#i have a bunch of yo-kai watch toys from that

[oh-meow-swirls]

i miss when dollar tree had yo-kai watch toys. we should bring that back i wanna be able to get yo-kai watch toys for a dollar again-

[yokaishopping]

Yo-kai Mail: eBay Lot!

Today, I got a nice big package full of Yo-kai mail! This was from an eBay lot for an incredibly good price (in my opinion.) According to the auction listing, this is what we'll be looking at today (in no particular order):

- The first issue of the manga. (In Japanese)

- A full color book that goes in depth highlighting all the characters from the anime (before the Model Zero.)

- Two large books: a colored version of Nyanderful Days Vol 4, and I assume a kids' magazine with a bunch of Yo-kai comics. There are trading cards inside one, and a paper-craft Komasan in the Nyanderful Days one. Also, a toy Yo-kai Pad comes with one of the magazines. It lights up with batteries. According to the seller, there was a pen that came with it to write on but customs removed it. Not sure why.

- A small, toy version of the Yo-kai Watch U. Not meant for regular medals.

- A 2016 McDonald's calendar and exclusive Mogmog Brothers medal, with stickers and a promo page for song medals.

- A sealed pack of Series 2 Hasbro medals and promotional temporary tattoos.

Let's get started!

First off, a McDonald's 2016 Yo-kai Watch calendar!

For those who may not be familiar, McDonald's restaurants in Japan usually sell a (usually Pokemon) calendar for the upcoming year. For a few years, though, Yo-kai Watch has had a calendar as well--and it's much, much nicer than the one you can buy in America from bookstores or websites. For one, this one has McDonald's branding so the restaurant is used in one of the pages, and the art is just fantastic. Not to mention there was a certain page I was happy to see included.

I had seen this page before, but I had forgotten specifically which calendar had it. It's mine now!

I can't scan the pages as my scanner is too small and I am NOT destroying this to do it. I'll take pictures of all of the art if anyone would like to see them.

This and the following picture are an advertisement page included with the calendar. From pictures alone I assume it’s just an ad for the Yo-kai Watch U Prototype and showing off the different song medals and the newest Medallium at the time.

Stickers! The calendar came with a full page! No Hanako, though. Shame.

Moving on!

...

Next we have 2 large books: Nyanderful Days Vol 4 (with colored pages) and another magazine that has Yo-kai Content. I've read a few translated chapters of Nyanderful Days online, and for anyone not familiar with it, it's a manga (comic) series about Katie getting the Yo-kai Watch instead of Nate. She meets Whisper and Jibanyan in a very different way. The other book is a young childrens' magazine called "Celebrate! Life in Kindergarten" from 2015. It also has Doraemon comics.

I wish I could read Japanese! What I have read of Nyanderful Days has been really, really good! I hope Viz decides to bring it to America. There’s a papercraft Komasan kit inside, but I’m not taking it out and risking damage.

Here we have a Yo-kai Watch guide, a small toy based on the U Prototype watch, and a Yo-kai Pad toy. I assume the Yo-kai Pad is like one of those light-up screen toys where you can scribble on it and then clean it off with a switch or something, but without the pen I'm not sure how much use I could get out of it--that's why I haven't bothered opening it.

The toy watch is really nothing all that special--if it's anything like the past models, you can put the medal inside which does nothing, and the Yo-kai light on top will light up one color and that's it. It comes with gum, or at least older versions did. I don't know if I'm going to open this or not, since I just told you everything it does and the gum is years old.

This book has information on characters in the anime, but it looks to be from before the Model Zero watch. The art inside is really nice, though. I may post pictures in the future.

Like I said, this lights up and I assume you’re meant to doodle on it. I’m not really sure.

...

Here we have the Japanese version of volume 1 of the manga, and a pack of Hasbro's medals from series 2. I have all of series 2 already so I don't really feel the need to open this. I assume they'd be commons anyway.

Finally, the tattoos. These have English on the back, so I assume they were from Play Nintendo event or something, as I've never seen them in stores. The medal is the one that came with the calendar: Mogmog Brothers. If you've been with me for a while, you'll know I got this medal a few years ago. It's a song medal with Ronald McDonald and Jibanyan singing about burgers and fries, ending with Jibanyan singing the "I'm lovin' it" jingle.

And that'll be the end of it. That entire lot for under $20 is pretty darn fantastic, I think.

[xb-squaredx]

Gaming in 2018: The Good and Bad

2017 is largely considered an awesome year for video games as a whole. Plenty of fantastic titles and the impressive debut of the Nintendo Switch certainly meant that 2018 had a LOT to live up to. This past year has certainly been interesting in a great many ways; some of it’s good, some of it’s bad and a lot of it is just…business as usual. As the year is winding down, let’s take a look at some of the notable releases and happenings in the video game scene. Take it away!

The year starts off fairly strong, the first few months having a fair amount of quality titles, some even potential “Game of the Year” candidates. Both Monster Hunter: World and Dragon Ball FighterZ released not only to high acclaim and sales, but on the same day no less! A wide variety of games from several different franchises and genres dot the calendar. Co-op adventure games like A Way Out in March, the return of God of War in April competing with Nintendo’s odd Labo line of potentially over-priced cardboard and the controversial Detroit: Become Human in May. The summer saw a slew of releases, from a new entry in the Mario Tennis series with Aces, Octopath Traveler in July, and Spider-Man on the PS4 in September. The last three months see a sudden explosion of hotly-anticipated titles from some mega-franchises. Everything from Assassin’s Creed to Call of Duty to Pokemon and Super Smash Bros. sees a release, not to mention Red Dead Redemption 2 right at the end of October. Just looking at things generally, there’s a good spread, but let’s look at things more in-depth.

Fighting games had quite a few releases this year, though sadly I’d say most of them were considered underwhelming for one reason or another. Another entry in the Dissidia series was absolutely crushed by FighterZ and Monster Hunter to kick the year off, while niche fighting games like Blade Strangers, Fighting EX Layer, SNK Heroines and BlazBlue Cross Tag Battle were met with mixed reception overall. The anime crowd also got a 3D Brawler based on the My Hero Academia license…that launched the same day in the West as Red Dead Redemption 2 so…ouch. The year does see a bit of a rebound with titles like SoulCalibur VI and Super Smash Bros. Ultimate being fairly well-received. It’s nice to see the fighting game genre continue onward, and at the very least I’m glad to see attempts at innovating or just new ideas being thrown out, but they can’t all be winners.

Unfortunately, I’d say there were also a fair few stinkers released this year, or games that just failed to capture much of an audience. February saw a double-whammy of Dynasty Warriors 9 and Metal Gear Survive, two games that are largely viewed as massive step backs from their previous entries. Shadow of the Tomb Raider, Sushi Striker and Just Cause 4 released and were quickly forgotten by the general public. You have some games that received at least SOME coverage and potential success, like Ubisoft’s toys-to-life Starlink game likely being the closest thing we’ll get to a new Star Fox game for quite a while (on the Switch version at least), and a fair number of indies came out this year too, or in some cases, came to consoles and boosted visibility. Hollow Knight came out last year on Steam, but is now out on everything and that thing sold like crazy on Switch at the very least. Then you have things like Dead Cells or The Messenger, Celeste and Guacamelee 2 that also received rave reviews. While last year we had Crash Bandicoot’s remakes and Sonic Mania appealing to nostalgia, this year we saw Spyro get his turn at a remake trilogy, as well as Mega Man 11 and an 8-bit, classic-Castlevania styled throwback in the form of Bloodstained: Curse of the Moon. All that said, let’s talk the big dogs.

Nintendo didn’t have nearly as many heavy-hitters in comparison to last year, though honestly I think it’d be hard to top that line-up anyway. The Switch’s library has ballooned since last year, a lot of that coming from ports, with that trend likely continuing into next year as well. The third party support is certainly welcome and fills out the Switch’s catalogue, though there’s an awful lot of first-party Wii U ports too. Donkey Kong Country Tropical Freeze, the Captain Toad game, as well as the first two Bayonetta games and Hyrule Warriors graced the system. Even the 3DS seems like it’s getting the shaft in terms of huge titles. Outside of a “greatest hits” of microgames with WarioWare Gold, there was a Luigi’s Mansion remake/port and…I guess Yo-Kai Watch still exists, so there’s that? The 3DS is clearly slowly being phased out, so as long as it still prints money, we’ll be seeing these strange remakes and ports…like…Kirby’s Epic Yarn coming next year…for some reason. As far as NEW titles, entries like Kirby: Star Allies and Mario Tennis Aces can be considered somewhat lacking, but it’s balanced out by a return to form for the Mario Party series, a great third-party exclusive in Octopath Traveler, a well-received DLC expansion/pseudo-sequel to Xenoblade Chronicles 2 and, of course, Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. Actually, I’d say that tips them back over into pretty darn good overall.

Sony did pretty well this year, though honestly they only saw TWO major exclusive releases. However, both God of War and Spider-Man, despite having uncreative names, are clear “Game of the Year” contenders, and it surely reaps the benefits of the various third-party hits on the platform…and Detroit: Become Human, I guess. Shame about Xbox though; as far as exclusives went there was Rare’s Sea of Thieves, seen by many as too devoid of actual content to play for very long. Its E3 show was good at least! Good at showing off a bunch of games that will also be on other consoles!

Industry-wide, the year was a bit of a downer though, with some notable layoffs and studio closures, some very close to one another. Cliff Blesinski of Gears of War fame, closed down his studio, Boss Key Productions, following two back-to-back flops with Lawbreakers in 2017 and Radical Heights in 2018. As the year winded down, Capcom Vancouver closed its doors in September, with Telltale Games following soon after, generating a fair amount of media buzz over the volatile nature of employment in game development and the concept of “crunch” time in games as well. Right as Red Dead Redemption 2 came out, Rockstar also received flak for their workplace conditions when news of employees working “100 hour” work weeks was brought up as if it was some sort of positive thing.

The game industry isn’t all sunshine and rainbows; for every success story, you have a studio closing, for every hit, you have a game that crashes and burns on release. It can be hard to tell what to expect in a given year with video games, what big franchises will do and what new tent poles might pop up in the meantime. Fortnite is suddenly among the most popular games right now, and after Nintendo’s last console flopped, the Switch is on the warpath to reclaim that status Nintendo has always been known for. In this year alone, we saw several sequels to iconic, major franchises. It can be easy to forget them all, but it’s important to soak all that variety in. New Far Cry and Assassin’s Creed games, Mario Party and God of War, for starters. There are toys-to-life games and cardboard creativity, alongside your annual Madden and Call of Duty and Battlefield games, and TONS of fighting games. Capcom in general seems to be on a hot streak of hits, which considering the reception of Street Fighter V and Marvel vs. Capcom Infinite last year, is saying something. I haven’t lost my love for gaming, though I do somewhat worry how certain modern monetization trends will affect things going forward. But there are also tons of things to be on the lookout for. PS4 and Xbone are going to be on their way out someday soon (relatively speaking anyway), Nintendo always seems to have surprises under their sleeves (like announcing and releasing a SMASH BROS. game all in the same year, for one) and there exist plenty of talented developers both large and small that continue to innovate, making fun, new ideas. Here’s to 2019 hopefully continuing the trend of being mostly good!

Happy Gaming, and until next time.

-B