#i did enjoy adding Luigi though

[originallymarysue]

Chapter 7 is here!

Summary: The crew are going shopping today! Hopefully nothing goes wrong and no arguments happen for once!

[transamus]

Also here's my thoughts on the various aspects of Mario Eclipse, major spoilers though- I recommend going in blind if you plan on playing it at all.

Il Piantissimo feels phenomenal to play as. Not having FLUDD is compensated with a double jump, and the increased speed & jump height is insane. Luckily, you cannot choose to play as him in any episode where you would not be able to accomplish your goal. Additionally, the presence of water bombs for all characters when not using FLUDD works really well to make him still viable.

Luigi feels like the perfect middle-ground between Il Piantissimo's faster movement / higher jumps and still being able to use FLUDD. I choose to play as Luigi more often than not.

Warship Isle was full of tedium, my least favourite new level: however, where all the new levels do have some tedium, the tedium itself fit perfectly into the game. Nothing was more tedious than what Nintendo themselves asked of the player, and so it kinda ended up balancing out pretty nicely.

Lighthouse Isle had some camera issues, but overall starting the level stormy was a great choice, the custom boss battle was really well-done, and I enjoyed it a lot. My only other criticism is that the soundtrack was more "Grant Kirkhope" than "Koji Kondo", but none of the other levels' soundtracks had this issue.

Erto Rock was a beautiful level and a great way to interpret the concept from the cut content. I'm not a huge fan of how often, though, in new levels, you start with a mission that has a timer; I'd prefer personally to be able to take my time exploring the new levels first rather than kinda have to take it all in as quickly as possible. It's also nice having a more vertical level that feels simultaneously like it takes advantage of the Rocket Nozzle where the base game did not, as well as not making it entirely mandatory either.

Hotel Lacrima is a hilarious way to interpret the cut content; they chose to make it mafia based, because... hotel la-crime-a. That's really funny. The organized crime didn't feel out of place for a Nintendo game of this era, either, weirdly enough. The level itself is designed in such a way that the camera feels accommodated for really nicely, despite the inherent issues with the game's camera.

All of the new transition levels / areas feel really cute, and the vibes are immaculate.

Needing to beat shadow Mario in all of the new levels as well was unexpected, but I felt like it fit really nicely. This is usually one of the biggest criticisms of Mario Sunshine itself, but I think the amount of post-game content makes up for this.

Starting the game at Peach's Castle was also a really great choice; in the base game, you have all of 3 seconds to familiarize yourself with Mario's moveset before you obtain FLUDD. Having even this small change I think fixed that issue really well.

The ability to enter Corona Mountain pre-flood was a really nice touch; I do wish that it had been expanded into a full level, though. The attention to the cut detail of it being a Shrine was very appreciated.

I'm only just moving into the post-game content, but having it based around Daisy's Cruiser is a really adorable touch. The post-game content genuinely feels like Official DLC for the game, expanding the map outwards off of Isle Delfino rather than continuing to pile onto the island.

As a Blue Coins enjoyer, I'm really glad that they didn't remove the Blue Coins from the game, and in fact added some to every single new level. I've always stood by the fact that I'd rather have Blue Coins as a "portion of a major collectable" than distort the value of major collectables by throwing them literally everywhere (looking at you, Mario Odyssey).

While the original plan for Eclipse was to restore the beta Delfino Plaza, the beta plaza is nowhere to be found. On one hand, I wish they would have, and put it maybe on the north side of the island or something? but on the other hand, not restoring it does feel like it honors the choices the developers made more, making the mod feel, again, like an Official Product. I think the beta plaza would have stood out design-wise, and- like in the base game- was probably not included for good reason.

As someone who is super autistic about Super Mario Sunshine, this really feels like it hit every single thing I would've wanted in a theoretical remake- it feels like this is the game Nintendo's team would have made if they had been given unlimited time and budget to do so.

[simslegacy5083]

Today's (11/12/2024) Episode: Prank Day Potluck

“This potluck is such a delight” Luigi lied, wishing he had stuck to the plates he had prepared himself earlier. He didn’t want to hurt his friend’s feelings, especially when he knew the issue was less their dishes and more his very high culinary expectations.

Skye was glad no one was asking him about his meal. The bangers and mash Isra had made had looked quite tasty, but something about the combination of greasy sausage and fluffy potato really weren’t doing his tummy any favors.

Once everyone was finished eating, they broke into small groups to catch up with each other and enjoy some fun in the sun.

“I’m glad you’re feeling better.” Skye told Bruce as he and Elyse sat with the other kids, “My dad said you got hurt pretty bad at the trials.”

“Tales of my downfall were greatly exaggerated” the teen quickly replied. Elyse, who shared classes with Bruce at Copperdale and had seen him hobbling around after he’d been cleared by his doctor to return rolled her eyes but didn’t comment.

“Anyway” Bruce continued “the trials were stupid, but I heard a wild story there. Did you know that stargazing can get you abducted? This guy I met heard it from a guy whose cousin works at the science lab.” Skye listened, rapt. Who knew using a telescope could be so dangerous!?

“I can’t believe Skye is almost a teenager!” Noemi lamented to her girlfriends “I swear some days it seems like only yesterday I was waddling around the university, feeling as big as a house, wishing the desks were bigger and my classes were closer together!”

Breanne laughed. “The teen years will fly by too, believe me. It seems like only yesterday my oldest girl Bailey was dating the captain of the chess team, and now she’s married and expecting her second little one.” “Congratulations!” the others chorused.

“So, do you want to host Skye’s birthday party at our place again?” Isra asked. “Thanks” Noemi replied “but Luigi and I are planning to take him on one last trip with just the three of us. Once he ages up, I’m not sure when we’ll get to see him again without making an appointment with Elyse first.” Isra chuckled “So you say, yet I seem to recall both our kids spent all morning at your house!”

“Sheesh, someone needs to lay off the garlic noodles!” Beau complained, holding his nose while waving his hand in Luigi’s direction.

“What!? That wasn’t me!” Luigi protested before his friend started laughing uproariously “Gotcha!” “Argh, I should have known! I’ll get you back for that, just you wait” Luigi told him as the men enjoyed a game of cards.

“Hey, when will you have that Cyberworld item from the Expansion Pack ready for us try out?” Rhys asked, tactfully changing the subject. “I can’t wait to battle myself in the game!” Beau agreed, adding with a grin: “and I can’t wait to have another way to kick both your butts! Seriously man, let’s test it!”

“Soon” Luigi promised “we’re still working out some kinks in the interface. Creating a virtual world within a virtual world turned out to be significantly more difficult than it seemed; but I just know its going to be awesome when we get it right.”

“Thanks for agreeing to help with the motion capture and voice your NPCs.” he continued, before turning back to Beau “I think the new candle making hobby is going to go over well too. I don’t know how Breanne does it all day, my fingers were sore for hours after my visit!”

“My wife is a pro” Beau smiled proudly “only noobs like your highness get singed every 5 minutes!” he laughed “Honestly though, thank you for thinking of her. She was thrilled to participate and having the official hobby lot in the game be modeled after her shop was very flattering.”

After a few more hours talking, pranking, and enjoying some snorkeling and deep-sea diving in the waters surrounding the bungalow Luigi and his family said their goodbyes and headed home, happy to have spent a wonderful day enjoying one of their favorite holidays with some of their favorite sims.

View The Full Story of My Not So Berry Challenge Here

[trashyswitch]

Short People Problems

Mario and Donkey Kong are doing obstacle courses and casually teasing the hell out of each other. But one joke about being short ends up making Mario discover something about Donkey Kong he NEVER would've expected. But...Being short means you gotta be extra careful messing with a large gorilla.

Thanks to @theybibsxi for helping me with this fanfic! And this fanfic was based on some headcanons I made a while back. I hope you all enjoy!

Also, I will be spending the next week on vacation with family. Though I will likely continue writing during this time, I won't be uploading any more fanfics until next Saturday. So...I'm hopping off for the week. Try not to die while I'm gone! <3

Mario and Donkey Kong were walking around the Mushroom kingdom, just chilling out and smashing whatever bricks they found and using whatever power ups they could come across. Though they weren’t really best buds quite yet, they were still getting to know each other a lot better now. Though, that didn’t mean they didn’t taunt each other now and again…

Mario had pulled himself up onto a group of floating bricks and sprinted across them. 

“Move it, shorty.” Donkey Kong jumped up and hit the brick right below Mario’s feet, making Mario fall through the hole. Mario yelped as he felt his stomach ascend into his chest as he fell to the ground.

Though Donkey Kong was a funnyman, he wasn’t a jerk who was gonna let Mario fall on his face. So he caught Mario with his hand as he ran. 

But Mario clearly didn’t approve of such heroism. “I’m not a baby.” Mario muttered. 

“Prove it, then!” Donkey Kong declared as he gave him a good throw into the air to reach the next platform. 

Mario soared through the air and landed on his feet onto the platform before taking off running again. Mario sprinted up the stairs and headed to the elevator. He went up the elevator before heading to the two walls. Now, Mario had done his fair share of wall-jumps. So this part was gonna be easy for him. Mario jumped up once towards the left wall. When he landed, he jumped off the left wall to get to the right wall. When he got to the right wall, he jumped off it to get to the left wall again. Repeat this a few times, and you successfully wall-jump a wall. 

When Mario reached the top of the wall, Donkey Kong ran by him. “Not bad, Red.” Donkey Kong reacted. 

“Thanks.” Mario replied. 

“For an amateur, anyway.” Donkey Kong added with a laugh. 

Mario rolled his eyes and followed him. “Did you really need to add that last part?” Mario asked. 

“Well I didn’t want you thinking I’m complimenting you or something.” Donkey Kong replied. 

“You worried about being seen as a softy?” Mario asked. 

“No. Are you?” Donkey Kong asked. 

“Sometimes.” Mario admitted. 

Donkey Kong chuckled and hopped down the platform onto the ground below. “Maybe it’s because you are.” Donkey Kong joked. 

Mario hopped down next. “And you’re not, I’m guessing?” Mario asked. 

“Me?! No way!” Donkey Kong replied. 

“Uh huh…” Mario hummed, not believing him. “I’ve seen the way you act around Diddy Kong.” Mario added. 

Donkey Kong raised an eyebrow at him before smirking and leaning on Mario’s head. “Oh yeah? And I’ve seen the way you act around Luigi.” Donkey Kong added. 

Mario frowned and crossed his arms when he felt the gorilla’s arm on his head. “...Dude.” Mario said. 

“Mhm?” He replied, casually looking at his nails. 

“Get off me.” Mario ordered. 

“Whaddaya mean?” He asked with a smirk. “I’m not even touching you.” He added. 

“Get off!” Mario yelled.

Donkey Kong’s smirk grew into a toothy smile as he poked Mario’s cheek playfully. “Or what? You’ll beat me up?” He teased. 

Mario growled and poked Donkey’s ribs and armpit. “GET OFF ME!” Mario yelled. 

Donkey Kong wheezed and instinctively pulled his arm back against his side. “WoHO- HEhey!” Donkey Kong laughed. “Wohow! I feel bad for your bro.” Donkey Kong reacted. 

Mario narrowed his eyes. “What’s that supposed to mean?!” Mario asked. 

“You can’t even take a joke!” Donkey Kong told him. 

Mario glared at him. “There’s a difference between joking around, and being a pain in the neck.” Mario let him know as he poked his side. 

Donkey Kong yelped and curled away from the touch for a moment. “Q-Quit that!” He reacted. 

Mario’s frown softened when he saw Donkey Kong’s reaction. He looked at the area he had poked, before looking up at Donkey Kong. “Wait…” Mario attempted to poke his side again, but yelped as his hand was slapped away by Donkey Kong’s larger hand. “Ow!” Mario reacted. 

“Don’t touch me!” Donkey Kong yelled. 

“Why?” Mario asked, smirking slightly. “Ticklish?” He asked. 

Donkey Kong blinked, and looked down to the side slightly. “I-” He muttered. 

Mario’s facial expression only grew when he heard Donkey Kong stutter. “...Wait, seriously?!” Mario asked, not fully believing it at first.

“Shut up.” Donkey Kong ordered. 

“I will, but…” Mario looked at him. “I’m surprised.” He admitted, pointing to him. 

“Don’t. Try it.” Donkey Kong ordered. 

Mario looked at Donkey Kong…then at his stomach…Mario reached his finger out and started to bring it closer to his belly. “Juuuust-” Mario widened his eyes the moment his hand was grabbed by a fluffy, large, brown hand. Mario yelped and screeched as he was lifted up off the ground by his wrist. “WaitwaiT- AAH!” Mario shouted. 

“You think you can tickle me and get away with it?!” He asked before poking Mario’s side, earning him a surprisingly high-pitched squeak. “Just try me. I DARE you.” He added with a smirk as he skittered three of his fingers on Mario’s side. 

Mario widened his eyes and covered his mouth, refusing to let Donkey Kong hear his laugh. Though Mario really liked his own laugh, he knew that if he let it out…then Donkey Kong was gonna keep tickling him just to tease him about it! And why in the world would Mario give him that satisfaction?! 

Mario shot him the best glare he could considering the circumstances. But it didn’t look threatening like he wanted…because Donkey Kong only laughed at him. “Was that supposed to scare me?!” Donkey Kong asked. 

Mario soon removed his hand from his face, showing off his wobbly smile in the process, so he could cover up his side as best he could with one hand. “Yohoucan’tbreakme.” Mario spat through his pent-up laughter. 

“Oh I’m not trying to break you.” Donkey Kong told him. “I’m just trying to tickle you. Make you laugh.” He told him. “And you’re holding out on me!” He added, moving his finger up to his armpit. “And I don’t like it.” Donkey Kong added, poking his armpit with an evil, toothy smirk. 

Mario screeched and looked visibly scared as he tried to wave his hand away from his armpit. “NO! Not there! Anywhere but there!” Mario begged. 

He removed his finger and wiggled it. “Ohooo! Does that mean it’s…” His finger touched down right in the dip of his armpit. “Ticklish?” He teased in the most evil voice he could muster. 

Mario gripped Donkey Kong’s finger as best he could, and attempted to remove it. “NOo, no it’s not.” Mario shot back. 

Donkey Kong flexed his finger, making it wiggle and tickle his armpit one single time. Just this alone, made Mario titter and squeeze his eyes shut. “If your armpit isn’t sensitive…” He flexed his finger again to tickle Mario just once more. “Then why are you smiling so much?” Donkey Kong asked with fake curiosity, referring to the wobbly smile on Mario’s face that had just grown to show off his teeth. 

“DonkeyKongIswearto-” Mario gasped as he felt Donkey Kong’s finger wiggle again…only for it to wiggle continuously in his armpit. “GohohoHOHOHOD!” Mario finished his threat before throwing his head back as he felt the dam break right open. 

Donkey Kong’s face brightened as he heard the man break open with laughter. “Wow! There you go!” He reacted. “Took you long enough.” He added with a chuckle. 

Mario immediately let go of Donkey Kong’s finger and flapped his free arm around as he laughed full-force this time. “HAHAHAHAHAHAHAhahaha!” Mario laughed, pulling his arm in and keeping it tense against his side. 

“Not gonna lie, you’ve got a pretty good laugh. I can see why the princess likes you.” Donkey Kong told him. 

Mario could feel a slight blush showing up on his face from that compliment alone. “SHUHUHUT UHUHUP!” Mario yelled at him. 

“Nah. I rather like teasing you, Red.” Donkey Kong admitted. “Maybe if I tease you enough, your cheeks will match your shirt.” He added. 

Mario lowered his head down and held his stomach as he kept laughing. By this point, Mario had given up trying to stop Donkey Kong from tickling him. Mario couldn’t do any damage to Donkey Kong without a power up, thanks to how big and strong Donkey Kong was. So the man had to just take it. 

And right as Mario was starting to get used to the tickles, Donkey Kong started dragging his finger down to the ribs. “Coochy coochy coo~” He teased evilly. 

Mario’s laughter seemed to stay about the same, only this time, his feet started kicking a bit more wildly. “YOHOHOHOU’RE SOHOHOHO MEHEHEHEAN!” Mario complained. 

“Says the one who continuously heeded my warning and tried to tickle me anyway, despite me saying ‘Don’t try it’ at least once.” Donkey Kong added. 

“STOHOP STOPSTOP LEHET MEHEHE TAHAHALK!” Mario begged. “PLEHEHEHEASE!” 

Donkey Kong shrugged his shoulders and stopped tickling his ribs. “Okay.” He replied. 

Mario’s laughter lessened super quickly. The man breathed in gulps of air and let out long breaths of relief. “Gohohosh…” Mario muttered. 

“What did you wanna say?” Donkey Kong asked. 

Mario looked up at Donkey Kong, and let out another breath. “You…technically didn’t say ‘Don’t try it’.” Mario told him. 

Donkey Kong narrowed his eyes. “Oh really?” He leaned in. “Then what did I say?” He asked. 

“You actually said ‘Don’t’ with a pause…and then ‘try it’.” Mario replied with a growing little innocent smile. 

Donkey Kong looked at him with the most unamused face he could possibly show him. 

This look made Mario burst out laughing despite still clearly being overpowered. “Yohohou look so done with me.” Mario added, giggling into his own hand. 

Donkey Kong rolled his eyes and let go of Mario, making him drop to the ground. When Mario sat himself up, Donkey Kong pushed Mario down onto his back and held the man’s wrists by the sleeves just above his chest. “You done talking yet?” He asked with a smirk before moving his fingers towards Mario’s belly. “If not, then you might as well laugh instead.” Donkey Kong concluded, skittering his fingers on his little, jean-covered belly. 

Mario’s laughter seemed to erupt from his lips almost right away this time, surprising them both. “aaAAHAhahahahaha! Ohohohokahahay! Ihihi’m dohone tahahalkihing, I promihihihise!” Mario replied. 

“Well that’s a relief.” He teased. “But laughing doesn’t really count as talking, does it?” He asked, wiggling his fingers near his vulnerable sides. 

Mario’s body language, as well as his laughter, noticeably doubled when his right side was merely stroked by the gorilla’s fingers. “Ihihihi dohohoHOHON’T KNOHOHOhohohow!” Mario admitted, his voice moving up and down in volume. 

Donkey Kong’s smirk widened the moment his laughter got stronger. He quickly looked up at Mario’s face. “Ticklish sides?” He asked before poking his right side a bit harder this time. 

“HeheHEHAHAHA- NoHO!” Mario attempted to turn himself onto his right to cover up his ticklish side. “N-No, no way. They’re not. Honest.” Mario argued, pulling on his sleeves rough enough to try and get out, but gentle enough as to not rip his sleeves. 

Donkey Kong chuckled and shook his head. “You are the worst liar I have ever met.” Donkey Kong admitted with a laugh before giving Mario’s sides a few squeezes. “Like, a toddler would be able to lie better than you!” Donkey Kong teased. Mario threw his head back and let out a long, strong cackle. “SOHOHOHO WHAHAT?!” Mario yelled back. 

Mario’s laughter only continued in long bouts when Donkey Kong squeezed his side a bit faster. “Wow! I’m glad you found that as funny as I did!” Donkey Kong reacted. 

Mario shook his head as he kicked his feet somewhat wildly. “NOHOHOT FUNNYHEEHEEHEE!” Mario shouted at him. 

“Another lie! You seriously think lying about my humor is going to work when you’re clearly laughing?!” Donkey Kong joked. 

“BUHUHUT IHI’M NOHOHOT! IHIHI SWEHEHEAR!” Mario yelled at him. 

“Ohoho, you’d better not be swearing that you’re not laughing…because that would be yet ANOTHER lie!” Donkey Kong reacted. “Speaking of which: why are you laughing so much, Jumpman?” Donkey Kong asked. 

“WHYHY DOHO YOU THIHIHIHIHINK?!” Mario spat back. 

Donkey Kong shrugged his shoulders. “I don’t know. I can’t read your mind, Mario.” Donkey Kong teased. “You’re the only one who can tell me why you’re laughing.” 

Mario whined through his laughter. “BEHEHECAUSE YOHOU’RE TIHIHICKLIHIHING MEHEHEHEHE!” Mario yelled back. 

“What?!” Donkey Kong stopped his fingers and let go of Mario’s sleeves before moving them up into arrest position. “No I’m not!” Donkey Kong reacted. “Look! My hands are free!” He insisted.

Mario held his stomach as he curled up into a ball, giggling and laughing from the leftover phantom tickles. Even though Donkey Kong was obviously not tickling him, Mario was still laughing almost as hard as he was when DK’s hand was squeezing his unbelievably ticklish side. 

“See? I’m not even touching you, and you’re laughing yourself absolutely bananas! What is so funny?!” Donkey Kong reacted, acting all innocent. 

Mario’s laughter slowly began to die down. Keyword: slowly. Though they were less than before, Mario’s cackles were still strong enough to keep Mario’s face a little bit red. Normally a person would start snorting by now. But here’s the thing: Mario is not a snorter. 

But don’t let this discourage you…because there’s something else I need to tell you:

Mario may not snort…but he most certainly hiccups when he laughs for too long. 

And that’s exactly what Mario started to do. Mario had only let out one single hiccup, which made Mario impulsively cover up his mouth with his palm. But even with his mouth covered, you could still hear the recurring hiccups through his hand. “Hahahaha- *hic* -Hehehe *hic* Hehe sohohorry- *hic* Hehehehe-” Mario muttered. 

Donkey Kong widened his eyes and stared at Mario. “Are you…hiccuping?!” Donkey Kong asked. 

Mario’s blush only seemed to deepen when Donkey Kong simply mentioned his hiccups. He sat himself up and tried to calm himself down. “Ihihihi *hic* Hihihihi- *hic* Hihihehehehe- *hic* Yeheheah…” Mario muttered. 

Donkey Kong chuckled. “Does anyone else know about your hiccup laughs?” Donkey Kong asked. 

Mario groaned and covered his face, clearly embarrassed. “Shhhhutup.” Mario muttered. 

Donkey Kong laughed and offered him a hand. “Want help up, overalls?” 

Mario bit his lip and uncovered his face. “S-Sure.” Mario muttered. When he felt ready, Mario took his hand (or rather, his index finger) and got up onto his feet. “Now…please don’t tell anyone.” Mario told him. “I don’t want rumors to spread about this.” Mario admitted. 

Donkey Kong nodded. “Wouldn’t want such adorable information to get into the wrong hands.” Donkey Kong added. 

“Yeah, pretty-” Mario froze. “Wha- HEY!” Mario punched Donkey Kong’s arm, earning him a laugh from Donkey Kong. “I’m not adorable.” Mario warned. 

“I’d beg to differ…Have you seen yourself in the catsuit?” Donkey Kong teased, wiggling his fingers like a cat paw. 

Mario rolled his eyes and crossed his arms. “Sh-shut up.” Mario muttered. 

This made Donkey Kong laugh even more. “Fine, fine.” He said. “But in return…you can’t tell people I’m ticklish either.” Donkey Kong ordered. “That stays zipped up in your head. Got it?” Donkey Kong ordered. 

Mario nodded. “Fair enough. I can do that. Truce?” Mario asked, offering his hand. 

“Truce.” Donkey Kong replied, shaking his hand with his finger while his other hand moved behind his back.  

Mario nodded his head before letting go of Donkey Kong’s finger and looking over at the obstacle course. “So…..” Mario looked over to the main toad village. “You…you wanna visit the toad shops?” Mario asked, pointing to the town.  

Donkey Kong narrowed his eyes. “Shops?” He asked. “I could not think of a more boring activity.” Donkey Kong teased. 

“I dunno…I heard they have some interesting antiques over there…” Mario mentioned. “Haven’t been able to check them out myself though…” He admitted. 

“Hm…” He looked at the town. “Do you think there’s anything I haven’t seen before?” Donkey Kong asked. 

Mario chuckled. “Only one way to find out…” Mario mentioned. 

Donkey Kong chuckled and poked his side. “Fine.” He replied before taking off running. “Race ya!” 

Mario yelped and jumped back, before taking off after him. “WAIT! YOU CHEATER!” Mario shouted. 

“JUST CATCH UP, SLOW POKE!” Donkey Kong shouted back. 

“WATCH ME, SMASH MONKEY!” Mario shouted back as he sprinted after him. 

It didn't take long for the boys to make it to the village. And to Donkey Kong’s surprise, there were actually lots of antique items that he had never seen before. And Mario ended up purchasing a couple new power ups that he hadn’t tried before. Despite the one-sided tickle fight that had just transpired, the boys seemed to keep things civil between each other. Later on, Mario would end up getting tickled all over again. Why? Because Donkey Kong may or may not have been crossing his fingers when he shook Mario’s hand earlier…Go figure…

But let’s face it: Mario would’ve done the same thing. They both have that competitive brotherly energy to them. It’s what seemed to help them cooperate when it was needed. 

[blu193]

Mrs. Monitor Lives (SMG4 AU): A Concept

[aka: Hal Monitor wins squid game and sells the lifetime supplies of PS5s for money to pay for his wife's surgery]

(WARNING: I LOVE THINKING FAR TOO HARD ON SILLY SHOWS AND GAMES I ENJOY, READ AT YOUR OWN RISK)

What if Hal Monitor won in "SMG4: If Mario Was In.... SQUID GAME"? What if Hal got the prize and sold the PS5s for the money he needed? Well I'm gonna rewind and try to show you my take on if he did win, and how he did it.

PART 1: HOW.

The first question would be HOW does he win SQUID GAME? Well, we can deduce where he originally lost by checking the roster between games, as even if they are removed offscreen, they show who survived at the start of the next game.

To which we find he was eliminated during the marbles minigame, which leaves us with a couple of questions:

Who did he versus out of the winning group? We can immediately eliminate Mario and Wario, as we see them win against their opponents: Old Man and Waluigi respectfully. We can Also eliminate Squidward, Dipsy (Teletubbie), Colonel Sanders (KFC mascot), Donkey (SHREK ICON), Buff Carl, and Joker (Persona 5) as they weren't apart of the group shown for the marbles minigame and are included in the glass bridge minigame as a gag. Which leaves Meggy, Steve, or Luigi as our final suspects. Personally I'm more likely to believe it was Steve, as his capablities of throwing random stuff as a gag would fry Hal's system and thus, lose the match. So instead, Hal would possibly load all his marbles into a makeshift gun and shoot Steve, eliminating him on the spot.

How would he succeed the glass bridge minigame? As the glass bridge is one of the two minigames he must win at before being crowned the winner, he needs to pass this to contiune onto the next and final round. If he were replace Steve, and (for a super spy gag) had a way to differentiate the wrong or right way for glass pathing, we could still use the "Wario trips up Luigi and immediately faces the consequences of his actions" bit by Hal just chokeholding Wario and yeeting him into the pit saying that "Wasn't very legal" as he threw him.

Onto the Squid Game minigame and we run into the final obstacle: Would it still work to have Meggy and Mario both get past the glass bridge minigame to battle with Hal Monitor in the final frontier? Considering Meggy's skill with a splattershot, and both Mario and Meggy's training for the Splatfest, I doubt it. Mario did win with a gag so odds are he might've not stood a chance against someone like Hal, who is taking this FAR more seriously than himself if Meggy wasn't there. Say she is still there though, which can still play out well in a "Rock, Paper, Scissors" format: Mario defeats Meggy, and Hal quickly defeats Mario while he's distracted by beating Meggy.

PART 2: SO WHAT IF HE WON?

Finally the ending of the episode after getting the money:

Hal and Jr are waiting in the hospital hallway, sitting on a bench outside the room. Hal's leg is going a mile a minute as Jr just sits, resting his head (toaster face?) on his father's lap. Hal got the money just in time, but the wait during the surgery was unbearable. The father-son duo glanced at each other, practically seeing the same amount of fear, paranoia, and dread on the what ifs for their dear microwave. The hospital door creaks open by a smiling E. Gadd. "The procedure was a success. Aside from needing to ease back into walking again, she should be clear. You both can see her if you'd like." But E. Gadd was quickly interrupted as the duo shot towards the door only to halt in the room and slowly step towards the medical chair where their dear Mrs. Monitor sits, assessing her newly added arms, merely astonished by the movements and gestures she could now make with just her hands alone. But what E. Gadd was far more than just arms, no he gave her a whole cybernetic body; legs, body, neck, and even making the microwave door of her face into a whole face plate! As she looked up from her hands, she saw her loving husband and their sweet boy gaze at her with a relived and loving gaze. Their fears were finally over. Hal and Jr go in to give her a big hug, that she just as quickly accepts with her new arms, tears welling up in her new eyes. Their family was finally back together again, and all is finally well for them in the world.

END OF EPISODE.

As always would love your thoughts on this and hope you enjoyed!

[veinsfullofstars]

⭐ Welcome! ⭐

Henlo. Hope you’re doing well. Thanks for poppin’ by. I’m Veins, an art goblin on the internet with abnormal levels of anxiety and chronic video game brainrot, and this is my introduction post. Any updates or news on my end will be added here as well. I hope you’ll be patient with me and enjoy your visit!

(Last updated 01/02/25)

---

Who are you?

A sad pile of meat barely surviving on a very lucky rock in space, just like everyone else... but you can called me Veins. Ivan or Yves is fine, too. Nice to meet you!

Wait, didn't you already have an account here? With the same username?

I did. I, uh, panic-deleted it in response to the data-scraping fiasco and regretted it almost immediately. As a result, you might see reblogs from the deactivated account still floating around. There is, unfortunately, nothing I can do about those unless the blogs that shared them take them down themselves (and, hey, if you happen to be one of those folks seeing this, I'd super appreciate it if you'd maybe remove the old reblog and replace it with the new one from here if you can). It's my mistake for overreacting, and now I just have to live with it. Sorry for any confusion.

What are your preferred pronouns/gender?

Thanks for asking! I’m non-binary, and I use they/them pronouns.

How old are you?

Ancient (in my 30s).

What is your avatar supposed to be?

A goblin. Very smol, very nervous, very puntable.

What are you using this blog for?

Art, mostly. I draw digitally and rarely make stuff with yarn. I've also been writing since I could hold a pencil (though I don’t have much finished, so art will be the main focus for now). Also, expect a lot of reblogs, shitposts, and/or silence between posts - I am a simple hobbyist and neurodivergent as hell in a very exhausting world. I’ll do my best, but - again - I hope you’ll be patient with me if things go quiet from time to time.

What are your interests?

I love stories. I love characters. I love folks who can weave whole worlds with nothing but words on a page or color on a canvas. I grew up on fantasy novels, short horror stories, and late ‘90s/early ’00s animation. Later on, I learned to appreciate slice-of-life and slow-burn romance (especially the queer kinds). Mythology and folklore also slaps, and I wonder sometimes if I should’ve majored in psychology instead of lib arts. My playlists are nothing but video game OSTs with a little heavy metal and j-rock sprinkled in for flavor. I sold my soul to Nintendo years ago, but sometimes I find indie darlings to fall in love with for a time. Dogs are adorable little menaces, and I love them all with my whole chest. Cats are okay, and I am allergic to them. (Does that answer the question? I think I lost track towards the end there…)

Any current hyperfixations?

Tons, but the biggest ones at the moment are Kirby, Hollow Knight, and Paper Mario. More nebulous interests include (in no particular order) Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Sky, Rain World, Stardew Valley, most Soulsborne titles, Hades, Darkest Dungeon, The Legend of Zelda, Undertale/Deltarune, OFF, The Binding of Isaac, Ace Attorney, Luigi's Mansion, Animal Crossing, The Magnus Archives, Sonic the Hedgehog, and countless more. When I say “multifandom,” I mean it, homie.

Do you have any other social media?

Just this and an AO3 account. So, if you see my name anywhere but these two places, it’s probably not me. For now, Tumblr will be the best place to keep up-to-date with my stuff. If anything changes, I’ll let y’all know here.

Do you have a list of tags you use on your posts?

I tag things obsessively, but I’ll try to sort out the most relevant/unique ones I use here:

#veins art - for any art I’ve made (chrono link | masterposts: 2018-2024)

#veins fanart - for art I’ve made featuring characters from other IPs

#veins ocs - for art I’ve made featuring my original characters/stories

#veins sketches - for any of my unrendered doodles/sketch dumps

#veins old art - for reposts of older art I made before moving to Tumblr (Note: these posts are here for archival purposes and may not reflect my current style/interests.)

#veins writes - for any written works I’ve made

#veins ships - for any posts (reblogs included) featuring romantic pairings; I will also try to include specific pairings as “#(blank) x (blank)” and/or any ship names

#veins rambles - for random thoughts/text posts

#veins answers - for any of my responses to asks sent in (chrono link)

#veins in dream land - for any rambles/headcanons about the Kirby series specifically

#veins reblogs - for anything I reblog, obviously

#childhood friends au - for art from my Kirby AU where Dedede and Meta Knight first met as kids (masterpost | chrono link)

#kintsugi au - for art from my Kirby AU centered around the Mirror World, the Wave 2 gang, and the Darkroach ship - warning: may contain angst and suggestive content (masterpost | chrono link)

#kirbtober 2023 - for my Kirbtober 2023 art (chrono link)

#kirbtober 2024 - for my Kirbtober 2024 art (chrono link)

#mtddweek2024 - for my MetaDede Week 2024 art (chrono link)

I’ll update this with new tags if/when they pop up. Anything else will have generic tags to fit the context of the post. I also mark trigger warnings with tags like “#(blank) tw” if necessary.

What do you use to make your art?

For digital art, I use Clip Studio Paint and a Wacom Intuos Pro S drawing tablet. I don’t draw traditionally as much anymore, but, when I do, it’s usually just quick sketches with pencil and paper. For writing, I use TextEdit or whatever generic rich text editing software I can find. For crafting, I use yarn and plastic canvas.

What brushes do you use?

For sketching and linework, I use a slightly modified version of the Wick Pencil from the 8 Particle Pencil catalog made by saturns_day. For flats and rendering, I use the default CSP hard round brush, airbrush, and G-pen. For effects and extras (clouds, textures, sparkles, etc.), I use default effects brushes or whatever I can find from the CSP Asset Shop.

Can I share your work through reblogs? And are tags okay?

Of course! Reblogs are always encouraged. I’m also fine with tags as well (though I ask that you not mark anything as a ship unless I’ve marked it as such on the original post - look for the tag #veins ships if you’re ever unsure).

Can I repost/use your work for my own personal/commercial use?

Absolutely not. While I am always in support of creators inspiring each other with our works and endeavors, that does not mean anyone should engage in art theft (intentional or otherwise). Under no circumstances may you repost, reupload, reproduce, copy, trace, modify, sell, use, tokenize, scrape/integrate into A*I, and/or otherwise claim as your own any of my art/written works. Never assume a piece of art shared online in yours for the taking - that is someone else’s hard work and passion, and you need to respect that.

Can I dub one of your comics?

As flattering as that would be, I worry about lack of credit or my work being stolen for others’ content, so I sadly have to say no.

Why is there a big watermark on your art?

People are just kinda garbage sometimes, so I make sure to sign and WM anything original I post. I know it’s not exactly fun to look at (maybe even distracting or bad for engagement), but I’d rather be safe than sorry, so we'll both have to just deal with it.

Do you have an askbox? Can we send in questions/comments/etc.?

Yes, the ask box is currently open, and I'm more than happy to receive any questions, comments, etc. you guys might have (even if it makes me a bit nervous, haha)! I just ask that you read the rules first before you submit anything.

Do you take requests/commissions/suggestions/collabs/etc.?

Sadly, I do not take art requests or suggestions unless I put out a specific call for them. I'm also not really in a position to take commissions either. Collabs I'm on the fence about - maybe with mutuals or folks I know personally, though no guarantees (chronic social anxiety is a real bench sometimes).

Is this an inclusive space?

Of course! This queer little goblin accepts everyone under the LGBTQIA+ umbrella, along with folks of all shapes, sizes, backgrounds, disabilities, and colors. That said, there will be absolutely no tolerance for (inhale) racism, sexism, transphobia, queerphobia, xenophobia, misogyny/misandry, bigotry of any kind, ableism, p***philia, inc*st, selfc*st, z**philia, RPF, trolling behavior, self-promotion, the promotion of N*FTs or A*I art, or any otherwise harmful, toxic, or hurtful rhetoric. Anyone seen behaving as such will be blocked, reported, and forgotten. I do not feed trolls - I let them starve. :)

Is this an all-ages space?

No. While I probably won’t be posting/sharing anything too lewd or graphic, I’m not opposed to things like swearing, angst, the occasional gout of blood, fluff bordering on suggestive, and discussions of mature subject matter (all of which I will make sure to tag with content warnings as necessary). Obviously, I can’t police everyone who wanders into this blog (especially since some people omit or lie about their ages online), so the best I can do is ask for good faith on your part. If you are under 18, interact at your own risk. The last thing I want is to make anyone - myself included - uncomfortable because there are kids in an adult-allocated space. Again, I hope you understand.

What is your stance on shipping?

The vernacular around pro- or anti-shipping confuses the hell out of me, so I’ll just try to explain my personal philosophy on it: I have ships I like, ones I’m indifferent to, and ones I won’t touch with a ten-foot pole. I only reblog (and tag) ship-related content I’m in support of, even if it’s not one of my personal favorites. Most importantly, I don’t bother others about their personal preferences. Anything I don’t like or don’t support, I simply do not engage with. Or, if it makes me too uncomfortable, I block outright. The same should apply to your experience as well - if you ever see ship stuff here that you don’t like, feel free to block the tags (look for specific pairings, ship names, and/or my personal tag #veins ships) or even the blog entirely. You are not obligated to like the things I like or engage with media you don’t enjoy. Respect for each other and curation of your personal online space is always key. Additionally, I 100% will not ship minors, blood relations (including adopted family), self x self, anything relating to b*stiality, or anything relating to RPF.

Are you okay?

No, not even a little bit... but fuck it, we keep going.

Why do you put a comma before the “and” in a sequence of three or more words?

You can take my Oxford comma away from me when I’m cold, dead, and rotting in the dirt.

Is there anything else?

Nah, I think we’re good for now. Thanks for taking the time to read all this. Hope it wasn’t too rambly or weird - just trying to cover all my bases. I hope you all have a lovely timezone out there, wherever you are. Be sure to wash your hands, wear your mask, and stay hydrated. Remember to be strong, be safe, and, for the love of dog, be kind. Peace!

-Veins (originally posted 08/07/23, reposted 02/29/24, updated as of 01/02/25)

[pokerninja2]

Cowboy Jed gets behind the wheel and rides to victory in Super Mario Spikers! This is far and away my deepest cut yet for this roster, and I'm really happy with how he turned out. He was so deep of a cut, in fact, that when I alluded to his addition earlier today, no one was even close to guessing who he was.

Normally I'd dedicate the rest of the tweet to talking about all the things that went into Jed's art, but I really feel like I should actually explain who he is first. Cowboy Jed was the star of some commercials for Mario Kart Wii, advertising the game and its karts for sale at his store, the Mario Kart Emporium. Yes, he's ridiculously over the top, and yes, it's glorious.

So while Jed's obviously not in Mario Kart Wii, it's kind of funny to consider him as such, as he was from adverts made for the game.

While not the first non-game character to join the roster as I already added Hooded Robin from the Super Show and the Penguin King from the movie before (even though I don't think I've shown the latter off on tumblr yet), he IS the first "live-action" character. I wouldn't get used to these. I'd consider real-life people, such as people who appeared in games like Mario's Time Machine or Mario is Missing, and the live-action guest appearances from the Super Show, to be really, really low on the totem pole, if you know what I mean. But Cowboy Jed is so cartoonishly hammy that a character like him would fit the Mario universe like a glove. I like to think the Cowboy Jed ads are actually in-universe advertisements for the Mario Kart tournaments going on in Wii, and his emporium is where the characters get all their karts. That's what I point out in the bio, at least.

Now onto the art itself! I didn't change too much about Jed's appearance, mainly because for the more obscure characters I don't really have to. Still, I did take a few design liberties. I gave him some nice shoulderpads, along with tassels(?) along his jacket, just to kind of break up the color pallet more and make him more fancy. I also put a blue band around his stetson for similar reasons. To my knowledge, we've never seen Jed below the waist, so I decided to give him white boots. Also, those spokes are actually based on the three-star ranking from Mario Kart Wii! Thought that would be a cute touch.

Probably more immediately noticeable than his outfit is the fact he uses a Wii Wheel to drive an invisible kart around! This is obviously based on the game's boxart, as well as the game's intro where Mario and Luigi drive around with Wii Wheels. The motion controls were a pretty big part of this game's identity, so having that represented in someone who is decidedly a "Mario Kart Wii" character fits perfectly. I also based Jed's pose off of this shot from the opening.

The wheel is also Cowboy Jed's team icon. His super spike is another reference to the wheel, being based on the golden one you can get in your rankings if you're masochist enough to use motion controls enough to unlock it.

I always enjoy adding extremely obscure characters, and there's very few who are as obscure as this. Jed was a really fun one to bring to life, and imagining him take on the likes of Bowser or King K. Rool is probably what pushed me to draw him in the first place.

My tweet of him is gaining a lot of traction on Twitter too, moreso than most of my other characters. So others seem to like him too! I have to wonder just how many people had no idea he existed before they saw my art of him though.

[c7thetumbler]

Quick Game reviews: 2023 (Part 2!)

Continuing on! These were ones I played closer to the end of the year, but also as I remember them throughout. Other than that, order doesn't matter

Let's keep this ball rollin!

Kirby's Dreamland 2 (Switch online)

The only Kirby's dreamland I never played! I enjoyed it quite a lot, though of course it's a pretty easy Kirby game. Back in the day this would've been a lot of fun, and still is as a quickly little romp through a classic Kirby game. Nowadays it doesn't really hold up vs SuperStar DX and Planet Robobot, so not an essential playthrough by any means

______________________________________________

This next section's going to be about playing and 100% every Super Mario Advance game! How incredibly pointless interesting!

To put an age on myself, GBA was my late kid/early teen years and I have a long history with these games. Since they all got added as part of NSO+ or whatever I'm mooching off of Keewy's subscription (love you so much bud), I figured it'd be fun to go back and 100% all of them. Mixed results, but let's get into it.

Super Mario Advance (Switch Online, GBA)

This one was the original Mario Advanced, and more first into into SMB2 (Doki Doki Panic). Since it was fresh to me I didn't realize at the time that it was just a remaster, and thought it was difficult but a lot of fun. The addition of the findable Yoshi eggs adds some replay-ability, but mostly in the form of a tedious hide and seek.

Additionally, the playground rumor was if you got ALL of the Yoshi eggs, you can play as him! This is an outright lie. Ryan. You get nothing for finding them all other than the satisfaction of knowing you did it. As far as an experience goes, this is definitely one of the better ways to play SMB2 as long as you can get back the crunchy but frequent voice lines

Super Mario Advance 2: Super Mario World (Switch Online, GBA)

This one was one I spent COUNTLESS hours playing on my old GBA, and continued playing after the DS came out on my Micro. Easily my favorite 2D Mario game, no contest. This is the best way you can experience SMW officially, and I'd highly recommend it since it made some of the more high-score aspects like dragon coins collectibles instead.

Unlike The previous game, this game actually rewards you with some fun screens and congratulations when you finish everything too!

Super Mario Advance 3: Yoshi's Island (Switch Online, GBA)

Another incredibly solid title! Same as the original but with some minor tweaks and additional levels. This is the definitive version of the original Yoshi's Island, which if you haven't played, you absolutely should.

I Don't remember a reward past the "All Clear" congratulations you get, but still that's enough of an accomplishment because these levels can get tough.

Super Mario Advance 4: Super Mario Bros. 3 e+ (Switch Online, GBA

This one and I have a funny history. I got on e-reader at the tail end of it's incredibly short lifespan in the states. While I have fond memories of scanning cards for NES games, Animal Crossing, and this game, I unfortunately was not able to find the packs to play all these e-reader levels. Now that this is re-released, I can finally play all them and see what the reward is for getting all the cards and collectibles in the levels (which involves playing each one at least twice!).

You get nothing! And the card levels vvary in quality, definitely with a very proto Mario Maker vibe to them. They were fun at the time, but honestly they should've just done a bonus world with all the levels already available after beating the game. Playing all this once-lost level content is interesting, but as far as this game goes it can get pretty grindy and overstay its welcome, especially in comparison to things done nowadays in 2D mario with Wonder and Mario Maker

Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga (Switch Online, GBA)

A classic masterpiece. Offers a big, beautiful, wacky world to explore without overstaying it's welcome with unique ways of traversing and interacting with the environment and an incredible battle system. Honestly? I'd suggest playing this over its 3DS remake; what that adds isn't worth missing out on this iconic art that defined a small generation of sprite-artists, and the QoL stuff added doesn't really do that much for this game since it was already incredible.

Will always recommend SuperStar Saga

... And that's all the Mario advanced games! Basically, play Superstar Saga, the rest is up to you but SMW is great as well.

BurgerTime Deluxe (Switch Online, GB)

Me and Burgertime Arcade go waaaaay back to the dentist office where they had a cabinet that I would play when I finished my cleanings but had to wait for half an hour afterwards. I had no idea this game existed!

Similar to Annalynn in the last post, this is a classic Arcade experience that in order to get really good at and beat without failure, you need to deeply understand how all its simple mechanics work. Since it's on NSO, I cheated a bit near the end. Still, This is a great portable expansion on Burgertime the arcade game, similar to how Donkey Kong GB blows the original DK arcade game out of the water! Would recommend you give it a try if only to get that classic arcade feeling.

Vampire Survivors (Steam)

I have a hard time recommending games like this. On the one hand, I did enjoy my time with it and it was pretty fun to slowly get better and find all the things, as well as learn different really cool combos for some crazy shenanigans. On the other hand, there's not really much gameplay here other than wandering in the right direction and a skinner box. It's kinda like cookie clicker to me; not something that I like the idea of fondly, but still some good fun for a little bit. The kind of thing I could easily hyperfixate on without actually enjoying myself, if I'm not careful.

Pikmin 1 (Switch)

So this surprised me. Was not expecting a Switch re-release, but it did make sense. As far as things go, this is a good way to experience the game (legally), and it does fix a number of issues with Wii Play Control versions, but at the end of the day I would've preferred a bit more; either some online high score comparison features or an actual HD remaster. Pikmin's a great time, but this entry shows it's age a bit; I'd recommend Pikmin 4 first.

Pikmin 3 also perfected the challenge mode, so going back to this version's classic mode with no changes or comparisons was just a little bleh.

Pikmin 2 (Switch)

I feel like I can recommend this one a bit more, however it falls into the same pitfalls that rereleasing 1 does. Pikmin 2 is a phenomenal game, but loses all of the stakes of a time limit in exchange for being much larger (and hilariously unfair at times). It's challenge mode is also certainly more engaging than 1, but again it fails in comparison to 3, and I would've liked to see a remaster instead. Especially since Pikmin 3's DLC and later Pikmin 4 confirmed that they had all the HD assets for it. Again, I love pikmin, but Pikmin 4 perfectly captured the Pikmin experience for me, so I'd recommend checking that out first.

Castle on the Coast (Steam)

A fun, easy, short 3D platformer whose mascot is based off of the mascot of a Children's Hospital! How cute.

It's a good time to just play through casually; the movement is a little strange but I was able to get used to it and it was a great time. Another game that feels of perfect length for what it's doing. It's pretty cheap on sale, I'd give this a god if you're aching for a classic 3D platformer game.

Grounded (Steam)

This one's hard to recommend; I had a lot of fun playing it with my good pally pals June and Keewy, but it definitely seemed like it was more fine-tuned as a single-player experience since the scaling for additional people made everything WAY harder. Admittedly I wasn'ty playing my best and I'd still like to try and beat it, but I found myself frustrated a lot. I've not delved to much into the crafting survival genre past Minecraft, and while this one has good visuals and a fun 90s story, I have trouble giving it a thumbs-up

Pikmin 4 (Switch)

After so many years...

It's fucking amazing, best entry in the series. The definitive Pikmin experience, if you've never played Pikmin start here and work backwards if you fall in love. Instant masterpiece, tons of content, but still found myself wanting more

The Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Ages (Switch Online, GBA)

Finally got around to finishing one of these! It's a very fun 2D Zelda, but is in drastic need of some QoL and modernization. Constantly using the start button to swap items and check the map is as tedious as expected, but in terms of gameplay it's a lot of fun! I didn't play Seasons yet, which feels like it's mandatory for getting the full expeience, and there were a few moments where I found myself lost and frustrated, but past that a solid 2D Zelda entry.

Animal Crossing New Horizons: Happy Home Paradise (Switch DLC)

I had been playing AC to catch up and finally complete the museum, and was astonished by how little content there was in this DLC.

Then I learned that it doesn't Download automatically if you get it for free via NSO+ subscription. Oops.

It goes a long way in adding to New Horizon's experience, which after so many hours playing it can feel strippedof its charm as you repeat the same tasks with a limited number of personalities is refreshing. Is it worth $30? ehhh.

I've designed ~80 homes in it so far, and while it is fun to decorate around their guidelines and play with villagers you may have fond memories of from previous entries, it's very much a make your own goals kind of thing. You'll find yourself very easily bored of it if you don't engage with it seriously and only do the bare minimum to "progress", but it definitely allows AC's home designing experience to really shine.

Sonic Frontiers: The Final Horizon (Steam)

Wow, this was not good! Incredibly hard platforming levels and bosses scattered all around the world that only Sonic could deal with, with some incredibly janky mechanics for all 3 the new playable characters that don't really work well enough to design levels around (which is good, because they didn't). Boss fights and new challenges are super difficult and annoying as well. The only Positive is the endin g is better, but you can watch that on Youtube. Honestly, the best experience you can have withg a farily good game like this is to play with all DLC downloaded but not going through the portal to this content. It's got 3D Sonic jank, but in a way that's incredibly frustrating and not fun to navigate around.

F-Zero 99 (Switch Online)

I miss Super Mario Bros 35.

... This game's fine, and a fun re-imagining of classic F-Zero experience, but I was never really a fan of F-Zero and thought that the 2D ones were a bit too tough for me so I didn't play it much. If you like F-Zero though, you'll love this

Super Mario Wonder (Switch)

Another hit, highly recommend this one for it's charm alone! It's 2D Mario, you know if you want it or not.

I will say my experience with it is from the perspective of someone who has religiously played every Mario game, and I did actually very much enjoy the game so the rest of this review will be from that perspective.

Game length felt a bit... short to me. There are just as many levels and worlds as you would expect in a 2D Mario game, as well asa lot of things to collect and a bonus world with it's own secrets of course. But I still managed to beat in 100% in about a day, whcih is kinda surprising to me given how much time I spent on other games. 3D World comes to mind as one with just about the same amount of levels, but one I spent way more time playing and had more enjoyment with just because of the way 100% is done. I would've liked to see a bit more is all I'm saying, but it's defnitely a full game.

The online ghost helper features is a welcome addition to the game. It allows you to help or be helped by other players and having that extra bit of interactivity and silent community without getting in the way of playtime. Visually it's also a stunning style, and I hope in future they continue to stylize Mario Games and move away from the Gamecube era models and NSMB styling and get something with much more character like this.

Gameplay wise it's also very fun, though you can feel the traditional 2D Mario formula in every level which is something I wish I could un-know. Badges are neat, but can be a mixed bag. There's one really good badge and then some okay badges and then others you would never touch, which doesn't really encourage the variations in gameplay as much as they would've hoped it does, I think. Additionally while I understand the idea of all characters playing the same (sans Yoshi + Nabbit), I think I still would've preferred unique movement for each character over the badge system.

All in all, it's great, but I want more.

Knytt Underground (Steam)

So for those unfamiliar with Knytt, it was an atmospheric, simple, 2D indie platformer that allowed you to make your own levels and games and let other people play them. It was very popular amoung a certain group of early let's players that overlapped strongly with SMW Rom hacks. This is essentially a sequel/remaster of that style.

This game is just okay. It's very simple, involves a lot of backtracking and the story and characters aren't terribly engaging. It's not a bad time, but feels very much of its time so I can't really recommend this one.

Super Mario RPG (Switch)

A fantastic remake of a trend-setting classic! I had forgotten how short the original was, but this adds a number of features and improvements that make it worth it. I love that they kept the very strange character designs that we never got to see again, as well as how faithful they were to the original's quirks while also fixing the localization issues. $60 is still a lot, imo, to ask for a game that already existed, but like that's a pretty good game and remake so I'd say go for it.

Lethal Company (Steam)

This one I was unsure if I would like or not because I'm a big baby when it comes to horror games. Playing this with friends though changes everything, and I had a wonderful time with it. It's definitely one of those games where the less you know about the enemies the better, as once you start getting "good" at it it feels like a different experience than wandering into the unknown, but I'm looking forward to future updates. I'd give this one a try if you have some friends to play it with!

Paper Mario (Switch Online, N64)

After finishing Super Mario RPG I had a terrible Mario RPG itch that I needed to scratch, and with TTYD remake announced and coming next year this seemed like a good move. I'm glad I did since I only played it once and didn't remember much of it. It's a fun, simple RPG, but the lack of depth to its mechanics and at this point pretty standard Mario story made it age less well than it's predecessor and sequel. I'm glad they're remaking TTYD and not this. It's by no means a bad time, but not one of the essential Mario RPGs over TTYD, Superstar Saga, and SMRPG.

Disney Dreamlight Valley: Eternity Isle Expansion (Switch)

This is one that I mostly watched my Sister play over Christmas but then had to pick up so she could get the rewards for a limited quest she unlocked. This adds an interesting area, a much more thought-out storyline and world, and is overall an improvement. However, the basic flaws are still there, including random crashes and softlocking, stuttering framerate, some very low-poly resources, and just all around tediousness and grindy nature of it. I'd recommend this if you're a huge disney/ Animal Crossing fan, and even then on PC instead. It still feels like an early access game and has some pretty intense monetization, so for the cost of the base game plus expansion I cannot ethically recommend it due to its quality and bad internal practices

... But like, it's not a bad game. It just needs a lot more work.

__________________________________________________

BEST GAME I PLAYED THIS YEAR

Golly, lot of suspense in this one right? I raved about Tears of the Kingdom, but like a LOT of good stuff came out this year and I even enjoyed several incredible indies there.

I mean, you know what the answer is already, but I can pretend for a split second I wasn't going to say Pikmin 4 right?

It was Pikmin 4. Pikmin 4 is the best game I played this year, and nothing anyone says will convince me otherwise.

It was such a long wait and having come out as such a fun and packed experience, basically containing Pikmin 1 and 2 as sub games within it made it easily come out ahead. I just love it so much.

Tears of the Kingdom is 2nd place, and I didn't play Baldur's Gate so that's just not here.

...

Anywho, that's it! Hope everyone enjoyed gaming as much as I did this year, despite, well, you know. Motions vaguely towards entire planet

See ya!

[kakusu-shipping]

1, 2, 4, 11, and 18 for the end of year asks? :0

Aaah thankyou Echo!!! This post might be long, please forgive me!

1. Did you add any F/Os to your list this year? Were they from new media or just a newly discovered love?

Here's every romantic F/O added to the list this year, or at least that I can remember adding this year. Years are long and my sense of time is very warped so it may not be fully accurate.

Most are from new media, or just new parts of media, like the end of the Owl House and the New Pokemon Games. The ones that are new loves from re-visits are Heracross, Smeargle, and Keckleon from Monster Mind, Mario and Luigi from Super Mario, Makarov from Fairy Tail, and Jill from The Wayward Children series.

Though Mario and Luigi are also what I consider my first F/Os, they weren't officially on the list until the movie came out, so I'm counting them in the 2023 yearly wrap.

2. Did you reconsume any of your F/Os’ source media this year? How did you feel about the rewatch/listen/read/etc?

I rewatch Assassination Classroom every year in March and it makes me cry every time. I also replay Hatoful Boyfriend and Holiday Star every December for Kazuaki and Hitori, watch Baka and Test sometime around late Summer most years to ease my seasonal depression, and rewatch Mushishi at least once a year.

Other than that, nothing super meaningful. I rewatched a few LPs of Mario games, replayed through Paper Mario myself, watched Romantic Killer again, Reread Manly Appetites every other month or so, watched The Cat Returns once or twice, played more Pokemon, Restarted Monster Mind (still haven't finished it), and skimmed the Ouran Manga at the library while waiting for them to replace the volume they're missing.

HOWever, this latest reread of Down Among the Sticks and Bones is what got me to finally put Jill on the F/O list, so that feels worth mentioning. I love that book <3

4. Was there anything on your blog that you were particularly proud of this year?

No, not really. My drawings were all very incomplete and sketchy this year with long gaps between them, and my writing really flaked off suddenly, I haven't written more than a paragraph at all this year.

I wouldn't say I'm particularly proud of them, but I did really enjoy making moodboards last month and am kind of waiting for my health to settle so I can get back to them. Making stuff for other self shippers is a lot more fun than writing/drawing for myself atm.

11. Was there new media for any of your F/Os this year? If so, what was your opinion on it?

Yes FNaF Help Wanted 2 came out and gave us New Sun Content and I LOVED IT!!!!! He's such a bitch!!!! A shit!!! A snobby theater kid!!! He's so controlling and harsh I LOVE him <3 So happy to know more about him honestly and that he's not all UwU Caregiver that the fandom made him. I like soft characters, but he's a HORROR character he needs to be a little fucked up!!

18. Did you have a favorite trend in the selfship community from the past year?

I'll be honest, I don't pay much attention to what other people in the selfship community are doing. I follow the tags but if there's like a popular trend thing going around, I miss it every time.

My LEAST favorite right now though is the whole "Stolen from an Anti" thing. I have no qualms about stealing posts it's whatever, but I hate when it's says that in text at the bottom of the post. Just tag it as such so I can filter it please

[lost-harbour]

Super Mario movie spoilers ‼️

I watched the film this week and I think it was good fun! This is my honest review after being able to think about it for a while

Bowser singing Peaches was absolutely horrifying to witness /hj

However I absolutely adored the scene directly after when Bowser and Kamek were at the piano together

Mario and Luigi voices in the commercial at the start were very entertaining and I can sort of see why they didn’t keep them all the way through but it would’ve been very funny if they did

I loved the way Mario and Luigi interacted with each other, I was smiling all the time. It’s so obvious that they love each other and their familial bond is so strong and that’s really nice to see.

I enjoyed knowing the references when I saw them but I felt like there could’ve been more? I was especially excited to see Bowser’s wedding suit from Super Mario Odyssey though!

Some really well known characters weren’t there at all? Like Daisy, Bowser Jr, Yoshi, Birdetta, Rosalina [though she was subtly hinted at]. Pauline only showed up for two seconds which I found odd considering Donkey Kong was a huge part of the film. And the Broodals weren’t there too which was really strange because they’re WEDDING PLANNERS and a key part of the film was the WEDDING, and I know they could’ve added them because there was other references to Super Mario Odyssey.

I have never liked Donkey Kong as a character until I watched this film, also the Donkey Kong theme song being played was the nicest surprise for me.

That blue thing in the cage, I think it was a Luma, the one that kept talking about the sweet release of death. I HATED IT. Never hated anything more, it wasn’t funny in the slightest.

Why’d they give Mario daddy issues I had to stop myself from laughing in the cinema

The best part of the film was Luigi, hands down. I loved every part of his character, every frame where he was visible was great

The visual style of the film was lovely to look at, especially the background when they were travelling through the green pipes! Everything looked so soft and nice.

WHY IS BULLET BILL BASICALLY A NUKE EQUIVALENT

I absolutely adore King Boo and King Bob-omb, and they both showed up!! I don’t care if they were only cameo appearances, I was really happy to see them. However, I feel as though King Bob-omb could’ve taken on his more proud personality, instead of just being terrified? Also King Boo could’ve been rendered with his Luigi’s Mansion design because otherwise he’s literally just a boo with a hat on, and that’s considerably less interesting.

so overall I thought it was great, despite my criticisms, I have very passionate opinions when it comes to Mario

no one’s gonna see this post lol

[cinemageddonreviews]

Super Mario Bros Movie

So… the Super Mario Bros movie… let me first start by saying that no matter the outcome of this film, Illumination are one of the worst animation companies active today, due to their terrible animation practices and prioritizing of celebrities over voice actors.

I have no respect for them or what they do because of how intentionally cheap they make their movies along with having the most safe and marketable writing they can commission, all so they can make back their money with celebrities they put on the poster.

THAT HAVING BEEN SAID, I am happy to report that not only is the Super Mario Bros movie actually good, not only did it live up to the impossible expectations I set up for it given the company involved and the predictable cast of celebrities they put on their poster.

The scariest part about all of this, is that the movie succeeds in being a good adaptation of the Mario universe, and it also works as it’s own unique creation.

This movie lives and breathes Super Mario, right down to the music which JESUS MADRE deserves all the acclaim it’s gotten. I don’t think I’ve ever been brought to tears out of happiness watching a movie before except maybe when Your Name came out, but Bryan Tyler’s incredible score does 35 plus years of Super Mario’s legacy Justice. Storywise, the film can feel pretty paper-thin, especially given that it still manages some typical “believe in yourself” and “you’re not so small” type of inspirational jibber jabber. To be honest though, the story was honestly more moving than I expected and the fact that they gave Mario an internal obstacle to overcome gave this movie more nuance than anything Illumination has ever done.

Speaking of Mario himself, let’s talk about Chris Pratt… look, we all agree they should have used voice actors and not celebrities, especially not one who’s really only known for using his own voice; That being said… I think we all collectively owe Chris Pratt an apology, because his Mario wasn’t only well voiced, he added so much dimension to the character that not even the games were able to provide.

It doesn’t hurt that he and Charlie Day have great chemistry as brothers and play wonderfully off of one another. The same can be said about the voice acting overall. Both the celebrities they cast and the voice actors involved with the rest of the picture. Everyone’s voice fits perfectly, and no spoilers, but Charles Martinet isn’t wasted.

If there is one thing that took me out of the movie on occasion, it had to be the unnecessary use of licensed songs. And before u all come at me with the whole “The Super Mario Bros Super Show did it too”, I don’t care! It’s jarring watching Mario and Luigi on their way to work and suddenly “No Sleep Till Brooklyn” by The Beastie Boys starts playing. You get kinda used to it after a while, but this was completely unnecessary, no matter how good the songs actually are (I’m never one to say no to Thunderstruck by AC/DC no matter the context).

The Super Mario Bros Movie may not be perfect as a movie, but this is definitely a film that will satisfy everyone who doesn’t care too much about nitpicky bullshit enough to let it ruin their enjoyment of it. The fact that so many kids are gonna be introduced to Super Mario this way is honestly really incredible and I can’t describe the joy in their eyes seeing the movie yesterday in a packed theater with kids everywhere smiling and laughing. This movie is for them as much as it is for us. If it wasn’t obvious, I really enjoyed this movie and I encourage everyone to give it a watch, if nothing else because this movie actually does Justice to both the Super Mario Bros brand, but to Nintendo as well, even paying tribute to the late Saturo Iwata, which they didn’t have to, but I’m happy they did. ❤️

[josephthesnailshow]

Empty (Super Mario World Creepypasta)

Ignore this disclaimer if you want, but I would like to start this thing up by saying if you believe in these video game stories or urban legends, this is not the post for you at all. If you wish to carry on, you may do this if you like.

We all know Super Mario World, but did you know that you can hack the ROM of the game? I'm sure you know you do; there's a website dedicated to hacking the game, and Super Mario World isn't the only hackable Mario game out there; a lot of them are hackable, and it's easy to do so because I tried hacking Super Mario World itself; however, it was a bit hard to do.

Even if you never hacked the game, you might’ve played the hacks that the creative fandom made. I mostly played the creepier ones; of course, there are not any hacks I found creepy that would cause me to write a giant story about them. Unfortunately, I found a hack that would cause me to do that.

I first played Super Mario World on my Wii U, and it was on a virtual console, just like Super Mario 64, which I also own on the Wii U. I enjoyed playing both of them, and they are very good games in my opinion and, most importantly, my favorite games in the franchise.

I didn't have the games on their original consoles, the Nintendo 64 or Super Nintendo Entertainment System, but luckily, I had the games on the Wii U since my dad did get them before the Nintendo e-shop closed down as of now.

I had both of them for a long time.

At the time, I didn't know how to hack my games until I found out that you could emulate them; that's how I was able to try out my ROMs. Here's my story:

I stumbled across the website dedicated to hacking Super Mario World, smwcentral.net. The site had weird, funny, horrifying, and amazing hacks, and I tried each of them. Now, since I don't have any friends, I always had to be player 1, but as Mario. But I could get past that thanks to these hacks, and I could play as Mario’s twin brother, Luigi, as a lot of them have Luigi starring as the main protagonist instead of Mario.

However, one of these hacks made me laugh pretty hard, and it had no title or author at all. I downloaded the ROM hack and started to play out of curiosity and being very intrigued.

The game started, and it showed the Nintendo logo, still in its golden design, and the lovely coin sound. The title screen popped up.

I started to feel uneasy, only to find out that the title screen had no title at all. You can give this hack any basic name, like the exaggerated Mario in all caps or the exaggerated Luigi in all caps, even though this hack has nothing to do with Luigi, at least not right now. I'm not playing with anyone, at least for now. But the true horror in the title is Mario himself; he had no face, only his nose; he was just walking there, and the walk cycle was repeating without anything changing in the title screen.

No credits either, not even from Nintendo or the author; I assumed the creator of the hack forgot to add them.

The fact Mario had no face was a bit weird, but I gave it a pass, and with the title missing, I thought the game was being laggy, as my computer can run laggy at times.

I continued, went past the title screen, and watched the game start. It started pretty slowly, but I got pretty concerned, so I checked my settings and other programs to see what was happening.

Each program and scanner said my computer was normal, so I thought the hack was slow and carried on after the game loaded. It took me to the introduction screen with Mario still missing his face, and nothing was changed during this part; it was informing the player about the plot of the game and King Koopa, aka Bowser, kidnapping the princess as usual.

I stayed here for a while until I looked at my watch, feeling bored.

The game took me to the map; some bushes were missing, signs were broken, and cute faces on the longer bushes were missing as well. If you look at the image I added above, Iggy’s castle appears to look darker than usual, and I could swear, on the right side of the screen, I can see something in the water.

None of it was important, except for the title of the level itself.

YOURHOUSE

This didn't creep me out as much, as if it's talking about my house in real life; it definitely doesn't look like that, unless I'm like the main characters from Adventure Time.

I started the level, still waiting for my computer to start, yelling at it, assuming it could hear me. I do this normally sometimes; usually, it listens sometimes.

I entered the level, but the sky was an ugly yellow; this level seemed darker than usual with the birds missing, the fruit, even though there wasn't any, and the fireplace having seen better days. If you look on top, you may notice how the HUD looks blurry and low quality; it's not normal to see this, as the pixels for this game and everything about it look perfect.

Run-on sentences aside, I didn't care, as I thought the guy who made this hack was just screwing around with the ROM, so I did a small-throat laugh at it.

I looked at the puff coming out of the chimney, and for whatever reason, it was red, and you know exactly what the red is supposed to be.

Ketchup? Kool-aid? Strawberry? No, it's everyone’s favorite, blood. Are you surprised? I thought you were; maybe that’s where they ground up Mario’s face.

That's my guess, however, and the scary part is that I looked closely at the signs, and they had my address. Did this game seriously grab my address and know where I live now? Maybe I could prevent this from happening by simply playing the game until it ends.

I left my house, apparently, and I went to my level to the right, starting it immediately.

The level started, familiar to the title screen; it was just a boring straight line, no enemies or anything; however, I could control Mario freely. What overwhelmed me about this level was the time, starting at 224, so I had to speed up a bit.

It made me happy that the HUD was back to normal, but suddenly, as I was controlling Mario in this boring level, the regular happy-go-lucky music started playing, except louder than usual, causing me to take off my headphones aggressively.

Putting them back on, and if you look at the image I attached above, I will describe the image to you if you can't see it somehow. I was weirded out at the coins and points bar; I collected about 10 coins somehow, and my points were 19350 when I didn't remember seeing any coins as I just loaded in.

Unless the game automatically collected the coins, I didn't hear it.

Anyway, I reached the end and completed the level; however, the other level on the left was already completed, so I went to Iggy’s castle.

I have to admit, this was kind of clever, as the sign was nothing previously, but it was replaced with a simple question mark. However, the weird part about this is that the water was darker.

The reason I said this was clever is the title of the level.

#1 FEELINGEMPTYYET

I got it since I could see a question mark at the bottom, obviously asking me a question, and I answered my computer, assuming it could hear me, by saying yes. I entered the level.

Again, it took a long time, so I waited for the level to load.

I was in a pitch-black room, and like anyone would do, I was walking forward until something happened, which something would happen, explaining why the other level was completed.

Mario stopped, and there was someone tall, green, and faceless like him.

He had overalls and a plumber hat like Mario, and if you guessed Luigi, you’re correct; he stood there and started running until I started chasing him.

I continued chasing him until suddenly, an image flashed on my screen. The image flashed again, and it was clear what it was now.

How can I explain this? It was an image of a mutilated and painted green horse, familiar to Yoshi, and the horse had a red saddle, again familiar to Yoshi. The unsettling part about the image is that there was a huge overweight man with the same familiar outfit as Mario, even though it was unsettling enough.

He was standing there, staring at the body; he didn't look scared; well, kinda; he looked like he was about to pee himself and take a dump in his pants at the same time. Dear god, it must’ve been the Italian food he's been eating. Anyway, there was a skinny guy identical to Luigi; looking like a stick figure, he was standing there looking at the horse with his wide little eyes.

After all of that, the image finally goes away, and I'm finally caught up to Luigi. When I tapped him, the screen jumped out of the frame, and it took me to the final picture.

Mario and Luigi were very detailed, and the image used looked identical to the regular ending picture. No music was playing in the background.

The game then shuts off; however, when I came back to the website, the hack had been recently deleted without a single trace, and I might’ve been the only one to discover this hack.

Anyway, I would like to thank you all for staying here and listening to this post, but here's one thing before I close this thing off.

FACELESS. DOESN’T. EQUAL. SCARY. FOLKS.

Have a lovely day, afternoon, night, or whatever time zone you’re in.

[simslegacy5083]

Today's (11/4/2024) Episode: A Household Name

Losing his last living parent was devastating, but at least Luigi was sure that Valentina and his dads would surely be proud of his latest accomplishment.

The sales figures for his new game had started rolling in, and it was clear that it’s launch day popularity wasn’t just a flash in the pan. It looked like Watcher Tales had a chance to become a lasting part of the gaming landscape, maybe even the start of a franchise.

The good news kept coming when Luigi heard from his contact at Unorthobox. They’d loved his footage of their hardware in use at the launch party and they told him they planned to use his star power to help advertise and promote the Ubox version of the game.

Not, they were quick to assure him, it needed much help. Watcher Tales was already one of the most popular titles for the Unorthobox 2 console.

Their manager Patricia at Rainy Day corporate was equally excited about the game’s success when they next visited.

“Sales on PC are phenomenal and buzz in the community so far is mostly positive, even if players are starting to report some bugs.” She told them “There is also, of course, a lot of comparisons being made to Sims Forever. They like what you added the other game lacks Luigi, but they’re also quick to point out what Watcher Tales is missing compared to their old favorite.”

“Well, I couldn’t exactly cram 80 DLCs worth of content into my basegame” Luigi lamented “though I think we did a good job offering at initial release many key gameplay features that Sims Forever locks behind expansion packs. As for the bugs, the whole team is working on a hotfix to address the most commonly reported issues.”

“I’ve got a couple programmers just finishing up another project that can help with the patch” Patricia replied, “I want you to start focusing on those content gaps.” she smiled “You ready to send your humans on new adventures?”

Luigi grinned from ear to ear. They’d had a feeling Rainy Day would be interested in DLC, but he hadn’t expected it to happen so soon “Absolutely!”

Luigi had already been a household name, but with his game being played and talked about all over his fame skyrocketed to a whole other level.

“You, sir, are a global sensation” Peachy’s favorite late-night talk show host told Luigi the evening he appeared on the program to promote Watcher Tales “The people can’t get enough of these hoo-mans of yours and I want to see what all the fuss is about. Let’s head over to the pit, where my staff has promised me they have your game booted up and a little challenge prepared for the two of us. You ready?”

“Bring it on!” Luigi said with a laugh, his inner child jumping up and down for joy as he followed behind the other sim to get started.

To celebrate their success the couple sent Skye for a sleepover with Grandpa Candor and headed out for a date night.

Taking Orange’s advice, this time Luigi threw on a “celebrity disguise” to help him keep a low profile so he could enjoy the time with his lady love without distraction.  He’d been skeptical about the idea, but the simple concealment did the trick, allowing him and Noemi to enjoy dinner and a drink at the bar without constantly being interrupted by fans seeking his attention.

“This is great!” Noemi hollered over the DJ’s beats on the dancefloor after their meal. “Thanks for going incognito; I have you all to myself for once.”

“You…” Luigi replied, pulling her towards him and kissing her hard “have me today, tomorrow, and always. Thank you for putting up with the insanity. I know the attention I crave isn’t always your fave. Now, are you ready to take your personal Superstar home and try out that new toy we bought?”

“Only if you’re a very obedient Superstar” she replied with a smile, leading him away from the busy club towards a little private fun back home.

View The Full Story of My Not So Berry Challenge Here

[trashyswitch]

Luigi's Secret

Chapter 11: L'introduzione alla cucina italiana

Mario and Luigi invite Peach and Toad over for supper, and make a couple classic Italian dishes for them. But something from the meals manages to awaken a feeling inside Peach that she had never felt before...

Well...Tis the end of my birthday celebration. And I really enjoyed it! It was a fun day...and I didn't even take a nap! I've been up since 8am this morning! So...Here's Chapter 11. I hope you enjoy!

When it came time, the two boys had invited Peach and Toad over for supper. Peach had been talking about wanting to try pasta for what felt like ages, and tonight was the night they would make it for her. Beforehand, Mario and Luigi explained the different shapes and sizes of the pasta noodles that were available. And based on what shape of pasta she wanted, they would make a meal out of it for her. It was really funny watching her point out what the pasta shapes reminded her of. A few good examples being: the Farfalle’s reminded her of bow ties. The Sacchetti’s reminded her of stars. The Rotelle’s reminded her of go-kart wheels. The Rigatoni’s reminded her of the green pipes. And the Conchiglie reminded her of seashells. In the end though…she chose the Farfalle noodles. Aka, according to Peach, the bow ties. 

When the boys bought what they needed, Mario and Luigi got right to work in their kitchen, cooking up a meal for them. Luigi was wearing a white apron that said ‘I don’t need a recipe…I’m Italian!’ on it, while Mario was wearing a yellow apron that said ‘I’m a lover & a fighter’ on it. Peach giggled at the apron sayings, while Toad was struggling to figure out what an ‘Italian’ was. 

“Now, we’re not sure how familiar you are with meat.” Mario admitted. “So…we’re giving you a couple different options. Your first option is tomato sauce, which is made completely with tomatoes, herbs, and garlic. It’s one of the traditional sauces for it.” Mario told her, showing her the pre-cooked tomatoes that were on a baking pan. 

“We also have Alfredo sauce which is a white, creamy sauce which consists of butter, heavy cream, cheese, garlic and seasoning.” Luigi added. 

Peach raised her eyebrows and looked at Toad. “Oh gosh…they both sound amazing.” Peach admitted. 

Toad giggled and shrugged his shoulders. “I wanna try tomato sauce.” Toad admitted. 

Peach nodded. “Tomato sauce sounds great!” Peach declared. 

Luigi smiled and started to put the Alfredo ingredients away. 

“Hold on, Luigi.” Mario said, covering up the cabinets. “What if I want Alfredo sauce?” Mario asked. 

Luigi tilted his head. “Do we really need to make 2 sauces?” Luigi asked. 

Mario shrugged his shoulders. “I guess not, but…” Mario crossed his arms. “I always look forward to your Alfredo.” Mario admitted somewhat quietly. 

Luigi smiled a bit. “Mario…” 

Mario looked at him. “Plus…then Peach and Toad can try the Alfredo sauce too.” Mario added. 

Luigi chuckled and shoulder-checked Mario as he passed him. “You’re such a show off.” Luigi teased. 

Mario widened his eyes. “No I’m not! It’s called hospitality!” Mario reacted. 

“Hospitality doesn’t normally mean ‘cook two sauces at the same time’.” Luigi teased. 

“Well, this is the princess’s first time. So…maybe we should start with both the basics.” Mario told him. 

Luigi nodded and placed the stuff down. Quickly, he grabbed the pot, put it onto the back burner of the stove, and turned up the heat. He eyeballed a quarter cup of butter and put it into the pot. As that started to melt, Luigi put in the heavy cream, and let it simmer for a bit. While he did that, he grabbed a knife and the garlic, took a clove off before placing the clove onto the counter. He put the knife down on the clove and pushed down firmly until he heard the skin stop crunching. He removed the knife, and removed the skin from the clove before starting to cut up the clove of garlic into tiny pieces. 

“Mind cutting me a few cloves of garlic too, Luigi?” Mario asked. 

“Sure! How many? And how should they be cut?” Luigi asked back, holding up the garlic. 

“3 of them, and chopped.” Mario replied. 

“Got it.” Luigi muttered before pushing the knife down on the cloves to remove the skin. He removed the skin from the cloves and chopped them up for Mario. When they were done, Luigi put them in a bowl and slid them over to Mario. “There ya go.” 

Mario grabbed the bowl without even looking. “Thanks.” Mario replied. 

Toad widened his eyes and looked at Peach. “How are they so…cooperative?” Toad asked. 

“I don’t know…I always assumed that’s how twins are.” Peach replied. 

Toad smiled brightly as he went back to watching Mario and Luigi. 

Mario had checked the sauteed veggies, and determined they were ready. Mario created a well with the veggies, and placed the olive oil in the middle along with the garlic that Luigi chopped up earlier. While he waited for the cloves to brown up, Mario dumped the bow tie noodles into the boiling pot of water and stirred them. 

Luigi had added the garlic, the italian seasoning and the salt and pepper to the mix, before stirring it together. “It’s almost done.” Luigi told her before moving to the noodles and stirring them. 

Peach smiled and clapped her hands excitedly as she smelled both the alfredo and the tomato sauce aromas in the air. Toad had his mouth open, drooling like a child. Peach had to move her hand below his chin and push his mouth closed to prevent from making a mess of saliva all over their table. 

Mario grabbed the tomatoes that had been previously roasted for 35 minutes earlier in the day. He put them into the pot, and pureed them with the immersion blender. When the tomato sauce was all pureed together, Mario stirred in the seasoning before giving it a quick stir, and tasting it with a taste test spoon. Mario thought for a moment as he tasted the sauce, and determined it needed a slight bit more pepper. Mario sprinkled a bit more pepper into it and stirred it around before grabbing another taste-testing spoon. He pulled a slight bit of sauce out, blew on it, and popped it in his mouth. Mario nodded his head with a smile. “Better.” Mario said, rinsing off the spoons. “Now it needs to simmer for another 30 minutes.” Mario said. 

Luigi stirred in the 2 cups of parmesan cheese slowly, to let it melt and mix. Luigi would continue to give the noodles a few stirs occasionally while he did this. When he felt that the alfredo sauce was done, Luigi tried the sauce with a taste-testing spoon. And to his surprise, he actually managed to nail it perfectly on the first try! Okay…so maybe Mario WAS right…Maybe he really IS a good cook. 

When the last 5 minutes of boiling were up, Luigi took out a bowtie and split it in half. “Wanna taste-test?” Luigi asked Peach, offering her a piece of the bowtie. 

Peach nodded and reached her hand out. 

“But careful…it’s hot right out of the pot.” Luigi warned with a wink. 

Peach rolled her eyes and took the bowtie from his hand while smirking at him. “Watch and learn.” Peach said before popping the whole piece in her mouth with no issue. Luigi widened his eyes and put his own piece in his mouth. Peach widened her eyes as she chewed, surprised with how different the texture and taste was. 

“So?” Mario asked, looking at the lady. 

Peach gasped through her nose as she swallowed with a wide smile. “That tastes amazing!” Peach reacted. 

Luigi nodded and smiled. “It’s ready.” Luigi told Mario. 

“Alright. The strainer should be ready.” Mario said. Luigi turned off the bottom burner and walked up to the strainer, dumping the water and the noodles in and making sure the noodles made it into the strainer and not into the sink. When the pot was empty, Luigi put the pot down and rolled the noodles around in the strainer. When the noodles were empty of water, Luigi put the noodles back in the now-empty pot and put the lid on. The noodles were now ready. 

Meanwhile, Mario was watching the tomato sauce to make sure he didn't overcook it. “So…Was that really your first time having noodles?” Mario asked. 

Peach nodded her head. “I believe so, yes.” Peach replied. 

Mario smiled and took one look at Toad, before wheezing and laughing. 

Peach looked at Toad and sighed, shaking her head with a smile. “He’s been hungry for the past 20 minutes.” Peach admitted. 

Mario covered his mouth with his fist. “Luhuhu, look.” Mario reacted, poking Luigi and pointing to Toad. 

Toad was looking at the pot of tomato sauce with intense hunger and awe. He looked like he was close to flying his body all the way to the pot, to eat the sauce all on its own. Upon seeing Toad’s face, Luigi bursted out laughing while covering his mouth. “Ihi think we’re killing him.” Luigi reacted. 

Mario grabbed a bowtie with a fork and held it up. “Did you wanna try it too?” Mario asked, offering him the fork with the bowtie on the end. 

Toad nodded his head and smiled, taking the fork and removing the bowtie off the fork. He popped it into his mouth and practically melted into his seat with pure joy. This made all 3 of the humans bust out laughing at the Toad. 

When the tomato sauce was ready, Mario turned off the heat and started to plate up. Luigi put some noodles on all 4 plates (a little less on Toad’s because of his size) while Mario put tomato sauce on Luigi’s and Toad’s noodles. “Princess! Still up for that tomato sauce?” Mario asked. 

Peach nodded. “Yes please!” Peach replied. 

Mario nodded and put the tomato sauce onto Peach’s noodles too, before grabbing the alfredo sauce. He poured some alfredo sauce onto his own plate of pasta, before putting the pot down and carrying two plates over. Luigi carried two plates over as well, placing the left plate in front of Toad and the right plate at his own spot. Mario placed the right plate in front of Peach, and placed his own plate at his own spot. Luigi and Mario both sat down, and started stirring their pasta around. “We usually stir it around so all the noodles are covered in sauce.” Mario told them. 

“But you can eat it how you want to.” Luigi added. 

Toad ate the pasta and sauce without mixing it up, and hummed with contentment. He started humming and kicking his feet while swaying left and right in his chair. 

Mario giggled and swallowed his mouthful. “I think he likes it.” Mario said with a giggle. 

Luigi chuckled and gently stabbed his fork into a few bow ties. “The tomato sauce looks perfect.” Luigi said before putting it into his mouth. He hummed with delight before swallowing the bite. “Wow! Nailed it with the taste!” Luigi reacted. 

Mario nodded and ate a bit more. “Mhm.” Mario mumbled as he chewed, before swallowing. “You nailed it on the alfredo too.” Mario said back. 

Luigi chuckled. “Thanks, Mario.” 

Peach looked at Mario’s plate. “Can I try a bit of the afredo?” Peach asked, forgetting to say the L in alfredo. 

Mario nodded with a smile. “Sure! I can take your fork.” Mario said, offering his hand. Peach gave Mario the fork and watched as Mario picked up a few bowties that were quite coated in the alfredo sauce. With that ready, he handed Peach her fork back and waited for Peach’s reaction. 

Peach popped the forkful of pasta into her mouth and started chewing. But her eyes widened as she tasted the alfredo sauce. 

She began to feel intense nostalgia. She…felt like she had eaten alfredo sauce before. But…in all her years, she could not remember having alfredo sauce while living with the Toads. She slowly put her fork down as she struggled to think straight. “T-Toad…” Peach mumbled. 

Toad looked over at Peach. “Hm? Yea?” Toad replied. 

“You’ve…never made alfredo sauce before…have you?” Peach asked. 

Toad shook his head. “I didn’t even know alfredo sauce existed until today!” Toad admitted. 

“What…what about the other Toads?” Peach asked, looking at Toad with a somewhat desperate look on her face. “Do any of the Toads know about Alfredo sauce?” Peach asked. 

Toad widened his eyes. “No! Never have. Why? Why do you look so panicked?” Toad asked. 

Luigi and Mario could both sense something was up. 

Peach bit her lip and got up. She grabbed a much smaller plate, a few noodles and a bit of the Alfredo sauce. “I’m sorry, but…” Peach walked up to the table as she ate some more of the Alfredo sauce. While chewing it, she tried to just let herself reminisce. She closed her eyes to make it easier. 

[Yummy sauce. Creamy. Cheesy. “I think she likes it!”] 

Peach widened her eyes as she sat down, placing her fork down onto the plate.

[A pink, hard table. Tap, tap, tap. “Do you want more?” Yes! More yummy food!] 

“Princess?” Toad asked, waving his hand in front of her face. 

Peach wasn’t able to think straight. Whose voice was that? Why did it feel so familiar?! What is this feeling?! Was…was this…

Peach sobbed and covered her mouth with her left hand as tears welled up in her eyes. 

Luigi widened his eyes and scooted his chair closer. “Princess! What’s wrong?” Luigi asked, noticing her emotional reaction first. 

Toad looked up and widened his eyes and patted her shoulder. “Peach! You’re crying!” Toad reacted, moving her bangs out of the way. “Why are you crying?” 

Mario looked at Peach with worry, and wonder. He slowly walked up beside the princess and gently held her right hand. “Did…Did the alfredo remind you of something?” Mario asked. 

Peach sobbed. “I…” Peach sniffled and sobbed. “I’ve had it before…I think I had it before I arrived in the Mushroom Kingdom…” Peach said through her heartbroken voice. 

Toad rubbed her shoulder. “It’s okay. You’re safe.” Toad told her softly. 

“I-I remember...” Peach mumbled, sobbing before hugging Toad as tightly as she could. 

Toad hugged her back as securely as he could. He rubbed Peach’s back as he hugged her, attempting to reassure her. “It’s okay. We knew you were going to remember something about where you came from.” Toad admitted. “We’ve been preparing for it for years now.” Toad admitted. 

Peach let go and looked at Toad. “You…You’re not bothered?” Peach asked. 

Toad shook his head. “We knew that you came from another world. But we didn’t care. We still don’t…Because we love you for who you were, and who you have become. You are always going to be family…and the best thing we can all do as family…is comfort you during your down days and support you as you make your decisions.” Toad told her. 

Peach smiled and gave Toad another big hug. “Thank you, Toad.” Peach said. “I couldn’t have asked for a better family.” Peach said. 

Toad hugged her back and smiled. 

Mario looked at Luigi. “So how do you feel, knowing that your food can trigger repressed childhood memories?” Mario asked as a joke. 

Luigi widened his eyes in surprise. Did he really just say that?! “M-Mario-” Luigi paused his words when he heard a lovely sound that quickly lessened his worry over Mario’s inappropriate phrase…

Peach’s laughter. “Yohour food has magical powers!” Peach teased. 

Mario smiled brightly. “It’s not the first time his cooking has done that. Actually, the same thing happened this morning with me! Luigi managed to replicate the bacon our Dad used to make when we were kids.” Mario added. 

Luigi chuckled and scratched the back of his head. “Oh yeah…I forgot about that…” Luigi admitted. 

Peach giggled. “So your food has the power to awaken memories?” Peach teased. 

Mario laughed. “His food is capable of blindsiding you with nostalgia!” Mario added. “One day his food is gonna bring someone back to life!” Mario added with a laugh. 

Luigi wheezed and laughed, before pushing Mario’s shoulder. “Shuhut up.” Luigi reacted. 

Peach giggled and let go of Toad. “It’s not a lie. It wasn’t a full memory, but it was something.” Peach admitted. 

Mario smiled a bit. “Sounds like a subconscious memory.” Mario said.

Peach tilted her head, confused. 

Mario cleared his throat. “The human mind doesn’t start recalling memories until they reach the age of 3. But the subconscious mind remembers the emotions, thoughts and behaviors starting before you’re born.” Mario explained. “So you may not have a visual picture of the memory, but you do start to remember what you might've been thinking, feeling or doing when it happened.” Mario explained. 

Peach nodded. “Yeah…” Peach bit her lip as she looked at the alfredo pasta. “I don’t know if I should touch it again.” Peach admitted. 

Luigi shrugged his shoulders. “It’s your choice, really.” He told her. “If you don’t touch it, then we can always wrap it up and save it.” Luigi told her. 

Peach nodded her head. “Okay.” Peach replied. She took a bite of the alfredo pasta again, and smiled. “It tastes amazing, Luigi.” Peach told Luigi. 

Luigi smiled. “Ihi can tell.” he teased. 

Toad pointed to the alfredo pasta plate. “Can I try some?” Toad asked. 

Peach nodded and put the plate beside Toad. “Knock yourself out.” Peach told him. 

Toad smiled and tried the alfredo pasta. He chewed it, swallowed it and smiled with little stars in his eyes. “Wow! I can see what you mean!” Toad reacted. 

Mario and Luigi laughed and looked down at their food. 

Peach smiled and picked up her fork before going back to eating. “So…What does Farfalle mean in Italian?” Peach asked. 

Mario smiled and looked at Luigi. “Farfalle means ‘butterflies’ in Italian.” Mario replied. 

“What about…Alfredo?” Peach asked. 

Mario chuckled. “That’s a funny story.” He started. “In Italy, they actually don’t say alfredo, when referring to the sauce. They use the word ‘Al Burro’, which means ‘with butter’.” Mario explained. 

“I remember Dad telling me about the history of Alfredo sauce. A man named Alfredo Di Lelio had invented the sauce himself in Italy. He would feed American tourists the noodles with the sauce, and tell them that the sauce was called ‘Alfredo’...He had named the sauce after himself. And when the tourists got back to America, they started introducing the ‘alfredo’ recipe to fellow Americans.” Luigi explained. “And I guess it caught on.” Luigi added. 

Peach giggled. “Imagine naming an invention after yourself.” Peach teased. 

Mario looked up, confused. “...You realize that we-” 

Luigi chuckled. “I think that’s the joke. We invented our own plumbing company, and named it after ourselves.” Luigi clarified. 

“He must’ve been really proud of himself to name an invention after themself.” Peach told him. 

Mario hummed and looked down, slightly embarrassed. “Yeah…Well…He should be.” Mario replied. 

Toad nodded his head as he licked the alfredo plate. 

After they had all finished dinner, Mario and Luigi collected the dishes and packed up the food. 

“Do you think we can take a bit of pasta home with us?” Peach asked. 

Mario and Luigi nodded. “Sure!” Mario replied, pulling out a couple glass containers for Peach and Toad. They packed up one bowl of noodles and tomato sauce, and a second bowl of noodles with Alfredo sauce instead. Mario gave them to Peach in a bag. “There you go.” Mario told her. 

Peach smiled and gave Mario a big hug. She pulled Luigi into the hug too. “Thank you for everything, you two.” She told them. 

“I’m glad we waited to try pasta. It was definitely worth it.” Toad admitted. 

Mario smiled. “Meglio tardi che mai.” Mario said in Italian. 

Luigi giggled. “That means ‘Better late than never’.” Luigi translated. 

When Peach and Toad bid their goodbyes and left the house, Mario and Luigi did their signature handshake, ending off with the classic “Eyyyy!” at the end, before laughing. “That night could not have gone better!” Mario reacted. 

Luigi pointed to the dishes. “Should we tackle the dishes now? Or later?” Luigi asked. 

Mario looked at the dishes, and winced. “Eeeh…” Mario looked at Luigi, unsure. 

“Now.” Luigi replied. 

Mario sighed. “Fine.” Mario muttered before walking up to the sink to fill the tub with water and soap. 

Back at Peach’s Castle:

“Hey!” The blue Toad said, walking up to the reptile in the cage. “We brought food for you.” he told him. 

“Leave me alone.” The growly voice said back. 

“I don’t know if you’ll wanna pass this up. From one Toad to another, I heard it’s really good.” The blue Toad mentioned. 

The shadow let out a little huff. “Leave it in the cage.” He mumbled. 

The Toad moved the plate through the metal cage door, and closed it before locking it. “Enjoy, Bowser.” Toad said before leaving the room. 

The reptile walked up to the plate, and tilted his head. What is it? He knelt down, and touched it with his finger. It looked…different. Not like any food he’d had before. 

It was Mario and Luigi’s pasta, cut up into really tiny pieces with a small bit of tomato sauce on top of it. The Toads had altered the noodles a bit to help Bowser be able to eat it while he’s still small within the cage. Though it took away the fun of the bowtie shape, the red Toad knew it wouldn’t take away from the taste. 

Bowser blew some fire onto it to help heat it up a bit more. He picked up a piece of the noodle that was slightly covered in sauce, and popped it in his mouth. He raised his scruffy eyebrows with surprise as he chewed and swallowed. Not bad…not bad at all. He sat down and ate the pasta bit by bit, just enjoying the unusual, but refreshing taste. Whatever this is…he had to admit. It was really good. 

Soon, Bowser placed the plate down on the piano and sat down on the bench. He made a mental note to tell the Toad to pass on his compliments to the chef. Though he wasn’t normally one for trying new things, he felt a small sense of warmth and comfort…a comfort that only Kamek had been able to give to him up until this point. He turned to face the piano, and started playing a few little notes…

[agentnico]

Mixed by Erry (2023) Review

Baldrick, I have a very, very, very cunning plan...

Plot: The rise and fall of the pirate mixtape empire of three brothers from Naples and their "Mixed by Erry"-trademarked cassettes that brought pop music to 1980s Italian youth.

It's hard nowadays to imagine a time when you couldn't simply search for any song you'd wish on your phone and play it right then and there. Yes, there has been a resurgence of vinyl records, which I am very guilty of indulging in, even though it is a costly hobby. £30 for one record? You're joking, no gatefold sleeve should be that pricey! Regardless, back in the 90s/80s folks would rely on bootleg cassettes, and heck I remember myself being a young kid in the early noughties owning a small cassette player that had a lovely recording feature, which means I recorded a lot of music from the television and stored them on my cassettes at home. To be fair at that age it wasn't just music I recorded. Also recorded my own stupid voice sometimes, trying to create my own worst-sounding musical extravaganza ever. Ah, the good days of youth...

With Mixed by Erry, this movie takes a look at one of the first examples in history of music piracy, in this case in Italy with these three brothers bootlegging cassettes of famous music of the time, with their success overpowering all the regular legal records studios in the country. It's a lovely movie, quite innocent in a lot of ways, and revels in the energy of youth and the joys of piracy. Featuring a lovely 80s soundtrack, with a splattering of 80s pop and lots and lots of Italian and Spanish pop I've never heard of. Also, it feels so Italian. At least all the characters did, with the way they exclaimed every other sentence and the number of times they would do the stereotypical pinched-finger gesture.

There's an interesting moral question within the film. Unlike, say, The Wolf of Wall Street where DiCaprio's Jordan Belfort is a reckless arrogant criminal through and through, the three Frattassio brothers are actually all really likable, and though they get enamored by their own success and financial gain, they always seem to hold that belief, especially Erry, that they are doing something good for the world by sharing music with their contemporaries who usually wouldn't be able to get it so easily. The film by no means takes any sides, nor tries to defend the brothers' choice, as no matter what they have done illegal stuff and the narrative fully acknowledges that. But seeing that their intentions were not only of money nature was a good twist and added to the feel-good lighthearted nature of the overall film.

The three actors playing the brothers - Luigi D'Oriano, Giuseppe Arena, and Emanuele Palumbo - share great chemistry, and you really feel their collective camaraderie and brotherhood throughout the story. You cannot help but want to root for these guys. It's mad that this film is based on a true life story - it's bananas. It's insane what these kids did, and how long they were able to get away with it. I can only imagine it was a combination of cunning and the phase that Italy was going through - heck, they were even involved with the Italian mob! Crazy stuff and the film does lean into the comedic side due to the madcap nature of its source material. Overall though this is a lovely little Italian feature that will have you bobbing your head to the 80s tunes, and enjoying a lighthearted piece of history and one of those I-cannot-belive-this-actually-happened stories. Stay tuned during the credits for a little surprise scene involving a treasure hunt gone wrong - great twist!

Overall score: 7/10

[frozaru]

Hello and welcome!

A lot happened yesterday in the new Nintendo Direct from many of the big franchises. It had started off weak imo but credit where it's due, got better as things went on! I have much to talk about so let's get on with the show.

𝙋𝙄𝙆𝙈𝙄𝙉 4

The game to kick off this direct. I will admit that it does look visually pretty, and the new pooch is certainly cute! There's chances for a lot of chaotic fun no doubt. I've never tried a Pikmin game before, and whilst it does not interest me enough to say "buy now", I hope people will enjoy this game. We already know a certain blue puppet went crazy over this. 😉 Perhaps I'll take another look when Pikmin 4 goes on sale one day. The game releases on July 21st, 2023.

𝙎𝘼𝙈𝘽𝘼 𝘿𝙀 𝘼𝙈𝙄𝙂𝙊: 𝙋𝘼𝙍𝙏𝙔 𝘾𝙀𝙉𝙏𝙍𝘼𝙇

An unexpected surprise from Sega happened! This will be the first Samba De Amigo game since 23 YEARS AGO (as of Dreamcast release). Dancing games are not really my thing but hey, maybe this one will be unique enough to consider me giving it a shot! It releases sometime this summer.

𝙎𝙋𝙇𝘼𝙏𝙊𝙊𝙉 3: 𝙀𝙓𝙋𝘼𝙉𝙎𝙄𝙊𝙉 𝙋𝘼𝙎𝙎

If anything, this announcement was the main course for me! Just...wow. ♡ As someone who started within Splatoon 2, it's going to be so fascinating to explore Inkopolis Plaza for my very first time! Also SQUID SISTER SPLATFESTS ARE BACK! I already know @atlantisportal2 is about to have a nostalgia trip. I'm so freaking excited! 😁 Not only that...but Side Order is looking VERY intriguing for me.

Could this be a corrupt version of what happened if Team Order won Splatoon 2: Final Splatfest? Also Pearl and Marina baby, woohoo! Very glad seeing them back along with what looks to be Agent 8. Also you better believe I purchased it ASAP! With that said, wave 1 is set to release sometime in Spring with wave 2 inkcoming (haha) somewhere on the holidays (according to placeholder dates).

𝘼𝘿𝙑𝘼𝙉𝘾𝙀 𝙒𝘼𝙍𝙎 1+2: 𝙍𝙀-𝘽𝙊𝙊𝙏 𝘾𝘼𝙈𝙋

I haven't got much to say about these games, however, I did like what they've shown so far and looking to pick it up sometime in future if reviews are looking good. Like the artstyle they're going for! They will be avaliable on April 21st.

𝙉𝙎𝙊: 𝙂𝘼𝙈𝙀 𝘽𝙊𝙔+𝙂𝘼𝙈𝙀 𝘽𝙊𝙔 𝘼𝘿𝙑𝘼𝙉𝘾𝙀

More games for the service? Yes freaking please! It took a while but now they're here. The games really whizzed by and it would be impossible to put them all here, so if you'd like a glimpse of what I'm personally interested in, take a look. Take your time. 😊 *Tick tick tick* Oh, you're back? Lovely! Nintendo really popped off with the choices imo (looking at you Wario Land 3 and Mario+Luigi Superstar Saga). Some of these games are being released today with others being added in the future.

𝙋𝙇 𝘼𝙉𝘿 𝙏𝙃𝙀 𝙉𝙀𝙒 𝙒𝙊𝙍𝙇𝘿 𝙊𝙁 𝙎𝙏𝙀𝘼𝙈

A miracle has happened!! After tragic events with both Level 5 and the original creator years ago, Professor Layton is looking to make a return. I've not played any of these games yet which judging by general buzz, I'm missing out! Hope to see more details soon as they come and maybe look into this considered-to-be underrated series in future. A release date has not been confirmed yet.

𝙏𝙇𝙊𝙕: 𝙏𝙀𝘼𝙍𝙎 𝙊𝙁 𝙏𝙃𝙀 𝙆𝙄𝙉𝙂𝘿𝙊𝙈

GANON IS BACK AND MORE TERRIFYING THAN EVER! With an amazing reveal of more info, this game is shaping up to be something great already. The visuals, music, and maybe even voice acting...it leaves me impressed. The gameplay could even be a step up with new weapon types and tools among other things (we can make our own cars legit now!?) However, it also reminds me that I need to finish BOTW someday. 😅 I'll be sure to look into this game at some point. Sharpen your blade and prepare for adventure on 12th May, 2023...

(Tysm for getting up to this point reader, it's been wonderful writing it all. I'm still not done yet though and might do part 2 in future. Take care! 👋

🎴My Carrd