#i know nothing about mega man but have played lots of smash bros before in the past sooo hearing that was something

[moonpie016]

Anniversary drawing on time?!?!

Well that's rare.

I've only drawn this song a few times, and it's fun drawing either with actual pixel art (sometimes) and the usual way.

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Edited and original.

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Drawing the pose was great, surprisingly.

I would say something about the song, I was trying to go through every song album by album, to listen to all of them at the time, and just randomly decided to watch 20XX.

I don't remember my first impression of the song, but was surprised and enjoyed it.

It's sorta uplifting in a way, just like how TLOBAW (the lie of black and white) is to me. I don't know why. But those songs make me happy.

Anyways, enjoy!

[blackhakumen]

Mini Fanfic #739: Brothers Playing Chess (Super Smash Bros Ultimate)

12:43 p.m. at Smash Mansion's Living Room........

Roy: ('Ugggh') I can't believe I lose a single game of rock, paper, scissors against you of all people....(Moves a Chess Piece)

Ludwig: In all fairness, we did agree that whoever wins, gets to do the activity of their choosing. (Moves his Chess Piece) I won, so-

Roy: Yeah. Yeah. I already got the jizz of it, smartass. What I wanna know is why you made us play some dumb chess. Like seriously, there's like a crap ton of board games you can choose from and yet you chose something as boring as this. (Moves his Chess Piece)

Ludwig: (Rolls his Eyes a Little) Chess isn't as boring as you thing, brother. It can be pretty endearing and challenging if you put your mind and strategy plans to good use. (Moves his Chess Piece)

Roy: ('Scoffs') Yeah. For you maybe. You're practically one of the biggest nerds I've ever known.

Ludwig: Just give this a chance already. It won't do you any good if you keep whining every five minutes.

Roy: ('Groans in Defeat') Fine..... (Moves his Chess Piece)..... Sooooooo....... How's learning with glittering vampire boy and his woman going along?

Ludwig: (Gives Roy a Deadpinned Look on his Face) They're names are Master Alucard and Ms. Maria, Roy. But to answer to your question.....(Smiles Softly) It's going pretty well for the most part. I've learned quite a lot ever since then. Their respective past, the history of the Belmont's bloodline, the structures of Castlevania itself-

Roy: So basically, you've learned everything ancient history related, right?

Ludwig: ..............('Sigh') For the most part, yes. (Moves a Chess Piece) You're welcome to join the learning experience if you like.

Roy: Yeahhhhhh that's gonna be a hard pass for me, bro. (Puts on a Cocky Smirk on his Face) Got a reputation to hold, you know?

Ludwig: ('Scoffs') A reputation of what? Being a stereotypical bully?

Roy: (Immediately Glares at Ludwig) Of being a cool and recognizable, you ass! (Moves a Chess Piece) And besides, I'm already pass that phase a long time ago.

Ludwig: (Already Has a Unconvinced Look on his Face) Uh-huh. So is teasing the younger kids, giving them noogies and wet willies is your way of "pass that phase" in life?

Roy: Hey, it ain't my fault some of those twerps were easy to mess with.

Ludwig: (Raised an Eyebrow) You know this isn't helping your case in the slightest, right?

Roy: ('Tch') (Starts Rolling his Eyes While Moving a Chess) Whatever.

Ludwig: ('Sigh') Look, just don't bully the kids anymore, okay? Especially Lucas.

Roy: Why him specifically?

Ludwig: Simple. Mess with him and you'll have Ashley to answer to.

Roy: Oh please. I ain't scare of that little witch. So what if her hair turns white whenever she gets mad......(Slowly Starts Getting Scared) .....Or have a spell that annihilate anything.......(Eyes Starts to Widened in Fear) Or have a....dark, twisted glare that could literally kill a man in a matter of seconds.........

Ludwig: She gave you that glare, didn't she?

Roy: ('Sighs in Defeat') Yeah.......

Ludwig: Figure as much. (Moves a Chess Piece)

'Silence'

Ludwig: Pardon me for changing the subject, but.....('Sigh') I've found out something very interesting about our father as if late........

Roy: (Raised an Eyebrow in a Bit of Confusion) Really? Like what?

Ludwig: (Shows Roy a Picture of Their Father in his Recent, Intimidating Form)

Roy: (Eyes Widened in Complete Shock at the Sight of the Photo) The hell? That's Dad!? What happened to him!?

Ludwig: He was transformed into a destructive, powerful beast known as the Mega Fury Bowser.

Roy: Wait. That's what you're calling it? He's looks more like an actual God-Slayer if you ask me.

Ludwig: He does. But according to my research, it's official name is "Mega Fury". Sounds underwhelming, but it's the honest fact. Though the reason as to why he became that monstrosity to begin with still remains unknown to this day.

Roy: (Sighs While Pinching his Nose) Oh for the love of.....Please don't tell me you researched all of this all night....

Ludwig: I.......(Quickly Looks Away from his Younger Brother) Don't know what you're talking about.

Roy: (Starts Growling a Little) Ludwig..... Either you tell me or I'm gonna tell your mentors all about it.

Ludwig: (Turns Back to Roy with a Glare) You wouldn't.......

Roy: (Smirks at Ludwig) Watch me, chump. HEY, ALU-

Ludwig: Okay fine! You win! I'll come clean.

Roy: (Raises an Eyebrow) You serious?

Ludwig: ('Sighs in Defeat') Yes. I am. Your prediction was right......I have been trying to research this all night. It wasn't long until mother walked in the laboratory one night and convinced me not to do it any further. Says that I am still too young to stay up in midnight hours.

Roy: Well, I don't blame her for telling you that. How many times we hafta get it into that thick skull of yours to got stay up in that damn lab all night!?

Ludwig: Multiple times. I believe number is approximately 254.

Roy: So!? That still ain't a good thing!

Ludwig: I know. I know. I just.....('Sigh') I suppose you can say that my interest and curiosity of the whole matter did got me into researching it for the whole night. (Starts Feeling Bad) Still, it was no excuse for worrying you all like that and I apologise.

Roy: ('Sigh') Look man, I get that you're a genius and everything, but you need some sleep and relaxation just as much as the rest of us here. That's why you can't just keep doing this all of that. It'll tiring out real quick.

Ludwig: ('Sigh') I know. I'll try not be careless next time. You have my word.

Roy: (Moves a Chess) Yeah. You better. Or we're gonna have ourselves a big ass intervention in this mansion.

Ludwig: (Chuckles Lightly) I gotta say, Roy. I had no idea you cared so much about my well being.

Roy: You kidding? 'Course I care. You think just because you're the oldest out of all of us Koopalings that we don't have to worry about you that much?

Ludwig: I-

Roy: Well, you better not think that way, chump! We care about you a lot.

Ludwig: (Sighs While Putting on a Soft Smile on his Face) I know you do, Roy. And I can't thank you all enough for that.

Roy: (Starts Rolling his Eyes) Yeah. Yeah. It's whatever. Just don't be reckless idiot no more, alright?

Ludwig: (Simply Nodded) Will do. Oh and Roy?

Roy: Yeah? What?

Ludwig: (Starts Moving a Chess Three Times Before Saying.....) Checkmate.

Roy: What!? (Looks Back and Forth at the Board and Ludwig Rapidly) B-But how did you-

Ludwig: (Shrugs) It's nothing really.(Puts on a Smirk on his Face) It's just that you're an easier opponent than I thought you would be.

Roy: (Starts Growling in Anger) You mother.....(Slams the Table) Alright! Best 2/3!!

Ludwig: (Raised an Eyebrow) You sure you wanna go another round at this?

Roy: Hell yeah! Ain't no way I'm gonna accepting losing to a smartass like you again! So we're gonna play again I til I WIN!!

Ludwig: ('Sigh') Very well. Challenge accepted.

@keyenuta

@caleb13frede

@26shann

@ma-lemons

@albion-93

@cyber-wildcat

[game-boy-pocket]

Long time no post.

So I recently picked up a Sega Genesis Mini. Of course I hacked it right away. I’m not all that familiar with Sega’s library outside of what was on Sonic “Mega Collection, and I’ve played Sonic a billion times, so instead of starting with the Hedgehog, I decided to start with Marvel Land... It’s a game I’ve been interested in but never made much progress in, mostly I felt obligated to play it because the lead character, Prince Tamlit, looks exactly like the theoretical son of my two OCs, Shino and Sheila. But also, i just love me some cute platformers.

Anyway, the game itself is tough, but fair. Everything kills you in one hit, but you get infinite continues. No save feature, but passwords are mercifully short. Good thing too. This game has warps that can take you backwards. I even found a warp back to the first level in the last world... luckily the warps are usually two way so it’s not like you have to reset to the password screen if you take a wrong warp every time. 

Your only means of attack is to jump on the heads of the enemy... you get a power-up like Super Mario Bros, but like... I don’t even know how to describe it. Prince Talmit starts creating after-images, but it doesn’t increase his speed or anything, Instead, pressing B just causes the after image chain to whip around and adamage things... okay???  That’s an odd attack, you’d think being a Dragon Boy, he’d get fire breath or a tail whip but nope... weird after image attack... oh, there’s also wing power ups that’s both a power up and a liability. It gives you crazy high jump power, and you can tap A or C to decent slowly, but later levels have a lot of spiky roofs, so you have to use it carefully.

The bosses are an odd mixed bag... each one is a carnival mini game instead of a direct battle. If you lose even once, you have to start at the beginning of that level. They’re usually pretty fair but I would prefer if they allowed for at least one practice round. The only true Boss Fight is the final boss. He still has a mini game but you have to do real battle with him on top of that, and I had a tough time of it, I feel like it just amounts to mashing the B button and being lucky enough to not get hit by his lightning fast beams.

Story was nothing special, typical evil bad man takes over a kingdom ( that just happens to be carnival themed ) and also kidnaps some girls, so some boy has to come save the day.  Whatever. It’s an 1989 game. It looks decent, very cute style not quite like other 16-bit games. My only gripe with the visuals is that no collectibles have any shading on them making them look like MS Paint doodles.

I had a good time with this little platformer, it’s always nice to have a non-Nintendo game that isn’t super mainstream on my list of finished games. Hopefully that list will keep growing.

One more thing... this game has bonus levels where you catch falling stars in front of a parade of Namco Character Floats, and when I played these levels it gave me two thoughts... 1. I really don’t know shit about Namco besides Pac-Man.  And 2.  Famous Video Game studios sure had much more fun character designs back in the day before everything became a race to be realistic... where the hell are these characters now, besides being Smash Ultimate Mii costumes and Spirits??

[dermankey]

Lucas and the Vampire - Part 3

          “Really? All the way across the room?” Rose asked in disbelief. It was late at night, nearing eleven, and the two were just at Maelstrom Comics, having been a part of the latest Super Smash Bros. tournament there. They were now on the drive back to Rose’s house.

          “More like all the way across the store,” Lucas  chuckled in memory. “Like, it’s kinda routine for him to lose it like that. He’s a great guy, don’t get me wrong, but he goes at it when he loses. This, though, was when he lost the finals, and he just sent his controller sailing through the back room and into the store proper. I’m just grateful he didn’t bust a freaking window.”

          Rose was laughing so hard she was snorting. “Wh-what happened to his controller?” She asked after taking a moment to collect herself.

          “The thing left an inch deep hole in the wall right next to the door. Don’t tell anyone, but that’s why that Mega Man poster is there for,” Lucas told her and got more laughter. “But of course his controller was perfectly fine. Yeah, a chip in the paint, but it still worked.”

          “It still worked?”

          “It’s Nintendo, Rose. An elephant could step on it and it’d still work,” Lucas replied with a flat line of a voice as they pulled up to Rose’s house. Both got out and walked up to the door. “Ya did really good tonight, Rose. Not all newcomers get up to the semifinals.”

          “I was rusty tonight. Just wait until I get at them again,” Rose said with a smile. “So, I believe you said our next night  would be this Friday?”

          “Yep. Movie night,” Lucas confirmed with a smile of his own. “I’m not telling you what it is, but it’s gonna be something you’ve never seen before.”

          “Lucas, I have been alive for at least one hundred years,” Rose said with a chuckle. “What movie could there be that I have not at least heard of?”

          “Oh, I am sure you have most certainly never seen this movie,” Lucas spoke with a dramatically maniacal voice and rubbing his hands together menacingly.

          “I swear, if you’re hinting at Dracula here,” Rose jokingly warned and the two laughed. “So it’s your place at nine, right? Second Street, apartment 5A on the fifth floor. Don’t worry, I’ll find my own way there.”

         “Alright, then,” Lucas nodded, his face notably blushing. “I’ll, uh...I guess I’ll…” 

          “Lucas? What are you trying to say?” She asked with some concern and slight amusement. “Come on, just spit it out.”

          “Well, what I’m trying to say is...oooh!” Without another word, he quickly came forward and gave the vampire a quick kiss on the cheek, much to her surprise. When he pulled away, Lucas’s face was incredibly red, but he smiled. “See you then, Rose!” He said quickly before taking off.

          Rose stood there for a moment, putting a hand where she was kissed and watching with a surprised expression as Lucas hurried down his car, and with one last wave back to her, he took off for home. As he drove off, she felt the corners of her mouth turn up into a trembling smile, which settled out after she took a breath. She turned to the door and knocked the same way she did every time, with Violet’s voice calling to invite her in as always.

          “Hello, Violet,” Rose greeted, pressing up against the door as she closed it. “How are you on this fine evening?”

          “Someone’s in a good mood, I see,” Violet commented. She was sitting on the couch, as she always did when she was waiting for Rose to get back. “Why don’t you share what’s causing that smile on your face?”

          “Oh, it was a fantastic night, Vi,” Rose started as she sat down on the armchair. “I made it all the way to the semifinals. I think I would have won but this was fellow—Rambo was his tag, I believe—had an unbeatable Joker. He was a nice guy though, and he even won the whole thing. He got fifty percent off one thing in the store, so I probably would have given it away anyways.” She laid back in her chair, but immediately sat up at the sight of a small bowl of barbecue chips sitting on the coffee table. “May I have some, Vi?”

          “Go ahead. I got them out for you,” Violet told her, and the other vampire eagerly reached out and took the bowl. “What about Lucas? How was he?”

          “Lucas? Oh, he was running commentary with Reggie, his coworker. Nice lady,” Rose said between mouthfuls of chips. “We did get some time to play ourselves since we got there early. He was really good with Mega Man but also did good with Young Link, of all the characters. Personally, I was trying to get better with the Pokémon Trainer, but it will take a while.”

          Violet nodded. “That’s nice, but I was more asking about your ���plan’ with him.”

          Rose stared blankly at her for a minute, seemingly thinking for a minute before her eyes lit up. “Oh, yes! Don’t you worry about him, Vi. Everything is going exactly in order. He will be ready soon enough.”

          “Good to hear,” Violet nodded. There was silence for a moment, the only noise being the crunch of Rose’s chips. “I noticed you are eating again.”

          She paused, holding a single chip in the air. “Well, yeah. Me and Lucas occasionally get some food when we go out, and what am I going to do, not get something? That would be impolite.”

          “You two must have been going out with each other for quite a while then, haven’t you?” Violet asked, a smile starting to appear on her face.

          “Of course. I think we have been seeing each other for...about…”

          She trailed off and simply stopped. Her gaze stared off into space, and the casual smile she wore slowly turned to a face of sad realization. “Rose,” Violet asked in a calm voice. “How long have you been with Lucas?”

          Rose laid back again into the chair, her head hung to hide her eyes. “...three months,” she finally said.

          “You’re not going to feed off of him, are you?” 

          Rose set her chips aside, clasping both hands in her lap. “I...I can’t,” her voice shook, completely losing her accent. “I don’t know what happened, when it happened, but I...I just can’t bring myself to do it anymore.”

          “Hm. I thought so.”

          Rose jerked her head up at her cousin. Her eyes made her look like she was about to cry, but no tears came. “Did you know?”

          “I’ve had my suspicions,” Violet nodded. “Please don’t be upset over this. Falling in love is a perfectly normal feeling to have when you spend a long time with someone.”

          Rose looked away, grasping hold of her arms and pulling them into herself. Her cousin took notice. “I get it, Rose. What happened before...was a terrible thing.”

          “Understatement of the century,” Rose seemed to spat out.

          “But I’ve never seen you happier with Lucas!” Violet continued. “I’ve seen how he looks at you, how he acts around you. He knows you’re a vampire and he still loves being with you. Times change, Rose, and so do people. Please, don’t ruin this for yourself.”

          “Times have changed, and so have I,” Rose replied, still looking away from her. “He...doesn’t deserve me. I don’t deserve him, not after all I’ve done. It would’ve been better if we never met.”

          “Rose, please.”

          Silence hung between them for what felt like an eternity, even for those who had the time for it. “...Friday,” Rose suddenly said, her accent returning. “That’s movie night. It’ll be...it will be the last time I see him. I will end everything there, whatever it takes.”

          “Rose, please,” Violet nearly sounded like she was begging.

          “I will be up in my room if you need me,” she said before taking off up the stairs without another word.

          Lucas opened the door and a smile quickly spread across his face. “Hey, Rose! Right on time!”

          “Hello, Lucas,” Rose gave a small wave and a smile of her own. “Um, may I come in?”

          “But of course!” Lucas spoke with a dramatic flair and a wave of his hand.  Rose stepped in, closing the door behind her. “Might I add that you look good tonight?”

          “In this?” Rose smiled a little, pulling at her top. She wore a black tank top that had the symbol for Sagittarius in a brilliant blue paired with plain gray sweatpants, and part of her hair was held together in what could generously be called a ponytail. “It was really more for comfort than for style.”

          “You definitely look the part. I just think you look good in whatever you wear,” he commented, a bit of red coming to his cheeks. “You’re very pretty, Rose.”

          Inside, the vampire was screaming. She could tell he was definitely trying to set up a situation, one that a part of her still wanted to happen, but she had made her decision. It would be better for both of them. Wouldn’t it? “How flattering,” she responded externally as collected as she could be. “But I know what I came here for. What is this movie that you have called me here to watch?”

          “Oh, just a simple little comedy, nothing all too much,” Lucas began casually, turning his back to her as they walked down the entrance hallway to his living room. “I’d be surprised if you even heard of it. Just a little flick called YOUNG FRANKENSTEIN!” He quickly spun back to her, bearing a wide maniacal smile and a beady stare.

          It had taken a while, but he had really opened up a lot to her. He did stuff like this all the time with things he was clearly passionate about or excited for. Rose knew she would miss that the most. “Mm-mm. I really expected more from you than this, Lucas. I was expecting some bizarre foreign film of some sort with a title I could not pronounce. Instead you chose a film that stars a comedic legend. A good choice, I have to admit, but I am so disappointed in you,” she spoke in a way to make it sound like she meant it, not even smiling and having toned down her gestures.

          “Oh, dear me. Whatever shall I do now, knowing that I have disappointed her Royal Highness?” Lucas exclaimed with a posh accent, leaning dramatically against a wall with his eyes closed. He opened one eye and grinned cheekily at her, seeing her with her arms crossed and a neutral expression. “Come on, not even a smile?”

          She could not help but at least give a small smile, which very quickly became a small laugh. She decided she at least had to give him this. “You are pardoned for your transgression, my dear Lucas, but do not disappoint me again.”

          “Bless your kindness,” Lucas said as he stood back up, and continued in a normal voice, “but if you do want to see something a little more out there, I actually do have some foreign movies apart from my DVD collection. Not all of them are good, exactly, but they’re definitely entertaining.”

          “No, Young Frankenstein will serve well for tonight,” Rose assured, walking past him and sitting down on the right side of the couch; it was only a two-seater, but as long as a three-seater. “It has been a while since I have seen it last, and I rather watch something that we can both enjoy unironically.”

          Lucas nodded in agreement, grabbing the remote and taking a seat right next to Rose as he started up the movie. “Um, Lucas?”

          “Yep?”

          “Would you mind scooting over a bit?”

          “...okay, sure,” Lucas replied, moving over to the other cushion of the couch. The slightest tinge of disappointment in his voice hurt her for only a moment, as it was quickly overtaken by something more concerning her. She began to feel pangs of hunger creep into her—a move she did plan, but was occurring much too soon.

          As the movie started, it was able to distract her for a while. Fifteen minutes into the movie, however, and it was getting harder for her to focus on it. 

          Come on, Rose, just keep it together, she thought to herself, just keep it together until the end of the movie and then it will...it will all...be…

         “Hey, Rose?” Lucas asked for what the vampire had just realized has been the third time. Snapping back to reality, she noticed the movie was paused. “I was asking if you wanted a snack or something.”

          “N...no thank you, I’m fine,” she replied with a shake of her head. 

          “Alright, but I’m getting something so I’ll be right back,” Lucas replied as he stood up and strode past her into the kitchen, a separate room right next to the living room. The scent of his blood easily filled her nostrils when he passed by, her full fangs shooting out on instinct. No not now! she thought as she tried to retract them, but by now her hunger was too great. Her fully extended fangs reached not far below her bottom lip; keeping them in her mouth would hurt too much, and they would be far too noticeable if left outside of it. Either way, her voice would sound completely different.

          Just as Lucas was pushing open the door back into the living room, she quickly clamped her hand over her mouth. “I thought I’d make a big bowl just in case you changed—,” Lucas began as he closed the door behind him, stopping when he saw Rose staring intently at her with her hand over her mouth. “I—is something wrong, Rose?”

          Rose quickly shook her head, giving a dismissive gesture with a sideways glance.

         Lucas tilted his head in confusion. He sat back down on the couch and set the large bowl of popcorn he had on the table. “What are you covering your mouth for then?”

         “No reason,” Rose spoke quickly, but obviously sounded muffled. “Let’s just vatch the rest of the movie.”

          “Jeez, you don’t sound so good either,” Lucas commented, looking at her with concern. “If something’s wrong, Rose, you can tell me. Is there anything I can do?”

          An idea immediately popped into her head, one she was not overly fond of. It was earlier than she would have liked it, but she really did not have a choice at the moment. Slowly, she took her hand away from her mouth. “I think you can, actually.”

          “Your fangs?” Lucas looked at her with a surprised look. “Are they normally that long?”

          “They are, but I do not use them at full length often,” Rose explained. “They only stick out this long vwhen I get very hungry.”

          “Oh…oh!” Lucas realized, quickly raising up his wrist. “Well, you could have just asked, ya know.”

          Rose nearly flinched in surprise. “You’re...just going to offer yourself? Just like that?”

          “Why wouldn’t I?” Lucas asked back with a small smile on his face. “It’s for your well being, and I trust you’re not gonna suck all the blood out of me. You can just take what you need to hold you over, alright?”

          At first, Rose looked at him with the same face of surprise. Then, almost randomly, she slowly began to laugh; a small chuckle at first that slowly became full-on laughter. Lucas, while slightly confused, found himself smiling, about to laugh along with her until he began to hear sobs.

          She looked back up at him, a wide smile on her face with tears streaming down it. “You really care about me, huh? Some, idiot bloodsucker who can’t even do the vone thing she’s good at! How,” she said as the smile on her face quickly disappeared, her voice quieting, “how can you put up vith me?!”

          “Rose, don’t say that,” Lucas began, his voice confident yet calm and his hands on her shoulders. “You’re not some idiot, and I don’t put up with you, I like spending time with you! I’ve been enjoying my life a whole lot more with you in it. You’ve done so much for me and I really hope that I’ve done all I could for you.” She looked back up at him, staring back into his own watery eyes on his red face. He had moved closer to her, so much so their noses almost touched. “Rose...I…” Lucas set a hand on her cheek, both of them moving their faces closer to each other. “I think...I love you…”

          “N-no,” Rose said of all sudden, pushing Lucas away. “No!”

          A spiral of emotions were on Lucas’s face. “No…?”

          Rose felt both a stab to her heart and pain in her stomach. “I...I need to go.” The vampire quickly got up and dashed for the door.

          Lucas, not even having fully processed the sudden rush of emotions, quickly took after her a second later. “Rose, wait!!” Lucas called out, perhaps a little too loud. The vampire, who had only made a door or two down from him, turned back to him, her face nearly identical to when she left. “R-Rose...I’m sorry if I was coming on too strong there. This is my first really serious relationship like this and I-I-.”

          “Stop!” She yelled out, much to Lucas’s surprise. “It’s not you! It vwas never you! It’s me! I’m the problem!”

          “What?” Confusion quickly came upon his face. “But-.”

          “I am a vampire, Lucas!” Rose shouted, tears still streaming down her face. “Don’t you know vwhat ve do to people? Vwhy did you think I took you through that graveyard for?”

          The realization quickly came upon Lucas, and it hit him hard. Even as he tried to deny it, it was hard to argue that the pieces were not coming together. “B-But, you wouldn’t. You’re—.”

          “I’m different, right!? Because I vwas nice to you?!” Rose hollered, her voice oddly lacking anger. “Well that’s how I do it, Lucas! That’s how vampires feed off of humans because ve’re monsters! So if you have any idea vwhat’s good for you, you should never talk to me AGAIN!!”

          “What’s going on out here?!” A man hollered out as the door right across from Lucas’s came slamming open. The man had long brown hair that was only starting to gray and wore a matching set of turquoise pajamas. He walked out a bit from his doorway. “Some of us have jobs to get to in the—!”

          He paused when he finally registered the two people in the hallway. He never saw the girl before, but he recognized the other guy. “Uh, g-good evening, Larry.”

          Larry blinked twice in a tired fashion, turning his complete attention to his neighbor. “Lucas? Wh-what the hell are you doing out here at—?”

          He did not get to finish before Rose, with an unnatural level of speed, lunged forward and stuck her fangs right into his throat. Larry screamed in alarm and pain as his blood splattered about on everyone. Even as he saw it happen right in front of him, Lucas could only stare in shock as his neighbor’s struggle slowly wore down against the vampire’s grip. DO SOMETHING DO SOMETHING! His thoughts screamed to himself, until he moved on complete instinct, pushing Rose away while pulling forward on Larry, the separation sending more blood flying.

          Larry fell on his back, his face a sickly pale and his eyes shut. The two bite wounds on his neck were bloody only for another moment before they quickly closed to two brown scabs.

          Rose stumbled back but stayed on her feet. She let out a hoarse cough that she covered with her hand. “Oooooh…” she moaned as she removed her hand, staring at it in horror to see that it was covered in blood.

         Lucas stood right between them, his stance alert yet wavering. He glanced back at Larry who looked quite terrible. When he turned back to Rose, he saw her staring right back at him, her bloodied hand held up to herself and the look of having a breakdown. “W—.”

          “I told you,” she spoke quietly, almost a whisper. “I’m a monster. I’m meant to hurt people.” She sniffled, heavy tears quickly falling down her cheeks and her hands clenched into fists.

          Lucas tried to extend a hand to her before she quickly turned and ran off to the other end of the hallway. “Wait!” Lucas called out, not missing a beat this time as he took off after her.  

          The vampire, wiping tears from her face, barged through the door into the stairway, nearly taking it off its hinges. Just as Lucas reached her there, she crashed through the single window there into the night. “ROSE!” Lucas hollered as he looked down out of the window, quickly surprised when he saw she had completely disappeared. Looking around at what part of the city he could, he caught the slightest glimpse of a bat flying high in the moonlight, before it disappeared behind a building.

         Without a moment to lose, he first quickly ran back and checked on Larry. He was still breathing, to Lucas’s relief, and the wounds on his neck had nearly completely faded away. He lifted up his neighbor and took him back into his apartment, laying him on his couch and leaving a hastily written note that boiled down to I’ll explain later on his chest. Lucas then took off back toward the stairs, scurrying down the flights and into the building's parking garage.

          The traffic was light at this time of night as Lucas sped off to Calume’s residential square. He parked sloppily outside of the Bailey home, scrambling out of the car and up the steps, giving the door five quick raps with his knuckles.

          The sound of clicking footsteps could be heard getting louder on the other side of the door as it slowly came open. “Wow, Emily. I think this may have been the earliest you’ve—,” Violet’s voice began, stopping mid sentence when she completely opened the door. She was wearing a casual navy blue dress with a purple flower pinned to it. “Lucas? What on Earth are you doing here?”

          “Is Rose here?” Lucas asked quickly, sounding out of breath.

          Violet gave him an odd look. “Isn’t she supposed to be with you? Wait, don’t tell me—.”

          “Vi!” Rose’s voice interrupted from upstairs, the sound getting closer. “I am sorry to give you such short notice, but I really have to—.”

          Violet and Lucas turned to the stairwell as soon as her voice stopped. She stood halfway down it, her top changed to a T-shirt with a teal Libra symbol on it, a large suitcase in one hand and a duffel bag on her other shoulder. There was silence between all three of them, until Rose took one slow step back and then ran back up the stairs, letting her large suitcase slide the rest of the way down.

          Lucas opened his mouth in an attempt to explain, but Violet stopped him. “Just go. Her room is the last on the left.”

          He nodded and dashed up the stairs. The second floor was mainly just a hallway of doors, of which one end split off into two more hallways. On the side opposite to the hallway split, a door stood just the slightest bit open, with a board reading “Reserved Suite” nailed to it. 

          Slowly, Lucas approached the door and gave it a small knock with a single knuckle. “Rose?” No response. “May I please come in, Rose? I just want to talk, that’s all.”

          After a short moment, Rose responded with a quiet voice, “Come in.”

          Rose’s room was a fairly standard bedroom. A single person bed roughly sat in the middle of the room, a dresser against the wall with the door and a wardrobe along the west wall. The only marking of Rose’s personality was a poster for Super Smash Bros. Ultimate hanging by some thumbtacks on her wall. The vampire herself was sitting on her bed, her back to Lucas when he entered.

          “Well, go ahead,” Rose spoke in the same quiet voice, staying where she sat. “Say what you want.”

          Lucas sighed. “Al...Alright. I’m not going to dance around the issue here; what happened tonight was pretty bad. You did attack Larry, and you...you...I’ll just say he’s fine, at least.” He paused, as if he expected Rose to react. She did not. “But I don’t think you wanted to do that. You told me earlier that you haven’t fed for a while, so I think you only did that because you were hungry. I understand you feel bad about this, Rose, but it was just a simple mistake. I’m sure Larry will understand all of this once we explain it to him; he’s actually a pretty easy going guy. What I’m trying to say is that you’re far from a monster just because of one mistake. You are an amazing person, and I,” Lucas took a shaky breath, “and I love you, Rose. I really do.”

          Silence hung once more between them, until Rose said, “You don’t get it, do you? You really don’t get it?” She turned her head to him, bearing a wide toothy grin. “Do you really think this is the first time I’ve tasted human blood?”

          “Well, I—.”

          “Don’t tell me you forgot already,” Rose sneered as she got off the bed, slowly walking up to him. “The reason I took you through that cemetery? Should I add I’ve done things like that before, spell right out what I do to the people I take out?”

          “B-But you…,” Lucas tried to speak, taking an unconscious step back as the vampire moved closer.

          “What’s the matter? You’re not afraid of me now, are you?” Rose gave a small laugh as her fangs shot out. “Did you really think a vampire could love a mortal? That you were anything more to me than just some entertainment before my next meal?”

          “Rose, please, don’t—,” Lucas’s voice became shaky, stopping mid sentence as he ran back into the wall. 

          In a flash Rose grabbed Lucas’s wrists, pinning them by either side of his head. “It has been so long since I’ve had some good O negative, and I must really thank you for stopping me from drinking poor Larry to death, or I would have no room left for you.”

          Lucas could feel his heart pounding in his chest, his breath rapidly increasing, both of which Rose took notice of. “Oh, don’t fret now, Lucas,” she said in a disturbingly sweet voice. “You said you loved me, remember? Well, this is the greatest sign of love you can give me now.”

          With a final hiss, Rose lunged forward with her open jaw. Lucas tried to jerk his head away, his eyes shut tight as he felt Rose approach his throat, waiting suspensefully to feel her bite.

          But no bite came.

          She was still around his neck, but only for another moment until, to his initial surprise, he felt her move away from it, her grip on his hands loosening and feeling shaky. Slowly, Lucas opened his eyes and saw Rose’s head hung, nearly resting in his chest. She started laughing slightly, which was quickly joined by a soft sobbing. “Isn’t this pathetic?” She said with a chuckle, her hands sliding down his arms as she fell to her knees. “Even when I get you right where I can do it, I can’t bring myself to hurt you. Aren’t I a joke of a vampire?”

          Her laughing eventually gave way to full-on sobbing, her head falling into her hands. A look of sympathy quickly came upon Lucas’s face as he bent down and wrapped his arms around Rose, her own arms finding their way around him soon enough. “I’m sorry I'm sorry I'm sorryI’msorry…” Her words slurred together between her sobs.

          “It’s okay, it’s okay,” Lucas reassured her, softly rubbing her back and kissing her forehead. “Everything’s going to be okay.”

          It was five minutes later, and the two now sat on the edge of Rose’s bed. Lucas had an arm around her waist while Rose rested her head on his shoulder. “Lu-Lucas?” Rose asked, finally breaking the silence.

          “Yes?”

          “...I need to tell you something,” she told him, turning to look him in the eyes. “It’s not easy for me, but you need to know. It’s why I lied to you.”

          Confusion came across Lucas’s face. “When did you lie to me?”

          “I didn’t tell you the truth, to be more exact.” Her voice had the slightest tremble. “You want to trust me, and if I want to earn that trust I need to be completely honest with you. I want to be honest with you. So, I’m going to tell you the truth.”

           Lucas reached out and took Rose’s hand, giving it a small squeeze. He gave her a tiny smile. “Okay. I’m listening.”

           The vampire took a deep breath, and began: “When I took you to the cemetery that first night, I was going to drink your blood. Not enough to...enough to kill you, but pretty close. I would’ve just...left you there for someone to find.” She paused, taking in a shaky breath. “You began talking to me just as I was about to strike. The way you talked about me, your pure happiness from our date, it changed something in me.” She clutched her chest with her free hand, her heart silent under it. “I couldn’t bring myself to do it after that, so I told myself I would do it on the next date, that’s when I would drink from you.”

          “Did you tell yourself that during the whole three months?” Lucas asked softly.

          “Mostly, yes,” Rose stated simply, nodding. “At first, I couldn’t understand why I didn’t do it, especially since...since I’ve done it before.”

          She glanced up at him, the smile on his face now turned neutral. “How many times before?”

          “Too many to count,” she responded. “Ever since 1890. I...never felt anything with them then with what I felt with you. Not since…” She stopped mid sentence, taking in another shaky breath, joined now by the hint of a sob.

          Lucas rested his other hand on her shoulder. “Are you going to be okay, Rose? You don’t have to tell me anything if you’re not comfortable with it.”

          Rose shook her head. “No. I need to tell someone about this. This is the hard part; the reason why I am the way I am.”

          “Don’t rush yourself, then,” Lucas told her. “Take your time.”

          Another shaky breath, and there was silence for a moment. After another breath, this one slightly more controlled, she began again: “It was in 1865. Me and Violet were in London, returning after a trip to France. One day, I was out at a bakery getting something, I can’t remember what, when he approached me. He introduced himself as Vincent Relgorn. Apparently, by pure coincidence, he had been to several shops I have been at that week, each time wanting to say something to me but not having the courage to talk to me.”

          Rose pulled back her hand from Lucas, withdrawing both of her arms and grasping them firmly. “We talked for a while at the bakery. He seemed like such a nice and charming individual; he even bought my order for me...then he asked me out for the next evening, and I said yes, of course. Back then, I was much more of a romantic.” She spoke that part with a slight distaste. “From that night on, we regularly saw each other. At least once a week we went out or just spent a day together. We were...I was in love, but he didn’t know I was a vampire. I decided I needed to tell him, I wanted to tell him…”

          The vampire took a pause, her breath shaking once more. Lucas set an arm around her shoulder. She continued, “It was April, a Sunday even. I asked Vincent if we could talk in private, so we went to his house and...that’s when I told him. He seemed so patient then, understanding everything I told him...” Rose’s voice grew shaky as tears began welling up in her eyes.

          “Do you need tissues?” Lucas asked softly.

          She shook her head, wiping her eyes with her wrist. “He told me he would still love me even if I was a vampire, and that he even had a surprise for me, but I had to close my eyes first.” She took a pause, but as her mouth opened again no words came out, as if she struggled to say what had happened. “I woke up with my hands tied above me and I was in a church. Vincent was there with a small mob, already going on about how he was going to rid the world of an unholy monster. I-I tried to talk to him, trying to say I w-would never hurt anyone, but he didn’t listen...he came up to me with another person, both brandishing knives that were blessed...and they, they…”

          Rose covered her eyes with her hand in an attempt to stifle her cry. She laid her arms in front of her, the underside up. “Wounds inflicted by blessed weapons never fully heal. I’ve had glamour over them ever since.” She whispered something under her breath, tensing slightly at the sound of Lucas gasping. Two vicious slashes ran down each arm, from the wrists to the joint of the elbow. They were eerily white down the middle with spikes of gray lighter than her skin running alongside them. 

          Lucas reached out with a shaky hand, hesitantly hovering at her arms. “Do...do they still hurt?”

          “They tingle a little when they’re touched,” Rose explained, rubbing her fingertips along her scared arm. “Th-there’s more.” She took hold of the bottom of her shirt and lifted it up, again whispering something under her breath. A large white spot appeared over most of her stomach, it’s edges frayed with a thick line of light gray. Some trails even reached around her waist.

          “Oh my god,” Lucas exclaimed, his voice tense. “I-I...how did you…?”

          “Vampires are good at playing dead,” Rose continued. “After they did...this,” she indicated her stomach, “I stopped moving. The crowd decided to leave me hanging there until the next morning. I busted free as soon as they left, ran back to Violet and explained everything. We left London as soon as we could. I never saw Vincent again. I trusted him...I l-loved him, and he…” Tears began streaming down her cheeks. “Nobody would love me if they knew I was a vampire. They would always think I’m a monster. So I decided I might as well make myself one.” 

          “B-But, Rose, I love you! And I’ve known you were a vampire this whole time!”

          “That’s what I don’t get!” She exclaimed, clenching the top of her head. “How can you still love me?! I’ve drank the blood of humans, I-I attacked your neighbor, an-and I almost bit you! Can’t you see I’m a terrible person?!”

          “But that’s not you!” Lucas cried out, surprising the vampire as he grabbed her by the shoulders, turning her to look into his own teary eyes. “Rose, you are one of the most wonderful people I’ve ever known. I love how funny you can be, how you can say what’s on your mind without sounding like an idiot to yourself, but you still always show that you care about me by never going too far! You care about your cousin so much you consider her your sister! You have people who love and care about you! Being some uncaring monster who hurts people is what Vincent thought you were because he had his head too far up his religious ass to get to know the real you!”

          Even with tears still pouring down, Rose could not help but laugh a little. “He was a bit of a religious asshole sometimes.”

          “Exactly!” Lucas said with a smile of his own. “If you keep thinking of yourself like a monster you’re letting Vincent win! You need to be whoever you want to be!” He paused, taking a breath, continuing in a much calmer tone. “Who is it that you want to be, Rose?”

          Rose sniffled, whipping her eyes with her arm. “I...I think I need some time alone for this. N-Nothing against you, I just need some time to sort this all out.”

          “I understand,” Lucas nodded. “Please take your time with this. This is a pretty big change in your life, isn’t it?”

          “Yeah,” Rose responded quietly, “but I’ll still keep in touch with you! I’ll text you every once in a while, and don’t be afraid to text me either!”

          “Whatever you’re comfortable with, Rose.” Lucas leaned forward, giving her a small kiss on the forehead. “I’ll still love you, okay?”

         Rose nodded, then quickly grabbed Lucas in a hug, which he reciprocated after a moment of surprise. “Don’t worry, I’ll find my own way out,” Lucas said as he got up and headed for the door. “Have a good evening, Rose.” He waved goodbye, closing the bedroom door behind him.

[futuresmashmemes]

In complete curiosity, can you tell me what your favorite Smash reveal trailer of all time was?

Like, actually, real shit, stuff that’s already happened in this timeline?

Nothing will ever top Smash 4’s reveal for me. I was really into Brawl as a kid, and after Brawl came out a lot of people spread the idea online that it would be the last smash game (hilarious in hindsight, I know). Me, being the dumb kid I was, took that at face value. I also wasn’t really into following leaks at the time. I was also 12, almost 13 when 4 was revealed, keep in mind. I just sort of accepted that smash was done.

I vividly remember when I first saw that reveal trailer. We were in the middle of bumfuck nowhere for my sister’s soccer game. I was sweaty, hungry, and my phone was running out of battery. I managed to convince my mom to let me stay in the car for the rest of the game, where I promptly began charging my phone and went onto YouTube to pull up some music to listen to (knowing me at the time, it probably would’ve been an Evanescence song). And there, at the top of my recommended feed, was that trailer.

It almost didn’t feel real. I was so convinced that Smash was over, I almost thought that the video would’ve been a fake. Some shitty mod or whatever. But I clicked on it anyways, because, y’know, Smash Bros! Boy am I glad I did. Instantly, I was enthralled by the idea of Smash on the go. I didn’t have a 3DS at the time, but I played on my DS like I was getting paid for every second the screen was on. Having a portable smash game was a dream come true! And when they got to the Wii U part of the trailer, I was drawn in by the visual upgrade compared to Brawl. I was a dumb kid who didn’t know anything about graphics watching this trailer in 480p on a shitty Windows phone, and even I could tell how much of a graphics upgrade it was compared to Brawl. I didn’t have a Wii U at the time either, but I was still excited.

The new characters announced were just the icing on the cake. I love Animal Crossing, but I never expected an Animal Crossing rep in smash because I read that Sakurai had previously said that Animal Crossing characters were unsuited for battle. So when that trailer opened up on a shot of the Villager opening the now iconic envelope, my hype levels instantly shot through the roof of the car. Really, I should consider myself lucky that I was watching this trailer in the middle of an empty parking lot in the middle of nowhere and not, say, on the bus ride home from school, because after that point, I was visibly freaking out throughout. I would’ve been perfectly satisfied with just Villager, but then the trailer continued. The videos online right now show these two as separate videos, but I definitely remember watching them as one big trailer.

NEW CHALLENGER APPROACHING!

Oh boy, who could it be? The gang looked up at a cliff to see a boy with distinct spiky hair.

“No. There’s no way it could be him. There’s just no way! I read online that he couldn’t get in, so it’s not him.”

Blip!

“OH MY GOD IT IS HIM HOLY SHIT IT’S MEGA MAN FUCKING MEGA MAN HOLY S H I T!”

It didn’t feel real. It felt like a dream. But I was loving every second of it. And even better, the next video in my recommended feed was the trailer for Wii Fit Trainer. What? Why? Who asked for this? I was dumbfounded, but all for it.

I think that those three characters made for the perfect holy trinity of character reveals. The anticipated first party/character Sakurai previously said no to, the third party, and the character that nobody saw coming. Smash 4’s initial reveal had it all. I probably rewatched that trailer for the rest of the soccer game. I texted all my friends about it, and they were all nearly as excited as I was. I would’ve told my mom and sister all about it when they got back in the car, but I wasn’t supposed to be using data at the time, so if they knew that I had used it to watch a silly reveal trailer over and over again, mom probably would’ve had a heart attack (this was before unlimited data was more standard). But you better believe that I exploded on about it as soon as I figured it was safe to.

Even after all these years (and all of the timelines I’ve looked into), no Smash trailer...no, more like no trailer period has ever gotten close to capturing the pure excitement that I felt when I first saw the Smash 4 trailer, and I doubt that there ever will be one. I’m a jaded adult now, and everything is more exciting through the rose-tinted glass of adolescence. The “Everyone is Here!” trailer for Ultimate came close, though. Smash 4’s development was also something of a turning point for me when I became more active in following the development of new games online. I think it was for a lot of people, I think that a lot of that can be attributed to Brawl’s success (and the Wii as a whole) at capturing a wider demographic of gamers compared to Melee and 64. Smash 4 feels almost laughable to go back and play now, but I can’t deny the impact it had on me.

As far as other individual reveal trailers go, here are my favorites:

Little Mac and Palutena-both for the same reason: THAT ART STYLE. Their trailers also convinced me to play their respective games. Uprising was one of my first 3DS games and Punch Out is the last game I remember renting from Blockbuster.

Greninja-As laughable as this sounds now, getting a new Pokémon rep was really hype for me back then. I was beginning to get into competitive, so seeing the ninja frog that had taken over the competitive scene at the time get into smash was cool, even if I was Team Fennekin. Confirmation that at least Charizard had survived the cut was also really cool.

Robin and Lucina-I didn’t know anything about Fire Emblem at the time, but Robin looked cool and I was digging the 3D anime artstyle from Awakening that the trailer was rendered in. Another trailer that convinced me to buy the game that they were from, and good god now I’m an insufferable Fire Emblem fan good lord I was so innocent back then. “Girl Marth” jokes were rampant amongst my friends. Also, CAPTAIN FALCON!!!

Lucas-Funny story, my sister absolutely despises video games with a burning, visceral passion now, but back when we played Brawl together, her mains were Lucas and Snake. You can imagine the pain and agony she felt when Smash 4 initially came out. Lucas’ DLC came out around my birthday, so her gift to me that year was a $10 eShop card. She just told me: “you know what to spend it on.”

Cloud-“Hey guys, you know what would’ve been awesome? In Brawl, if, like, they put in Cloud from Final Fantasy 7?”

Corrin-At this point I was a big Fire Emblem fan riding hot on the hype train for Fates, so I was very excited for Corrin. The dragon-inspired moveset also seemed really cool. Funny how times have changed, and when Byleth was added in I was very lukewarm compared to when my reaction to Corrin.

Inkling-Similar story to the Smash 4 reveal trailer, I was absolutely not expecting a Smash announcement that day and I saw the video was in my YouTube recommended feed while I was at my internship of all places. Unfortunately, none of the other people there were gamers (let alone Smash fans), so they couldn’t share in my hype.

Everyone is Here/Ridley-I can’t properly give this one the justice it deserves in a short amount of words and this post is already getting really long, so I’ll save this one for a later day if you guys are interested. To keep it short, let’s just say that I was very much a part of the Ridley gang and I was very happy to see him in.

Belmonts and K. Rool-I got up at 7 in the morning to watch that trailer and loved every second of it. Keep in mind that I am not a morning person by any stretch of the imagination. The only thing that sort of spoiled it for me was that the Smash teams themselves leaked it the night before by releasing a track titled Bloody Tears/Monster Dance

Ken and Incineroar-Nothing against these two, but at the time I was crushed when I realized the Grinch leak was fake. Now I can look back on it and laugh at Little Mac getting yeeted through the billboard and Villager’s stance at the end of the trailer.

Sans Mii Costume-Pretty sure I’ve already mentioned this, but when I first saw that trailer I legit fell out of my chair laughing. I’m not even an Undertale fan, but seeing funny skeleton man on my screen just broke me. The fact that Toby went to Sakurai’s house and beat him in Smash made it even better.

Banjo-I’ve never actually played a Banjo Kazooie game before, but I’ve seen enough videos about them over the years that I almost feel like I have. They’re ingrained in my childhood due to that in a weird way. Plus, it felt so good to have a victory over the Steve fans. I felt the weight of that Jiggy that bounced on the floor.

And that’s about it! If you guys want to hear my thoughts on the Everyone is Here trailer, please let me know and I’ll do another post like this.

...Upon rereading this post for spelling errors, I realized that you probably were more asking about my favorite reveal trailers throughout multiple timelines. Oops. Let me know if that’s what you wanted and I’ll answer with my thoughts on my favorite future reveal trailers.

[joyandeggs]

3, 6, 19, 33, 34, 60 for the video game ask!

3. Favorite childhood game?

Oh gosh...there are too many. A lot of them are n64 games or gamecube games, which nearly all of them I watched my older brother play. Since he was much older than me, he wouldn't let me play "his" games majority of the time. He would literally take up every save file and tell me not to mess with them. 😧 Despite that, I do have fond memories watching the games I loved like a movie. Like...Ocarina of Time, Banjo-Kazooie, and Paper Mario, off the top of my head. Paper Mario was the biggest one I always loved watching. For gamecube games, Luigi's Mansion, Super Mario Sunshine, and both Pikmin 1 and 2, off the top of my head. There are too many for me to list that were big parts of my childhood.

One of my most favorites will always be the original Animal Crossing. I have such great memories from it. My mom would it every morning when she woke up and made coffee, she absolutely loved the game. We'd both drink coffee together and I'd watch her play. Something that I miss severely. I would watch her play Wild World, and I would play New Leaf, and we'd just sit side by side in bed playing and showing each other our games, even though that was during college, so not too long ago. But I still miss that. My mom doesn't play video games at all anymore, but she still enjoys them. Even whenever I talk to her about newer or different games she hasn't heard of, she's just like "Oh, cool!" (She actually saw a picture of Iori on my phone one day and I think she fell for him. LOL She was just ahhh!!! Couldn't get over how pretty he was!!) She is so cool. ❤

If I could pick a whole series, I would go with Smash Bros. Ever since the original on the 64, the series has given me the greatest hits in my life. The series means the world to me, I love it so much. Not only has it given me joy, but helped me get to know characters I would never know and love today. Melee and Brawl were both such a big deal to me, Melee because of Marth and Roy, and Brawl because of Sonic and Meta Knight. Which is crazy to think back on. I never had internet until Brawl came out, so looking up more about Kirby and Sonic blew my mind when I was younger. Now, we have Ultimate with everyone along with new characters, and... This is a whole story by itself. Maybe another time. 💌

6. An underrated game from the last few years?

I actually need to look up what games came out in the last few years... I actually really loved Dragon Ball Fighterz! Playing it with Corin was always fun. I loved the story mode, how the characters interacted, and just...ahh, it hit a soft spot in me, but that's because I really enjoy the series. Jump Force I actually liked, even though nobody ended up liking it. I just always love how they get all these characters together to fight. Even though...there's a lot of more obscure characters missing from the newest game. Huge bummer. And of course there's Judgment and Fist of the North Star: Lost Paradise. Those two are heavily underrated. I love them both a lot, but I enjoy all of the games from RGG Studio. There I go back on anime again. wwww Whoops. Oh! And Shenmue 3, of course! I absolutely love the Shenmue series! Severely underrated. That game is so good, and so beautiful. I'll never understand why people wouldn't love it.

19. Hardest game you ever played?

Truthfully? ...The King of Fighters games. I've tried playing them, but I am so awful at them. I can't even beat a single match, nor do any input moves. Even set to level one, and the games just...kill me. When you really love video games, but you're absolute garbage at them. 💔 I love the series so much, I want to cry. Maybe I'll get better one of these days!

33. Favorite female npc?

Hm... Let me think. There's Pauline from the Mario series! She's the best in Odyssey, along with Princess Peach and Princess Daisy. Even though Peach and Daisy are both playable in most games. Technically Chuchu is playable in Kirby's Dreamland 3 as a friend, but she isn't usually. She's very obscure, but I love her so much. Ribbon and Adeline from Crystal Shards, too! So many cute girl characters from the old games. For some reason I'm having a hard time thinking of human characters! Off the top of my head...I think of Maria from Sonic Adventure 2, and Yuki from King of Fighters. Oh! There's Roll! From Mega Man Legends. There are many, many more I'm sure, my mind just blanks so bad.

34. Favorite male npc?

Well...there's Ren from the Shenmue series! I want to say someone like Bowser...or even Meta Knight, but they're playable in most games. And I still love Papyrus and Sans from Undertale, even though my love for the game isn't as strong as what it was years ago. Wow, I'm so much better at naming characters that I can play as rather than nonplayable ones, aren't I?

60. The game you are best at?

There's another game from my childhood that I can actually say I am the best at, and that's Pokemon Puzzle League. It's been years since I've played it, but I use to play it all the time. I got so good at making combos and everything that I was just super fast at it. I loved it. I really miss it. I remember just sitting in a chair in my mom's room relaxing with it. ❤ More good memories.

Smash Bros as a whole I'm quite good at! Nothing fancy or up there with people who play it competitively or anything, but I am pretty good. And Mario Party!! Ahh, I'm a master at the joystick rotating from the first one! Along with the face lift and pizza eating minigames, too. 😛

And I'm also surprisingly good at Rocket League! I played it with Corin and his cousin over the weekend, and I was great at it, without ever playing it before! It was too much fun. I'll have to play it with Corin again.

[freckledskittles]

104th SSBU Mains

In the midst of playing Super Smash Bros Ultimate and the trailer for the second half of SNK’s third season, this heap of crap came out of nowhere and now it’s the only thing I can think about

I don’t know a lot about some of these series so please excuse me for any mistakes or inaccuracies!

x-x-x

Eren: Roy. He got into Fire Emblem when he first played SSB:Melee, and he fell in love with that red-haired boy. When he plays Ultimate, Eren is less likely to stick to one character (his argument is that “everyone is good and I love all of them DON’T MAKE ME CHOOSE”), but when he has to, he knows his boy Roy is there for him. Alternatives are Ryu, Mega Man, and Zelda, which, in his mind, if you’re going to play anyone, they’re the best options.

Fun fact: half of the reason he plays Ryu is to bug Armin to be Ken since “they’re best friends and we’re best friends and you look like Ken.” Same for Simon and Richter.

Mikasa: Young Link. LOZ is her favorite video game series by far (Majora’s Mask is her favorite hmu about Mikasa headcanons I love her) and when she heard he was coming back to Smash, she was sold on him before the game was out. She likes any Link, but Young Link has a charm and holds a lot of nostalgia for her. And she likes how he's the only one of the Link trio to have fire arrows. Alternatives are Yoshi (somewhat for the IRS meme but mostly for her fave green dinosaur), Mewtwo for the Pokemon representation, and Samus. Nothing beats an “I’m strong” catchphrase than the first female video game protag.

Armin: Mega Man. Of the video game series he’s gotten into, Legend of Zelda and Mega Man are the ones he’s most loyal too. For Ultimate, he’s more into the mini easter eggs that Mega Man’s moves give to other characters in the franchise than winning the game, and will probably play the single player modes the most, but he doesn’t mind fighting his friends. Alternatives include Pit, Pikachu and Falco; he doesn’t know much about Falco or Pit, except what he’s heard from everyone else, but it’s better than giving into Eren’s whim to play as Simon or Ken.

Jean: Ike. He grew up on that good old GameCube system, so of course he’d go to Ike, whose first game was for GC. He won’t admit it out loud, because he’s a Cool Guy™, but RPGs are near and dear to this boy’s heart. And what better way to share that love than with a blue-haired boy with a big ass sword? Also, he’s pretty good at Smash? So whatever smack talk he has is actually backed by some type of skill and experience. Alternative mains are Zelda, Young Link, and Pichu, all which took a very deep study of each character to develop. It was a serious decision.

Marco: Link. Like Armin, he has limited experience in videogame knowledge, and he’s just here to play with some characters and sass his friends. Link is the one he knows best, and the BOTW design is really pleasing to him. He’s really not here to win or show off how good he is cough cough Erejean. He just wants to have fun! And will do so in ways that make everyone regret handing him the controller, but he doesn’t know that. (Ridley just came out how the hell has he already mastered him?) Alternatives are Ness for the baseball references, Kirby for the deceit, and Marth for a cute blue-haired boy.

Fun fact: it’s a running joke among the 104th nerds that Ness’s design was inspired by Marco, and just to play into the joke, Marco has learned how to imitate Ness’s voice perfectly. For shits and giggles, he’ll spam the “okay” taunt if he’s doing better.

Sasha: Kirby. A classic, in her opinion, and the most versatile character since he can get the move of any player he inhales. There’s nothing more terrifying than a smiling pink glob hitting you with a hammer and nothing will change her mind. She put in so many hours to Kirby’s GBA and DS games when she was a kid that she can’t not play as him. Alternatives are Toon Link and Luigi for the GameCube nods, and Daisy. She makes up for losses by whispering “hi I’m Daisy” under her breath. It has a 95% chance of making them laugh.

Fun fact: the 104th buds have enforced a ban on Sasha’s Luigi when they’re playing together. He is too strong for mortal minds to comprehend.

Connie: Diddy Kong. The peanut gun really sold it for him, and he loves that Donkey Kong being the big goof that he is has a tiny sidekick like Diddy. He’s not here to win or compete seriously—he just wants to have fun. And that fun requires shooting peanuts and slapping opponents with his tail, but he’s not keeping track. Alternatives are Snake for laughs, Villager for the Look Of Death from that one skin (you know which one), and Peach. If he and Sasha are on a team, it’s a nightmare of hip bumps and golf clubs. If they’re facing off, No One Is Safe.

Reiner: Samus. As a kid, his mom wanted him to get into video games that were “safe for the kids” and so there was a bit of a limit to what he could play. But Metroid was something she okayed, and the series now has a special place in his heart. Samus is amazing to him? A bounty hunter in space who fights a giant dinosaur and is also a woman? He’s proud of that. Alternatives include Donkey Kong (more to play with Connie than anything else, really), Mario, and Olimar. Pikmin was another series he was able to play; if he had to choose, the white Pikmin are his favorite.

Bertholdt: Olimar. Sorta like Reiner, his video game knowledge is limited, but more by choice than anything. His knowledge stems from friends and his brothers playing DS games. (Their favorite is Spirit Tracks hmu about Bert headcanons I love him.) He chose Olimar, who he recognizes thanks to Reiner, but also because he looks like he is waaay out of his element. Which is how Bert feels 98% of the time. Alternatives are Marth, Shulk, and Pit; he didn’t choose them until he played at least some of their main games. (Which he did end up doing and enjoyed them all.)

Annie: Incineroar. She’s a Pokemon girl when no one’s watching, and that asshole cat pulling a clothesline on stage is exactly why she’s playing the game. She didn’t choose Litten when she played Sun/Moon (Rowlet is her dear round boy), but by god if she’s not going to take her chance. She was skeptical of Incineroar at his release but once she played him, she was a fan. The stone-like facade she wears playing him doesn’t help either—it’s win or death. Alternatives are King K. Rool, Zelda, and Ridley. She makes heavy characters look easy and the 104th does not appreciate it.

Ymir: Little Mac. A 5′7″ boxer from the Bronx is squaring up to fight a fire-breathing dragon, an anthropomorphic hedgehog, and a pink blob that wants to put her to sleep. It doesn’t matter—he’s here to beat everyone up and he won’t stop until he wins. She may be biased (modern au headcanon that she’s from the Bronx what up) which some will allege is her reason for picking Little Mac, but that’s just slander to her. Alternatives include Mega Man (after so many years of not having that iconic blue boy), Chrom (“that’s an ugly ass tattoo put some sleeves on”), and Sheik.

Fun fact: it takes every bit of her lesbian heart to not choose the girls because the 104th knows her attraction to long blonde hair and is waiting for her to do it. And sometimes, you need Peach to shut them up.

Historia: Marth. He’s a royal blue boy! Look at how pretty! Soft headcanon that Historia likes fighting games and RPGs because hello punching bad guys and using sword to battle evil? Yes please she wants that. She’ll distract everyone with praises of her character and “how beautiful” they are while attacking the 104th with every chance she gets. She’s here to win, and when she will, she just smiles and says “don’t worry we’re all winners.” But everyone knows who the One True Winner is. Alternatives are Ryu, Zero Suit Samus, and Pichu. When she chooses Pichu, the 104th buds know the game is over.

[angel-scythe]

I Need you : Chapter 19

New chapter !!!

W00t w00t !!

As you know, you can smash this door to go on AO3 |  °| or just keep reading!

National Geographic Channel was on the TV but this time, Gavin wasn’t afraid at all. Niles had asked to put this channel while they were watching lol cats and playing cards at the same time because he didn’t want to miss his series. It was a bunch of documentary with a lot of subject and knowing that Niles wanted something made the Android happy.

The man was sat in the sofa, with covers around him and he followed the whole thing, letting out sometimes a comment. Like…

“That’s part is interesting but they forgot to had the fact it was indeed possible to have an assassination repay if you gave enough money. The amount could change, of course. Glad they had stopped that thing.”

Gavin pressed a kiss on his cheek and got up before going to the kitchen.

“You’re up for a bit of pasta? Helping your sto…”

“Huush,” Niles said, rising a finger.

“Okay. Pasta.”

As he was doing the said pasta, he was humming the song but very low because he didn’t want to disturb Niles, way too happy to see him enjoying something. He had said the emission was weekly and he knew the last time, he was really amorphous, not paying attention to this.

 “I’m a little robot, short and strong. Here are my handles, just turn me on. When I get all warmed up, watch me go. Sometimes fast and sometimes slow.”

Gavin looked the tiny plate of pasta and smiled to him. Niles would have finished that in few forks but he wasn’t even sure he would be able to do such a thing. This morning, he had taken really little egg and orange juice and the cocoa from earlier wasn’t even finished but Niles had still decided it was his dinner. Now, as the night covered the town, making shine the snow with its moon and its stars, Gavin came in the living room and put down the dish on the coffee table. He handed him the fork as the man was watching the last minutes of the show.

“Niles?” he said, pushing the fork against his hand.

Niles took it and mumbled a tiny ‘thank you’ before pinning some pasta with his fork. Gavin blinked as he saw him bring the food to his mouth then a smile appeared in his lips and he followed the movement of the fork coming from the plate to his mouth. Over and over. Until his lover was pinning the emptiness and he took the fork from his hand.

Now he had a weapon against him!!

So when the emission was over, Gavin smiled, tapped his shoulder repeatedly.

“Yes?”

“You ate,” Gavin smiled.

“What?”

The Android showed the empty plate and the dirty fork.

“You ate while watching your thing. And you were really cute!” He smiled even more.

“I did?”

Niles frowned. Yes, he had a taste in his mouth and the feeling to have a full stomach. He had eaten.

“I can do it?”

“Yay! I’m so proud of you!!”

“Th… Thanks…”

Niles felt weird and a bit stupid. And very happy to have Gavin, cheer him up like that for nothing.

“You really liked that, right?” he said with a smile.

“The emission? Yes. It’s my favorite emission. I discovered it few months before, at the beginning of… this.”

“I want to know some facts! Tell me some!” Gavin looked him with excitation.

Niles thought. He needed to find something that will passionate him. He knew it was important because History could annoy people really quickly. When they were younger, they studied together with Connor and often, he had to explain him again some point because he could become distracted. Still, even when he didn’t pay enough attention, he had really good grades and with Niles’ help that was even better.

“I got one for you.”

“Yay, just for me?”

Niles nodded.

“In the Middle Age, it was said the cats were sign of bad luck and they the first vector of pest. The people searched to protect them from the pest which was really deadly. You could count the deaths by millions. Some influent and faithful people even died from the ill and, obviously for the people, true believers by this time, that was…”

He moved his hand to Gavin who frowned.

“That was… really bad?”

“Yes. A real sign of the Evil. So, I’m sorry, but they hunted down the cats… I spare  you the details.”

“No, no. Go, go.” Though, Gavin had his hands on his face.

Niles took one and squeezed it softly.

“Because of those believes and the witches hunting, they were killed. Drowned and burned alive with the witches…”

“Oh no, poor babies. Those were only the black cats, right? Right?” he asked as if that will be better.

“Especially the black cats but others too. But, the black cats with a bit of white fur on the chest had what they called Angel’s Mark or God’s Finger and where spared, as the Humans who got them.” Niles kissed his fingers softly. “What do you think happened then?”

“There was not much cats and that’s a shame! How could they kill those fluffy ball of purr?! Who they’ll cuddle? Ah… sorry, I love cats.”

Niles pressed his lips on his palms. “I know.”

“But continues, okay? What happened then? What was the problem with the lack of cats? You wouldn’t talk about that without reasons so… I need to know!”

“Yes. You know who brought the pest, right?”

“The rats!  And the cats couldn’t hunt them and eat them, right?”

The man nodded. “Thought, the real vector of pest was the fleas on the rats. But, our story: at some point, they realized that the pest wasn’t there in the place where you could find cats and where they hunted rats. They started to be used to eradicate the rats. The situation became better but the cats were still rare… so rare, in fact, that only the Bourgeoisie could have enough money to have cats. And what was the richest sign?”

“Having cats! A lots of  cats?”

“Yes. More they have cats, more they showed their wealth.”

“Ooh God!” Gavin smiled. “We should start to become wealth! Especially with black  cats!”

Niles found him really cute and he wanted to kiss him and hug him.

“Tomorrow, we will go feed the cats. If there are no kids, they might come.”

“Yay! You know what?”

Stern shook his head.

“I never petted a cat. Ever.”

“Tomorrow will be your first,” Niles swore.

“Yay, can’t wait!

Niles wanted to say him ‘I love you’ again and again when his phone rung. He took it and frowned. Well… he wasn’t so surprised to see a message from Connor.

[Call me, please?]

“Is it okay for you if I call Connor?”

“Yeah! Do it!” Gavin switched in the couch, taking a better place. “I have aaaaaall the time,” he smiled. Watching him try the call, he couldn’t help adding something else. “And to be honest… I’m glad to see you call your twin.”

That should have been a compliment but that did something to Niles and his smile was a bit sad. Yeah… few days before, he wouldn’t do that…

What a horrible brother…

He tightened his hand around the phone and felt a hand on his knee, Gavin’s eyes looking worry so he tried to smile him softly. But suddenly, it became difficult…

“Hello?”

“Connor?”

“Yes.”

“What’s happening?”

“I will have a date.”

Niles almost choked with his own saliva.

“What?” Gavin said, surprised.

“You’ve a date?” he replied. He needed to know if he had well heard…

“Oh rA9. Need to know! Is your bro’ a slut or he succeed his plan? Did he tried the ‘I want to be Cole’s stepfather’s thing’? More cocky?”

“Don’t call my brother ‘slut’,” Niles hissed. “I put on the speakers,” he warned.

After all maybe Gavin could help? Him… he was just good to have a quickie with some strangers. And by God, rA9 and everything in the world, he wished his brother didn’t want that!

“Hello Gavin.”

“Hello other meatbag!”

“I’m in front of Lieutenant Anderson’s house. He asked me to come at his house. He’ll make me Bolognese spaghettis! I’ll stay at his house… We’ll probably work but technically, it’s a date. He even let me go home so that will be less weird. I took a shower, put on fresh clothes and… I’m just in front of his house. What should I do?”

“Knock on the door or ring the bell and pass a nice evening!” Gavin said.

“Yes, that probably… If Hank wants to date you, that mean he wants to date you.”

“Yeah. He knows you, right? He wants to be with you. Don’t try to be too much. I’m not good with romance and stuff but I don’t think he wants something else. Someone else. Especially if the guys made you spaghetti. That’s not hyper super mega romantic.”

Connor didn’t reply.

“Connor?”

“Yes… yes. What am I doing if he wants to kiss me? Or hug me? Or offer me to sleep in his bed?”

“Don’t do anything that makes you uncomfortable. If he wants to kiss you and you want it, if you feel okay, let him do. But if you can’t, ask him to stop. Immediately. Don’t hurt yourself. Keep calm.”

“And your gun. If he tries to rape you, legally, you can kill him,” Gavin said.

“What?” Connor let out.

“Just sayin’.”

“Stay on your guards,” Niles approved. “I don’t want you to be hurt. Call me if something bad is happening. Or if you need to talk.”

“Yes… Yes. Thank you.” Connor hesitated and bit his lower lips. “He offered me a sunflower. He saw me looking the flowers at the florist, for the case, and he offered me a sunflower. She is… really cute.”

“That’s adorable. He is sweet with you, at least.”

“That will be great! And don’t forget: Human’s weak point is the genitals! Just kick his balls if something happens!”

Niles threw a look to Gavin but he was forced to agree.

“Yes. Thank you. I’ll call you or leave you a texto. Few textos.”

“Yeah. Take care.”

Connor hung up and sighed a bit, feeling stressed. He looked his shirt, his vest and rushed to his car. Taking out those, he searched for an old t-shirt he had let on there.

And found it.

The red t-shirt with a picture, and the name, of Knights of the Black Death was just there. Wrinkled, a bit smelly but there. He ruffled again and found his deodorant. He put on the t-shirt, tried to have it unwrinkled and put a lot of deodorant before getting up. He took back the tiny box he had and finally locked his vehicle to join the house where he rung. He was so anxious… His breathing was heavy, it was so cold there, maybe staying like that in the cold wasn’t a good idea, and he searched for his coin. The coin his brother offered to him.

Playing with it always keeps him calm…

He heard woofs from the inside when he rung a new time. If Sumo was there, Hank must be there too?

He was so anxious.

The coin was there and he moved it around his fingers. The movements helped him. He could breath…

The door opened and he almost lost his coin. Hank was there, in the frame door, clean and smelling so good, his beard a bit cut, his clean and well combed hair tugged in a pony tail. He was wearing a black pants and a silver shirt. He was beautiful and Connor almost gasped. He wasn’t so breathtaking…

“He… Hello… Good evening… again… I…”

“Good evening, Connor. Come…”

Connor took a deep breath and entered for his first date ever…

[eggoreviews]

Smash Bros. Ultimate DLC Rate Their Chances #1

Hi! This is a new thingy I’m trying based on the RTC series by Smash youtuber Billybo10k where I’m gonna take 5 characters, weigh up whether or not they’d potentially make into Smash as DLC and then give them a chance and a want score out of 100. Hoping to make this a regular thing so if you’re reading this and want me to rate a character, drop me a comment!

The characters I’ll be rating in this post are:

Geno (Super Mario RPG)

Sora (Kingdom Hearts)

Bandana Waddle Dee (Kirby series)

Rex (Xenoblade Chronicles 2)

Rayman (Rayman series)

Hope u enjoy!

Geno

Okay so, unless you’ve been living under a rock for the past few months (or depending how long you’ve been into Smash, the past 12 years or so), you probably know all about Geno by now. Geno is a character who gained an unprecedented amount of fan support after only appearing and having a major role in one game that was made over 20 years ago, Super Mario RPG.

In terms of his moveset, Geno, as far as I’m aware, is a puppet who ended up harnessing the power of a star. His main sort of ‘thing’ in his home game is the gun on the end of his hand, so Geno would likely end up being similar to Mega Man in some regards, though obviously not with the powers Mega Man uses from the various bosses in his home series.

And I won’t beat around the bush. Geno has a very, very good shot of making it in. For lots of reasons. First off, we’re now aware that the Smash ballot from Smash 4′s DLC had a direct influence on the newcomers for this game, with the likes of Ridley and King K. Rool, both major fan requests, joining the roster. There is no doubt in my mind that Geno did extremely well on the ballot and, on top of this, Sakurai has actively tried to negotiate Geno into the game before back in Brawl, but Square Enix (the current owners of Geno, considering they were the developers of Super Mario RPG) were unwilling to play ball. But now? We have CLOUD from Final Fantasy in Smash, not to mention Geno’s mii costume from Smash 4, who was the only mii costume to get his own splash screen. Sakurai knows how much people want Geno.

The only potential sticking points for Geno I can see are more on Square’s end than Nintendo’s. Geno’s inclusion all hinges on whether or not Square is going to want to hand over the rights to a dead character. That is, Square Enix could be so unwilling to hand over Geno because they want to include more marketable characters that still have relevance. For example, Sora, as Kingdom Hearts III is just around the corner. And if Ultimate is all about the most requested characters making the cut, why wasn’t Geno in the base roster? Not saying this drops his chances hugely, it’s just a thing to note, as it’s not as if Geno had the problem other characters such as Spring Man had where they came into existence too late to be considered.

With all of this in mind, I’m going to give Geno a 65% chance of making it into DLC. All of the factors in Geno’s favour, as well as credible leaker Vergeben repeatedly mentioning a new Square Enix rep, put Geno in a very good position. But hey, nothing’s certain. And Sakurai has confirmed on Twitter that Nintendo made the selections for this game’s DLC line-up, so it’s really down to both Nintendo and Square whether or not they’d want to include a character that isn’t marketable to people outside of the core Smash fanbase.  But as for a want score, I’m going to give Geno a 35%. Nothing against this wooden boi, I’d just rather see Sora or a Dragon Quest character make it over Geno in terms of Square reps. Plus, I have no real attachment to the character.

Sora

Now onto the other Square Enix rep in this post, as well as my third most wanted character, Sora from Kingdom Hearts, the big strange crossover between Disney and Final Fantasy. Is he a good fit for Smash? Well, he’s got his huge freakin keyblade and a whole host of spells he could utilise in his moveset, so the answer is very easily a yes. And the thing is that Sora has one big leg up over Geno in terms of chances; relevancy. But I suppose it all depends on what is being taken into consideration when characters are chosen for DLC. For the base roster, it seemed to be all about fan demand, specifically drawing popular picks from the Smash ballot. But now that Nintendo as a whole is choosing who joins the fight, I’d say we’re much more likely to get marketable characters such as Sora (Basically what I’m saying here is, don’t expect another character like Piranha Plant. As much as I love Piranha Plant). And in terms of Nintendo history, Sora’s home series has made its way onto several of Nintendo’s handhelds over the years in the form of spin-off titles.

Sora, like every character, has a couple of hurdles though. The moveset potential, the Nintendo history and the fan demand are all there, but at the end of the day, it’s all down to whether or not Disney want to play ball. Because, contrary to what some people are saying, Sora is in fact owned by Disney and not Square Enix, as Disney hold the rights to all Kingdom Hearts characters that are original to the series. While Disney are notoriously stingy when it comes to their properties, I have little doubt that they would hand over Sora if it benefited them directly. Right now, we know that Kingdom Hearts III is not scheduled to appear on the Switch, but with a sort of ‘Switch Pro’ rumoured to be around the corner, KH3 could feasibly be ported over. And with Sora being exclusively a video game character, they really aren’t going to be saving him for anything else, are they?

For me, there’s a hell of a lot of factors going either way for Sora for me to be convinced either way, as Sora is a very difficult character to speculate on when Disney is involved. But he has a good chance. Right now, with things as they stand, I’m going to give Sora a 50% chance of appearing in DLC. It honestly could go either way. But as my third most wanted character, Sora gets a 95% want score. Kingdom Hearts made up a lot of my childhood and I’d love to see him included.

Bandana Waddle Dee

The bias is alive and well in this post as we take a look at our third character, and my second most wanted character, Bandana Waddle Dee from the Kirby series. At first glance, Bandana Dee could be dismissed as a weird side character or generic ‘mook’ character that has no place in Smash among the other iconic characters in the series. But this is very, very wrong. Bandana Dee has cemented himself in the Kirby series as the fundamental player 4 in the series, making regular appearances as the fourth protagonist of most of the modern Kirby games, most recently appearing as one of the three main dream friends in Kirby Star Allies alongside King Dedede and Meta Knight. And boy, does he have a lot of fan support. In Japan especially, Bandana Dee has an INSANE amount of support and this undoubtedly would’ve shown up on the ballot. And I have no doubt that Sakurai would be able to create a moveset for this perfect boi, especially considering we’ve never had a spear user in Smash before.

However, Bandana Dee’s issues come with what Nintendo’s priorities are in this latest cycle of DLC. We aren’t sure on what goes into consideration when picking these characters but my best guess, as I have stated above, is how marketable the character is, not just to the hardcore Smash fans, but to the casual players as well. Nintendo are likely going to be looking at what characters are most likely to sell as DLC, as well as what characters are going to promote their other titles. And I’m not entirely sure Bandana Dee fits this. Sure, Kirby Star Allies recently was released and, if he came with a Star Allies stage (yes pls), this could be a good promotional push for that game and there’s no doubt that Bandana Dee would sell well as DLC considering how many people love him. But with a new Fire Emblem game coming next year, alongside other potential first party reps Nintendo could’ve prioritised, it could be that my poor lil Bandana boy fell by the wayside this time.

Overall, I’m giving Bandana Dee a 60% chance of appearing. I’m fairly confident in his chances, as he’s a well-loved first party rep with a unique moveset potential and unquestionable marketability (I mean come on, tell me you wouldn’t buy him). But it’s all down to what Nintendo wants to promote in this cycle of DLC and whether they’ll want to keep their focus on upcoming titles or try and sell more of preexisting ones. But my want score for Bandana Dee is honestly a 100%. I love Bandana Dee and his design so, so much and I really want to see the Kirby set completed. Pls let it happen Nintnondo.

Rex

Rex is the main protagonist of the recent and extremely popular Xenoblade Chronicles 2. The character has a lot of fan support, is from a relevant franchise and is a Nintendo owned series that they’re going to want to promote. So why don’t I think he’s getting in?

Let’s break it down. I can see Rex being an obvious choice for DLC, especially if Nintendo themselves are choosing who gets in this time, as first party reps with a good amount of relevancy are more likely to take precedence. But after this last Smash direct, his chances are slim to say the least. Sakurai stated during this direct’s reveal of Rex’s mii costume: ‘We decided which fighters to include when we started planning, so we couldn’t add characters from titles like Xenoblade Chronicles 2, which was announced after planning had started. I hope this outfit will help you feel like you’re playing as Rex.’ So basically, I think this is an instant death sentence for Rex. Sakurai recognised how popular Rex was, so wanted to make sure the Xenoblade fans knew he wasn’t getting in so they wouldn’t be disappointed further down the line. And yet, I’ve still seen people all over the internet saying that Rex is a ‘guaranteed lock’ and he’s the most likely character n everything. And I don’t wanna kill these people’s hype but the proof is right there in that sentence. I feel like the people who are still predicting and asking for Rex didn’t see that part of the direct, or at least didn’t fully understand what Sakurai was saying. Rex isn’t getting in.

So with this in mind, Rex gets a 1% chance of appearing in DLC. While I’m confident he won’t be one of the 5 announced, the 1% is on the slim offchance we get a second season of DLC, which I don’t see happening either, as this cycle would bring us up to early 2020, which is almost exactly how long Smash 4′s DLC cycle lasted, as the game released 2014 and the last two DLC characters, Corrin and Bayonetta, were added in early 2016. On top of this, I’d say 5 more characters is plausibly our final roster for this game, considering Smash 4 had 7 DLC fighters and three of those were returning veterans. So yeah, I’m really not holding out hope for a season 2 and, in turn, Rex. But for a want score, Rex gets a 70%. Shulk is one of my mains and I love the look of the Xenoblade series, even though I haven’t gotten around to playing it yet. Rex is someone I’d like to see, though there’s another Xenoblade character I would much prefer that I’ll cover in a future post.

Rayman

And here we are, at my most wanted character, Rayman. With Rayman at the top of my want list, I have put a lot more research into him than I would other characters, but I promise I will avoid bias in my final rating. Lessgo.

Rayman is an iconic third party gaming mascot owned by Ubisoft. And bias aside, he has a hell of a lot going for him. His moveset basically writes itself, as he could utilise items and attacks from his various mainline games and, as much as I wouldn’t be too hot on this, the Rabbid spin-off games too. I have no doubt in my mind that Rayman would be a perfect fit for Smash and would blend in well among the other third party mascots in the game, as he has a notable Nintendo history considering the majority of his games have appeared on Nintendo consoles. On top of this, he’s been a fan request for some time. After the infamous ArtsyOmni leak during Smash 4′s development cycle that falsely revealed Rayman would be in the game, he surely would’ve received a huge boost in support that definitely would show up on the ballot. While this is just speculation on my part, I think it’s pretty safe speculation. But would Nintendo and Ubisoft be able to negotiate Rayman for the game? I think the answer is very easily a yes. Nintendo and Ubisoft were already working on Mario + Rabbids: Kingdom Battle back in 2015, showing a partnership between the two companies that has continued all the way through Ultimate’s development cycle. As well as this, Nintendo recently lended Ubisoft one of their characters, Fox from Star Fox, to appear in the Switch edition of Starlink: Battle For Atlas. Nintendo lending characters like this isn’t exactly common and I think it’s extremely likely that Ubisoft will return the favour by lending one of their characters to a Nintendo IP. And where better to put him than Smash? As a final lil thing, the Rabbids have been included in Smash Ultimate as spirits, while Rayman himself appeared in Smash 4 as a trophy when he had no other content in the game. So Ubisoft already have a presence in Smash.

As for what’s standing in Rayman’s way, a lot of his hurdles can be very easily worked around. Some people have been citing Rayman’s recent inclusion into Brawlhalla as a reason why he won’t make it into Smash. But Ubisoft bought out the company that makes Brawlhalla, Blue Mammoth Games, making Brawlhalla their property. So of course they’re going to put their own character into their own game. And if Ryu can be in Marvel vs Capcom whilst also joining Smash 4 in DLC, Rayman can likely do the same. And it isn’t as if his inclusion would ‘sabotage’ Brawlhalla, as he likely wouldn’t even be announced until 2019, giving Ubisoft an ample amount of time to build hype for Brawlhalla. But now we know Nintendo are choosing who joins the fight in DLC this time around, is it likely that they’d have chosen Rayman? Honestly, it could go either way. We have no way of knowing if there will even be third party characters in DLC, though my best guess is that there will be, as I think Nintendo is well aware that characters like Rayman would sell extremely well. And like I’ve already stated, Nintendo and Ubisoft are on really good terms and Ubisoft have yet to lend a character to Nintendo in the same way that Nintendo lended Fox. So with this in mind, Rayman could very easily be one of the five characters negotiated.

I promised I’d keep my bias aside for my final rating, but without considering what I want, the amount of evidence for Rayman’s inclusion is compelling. However, nothing is certain and it’s just as likely that Rayman could’ve been skipped over altogether. We have no idea how these negotiations take place or what Nintendo is looking for in bringing new characters to the roster. But taking all of this into consideration, Rayman gets a 70% chance of joining the roster. I know that’s high, but I’m confident in this rating. He’s got everything lined up in his favour, so it all depends on how the chips fall. But as for a want score, Rayman of course gets a 100%. Nothing really matches Rayman in terms of wanted characters for me so here’s hoping he makes the cut.

Thanks so much for reading! As I said, if you’d like me to rate a character, go ahead and drop a suggestion in the comments and I’ll rate them in the next post that should go out within a week or so. I’ll also be logging each character that I rate in a lil spreadsheet that you can check out here to keep track of all the ratings or whatever. Stay hydrated my dudes.

[zeldauniverse]

Last week, in a tiny hidden bar typical of Melbourne’s inner east, Nintendo gave us hands-on time with Super Smash Bros. Ultimate.

Nintendo Australia had hoped to get us in front of a newer build of the game (we would have loved to try King K. Rool and Simon Belmont!); however, the build was identical to the one we played at E3 some two and a bit months ago. However, where our time with the game at E3 was rushed and hectic, this time we had a solid two hours in a laid back environment which allowed us to get comfortable and explore more of what it had to offer.

And what a difference that makes to perspective.

To sum things up, we had a smashing good time, and we’re now more excited than ever to add Smash Ultimate into our gaming libraries. Our Publications Director David Johnson and Special Projects Director Shona Johnson were at the event. Here are a few of our thoughts on the game:

Shona Johnson, Special Projects Director

As a long-time Smash player — I’ve been with the series since the Nintendo 64 — playing Ultimate with a big group over food and drink was instantly familiar, taking me back to happy times when I played Melee for hours on end with friends or, more recently, Smash Wii U parties. Although it’s been a while since I last fired up a game of Smash, and I haven’t played since the demo at E3, my Smash instincts and muscle memory kicked in, throwing me into that wonderfully chaotic place where some of my favorite characters are beating each other up.

At E3 there were a limited number of play slots available (strictly one per person), and I signed up to play it competitively, which meant that part of my attention was given to attempting to win, meaning I played it safe with characters I knew well, in addition to checking out what was new and different. Fortunately, towards the end of the second day of E3, the lines died down to the point where the wait wasn’t hideous, so I was able to get in a few rounds of fun play where I could at least try out some of the new characters. I had fun and walked away from E3 feeling incredibly impressed by the game’s polish, but spending two hours with the demo gave me a chance to try out a lot more and really get a feel for the gameplay.

The demo for Smash Ultimate had 23 out of the game’s 103 stages to select from.

Also 30 characters of the roster were present, but a few classic fighters were held back.

Matches were limited to two-minute free-for-alls with up to four players playing solo or in teams. Items were on, and we couldn’t change any of the settings. A roster of 30 characters was available, and we could choose from 23 stages. I was able to play most of the characters and stages available. The event had multiple stations, most of which had Pro controllers, but a couple had GameCube controllers. It’s nice to see the GameCube controllers being carried through, as many Smash veterans are familiar with these, and, at the end of the day, each player will be able to set up their preferred controller configuration.

Existing characters feel familiar, and most of the changes to their moves are subtle if any have been made at all. Most of them appeared to be fairly well balanced, although it’s hard to say given that I was swapping characters a lot and playing against people of varying skill levels. Ridley and the Inkling were the new characters in the demo, and both had their own unique movesets that took some time to get used to (and honestly, I didn’t play them enough to get used to them). Ridley is slow and heavy, and I struggled with him a bit because I struggle with that sort of character more in general, and I found that the pace of the gameplay made it hard to spend time effectively splattering paint over everyone as the Inkling. That said, in one match while playing a different character I kept getting trapped in paint by another Inkling which was somewhat annoying for me but great for them I imagine!

The list of stages we had to choose from included both new and returning ones. A big difference in Ultimate is that players choose the stage before choosing characters, with the idea that players can choose a character to suit a stage, although that never really crossed my mind because it’s something I’ve never considered before; for me, it’s more the stages in general that I love or hate rather than playing on them with specific characters. And at this event, I was much more in the mindset of wanting to see everything and try it all out, so I never even thought about the stage while I was selecting my character.

All of the stages look amazing. Of the new ones, the Great Plateau Tower from Breath of the Wild is a fairly small one where the roof collapses in occasionally, and surprisingly this isn’t a hazard; it just looks cool. Moray Towers is the new Splatoon stage, and it’s a series of sloping levels stacked vertically above each other. I found this one hard to fight on because players were more spread out and on different levels which made it hard to land hits. I imagine this will be better suited to people who like slightly slower gameplay and having more chances to recover, or it might be more fun with eight players. Conversely, I cannot imagine how chaotic eight-player Smash is going to be on the Great Plateau Tower!

In Ultimate, having items turned on didn’t feel quite as chaotic as they have in past games, and I think they’ve been nerfed a fair bit. The once-almighty hammer — I got one and the guy next to me said “uh oh” as soon as he heard the music — didn’t produce the KOs or near-KOs I would have expected in the past. Likewise, Smash Balls didn’t always guarantee KOs like that did in Smash Wii U/3DS. They’re also harder to grab, although they also sometimes just land on the ground and stay still; the first time this happened we were all wary of the Fake Smash Balls and ran away from it until someone hesitantly kicked it and realized it was a real one!

I felt that I had to be very accurate when landing blows and dodging. It should lend to a technical playstyle that will suit competitive players and those who play for fun.

Overall, the gameplay feels faster and more precise. Thankfully there’s no Brawl-style random slipping and tripping, and I felt that I had to be very accurate when landing blows and dodging. Fast characters like Fox and Sonic covered ground incredibly quickly, and some of the heavier characters like Donkey Kong felt more agile. If you’re not paying attention, you can be sent flying off screen and not realize where you are at first! It should lend to a technical playstyle that will suit both competitive players as well as those who play for fun (because the core concept of Super Smash Bros. is fun).

Two hours of the one style of match flew by, so I can only imagine how many hours I’m going to get out of the game playing with different modes and rules. And that’s before I even consider any possible single-player modes, which I hope there will be for the times when I take my Switch with me on the go by myself. I didn’t want my time with Ultimate to end, and now more than ever I eagerly await December when I can get the full version into my hands.

David Johnson, Publications Director

Super Smash Bros. Ultimate has all the potential to be the best Smash Bros. game to date. Thus far, everything Nintendo has shown oozes with that careful attention to detail that Nintendo is simply known for. While we don’t know all of its secrets yet — there’s this maybe “Spirits” mode on the main menu that we know nothing about that may be a major single-player component to the game(?) — I can’t help but be extremely excited for the series to make its way to the Switch.

How can I describe Ultimate? Well, the short answer is that it feels very much like Smash Bros. More specifically, it feels a lot like Melee, though admittedly I haven’t pulled out my GameCube to play it in quite some time. While there is a good dose of beautiful chaos in the game caused by items, assist trophies, and Poké Balls, it’s all a manageable sort of chaos. It just feels good to dart into piles of characters, take some pot shots (or get hit trying!), and then escape to go at it again.

At the event, they had a couple of stations with GameCube controllers set up, but I figured I would give the Switch Pro Controllers one more fair go, even though the default control scheme of every controller since the GameCube has made me want to cry. And while I still wasn’t 100% in love with the Pro Controller’s default setup, I did find myself hating it a lot less. But I still will either be using a GameCube controller or resorting to making a custom controller configuration for me when the game comes out.

Because we had two solid hours with the game, I went and truly experimented with characters both familiar and unfamiliar as well as played practically every stage that was on display. For the characters I was familiar with, I found the differences between the Ultimate fighters and their earlier incarnations rather subtle, though Marth especially seemed incredibly floaty, much more so than he was in Melee. (That said, I chalk this up as a good thing!) For characters I was unfamiliar with — Ridley, Inkling, and the host of DLC characters from Smash 4, they all felt incredibly unique from the cast of old, and that’s hugely refreshing. That said, the fact that many of the characters are becoming Echo Fighters (thus with the official salute that they’re “the same character” as some other), makes me happy; finally, we can hope to see so many characters truly become unique entities rather than carbon copies of one another.

And the stages were mostly fantastic. They look utterly fantastic, and they set the stage for a visually impressive game. And none of them felt like they detracted too much from the overall premise of the game: dominating over all your friends. That said, I still utterly despise the Mega Man stage brought forward from Smash 4, though I’m extremely relieved that not only can we trigger each stage’s Ω (omega) form but also simply play with the stages as is sans their various stage hazards. Finally, we can play the Dr. Wily stage without the Yellow Devil ruining an otherwise fun game.

The Smash Balls’ effectiveness has been nerfed quite a bit. In order to counterbalance that, the Assist Trophies seem much more powerful.

As far as the items go, there were only two major differences I’ve noticed in playing the game. First and foremost, the Smash Balls’ effectiveness has been nerfed quite a bit. Since Brawl, while it’s always been possible to survive a Final Smash, it was exceedingly unlikely. However, now the survivability has been greatly upped as the Final Smashes aren’t really so “final” any longer. Perhaps this is done in order to keep it in line with how short many of the moves have been made or just to allow them to not disrupt gameplay as much, but it really makes it feel much more balanced as a whole. (That said, the Smash Balls seemed extremely difficult to even get to as they moved far quicker than before!)

In order to counterbalance that, the Assist Trophies seem much more powerful. In previous games, Assist Trophies generally remained on-screen for no more than a few seconds at most. Now, many Assist Trophies have been modified to become temporary allies on the stage, giving you a not insignificant advantage. While the Assist Trophies are able to be defeated and don’t dish out overwhelming damage in one go, they possibly will be one of the more contentious design decisions for Smash Ultimate.

The gravity well item popped up quite a bit in the game, and its effects can be felt everywhere.

Thematically, Ultimate is full of so many little subtle details that show just how much Sakurai and his team love Nintendo and its entire legacy. The subtle changes to Link to bring about his Breath of the Wild form are carefully balanced by pushing Princess Zelda and Ganondorf to other parts of the timeline to showcase the breadth of the Zelda series. The fact that the Echo Fighters now exist allow for a greater depth of exploration into the various franchises without providing an overwhelming feeling of sameness permeating everything, such as when Dark Pit was announced as a separate character in Smash 4.

Outside of my hands-on experience, what I think impresses me the most about Ultimate is just how much variety there can be inside the ordinary Smash experience. Sure, there are tournaments and oodles of other features and modes, but having well over 60 characters to choose from and over 100 stages to fight on will give so many permutations of fighting that it’ll be impossible to play them all. Whenever I’m smashing it up with friends, there always comes to that point in the evening when I stray away from the characters I’m familiar with and start playing the characters I’m either terrible with or simply don’t play as much, and Ultimate will ensure that I’m always wanting to experiment and try another character again and again beyond that.

December 7 cannot come fast enough. Smash Ultimate, I’m desperately waiting for you.

Super Smash Bros. Ultimate will be released on December 7 for Nintendo Switch. Thank you to Nintendo Australia for inviting us to come and Smash!

Two hours with Super Smash Bros. Ultimate this might just be the best Smash so far Last week, in a tiny hidden bar typical of Melbourne’s inner east, Nintendo gave us hands-on time with 

[smashmusicideas]

June 7: Going through the Smash E3 Trailers

Well, the title says it all. How to best predict or understand what we might see on Tuesday? Look at the history. I should note I’ll be ignoring Melee, as the nature of how information on it came out (and how people reliably accessed it) makes it more of an outlier.

E3 2005: A new Super Smash Bros. game for the Wii, then-called Revolution, is announced.

E3 2006: The first trailer for what is now named Super Smash Bros. Brawl releases.

Veterans: Mario, Link, Pikachu, and Kirby - four of the five main Smash fighters. Samus is also shown, albeit in a way that doesn’t confirm her inclusion in her classic form.

Meta Knight (Newcomer): One of the most popular characters requested, Meta Knight follows Peach as the first newcomer revealed and part of a franchise already represented. You can also argue his placement references his (and the Halberd‘s) involvement in “The Subspace Emissary.”

Pit (Newcomer): Another highly requested character, filling the Ice Climbers’ role as an iconic retro hero. Notably, he also sports a drastic redesign.

Zero Suit Samus (Newcomer): ZSS was probably never anyone’s most wanted character. However, her inclusion is necessary; she obliquely represents the new Final Smash mechanic.

Wario (Newcomer): Outside of Sonic, Wario probably was the most wanted character - but fans assumed he would use his classic costume. This shows he will be fighting as a wildly new fighter, one who represents a sub-series that started after the release of Melee.

Snake (Newcomer): Shocking everyone, the last reveal is of, for the first time ever, a third party character into the battle, and one no one would have rightly expected. Snake’s inclusion sparks a change in the Smash community where previously laughable, mocked suggestions can “potentially” be plausible.

Alongside characters, we also see new, unnamed stages: Battlefield, Halberd, Castle Siege, Pokémon Stadium 2, Skyworld, Mario Circuit (Brawl), and Yoshi's Island (Brawl) (Shadow Moses Island would be revealed in accompanying screenshots). A Nintendog hints at the new Assist Trophy item. And we see incredibly “super attacks,” later dubbed Final Smashes, which fighters can acquire by collecting a ball with the Smash logo.

E for All, 2007: While not part of E3, this is the period in which the public is allowed to play a demo for Brawl, featuring Sonic the Hedgehog - who had been revealed only eleven days prior. As for E3 itself, 2007 has a fifteen second video revealing only Donkey Kong. I’m not going to highlight it here for space.

E3 2011: A new Smash Bros. game is announced, which will appear on both Nintendo 3DS and Wii U.

E3 2013: The first trailer and sizable accompanying information for what is now named the collective Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS & Wii U are released during a Nintendo Direct.

Veterans: Mario, Link, Samus, Kirby, Fox, Pit, Donkey Kong, Pikachu, and Bowser.

Villager (Newcomer): while Villager’s chances and popularity were debated and debatable, Animal Crossing is a huge franchise for Nintendo. Using him to almost literally lead off the cast makes sense.

Mega Man (Newcomer): A new precedent is set: unlike with Brawl, newcomers to Smash For (excluding clones) were given individual trailers. Having Mega Man’s be the first makes sense; he was possibly the most requested guest fighter after Sonic.

Wii Fit Trainer (Newcomer): Unlike the other newcomers, Wii Fit Trainer - the game’s new surprising, out of nowhere fighter - is now revealed in the Direct itself but on the show after the fact. Her reveal comes at a demonstration in which Sakurai plays a match, and before a video of him discussing the game’s ideas is released.

Altogether, we see extensive information from those trailers. New stages are later revealed to be Battlefield, 3D Land, Gerudo Valley, Spirit Train, Skyloft, Arena Ferox, Living Room, Boxing Ring, Town and City, Wii Fit Studio, and Wily Castle. Of noteworthy shots, one is of a jungle-esque stage, and the other is a platform-less version of Battlefield; in an April 2014 Smash-centered Direct these would be revealed as part of Smash Run and an Omega Form, respectively. Finally, one CGI scene shows Mario followed by five other fighters on Battlefield, arguably hinting at the Wii U version’s Eight-Player Smash mode.

E3 2014: Attention ahoy. You’ll note that this isn’t a trailer; instead of taking up one part of the Direct, Smash bookends Nintendo’s (rather good) showing.

Mii Fighter (Newcomer): The Miis were no one’s favorite choice for a character, but they excite because they introduce to the series the ability to actually customize your own fighters - a godsend in a series beloved and notorious for how wide its breadth of inspiration reaches. This also dovetails with the end of the show, in which Palutena, the newcomer and only other fighter whose special attacks vary wildly like them, closes out the event.

Pac-Man (Newcomer): Pac-Man is unveiled at a private showroom after a massive Smash Bros. invitational tournament, one in which sixteen competitive fighters play on a build which would later be available to E3 attendees. The invitational itself provides some information that had been revealed and clarifies other points, from how certain Assist Trophies function to the utility of different items.

E3 2015: While Nintendo does not feature Smash in any capacity during its Direct and only minimally during its post-show “Treehouse Live at E3″ segments, they announce and release a wealth of downloadable content for Smash For. Lucas, announced months prior, is released alongside fellow veteran Roy and newcomer Ryu, from Street Fighter.

So...what can we take from this?

Well, I think it says a few things. Mostly, the newcomers shown off will be fairly big in terms of fame and popularity. I know that seems insultingly obvious, but it’s true. A third party fighter especially seems likely; if the game really is coming out this year, it makes sense to show any and all they can. Like, I feel like if Ridley is coming to Smash, showing him off here seems the smartest, given his colossal popularity, instead of on the side or as an unlockable fighter.

I think it’s also interesting how some are chosen. Of all the newcomers, only three - Meta Knight, Zero Suit Samus, and Palutena - came from prior series. And of those, Meta Knight’s the only one whose entire design isn’t tied to a mechanic introduced in that game. This isn’t to say they’re not going to appear here at all, just that most likely we may see new series represented.

Those two fighters lead me to something else: there will very likely be mechanics, items, powers, or modes the trailers will obliquely show or reference without explicitly saying. I do suspect that those 2005 and 2013 trailers deliberately hinted at the story mode and Eight-Player Smash, respectively. So while most crazy theorizing will be just that, maybe you will stumble upon or uncover something that’ll turn out huge.

However, this also says we should not put all our stock in only this showing. In an interview today with the Hollywood Reporter, Bill Trinen admitted that they will be keeping some Smash surprises for after the event. It shouldn’t surprise anyone; this series has never been one to show all its cards. So be excited, hope for more stuff, but also remember that this won’t be the be-all and end-all of this new iteration. All of these videos only prove how no matter how much information we get, so much can, and will, be hidden.

Also, as a minor point, it’s likely that Smash may not be relegated to just one section of the event. I suspect it’ll both start and end it, the way it was in 2014. As important as this game is for Nintendo, they have other stuff to show. Pokémon Let’s Go is a big deal, there’s potentially Fire Emblem for Switch (and other announced games in development), there’s the increasingly inevitable announcement of Fortnite; they may have a lot on their plate (one rumor says it might be upwards of forty-five minutes - which is apparently about twice as long as the fairly packed one last year).

But finally, just remember that all of these are nothing more than precedents and commonalities. A lot of Sakurai’s general directions here make sense, but we don’t know if he’ll be using the same kind of character trailers the last game(s) did or going back to the Brawl “general stuff” kind of trailer, or something entirely different.

(Link to my writings on Smash Bros for Nintendo Switch)

[princerevelucide]

i wrote down some personal sma5h thoughts

first things first:

fucking kick corrin out

no new fire emblem or any xenoblade x or 2, please, god

no western indies (shovel knight, shantae, hat kid, undertale bullshit, etc.)

corrin gets kicked out 

i don’t want king k. rool in. he feels like a boring and dumb choice tbh

3rd party characters are fun but i don’t think very many should be added if at all beyond what we have now. i feel like if too many more are added the fun of ssb being a celebration of nintendo will be taken away.

kick! corrin! out! please!

who i'd personally like to see included:

vaati (the legend of zelda: minish cap) (one-eyed boss form would be final smash, ftr)

victini (pokemon)

masked man (mother 3) (good mix of meta knight, samus, and mega man) (spoilers abound though, so yikes, dont look him up if youve never played mother 3 and plan/hope to)

prince fluff (kirby's epic yarn)

bub and/or bob (bubble bobble)

plusle/minun tag team, a la ice climbers (pokemon)

please kick corrin out, by the way

other ideas i've seen that i agree with, regardless of how passionate i actually am or am not about their potential inclusion:

mario bros: daisy, waluigi, paper mario, baby mario

legend of zelda: linkle, skull kid, impa, midna

kirby: bandana waddle dee, marx

donkey kong: dixie kong (i can't call myself a DKC fan as i've never played any of them before but i think the series deserves more rep) 

kid icarus: phosphora, viridi, magnus also i'm hoping dark pit isn't kicked and if he's not reduced to a pit costume (which i'm fine with that if he is, he’s still in in that case after all) i'd like to see him be more varied, using other weapons from ki:u, especially his signature staff, rather than being a straight clone of pit with the minor differences he has. there’s a lot of missed potential there

pokémon: decidueye i'm sure there are other potential pokemon but i can't think of any more that i'd like... maybe some that were in pokken? as long as we don't overexplode the gen 1 rep again, fuckin hate how much that gen always gets. pikachu, jiggs, char, and mewtwo are Enough

mother/earthbound: paula, poo, kumatora, duster

other:

bring back the ice climbers

bring back wolf too, he was cool

snake is neat as well

an ARMS character (probably Big Springo, and/or maybe Ribbon Lass)

another sonic character (tails? knuckles? shadow?)

banjo & kazooie 

a rhythm heaven character

can we remove corrin. thanks

also fun - some potential new music choices:

galacta knight battle theme (warrior from another world) (genuinely shocked and appalled this wasn’t in smash 4, please fix this glaring issue and bug sakurai, ty)

jump up, super star!

champion battle

prayer song to god (ver. 2)

vagrant counting song of retrospection

void soul

inkoming!

color pulse

gusher gauntlet

i have high hopes for the game’s future splatoon music in general

-i'd really love to see more pikmin rep but it's not varied enough to have a new fighter since everyone would just have olimar's moveset, so maybe some assist trophies?? fiery blowhog, puffy blowhog,  burrowing snagret, and volatile dweevil would work GREAT (also, pikmin deserves better music choices? environmental noises? really? what the hell?? why did THAT make it into TWO GAMES???)

-subspace emissary is so cheesy and edgy and fucking good, more of that, please, i’m begging you

-i always thought that rainbow cloud from pokemon snap and the stone tower temple (complete with turning upside down) from loz majora’s mask would be superneat stages

-also i know i said no western indies but snipperclips would make for a cute stage. might be kinda like the electroplankton one. but only stage is allowed

-also you know how the animal crossing stages have k.k. slider concerts when played on saturday nights? what if the splatoon stage(s) did the same thing with splatfest night themes... (what will the splatoon stages even be, anyway? inkopolis plaza/square? the lowest middle part of moray towers? the centre of blackbelly skatepark? a single player-theme stage??)

-also fucking kick corrin i swear to god there's no good reason at all for their inclusion, the fact that it was all advertising further proves their horrible home game is nothing but a soulless cashgrab, PLEASE get this boring useless marysue representative for a disgusting samey incest game OUT of smash for christ's sake they shouldn't have been added to begin with

i might edit this with more later, idk, i just love smash ok

[tophatlucario]

LET ME FOLLOW YOU

I need more blogs to follow, so if your blog is associated with any of the topics below, please reblog or like this post. — Nintendo — Sonic — Splatoon — Kingdom Hearts — Xenoblade Chronicles — Videogames in general — Sonic Mania — Sonic Forces — Sonic — Fun stuff — Sonic — Xenoblade Chronicles — Sonic — Artwork — Cute artwork — Sonic — Classic Sonic — Sonic Forces — Super Mario Odyssey — Splatoon 2 — Kingdom Hearts 3 — Kingdom Hearts 3 — Cats — More cats — Cute cats — Funny cats — Evil cats — Sonic — sanik — Dogs — But more cats — I'm allergic to cats — That's why I want cats on my blog — sinic — sonic — more sonic — tails also — & Knuckles — SEGA — Kingdom Hearts III — KH3 will never release — Metroid — Samus — Metroid... — Paper Mario — Xenoblade Chronicles — Kingdom Hearts — Sonic — Sonic — Sonic — Sonic — Sonic — Sonic — Sonic Mania — Sonic Forces — Nintendo Switch — Reggie — More Nintendo — Kingdom Hearts III — SANIK — SONIC — AAAAAAAAAAH — Kirby — Did you know that I like pancakes? — I should start to work out — But I'm a lazy crap — I also have a job with terrible work hours — Sonic — Sonic — LIVE AND LEARN — HANGING ON THE EDGE OF TOMORROW — SINIK — Xenoblade Chronicles — Sploon — Xenoblade Chronicles 2 — Nintendo Switch — But I need money for Switch — So that's why I have my job — Are you still reading this? — sinik — u can stop now if you want to — or not — sonik — I seriously need blogs to follow — lots of blogs — i also like music — mostly instrumental music — also videogame and movie soundtracks — Kingdom Hearts III will release — on November 30th 2018 — I have my sources trust me — I also like Disney — Forgot to tell that — Big Hero 6 👌👌👌 — I have a labrador retriever — His name is Pontiak — He's 4 years old and super nice — Sonic — Sonic Mania — For real Sonic Mania is HYPE — And Sonic Forces too — I need my OC to get real — The moon landing was fake — I'm actually Neil Armstrong — Also Elvis is alive — Sonic Sonic Sonic — Super Mario Odyssey — Xenoblade Chronicles — Kingdom Hearts III — SEGA — Nintendo — A little bit of Mega Man I guess I like too... — Memes — Cats — Dogs — But especially cats, remember that. — my sister is hazzling me — Cuz I said Wreck-it Ralph is a little slow — but I love her anyway — The Mario & Luigi games are hype — Super Paper Mario has a better story than TTYD — Also better music than TTYD — Sonic — Xenoblade Chronicles — Kingdom Hearts III — Sora — Roxas — Music — Videogame music — How to train your dragon — not the 2nd one — It wasn't as good as the first — I seriously need a Nintendo Switch — I saw a squirrel today — It had light brown fur, almost red-like — It was so cute! It was eating a nut — I screamed "SQUIRREL!" when I saw it — Like in the movie UP — Are you still here? — I'm pretty sure you have got an idea of what I like — Sonic — Sonic — Don't — Autocorrect — I dunno how "Sonic" became "Don't" — Maybe it's fate telling me something — Nah — In that case fate can screw itself — Sonic is BACK AND HYPE — My fingers are tired — I don't know how much longer I will go on — Sonic — Super Mario Odyssey — Super Mario Galaxy — Rosalina — Also I don't like Rosalina nowadays — They made her into fanservice material — It's disgusting really — Rosalina was one of my favourite characters — But not anymore — Well she is still my favourite in SMG — That game is ACE 👌 — Super Mario Odyssey looks dope tho — Especially Bowser — Super Smash Bros. — I still need to play the MGS games — SNAAAAAAAAKE EAAAAATER!!! — I spoiled the main theme — sorry.... — But Snake is handsome — Nice dude — Wanna play as him and stealth — Sonic — Donic — Donic — Sonic — Cinos — Sanik — Melee — No not Melee — The Melee fans scare me — Mario Kart is also good — Splatoon — Hey!! — Do you think this is a joke? — I still need lots of blogs to follow — So don't forget to like or reblog — Otherwise I wouldn't know about you — I dunno what else I should talk about — I could tell a joke, but that would be terrible — I am bad at jokes — Also we are doomed — I had to get it out there — Just look around yourself — We will get nuked any day now — Somebody gotta be real here — I'm almost done — Let's write more saniks — Sonic — Sonik — Sonikku — Sanik — danik — sank — dank — memes — Sonic — Sonic Mania — Sonic Forces — My favourite meme is We Are Number One — I like swimming — And skiing — And sports in general — Anyone wanna play some sports with me? — I just sneezed — It felt goooooooooood — Sonic — Super Mario Odyssey — Xenoblade Chronicles — Kingdom Hearts — Nintendo — SEGA — ^^ — Those are pretty much the real ones — OH and Splatoon too — I'm sure I missed something — METROID — I WANT A NEW METROID GAME — A game that takes place after Metroid Fusion — We need Metroid 5!!! — Spoilers ahead: — Samus is freakin' hunted!! — By the United Federation — I want a game where Samus is — Fighting against the government — That would be AWESOME — Also please make Samus badass again — She's not just fanservice — Sonic — Sonic — Xeno — Blade — Shulk — FIIIIOOOOOORAAAAAAA!!!!!! — If you are still here — Congrats — You deserve a medal — But I don't have any — I'm a cheap jerk — But honestly good work — When I was younger — I used to roleplay as Sonic characters — It was weird — Atleast it helped me learn english — Also what happened to Detective Pikachu? — I honestly wanted that game — It looked fun and weird — I like those kind of games — Do you think I should change me URL? — And my pfp? — I think so — It's pretty old and irrelevant — But I want Detective Pikachu... — Wanna see what happened — Did they cancel it? — That would be a shame if they did — Almost done here — Sorry — I may have teased you for a little too long — I'm pretty sure I will lose followers — This post is gonna take forever to scroll down — But I will take it — I have already come this far — And I will not just throw it away — IT'S ALL OR NOTHING — So... — How have you been? — I like your hair — Did you go to the barber recently? — Maybe you cut it yourself — And and your shirt is 👌👌👌 — I have a shirt of my own that I like a lot — I got it from the KH Orchestra On Tour — It has Sora on it — Super nice shirt really — But your shirt really takes the cake — Anyway — I'm almost done here — Only a few more lines — Sonic — Sonic — Sonic — Sonic — Sonkc — Tails — Knuckles — Amy Rose — Shadow — Rouge — Dr. Eggman — Dr. Robotnik — Tikal — Metal Sonic — Cream the Rabbit — Chao — Espio — Charmy — Vector — Silver — Blaze — Are there any more charact— EGGMAN NEGA — He's weird — Also his name is just begging to be misused — in inappropriate ways I mean — I think you can imagine what I mean — ALRIGHTY! Thank you for sticking around. — It's been a long ride — I'm sorry it has to end — But this is the start of something new — I want to follow you! — So — Lastly before I go — I have one last thing to say — Sonic & Knuckles

[illusivegore]

Gore’s Games of 2018

I’m sure you all know the drill at this point. Everyone and their mother seems to post a list about all of their favorites from the year, so I’ll spare you the build up and just get into some of the games I enjoyed in 2018.

Games Crossed Off the Backlog

This year I’m going to kick things off with some of the great games I finally got around to playing from my backlog. A good amount of these games are ones that I mentioned last year as ones I wasn’t able get to. All of these games were great and a couple would have easily made my Game of the Year list under normal circumstances.

Horizon Zero Dawn | Injustice 2 | Kirby: Planet Robobot | Slay the Spire | Super Mario Odyssey | Titanfall 2 | Uncharted: The Lost Legacy | Wolfenstein: The New Order

2018 Games I Missed Out On

Next up, I’m going to highlight the games from 2018 that ended up on my backlog or that I still haven’t purchased yet. These are all games that I’d love to play at some point, and this is the reason why you won’t see them on my main list.

Below | Call of Cthulhu | Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker | Detective Pikachu | FAR: Lone Sails | Gris | Katamari Damacy Reroll | Mega Man 11 | Moonlighter Spider-Man |Spyro: Reignited Trilogy | Tetris Effect | We Happy Few

Honorable Mentions

This final section (before I get to my actual picks) highlights some of the games I played and enjoyed but not enough to feel comfortable writing about them or including them on my GOTY list. I look forward to digging into all of these more in the coming months.

Celeste | Dead Cells | Into the Breach | Super Smash Bros. Ultimate | Yoku’s Island Express

Top 5 Games of 2018

NBA 2K Playgrounds 2

I’m going to kick this off with a game that I can’t imagine will be anywhere near most people’s game of the year lists. NBA 2K Playgrounds 2 continues to be a divisive game due to its microtransactions and player unlock system, but at its core, it really is a fun arcade-style basketball game.

The gameplay harkens back to the NBA JAM games and it’s over the top and kind of absurd at times. With every game played, you’ll be leveling up players and earning currency that will allow you to unlock new players. So while the game does offer microtransactions, they aren’t necessary if you’re okay with a bit of a grind. It’s not exactly ideal, but that kind of gameplay is right up my alley. I feel like I’m making progress each time I play and it ensures I will keep coming back for more. If you’re an NBA fan and know what you’re getting into, there is a lot of fun to be had here.

Magic: The Gathering Arena

Arena was actually first available to play in 2017, but only entered into its open beta phase in 2018, so for that reason, it makes my list. Hell, when it officially releases it will probably make a future GOTY list again.

I was very skeptical about Arena because it looked like Wizards of the Coast was just trying to ripoff Hearthstone‘s aesthetic (and they kind of are), but this is actually a good game and once I played my first match I was hooked. It’s a great place for both newcomers and veterans of Magic to play. Arena is much more user-friendly and intuitive than Magic Online while also offering a far more authentic Magic experience than previous Duels games have.

The game is free-to-play, and I know that term gets a bad wrap nowadays, but Arena does it right. You can buy booster packs with real money or you can earn gold (and even single cards or packs on occasion) naturally through playing. I was able to build one of the most competitive decks in the format in a few weeks time and that was just by playing a few matches each day. Even in the early stages you’ll quickly earn a number of “starter decks” which will supply you with a decent selection of cards. So you’ll never be short on new things to try while you work towards building your card collection.

Arena is fantastic, and if you’ve ever even been curious about Magic: the Gathering, you should give it a shot.

Pokémon: Let’s Go, Eevee!

Over that past few years I’ve played a lot of Pokémon. Between revisiting Blue, Silver, SoulSilver, Pearl, White, White 2, X, Y, Alpha Sapphire, Omega Ruby and playing through the new releases of Sun, Moon, and Ultra Moon, as well as shiny hunting in a few of those games, I’ve spent nearly 1,000 hours with the series in the last three years. Needless to say, I was starting to feel a bit of Pokémon fatigue (which is why I still haven’t played Ultra Sun). If that wasn’t enough, I was also never a big fan of Pokémon Go!. So when the Pokémon: Let’s Go! games were announced I had zero interest and pushed them completely off of my radar. Then the games finally released and my love for Pokémon got the best of me. I started reading reviews, watching videos, and talking to friends about them. Eventually I looked past my skepticism and decided to give it a try and I’m so glad I did.

Pokémon Let’s Go! was a breath of fresh air for me. It was a laid back experience that I didn’t even know I needed. It’s far more streamlined than other games in the series as you can choose when to encounter wild Pokémon and you no longer need to battle in order to catch them (in most cases). This aspect was one of the biggest reasons I was skeptical of the game. While catching Pokémon is probably my favorite part, I do enjoy the battles as well. I was afraid I wouldn’t get the battle itch scratched, but that wasn’t the case at all. There are more than enough trainers to battle throughout, so it was almost the perfect blend of catching and battling for me.

I went with the Eevee version and oh boy, Eevee is a little badass. That little dude is completely overpowered in Let’s Go! and makes it a breeze if you choose to play that way. It’s definitely the easiest Pokémon game I’ve ever played, which is saying a lot because they’ve never been known for their difficulty, but that didn’t stop it from being the most enjoyable time I had playing a game in 2018.

Octopath Traveler

Another game that surprised me in 2018 was Octopath Traveler. I’ve never been the biggest fan of JRPGs, but I was immediately drawn in by Octopath Traveler‘s charming art. When I finally got my Nintendo Switch last year it was the first game I really dug into. As it turns out, by the end of my 80 hours with it, the characters and combat system became something I loved even more than the art style that initially caught my attention.

Octopath Traveler‘s combat is turned-based and revolves around a “break” system. Each enemy has certain weaknesses to specific weapon types or elemental attacks. If you hit them with one of those attacks enough times their defenses will break and they will be stunned the following turn, allowing you to deal increased damage. There is also a boost system that allows you to hit with multiple attacks each turn. Without delving too deep into the mechanics, I’ll just say all of this offers a ton of strategic options and makes combat a joy.

If the title wasn’t telling enough, Octopath Traveler‘s story focuses on eight different characters. Each character has their own set of chapters you can complete, a variety of traits and combat options, and a unique personality and story to tell. You don’t have to finish every character’s storyline, but I exhausted all story options because I found myself wanting to know more about each one of them. I’d even go so far as to say that there hasn’t been a collective group of characters I liked this much since the original Mass Effect trilogy.

I feel like Octopath Traveler got overlooked by a lot of people, so if you’re a fan JRPGs or just looking for a quality experience you should seek this one out. 

God of War

Continuing with the trend of games that surprised me last year, next up is God of War. I’ve dabbled a bit in the God of War franchise, but the 2018 release was the first game in the series I’ve ever seen through to completion. It is nothing like its predecessors as it trades in the linear gameplay and shallow, over-the-top brutality for an engaging and robust world, as well as a far more rewarding combat system.

Perhaps the biggest accomplishment of God of War is that it made Kratos into a character with depth and one that I was able to invest in. It also introduced his son, Atreus, and their relationship was something I loved watching evolve over the course of the game. Kratos is still a no nonsense badass, but his humanity is allowed to shine through in his interactions with Atreus.

As I mentioned, the combat in God of War is so much more rewarding than it was in previous entries. While you might still be able to mindlessly hack-and-slash your way through on easier difficulties, if you truly want to master combat you’ll need to develop more in-depth strategies. Kratos wields the Leviathan axe this time around, which you can use for melee attacks or as a projectile. The most ingenious part is that you can recall the axe with the press of a button which not only adds to your strategic options, but also creates a very satisfying ebb and flow to combat. You’ll also have to incorporate blocking and parrying, as well as guiding Atreus to use his bow. Once I was able to start stringing together all of these moves and tactics, God of War‘s combat system quickly became one of my all-time favorites.

God of War also offers up tons of side content to keep you busy for hours. With the recent release of a New Game+ mode, I’m looking forward to running through it again. It was quite the experience and one I’m happy to call my favorite of 2018.

Most Anticipated Games

It’s always fun to look to the future, so I’m going to wrap things up with my most anticipated games. Some of these games have 2019 release dates and others I’m keeping my fingers crossed for.

Animal Crossing (Switch)| The Last of Us Part II | Mortal Kombat 11 | Pokémon (Switch) | Resident Evil 2 | Spelunky 2 | Super Meat Boy Forever

[thatvideogamezoo]

Introduction of ThatZooooooooo

I like to repost this at the beginning of every month because I get some new followers with a frequency. It helps new people get to know me a little better. So if you’re interested, click the break below to find out more about me.

(Break for length, click if you want to find out more about me)

I am the one known as ThatZooooooooo across the internets. My blog is named ThatVideoGameZoo because somebody gave me the idea for a catchy blog name and I couldn’t pass it up.

And before we get into it, I will tell you some personal details about myself to help you identify me. I have this all publicly on my profiles on other places, no harm putting them here.

My real name is Douglas Carter, born on August 20, 1993. I currently live on the east coast of the United States of America, in the state of Pennsylvania, in the town of Waynesboro. I am currently a student at The Pennsylvania State University at the Mont Alto campus, working towards a degree in IST.

So yeah, there’s that I guess if you’re interested. Now on to the actual profile.

I like video games and video game accessories, I tell ya what.

You will see me talk about video games a lot, and I have a tendency to post a lot of music from video games, because I just really like listening to them. I also like to link to video game related videos like LPs or Speedruns or other nonsense periodically. I sometimes like to post screenshots of games I’m playing to show my progress and interact with people while I play or something, kinda like a Photo LP in progress I guess.

I like a lot of games, and I’m fine usually playing any game. I’ve probably played it or heard of it at some point; one of my many nicknames is “The Walking FAQ.” I can usually talk about any game at length.

Even though I play a lot of games, you will see me play certain games a lot more so than others. Some of my favorite games include Sonic The Hedgehog, Pokemon, Super Smash Bros, Mega Man, Tetris, Puyo Puyo, Kingdom Hearts, Resident Evil, Silent Hill, Star Fox, Metal Gear, OutRun, Daytona USA, Fortune Street, Culdcept, Advance Wars, Final Fantasy Tactics, Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater, Perfect Dark, Castlevania, Banjo-Kazooie, and Street Fighter. This is just a short list though, there’s a lot more stuff I wanted to put here, but hopefully this will give a general idea of what I like to play.

My gaming habits also tend towards doing Speedruns or Challenge Runs of games more so than normal playthroughs. I still just play games normally, because that’s still fun, but I like to do weird stuff, like beat the first Resident Evil on Hard with only the Knife or do built in challenge runs like Lv 1 Critical Mode on Kingdom Hearts II. I like being challenged and doing hard things, you will always see me do the hardest difficulty when I play games, even on a normal playthrough, and even on games that I suck at. The way I see it, the best way to “get good” is to challenge yourself to play better.

I also play many games competitively. I’m a highly competitive person when it comes to games, and I have a lot of fun competing with people. I do play in competitive game tournaments, most notably Super Smash Bros, Street Fighter, Pokemon, Puyo Puyo, and Tetris, so you may see me play those games a lot because I need to keep my skills up. And hey, if you wanna throw down, I’ll thrown down with ya and not let up.

Despite my competitive nature, my favorite moments are Cooperative playthroughs. One of my favorite memories is playing through the PS1 port of Diablo in Co-op with a good friend at the time. I also like to do stuff like start playthroughs of single player games at the same time as people and we progress and play through the game together, for example playing through Pokemon together. I enjoy playing games with people, and even if it is a single player experience, I find my own way to share the experience with others.

Along with video games, I also play table top games like Pathfinder/D&D and board games too. You may see me talk about the occasional table top game I play.

I also play Trading Card Games too, mostly the Pokemon TCG. I will talk about the degenerate decks and shenanigans that happen there too.

I also tend to make a lot of Text Posts. I like to ramble on able nearly anything. Once I get started on something it usually takes me a while for it to stop. I usually talk about video games, but I like talking about other stuff a lot too. That’s why I tag text posts #ThatRamblingZoo, so you can blacklist them using xkit if you get tired of my yammering.

You will notice I tend to reblog or post arts/creative works from people too. I don’t know how, but I’ve made a lot of artist friends over the years, and I can barely draw a stick figure well. I like to support people I… well… like. The thing is, you probably won’t see most of them on this blog, because there’s a reason for that. If one of you is reading this, just know I still support you on this blog fully by at least liking and replying to posts, I can only post SFW stuff here.

You may notice my Reblog to “Original” content ratio is heavily in favor of “original” content, you probably won’t see a whole lot of reblogs from me. I tend to Like a lot of things, so you can always check out my Likes Page , but be warned, there is NSFW content in there. Only check those if you are prepared to handle some NSFW content.

Hey, I’m not also called “Captain Loophole” for nothing. Likes aren’t really easily accessible, so long as I don’t physically post sensitive content publicly with no warning, I’m not entirely at fault here. I’m not liable for what you see when you check my Likes, you have been warned before hand.

I also have a NSFW blog for NSFW reblogs if you’re interested. Again, be warned, there is a lot of NSFW content in there, and may contain things you may or may not agree with. This is what most of my artist friends draw, so this is where reblogs of their works go… along with any other interesting art I find. I urge you to read the blog description before you judge me too harshly. But hey, if you like what I post over there, I don’t mind talking about that stuff with ya too.

I also have a separate NSFW Ask blog for NSFW asks and stuff due to few friends wanting to have a place to ask me more NSFW question without the reblogs from my other cluttering them up. And hey, maybe it will also produce more dialogue.

And I have a VGM blog as well. I made it because I love VGM, so if you’re looking for some tunes, feel free to give it a look. It will mostly be songs from games I’ve played, but I just appreciate video game music. It’s special to me.

I’m a big sissy when it comes to talking to people, I’ll admit up front. I probably won’t talk to you a lot, and I’m sorry for that. It takes a while for me to open up and be willing to talk to you first. Even if it seems like I have no problem spouting whatever whenever, I don’t do more intimate interactions well. I’ll probably tend to be quiet and only respond stiffly and minimally when prompted at first, but as you talk to me, I’ll probably be more willing to elaborate or make stupid jokes, or offer to help with more complex tasks.

I do tend to like more of your posts the more I’m comfortable with you though if you want something to go by. I’m the “Passively Friendly” type I guess.

In short, don’t be afraid to talk to me! I’m a big sissy so you don’t have to be! I like talking with people that genuinely want to talk to me. I’m also honestly fine talking about anything you want, I just like hanging out with people. I like listening to you talk, especially if you’re passionate about the subject.

If you want me to see something or start a conversation with me, you can always send me an Ask , a Fanmail, tag me as @ ThatVideoGameZoo in a post, or shoot a post through by Submissions box.

If you want to talk to me elsewhere I’m on Twitter as @ ThatZooooooooo (which I usually prefer as I can send a quick response immediately, as Tumblr’s messaging system isn’t the greatest) and I’m available on Skype or QQ as ThatZooooooooo. I also have a Discord, which you can reach me at ThatZooooooooo#6564. If you want to look for me anywhere else, it’s a safe bet I’m probably ThatZooooooooo.

As for gaming stuff…

Nintendo Network ID: ThatZooooooooo

3DS Friend Code: 0963-4124-8485

Steam: psn_thatzooooooooo (yes, the psn_ part is needed)

Playstation Network: ThatZooooooooo

Xbox Live: ThatZooooooooo (I don’t have Gold, so I’m pretty limited use here)

If you want to add me, tell me so I can add you and not let the request expire.

So… yeah, that’s about all I can think of I guess. If I think of anything else, I’ll extend/alter this post the next time I think I should post it.

Thank you for checking me out, and I hope to have some pleasant interactions!

[ddrkirbyisq]

Life has just been chugging along, it seems.  Nothing spectacular has been happening, but that's not a bad thing really at all.

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Crunchyroll Expo 2019 happened and I stopped by on Saturday to hang out, walk around, and go to some things that seemed interesting.  I got to go see the premiere of the first two episodes of Season 3 of Chihayafuru which actually ended up being a highlight of the entire thing, I had no idea I was going to enjoy it that much!  That moment near the end when _____ finished playing their match and thought to themselves _________ and the other member on their team suddenly realized _________, omg, that really really got to me for some reason.  So yeah, that was great!  Makes me want to rewatch the first two seasons at some point, especially to refresh my memory about all of the other more minor characters that I completely forgot about, haha...oh!  And I just remembered that there's a live action movie series as well...maybe I'll give that a watch too =X

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I bought and played through all of Mega Man 11!  I pulled the trigger after watching some reviews and such and since it was on sale on Steam.

I ended up enjoying it quite nicely!  It's a nice blend of old and new as far as Mega Man goes.  The thing with Mega Man is that the old tried and true formula is really just great at its core -- running and jumping and shooting.....more running and jumping and shooting....it's just good 2D platforming at its finest and I've always been a huge fan of it.  That said there ARE already a ton of classic Mega Man games out there, so as much as I'd love more games in the vein of Mega Man 9 and 10 (which were faithful to the NES series) (various fangames also exist, some of which I've played through), I will say that the fresh coat of paint that Mega Man 11 offers does make a lot of sense.

The graphics were pretty decent and I didn't mind the 2.5D much at all!  Unlike a certain other popular game pretty much everything was very readable -- just look at the screenshot above and how obvious it is that the yellow center pieces of each gear are in the foreground, while the rest of the gear is in the background.  One thing I thought looked a little odd were the "fuzziness" of the black outlines on the cel shading, but maybe I should chalk that up to me playing on a monitor with only 1280x1024 resolution?  Perhaps it looks better with a higher pixel density, but maybe rendering thin outlines is just not a strong point of the cel shaded look.

The bosses were pretty well designed -- they had a lot of personality, both in their animations and voice acting (I played only with the Japanese VA).

Maybe I was a bit biased after watching a video analyzing the level design, but I really did appreciate the designs of most of the stages and how they made for interesting progressions despite only using a few unique elements per stage.  It felt like they really made the most of many (perhaps not all, but many) of the different "gimmicks" they introduced in each stage, and that sort of clean, logical, and pleasant progression reminded me a little bit of Celeste.

The main "new mechanic" of MM11 is the "double gear system", which allows you to get a temporary limited boost to your power or slow down time for a bit.  It was an interesting concept, and actually played out pretty neatly in practice a few times -- those moments when you activate the both (double) gears at once for a last-ditch attempt to beat a miniboss and then finish the fight at low health.

However, one of my complaints about all of these "extra" 2D platforming abilities -- whether it be special weapons in mega man, additional items in shovel knight, or even magic spells in hollow knight -- is that they tend to provide a sort of frantic decision paralysis in the moment while you're in the middle of an intense fight or platforming section.

The issue is that platforming and jumping around and shooting and all of these things already occupies so much of your brainspace in terms of attention required, that it's really hard to also add in the double gear system and trying to use the different special weapons and all of those things.

Now that I'm writing about this, it really gets me thinking about 2D platformer ability design.  I know that other people might really enjoy switching between different weapons during the middle of a Mega Man level, but I've always found it to be cumbersome, and a weak point of the series for me personally -- I always Buster my way through most of the stages unless there's something particularly well suited for a particular weapon (e.g. a tricky room, a platform that I need to air-dash too, etc).

There are multiple reasons for this:

- Weapons have limited ammo available (whereas the mega buster has unlimited ammo), so you naturally want to conserve them for situations where you actually NEED them.

- In addition, the bosses at the end of each stage typically have a significant weakness to a single weapon, and you don't know what it is ahead of time.  Since the boss battle can be one of the most difficult parts of the entire stage, this incentivizes you to save all of your ammo for the boss.  Again, you don't know which weapon type you'll need, and frequently you'll need all of the ammo of that type to beat the boss.

- Switching weapons requires either opening up the menu -- which is awkward in terms of game flow -- or quick-toggling via the right analog stick or the shoulder buttons.  The right analog stick selection is actually great, but there aren't enough opportunities to really =practice= mapping each direction to a weapon in order for it to become second nature.  Because of this, switching weapons requires you to stop and think about which weapon you want to use, figure out which direction to press in order to switch, THEN go about using the weapon.

So even though I thought Mega Man 11's eight special weapons were GREAT in their variety and design (you could tell they each would be useful in very different cases), I didn't find myself using them much outside of boss and miniboss battles.

I know this is part of Mega Man's fundamental core design, so I don't really blame Capcom for not iterating on it, but I do wonder if perhaps a different mechanic for boss weapons would work a little better.

If you look at abilities in Metroidvania games, you'll see that they fall into two different groups:

Some abilities fit very naturally into gameplay and you find yourself using them again and again very naturally.

The most common way for abilities to fall into this category is for them to just be upgrades to your existing powers.  Get a main weapon upgrade?  You're automatically using it all the time.

Note that some abilities are not "direct" upgrades but natural and very obvious extensions of existing powers.  A doublejump ability, for example, is very straightforward to grok.  The speed booster upgrade in Super Metroid is the same way -- there's nothing complicated about how to activate it, you just keep running.

Another common way for abilities to fall into this category is for them to be required to be used very very commonly.  The morph ball in Metroid falls into this category -- you use it soooooo often that it becomes second nature for you to use it again and again and again.

Other abilities don't really become part of your regular rotation.  They're either too situational, difficult to use, have a cost associated with them, etc.

The X-Ray scope in super metroid sort of falls into this.  Not only does the X-Ray scope stop all of your momentum, but you often don't really =know= when and where you need to use it.  So oftentimes your only choice is to go through the entire world pausing every so often to x-ray scope......but nobody does that because that would take foreeevvverr.

Most of the attack spells in Hollow Knight tend to fall into this category.  Not only do they require mana to use (mana which could be used for healing instead!), but there aren't a lot of enemies where using a certain magic attack is required or even significantly recommended over just using your sword.

The good thing about the offensive spells in Hollow Knight, though, is that they're very easy to execute, like the special moves in the Smash Bros series: Button press gives you a fireball.  Up + button press gives you an upwards attack.  Down + button press gives you a dive.  Very intuitive.  So even though I never really ended up using most of these most of the time, they're still easy to remember.

Perhaps that's really the key -- the control scheme associated with the abilities.  The WORST way to add a new ability is to simply add a new button or key for every single ability you gain.  There are some games where at the end of the game literally every button on the controller performs a different action: Jump, Attack, Sprint, Dash, Glide, Special Move 1, Teleport, ....

So maybe =intuitive button combos= and =contextual actions= are the way to go.  That still doesn't fix the problem of having limited ammo though.

What about something like this?

Every time you beat a robot master, you unlock a new ability.  These abilities have various intuitive input commands, for example:

Jump + Attack (while in the air): Performs a mid-air forward dash with a sword slice.

Special button + no direction: Creates an energy shield around you that absorbs enemy projectiles.  The next time you press the special button, the shield fires in the direction that you are holding (or facing)

Special button + either side: Shoots a boomerang in the direction that you're facing.  It has some tracking ability, which means you can direct it upwards or downwards by jumping before or after the shot.

Special button + down: Sends an energy bolt downwards.  When it reaches the ground, it splits into two energy balls that travel along the ground until hitting an enemy.

Special button (while mega buster is fully charged): 

Button combinations and contextual actions are used to help your muscle memory instead of forcing the player to memorize the arbitrary position of each of 8 different weapons.

These abilities all draw from a =shared ammo pool=, encouraging you to choose the ability that best fits the situation.

The shared ammo pool replenishes every time you die.  Normally Mega Man weapons encourage you to AVOID using them carelessly, because if you use up ammo on a boss and then die, you're left in a worse situation than you started with -- having to face the same boss battle, but with less ammo available.

In addition, the shared ammo pool also replenishes through normal gameplay, via something like:

- Gradual replenishment over time

- Replenishes with each enemy destroyed

- Replenishes via random pickups from enemies and scattered around the level.  There's also a large pickup before each boss.

The point is to encourage the regular use of these weapons as the situation demands, rather than incentivize saving ammo for the very end.  You need the player to become comfortable with using each of these abilities and the only way to really do this is to incentivize them to use them repeatedly.

So I dunno, maybe that's not a perfect solution.  But I do feel like there is a lot of room for experimentation and iteration here.

One thing that Mega Man 11 DID do right was giving rush coil/rush jet it's own button.  Woo!!!

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Have been continuing to drill puyo transitions -- I've gotten sort of comfortable with the sandwich transition and am now trying to wrap my head around GTR.  Building the GTR core is ok, but I find myself having trouble finding the right forms to work on both the first and second floor simultaneously with GTR since it's only 3 tall and I don't yet have a handle on managing color conflicts.