#i like what's being done i like this enemy the game looks fine. the animation of the lion getting scared is goofy

[emdotcom]

Hater shit incoming:

Yeah, Indigo Park is really cool, but it blew its load a bit too early by immediately killing off the cool stalker enemy from ch.1. The effect of the bird mimicing phrases is really neat, but you don't get to hear her do it much, especially because the warbling effect + loud af chase music drowns out what is being said, which sucks! Those voice lines are good!!

[calmthefuckdownalright]

Can I request different Wilbur variety’s with a reader who is very peaceful and dislikes violence?

Ooooh...pascifist reader. Ultimate innocence against our unhinged lover boy? Don't. Mind. If. I. Do.

Warnings: Does not follow the Dream SMP Season 1 Timeline very well

><><><><><><><><><><><><><>

L'manbur

Now Wilbur in the beginning wishes he could've done this without violence.

And then y'know...things escalated and that changed drastically.

You had been an adoring face for ages to the General and imagine his surprise when the one he loved nearly vomited at the sight of a gash along his cheek

"Darling?! Darling are you okay?! Is it the blood? I can go wash it off really quickly!"

No it wasn't the blood you would confess

It was that you couldn't stand the thought of him going out and fighting for his life and passion.

You would explain and things would twist.

Wilbur would turn to more negotiating terms much to Tommy's dismay

An agreement would be reached on shaky terms and bows and swords would be at the ready.

An unsteady treaty with fine lines and disagreeable terms on the L'manberg side but it kept things at ease for a long while. A while enough that Wilbur could figure out a way to finish this cold war quickly.

Needless to say the word ‘war’ is used and war always means violence, which you did not like.

Wilbur was careful in his attacks and being the clever fellow he is was able to manage independence under the guise of many many zombie, creeper, and even skeleton “accidents”

Wilbur would go to any lengths for those and that of which he loves, and if that means hiding a few bombs and traps behind unknowing enemy lines then so be it.

Alivebur (AKA Vil!bur)

He loves you no doubt

And he hates it when you despair and worry and fret and blah blah blah

It makes his gut turn and his head pound

He knows there’s no other way to finish this. No other way to “save” L’manberg

He’s ready to give it all up with whatever it takes

Wilbur wishes you weren’t like this

He wishes you didn’t choke on air when you smelled gunpowder and blood on his clothes

“I know baby, I’m sorry, please forgive me.”

He tells you this so much it might as well be tattooed on his tongue.

Then he finally blows it all up and he does it right to your face.

You don’t grieve for him very long as the reminder of his violence drowned away and built over.

Ghostbur (Follows Vilbur)

Ghostbur doesn’t like violence much either and is constantly agreeing with you

It’s strange and wonderful how different Ghostbur is from the Wilbur you knew

“Let’s look away okay? Here come play with Friend for a bit and I’ll come get you when it’s all over!”

You followed him to Logstedshire (I hope I spelt that right) and endured the days and nights that Dream visited while you and Ghostbur did as well

You helped him forge the compasses and couldn’t help but think:

Maybe Wilbur dying was the best thing that could’ve happened for you.

It isn’t long before you and Ghostbur are in a relationship

One that didn’t fight but talked out their issues

One that communicated and avoided conflict, even if it meant burying it in the past.

“What’s worse, hearing BadBoyHalo say fuck or blowing up an entire nation?”

Now when THIS happens? 

“I did what?”

It isn’t long before Quackity is on your shit list. A dislike of violence isn’t a dislike of hate

It takes about a week to get Ghostbur out of that stupor and even then he’s fingering blue and apologizing for the littlest things.

Philza steps in and tries to help. 

Really in turn of Ghostbur dealing with a reader who dislikes violence it’s more of Reader helping Ghostbur with his violent past

Simpbur/Yanderebur

Alright, you don’t like violence?

He invites you to play racing games and simulations

Animal Crossing on nights you don’t want to go out and flowers and take-out in the park when you do.

Simpbur knows the world is pretty violent and the fact you dislike it makes his bones tingle every time a stranger cat calls or wolf whistles at you down the street

He’s very discreet with his dealings and tends to sneak away vigilante style when he has a target pinned.

“I’ve just got to run to the bathroom love okay? I’ll be back in a bit.”

Comes back with torn knuckles and a cut across his cheek.

“I fell a bit and got a little angry. Please don’t be sad, I’m okay.”

Of course in situations like this sometimes violence is unavoidable.

<><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><>

...well then

How’s everyone doing? Happy New Year’s and I’m gonna go collapse with my cat before I do it here.

[chabby4memes]

Are there really people out there who believe that the only reason to engage with game mechanics is force???? Like, you can't just engage with with the game to enjoy it, but instead need to be held down into it by strict limitations.

Like, If these people played monhun, they would use the greatsword just because they could? Not because they want to, but simply because "I don't need to" not because of how fun the gameplay is, not because of the unique benefits of GS, just because its what the game handed to you.

Then complain that the game feels 'clunky' due to a heavier attack system and the fact that you can't just animation cancel enemies all the time. All the while insisting that the game should force players to use all the weapons, even though the reason you can do whatever in such a way is to promote exploration of each weapon, because to some people, some weapons feel outright unplayable due to how the players likes it, for example I can't use greatsword, at all.

But I could play charge blade, switch axe and dual blades well, and found that bowguns were best for me.

Frankly I tried all those other weapons after LBG, Then switched to HBG for other ranks. The game didn't force me to change, and I chose to experiment because I wanted to engage with the games combat system in a way I enjoy.

Despite the genre discrepancy, ultrakill Is the same, I could do the mayo% (if it wasn't clear this was about UtM) and only kill with the piercer, but I could also engage with other weapons because it switches up gameplay, feeds into the hard&fast gameplay loop, and allows me to move to the next room to continue in, filling up my style meter without even having to think.

The style meter is intrinsic to good gameplay, you can tell because when you play ultrakill as intended, as a guns blazing fight fiesta where you can get away with anything so long as your risk matches reward, where strategy is moreso a concept of ensuring your style meter and damage output doesn't dry up, rather than an end all be all, or again, rather than having a kinda pathetic looking style meter the entire game because you've done nothing but use the first weapon simply because you can.

Saying that the pistol should become obsolete is downright contradictory, because the style of ultrakill wants you to take advantage of any weapon you have and use the versatility of weapon combos on enemies like shotgun+railgun for outright lethal damage. Please, Ultrakill Is such a good game and to hear someone call it broken and poorly made actually peeves me; the game doesn't need heavy resource management to be good because that conflicts with the combat.

Also calling Elden Ring generic is so sad. Other than its fellow souls games, I struggle to really think any other cosmic horror dark grand fantasy worlds that capture the feeling of elden ring, dumber so to complain about the starting area being simple, when that is most likely just to both establish part of the world, and to drop new players into a more conceptually fascinating environment later, when they've got a hang of it, like the scarlet rot. If you don't like that gameplay or genre, that's fine.

It's fine to dislike these games for personal reasons or actual criticisms, which exist, but like, make sure it's not just cannon fodder, ir blatant double standard horseradish.

I mean you wouldn't catch me playing elden ring, even though I love the game, because I'm shit at soulslike, I love dark souls gameplay but I'm just personally ver incompatible and that's alright, all things considered.

[deusvervemakesgames]

Project RBH Devlog 0060

We’re dangerously close to being done laying the game’s groundwork and moving on to simply making content for the game. I’m hoping that I might be able to start doing youtube video DevLogs once that happens.

Here’s the rundown on what I got done last week. It’s a lot.

First up was the health drop that enemies rarely do. The placeholder heart was fine, but, well, it was placeholder. Here’s the new one.

Next, there was a single frame in the new door animation that wasn’t quite right, and I could see it mid-animation. So I fixed that, too.

And then I moved on to something I hadn’t realized that I hadn’t done. There was still an enemy left to redesign. The enemy that fires bullets in a circle. Previously it was a static image of a skull-like design. I changed it up to better distinguish itself as something that moves, and in the process discovered that I have so much more I can do within the geometric enemy design motif I’ve established. Look at this guy! I think it might be my favorite.

I was also getting sick of the upgrade selection screen. White rectangles over a black background. Boring. So I reused the Nexus background as that felt fitting for something that benefits the player and swapped out those rectangles for an actual sprite. Hovering over them still tints them in a certain way that I’m not 100% sold on but it works for now.

Next up was a problem I had in putting the player in the level. I don’t think I ever mentioned this but the quick and dirty solution I had to possibly spawning inside of an object was to keep shifting the spawn-in location to the right. Which could shunt the player outside the level. Fixing that wasn’t hard; I’d already done it for the door object and simply reused that code. It checks the spawn location to see if it overlaps with an obstacle and if so, randomly picks a direction and a distance and checks there instead. Repeat until success.

With that done, I spruced up the rooms in the generator so that they’d stop being totally empty open boxes. I still need some set dressing for these things to make them look and play better, but the actual generation code works and I’m fine with that for now.

Then came something that was harder than I thought. Enemy spawning.

Currently what happens is that in every room, except the first and last, a proximity sensor detects the player and then spawns enemies in the room randomly, one by one. The issue was actually getting them in the room. If I manually placed them it would screw up my generation code placing floor tiles, meaning I had to code them in. That’s where things got tricky. While I have variables in my room generation that marks how many rooms there are—horizontally and vertically—and how big a room is, these variables don’t include the walls around each room that join them to other rooms. I forgot that detail at first which had them spawning in inside of an evenly spaced grid as desired, but that grid was smaller than the actual level leaving them all scattered. Maybe I can make the final math formula a bit more streamlined but hey, it works now. I also used it to fix the code for the player and the door being off-center.

And since I’m now using Math to figure out where everything goes, I can easily adjust the size of the dungeon without issues. Right now it randomizes the width and height between three values, designed to ensure that it’s always a landscape rectangle.

For some extra polish, I added in an animation for enemies being spawned in. I already had one, but it was pretty placeholder. I think it was my bullet impact particle but in reverse and bigger.

Anyway, now a sort of dark hole thing opens below them and vanishes.

Ideally there would be a delay between the black hole and the enemy spawning in, but that’s something I can afford to worry about later.

I also wanted enemies to have a particle effect when they died. I ended up reusing the explosion sprite for this, because I wasn’t happy with it as an explosion. It’s a shockwave more than anything.

And because I wasn’t happy with the explosion, I redid it. Again. Third time’s the charm, probably. I am much happier with this effect.

You may also notice that I recolored the bullets. The previous pure-white bullets were fine, but I wanted them to have an outline that popped against the background. And since I had the chance, I took the opportunity to color them based on whether they were the player’s or enemies’.

I think, next, I’m going to whip up about 20 proper upgrades to replace the current ones with. Maybe 10. We’ll see. Because from here on I think all that’s left to do is, like I said before, add stuff.

Until next Devlog!

-DeusVerve

DevLogs like these are brought to you by Patron(s) like Haelerin!

Support me on Patreon to get Early Access to builds!

[egg-emperor]

Been rereading some IDW and I wanted to compile my favorite very evil and badass things Eggman has done so far and hope to see much more of in the future:

When he ordered for Mimic to kill the Diamond Cutters (most members are just teens!)

and then he threatened Mimic to finish the job when he finds out Whisper got away in a way that makes me ����😳😳

When he was cruelly toying around with poor critters during the testing of the Metal Virus and loving it, which is a great look into how he treats the animals when they're in his grasp that we don't usually get to see.

When he went back to spit in the face of the people of Windmill Village that took him in as Tinker by pouring the virus goop all over it while saying "no good deed goes unpunished". Ungrateful bastard being an asshole and loving it, gleefully making them regret being foolish enough to give him a chance.

When Starline dared to try to take out Eggman's prey that's for him to beat and destroy alone after proving his power and superiority. I love it mostly for the way he grabbed Starline's neck with just a finger or two and slammed him against the glass hard enough to crack it as the first thrilling display of his physical strength 😍

The way he likes making toys and once again combines a fun hobby with evil as he models his awesome creations and uses them to plan and figure out battle plans and strategies

Plus the reveal of how Eggman made the figurine of Starline a robot, hinting at how he was always either replaceable and nothing more than an underling for him to use just like all his other lackeys

When he fires Starline as a fine example of him throwing his lackeys away when he's finally had it and no longer needs them and just how harsh he is when they disobey his orders

When he attempted to manipulate Sonic to plant a seed of doubt and make him feel guilt for the tragedies of the metal virus. I love the gorgeous sly smirk on that bastard's face 💜

When he grabbed his gun like "oh yeah?" and tried to shoot Tails

The way he was doing evil VR gaming in his evil simulated world, as yet another great way for him to combine a fun hobby with his diabolical schemes!

When he first met Belle as his real self and was just like "pfft what makes your precious Tinker as good as me when I can do stuff like THIS?" *Shows her his fucked up tower concept*

When he talked a bit about his delightfully cute but twisted and disturbing reasons behind his theme parks, capturing everything I love about how admiringly charismatic and passionate he is but so messed up about it at once!

When he fought Starline in the glorious EGG EMPEROR! And the great moment where he said Starline never really had a place of co emperor alongside him because it's all or nothing for him, the world belongs to him alone and nobody else! He said so much of exactly what I've been saying this whole time while in the mech behind my username. I was so happy 💕

The beautiful creepy silhouette Egg and he way he revealed that Starline has been outsmarted and absolutely dominates him

and the way he absolutely fucked Starline up with an epic display of his strength that makes me swoon 😍💖💜💘💗💕

then walked away knowing everything was collapsing and left Starline to his doom, then just announced it like "lol he's dead- so anyway"

Eggman beat him and it killed his will to go on, then he left him as everything caved in which finished him off. Therefore he killed him, he knowingly had direct causation without a care and I consider it as part of his body count.

When he tried to shoot Surge and then grabbed and threw her- while in his awesome Eggwalker too! 💜💕💗

When he praised Starline but only after he was dead and gone, so he could use it to praise and prove himself as superior by the way Starline is still a bested enemy that he defeated despite this. God damn, that's cold and selfishly egotistical… My man!!! 🥰

And everything about Scrapnik Island with it exploring how he's carelessly thrown away so many of his robots and the impact it has on them all- especially the closer look into how much it devastated Mecha Sonic to go from his greatest creation to abandoned trash.

All these moments bring me great joy and feel like the Eggman I know and love in the games too, I adore his exciting evil and badassery when he gets a piece of the action, proves his skills and strength, and reminds everyone why he's the best!!! 🥰💜

When he's treated well, written with care, and given some of the focus he deserves, he can be fantastic in this comic. His characterization has really been looking up lately, he just really deserves more of a time to shine now as it's been five years and he still hasn't actually been the main villain of a big arc without some twist involving others taking the spotlight. I really hope he gets his turn to really shine in that spotlight for much longer soon!

[onestepbackwards]

Hello! I'm normally a ghost reader but I really have to tell you the following; I love your writing! Wholeheartedly! It really makes my day, even my whole week when I read your oneshots/short stories! I'm currently in love with "What's all the buzz about?" and "Our Angel" - the submas twins are sitting rn rentfree in my mind and reading your awesome stories really makes me happy! Also, I really, really love "Love that bites" - I never played Castlevania and never watched it but still; your writing pulled me right in! Now I'm even considering buying one xD (do you have a recommendation?) Anyway! Just wanted to tell you that and wondered when a next part might come - if you don't know/have no idea or don't feel so good bc of health problems, that's fine! Don't pressure yourself and take your time! :) Kind regards crimson anon

Hello Crimson Anon! (o´∀`o)/

Thank you so much for the kind words!! I’m really touched you like my writing 🥰 When I started this blog, I never really thought people would like it this much, so its nice to see messages like this 🥹

I’m glad you enjoying all my stories, and even gave my Castlevania fic a shot!

If you do want to try the games out, there are a few good ones out there to start with!

I first recommend Symphony of the Night. It’s a classic, and redefined the series, and even created the Metroidvania genre with the help of Metroid games!

It was specifically designed to be a Castlevamia game anyone could play. It starts out a little tough if you aren’t sure what to do, but it still considered a gem, and I enjoy playing it. I’d even do daily randomizer runs of it when I still had a computer! This game was a lot if people’s first Castlevania game too!

(Word if advice, if you play it, explore every cranny you can, look at every item description, and there are technically 2 clocktowers. One in the middle if the castle, and one that is an actual tower. The first is a kinda a mistranslation, but if you want the full experience, it’s easier to figure out some things if you know that. The game is deceptively longer than you might think.)

You can get SotN on playstation 4, and on a few other consoles I believe! You can even get it with Rondo of Blood, one of the best Castlevania games before Symphony came out. If you want a more original Castlevania experience, Rondo is the way to go. Symphony is actually a direct sequel to Rondo, but you don’t have to beat Rondo to know what’s going on.

Though if you do get the Rondo + Symphony bundle, Symphony is technically a remaster, with new text and voice acting. A lot if the iconic lines were changed or redone. Its still done nicely, but if you get this version, make sure to look up the original cutscenes on youtube. Dracula’s lines may be memed a bit, but he put his whole non existent soul into those lines, along with Richter. Evil Richter my beloved~

Rondo has some of the best sprite work, level design, and enemies before Symphony, while still being a classic! It technically took a long time for it to get an english release too, and i had a lot if fun with it!

You don’t have to know the overarching story to play Rondo either. Most of the games don’t really require knowledge from previous games.

But if you want to start somewhere based on the story, I recommend Lament of Innocence. Its the first game in the timeline, though you would probably have to emulate it since this was only released in the ps2 i believe.

It’s an amazing game, and plays similar to Devil may cry 1. It has its issues, but i genuinely love it, and it IS first in the timeline.

If you can’t find it, or emulate it, i know some lets plays are on youtube, and one of my favorite streamers has played it as well.

For a beginner, those are the ones I recommend! But honestly, Symphony is probably your best bet. Its casual and fun, and has a good story that a little of the anime was based off of (though the rest was based off of Castlevania 3, but they took lore from symphony too)

If you like symphony, it more or less set the standard of modern castlevania games after that before the reboot. So playing it will help out a bit if you wanna try any others that came out afterwards, most of them on gameboy and ds are pretty good too.

As for my writing, i’m about 2500 words into Love That Bites, and about a 1000 for the next Our Angel! I’ve been working on both instead of one at a time so i can focus on Beemas, and a genshin fic i’ve been planning, and maybe another castlevania fic 👉👈

I try to get all my chapters around 3000 words before i post them. Just a personal goal of mine. If i write more, then great! But i try to write about that much first.

so thats one reason its taking a bit longer than usual, added with the migraines i’ve been fighting for the past few weeks. I’ll try to have those out soon though! Hopefully within a few days!

Thank you so much for reading and enjoying my stuff 🥰💕

[arcticgraverobber]

I just finished: Bomb Rush Cyberfunk!

Alright, it's been a while since the last review and been even longer since I actually finished this game, so hopefully I will be able to get back into the swing of things again now, and remember what this was actually like.

Ever since I heard about Bomb Rush Cyberfunk I was extremely excited, being a huge fan of the Jet Set Radio games, however I was aware that I'd been excited about similar projects before, so was attempting to be reserved until it actually came out - which thankfully wasn't entirely necessary.

To be clear this is not a Jet Set Radio game - much like what Bloodstained - Ritual of the Night was to the Castlevania franchise, BRC is very much it's own thing, don't expect a carbon copy - and while that thing is not too my taste as much as JSR, I do have to respect it for trying to have it's own identity.

The main thing that excited me about BRC was that Hideki Naganuma, the main composer for the JSR franchise, was going to be working on it. Now he is - but his music is not as big a part of this as in JSR where it made up at least 50% of the soundtrack. He has 3-4 songs in the game, and they're all pretty good - the rest is done by various other small artists; this game didn't exactly have the budget to have something like Dragula on the soundtrack. The soundtrack is generally good, and is similar enough to JSR music - but I didn't quite jive with it as much, and the biggest issue I had was the lack of variety - most of the music was extremely similar, which when people make 'Jet Set Radio Inspired Music' often forget that the games had a mixture of music on them, not all breakbeat stuff. Again, it's not Jet Set Radio, and that's fine, but temper your expectations about how good of a successor it may be - especially considering the music is the most important part of JSR for me - that's why I was more excited about a composer from them working on this than the director or anything - it's central to it's identity.

Aside from the music, the game play is very similar to JSR, and the general aesthetic, graphics and animations feel perfect. The big differences - both of which I'm not super fond of - are the addition of a focus on combat, and an attempt to do a somewhat complex story.

The original JSR didn't have much in the way of combat - you dealt with everything the same way: skating to get to them and then spray painting them - this applied whether your talking about graffiti, a cop, or an attack helicopter. The games also had more of a focus on running away from the enemies and not directly taking them on - not so much the case in BRC· The game kind of even has an attack button - although it's more of a trick button that is first introduced as an attack button, you can do a lot of things like in the original: spray painting enemies and such, the game just doesn't do a good job of explaining this. It also has lengthy boss encounters that take FOREVER - this is extremely boring, you can just run away from these, you have to defeat them, they happen fairly often and they just aren't FUN.

The other frustrating thing is the story. JSR of course had an extremely simple and quite silly story, an evil business man trying to take of the world by corrupting and controlling music, and the way you take him down? Friendship, of course, and spray paint. BRC had it's own ideas about this, making a far more complex and frankly boring story about characters I mostly do not care about. The game is hinged initially around a murder - someone's head gets chopped off looking like something from killer7 - and that is initially interesting but the game then insists of focusing the whole game around the character of Red - I did not like his stupid robot head and I did not like playing as him, but BRC doesn't care about that and kept changing me back to him to force me to play with their favourite. A little spoilers ahead, but the game's villain isn't even a cop or business man, its another graffiti artist - the cops are made out to be kind of cool in this as well, which I can't abide by. There's a cool women cop with a jetpack who I think your meant to like? But she's a cop?

Anyway, whilst that was two paragraphs about what I disliked about the game - I still really enjoyed the game. I will say most people will probably not enjoy it enough for the £30 price tag, so wait for a sale unless your a big JSR fan like me. One thing we can maybe thank BRC for is showing SEGA that there is interest in a successor to JSR, with talk recently about a possible JSR reboot with the original team. I'm not holding my breath on that, but I am hopeful.

Grade: A

Significance: 1/3

[vaugarde]

6, 7, 13, 16, 25 fooooor Kirby!

6. Which ship fans are the most annoying?

Hard to say presently cause I haven't interacted with the shippy side of the fandom in some time. I guess from experience it's Meta Knight x Garlude shippers but I have not heard a single whisper from them in literal years. Is anyone saying that MK can't be gay cause he interacted with her anymore? I dunno.

7. what character did you begin to hate not because of canon but because how how the fandom acts about them?

At one point it was Meta Knight, specifically the anime version of him, but I've come back around to him tbh. Maybe it's the bat wings. Dark Meta Knight used to be ruined to me for personal reasons wayyyyy back in the day but that got fixed a while ago. I guess there's Hyness cause there's kind of an attitude I've sensed about him that "oh it's not that deep, he didn't actually hurt the sisters and I'm ignoring it for the sake of making him my silly little guy", but also I already hate him in canon. So idk there either.

13. Worst blorboficiation

Mayyybe Dedede? Not cause I don't like him, I love him and I'm fond of the version I've made of him in my head, but the sheer refusal to ever acknowledge him as a villain ever like... kinda misses the mark for me. The fact that he was a villain at all and you can create a narrative of him becoming better as the games go on is interesting to me! And him sometimes being antagonistic to Kirby cause they're rivals and such is fine. It's fun! It makes the moments where the two act nice and wholesome feel all the more rewarding cause like, Dedede DOES have it out for this pink kid, but at the end of the day the said pink kid holds no grudges, man, and there are bigger things to worry about. So if you sand off that part of him, he becomes less interesting to work with, y'know?

16. you can't understand why so many people like this thing (characterization, trope, headcanon, etc)

"Meta Knight and Dedede are Kirby's loving adoptive dads". I love found family but those two are uncles at best. This is moreso Meta Knight though, ESPECIALLY the anime version. That guy cuts Kirby's car brakes, he is not a sweet dad figure sldkfjssfds.

I've rambled about this before, but one of my biggest fanon nitpicks is when people have an adult male fave and a child protagonist, and they'll nerf the child protagonist in favor of having the adult male fave do everything in the story and be really powerful so they can protect the child figure. And that sounds weird, I know it does, like of course the child protagonist would benefit from a parental figure taking off some of the load sometimes. But it's never quite portrayed like that and it always just reads to me like "WOW look how awesome my fave is!!! They should be the REAL protagonist and the child protag is a side character in their story!" and it's never like, emotional support or anything, it's always "suddenly the protagonist who has defeated literal gods cannot even scratch a basic enemy and needs the adult fave to save them." Like, I remember this fic where Kirby got beat up and nearly killed by a regular dark matter minion so that Meta Knight could save him, and I could not sit with it cause like... a regular dark matter minion? Really??

I don't know, if I had to approach a Metadad concept, I'd do something similar to "Igglybuff the Prodigy" from PMD where Meta Knight does serve as a mentor figure, but really, Kirby ends up being more powerful and smarter than him and outdoes him a lot, but Meta Knight doesn't mind after a while because he benefits from having a grounding positive figure like Kirby in his life. Kirby made him a better person and made him realize that he wasn't done living his life even though he'd done some terrible things. And Kirby admires him cause he's a child and he likes having another person like himself around, even if that person isn't fantastic to begin with. Like, it's a mentor relationship but it's turned on its head.

25. Common fandom complaint that you're sick of hearing

Anything about the anime being an invalid Kirby property and you suck if you incorporate parts of it into your own personal game canon. I do what I want. Sirica and Magolor are friends.

[spinningbuster98]

Picking Burn Rooster's stage first is certainly an unpopular choice but in order to get the armor parts I want as soon as possible without backtracking it's necessary.

And honestly? I actually don't mind this level

Yeah it's an autoscroller, but unlike Duff McWhalen's stage in X5 it's a FAST autoscroller where you have to make split second decisions and platforming in order to stay alive.

Yeah it can get irritating, and that last section after you've beaten the boss is wholly unnecessary, but I can't call it boring

The middle part is a bit eh, mostly because the camera really doesn't help you to see incoming spikes as you're climbing or sliding down but overall I think it's a decent level!

Earthrock Trilobyte's stage is fine, although a bit too simple in structure. It's actually this game's main farming spot for currency,a s that robot drops Metals every time you shoot it.

Gigabolt Man O' War is the first of this game's 2 Ride Chaser levels and it's....eh?

Its main issue is that it's a bit messy in design and on your first playthrough you'll probably not even know what it is you're even supposed to do.

In reality though you can end this stage in less than a minute by constantly boosting, collecting energy capsules to keep your boost meter full and shooting at Gigabolt as much as possible. So not a particularily good level but at least you can get it done very quickly

Gameplay wise X is the same as always, and I'll talk about his armor system at a later time

Axl has seen an enormous improvement: now not only does he have a rapid fire by default but he can also shoot in multiple directions.

His hover has also been improved, now he stays locked in place in midair for a bit whenever you jump and shoot which really helps with positioning

His rapid fire is also the best and safest way to knock away enemy barriers

His copy shot is back as well and....it's still far from the best thing in the world but at least it's been given a couple of cool niche uses which I'll show in the next video

Zero is also much better than in X7...but he has issues

I don't know whether it's his animations being a bit slower or maybe enemies' hitboxes being larger but I always get hit when trying to fight enemies as Zero, much more than in previous games (except X7).

I think part of the reason is the controls: X8 has good controls overall but they generally feel a bit...looser than previously? Like the characters have much less weight to their jumps which, coupled with the taller character models, makes precise positioning trickier, with precise positioning being key to Zero's playstyle

I'm not saying he's bad here, just that he's my least favorite of the 3 starting off

Keywords: starting off

If you're good at exploring you can get a certain something for Zero which completely turns all these issues on their heads. You'll see

So X8 has some new designs! And they tend to be pretty devisive between fans

Personally I think that the designs themelves are fine enough, they're generally pretty minimal with the characters just looking slimmer overall. Some fans like to se this as a connection to the Zero series, as a way of showing that technology is starting to get closer to that of that series. It's a nice thought but as far as I'm aware the only reasoning behind these designs that's ever been is that they wanted the characters to look somewhat like action figures, maybe in order to make them easier to animate in-game.

I think the main issue is the artstyle, the way the characters' faces and eyes are drawn looks a bit...off? Like it's clearly trying to be the usual X series artstyle while also being different

I guess that Alia's got the most substantial redesign, with loose and longer hair (which is a reference to a flashback scene of her in X6) and....well bigger boobs.

Not as big as Layer's though XD. Ok look, far be it for me to criticise a female character for looking conventionally attractive but I...kinda wanna know what was the thought process behind those underboobs XD

I mean I guess the design is fine on its own, but when you consider that Layer is supposed to be this super serious and professional navigator who is also very shy and timid...I dunno I get the impression that the design and characterization came from two completely different places if you catch my drift?

...aw who am I kidding this was probably the artist's little fetish

Also yeah Axl is a prototype for these New Generation Reploids

You might have missed that and I don't blame you

Axl's origins were never touched upon in X7

X8 just decides to drop this info in a way that the characters, Axl included, always knew about this matter of factly

No explanation for why Axl was on his own in X7 before meeting Red of for why he wasn't even aware of his powers' origins in that game

I guess it was all resolved off screen between games?

I guess they probably didn't wanna dwell too much on X7's leftovers? But at the same time by making Axl a Prototype for these new villains, and especially due to how this game ends, he should be pretty damn important and yet the plot doesn't really focus on him in any way even when that hanging plot point from X7 gave them the perfect excuse to do so.

Mah

[bellagrimfox]

Hey, sorry for being dead for a while. I was trying to get work done for College and a Law of Talos fanfic for a discord server I'm in. But i'm not here to talk about that. Instead I'm going to give my own opinion on the situation regarding Mcpig.

TW for mentions of Racism and other unfortunate things.

I'll admit that I am way too late to get on that train, both because I didn't want to depress myself and because I felt conflicted when I first found out about this. Nowadays, this whole situation is barely spoken about unless it's a Pizza Tower ask blog that mentions it. But even then, it's only a declaration of disassociation which you can do if you really feel like it's a deal breaker for you. People can feel however they want on Mcpig without dragging everyone down or bullying those who don't think the same about him.

So what the heck am I talking about?

Yeaaaah, you've probably seen this if you look hard enough in the Pizza Tower tag (or seen others mention this post). There was a twitter post that first revealed the discord comments but due to overexposure, the original poster deleted it. Despite that, some people were quick to denounce the game the moment they saw this come out, either by not wanting to buy the game or pirate it. While i'm not a fan of what Mcpig did, I do believe that even if his apology wasn't really the best (it's on reddit and the first link you see if you search up Pizza Tower Controversy), people are allowed to change for the better. Now whether he will be able to remove/replace the enemies (Tribe Cheese and Mr.Pinch) is a question that everyone who is still willing to enjoy the game has asked about. So far there have been no official announcement from the people who work in Tour De Pizza on the drama or if they were going to be removed but considering that there are a lot of animations in the game, I do not think it's going to be an easy fix. Not saying it's impossible but it will definitely take a while.

To be honest, this kinda feels similar to what happened on Twitter when Friday Night Funkin got popular. I don't remember everything that happened but the one thing that everyone was talking about was the creator, Ninjamuffin99 being racist in the past. This incident also affected me, but in a more emotional way. While this didn't kill my interest in FNF, it did create a period of temporary depression and grief. This was why I wanted to avoid any mentions of the drama relating to Mcpig for a while. You can see this as being cowardly, I get that, but that doesn't mean that what I saw wasn't horrible. It really is but I feel like it's possible to move on from this just like how everyone was able to forgive Ninjamuffin99 for what he did.

That being said, if you really feel like you can't enjoy the game because of stuff like this, that's perfectly fine by me. I'd feel a little disappointed but I won't make you think otherwise. As for me, i'm still going to enjoy this game and the people who make art of it. Because honestly, there is a lot of underrated and talented artists like @somecartoonisttalkshere or @grimmoirre (if you don't feel comfortable being tagged here, Grim, I can replace it with someone else). In fact, if you've made it to the bottom of this post and are feeling a little sad, here's a silly little horse to cheer you up!

Art was done by @somecartoonisttalkshere so thank you again for doing this!! >w<

[neechees]

To answer your questions:

I've seen some people calling it a mimic, which is a monster from D&D, and while in d&d a mimic usually disguises itself as a chest or wood, I think this is a lovely alternative. However, again, we don't even know this enemy's name. We'll just have to wait until its full release & then it can be called whatever DBD has named it.

The reason you see so many people refer to any type of monster that "wears human skin" and/or "mimics people" is because of people on the internet bastardizing and appropriating Native spirits for their little stories and creepypastas & thinking its fine to add shit on for those stories (like Stephen King 🙄), people believing the White versions are the original versions, getting them mixed up with each other, adding more bullshit, and then these newer "bastardized" concepts being born out of the world's worst game of telephone to the point that most people don't even know that the actual, original versions are from Native American beliefs and instead call them "cryptids". Because White people see Native spirituality as a plaything and have no idea wtf they're talking about.

White people heard "sk!nwalker" & "animal" and bastardized it to mean "monster that wears human skin", then they saw Stephen King (& lots of other media) make wend!g0es into skeletal deer humanoids with the "mimicking humans calling for help", then literally got the two mixed up or even amalgamate the two to be synonymous with each other. I've seen people describe sk*walkers only to call them wend!g0es, and then describe the falsified skeletal deer monster & then call it a "sk*nwalker", and then of course, now we have people taking elements of BOTH of the bastardized concepts to interchangeably refer to the new DBD monster. I fear that the whole "wears human skin" thing might have partially come from antisemitic conspiracy theories about Jewish people being lizard aliens wearing human skin. But the whole "wearing human skin" thing is, again, not even actually related to EITHER of these spirits, and the reason you see people call it that is because of misinformation due to appropriation.

This is why Native Americans don't like sharing our spirits and mythology with White people online or even anywhere, because look at what it's done to many of our spirits that even WE don't talk about except under certain circumstances. People don't respect our spirits and beliefs, which is why I'm so adamant about people leaving our stuff the hell alone.

There's a new DBD villian out so here are your periodical reminders because im already seeing people refer to the new enemy as both "wend!g0es" & "sk*nwalker" & getting them mixed up:

The DBD team has already said that the new enemy wouldnt have anything to do with Native American mythology

Wend!g0es & sk*walkers are from Native American mythology, they are NOT "cryptids" (Algonquian & Navajo respectively)

Therefore, the new enemy is neither of those things

The whole "monster that mimics human speech & humans calling for help" thing was completely made up about ice cannibals by Stephen King in Pet Semetary iirc. This is not an original or even popular part of the "lore" or definitions of ice cannibals. Ice cannibals don't and cannot speak, let alone mimic human speech.

A sk*walker is NOT a "monster that wears human skin", or an animal wearing human skin, or a monster that looks like a "weird looking" animal, it is a human who utilizes ANIMAL SKINS, and as far as I know, they also don't do the "mimicking humans to lure them in" thing, they don't have to because they can already talk and are human.

These two beings from our cultures are not the same thing and have been heavily appropriated & bastardized & amalgamated by both the media & by moniyaws online.

Leave our spirits alone and stop calling the new DBD enemy these things because it's not anything close to what these spirits actually are.

[glassmarcus]

A Collection of Battle Network Ramblings

*Played in April 2022, Written in July 2023

Megaman Battle Network 1 is universally claimed as "The one you skip". I've heard for years that the Battle Network series essentially starts at 2. As someone who had only played Battle Network 3 and 4 up until this point, I can't say I was excited to go back to the roots of the sub series. But I bought the whole collection. I wasn't just gonna leave 1/3rd of my purchase untouched. So I ignored the populace and started from the beginning. So now I can confirm that Megaman Battle Network 1 is not worth playing and that everyone was right and I should have listened.

It's not that it has no merit, it's that every other game afterwards invalidates it. There's nothing really unique about the game worth salvaging. I also finished Megaman Battle Network 2 and it is a direct vertical upgrade in every category. The only reason to play this is to understand the overarching plot of the series, but playing the game itself is probably the worst way to digest this plot. A summary of it gets the same job done. Heck I’d say I was more engaged in the first half of the anime that loosely covers the story of the first game.

As a stand alone product though, Megaman Battle Network is fine. Not fine in that it's adequate in most of its efforts, but fine in that it fails at everything except the one thing it needed to nail. The Combat in this is nothing short of brilliant. So many RPGs of that time period leaned on decision making and preparedness being the crux of their Battle Systems. Battle Network is compiled a bit different. It's both turn based and active. Planning is just as important as execution. Some battles can be won before they even start because you had the right game plan; Some up hill victories can be stolen just because you're simply good at moving around and shooting. It's the perfect blend of skill, strategy, and testing your luck. And it's quick too. It never waste your time with drawn out animations and scripted sequences, and if you die the game reloads immediately. Very rarely do I run around in an old game and just hope I get jumped by a new group of enemies. But this game achieves that by being thrilling and gratifying the whole way through.

Everything else about the game IS wack though. If the combat in this was the slightest bit middling, the experience would be unambiguously bad. It poured all the sauce into one area and refused to spread it out. The battles carry this entire game on its broad burly shoulders. This Combat radiates massive knee buckling Main Character Energy. It is the Wilt Chamberlain of RPG Battle Systems. The map design is convoluted and labyrinthine. The dialogue is nonsense. There are no quality of life features in sight. Each stage gimmick is more obnoxious than the last. But....the 5th member of the team is Wilt Chamberlain. So there’s going to be a decent amount of points on the board no matter what. That's how enjoyable fighting weird virus monsters is in this.

But that's all mechanics and design. What truly pushes this into being a game worth wading through mediocrity is the art direction. All of these character redesigns are A+ winners. Megaman had this early anime look to it (as it was definitely inspired by Astro Boy), thus the characters had somewhat of a western tinge to them and weren't afraid to have bold shapes. I love this about the original Megaman. But I also love early 2000s sleek anime aesthetic so having versions of these characters within this frame work is a big draw to me. I would spend the entire playthrough wondering what the next boss was gonna be and how cool they would look. Sure I've seen the anime, so it's not like I'm completely blind, but I was 6. I hadn't played classic Megaman yet. Now that I have, I can truly appreciate the value of seeing a character you've grown fond of with a new look of lateral quality. It's strange, I've played so much classic Megaman that it's the version of the character that springs to my mind first. But the exe version of the character is the first one I was exposed to. So in a way that will always be MY Megaman. The great thing about this franchise is that you can have multiple subseries at once. Nothing replaces Megaman. X didn't replace Classic. Trigger didn't replace X. Geo kinda replaces exe, but if they made a Battle Network 7 anyway I wouldn't be shocked. I would even be thrilled. Because I would love to see a Battle Network game with more than a few months of development time. These games are woefully unfinished. 2 is a better game for sure, but it still has plenty of cracks that become glaring in the back half of the game.

Battle Network 2 adds tons of material to the formula to make the experience feel complete. There are out of battle items now, so there are more things to spend currency on other than chips. You can run from battles whenever. The levels are still labyrinths, but they at least look different from one another. The most substantial addition is styles, different forms Megaman can take based on the play style you prefer. Unlocking these is really cool as they force you to try out different strategies to unlock different styles. If you want shield style, you play defensively; if you want guts style, play aggressively. It's an interesting way to level up your character and I wish it didn't take 160 battles to unlock some of these. Not that I mind doing that many battles, I just would have preferred unlocking more by the end of the game.

The addition of lasting damage also does a lot to push you into playing differently. In the first game, you recover all HP after each fight. So there's no difference between a perfectly executed battle and an ugly one. A win is a win. Sure you get ranked, but no one cares about that really. It made the adventure less stressful but also less dynamic. 2 leans into dynamism by functioning like a traditional RPG and not a Xenoblade game. If you get hit, you sustain that damage until you log out or heal. So unlike the first game, I went into battles trying my best not to get hit and prioritize healing rather than face fucking my way to victory. It also made me consider using money on items that could heal me or reduce encounters. It encouraged better play and while I appreciate how forgiving the first game is, the second does a much better job in getting you to understand the system.

But even though it's better across the board. None of its core issues are solved. While the level design isn't as offensive, it's still a dull and confusing world to traverse. There is still no map, there are still no interesting looking areas or secrets, and there are still translation mistakes around every corner. And I've seen into the future. I know what the next two games are like and they both do nothing to alleviate these issues. I doubt the last two are any different. Why would they be? They were made with zero time. These are are changes that are only made when there is ample time to plan a game and include bells and whistles at the end of production. None of these games have that luxury. But they could. You know why Megaman X, X2, and X4 are pretty widely regarded as the best Megaman games? Because they are the only ones that are fully cooked. Battle Network needs a chance to make its complete game instead of getting only 9 months to make 20 hour games. Capcom has been killing it for the past half decade and everything they touch is gold. Building a good game around this great combat is something I have complete faith they can do. It might be too early to have this take. Battle Network 5 and 6 may do everything I want the series to do, but I doubt it and I’m pretty comfortable being presumptuous in this case. And between a Megaman 12, a Megaman X9, and a Battle Network 7, I would gladly take a Battle Network 7. There’s still so much untapped potential here.

[lozmastermm]

Security Breach Ruin is meh. It feels like a story written between 2 children with a dev team desperately making a game around it.

I think the AR concept was plain and simple, the least thought out concept for their base-game to work off of. Who the hell at the meeting said "Let's double the assets and map workload" when they barely can handle a linear gameplay segment.

Speaking of linear, it's insanely linear, which is fine on it's own, but it's just so painfully shoving you forward you never feel like there's anything to take in. And there isn't. The artistry is okay in some aspects, animations are amazing as always, but the entire pizzaplex feels like it's made to serve the purpose of gameplay in the laziest way. Nothing feels designed as a segment, it feels like they had one idea for gameplay, made a bunch of counter strike maps, and forced the one gameplay they have into it.

The voice acting is frustratingly poor, I'm willing to bet due to direction, the main character sounds like the fakest old lady trying to do as cutesy and genuinely challeneged sounding little girl as possible, and it's utterly, utterly terrible to listen to. Every line has a that childish whiny "uh" at the end that nobody but Chills does.

There's several moments where all I can think is "Boy howdy they do not respect the player's intellect at a baseline" one of the worst being that gregory, obviously not really him, eventually has One Cutscene where he sounds Clearly Edited in order to...honestly pull a "tell don't show" in an insulting manner. No shit it's not gregory, but for the love of god, don't insult my intelligience like that.

Hell that makes the main character utterly groan worthy. You're telling me she seriously didn't hear hoe off he sounded? Child or no, she's done eeeerverything else in this pizzaplex, no fucking way Cassie didn't notice. It's convenient writing that serves Actually Less than No One. Utterly. Embarrassing writing, whoever approved that scene needs fired, they're fucking terrible at story telling.

This would be like Fnaf2 having a definitive answer to the bite of 87, a blatantly dropped """"hint"""" that leaves no mystery or ability for the player to even think. It's just an event that happened, and it means as much as the story begs you to feel.

Is it better than SB? Honestly I don't know. There's no enemies in Ruin for 80% of it. They released it buggy and clunky again, and as far as I can tell, it's not the engine to blame anymore, it's just a half talented team with a half-jobber team.

Meh. Is what you describe Ruin as. I'm not angry or upset, just flabergasted that the issues inside are even existent in the first place. It's Baby's First Game/Story issues. Written by children and designed by grumpy adults. The only people that I could Feel Had Fun working on this title was the animators. Everyone else feels like they had a stressful time at the halfway point.

This isn't to just drop shit on the game, clearly effort was put in, I just notice the people who don't put effort in more because their grubby mitts were everywhere compared to the animators. Even the voice actors sound bored to tears, how??

To go back to the AR stuff, it just perplexes me that one person would even reccomend it. Ya'll hardly handled SB, why the FUCK would you inherently DOUBLE THE WORKLOAD for an idea that sucks? It just sucks. It's a terrible idea for FNaF. Whether it's been built up to or not is irrelevant, the scope was already absurd but adding this leaves the player, not the plot considerer, to go "What the hell happened to this series?"

Soul transfer is at least "magical", fucking entire AR worlds that have their own physical realm???? And why, oh god why, Purple and Pink. That's Ruin's color scheme, fucking Purple. And not even good looking. What was the game concept here??? Go into AR to go past walls??? That's fucking it? A shitty rabbit that does absolutely nothing but static the screen????? Why?????????

Who the fuck made this game and thought it was okay. At least the lighting is....better than SB when it's not covered in fucking PURPLE.

God it's just frustrating. What direction is this series anymore? It's utterly random and not one soul can keep up. You'd think just having a moveable character wouldn't lead to such an explosively limited gameplay, but it does, more than the originals ever, SB is Linear as Fuck, because they HAVE to tell a story.

Which is the biggest problem with Fnaf now. "It has to tell a story" comes before "make a scary Good game" the story is written out and the gameplay is adapted to it, what Fnaf of old did best was make a game and adapt a story to it, just as Fnaf1 did that caused it to explode.

Now? I'm not discovering a story, I'm not researching and learning shit, I'm waiting for the next game to continue the story, not to give me more pieces of the puzzle to construct. They have their story, and any theory is wasted

[hankwizard]

Pieces Of Media I Consumed Recently

because i have accepted i cannot, for the life of me, do this in an organized fashion lol

CHAINSAW MAN('s anime)

I read the manga obsessively the moment I heard the premise. I grew up in the era of self-referential, masturbatory, whedon-istic media where no show or comic could just be unapologetically itself without getting weird and "haha isnt it DUMB we're making this?" the whole time. A manga about a guy turning into a chainsaw that is absolutely about a dude who turns into a chainsaw fucking appeals, okay?

Anyways. This is about the anime. The anime almost feels like a film at times- the characters move very.. Realistically. Very on model, which worked in some ways but made it a bit less expressive in others. It didn't have the punk charm of the manga, but otherwise? Steller presentation. I like how the anime further emphasizes that Denji is a kid- giving him more childish mannerisms (such as the infamous scene with himeno) that really hammers home the point of his character- that he's just a manipulated kid who wants some kind of normalcy and, most of all, love.

CHAINSAW MAN('s manga. part 2)

It makes me feel like the absolute joker watching how well thought out Asa is as a protagonist. Traumatic experiences can strip us of our identities- make us feel like all we've done is survive, and therefore, that's all we can do, so watching Asa fret over being a bore and be unable to connect to others without worrying about how things will crumble down is just a delight. I love her. Denji is also great so far! He's just so tired. This part's art has so much subtle improvement and once again Fujimoto is delivering bangers. Yoshida is never beating the yaoi allegations.

FEAR AND HUNGER: TERMINA

The fun thing about autism is that it forces you to enjoy things in the most "yeah this is my life now" of ways, which is fine when your interests are something normal you can explain to people like "dungeons and dragons" or "sailor moon" and not Termina, a game that makes you genuinely debate not if you should sever your enemy's leg, but which one.

Termina is crazy. A survival horror rpg where death is punishing, limbs can be lost AND trans women can do necromancy? It's great and it's terrifying. There's literally an entire area that I avoid because it freaks me out so bad so I GENUINELY take the long way everywhere to avoid it every time.

It's one of those games where any enemy can not only kill you, but maim you in ways that fundamentally change how you play the game. Dealing with enemies is a puzzle: how do you approach them? Do you deal with them now so you never have to deal with them again? Do you run around so you can wait until you're stronger? Do you shoot them from afar or save the precious ammo for something even worse?

It's a special kind of satisfying, but definitely not a game for everyone. I'd recommend reading the content warnings, as it's a dark fantasy with dark fantasy themes. It's also a game for adults only, no exceptions. Feel free to message me if you want to know about any content in the game that isn't listed out in the warnings on the store page. I might make a larger blog post about it later.

SHAMELESS

Ok, at first I really liked it! It's very funny, the characters are very well written, and it's very captivating... But I'm going to be real, the amount of Leering Shots Of Teenage Girls in what I watched of this show is enough to drive me bananas. I don't want to look up the sixteen year old girl's skirt, netflix, I'm ambiguously in my mid twenties. The show's insistence on making me look at karen naked ruined it for me. It didn't even feel like it was saying anything? It just kept happening!!! Anyways, tl;dr, shameless is not for me.

VELMA

So, listen. I need to admit something: I've been deep in the Western Cartoons Discourse Trenches since I googled "My Little Poney Forums" as a young teenager. I never really participated, but I'm aware of the cycle of Discourse that happens whenever a show Like This comes out- a show with marginalized characters that isn't very good, or at least is perceived as such.

I watched Sacrificial Trash and you should too

What generally happens is an outpour of outrage and criticism that's 10% warranted, 30% nitpicky and 60% literal actual bigotry. You end up with a lot of video essays of Yelling Men With Glasses that makes me, a contrarian hipster, really interested in proving the internet wrong and actually Enjoying The Thing.

After watching all of Velma, my verdict is:

I Enjoyed Watching It But Would Not Recommend It To Most

The show is funny! It's visually incredible! It has a fun plotline! It has a lot of nods to older Scooby Doo cartoons that I, as a Child Born After 1960, Enjoy! And I like basically every main character and most of the side characters...

Except... It has two massive, glaring issues in its writing. Two major themes that not only make the show nearly unrecommendable to most people, but also revolve around the worst character in the show, Velma herself.

To start, this show has a massive, gaping problem with self-hating anti-indian racism.

Every time Velma's ethnicity is brought up, it's made out to be a gag!! It's to make fun of her!! She's called an ugly gorilla constantly!!! She's made fun of for being hairy!!! And it's never addressed!!! It's just a running gag that Velma hates being Indian and so does everyone else. It's very uncomfortable. I was hoping it'd tone down but it doesn't. The show doesn't even seem all that aware that her self hatred about her own culture and her ethnic features is... a bad thing? It's very strange. I know a lot of south asian people who refuse to watch the show or didn't continue past episode one because of this and MAN. I get it.

The show also has a bit of a misogny problem, which is weird because it tries to be feminist at times? With Fred learning to appreciate women for more than their appearances, which was nice, but the amount of times femininity and appearance gets conflated with being dumb and vapid is... a lot. And the show seems half aware that this is bad while also just. keeping on doing it. And Velma is usually the one being misogynistic throughout the show, and while they kinda try to develop her past it, it doesn't feel like the show takes it seriously as a theme.

Anyways. If you watched and went "man, this show was very well produced and beautifully executed in its visuals!" like a huge nerd, please know that Amy Winfrey, creator of Making Fiends and a director for both Tuca And Bertie AND Bojack Horseman was the supervising producer and I highly advise checking her out.

PS: Glenn Howerton should do more voice work

[kaythefloppa]

Part 2 of the review is under the cut! Beware of spoilers!

Again, I will re-iterate: This specific animation feels on par with an actual theatrical release (or hell, even some of those polished Disney direct-to-DVD movies in the 2000s like Lion King 3 or Bambi II). It is beautiful to look at.

The only animals that can take down a blue whale are Orcas, but beyond that, yes size does matter when it comes to a blue whale's low mortality rate.

I really find it sweet how this show casually has Chris naming animal friends. The show initially set it up as being Martin's "thing" and presenting Chris doing it as a rarity, but now they just have it as the "new normal" where he can name animals without Martin's influence. The very next episode does a juxtaposition of this where the entire crew goes around naming animals as the plot, but it's not a bad juxtaposition at all.

Also, I really like the idea of them naming baby animals in the language of their region. Maybe it's because I've spent too much time in the Lion King fandom but I find that really unique. (And context: Mambiky means "Jump" in Malgasy).

Since he didn't name the mom, I will: Mihira (meaning "Sing" in Malagasy)

Maybe it's because I hyper fixate on the flash games too much which resulted in me caring way more about the disc colors than I should, but it is so aesthetically pleasing that these discs are blue and green to match their animals' colors and users (I forgot to mention this in Part 1 but the Anaconda Disc should've been green dammit)

I am slowly warming up to these new suits. I'm not even kidding. I like how goofy they are. And once again, this is the same episode where the fucking Wild Pony Suit was in a callback, so of course I'm going to praise these suits.

She plottin'

Those Zachbots get mangled by the enemy literally once a week and yet they're strong enough to chuck this big-ass turtle into the beach?? Also, what happened to that Tortuga disruptor blast, that would be very useful right now.

Also also, the Tortuga can swim. This is the equivalent of throwing a crocodile into the river with the intent to kill it, hoping it won't bite you or swim away to safety.

I did the math. They spent a full minute and 10 seconds focusing on this model of the Earth completely deteriorating. When I first asked, I kept asking myself "What is the point?" I've seen this episode almost four times - Knowing how it ends, I think this episode would have shot itself in the foot if they didn't include this scene. More on that later, but yeah, it is a good scene.

Fun fact: This is the exact reason why Indris are endangered. And for a species that literally cannot evolve anywhere else that, is a keystone species of the very habitat they have gone to evolve in, that is the last thing they need. I'm surprised the episode didn't mention that, but that's just me.

Legitimate question here: Where the fuck is Rex?

No really, where the fuck is he? He's usually the one who mans the pavers while Paisley overviews. We saw him literally just 2 episodes ago. In a vacuum, it makes little sense, but is equally as minute of an issue. But once again, if you know how this episode ends, it becomes a major plot-hole. If they resolve this in a future episode, ideally in the next batch of episodes, fine I'll lay off but there is no reason for him to not be here.

Notice Zach and Paisley's differing reactions to the Kratts telling them to fuck off. This will come into play later, but it is a decent example of a set-up to a pay-off, (again, can only be noticed from a retrospective view). And I think it does help said pay-off.

I know that Zach has tried to kill the bros before multiple times, as with all the other villains but I can't be the only one who was shocked at how the Zachbots almost SLICED CHRIS IN HALF on a kids' show. I actually yelled "oh shit!" a this!

God this is such an asspull it's not even funny...

1. SINCE F**KING WHEN?!?!?!

2. "Theoretically"

BULLSHIT!!!

ZACH HAS LITERALLY DONE THE EXACT SAME THING BECAUSE IT WAS A FLAW. A BUG. NOT A FEATURE. A BUG. THAT HE FOUND OUT. AND EXPLOITED. THAT YOU NEVER FIXED. I REPEAT. BULL. FUCKING. SHIT.

3. If you could do this now, what stopped you from doing it at ANY point in the series??

4. What the fuck happened to the Creature Souvenir collection? All Chris could've done was tell Jimmy to reverse teleport shed anaconda skin back to the HQ and save it for later.

5. What are the point of the gloves if you can hit the rewind button on the suit? Since the animal's DNA apparently doesn't mean jackshit here???

6. Did it not occur to you that maybe Zach, who has done this countless of times before for years on end, would probably be able to undo what you plan on doing, because that's EXACTLY what he does!

7. WHY IS THIS EVEN POSSIBLE??? THE ENTIRE EXISTENCE OF THE RING CHIP WAS TO PREVENT THIS. THERE ARE SO MANY THINGS THAT CAN GO WRONG WHICH THIS DOES.

This is the woman who invented time travel, I'm being selfish by expecting basic fucking logic to dictate this situation.

So there's a Blue Crab Power Suit now?? Don't you think that would've been more effective, especially since this is the beach?? Will we ever get a blue crab episode?? Does anything mean anything anymore????

Still better than the Mountain Goat Suit.

We stan a self-aware queen (also, replace this image with Dr. Frankenstein and his monster with the same dialogue, you will get the EXACT same effect).

S7 please stop giving me reasons to slander Aviva, it hurts me more than it hurts you.

Petition to have Chris be the new villain in Kung Fu Panda 5, the Chameleon ain't got shit on him.

THis show can be hilariously badass when it needs to be.

And here is a huge contender for the best scene in the entire damn show. These 2 octopuses go out of their way to save Chris from the Zachbot. It's one of those things that is so random that it you wind up liking it so much because of what it does.

Also, I think there was a missed opportunity for Chris to activate Octopus Power here.

I like how polite she was in asking them to leave. At first glance, it's odd and funny, but just wait. We're reaching the home stretch here.

Once again, this is another juxtaposition and one that is so cleverly written. Paisley is obsessed with order, believing nature to be messy and in need of "correction" through building. Her entire belief system being deconstructed by seeing the coral reef being built naturally and seeing its beauty is an amazing bit of dramatic irony that surprises me even for this show. It's an interesting study on the character.. (though the fact that up until this point she's been painfully underutilized, makes previous episodes.. feel kinda downy).

This is another interesting step. Most villain redemptions (well written ones at least) focus on the villain regretting their past actions and acknowledging them to be in the wrong. Whilst that step is (unfortunately) kinda missing in this episode, it showcases something equally enthralling. They change for the better out of a specific concern for the future. As in, "If I stop doing X, then this bad thing will not happen because it should not happen." I don't often see that enough in most shows, so once again, this is a very ingenuitive take on the character. If I sound like a parrot, it's only because this particular moment of the episode is the beginning of the trajectory change for the entire fucking show, so I have to focus on it and how it's written specifically so we can get to the elephant in the room.

There is nothing - Absolutely nothing that prepared me for this moment. I was in sheer denial the whole time, waiting for the catch. I thought it was going to be a fake-out like the one in the Christmas special, or just the villain surrendering for the episode. I was fully ready for a twist. Only to realize that this WAS the twist. They pushed themselves into a corner they can't back out of.

Paisly Paver, is one of the good guys now.

Now, here's the question on everybody's minds? Is this change permanent? I mean, despite Wild Kratts's strong continuity, they do hit the reset button a lot when it comes to some things. Well, in an article by Martin Kratt, he says in a non-spoilery way,

“There is a surprise at the end of the special. I can't tell you too much. But there's a really interesting twist that happens with one of the show's villains in Our Blue and Green World that will change that villain’s arc for the rest of the series.”

....which means that this isn't a fluke or an April Fools' joke (which a few people, myself included initially thought). This is an honest to god change for the show.

How do I feel about it? Well... on one level, I think it could've been done really better. Like, give Paisley more appearances of her as a villain. That way we get used to her being one of the status quo villains. I took count. She has only appeared in 6 episodes of the show, half of which were solo appearances, the other half were team-ups with the villains. That's... weirdly enough far too few appearances for us to treat her as one of our main villains. The writers do seem to understand that making a villain too villainous for too long has the risk of their character crossing the moral event horizon which would shoot themselves in the foot if they ever thought about redeeming such a character. However, on the other side of things, we at least need to recognize our villain as a villain for a redemption to not be jarring, so the underutilization of Paisley brings this down.

Additionally, there's the absence of Rex and the implication it has. He's for some reason not there during Paisley's redemption and has very little to do with the creation of "Blue and Green World" at the end. Does that imply that he is still a villain? That he's not gonna get redeemed? Beyond Dabio, he’s the only villain I would’ve actually expected to get a redemption arc. Paisley and Rex have some of the healthiest relationships out of all the villains, arguably all of the characters. I don’t like the idea that Paisley will just abandon Rex and their entire business in favor of the enemy and this resulting in him them having to fight or worse - him potentially being written off the show. In a future episode that continues to delve into Paisley’s heel-face, turn, they need to resolve the loose ends in regards to that dynamic.

Also, still bummed that my Donita x Paisley ship has gone down the drain along with any chance of them teaming up. Again, if they were going to redeem her, they could’ve at least done that as one final hurrah for the character before doing it. At best, we’ll probably see an episode of them facing off which will remedy the blow a little bit.

But, with all things said and done, the execution is still okay. The way they give Paisley a heel-face turn doesn’t seem all that forced and her first incentive is to do the exact opposite of what she set out to do. Build, to help animals, not harm them. And the set-up they do is pretty clever. She’s less outwardly shitty about it as Zach is, she grills him sometimes, and the purpose of the “rock” scene comes very much into play, tying the plot together in a neat little bow.

And again, the fact that they had the balls to do this and to follow through on it, earns a lot of my respect.

I get that it’s standard for villain redemptions to come with a wardrobe change but this is ridiculous. The colors do not match AT. ALL. I really hope they don’t make this her permanent look, or make Rex’s new wardrobe change anything like this (if he gets one).

Wait... so are they narrating or talking directly to the audience? It feels like I'm watching an episode of Go Diego Go lmao.

I was going to question how the fuck Blue and Green World was allowed to be authorized and made, especially with Paisley's track record, but then I remembered that the Kratts own a goddamn flying turtle and other inventory and shit. Getting the funds for this must have been the equivalent of purchasing glasses for the eclipse!

Tumblr will not let me upload anymore images so some notes:

Some Wild Kratts kids from the earlier seasons! Obviously we can't hear them speak because their VAs are grown up now but it's still nice seeing them again.

Ignoring how allowing a bunch of kids to fully interact with wildlife without major adult supervision can go hilariously wrong here, (gotta suspend my disbelief), this is such a great way of showing how construction can be done without going at the expense of wildlife or sacred places in general. It's a message that I think should be pushed way more!

An instrumental reprise of the musical number without any singing!! Glory be!!!

The closer involves whale tagging. Very exciting.

CONCLUSION:

CONS:

Paisley's redemption missing a few fundamental details (INCLUDING REX BEING THERE WHAT THE FUCK).

The lack of a climax. Like, the trailers hyped it up as this big special and the climax is not a big battle but just one villain saying "nope, no more" and another just fucking off. Maybe it's to subvert our expectations but you could've worked around this!

Paisley's wardrobe change.

Aviva once again having to be dumbed down for the sake of the plot... *sigh.*

PROS:

It still felt big. It felt like a bigger episode with bigger stakes [sorta] and bigger characterization than your regular episode. I'm of the opinion that S7 is the most experimental of the lot so far, because they spent 2 years working out their scripts and animations, and they knew that a section of the fanbase would be waiting so they decided to play by their strengths, but take more risks with it, do things outside of the show's comfort zone to lead it to new heights. It's "out there." This episode is a perfect example of that and for as many times as it misses, it also hits too. I like the animals, I like the suits, the animation, the themes, the morals, the writing, the characters, the settings, the education. On some level, it's everything I've been expecting for in S7.

They definitely raised the bar this season with this special. I'd argue that it's one of the best episodes of the season so far, one of the best two-parters and arguably the best episode of the series. Now that isn't a final verdict, there are several others I like far more, but I would call this the most respectable well-conceived story of the show, and it raised my expectations here. Initially I was worried this episode would potentially lead to the show's downfall but after analyzing it, I think I see good things for Wild Kratts from here on out.

Final Ranking: 8.9/10.

Wild Kratts - Our Blue and Green World: Part 1: Review [Spoilers]

Welp, here it is, the Wild Kratts TV movie (not to be confused with the feature film they've been teasing us with since 2021). There's been a lot of hype around this special and season, especially with how much the latter was being hyped up during the hiatus. Let's see if the blue and green bros were able to deliver: Spoilers under the cut

Well, this is certainly an attention grabber!

This entire live action intro is shot and edited like an animated Wild Kratts episode, it's glorious.

Woah, intro change!

They said the thing! They said the thing!

HELP THIS IS SO RELATABLE. Also, THE BOYS ARE FIGHTING

Lmao I don't think they do it very often, but using animals/nature in their insults is very creative.

Also, whooping crane episode when?

This entire song is mercifully short. Like most character sung songs in Wild Kratts, it's not good, but this at least is clever in its lyrics and its visuals. It feels like a Disney reference at best and I am content with that. I also ADORED seeing the Draco and Walrus Suit return again. It's arguably the best musical number in the series. No, that is not saying a lot.

MARTIN WHY ARE YOU THE ONE WHO'S MIFFED YOU NEARLY MUFASA'D YOUR LITTLE BROTHER

CHRIS WHY ARE YOU MILDLY INCONVENIENCED YOU GOT ACRAPHOBIA FALLING FROM THAT HEIGHT

When I first saw the clip, I thought that they were going somewhere with this, like they'd activate Peacock Powers at the end when they recognized the compatibility and blue and green. But nope. Wasted potential is an understatement.

Also, where the fuck are they right now? In a previous shot there was Target the Chameleon, implying that they've been to Madagascar, but that is an Indian peafowl, and as far as I'm concerned, they don't live in Madagascar. Were they just having an off-day? These animals have little to nothing to do with the plot when they really shouldn't have, so I don't see why they couldn't have just shown a projector image or something.

Remember when I joked about the Wild Pony Power Suit returning in S7.... fuck you Apollo.

Man, they are eating it up with the animation here. It's hard to tell with screengrabs but man, is it fluid.

The first half of this episode is mixed. While it feels like the brothers are incredibly stubborn, it also does make sense for them to be this fixated on their favorites. So I can totally buy this. It could've been insufferable to watch, but it wasn't.

As if YOU haven't spied on them since the first time your dorito-headed ass showed up on screen

Did you find that funny? Because not only do they do a similar joke like that later on, but they follow through on that joke in the most unexpected way you will shit your pants when you first ingest it.

Oh my god if they make a Creature Power Suit off of that bird, I will take back any diss I've made, that is so beautiful.

Good to know that Aviva put the button near the chest and not near the back.

Maybe it's just me but this is kinda pushing it. Chris is literally getting his organs crushed, I think that should matter more than A) being right or B) trying to get 2 people to stop fighting.

I'm loving the callback and what this leads up to but ew, all this does is remind me about how ugly bright the color pallatte in S6. Really glad they fixed it in S7.

HELL FUCKING YES

This episode finds really unique ways of showing how the two different biomes are interconnected. It's like Rainforest Stew's (very brilliantly handled) message only to a larger degree. Kids can learn a lot from this.

I fucking love this episode, man.

Honestly, the way they write Paisley in the first half of the episode is very in-line with her character. Most shows that do what this episode does has them be out-of-character as a set-up, but here, she's just roasting the fuck out of Zach. Once again, recontextualized entirely in the climax.

HOW THE FUCK DID HE GET TO MADAGASCAR FROM THE GODDAMN AMAZON IN ONE AFTERNOON THAT IS LIKE MORE THAN 1,000 MILES AWAY?? ARE ANACONDAS THAT FAST?????

Also, INDRIS!!!!! :D

I was frankly expecting this to horribly backfire but spoilers, it doesn't. This actually winds up working. Common Aviva W.

To be continued.... will the blue and green rivalry end? Will one prove superior over another? And will they be able to stop Zach and Paisley and save the planet earth? And will this change the adventures of the Wild Kratts team forever? Stay tuned for part 2!

Pros:

The live action segments.

The animation of the earth's model.

The musical number not being ass.

Paisely's catty behavior.

The Anaconda Suit.

The inventive ways they show how the stability of the Earth is complex. There are a lot of ways it functions and thus a lot of ways it needs to survive

The comedy.

Cons:

The villains do not do anything until the second half of this episode. In fact, they're left completely in the backdrop. I expected them to make their prescence known and for Aviva to invent the discs to get them together for the SAKE of fighting the villains. But no. It makes the stakes feel hollow, which is the opposite of what they should be gunning for in an hour long special that they hype the shit out of.

CONCLUSION:

It was an "okay" set-up. It did live up to some of the hype it had, but not all of it. Honestly if it wasn't for the second half of this episode, this movie would be mediocre or slightly above average, but no. They do pick themselves off the ground and... they do jump the shark. But we'll get to that next time

[weirdmarioenemies]

Name: Propeller

Debut: Kirby’s Dream Land 2

Propeller may not be one of my top favorite Kirby enemies, but gee! It sure is one of the Weirdest ones! You may not be able to tell that from looking at it. It is a cute little thing with a propeller, and its name is Propeller. You are probably thinking it will spin its propeller and fly. And you would be right. But that is only the beginning...

You see, in their first appearance, Propellers, known here as Propeller BOMBS, are quite scary! Not because they do the “cute thing becomes evil” thing we’ve all seen so many times, but because they are frighteningly dangerous! When Kirby is on his own, Propeller Bomb could not care less. It feels nothing toward Kirby. It’s just there. But when Kirby has an Animal Friend with him... ruh roh!

This is the single most vile thing one could possibly see, in Propeller Bomb’s opinion. This is just too much. Kirby is fine, but a Creature? Oh, Propeller Bomb HATES creatures! If Kirby is here with an Animal Friend, Propeller Bomb will become furious, and chase them down, instantly vaporizing the animal on contact. An entire Mola mola, gone in an instant, due to the pure malice of this flying fiend. And even worse, when angry, they are nearly unstoppable, with a massive amount of health, and their only weakness being Ice, but it’s easy to assume they may just have no weakness at all. If Kirby is able to avoid them long enough, though, Propeller Bomb will flee, searching for prey elsewhere, as this one is clearly not worth the energy...

That still wasn’t the Weird thing about Propeller, though. THIS is! In their next major appearance in Dream Land 3, Propeller reappears, but this time, it behaves quite differently. Here, it... hatches from an egg! Into a random color, each with its own face! Why? I don’t know! But we do have an assortment of flavors to choose from, now! In order: Yolk, Blue Raspberry, Silt, Mount Kaputar Slug, and Ink. Yum yum!

Here, Propellers do not instantly kill an Animal Friend, but now, their color determines which of Kirby’s friends they will hate in particular! For some reason. There is not really any indication that this is the case. And just to make it even weirder, there isn’t one for EVERY Animal Friend. Not a single one has it out for Pitch!

Can you blame them, though? Look at him!

That still wasn’t quite the whole weird thing about Propeller, though! There is even more! They next appear in Kirby 64 my beloved, and wouldn’t you know it, they change again! Now they are always purple and happy, and will chase Kirby as long as he has an ability, but if not, he can inhale them... and get the Ice ability! What the heck! They don’t use any ice powers, and they don’t outwardly communicate it at all, but they give Ice regardless. Once their downfall, now internalized... is this character development?

After the Weird Propeller Trilogy, this enemy went unused for a while, until its triumphant return in Planet Robobot! Here, it is roboticized, establishing that they were organic before, and they make funny faces. Get a load of this!

As of Star Allies, Propeller is established as once again a series mainstay! But... I’m a little disappointed, honestly. It’s now found a somewhat basic niche, and is remaining consistent. Consistency is the LAST thing I want from Propeller! I want each of its appearances to be utterly baffling. They could grow on trees like fruits and give Kirby the Wheel ability, or drive around in boats that will explode if Kirby is green. If it’s predictable, it ain’t Propeller!©

I would like to end this post with an Awesome Propeller Moment. Here is a screenshot from the awesome ROMhack, Kirby’s Halloween Adventure, where Propeller appears to grant the Tornado ability! A fitting thing for it to do, and one it has not done before, so if you ask me, That’s Propeller! Also, this is an amazing ROMhack overall, one that makes an already incredible game even more awesome, with all new level layouts and tilesets, as well as all sorts of references to delight Kirby fans! I highly recommend it, you can find it here! Have fun!