#gameboy cake

[retrogamingblog2]

Pokemon Inspired Cakes made by Josué Luciano

[hyperstim]

🐾⋆🧶⋆🐾

🧶⋆🩷⋆🧶

🐾⋆🧶⋆🐾

[puyostim]

a pansexual stimboard rq!

🌷 🌻 🌷

🌻 🌷 🫐

🌷 🫐 🌷

[mhexart]

THE MARCH SHOP UPDATE IS HERE!

Here’s a look at everything -

First up, the Metroid Fusion enamel pin pre order. These will be 2” tall, double posted, and completely flush with screen printed details and a smooth feel.

Next up is a new Splatoon sticker set, based on Agent 3 and Agent 8

On glossy vinyl.

Then we got some new Metroid stickers ⇓

Samus

And the previously ptreon exclusive Holo-Corpius

A new Bayonetta 8x10 print on nice smooth-feel art paper of everyone's favorite Bayo villain. I just know the 3 Singularity fans are gonna be eating well. ⇓

And last but certainly not least, the Sovereign Ones merch. ⇓

Lloyd has traversed the multiverse and arrived in enamel pin form. He's made using a different technique, so there are more details, and he's got a nice smooth finish. 2.5 Inches, double posted for security.

He's here in sticker form too!

And we can't forget Averis, who's here in a risograph-style sticker.

And that's about it! For the people who care, every order -- except for the Bayonetta ones-- will ship with a random themed mini print, and everything ships with recyclable shipping supplies. Sovereign Ones orders will have some lovely little freebies thrown in. And as usual, discounts on existing stock.

You can peep the shop below ⇓

The Art Store

[littlestarxmilkyway]

I almost forgot, but the person that comment-reviewed EB also asked others their "in series relation ranking," and someone ranked the whole of SaGa 1-3 above SSG, and someone questioned them on that. It was kind of hilarious to me, but I also agree! And specifically, they couldn't believe that someone ranked SaGa 3 above SSG (or maybe any game!). That makes me wanna bust a rib from laughing so hard! But it's also kind of annoying.

Whenever people say they like Unlimited SaGa or SaGa 3, people act like they're freaks or have to have so many stipulations. And the funny thing is, this person ranked SaGa 1-3 so well because it is an old school JRPG with towns, NPCs and the like. And I feel that! People rag on SaGa 3 a lot, especially if it's the GB version, but it does actually feel more fully fledged and fleshed out to me than EB does in many ways. (Shocking!) But if that's one thing I hate about SaGa fandom (nowadays), is that you're not allowed to like the black sheep titles half the time.

[macncheesenibblers]

BRUH ONE OF THE OLD NEIGHBOR KIDS MY SIBLINGS AND I USED TO PLAY WITH IS TIKTOK FAMOUS AND HAS 200K INSTA FOLLOWERS????

[yorshie]

Bayverse Headcanons

Just some headcanons I keep in mind when I'm writing bayverse. Will probably come back and add more as I decide on them.

Leonardo

Height/weight: 6’2”, 670lbs

Theme song : Loyal by ODESZA

Ambidextrous but if he needs to punch someone he uses his right hand

Has a dry sense of humor, more little quips and witty one liners than anything planned

Turns into a bit of a caveman when you’re in danger. He catches you going someplace dangerous? Straight to turtle jail for 1000 years. You don’t wanna be picked up and carried to safety? Too bad, it’s happening

Is the King of small touches. A hand on your back, a nudge of his knuckles to get you moving. Mr. soft eyes and low voice when he wants to get his way

Still gets into arguments with Raph. Sometimes they still dissolve into fisticuffs.

References vines to the horror of his brothers (his fav is “road work ahead”)

No one will play Risk with him because even if he’s losing he somehow bleeds everyone dry

Has a gameboy with exactly one game, Harvest Moon: Friends of Mineral Town. All his animals have names like "Bob" or "Tilda"

can't cook, is banned from the kitchen, once set water on fire.

reads science fiction, fantasy and sagas a lot, though if you pay attention to his books the covers are sometimes swapped and it's almost always poetry or romances.

Not a big fan of PDA. Will give you a snoot boop or a chaste forehead kiss in public, but anything more is off limits. What’s that? You wanna snuggle? You better hope none of his brothers walk in because this turtle might panic and shove you off his lap in a snap decision instinct. You wanna go to his room? The scandal. What will everyone think? Fine, but he’ll ninja you in there. No one will know or see. Ninja silent. Except- Donnie will know. Donnie will see. Because he was sitting in the chair right next to you two and you both somehow forgot he was there.

Hogs the bed. And the covers. And the pillows. Basically if you want any bed commodity you better be prepared to snuggle

If you want him to watch tv that’s not sports it’s gotta be some older saga or classic that you actually have to pay attention to. Loves black and white martial arts movies. You once caught him hugging a pillow and watching Princess Mononoke with tears in his eyes.

Will just stare at the person who asked him to kill a little harmless spider before leaving the room

Donatello

Height/Weight: 6’8”/ 680lbs

Theme Song: Frequency by Tim Wolf

Left handed

Donnie is THE sarcastic little shit. 

He realizes quickly that while Leo has softness, and Raph is filthy, he doesn’t need to stoop to theatrics to get what he wants. He just has to make eye contact, tilt his head, and tell you in a calm, plain voice what he desires, and it works. 

Can’t keep his attention on one thing for a long period of time, or has to have multiple stimuli going on to keep focus. King of multitasking

The turtle most likely to curse

Can’t sleep without a nightlight and either music or a movie

Listens to filthy music when he’s working. 

The others gang up on him during trivia night to give everyone else a chance

the adrenaline junkie

one time he got Leo's tea mixed up with his coffee and he spat the substance clear across the Lair.

can cook but it's kinda bland. Can't bake to save his life, despite arguing with every failed cake like it’s out to get him: “it’s science why won’t you work??!”

hasn't opened a real book since the invention of the internet. Has a library of hard drives with the subject matter clearly labeled in alphabetical order. Mikey doesn't know about it and thus it has stayed relatively in order.

Doesn’t use his bed much, so the upside is you always have room to stretch out. Bad news is, if you want this turtle to get any decent sleep, you have to figure out how to keep him trapped enough where he can’t move without waking you up. And he’s a ninja.

Donnie likes to watch informative things. Like how it’s made, or unsolved mysteries. His crack show though? Cryptid hunters. He’ll laugh himself silly over people trying to trap Bigfoot or corner Mothman

The one that kills spiders

Raphael

Height/Weight: 6’5”/ 720lbs

Theme Song: Don’t Get in My Way by Zack Hemsey

Right handed

Turtle has a MOUTH and he is not afraid to open it to to get what he wants. Absolutely filthy when he wants to be.

Will turn into a little melted turtle puddle if someone is sweet to him. Doesn’t really turn to butter over words, but actions will get him every time.

Watches crocodile hunter and golden girls when no one else is awake. Loves animal documentaries, and zoboomafoo

Rough around the edges when it comes to heartfelt affection or feelings. With seduction he’s smooth, but telling someone he genuinely cares for them? Good luck stringing two words together my dude.

Prefers silence or listening when hanging out with someone. He’s slow with his input, careful with what he says. You’re winning if you can make him laugh

in the kitchen he’s either making the most disgusting looking thing that tastes fucking amazing or he’s grilling. Doesn’t tell anyone he learned how to make bread watching Julia Childe.

If he's doing something dangerous or something stupid, the worse thing you could say is along the line of "Leo said-" like, congrats, you just made sure he's gonna do the thing everyone knows he shouldn't. Flip side, he's trying to talk you out of doing something? Just sigh and say "ok, guess I'll go ask Leo-" Boom. Thing is done. Is it healthy? no. Does it work? yes.

Is the most considerate when it comes to sleepy time. He’ll make sure you have your own pillow, own blankets. He sleeps on his stomach and doesn’t move much, and is large enough that you could sleep tucked under the lip of his shell without fear of being squashed

Not the one to call if you see a spider. He will scream

Michelangelo

Height/weight: 6’0”/ 640lbs

Theme Song: Handclap by Fitz and the Tantrums

Right handed but if he puts his mind to it he can use his left equally for everything but writing

Is legally obligated to use cheesy pick up lines, and is a Talker

Uses lollipops and hard candy to keep his focus, bit of an oral fixation

completely ruins heartfelt moments by getting sidetracked. Can be giving the mushiest compliments then in the next breath go "so you gonna eat that leftover cake in your fridge or nah?"

Changes nicknames for you on a semi-weekly basis just to keep you on your toes and to annoy his brothers

Prankster extraordinare 

Can cook, but like the annoying ‘these are the worst ingredients to combine and somehow this tastes good and I'm going to sue you over telling me what's in this’

Is the best with understanding emotions and expressing himself. Yes, Leo might be better reading body language, but Mikey has empathy over why someone might react a certain way, not just 'if I do y then x happens'

Will push buttons to see how much he can bug someone

The one most likely to help you sneak out and get up to shit. Also the one most likely to get you two caught.

Makes up song lyrics when he doesn't know the actual words. Will change them to suit his needs, or how badly he wants to tick off his brothers. Not sure who would get the MOST annoyed by wrong lyrics on purpose, but you just know he has a different set fine tuned for each brother

His bed is basically a storage container for pillows and blankets. Which is good, because he is a serial cuddler, and if you need space to sleep you’ve got plenty of pillows to act as a body double if needs be

Loves soap operas, iron chef, diners drive-ins and dives. The more drama is in it, the more he eats it up. He and Raph bond over Golden Girls once the bigger brother realized he wasn’t going to get teased over it

Will pick up the spider to show you it’s not something to be scared of

[irishmammonagenda]

Catholic MC Gets Sent Into Hell?! Not Clickbait! (part one)

introduction, part one, part two, part three warnings: light swearing, religious theme(s), GN (though implied AFAB mc, they/them pronouns used.) It's implied that MC knows prayers in irish,idk how to word that but😭😭 (i'm new to writing so i dont think i'm too good at characterisation yet)

A strangled scream rips itself from their throat as they lurch downwards into what can only be described as an abyss, the plastic river rock bottle and their phone almost rip themselves from their blazer, MC grips onto them for dear life, the only familiar things in this vacuum of darkness.

The fear almost paralyzes them, and through their years of catholic conditioning, MC does the only thing they can think to do, they pray. Muttering out a prayer to the Patron Saint of Protection, Archangel Michael, MC finds theirself falling onto cold, tiled ground in some bastardisation of wonderland.

They almost sigh in relief, if not for the group of people they catch in their peripherals, on their knees MC looks around, pulling their school skirt further down, it unrolls slightly from where it was rolled at the waist. MC lends wide eyes to the 8 men around the....court room...? They're met with a range of reactions. A man with hair red as blood stands, his arms extended out at his sides in some sort of attempt to be welcoming, to his right is a stoic, though calmly smiling man with green ombre-esque hair. Arguably the most unsettling of the two.

Nevertheless, MC looks to the 6 others in the room, their instincts going haywire, a blond with eyes so green they could be neon, a beautiful man-not that the rest weren't-with hair that reminded MC of the rose coloured shloer they'd get to drink at Christmas.

A man with...indigo? hair...MC was never good with colours, but it didn't matter as he was more focused on his gameboy and glaring at the tan white haired man who looked like the epitome of chaos than them. MC could live with that. They could also live with not having seen the ginger inhale a cake whole, but that was by far the least strange thing that had happened. Then they set their eyes upon the last man of the group, standing to the left hand side of the red-haired brown skinned man, a brunet, or would it be more fitting to say noirette? MC didn't know, either way his hair was black as night, with the slightest hint of silver....or was it grey? Either way, he meets their gaze with his crimson eyes. MC's breath hitches. Falling, only to land in an emo pinterest board looking courtroom with a bunch of men, all of which with strange hair and eyes? They needed to leave.

The man with scarlet hair begins to talk, "Hello MC and welcome to the Devil-"

"Our father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy na-" MC begins to mutter, their eyes shut tight. The tension in the room grows thicker, they can no longer hear the game on the indigo haired man's gameboy, he must've shut it off.

"Lucifer....What's the human doing?" Scarlethead man asks hesitantly, the name spurs MC on, their prayer ups an octave, "By kingdom come, thy will be done-"

"-Praying. It looks like, Diavolo." A sadistic sounding voice responds, offence dripping in this 'Lucifer's' tone.

"-on earth as it is in heaven-"

"-Oh."

MC drowns out the squabble that begins between these...demons. They pray over and over again, the fighting only continues as they get started into the ten Hail Marys.

"Sé do bheatha a Mhuire, atá-"

A new voice joins in. "Ohh?~ What's with the strange words? That doesn't sound like latin."

A sigh can be heard afterwards, "Neither was the praying in English, Asmo. Besides, humans pray in all of their languages now."

"Really?"

"Feck."

Now that gets MC to stop praying and to look up in surprise at the sound of the voice, "Of course demons can be Irish. Of fucking course." They mutter before meeting several pairs of eyes and immediately lowering their head and muttering once more.

"Satan! You visited humans way more t-than us! D-do something!" MC doesn't hear the chain of responses, only picking up, 'worthless otaku like me!' and 'i'm not a human whisperer!'

The name Satan though....

"Saint Michael the Archangel! Defend us in battle!-"

"-Michael?" The strict tone says aloud. Tension was growing thicker.

"-Be our protection against the wickedness and snares of the devil!-"

"-now thats just mean!"

"-Yeah! Human who do ye think yer messin' with?-"

"-May God rebuke him we humbly pray!-"

"My Lord, would you like me to fetch Simeon?"

"That would be a good idea!" The scarlet haired demon, the 'Lord' says, there's laughter? in his voice though.

"-And do thou, O Prince of the Heavenly Host!-"

Silence takes over the room. Until it doesn't.

"Hmm?~ Wasn't that Lucifer's role?"

"W-whaa?! Don't bring that up! He l-looks like he's about to rage quit during a campaign!"

"Diavolo. How long will Barbatos be in fetching Simeon." That annoyed, stern voice asks, although it's less of a question and more of an order. That must be Lucifer.

"-bY the Power of GOd, cast into hell SataN! And all-"

Snickering can be heard.

"L plus Ratio plus ROFL!"

"Shut up Levi." A voice hisses.

"-other eVIL Spirits who pROwl around the wORLD seeking the ruin of souls!"

"Uhhh...*munch* why's the human glowing?"

...

"nevermind."

[smilesession]

suddenly feeling like the weirdest person in the world as a 24 year old who’s home doesn’t have any video games for you to play. If you come to my house there are no video games. Maybe there’s my gameboy in the closet with a cake mania or diner dash cartridge in it from when I was a kid but there’s no charger for it anywhere or anything. there are no games. suddenly feeling almost ashamed of the fact that I don’t play any video games and that it’s weird

[moonlit-escape]

‧₊˚꒰♱꒱༘‧⊹ Zane Mystreet headcanons !!

i love this lil emo freak i NEED to get wine drunk n watch ponies w this guy

hetero. (comfortable with this label, but honestly his attraction isn't limited to cis women and he has even had crushes on femme men (he just wants to be the token hetero friend))

he mostly dresses casual emo, but sometimes my guy wants to rock a pair of demonias and a fishnet bodysuit with some heavy, pure silver chains and rings, alri

piercings,. piercings piercings piecings. no lips piercings... septum and eyebrow, though. and DEFINITELY gauges in his ears. and ABSOLUTELY ones with cute shapes.

if he didn't cover his mouth all the time, i think he would like wearing dark, cool colored lipsticks

and it'd be smudged all the time bc he keeps fuckin snacking on sweets

of course he paints his nails, and he treats them well bc he hates chipped nail polish (rich boy gets the highest quality, strongest clear nail protection youve never seen before in your life)

honestly all the ro'meave brothers are a bunch of gnc kings like okayyy!! pop off boys w your dresses, heels, skirts, n makeup!!

god can that boy sing

idc he listens to vocaloid and his favourites are vflower and rin kagamine

also listens to emo songs (ofc) and cartoon songs

prefers rock band over guitar hero

one time he smacked vylad in the back of the head with a rock band drumstick and he felt so bad he ran off and cried

boy is the most fuck-ugly crier

secretly steals stuff from people he cares about as keepsakes (like, little things: garroth's old gameboy, vylad's old sketchbook, aph's other half of a pair of lost earrings, nana's ribbons and pastry wrappers)

actually has pretty high metabolism, and one time he gloated abt it to aph and accidentally made a joke in poor taste, and she kicked his ass. so, he just lets her call him a lil fat boy as his eternal penance for being an asshole

okay this isn't a headcanon but sort of is but, why were him and dante like Tightrope-walking that fucking incel line as teenagers. like they were one wrong step from falling into an incel category. thank god their brothers would NOT have had that from their baby brothers anyway bc Wtf

anyway

honestly, he doesn't feel as cold toward vylad as he used to as a teen, and kind of wishes he had the strength to show that and reach out and ease the tension between them. but, he's afraid of making it worse by being awkward, so he wants to wait and hope that vylad makes the first move, if he ever does. (and if not, he'll probably ask garroth to do it for them)

has rejection sensitive dysphoria, made even worse by a rejection complex from: garte's blatant favouritism, bullying and rejection in school, and isolation as an adult. it's part of why he became so attached and possessive of aph. but, he's safer now

he was a harry potter kid. garroth was the percy jackson one, and vylad was warrior cats.

he always thought he was a slytherin but i think he's more of a hufflepuff than he realizes (nana on the other hand.)

he has a lot of sanrio merchandise. more than he will ever admit. his pony merchandise does outweigh it, though, of course

yes, his main comfort character and obsession lies with pinkie pie cake. but, the rainbow dash backpack Objectively fucks

[the-bus-called-graveyard-8]

can you show your entire madagascar collection?? sorry if you already showed it 😭

Sorry to sit on this ask for so long anon!! But I've finally sat down and photographed everything I've got! Turns out, there was a lot. So without further ado:

Long, picture-heavy post ahead. Image descriptions in the post body. Click for better image quality.

DVDs & DVD extras

Madagascar 1-3 + Penguins of Madagascar

Merry Madagascar, Party with the Penguins, and Madly Madagascar

The Penguins of Madagascar, Operation: DVD Premiere, New to the Zoo, Happy King Julien Day, Operation: Get Ducky, Operation: Blowhole, and Operation: Special Delivery

Operation: Video Fun (cereal box prize! It has two episodes on it, off the top of my head I want to say they were "What Goes Around" and "Snakehead!") and Operation: Search and Rescue (redbox ebay buy, I think it has six or eight season two episodes)

Marty's Rainbow Wig (Mada3 bonus)

2 Poppin' Penguins wind up toys (PoM Blu-ray bonus)

Video Games

Mada1 for GameCube, Mada2, Mada3, PoM and Madagascar Kartz for Wii, TPoM, TPoM: Dr. Blowhole Returns Again and Madagascar Kartz for NintendoDS, and Operation: Penguin for GameBoy Advance

Literature

Mada 1-3 + PoM movie novelizations

Madagascar: It's A Zoo In Here!, Madagascar Little Golden Book, Meet the Penguins!, Fish Happens: Words of Wisdom from the Penguins

Mada2, Mada3, PoM Concept Art books

Two Feet High and Rising, Skipper's Log, Elite Strike Force, King Julien's Guide to Ruling the Zoo, Banana-palooza

Learn to Draw Madagascar, two Penguins of Madagascar sticker and activity books

Mada2, Mada3, and four TPoM coloring books

DreamWorks My Busy Book (also features Shrek and Kung Fu Panda

Comic Books

Operation: Wonder from Down Under parts 1 &2, Operation: Weakest Link, TPoM Comics issues 1&2

DreamWorks Madagascar issues 1-4 + Madagascar 3: Long Live the King

Five Penguins of Madagascar comics + 1 book compilation When in Rome...

Misc. Paper Stuffs

Penguins birthday card

Three issues of Nick Mag featuring Madagascar, a few cut-outs from other issues, and a one-page ad for DirecTV featuring Mada3

Mada3 2013 calendar, Madagascar Magic Pen book, two paper Skipper figurines

three boxes of Valentines (two Mada3, one PoM)

two boxes of Mada themed cereal and two boxes of Mada themed fruit snacks

PoM puffy 3D stickers, Madagascar The Musical button set (featuring Alex, Marty, the Penguins and King Julien)

Toys and Collectibles

Skipper Happy Feet plush, King Julien Tsum Tsum plush, mini Skipper plush w/mini Meet the Penguin book (I also have a King Julien plush that is packed away somewhere I didn't feel like digging out)

TPoM Return to the Habitat board game, TPoM Clementoni Impossible Puzzle, TPoM Kidz Cards (I got shorted buying this; it was supposed to have Go Fish as well but I only got Crazy 8s), TPoM Uno

Five Madagascar figurines of Alex, Marty, King Julien, Gloria and Melman

Ten various Mada McDonald's toys

Cake toppers and rings that the baker at the local grocery store gave to me

My birthday cake from 2016, PoM themed of course (I still have the toppers, the cake is obviously gone lol)

Skipper, Kowalski, Rico and Private Funko Pops

Super Spy Penguins Hallmark Keepsake ornament

Apparel

Disguise Master baby Penguins shirt (Zazzle.com, no longer available), I Like to Move It Move It King Julien shirt (ebay), caroling Penguins shirt (Zazzle.com, I think this one is still available)

two TPoM kids backpacks, King Julien Loungfly bag

Miscellaneous

Penguins kids drink cup, TPoM Activity Coloring Roll

PoM ice cube molds

Skipper shaped flash drive, PoM keychain

TPoM inflatable punching bag

TPoM kite (I think I still have the actual kite, if my mom didn't get rid of it without telling me, but it's unfortunately broken)

TPoM decal sticker I made in Web Design class in high school and never stuck to anything

TPoM Hot Wheels car

PoM movie poster (torn and wrinkled and stained from mounting putty because I never put it in a frame lol)

And I think that's everything! I'd love to someday have enough space to actually put all this stuff out on display. We're moving next year so maybe 👀

Things I'd like to get someday

the last three TPoM DVDs I'm missing

Mada soundtrack CDs

Mada1 on VHS tape (just for funsies)

the comic books I'm missing (several)

Madagascar Sorry! board game

an autograph from Tom McGrath

[retrogamingblog2]

Pokemon Inspired Cakes made by Josué Luciano

[mercyillustrator]

Happy belated 32rd anniversary to Kirby

So I decided to draw his gijinka version of mine for his anniversary also last year I play his game once on those gameboy thinging where I never play his games in my life til last year so yea it was so much fun besides playing super smash bros where he looks cute and happy. I remember I got inspired to draw Kirby and the characters more often here it made me so happy plus I made his cake into watermelon where it eats :3

(Forgot about the candles while in the rush :’) )

- 💠🎨Mercy🎨💠

[pocket-luv101]

Mahiru, sharpening a knife: I've got ways of making people talk. Mahiru: [Cuts a slice of cake] Ildio: Can I have a piece? Mahiru: Cake is for talkers. Ildio: It was Hyde! Hyde was the one who stole Kuro's gameboy. Kuro: I am so glad I married you, Mahiru.

[roachy-ramblez]

Air Marty headcanons, because fuck it, I wanna share em!!

(Also applies to my RealWorld AU ofc)

.

(1/??)

Marty (he/em)

Martin Clark Jones

Voice claim: Will Wood or GrayStillPlays

40 years old (canon)

Chaotic Neutral

Origins: Marty was born in Chicago and has spent his childhood in the Midwest. He did move to Florida when he reached his early 20s to attend college. The same college he also dropped out of midway through-..Though he remained living in Florida since then, now working as an airport janitor.

Accent: Southern (possibly canon?)

Despite growing up in a christian family, he doesn't actually follow a religion.

Neurodivergent: ADHD, OCD

Maladaptive daydreamer

Pansexual

Demiguy (refers to himself as "half-a-man")

Chaotic anarchist

Enjoys wild west themed movies and corny 90s sitcoms

Mid-life crisis.

Is a 70s and 80s kinda guy

Doodles from time to time despite not being really good at it.

Mostly knits during his free time.

Cracks corny puns/jokes every now and then.

Has a small mole above his lip on the right side. Also one on his right forearm and left elbow.

Has heterochromia (left eye is blueish grey and right eye is hazel green)

Lost a tooth after drunk fighting at a bar.

Tall and lanky.

His room is full of handmade army planes. (Nearly lost his middle finger when making one-)

Clumsy, but has fast reflexes.

Flinches and tics if he sits/stands still for too long.

ALWAYS tries to remain as polite as possible, no matter how angry he is at the moment.

Y'know shits really going down when you catch em saying "Fuck" or "Shit".

Emotional - gets stressed easily.

Often overdramatizes things.

Whiskey enjoyer (preferably Jameson)

Used to smoke weed in his teen years.

Chocolate chip cookie enjoyer.

Rambler (overshares all the time)

Always comes up with the most ridiculous goofy scenarios/stories.

Favorite colors are neon green and pastel yellow.

Would rather hang around in his imaginary world.

Takes late night walks.

Hates cherry soda.

Usually a bad liar.

Owns a few Gameboys since he was a kid.

Hopeless romantic.

Randomly zones out.

Is actually very insecure.

Tends to eat very bizarre food combinations/snacks when hungry past midnight; mainly chomps on dark chocolate pieces with sardines on top or something as simple as a mix of mayo and ketchup slapped onto a rice cake with salt sprinkled on top.

Either smokes or eats sweets when stressed.

Snores loudly when sleeping. It is almost impossible to wake em up once he falls asleep.

[eriisaam]

I saw your tags on that Cassette Beasts post, and you seem pretty knowledgeable on monster collecting games! Do you have any recommendations for someone who hasn’t ventured far outside the Pokemon umbrella? I’m excited to try Cassette Beasts, and I loved Moonstone Island and Ooblets which had monster collecting elements, and I don’t know if Slime Rancher counts as a monster collector but I LOVE Slime Rancher. Past that and Pokemon, I don’t know much about the monster collecting/taming genre, but I’d like to explore it more!

Yeah! I got some! And I'd argue Slime Rancher absolutely counts! I will also add too that Cassette Beasts, Ooblets and Slime Rancher are already great picks in themselves in the genre. (Though as you are already familiar with them, I'll skip them below, but they're definitely great games.)

Granted, I will preface that while I watched a lot of these games either in terms of Gym Leader Ed's coverage, people poking it, or release trailers and screenshots, I've been limited on time to play them in depth enough to talk about the gameplay or story aspects (with a handful of exceptions), but I'll try my best to help as much as I can! Ed, however, does go into more depth of games, follows news on dev updates (especially games still in development or early access), and sometimes he's done LPs of them outright, and he may still be best to get a more informed opinion on some of these, especially ones I hadn't been able to play myself.

The best part about the genre, especially lately, is that it's gotten more broad in terms of how the games play, how you collect and/or handle the monsters, and what other game they are inspired by and/or play similarly to (and whether or not said game is Pokemon). There's as many games that are the "yay, two cakes!" of Pokemon, just as there's many games who have monster-collecting elements but the gameplay is vastly far removed from it, so my recommendations will be split based on those criteria.

(It's also a pretty beefy list, so I'll put it under a read more)

-------

In terms of "yay, two cakes!" games (or games that play as close as possible to Pokemon):

===

The Nexomon series

Visually and gameplay-wise, Nexomon has a lot in common with the DS era of the pokemon games in sprite style, and Pokemon in general in combat. The series are turn-based battling with nexomon you catch and evolve, gym-leader-adjacents you battle, and stories directly tied to their legendary nexomon along the same vibe as earlier Pokemon game plots. Both games tend to frequently go on sale (and moreso on the switch) and while the second game improved a lot in some quality of life changes from the first game, the plot is a direct continuation of the first game and thus will spoil and/or assume you've already beaten the first game. There's also a third one in the works slated to take on an open world direction and full 3d instead.

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Disc Creatures

Like Nexomon, Disc Creatures draws inspiration from a specific generation of Pokemon, but this time the gameboy and gameboy color era. Arguably, it looks and plays like a midway point between the VERY early pokemon games, as well as the Telefang games (better infamously known as the base games which were poorly translated and transformed into what we most-likely know them as Pokemon Diamond (not DPPlt) and Jade). You battle not only with a team of three creatures, but like Telefang, all of them take part in battle simultaneously (rather than a 1V1 fight). (Though unlike Telefang, you don't have to call them or wait on their arrival likewise). Although battles otherwise play out similarly like both respective games (turn-based move-picking battle), the creatures work on individual skill trees based on species.

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Coromon

Coromon draws a lot of inspiration from pokemon, but takes a more 'spiritual sucessor' approach, rather than base it on any specific gen, and has a unique 2d pixel art style likewise. The gameplay sticks to the familiar battling style of you doing turn-based battles with your coromon, tame and train and evolve said mons, and not only find 'shiny' equivalents, but there's actually two (the base form is called 'standard' while the two other forms are 'potent' and 'perfect'), in addition to certain species also having skins (and said skins also differing slightly to still retain the distinct appearance of the base coromon being standard/potent/perfect, rather than obscure it). A key difference, however, is that in addition to the health of your coromon, you also need to pay attention to their stamina, which is adjacent to PP in pokemon, but universal across all moves, rather than individually-move-tied.

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Monster Crown

I'll give this cautious optimistic recommendation though I'll explain why so in a moment. In the same way Coromon is more 'spiritual successor' than 'on the nose' like Nexomon in the GBA-DS era of Pokemon, Monster Crown is the same equivalent to Disc Creatures of being more 'spiritual successor' than (sort of) 'on the nose' to the GB-GBC era games like Disc Creatures. Also like how Disc Creatures isn't as closely tied to Pokemon like Nexomon or Coromon, and deviating in its own style or mixing it with Telefang otherwise, Monster Crown has an art style a bit closer to the GBC zelda games (and distinct from it even then), and a much different presentation for otherwise keeping to the 1v1 turn-based battle style familiar from Pokemon. That being said, I say 'cautiously optimistic' as while the devs seem to not only still be in semi-active works updating the game (but especially the PC version), the game does reportedly suffer from a lot of bugs, and I'm made aware too there's reports that the switch version of the game isn't as kept up-to-date on updates nearly as frequently as the PC/Steam version.

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In terms of games similar to pokemon, but with not-so-pokemon-esque mon designs:

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Digimon Story Cyber Sleuth: Complete Edition

What were previously the first and second individual games of the Cyber Sleuth series had been combined to package both games in one file (that you can select either/or on bootup) in this version. Compared to a lot of the other Digimon games (some of which I'll bring down further below, just for now, put a pin on that), Cyber Sleuth (both games) feature a turn-based battle format that is a bit more along the lines of Pokemon's, give or take that you battle with three digimon in a party, and some moves vary between targetting one, or targetting multiple targets at once (so if you're familiar with 3v3 pokemon battles ala the 3DS era, this is very reminiscent of that). If you can forgive Digimon having monster designs swerving all manner of ways between 'cute like pokemon' to 'what the fuck is that thing?' to 'Is that a literal pile of shit?!' all the way up to either someone's fursona or 'that's a whole ass person', Digimon Cyber Sleuth is just comfortable enough not to be too wildly far off from how a Pokemon game plays, but also having its own distinct identity in how it handles battles and raising up your Digimon. One key takeaway, however, is that a digimon has a far wider branching path of evolution forms compared to Pokemon, and not all digimon may appear as 'connected' as like a pokemon's evolution family. That being said, even in-game, the game does hold your hand in giving you a hint of which digimon you can evolve (or digivolve rather) your current digimon into (and tells you outright what that digimon is, if you've already obtained one before), and outright tells you the conditions of how to evolve what into what-else.

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Yo-Kai Watch series

Specifically, I played the first game, and will primarily describe that, but rather unfortunately as the first game was originally on the 3DS, and other than its (also 3DS) sequels, the series had a sharp phase-out of localized releases since then and are only somewhat floating the idea in the Switch era of going back to attempting localized releases again (and I'm not sure if they ever followed through or not). Nevertheless, Yo-Kai Watch is a series far and well more adored in Japan than internationally (it's right up there with Pokemon, Sanrio, and one of its inspos in Doraemon), and it takes what you're familiar with in both the Pokemon style of turn-based battling and the above mentioned Digimon approach, and makes it way more interactable and turn it on its head. For starters, you battle with a team of six yokai, but ALL OF THEM are utilized in battle, with three active at once, and the three others in the backrow. It heavily makes use of the touch screen, so rather than just click commands and make things go brr, the yokai will automatically attack whoever they feel like (although you can pin a specific target, and they'll all redirect to attack that target exclusively instead), but on top of that, while your yokai run on auto-pilot, you instead play a series of mini-games during battle where you can do, among other things: Heal your yokai of a status effect, rotate your yokai set so you can rotate which of your six is currently actively battle, and which ones retreat to the backrow (for you to tend to uninterrupted), use items pretty much on the fly like your typical pokemon heal items, or supercharge your yokai so they'll get to their supers quicker, the effects of which vary between yokai species. On top of that, many yokai evolve into different species, but many others can be fused together to make different species instead, and you primarily collect and swap out yokai in the form of medals you earn when befriending them post-battle (either by chance or scripted-gift otherwise). Yokai also vary on synergy in teambuilding, so if you have certain yokai combos active on the same (active) team, they may gain additional buffs from it.

If you can look past many of the yokai being... uh...

...interestingly designed... the story, the atmosphere, and the yokai and the way they react to the world and each other is incredibly 'sucked into a saturday morning cartoon' vibed and super engaged out of a lot of the monster taming/collecting games.

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In terms of games with creatures similar to Pokemon, but are based on different genres of games:

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Palworld

Hear me out.

I know a lot of people have misgivings with this game. Some are warranted (there's certain mons a bit too on-the-nose to pokemon), but there's many, many other points that are bad-faith reaches at best (of the "person who thinks Renamon is a rip-off of Vulpix" variety), or outright wrong and long since debunked. I could (and had many times in the past) gone at length about many of these bad-faith points, but for the sake of not derailing the point here, that is best set for a different post entirely.

Palworld, contrary to what many would say, is not actually as joined-at-the-hip close to Pokemon as it seems, outside of the clear inspiration behind some of the design or design-direction thereof of the monsters (and for that matter clearly was inspired by other monster taming games such as Monster Rancher, which I'll discuss lower down, or even cutesy-aesthetic creatures in general like Story of Season's livestock or 90s anime design styles like My Neighbor Totoro). The monster designs aside, they actually lean more in familiarity sense of 'fakemon fangame romhack of a pokemon game' in style direction than 'just pokemon but recolored', and the more you surround yourself in pals, the more you get used to them just in a general sense.

The gameplay is actually much closer to Ark or open world explore-and-build games along the lines (some being similar to a lot of 3d farming or town-building games even), give or take a Breath-of-the-Wild coat of paint. (Worth noting, while a massively beefy game, it's also half the size of Ark proper.) You're pretty much turned loose into a massive open world, one that's surprisingly seamlessly interconnected that you can see far off with a depth a lot like Minecraft in some ways, and you can do whatever the hell you want from there: The world's your oyster. Although it does provide things for you to do (namely the gym-leader equivalent of the Battle Tower Leaders to face off, or certain landmarks that are also achievement-tied), you can do whatever you want with the pals you run into, and gradually craft your way into better and sturdier buildings, unlock more broader items, weapons, and upgraded variants, and get strong enough to challenge more varieties of pals. Although pals don't evolve (similar to Monster Rancher), some species do have different alt variants (usually a different color and element and with a different suffix), and all of them have a chance to have a 'lucky' variant spawn, where they'll glitter, make an audible noise (like Legends Arceus but more prolonged rather than sudden and brief), and they'll always have the Lucky trait, which gives them additional buffs. The pals each individually have different moves they learn either naturally or when given items, up to four traits (good, bad, or neutral) which can be passed down via breeding, and all of them specialize in a variety of different ways, so a pal not fit for battle might have a more utility use. I should also point out that contrary to its sales pitch or popular belief, cruelty is NOT the only option, and is actually far more beneficial (and in your face) about keeping your pals healthy, well tended to and cared for, and them eagerly rushing over to help you any time you try to work on something and then cheering for you after. Resources you would've also gotten in the 'crueler ways' can also be gotten peacefully simply by catching them.

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Monster Sanctuary

Monster Sanctuary is a Metroidvania style game in terms of mobility around the map and how certain monsters play with it via field moves, but when otherwise caught in the battles themselves, it has a similar turn-based strategy of monsters taking turns trading picked moves and see what happens. Each battle works on a graded system where, ideally, when you complete a battle as quickly as possible with a lot of combos, you get a better grade, and in turn, better item yields for said grade. Instead of capturing monsters, you instead have a chance for a monster you fought to drop their egg, and said egg can be instantly hatched into your own copy of that monster. Each and every monster has a skill tree that can unlock different things from new moves, upgrades to preexisting moves, stat buffs, or certain effects applied to their moves in addition to any inherent abilities they may have. On top of that, certain monsters might have field moves that are useful for navigating your way through the map, including monsters who can activate certain levers, monsters who can hover/fly over gaps, monsters who can help you reach certain heights, and so on and so forth. Monster teams are also key, as carefully-built teams with good synergy can make huge combos, and consistently give you the best drops.

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Digimon World series

Like I said above, Digimon dabbled on quite a number of games in its clumsy growing pains of finding its own identity. Its initial roots, Digimon World, has a lot in common with its original background as a Tamagotchi spin-off series prior to the anime Digimon Adventures being thereafter (incorrectly) labeled as a "Pokemon rip-off", and thereafter spiraling the Digimon franchise in all manner of weird directions (either loosely related to World like World Champions, semi-similar with Digimon World Dawn and Dusk, all the way up to the above Cyber Sleuth being entirely its own thing). The entirety of the World series (of which include entries like Next Order on steam) has you raise your digimon by assigning them into different facilities and/or training areas, usually, and these facilities can vary between either increasing more traditionally-used-for-battle stats (like their health, or their attack and defense), to outright increasing or decreasing their affinities (elements, in a way, which factor into evolution a lot). Compared to the above Cyber Sleuth where you have more control of when a digimon digivolves, into what, and outright tells you the requirements, World (but especially earlier games, or versions that lean heavily into V-Tamers, another series similar to the World series and is more identical to its Tamagotchi ancestor), leans into you getting more of a surprise when digimon grow dynamically and evolve on their own, based on various factors like whether or not you won/lost a certain number of battles, care mistakes or lack thereof, certain stats being at or above/below a certain point, or their highest affinity at the time, much like how Tamagotchi did. While I can't speak for how Next Order plays (between closer to World, closer to Cyber Sleuth, or a more balanced and in-control combination), the earlier you go back in the series, the closer it is to Tamagotchi's variant style.

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Digimon Survive

And then there's this game which throws Digimon into a whole other secret third gameplay option. Digimon Survive is part visual novel, and part tactical RPG, so rather than be like a battle style ala Pokemon like Cyber Sleuth, or be a monster care sim like World, it leans heavily on being more like Fire Emblem in gameplay style, and takes everything about the way the digimon partners bond with their human tamers in the anime series, and takes it for a very dark ride instead. This time, instead of be a monster you raise into a gradual and widely-branching tree like Cyber Sleuth, or carefully meter your stats and care styles like World, not only will some digimon be unlocked either when certain criteria are met, or when you beat certain levels, but some digimon evolutions are exclusive to the different branches of the main storyline itself.

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Monster Hunter Stories

Although the mainline games play very differently, and are more monster slaying than monster taming (with one almost-example, we'll get to that below), Monster Hunter Stories and its sequel take on a different approach of you raising and taming effectively smaller pet variants of the bosses of the mainline games, to use not only as riding mounts, but battle partners in a turn-based battle style RPG. You usually have an active party of three who take turns attacking each, and takes a much more different mood and atmosphere approach compared to the mainline games as a whole. Its worth noting, however, that although Steam does include both games, the switch version also offers amiibo support otherwise.

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Beastie Bay DX and Pocket Stables

I include these two games in the same note because both of them are made by Kairosoft and are two games of a loooong laundry list of themes Kairosoft explores. Both are pretty tiny, pretty chill and casual games (emphasis on casual), so while some might say it might be a bit too casual as to be boring, they're both very "play on your phone to pass time/run in the background" chill raising games that don't have a lot of the stress as a lot of the above games. Beastie Bay DX is a more focused monster-raising game, while Pocket Stables is a horse derby game with pet raising elements. Similar to a lot of Kairosoft's games, they usually have a tycoon approach to a lot of their different game themes, these two included, as you focus on building or placing facilities or buildings in an open space to various effects, sometimes comboing nearby buildings for added boosted effects, and gradually improving your creatures through where you send them out, what facilities you build, item use, and more.

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In terms of games with monster collection and/or training aspects, but not as a main focus:

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Rune Factory series

By and large the Rune Factory series is a farming game first, along the lines of its siblings in Harvest Moon and/or Story of Seasons. But instead of buying and raising livestock, the livestock are monsters you fight, and depending on the game, so are some of the love interests. You have the ability to fight various monsters and different bosses, and the monsters may vary on various properties, be it to passively generate a certain craft resource (like a lot of the standard livestock in the mainline series), as mounts you can ride for faster transport, as powerful party members for battle, or as helpers who can automate the process of assisting you with chores throughout your farm. This is in addition to the townsfolk themselves, as some of the games (particularly the later ones) also can have you recruit different villagers in addition to the monsters.

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Monster Hunter Rise

As mentioned above with Monster Hunter Stories, while the mainline games are more about hunting monsters like live prey or active threats, Rise is a slight exception in that it not only continues the trend of past and current games of allowing you to recruit the cat-looking palicoes (or felynes, they go by a few names throughout the series...) which can assist you with various different properties depending on their professions, but also the palimutes, large, rideable dogs who can help you travel faster and jump up certain landmarks. Both assist you in battle, but both have different pros and cons to them, and you might run into in-game generated ones who you can further collect to have more variety in different ones with different professions and coat colors/styles.

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Meowjiro

Meowjiro is a fairly humble and down-to-earth pixel art game where your primary focus is being a convenience store cashier and employee. By day, you perform various different tasks and try to keep up with the store, including cleaning trash and water puddles, the evidence of a certain shiba inu's crimes, restock shelves when they get emptied, heat up food, prepare soft serves, and of course, ring up customers as they come in.

The mon-collecting aspect comes in the reason you work the grueling life of a one-man army konbini store owner: Your cat(s). At the end of the day, you come home to tiny pixelated cats, who always start off as kittens, and whom you can evolve into a variety of ways based on what you feed them. In addition, you can also spend your hard earned cash on different furniture to decorate your home, or certain perks to make the store job less grueling.

(That being said, as stressful and high-paced as the game is, failing a task only causes a minor pay deduction, not anything super punishing, so it's stressful, but not as stressful as a meaner game could've been.)

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Sonic Adventure 2: Battle

Hear me out.

Yes, it's a platformer game (or shooter game, or treasure-hunt game, depends on the level), and on the surface, it looks nothing like a mon game, nor plays like one.

However, the reason why it's mentioned here is moreso for a side game included in the game: The chao gardens.

SA2:B is a game that weaves both the main game and side game of Chao Gardens together pretty snuggly. You're provided 2 free chao in your default neutral garden, plus 2 more free eggs whenever you unlock the other two gardens after certain criteria are met. Chao are pure pet-raising, rather than strictly mon-levelling-and-raising, but they have a VERY dynamic approach in not just how they evolve, but the gradual ways they change depending on quite the variety of factors. These can include, but not limited to: The color and style of the egg they came out of (or combo of parents if bred), what animals you gave them (which you can collect animals and chaos drives in the main game to then give to these chao), what fruit you feed them (especially certain bought ones, not just the home-grown ones), and even which character you played as when tending to them all matter. They not only can evolve based on an alignment system, but also later dramatically evolve based on stat combinations you raised them on and which of their stats were the most pronounced. You can further also utilize them in either chao races, or chao karate (though the latter is semi-random in comparison to a typical mon battle game).

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Honorable Mention

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Monster Rancher series (and spinoff Kaiju Master)

An older series along the age of if not predating Pokemon and Digimon, Monster Rancher have mons who (most of the time) don't evolve, are pretty brutally punishing in how to unlock certain secrets or raise and train the best fighting-capable monster who can win all tournaments, and while its a very unique stand-out compared to Pokemon and Digimon, it's a pretty harsh game in terms of difficulty to get used to and jump in compared to the others. That being said, it's also time and again surprisingly detailed about the sheer depth in variety of alts for a given monster, how their genetics work in fusions (and fusions are a pretty detailed feature in this), and its signature quirk that makes it stand out is that the monster you get (when not buying whatever's in the store) are all randomized based on things you feed the game. The first few games can draw all manner of monsters based on what CDs you insert (the steam remake gets around this by merely letting you straight up look up what CD you want, be it game or audio CD otherwise, and gets around it through that), while later games carry on the spirit of the same gimmick ala the key words you type up, or drawings you put into it. The game is not exactly the friendliest in terms of difficulty, but if you aren't scared off by the challenge, nor how dopey a lot of the monster designs are, its worth a mention in its own right.

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As much as I was tempted to include other mentions, primarily games not released yet that's coming soon or in the works, I think I blew this post up with way too much words huh orz