of a pet name person, y’know?” The rest of the exchange goes like this:

“Oh, I totally get it.” *pause* “Hey MC, what do human world bees make again?”

“Honey.”

Cue a sheepish Mammon sticking his head in the doorway at the bluntness of your tone when you answered Asmo.

“Yeah, babe?” he looks like a puppy left on the side of a highway oh my god hUG HIM-

Asmo turns the camera back to his smug ass face and in the background you can be heard tripping on the damn carpet trying to get up and hug your mans. (”MAMMON GET OVER HERE SO I CAN HUG YOU” “W-WHAT? I THOUGHT YA WERE MAD AT ME?!?!?!?!”)

Leviathan:

Streamer Levi? Streamer Levi.

You guys go viral the first time you make an appearance on one of Levi’s weekly (insert cool Devildom streaming service name here) streams. 

It’s completely unintentional. You had been asking him for weeks to play with him on there, but he’s the avatar of envy after all. He doesn’t like sharing his partner, even if it’s with random strangers who have no real access to you.

However, he has his stream on a Thursday instead of a Friday one week, and you come into his room carrying dinner because 1) You didn’t realize he was streaming and 2) No matter what he was doing, the boy needed to eat. It wasn’t unusual for you to bring him dinner, so you had no idea why he was blushing and stammering even more than usual this time in particular. Boy was speaking in beached whale trying to tell you what was wrong.

Then you notice his screen. Oh! “Hi chat!” You wave, setting Levi’s food down on his desk in front of his keyboard. “M-MC!” He full-on whines, slamming a hand over his mouth afterwards when he remembers his viewers could hear that.

Honestly, they’d meme the fuck out of him if it weren’t for the fact that they are FINALLY SEEING HIS HENRY!!! THE MYSTERIOUS MC!!!

Chat is bombarding you with questions while you make Levi eat dinner. And by make him eat dinner, I mean literally feeding this man forkfuls/spoonfuls while he games because you love how flustered he gets when you do that. 

Does it impact his score? Absolutely. Does he care? Not really when you’re pampering him like that.

You start answering chat’s questions about you while he’s chewing so he can’t tell you to stop LMAO-

You’re a natural on stream. The VOD becomes the most popular on Levi’s account in a matter of hours and soon cute highlights compilations of you and him on that stream start making the rounds on Devildom Twitter.

Satan:

There was buildup to Satan going viral, similar to Levi in a way. 

Satan does have a Devilgram, but it’s basically a white woman’s Instagram with added book reviews for variety. Unless you’re a reader his account is pretty boring: candles, books, fireplaces, and cats.

However, after you two started reading together fairly often he began posting pictures of your legs draped over his while you sat together. They’d always be captioned with vague ass pretentious literary criticism. 

This goes on for months, and he gains a lot of (horny) followers after the leg pics start up. He doesn’t really get why but you both joke that it’s because you have some damn nice legs and I mean neither of you are complaining about the new following.

You two go viral when he finally shows your face, entirely by accident.

The post is a video, which is already strange for him and grabs attention. In it, you’re scoffing and reading an excerpt of a book, mocking its understanding of female anatomy.

“I’m quoting here, Satan: ‘her breasts bouncing around like giant pacmen.’ I’M SORRY?? THAT ISN’T HOW BOOBS WORK SIR. WHY ARE MEN ALLOWED TO WRITE?” 

(fun fact that is a very real quote from a very real book I really read last month pls save me)

Originally the camera is focused on your body, with your head out of frame to protect your privacy, but your righteous anger made Satan laugh. Like, a real laugh. The one that makes you and everyone in earshot wonder if he truly was never an angel cause he sure as hell laughs like one but anyway-

When he threw his head back, his DDD angled up just a tad without him noticing, and your face was in view for like .2 seconds. Screenshots of it are making the rounds on Devilgram almost immediately: FINALLY THE LEGS’ OWNER HAS BEEN FOUND.

Satan apologizes profusely but you honestly find it funny and you two opt to just start taking selfies while reading with both of your faces in them from now on. 

Asmodeus:

I’m gonna be real with you: you and Asmo go viral all the time. Pretty much everything Asmo posts can be considered viral because of his social media following and his status as one of the seven avatars of sin.

However, there are some fairly cute highlights to be pointed out among the times you were both featured in a post that blew up.

Your favorite is probably that time Asmo livestreamed on of you guys’ ‘Nail Nites,’ as you call them.

You’re both on the floor, doing your nails and kicking your feet back and forth while talking to chat. A lot of the questions are about your relationship, and there’s a lot of flirting back and forth between the two of you.

A particular clip of the stream does blow the fuck up on Devilgram, though, when someone screen records it and posts it with a bunch of heart emojis edited over it.

“’What colors do you think best describe each other?’ Ooo, that’s a good one, chat!” Asmo claps his hands together excitedly, making sure to be  careful of his nails.

Pretty much everyone expected you to say pink, but you surprised both your boyfriend and your viewers when, after a pensive few moments, you replied with “Hmm...probably yellow or orange.”

“Can I ask why, darling?” Asmo tilts his head in confusion. I mean, yeah, those colors look good on him, but he doesn’t wear them often so he’s wondering about your thought process. 

“Well, in the human world those colors often represent happiness, optimism, and positivity. You’re always the cheerful presence I need in my life when things get hard, so you have the vibe of those colors.”

Asmo proceeds to burst into tears and hug you, messing up both of your nails and prolonging the stream since you both have to start over. But neither of you particularly care. 

Fun fact: Asmo has the clip that demon made of that portion of the stream saved on his DDD and watches it whenever he feels sad.

Beelzebub:

Beel and you probably go the most viral out of everybody. Like this moment is an entire phenomenon across the Devildom internet. 

It’s a video, or well, multiple videos, taken at the end of a Fangol game that Beel’s team had just won. Everyone is cheering and going crazy, yourself included, and you just really wanted to congratulate your boyfriend.

So, like the rational person you are, you elect to climb up onto the railing of the bleachers and wave to get his attention. 

You were absolutely fine up there, and sat all comfortably motioning Beel over to you. He notices, of course, and jogs over, standing right beneath you and looking up. (Back where you were sitting, Mammon is screeching like a hyena in heat and Belphie, who is laying down, has one eye open to glare at him. The youngest knows Beel would never let you hurt yourself; you’re fine.)

A bunch of assorted demons at the game has started filming while you were sat atop the railing since you were rather noticeable. Therefore, there’s a shit ton of different angles of the adorable events that follow:

You slide off the railing, landing right in Beel’s waiting arms bridal style. You’ve got this brilliant smile on your face as you pull his helmet off. None of the DDDs filming can hear it over the crowd noise, but Beel asks you why you just went through all that trouble and you tell him it’s because you wanted to tell him how proud you are.

Soft boy’s chest puffs up and he smiles this big cheesy smile at you reach up to run a hand through his hair. You feel him practically purr at the contact, and with a laugh you pull him in and plant a big ole smooch on him.

The crowd, at least those of them that can see, scream. Everyone is running high on adrenaline and happy emotions; something that cute causes a ruckus!! When you pull away Beel proceeds to put you on his shoulders and you celebrate with him and the rest of his team.

The videos of you two being adorable go completely viral and there are some threads dedicated to stockpiling every single angle taken of the event. Beel is completely oblivious to the attention but you have a lot of them saved on your DDD.

Belphegor:

If you think Belphegor has any sort of social media presence whatsoever then you are sorely mistaken. (Well okay he actually does run some anonymous troll accounts to meme on Lucifer’s posts but that’s neither here nor there-)

Therefore, naturally, you two go viral off of Asmo’s Devilgram. 

Okay so someone in the obey me tag the other say headcanoned that Belphie will go out of his way to nap in ridiculous places and my brain really took that and RAN WITH IT.

So what happens is that Belphie will fall asleep in the fucking weirdest places. I’m talking on top of the fridge, underneath the dinner table, on top of bookshelves...you name it, he has slept there, no matter the effort it takes to get there in the first place. 

And, ever since you two started dating, you would join him. Sometimes it involved putting yourself at risk of great bodily harm, but the little smile he gave when you he saw you fucking scaling the countertop to reach him made it worth it.

So anyway, since Beel adores the both of you to no end, he takes pictures whenever he sees you two napping together, whether or not it is in a crazy place. He sends these to the family group chat because he thinks they’re adorable.

Over a span of weeks to months, Asmo has built up a stock of images of you and Belphie cuddles up in seemingly impossible places. Once he has about ten or so, he posts a compilation of them to his Devilgram with some cheesy ass caption like “The things we do for love <3″.

They become a meme SO QUICKLY. Like UNBELIEVABLY quickly. 

The picture of you and Belphie sleeping on top of a bookshelf, in particular, is a big hit. Memes abound.

“If my girl doesn’t climb up a bookshelf to cuddle my ass, she don’t love me.” “Get yourself a partner who scales bookshelves just to be with your ass.” Etc etc...Belphie doesn’t give a shit but you laugh at a lot of them so he sees that as a good outcome.

[thatyanderecritic]

Inu X Boku SS

Title: Inu X Boku SS

Media: Manga, Written by Cocoa Fujiwara

Yandere(s): Soushi Miketsukami

Yandere Scale: 5/5

Criticism written by: Kai 

Editor: Julie

The Review: 

Hey there everyone! Kai here with a review that I’m sure everyone was waiting for. Sorry for taking so long. I really tried finishing the story but… god damn was it boring and convoluted. I ended up calling it after reaching chapter 31(?) out of 45. Reading the wiki was a million times easier than the actual story lmao. But I’ll get into this whole nonsense in the review. Let’s begin. 

To summarize Inu X Boku in a nutshell… well, uh… that’s kinda hard to do since it’s kinda wild. But to break it down, Ririchiyo (our protagonist) one day decided to live on her own and moved into an apartment complex. This apartment complex is known to only house the rich and each resident is assigned a bodyguard. But!!! The apartment complex and all the residents aren’t normal people but half yokai!!! OooOoOoO~

But anyways, Ririchiyo’s bodyguard is Mr. Yandere here, Soushi. Since Ririchiyo moved to this building to be independent, she wasn’t cool with having a bodyguard. But after some shoujo bullshit, Ririchiyo warmed up to the idea of having a bodyguard and they hook up. Bunch of dicking around from the characters but then suddenly DRAMA~!!! A bad guy comes around to turn the half yokai into full yokais or whatever and kills the heroes!!! Oh no!!! 23 years passed, and everyone reincarnated because that’s the logic of the world. Don’t question it. Anyways, history repeats itself and so the gang decides to prevent it by sending a time capsule backwards in time (don’t you dare question story logic!!!) to warn their previous lives of the bad guy. It worked. They killed the bad guy but wait! The bad guy was just a deeply flawed person who went down the wrong path :’( And everyone had a happy ending, the end :)

As you can see, the story is wack. But before I get into my rant, let me talk about Soushi here, since that’s what everyone wants (not my amazing opinion on writing :( ). What can I say about Soushi besides being a hot piece of ass… like hot damn, the man is hot. And as a yandere, he’s even hotter. Lots of creeper actions like preserving Ririchiyo’s gifts for him, having a room full of her pictures, literally loyal to her like a dog, and doesn’t take Ririchiyo’s no’s seriously. Soushi whole life purpose is to protect Ririchiyo and he has a solid background on why he loves her. Soushi is much more of a sweet type of yandere and the best term to call him is a “good yandere” since he doesn’t really do anything bad towards Ririchiyo or any “love rivals”. Soushi is just a chill yandere overall and a well developed character! I wish more yanderes are like him tbh. I should mention that there is a case of alternate timelines and what have you. I’m sure some smart ass would point out how Julie and I gripe about alternate universes and multiple endings. Yes, this is usually detrimental to the yandere sometimes but that’s only if they aren’t consistent with their yandere character. It doesn’t even knock them out of the running either if they fail that point. But here, Soushi was consistent in all timelines. He loves Ririchiyo and was a yandere for her in each timeline. See, is that so hard to ask when tossing in an alternate universe? Anyways, is Soushi enough incentive to read this god-awful story? Well, let me make a list here on what I thought of the manga.

Pros:

All the characters are fantastic. They’re all well developed and they’re all likeable. You’ll most likely like all the characters, if not, at least one. Just… the characters are so well written. What the fuck happened with the story?

Great art. The manga art is pretty good. What else to say?

Cons:

Oh boy… lots of cons. The first one to point out is obviously the story. It’s so wild and convoluted. I can really sense the writer's scattered thoughts throughout the story. The best way to describe the plot is: “A whole lot of ‘something’ when there’s literally nothing.” Reading the story, you know for a fact that there’s a major conflict going on within the story but there was no real sense of urgency since the characters were dicking around so much. I can really tell the writer just wanted to do… ‘everything’ with their story. They want a complex plot yet slice of life. They wanted to do a 4koma comedy, yet they want to have a telenovela. They wanted the characters to be ‘human’ with human problems yet they’re also half monsters because that’s #cool. The writer was just all over the place and had no focus. There are just parts where you feel like the writer just went “Oh shit!!! This is supposed to be a fantasy action story!!!” It’s just… bad. The first arc was the only good part of the entire manga. It focused only on the main characters and side characters with no fantasy bs nonsense. And it was rather disappointing once Ririchiyo and Soushi got together since it was rather rushed for the #plot. Really, what the writer should have done was A) just kept the manga a slice of life, shoujo story. No need for the stupid half yokai and bad guy bullshit. Literally the writer forgets that shit half the time except for gags. There’s really no point and you can just fix the rich half yokai background with just rich people problems. The fuck. B) just focus on character relationships and expand on it. Take that first arc and just… stretch it out bro. Let Ririchiyo and Soushi interact more and grow together before dumping their tragic backstory. C) stop with those chapters dedicated to 4koma comedy strips. Yes, they’re fun and it’s cute to play with your characters like that. But it’s defeats the purpose of a “serious” story if there these comedy chapters… BETWEEN EACH PLOT IMPORTANT CHAPTER. WHY??? SAVE THAT FOR THE END OF THE MANGA OR MAKE A MINI SPIN OFF MANGAS FOR THEM. DON’T TOSS THEM IN THE MANGA AT RANDOM?!?!?!

Next on the chopping block is the weird fucking loli thing going on here. Is no one weirded out that Ririchiyo and this other side character are straight up lolis and are sexualized??? It’s really really disturbing. Why does Ririchiyo sleep nearly nude? Why is there a female pervert character who leers on these two child looking characters and want to put her hand between their thighs? Is the fact that the female pervert is a female supposed to make it better? How old is Ririchiyo??? She doesn’t look like a high school student even though everyone claim she is. It’s fucked to see Ririchiyo standing next to Soushi… especially once they’re dating. She looks like an actual child next to Soushi… either Soushi is freakishly tall or Ririchiyo is freakishly short (which I’m sure that’s the case). Just… why the lolis????????

Story logic = fucked

Pointless bad guy. Literally, the second and third arc are so bad and boring. What’s the point in having him around.

Repeat: the story is just… so boring. I can’t get this off my chest any other way.

Now back to my original point: is reading Inu X Boku SS worth it just for the yandere? My personal opinion: No. It really isn’t. Just read the first arc then from there read fanfics or doujinshi (there’s so many). Far better reward and you can focus on the characters. But if you can sit this manga through, more power to you.

Overall Score: 6/10

Now please enjoy this collage of pictures of Soushi while I read some Soushi X Reader fanfics. The man is hot and I think he’s my confirmed favorite yandere <3

[blobsreviewsofgame]

Sonic Generations (Nintendo 3DS)

Sonic Generations 3DS is a platformer by Dimps released for the Nintendo 3DS in 2011. I don’t like it.

The story is a bit different compared to the console/PC version. Besides Tails, none of Sonic’s friends are in it.

Classic Sonic is running around in Green Hill Zone for some reason and comes across the purple halloween ghost called “Time Eater”. Skipping ahead in time, we see the preparation of the blue hedgehog’s birthday party. Sonic comes across it too early with Tails being the only one at the place. Then the time eater appears and they both get sucked into the white void (that is now just a level select menu).

Eventually they come across their classic counterparts, team up and find out why this all happens. The writing is a bit better compared to the console counterparts but it still isn’t the greatest Sonic has to offer in terms of story. Like Tails and Classic Tails actually doing something besides talking in the story.

But the cutscenes are like Sonic Rush Adventure and Colors DS’ cutscenes, sadly. There’s a dialog box with text, characters do grunts, poses and mimics and sometimes they slide across the screen. It’s not like fully animated cutscenes with voice acting is an impossible task on 3DS (Sonic Boom: Fire & Ice does this) but it’s probably more so because the game just got rushed.

Gameplay isn’t too hot here either.                                                          

Classic Sonic plays through the levels in 2D. He can run, jump and spindash, like always. The rolling here actually works more like how rolling works in the old games than Generations does on consoles but the levels never really use rolling in some clever way. It also has the Game Gear Sonic 1 rolling glitch. Just jump and roll constantly and you’ll gain speed instantly. The first 3 levels for him are basically just 1:1 the layout of the original game and the levels afterwards are either straight lines, waiting to jump on slowly moving platforms or homing attacking à la Sonic 4.

Yes, Classic Sonic has the homing attack. More specifically after he watches Modern Sonic do it a bunch of times, he learns the ability (aka: after the 1:1 layouts of the original games from the Classic era). He also watches him do the boost later on but Classic Sonic doesn’t actually learn that, making the cutscene pretty useless. Odd.

Now, Modern Sonic plays through the levels in… 2D. Oof, but hey, because this is Dimps here, the levels are going to be like Sonic Rush where you do tricks and stuff, right? No.

Modern Sonic is mostly just about walking on even ground boosting through a lot of enemies, waiting to jump on slowly moving platforms or homing attacking à la Sonic 4. No tricks to fill up the boost meter, no satisfying chiptune crunches for soundeffects, just boring. There is an attempt at making setpieces but those are often not connected to the main gameplay (platforming, memorizing and looking cool) and instead are something like a minigame (press A at a specific time, hold down the boost button, etc.). 

Boosting is even slower than it was in the previous handheld games. It almost feels like a run button with invincibility, it’s that slow feeling.

Speaking of Classic Sonic learning the homing attack only later, Modern Sonic only learns the stomp later too by Tails giving him “30% lighter shoes”. …Even though he was already able to stomp in both versions of Sonic Colors.

There aren’t 3 zones per era anymore too. We have Green Hill, Casino Night and Mushroom Hill for the Classic era; Emerald Coast and Radical Highway for the Dreamcast era and Water Palace and Tropical Resort (from Colors DS because Classic Sonic gets a 1:1 layout again and maybe Modern Sonic tries to be like Colors Wii but it’s not 1:1 there) for the Modern era.

Why not include Heroes or something from the Advance games for the Dreamcast era and something from Sonic Rush Adventure for the Modern era (because Rush’s Water Palace is included for some reason)? 

Bosses are also here, just like in the console games.

The 3 character bosses are always racing levels where the enemy is hindering you with their attacks if you’re close around them. The levels for them also reuse assets from a level you already played through but with a different layout and background music.

The actual bosses are rather okay but a bit soulless feeling.

The final boss from Sonic 3 is a bit too slow and you can’t always counter his attacks which is a missed opportunity and the way he gets defeated is lame. It starts nicely with the Sonic Rush-like build-up (camera zooms in 3-times while being frame freezed) but then he’s doing a falling animation, getting stuck in the air and fading to white.

Biolizard is dragging the attacks a bit out too much and it can feel like forever before showing its weakspot. And it doesn’t do the Sonic Rush build-up at the end… aw.

Egg Emperor (isn’t that from the Dreamcast era again?) is okay but Eggman’s voiceclips get repeated way too often and the spinball looks strange while swapping planes because it’s often tilted for no reason.

But it does have the Sonic Rush build-up! Except it doesn’t do freeze-frames this time and he just freezes there while explosion.gif animation files are pasted on top of the boss model a lot.

But at least the time eater fight is actually better than the one in the console version.

Story mode doesn’t require to play 9 missions in the 3DS version btw but we do have to play 7 special stages. And no, Super Sonic won’t be playable in normal levels.

Special stages in Generations 3DS are basically remakes of the ones from Sonic Heroes. You control a running Modern Sonic in a giant tube where you go left or right to collect colorful spheres. Collecting them gives you boost energy. Sometimes, you also need to jump over spike bombs by jumping through dash rings.

The goal of the special stage is to catch up with the emerald, like Heroes. Unlike Heroes though, it’s super easy and the controls work. Hooray?

If you thought missions are just absent in this version, well, no, not entirely. There’s a separate mission mode here with 100 missions. You unlock them randomly by playing the online mode or you can spend 5 playcoins to unlock 1 mission. If you don’t want to play online, that’s 50.000 steps to be able to play all 100 missions.

Missions are now always under a more stricter time limit and require you to e.g. collect a bunch of rings, defeat a bunch of enemies, earn more time by destroying monitors and getting to the goal or not getting hit once. Sometimes it has new layouts, most of the time, it doesn’t. It takes about 2 hours to play through all 100 of them, a bit more than how long story mode takes. 

Playing through a mission also unlocks something like illustrations and pictures, high-poly 3D models or music from past games (which you can only listen to; also in standby mode with headphones).

There’s also something I wish the actual Generations would’ve had: Online VS mode.

You can play this game with other people online and you can choose to play either the 16 main levels or race to the emerald in the 7 special stages… in about 10 to 15 frames per second. It’s not very pretty. The races also work via local play (wireless 2 players with both having cardridges) but surprisingly, I haven’t found anyone yet who also has Generations 3DS. Oh, and it shares a profile card with each other which shows what ranks you got in each level, a screenshot from a game of your choice, your favorite Sonic the Hedgehog game (even the ones you don’t expect are there), your score (which depends on winning and losing in online battles and the amount of times you played a stage) and how long you’ve been a Sonic fan.

There’s also a time trial mode here which lets you upload your record online, like Colors DS. You can also share time trial ghosts and profile cards through streetpass but good luck finding someone via streetpass that also has streetpass data for Sonic Generations 3DS.

Sometimes it also rewards you if you’re doing something online by giving you a random item for your next playthroughs of a level, like 10 rings or an electric shield.  Fun fact: You can only get an electric shield for Modern Sonic that way.  Anyways…

The music in Generations 3DS is basically the best part of it but unlike Generations on consoles, you can’t swap the music out with something else. I think Dimps could’ve at least added an option to play music from your SD Card while playing levels because I don’t want to hear Radical Highway’s awful remix ever again.

My 3DS Activity Log says I’ve put in 171 hours into Sonic Generations 3DS but would I recommend it? No, absolutely not. While it does have a ton of useless unlockable content, playing it is a chore or just a borefest. It’s clearly a cashgrab and not much else. Don’t bother with it, okay? It’s just draining.

There, @squadalaguy! I finally reviewed it! :P

[ynibytina]

Meet Spencer Kane!!!

I fell in love with Spencer Kane's voice when I heard his song "One Of THE Kind" on Youtube. The message of the song is simple: everyone is different, so stand out and be yourself, and don't be a bully. I recently got to interview this Kendallville, Indiana native that is a spokesperson for PACER's National Bully Prevention Center and also is just about to perform on the 2013 iShine Live tour. If you want to learn more about him, you can check out his personal website, YouTube channel, or Facebook & Twitter pages.

Favorite Musicians: Tobymac, Lecrae, Trip Lee, Jor'Dan Armstrong, Jason Derulo, Capital Kings, The Ground Above.

Favorite Movies: Ace Ventura Pet Detective (#1) & any action movies.

Favorite Books: I Am Number 4 Series.

Favorite Color: Blue.

Favorite Holiday: Christmas.

Mac or PC: Both.

Twitter or Facebook: Twitter.

Blackberry or iPhone: iPhone.

Chocolate or Vanilla: Vanilla.

Winter or Summer: Summer.

Pancakes or Waffles: Pancakes.

Math or Science: Math.

Past, Present, or Future: Present & Future.

What's your favorite song off your new EP besides "One of THE Kind?"

Move-In The Right Direction is my favorite on the EP because even though I wrote 4 of the 5 songs on the EP, that is the one which I was most involved in creating the music and overall production. The other songs I sang and gave input, but they were more directed by the Executive Producer and Producer. I like them all, but Move In The Right Direction was almost like I was able to help assemble each piece of the song the whole way through. The others I would sing my vocals and then kind of wait for the producer to give me a rough cut with music that I could critique and just kind of wait to see what happened. MITRD was very hands-on in the studio in Nashville for me and that will always be my best memory of this EP.

What made you realize you wanted to pursue a career in music?

I believe it was when I was 13 and auditioned for a local version of an Idol competition in my county. There were like over 100 people who tried out in my age category (under 16) and I made the top 10 and actually finished 2nd place. (The video of this performance is on my Youtube channel). I sang Sunday Morning by Maroon 5 and the judges of that competition were professional artists and voice trainers. They all said I did well. So when I look back and see that someone other than family felt I may have a chance to do something with music, it sort of made it easier to choose to pursue it. But even then and until the past 6 months, I was still not sure if it was something I'd do as a hobby or pursue professionally. Once I met with iShine in Nashville and Robert Beeson (founder of Essential Records who originally signed Jars of Clay and Third Day, and like the winner of 6 Grammys and a bunch of Dove Awards) I was told I had good potential. So, I guess that made it even more clear that I should take it more seriously. I'm such a jock athlete, it's been hard to walk away from a life in sports and dream of playing at the highest levels, but right now I'm just like taking it a step at a time and hopefully this upcoming tour starting on February 15 will make the picture even more clear. LOL.

What can you expect to see in the fourth season of iShine Knect?

The show is based on a school of performing arts and students who are talented in a lot of ways. It centers around The Rubyz, Mission 6 and a few other regulars. This new season was my first and I play myself in the show (Spencer Kane). I have a few episodes where I have more speaking lines than not, but many where I am just an extra in the background. I do know we filmed me performing my entire EP on stage at a concert at TBN Studios in Nashville the beginning of December 2012. I know they will be showing me singing on some episodes. I really liked the scripts and the topics of each show and think the over 1 million kids who tune in each week will like it too.

Your song "One of THE Kind" is about bullying. You recently became a spokesperson for PACER's National Bullying Prevention Center. How did that come along?

Yes. That song was based a lot on my own personal experiences in junior high and still even now being bullied for things. But it's also about some of the sad stories I've been told by fans around the world who face bullying in their own country just like here. Some places it's worse than here, but bullying is bullying. So the song is kind of my way of telling people to reach out and be kind and talk to people who may be hurting. PACER was a site that we submitted my song to in hopes they would tweet it or at least post a link on their site of the music video since it was based on what they are all about. That kind of led to a few phone calls from them to learn more about me and after a conference call with my manager in early December along with my dad and I, we sort of agreed to move forward in them helping me with bullying prevention curriculum to share at my live performances and them having me become a national spokesman for their organization. It's quite an honor since Demi Lovato has been their primary spokesperson for the past 5 or 6 years. They work with Disney and The Ellen Show as a partner against bullying, so it's really cool to know that they believe in my message enough to want to join together in our efforts to prevent bullying.

Someone once said write what you would want to perform over and over again. With that in mind, if you could only sing one song on stage (one of your own songs and one cover song), what would it be and why?

Great question. Right now I'd have to say "Be Alright" by Justin Bieber is one that I relate to and think I can sing well in a live performance. Reason To Be from my new EP is one that I actually like to sing because I believe the producer helped me to get the best out of my vocals on that song. I think people that hear the song really connect emotionally and in a live concert, that's what you really hope for.

What does a current day in your life look like?

Haha! Well, thank goodness right at the moment it's not been as crazy as it was from June until Christmas in 2012. But the tour is coming up in February and March and I'll be on the road for nearly 5 consecutive weeks and that will probably be crazy. But I'm a full-time H.S. student and varsity basketball player. I wake up early for school at like 6:15am and have to travel like 20 miles to get there one way. I usually have practice or a game 6 days a week, so I can usually plan on being up until 10pm working on homework, home chores, or cramming whatever other free time I have into something to do with music like chatting with fans online, or rehearsing music, writing music, listening to music, filming music videos or Vlogs, or even doing interviews or performances somewhere. Most people don't know HOW I fit my life in, but we seem to manage as a family right now. I'm sure my schedule after the tour may look different.

Besides music and sports, what do you like to do for fun?

I'm an Xbox gamer. I love playing online against friends or people I don't know. I'm very competitive so I like being able to try to beat my personal best score or be able to talk smack to a friend if I can manage to beat them. I play sports games or Call of Duty. Otherwise, I'm a movie guy. My parents and I watch a lot of movies when we have the time. I have a pretty beast-man cave in my basement where my dad and I just chill, so that's fun. Sometimes I go to the mall or hang with friends, but not very often.

What does your family think of your performances and how do they support you?

Well grandma's, of course, think I'm amazing. LOL. But honestly, my aunts and uncles are pretty supportive too. My best friend is my cousin Evan who is also 16 and he and I go to the same school. He is a huge supporter of me too. But my mom and dad are probably my biggest help. Dad owns a marketing company and is a photographer and videographer. He films all my music videos and edits them. He also does all my pictures so that is a huge help. He manages my marketing stuff like album cover art, and posters, and making my website. He like takes care of a lot of the business stuff for me like contracts and stuff. Mom is my cheerleader and is always checking out the "fangirls" to make sure they aren't up to something that will hurt her little boy. LOL. But I'd say that a lot of what I do with music is because God put me in a great family. My parents always try to make sure I have time to be a kid and have as normal a life as possible. So I guess that is a huge help too.

What's the best part about working with iShine?

I think the fact that I can be the artist I want to be and don't have to meet a stereotype that people expect when you're working with a Christian media group like iShine. I mean, the first time we ever met I explained that I'm definitely a Christian and always want my music to be morally positive, but I have NO plans or call to be a "Christian Artist". Like I don't envision me making albums of praise and worship type songs. It's not who I am or how I want to make music. iShine owners and management said they appreciated my sincerity and honesty and that it made them even more supportive of working with me. They believe my music will reach a broad group of young people who may or may not be Christians and that, I guess, is a good thing for them. So, they have been amazingly helpful in developing me and teaching me about the music industry. They let me work with Jeff Savage (Tobymac's Grammy Winning producer from the album Momentum and Diverse City and the writer of Irene and J Train). That alone was amazing to know I was working with him. He's awesome. He produced One of the Kind, 413 and Blue Sky from my new EP. So just working with him and then working with Zach Hall (producer of Newsboys "God is Not Dead" album) was also amazing. So I just think our goal in 2012 was to be able to work with professional and experienced producers who could help my music get to the next level, and iShine has definitely helped me to do that.

If you could perform anywhere in the world, where would you play and why?

I think anywhere in a huge venue with like 100,000 fans would be incredible. Even like 20,000 fans would be insane. I think the location isn't as important as knowing I would be able to perform for people who really wanted to see me perform. That's going to always be my goal. I love making music videos and seeing people like them on Youtube, but performing live in front of a huge audience would be fantastic.

[hey-its-kay-streams]

Hey its Kay reviews Pokémon Shield

Hey, its Kay. Welcome to my unsolicited review of Pokémon Shield. Sword will be my upcoming LP. First, some background about me as a gamer and then, the set up for the review. 

I'm a casual gamer. I do this for fun and as stress relief. I've played Pokémon since Gen 1; Yellow was my first game. I've played every generation to come out since. Dexit was upsetting, but not a major game changer, I've actually expected it for years. The fact that they claimed we'd always be able to have all our Pokémon and now it seemed to no longer be true, was a little upsetting. I play for the story and being able to do cute things with my mons. Sometimes shinys, and I've never really been interested in competitive. 

The review will be in parts, including; Characters, plot, Pokémon, graphics, postgame, featurettes. Each section will get a score out of 10 and a (hopefully) short commentary. Full disclosure, haven't finished the game yet. 

Plot.

6.5/10. Shallower in some regards than expected, nothing revolutionary.

I have to say upfront, it feels like there was an attempt made. As a long time player, it feels weird to go through the region and… let the adults handle the side plot. Goodness, it was actually refreshing in a way, to know that there are capable people handling things for once. 

Would it be cool to see? Heck yeah. 

Would it be cool to experience the aftermath? Absolutely. 

Did any of that happen? No. Pokémon has hard primed me to expect incompetent authority figures and reluctantly be pulled into local shenanigans that I have to stop and/or clean up. Champion Leon handled the thing? Awesome. Go to the next gym? But, things are happening, right there!

If the League Challenge is the A plot, Local Shenanigans (usually evil team) are the B plot. Together, they have built an interesting story in past gens. This time, the B plot happens concurrently, as usual, but doesn't become a concern for MC until the very end, where it intersects the A plot. 

We essentially have half the content we got in previous gens, plot wise. It doesn't feel great. 

Characters. 

7/10. Promising start, weak follow through.

Again, I can clearly tell there was an attempt made. Because so many of the side characters are on the Protection Squad. (My children 🥺). Again, the execution was shallow but there was potential there.

Hop. FFS, someone put that child in counseling. There are very concerning signs literally all over his house. The house is practically a shrine to Leon. Hop has a worrying inferiority complex, but his character growth, while inadequate, is a start. 

Sonia. 1st off, where are her parents? Why does no one support her? I wanted to smack Magnolia. I still want to smack her. I want to smack an old lady for the way she treats her granddaughter. Another bleeping inferiority complex, not nearly as bad as Hop, thank goodness. She's intelligent and capable and I wish that since our B plot got washed, we got to experience her research in more depth. Research assistant assistant instead of preteen vigilante? I'm here for it.

Bede. (I'll pronounce it Beed, until further notice.) He's an annoying little punk who doesn't have a humble bone in his body and just… disappears part way through the story. I found battling him lackluster, but it could have just been a type advantage that left me feeling like he wasn't much challenge. Hop was more interesting to battle. Personality wise, he was desperate to prove himself in a way that felt different than Hop, his motivations were his own. It just promises a payoff we never get.

Marnie. I like her, in general. The only character I didn't feel the urge to wrap in blankets, give a mug of cocoa and sign up for therapy immediately. She's got moxie, determination and an admirable goal she's working toward. Even if Team Yell is more an annoyance than a challenge, their connection to her builds depth instead of taking it away. Marnie is reluctant of their presence, chastises them when they cause trouble but comes off as pretty fond of them. As a rival, Marnie tops the list in terms of challenge. Her Morpeko was more trouble than I expected of a pikaclone, tbh.

And, if her accent isn't straight up, level 2 cockney, I'll riot.

Leon. Eat, sleeps, breathes Pokémon battling. Has no sense of direction, which, relatable tbh. 100% would be babysat by my Pokémon, too. Competent, confident, other c words. Cares about Hop, surprisingly. I was surprised at not only his awareness of Hop's depression but also his concern. They are not portrayed as particularly close, for all that Hop idolizes Leon. Otherwise, Leon isn't much of a person; he's an image. A pretty one, especially in his postgame outfit, but not a lot of substance. 

Professor Magnolia. As of right now, she's on 'Can Catch These Hands' list. Not a good look.

Gym Leaders. An interesting bunch. Milo is too good for this world. Opal is a riot who has the worst taste, but I guess we all have flaws, she was on the more challenging side unexpectedly. Allister is smol, must protect. Raihan and Piers were also on the tough side. In fact, to date, I have not yet won against Raihan. Sent my Pokémon to work instead. 

Rose and Oleana. Rose is... not exactly wrong. He’s hyper focused on the big picture, missing the details that build it. He complains of others not understanding his vision but, when did he share it? He bears the burden of knowledge, the weight of his task but spurns the everyday person and their ignorance. He's power mad.

Oleana and her triangle mouth set back Women's Rights by at least 10 years, single handedly. 

Pokémon. 

7/10. Blurb.

A mixed bag. 1000000000% cannot pay me to revive any of the fossils, screw that. Will do tradebacks for my LP, do not want. I like the Galarian forms overall, except meowth. New Pokémon weren't exceptional overall but I was pleased to discover and learn about them. 

Graphics. 

6/10. Great for Pokémon, lackluster for Switch.

Self-contained within the Pokéverse, this is a beautiful game. 8.5/10. Doesn't surpass SuMo but no worse. The Wild Area is a glimpse of what could be, what trainers around the world hope to get one day soon. Very soon. What we hoped for this game, lbr. For a Switch game, it doesn't meet first party  standard. 5/10.

Character graphics, not impressed. Individuals get like maybe 3 poses/idles. Hop glaringly recycles Hau's animations. Mon animations lack life. Move and battle animations also desperately need some TLC. 

Cities are another letdown. Beautiful but shallow. Nothing to do, nothing to see. You get maybe 2 interactions with NPCs, if you're lucky.

Postgame. 

X/10. To be determined.

Still ain't beat the game yet but from what I know of it from friends and PokéTubers, it's like, the Battle Tower and a bit of intrigue about the Hero of Galar. From a casual perspective, I guess shiny hunting, once you earn the charm. I am hearing good things about the Battle Tower so I will give it a shot as is my norm. Hopefully it'll keep my interest this gen.

Featurettes. 

3/10. Lacking in substance.

Past gens have had a concurrent side gig since they introduced contests in gen 3. The Pokeathlon was my favorite, with PokeStar Studios coming second. I did as much of contests and battle royals that was required to move forward in the story. In Galar, they seem to have combined the pomp and in game popularity of side games with the gym challenge. While it does make sense, it thins the depth of the universe. Where are the activities for people who like training Pokémon but don't want to battle? The league cup is a big thing, sure, but the only thing? Lame. We don't even get much about the Minor League, other than its existence. 

When I first learned about Max Raid Battles, I, like many others, immediately thought of Pokémon Go. I actually play fairly regularly. What I don’t do regularly are raids above level 2. Those require people. I ain’t about that life. SwSh solves that by providing NPCs if you can’t get other players but… they are Pokémon NPCs. 

No catch contests, no puzzles, no secrets, nowhere to walk with your mons, no legendaries. No arbitrary (re)quests from NPCs. I like the Rotom Rally, if only as a GPS because the wild area can be hard to navigate, and I have no sense of direction.

The currydex is more complicated than it needed to be. In consideration with the rest of the game, I think of all the content and plot we could have had, but we got curry. That requires way too many berries, I never want to shake another bleeping berry tree again. 

If you stuck around this long, thanks. This is the end. Overall, I enjoyed the game and look forward to my Sword LP, coming soonish.

[scitydreamer]

I’ve mainly played visual novels for the past few weeks and I do love them, even though it makes me “a weeb, a gamer and a fucking nerd all at once.” But sometimes, I like to sit down with something more arcade-y, so I decided to hit up something I saw in my feed a while back.

The 7-in-1 Morning Toast Mega Pack is by Morning Toast, a developer that mainly dabbles in Pico-8. The mega pack is a collection of arcade games that they have previously released in one package, plus a game that they haven’t released before.

BuzzKill

  I actually wrote about BuzzKill before and it was the game that got me to follow this developer. I gave it another go in the collection and honestly, my thoughts still stands.

Yes, I am indeed shamelessly using the pictures I took before.

Invader Overload

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Invader Overload is partially inspired by Space Invaders Extreme, an updated, flashier version of Space Invaders that was originally released on DS and PSP that has also recently been updated for Steam a few months ago.

Those doofy invaders do what they always do, shuffling back and forth while shooting down wiggly lasers. What’s different is that they now drop different colored squares, and getting all three of the same color gives you a temporary power-up like a laser beam or an explosive weapon. Occasionally, a little UFO flies at the top of the screen that drops a gold power-up that activates a fever mode where enemies start dropping golden squares. Pick up enough of them and you’re thrown into a hectic boss fight against a huge invader that throws down huge beams and its tinier fellows. It’s all very fun and a nice take on Space Invaders.

What keeps me from fully enjoying the game, however, are the backgrounds. Now don’t get me wrong, the backgrounds are actually cool to watch, but from a practical standpoint they can be too distracting. It’s especially bad with the boss battles for me, because the screen is very busy with falling green lines of code that get mixed up with all the actual shots you have to dodge. Honestly, if it went a bit easier with the backgrounds, this would have been my favorite game in the collection. With that, Invader Overload is fun yet flawed.

Alien Harvest

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Alien Harvest looks like if Alien had a tie-in game for the ZX Spectrum and feels like a tie-in game that would have been pretty okay for its time. The grandson of Burke plans to finish his work and you, as a faceless entity, are tasked with collecting alien eggs to prevent the legacy from coming to fruition.

Your main goal is to collect 12 eggs (or 20 on Terror Mode) to unlock the final level. You don’t necessarily have to collect every egg on a level, because if you leave an egg lying around long enough, it’ll hatch and evolve into a proper alien. You have a scanner that shows all the biological stuff scattered throughout the maze environments, showing you the locations of eggs, dead bodies that can give you power-ups and fully grown aliens. To stop you from just letting you walk to your doom, you also have an audio scanner that starts beeping the closer you are to a threat. As there’s no music playing in the main game, the scanner makes for a tense atmosphere.

Personally, I didn’t get into the game because it’s not what I look for in an arcade-y game. However, that doesn’t mean it’s bad. Sure, I sometimes got stuck on walls while moving around, but the it’s otherwise a solid survival game. In fact, I’d say that it’s the most unique game out of the bunch.

Bustin’

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Bustin‘ continues the movie based Pico-8 action with a game based off of the new Ghostbusters. The Ghost Lord is out and about trying to unleash slimy ghosts into the world and it’s up to one of the gals to stop him.

Gameplay has you moving between four rows, blasting your photon pack at ghosts and the portraits they’re coming out of. You move on to the next stage after destroying all the portraits, with portraits getting repositioned to give you less breathing room while the latter stages have the portraits move on their own with the Ghost Lord himself stepping in to hassle you. I wasn’t into the game initially, especially since the first few levels are at their hardest in the beginning, but it settles into a frantic pace in the later levels that I really got into.

The photon pack can overheat, so you have to be careful about its usage. Or you could just move into a different row, which resets the overheating bar in what is certainly a glitch, but I’m not complaining. You can also deploy this thing that sucks up ghosts in a row for a few seconds, so you don’t have to worry about dealing with it for a bit. Touch a ghost and you can’t do anything for a few seconds, which can make a major difference. I kinda feel that you’re stunned for too long, though the game is still manageable.

The music can get a bit repetitive and the beginning is slow, but Bustin‘ made me feel good.

Mass 360

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Stepping away from the games based on other properties, Mass 360 is based off the real life story of the developer’s dad’s fight with cancer. Mass 360 has you control… something to fight off your dad’s growing cancer. I guess it’s metaphorical like Edmund McMillen’s stuff except tasteful and not gross.

You rotate around an arena while shooting inward, which is an interesting way of playing this. You progress by shooting apart cores, which are protected by cancerous masses that branch out when left alone and some virus things that shoot at you. It initially starts out slow, but it soon evolves to bullet hell levels, colorful sprays bursting out of the center.

Your dad starts out with a mere two minutes to live, but you can get more time every time you destroy a core. You don’t lose lives if you get hit, but you do lose your precious time. Ideally, you should focus on building up a time bank so you can spend the latter parts of the game focusing on destroying the turrets, because you’ll probably waste more time trying to dodge their nonsense.

Honestly, this may be my favorite game out of the pack. My biggest issue was that I kept getting disoriented playing this, but that’s a personal flaw more than anything.

Bullet Cave

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Bullet Cave is another shooter game with an interesting gimmick. Bullets fly toward you, but they’re completely harmless. Unless you let one of them fly past. A wall of spikes appears behind you, threatening to get closer with every bullet you let slip by. You think, “okay, I’ll just shoot them down.” You do that and suddenly the cave is getting more cramped in a different way, the cave walls below and above extending with every bullet you shoot down.

The game is an interesting take on shooters in that the difficulty comes not from dodging intricate patterns, but managing the environment around you to live as long as possible. You may be tempted to let bullets pass by you to avoid the cave walls from growing too far out or you may risk getting crushed by the walls to prevent the spikes from getting closer. You can collect an item that fills up a gauge that lets you freeze time and flip what the bullets do. Bullets will now hit the spikes back and destroying bullets also destroys parts of the wall, but now, you’ll be asking yourself which is more important to destroy.

You can also collect power-ups, which manage to be a blessing and a curse. Sure, you can shoot down bullets more easily, but also, that may not necessarily be what you want. Spread shots are important because they could shoot bullets that are blocked by walls, but that just risks bringing that wall closer. Then there’s the power-up that just shoots one slow big bullet, which actually kinda sucks no matter how you cut it. They can’t all be winners.

I wish that you could turn off your time freezing ability mid-use in case you want to conserve it, but otherwise, it’s a solid game with a neat concept.

Bunyan’s Rage

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

This last game is the only fresh one out of the bunch, exclusive to this collection. The title screen is evocative of a fighting game, but in reality, it’s another shooter.

Bunyan’s Rage puts you in control of a jetpacking lumberjack shooting at hostile squirrels, ending in a fight with a bull piloting a UFO. It’s definitely the wackiest game thematically. However, from a gameplay standpoint, I actually consider it the most boring game out of the collection. It is a straightforward shooter, which comes off as disappointing after playing the more ambitious Mass 360 and Bullet Cave. You go through a gauntlet of enemies, you pick up power-ups to increase the power of your shots, the only thing different from a standard shooter is that you have unlimited lives and you’re held to a time limit that gives a score bonus for beating the boss at the end.

It’s still kinda okay, though the game lacks music and I think it’s hard to get a read on the character’s hitbox. It’s not terrible, but it’s not terribly exciting either.

Overall though, the 7-in-1 Morning Toast Mega Pack is a good collection, providing a series of arcade games with different ideas. The collection is pay-what-you-want, though I suppose nothing’s stopping you from checking out the games’ individual pages.

Checking out a collection of Pico-8 games by @morningtoast! I've mainly played visual novels for the past few weeks and I do love them, even though it makes me "