#half the time i played that on gamecube was to listen to the soundtrack

[awlimagines]

For the ask game: 🌿 Favorite ost.

I had a really bad habit of playing without sound when I was younger to listen to the radio instead. I'm dating myself some but I used to play sitting by a karaoke machine to record songs I liked onto a cassette.

Having said that, Friends of Mineral Town would probably be my favorite? I just remember the most of it from my childhood. The sounds they had for the summer were my absolute favorite, and I still love hearing cicadas. I like A Wonderful Life, but it's mostly background noise to me.

[alightinthelantern]

Because the decade is ending I’ve been revisiting old interests and past fandoms from when I was a teen, and boy is it a trip down Memory Lane.

Listening to old Vocaloid songs from when I was in high school back in 2010, when I was 15 and new to internet culture, and it was one of the first Japanese culture I ever discovered. Apparently Vocaloids are still a thing? I knew Miku was still popular bc I’d seen stuff in the past year featuring her, but apparently the other Vocaloid characters are too, and there’ve been a whole bunch of new ones introduced in the past decade? I remember when the whole Daughter of Evil saga was being created. I remember all the alt characters people created by taking the main vocaloids and pitch-altering their voice banks. The Vocaloid community was fresh and thriving back then. That was back when Gender-Bending was a staple of fandom culture, and making male “versions” of female characters and vice versa was hugely popular. This was when “Caramelldansen” and “Ievan Polkka” weren’t Classic Memes, this was when they were new, and all the rage.

I remember the Gamecube days, back in the 2000s, and watching my stepbrothers battle my sisters interchangeably on it or the old Nintento 64 they had, in Mario Kart, or Mortal Kombat, or the original Smash Brothers (I, who had terrible hand-eye coordination, wasn’t fit for playing, but was more content to passively enjoy anyway). I remember when the Wii was first introduced (my mother didn’t believe in video games for a long time, and only bought a console for the family about four years later). I remember the GameBoy, I remember the release of the first XBox. I remember the online dress-up doll games. I remember when the Lego Star Wars video game was first released, and being an avid fanatic of those famous bricks as a kid enjoyed watching my siblings play that probably more than than anything else.

I remember how huge the cosplay scene was in the early 2010s, for all kinds of shows. I remember reading Emma: A Victorian Romance by Kaoru Mori with glee as a teen, siting in a bean bag chair in the Teen Area of my local library, because they had a dedicated manga section and had the entire print run. That was back before Borders was bought out by Barnes & Noble and ceased to be, and I’d often sit in the second-floor manga section of my local Borders and read the volumes that caught my eye for a half-hour or more, and the store clerks didn’t care because it was a different world then, a different culture, and I was always a polite, well-behaved kid anyway who always physically respected the books. Apparently the anime adaptation of Mori’s Emma from years ago finally got an English dub in the past year? I’m going to have to track it down and give it a watch.

I remember loving the Romeo x Juliet anime as a teen, that crazy and brilliantly original high-fantasy reimagining of the classic play. I loved that the English dub script was mostly in Elizabethan-era English. I remember Ouran Host Club and Baccano! too, and the first of those being one of the funniest things I’d ever seen in my life at the time. Same with The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya. I remember liking Fruits Basket back in 1010, and only realizing years later how fucked up it actually was. I remember Baccano! and Nabari No Ou. I also remember some other shows whose names don’t bear repeating. I remember downloading their OSTs off dedicated websites that no longer exist. I still have these soundtracks in my iTunes library. I remember when burning playlists onto CDs was popular; they finally became obsolete and passé sometime in my high school years, after the rise of mp3 players and programs like iTunes crystallized the superiority of the .mp3, and then people would laugh when I mentioned my own burned CD collection.

I remember when Over the Garden Wall first came out, in 2014, and how groundbreaking it was at the time in terms of what an animated show could be, visually and plot-wise. That show still has a small bud dedicated fandom it seems. I remember the character ask-blogs that were so popular from 2014--16 on tumblr, both ones with drawn replies and ones with live cosplay photos or gifs. God, the ask-blog community was so huge at the time. That might have been the height of tumblr’s popularity, the mid-2010s. I remember DeviantART and the thriving fanart community it had before tumblr took over in the early 2010s. I remember all OCs people were making, and the ask-accounts before ask-blogs were a thing. I remember the roleplay groups. I remember all the fucked-up things people were into back then because the Scene Phase had come but not yet entirely gone, and because teens were emo little shits in general. I remember when anime pairings were written as “[name] x [name]” in full before people started mashing names together around 2014, I remember when words like y*oi and y*ri were the norm. Oh how times have changed. (And thank god they’ve changed)

I remember when the Twilight movies were being made and my high school health teacher put the first movie on in class one day and had the class point out different ways in with the romance was toxic and unhealthy. It’s mind-boggling that in 2019, after The Discourse had come, burned, raged, and gone, that people are still stupid enough to like those films. Even back then I was smart enough to see them for the creepy, badly-written dreck that they were. I remember when The Hunger Games was published (I never read it). I remember the first Hunger Games Movie coming out and the controversy surrounding Jennifer Lawrence being cast as the lead. I remember coming into school one day to find two of my teachers casually debating it (I never saw the movies, and didn’t particularly care about that conversation).

I remember watching an independent showing of Studio Ghibli’s From Up on Poppy Hill in 2015 at a local indie theater, and the audience roaring with laughter when one of the boys at the old club house asked “How can we make archaeology cool again?!” and another replying “We can’t!”, and then a woman in the audience said out loud “Archaeology is cool!”

I remember the birth, life and death of Vine, and despite The Discourse raging on tumblr at the time, the humor on that app was still largely Mainstream and often racist.

I remember Teen Wolf, and Glee, Sherlock and Supernatural and Doctor Who. I remember the emergence of “Superwholock” and the sheer insufferableness of the fandom before they eventually, blessedly died out. I remember the disappearance of shows like J*njou R*omantica and the rise of shows like Free! and Yuri on Ice!!!, Modern “woke” animes that still featured vapid, cliché-driven writing, with Modern “woke” audiences that were puerile-minded and cliché-hungry as ever, the same y*oi fangirls as those that had existed in the early 2010s, only now the shows had done away with the nasty R*pe-As-Romance and replaced it with cringey, ham-fisted pretenses of Realistic Psychology or Social Conscience. And I realized that anime fans my age weren’t worth their salt, and by that time I was too old for anime anyway so I finally dropped it. New animes have come and gone, new live action shows have come and gone, and all the same terrible fandom drama that has burned year after year regardless of show still burns. Same shit, different sewer.

I remember how different online culture was for teens a decade ago. I remember how different real life was for teens a decade ago. Everything has changed so much in the past decade. Teens were children when I was teen. Now, ten years later, teens are like miniature adults, thinking and speaking maturely, socially and politically conscious, wise beyond their years. Racism is acknowledged for the evil it is, and bigoted trolls are no longer socially accepted. When I was a teen, been an edgelord was in, and kids like me who were unusually conscientious were labeled Babies and Oversensitive whenever something didn’t sit right and we voiced objections. Anons telling people to kill themselves was routine. People were violent and ruthless online, and the culture was truly reminiscent of The Lord of The Flies, a cutthroat free-for-all among girls and boys of all ages.

But not anymore: as people keep saying these days, being an Asshole is Out, being Kind is In. Shit like H*zbin H*tel, that would’ve been immensely popular ten years ago, is acknowledged for the violent, vile crap it is. And the language around sexuality and gender has changed so drastically, and has opened up so much. There was no trans content a decade ago in fandom, and Gender-bending, when done to explore the social ramifications of a character as the “opposite gender” (because nothing outside the gender binary existed as far as fandom was then concerned), and not just for titillation, was always cisgendered and done by way of Alternate Universes.

I had a miserable experience as a teen, and I wish that I could have experienced this kind of environment in my formative years rather than the one I did. But although I never did, I am so happy for the teens of today, that they are able to experience this kind of social openness, that they can experience this kind of unity and conscientiousness that exists in a way it never did before. That, even with as bleak and awful as the world is, they are fighting to make it better for themselves. Because it really was them that changed it.

Because, as much as Millennials like to pretend otherwise, we didn’t make the internet culture what it is today, We were edgy shitlord brats who loved laughably bad media, whether it was edgy and featured protagonists who murdered for fun, or maudlin and featured Mary Sue protagonists. We had flame wars over who was “uke or seme” for characters that weren’t even gay. We were nasty piss-stains, and even the teens like me who were better than the rest still had our awful moments. I’ve done and said things as a teen that I’m ashamed of, and no amount of nostalgia can change the fact that fandom and the media it consumed was objectively awful a decade ago. And though “Fandom Moms” and other nasty, disgusting, overgrown-children may be a proud bastion and defenders of the Old Ways, reminiscing about their LiveJournal Days and telling themselves their age is somehow indicative of wisdom rather than how creepy and pathetic they really are, their days are numbered, and I can’t wait to see their +30yo asses slowly die out in the face of progress.

[retrorendum-blog]

ARMS - Review

ARMS is Nintendo’s second new IP since the Gamecube, and it has given the people who haven’t actually played it with a mixed set of reactions. After the original reveal trailer back during the Nintendo Switch press conference in February, many people thought that it was just a gimmick game to show off the joycon’s power, and wouldn’t end up being much deeper than Wii Sports boxing. Will ARMS hit it’s mark or take a punch to the face?

Title: ARMS

Available On: Nintendo Switch

Reviewed On: Nintendo Switch

Info: Nintendo, 2017

WARNING MINOR SPOILERS FOR ARMS

Story: ARMS takes place in a world where a mutation exists that allows the effected individuals to stretch their arms out to almost unimaginable lengths. According to the ARMS Laboratory this "ARMS” mutation has existed for around 1500 years, and effects a very very small slice of the population. No one knows how the mutation occurs, those who receive it just wake up one day and have extendable arms. Of course with a mutation such as this it is natural to create a world famous championship fighting show, and that show is what you play in ARMS. As of the day this article goes live there are 13 characters/ fighteres in the world of ARMS, as well as a secret boss character that I’ll leave out for spoiler reasons. 

Spring Man - A classic upbeat pretty boy fighter

Ribbon Girl - A famous pop star turned brawler to please her fans

Master Mummy - An undead freak seeking revenge for his family 

Mechanica - A genius young girl who built a suit with extendable arms to participate in the league

Ninjara - A ninja student who joined the fight as his graduation project

Kid Cobra - A popular streamer and snakeboarder who was born with the ARMS mutation 

Twintelle - A well-known actress who uses her stretchy hair to fight 

Byte and Barq - A robot dog and cop duo 

Min Min - A ramen shop girl with noodles for arms 

Helix - A green gooey failed experiment from the ARMS Lab 

Max Brass - The reigning champion of the ARMS league (also planned to be the first new playable fighter)

And finally,

Biff - The friendly announcer for the ARMS League who has one hand on the top of his head.

Each character has their own signature arms, backstory and goals for winning the ARMS League, but aside from what I’ve mentioned there isn’t much story. This might not be the case forever though, because Nintendo has stated that they will be releasing free fighters, stages and ARMS as DLC later on, with included lore tidbits alongside. ARMS’ story and lore is pretty interesting, but it really is bare bones at the moment, so I can’t rate it any higher than 6/10.

Visuals/ Music: The art style and tone of ARMS is one that feels like is was custom tailored to the springy, colorful world the game takes place in, and never leaves you bored while you’re experiencing it. Each locale you visit while brawling is bright and vibrant, and no two stages feel even remotely similar in tone, shape or lighting. There aren’t any texture problems in the game, and the only thing that ever bothers me while I’m playing is Spring Man’s character select model (if you play the game you’ll see what I mean, but that’s just a personal gripe). Aside from that, every character is beautifully modeled and the unique character design rivals the likes of Overwatch and Pokemon in creativity and detail. Even the menu system is slick and bright for the most part, the only exception being that the main menu (which you don’t spend too much time on) is pure black and yellow which some people find obnoxious. ARMS also has the single smoothest and most satisfying Party lobby system of any multiplayer game I’ve ever played. Each stage has a special theme to accompany it as well, and while you probably won’t hear them much during the fights, listening to the soundtrack outside of gameplay is great. My only complaint with the music is that it’s really obvious they wanted the main theme to be integrated into the game everywhere, because chunks of it are woven into over half the stage themes. It’s a great main theme, and very catchy, but it annoys me that it shows up everywhere. The visual and audio design of ARMS gets a 9/10.

Gameplay: Finally, we can talk about ARMS gameplay. ARMS is a fighting game unlike any other, so much so that I honestly don’t know what to compare it to. 2-4 players are thrown into an arena, each equipped with extendable springy limbs and a set of 3 different fists or “ARMS” to choose from. Each character has different stats in speed, strength, and health, as well as an interesting ability ranging from self heal and time slow to quadruple jumps and an arm turning into a dragon. These differences allow you to really find a character that fits your playstyle, and along with every character being able to equip any ARM eventually by spending currency in a minigame called the ARMS getter, any person can customize their own fighter. The main focus of the single player content is the Grand Prix, which is essentially the Arcade mode of ARMS, you play through ten consecutive battles against AI opponents, with the occasional minigame mixed in. Through the Grand Prix you can learn a little about the lore of each character, as Biff tells small snippets before each match starts. There are currently 7 game modes in the game that you can play single player with bots, local multiplayer with up to 4 players, or online in a rotating lobby. Of course you have 1V1 battles, which is the core experience of ARMS, but you also can play 2V2 with each team tied together to force teamwork and communication, and 1V1V1 which is unbalanced and annoying. On top of the fighting there are also 3 different minigames to choose from, Hoops, V-Ball, and Skillshot. The final gamemode is 3 players versus a boss, which can be incredibly fun and challenging on the higher levels. The fighting of ARMS is fast-paced and addicting, but isn’t perfect. It’s difficult to play two player local online, as the lobbies don’t always have room for an extra player, 1v1v1 always ends up with one person being ganged-up on so the other two can just play a normal fight, and grab spamming is definitely an obnoxious (but effective) tactic many people use online. Despite these issues and a lack of a true campaign/ story mode, ARMS delivers some of the most intensely gratifying gameplay I’ve had the pleasure of experiencing in the last few years. Gameplay receives an 8/10.

Verdict: ARMS is a game that I can only hope will grow. It’s in very early stages now, so it’s not clear whether or not it can climb up to be a major franchise for Nintendo, but things are looking pretty good for this wacky fighter as far as the first week goes. I’ll definitely be playing it for a while with my friends, and I should be dipping back in every time a new character, game mode or map is released. ARMS has surpassed Mario Kart 8 Deluxe as my second favorite Nintendo Switch game, and will likely hold that spot until Super Mario Odyssey and Skyrim come out in the winter this year. I can’t recommend ARMS enough, but if the lack of single player content is a let down for you, you should still consider picking it up maybe in a year or at christmas when more content has filled in the gaps. ARMS gets a solid rating of 8/10.

[elecman108]

So like earlier today I was in Best Buy, as one does sometimes do when they’re looking for electronics or DVDs or something.

I was in search for headphones. My earlier earbuds broke (they were bought at the dollar store, surprisingly lasting me well over a year and a half, bless Philips and their shitty-ass earbuds), and my backup headphones are... not the best. I bought them at a convention for fun, and well, they’re falling apart to say the least. So I was on the search for new headphones, and my parents were helping my grandma look for the printer she wants.

I couldn’t find any good headphones I liked in the headphones section. Also, there was a lady who looked about my age with two kids and... I really don’t wanna deal with kids if I don’t have to. Seriously. I’m so uncoordinated that I’ll just trip over them. SO! So I gave up on that venture and wandered over to the printers.

Now, the Printers are nearby the PC/Tablet accessories, as well as a display of Chrome Books in this location. I snarked at the Chrome Books (I don’t like them, I have a personal vendetta against my High School’s Chrome Books because they sucked, so I make jokes at them on how they suck when no one’s looking) and then I got distracted by some bright ass blue LED lights on a display. Or under one.

It was a fancy little setup for gaming headsets! Which are fucking expensive! Give me a thirty dollar headset with a microphone any day that might suck ass and die in four months. But I don’t have a hundred dollars to blow away on a big old gaming headset. I also have a Laptop. So PC gaming is limited to what doesn’t crash or lag too bad on my computer. Trust me, I played XCOM 2 with about 3FPS, so the bar’s real low over here.

Regardless, I was now looking at the gaming headsets idly, kind of drifting up and down the gaming accessories. Gaming mice are the same as normal mice, except they have glowy LEDs in them. Don’t like that. Same thing with the keyboards, save for maybe a couple fancy-ass designs on like the arrow keys or something. But then, to my surprise, I found something in the gaming accessories that I actually needed.

And that, dear friends, was a Game Controller for PC.

Now I play a fair bit of Dead Cells. I bought it just after Christmas, beat the game early-ish January, set it aside for class for a week or so, and got back to it later and... sucked. You know, I suck at a lot of games. But I’m consistantly able to wind my way in the game through the various areas - prison, promenade, that... orange area I forget the name of, stilt village, clock tower, and high peak. I normally die around Time Keeper, High Peak, or Hand of the King. So not too terribly, if I say so myself.

But if anyone plays Dead Cells on the PC, they probably know my annoyance. You know when you go to throw an ability out, like a barnacle or the crossb-o-wmatic and you just... miss? Hit the W instead of the E or Q? Yeah. Also the title screen says “Dead Cells is best with a Controller!” so like, I knew that much off the bat. I tried to get my Gamecube controller hooked up with my GCN controller adapter as I did when playing GCN games off Dolphin (I wanted to play Luigi’s Mansion on the go, okay?) and needless to say... not like it didn’t work, but it doesn’t work with Dead Cells.

I’m standing staring at this game controller going “Dude, it’s 34.99$. I got just under 30$ in my purse. I’ll either have to come back for it or mooch off my dad like ten bucks or so to get it.” But! I don’t buy anything electronic unless I know the specs. And this bitch of a controller didn’t say shit, it just had a QR code. And I didn’t have the wifi to follow the link with my iPod.

I scribbled the name of the controller down in my notes or whatever, and moved on with the day. Went to this, and that, helped my grandma bring a new printer in, and sat down to play some Dead Cells. And then I saw that big fancy text on the title screen. “Dead Cells is better with a controller!”. Like hell it was, I didn’t know shit about the controller. So I closed the game, rolled into Google Chrome, and looked it up. Specs were all there on the company’s site. Works with Steam! Look at that sleek design! A blessed controller from the heavens! Kinda looks like an Xbox one but who can be mad, it ain’t Xbox! Also, the link from the QR code didn’t work, so I deadass said “Logitech, eat my ass”. Out loud. In my house. No one heard me though.

Disappointing.

So... Now I want this controller. It’s pretty good, has good specs, a good life to it, and now I’m just sitting here.

Staring.

At the open tab for the controller.

Thinking to myself “man, I want this controller.”

But if I wanna get it today, I gotta go all the way to ANCASTER to do it.

I have no idea if Best Buy has it elsewhere at other locations. I’ve been annoyed about it before with other stores, why would this be any different?

It doesn’t help that, for the entire time I’ve been staring longingly at a digital image of a controller I don’t even have enough money for yet that I’ve been listening to the Dead Cells soundtrack.

TL;DR: I want to go to Best Buy for a gaming controller, but I’m tired. Also it’s cold. And also now when I think of Dead Cells I think of this stupid thirty-dollar gaming controller that I don’t have but want for playing mostly just dead cells.

...Maybe Bioshock too. I think that supports a controller. And when I busted my old computer, I lost all my save data and have to beat the first game all over again.

Eh, I’ll worry about it later.