#it’s the best kirby game 2 me it’s just so so good

[pumpkinnkidd]

HAPPY BIRTHDAY FORGOTTEN LAND!!! 🎊 🎉

( rambles in the tags! )

[paintpanic]

🌙

[etherealstar-writes]

I WANNA BE YOURS | LIONESSES X READER | PT 9

pairings: lionesses x reader

summary: in which you're accidentally added to a random group chat, not knowing they're all actually famous footballers, and obliviously end up having many of them competing for your love and attention.

part: nine

part one here

✦ ——— ✦ ——— ✦

You were seated on the couch with your best friend, Dani, in her apartment with bowls of snacks stacked in front of you guys. Dani was the one currently obsessed with the women football since England was hosting the Euros, and would be the one spamming you with edits.

She'd begged you to come tonight to watch the quarter finals with her with England versing Spain. And you'd finally given in, hoping to finally get cultured and then flex off to the group chat that you finally knew the names of more players other than just Lucy Bronze.

And so here you were, your eyes glued on the tv screen as the National Anthem had ended and the match was about to start. Your eyebrows had furrowed in confusion when the line-ups had been displayed for a few seconds before the kick-off whistle was blown. The last names of the Lionesses were somehow familiar, but before you could dwell on it more, it went away.

"Okay so," Dani began, pointing to the different players as the match began. "The blonde one with the number 8 on her back is Leah Williamson, my personal fav, and the captain of the team."

You nodded along.

Leah Williamson. Seems familiar.

"And then the one in goals is Mary Earps. There's Lucy Bronze with the number 2 on her back and Mille Bright next to Leah with number 6. Over there running is Keira Walsh and she has 4 on her back."

Your eyebrows furrowed again when you heard the name Earps and Bright, but decided to ignore it.

"Right there is Lauren Hemp with 11 next to Fran Kirby who's 14, and that one is Rachel Daly with number 3 on her back."

Nahhh, it couldn't be a coincidence, could it? Leah, Earps, Bright, Kie, Lauren, and now Daly?

"Oh, and that's Stanway with the ball. She just passed it to Meado!"

Hold on.

Your eyes widened. "Meado?"

"Yeah, Beth Mead. We call her Meado." Dani nodded, glancing at you and saw that you had a shocked look on your face. "You good?"

"Wait, so would Stanway's first name be Georgia by any chance?" You questioned.

"Yeah, you guessed it right!" Dani laughed. "It looks like my edits are helping."

You forced a smile on your face and nodded along, but internally you were screaming. You grabbed your phone and googled all the players on the football squad including the subs, noticing the resemblance to all the names on the group chat.

Leah Williamson. Georgia Stanway. Ella Toone. Alessia Russo. Beth Mead. Lotte Wubben-Moy. Niamh Charles. Lucy Bronze. Mary Earps. And it went on. Some had only spoken once but you had seen their name.

While Dani was focused on the game, you were lost in your own thoughts. It all seemed like a big joke right now.

The times they'd be in the gym and would be training together. The photos they would send on the chat where they were in what you now realised were their football kits, and the football games they would pass off as a bit of fun. And the fact that Lucy Bronze had commented your post.

It all made sense when you thought about it.

These past few months you'd been chatting with them, you'd thought you had gotten to "know" them better, but really you knew practically nothing because they'd continued to hide about who they were and would change the topic when you did try to bring it up, all while knowing basically everything about you.

And suddenly, you felt very stupid and very played, as well as kinda betrayed.

✦ ——— ✦ ——— ✦

liked by danisterling and 140 others

yourusername: me raiding all of dani's snacks while trying to understand football. england national football team or national diving team? who knows 🤷‍♀️ is it coming home lionesses?

danisterling: it's coming homeeeee ↳ yourusername: let's hope so

laniangelo: maybe you'll get lucky and another of them will see this post and you can finally become a wag ↳ yourusername: new fear: unlocked

chasejackson: looking flawless l/n 😩 ↳ yourusername i know 😌

✦ ——— ✦ ——— ✦

THE NATIONAL DIVING TEAM

the imposter well done on the match girls! you guys played great loved the goals toone and stanway

elton

thank you so much y/n!

stairway ahh thank you y/n really appreciate it wait .... HOW DID YOU KNOW THAT ITS US

neev oh no

the imposter have fun messing around with someone else and hiding your identities from them! xx

the imposter left

meado what were you guys expecting? you were literally going to be on tv playing football she was bound to see and find out soon you should've told her sooner

stairway we messed up didn't we?

willybum yeah

neev we gotta fix this

the REAL karate kid how she probably hates us

elton i got an idea

✦ ——— ✦ ——— ✦

leahwilliamsonn started following yourusername alessiarusso99 started following yourusername ellatoone started following yourusername stanwaygeorgia started following yourusername niamhcharles17 started following yourusername lottewubbenmoy started following yourusername lucybronze started following yourusername 1maryearps started following yourusername and more started following yourusername

✦ ——— ✦ ——— ✦

part ten here

[sleepyhead-poll]

ROUND 4D, MATCH 1 OUT OF 2!

Propaganda Under the Cut:

Snorlax:

he be snorin'. he be lax.

big sleeby... <3 he just like me fr fr

i mean it's snorlax cmon

Always sleeping. Always blocking the way of everyone. Will not move for anyone, must sleep.

This pokémon is the embodiment of sleeping (or hibernation more precisely). In the games, they block you path by sleeping in the middle of the road and you have to wake them up with a flute. In battles, they often use the attack "rest".

eepy. snoozle. his name is “snore lax” i dont think you get much more restful than that

Snorlax propaganda! - the og sleeper seen in gen 1. has longevity and we respect that - literally called the sleeping pokemon in the pokedex - blocks your path by sleeping in no less than three generations and three remakes, requiring you to wake it up - also does this in pokemon ranger - based on game freak employee kōji nishino, which is a subtweet if i've ever seen one - has a practically 100% usage in gen 1 and 2 ou competitive, and always runs rest - one of the few pokemon to learn rest, snore, and sleep talk by level up, no tms, breeding, or tutors required - the mascot of pokemon sleep, and your goal is to feed it so it can get a good night's sleep with you. literally can't get more sleepy than that. - an event snorlax can be caught in pokemon go where he wears a little sleeping cap awwww baby - also has an adorable sleepwear skin in pokemon unite - is able to have the ability deep sleep in pokemon conquest, allowing it to recover hp if it falls asleep - gigantamax snorlax is described as "the size of a mountain—and moves about as much as one as well" - you can get tons of officially licensed pjs with snorlax on them, perfectly fitting its sleepiness - you can also get these delightfully cute bookends where snorlax is sleeping? - also snorlax appears in the music video for celestial by ed sheeran. not necessarily sleepy but i think it's funny like how many other contenders are in ed sheeran lore - i like it

SNORLAX PROPAGANDA PART TWO?!?! last march, pokemon launched a "project snorlax" campaign meant to promote snorlax specifically and it came with a bunch of neat material, i'll put it under a cut lmao [Click link to view material "under the cut" in original propaganda post]

Kirby:

Kirby looove napping and sleeping and is too cute when he is :3

They the littlest guy ever, all that they like to do is eat, play with their friends, and sleep. There’s a copy ability called sleep that literally just makes them tired, and in forgotten land there’s a more powerful sleep ability that give them a little blanket and bed. An eepy little guy.

kirby starts off a lot of his games napping & in forgotten land you can even take a nap with elfilin to restore health and it's ADORABLE. and of course, he has his sleep ability, which just makes him take a nap right after inhaling certain enemies.

He's a ball who likes to eat, sleep, and play with his friends, and just so happens to be a godslaying entity that may or may not be an incarnation of a deity. Also just look at his nap animations in Kirby and the Forgotten Land

kirby has canonically slept through at least one hostile invasion

[desultory-novice]

...Needs Therapy? Tierlist

I don't often do these but I happened to see @icedragonlizard ‘s list and liked it enough that I wanted to do my own take on it based around my own HCs for the cast! (in a light-hearted way!)

[BREAKDOWN OF THE WHY'S BELOW!!]

-

[Row 1 / Doesn't Need Therapy]

I almost put Kirby in his own tier for "...is the therapist" but I thought it might look like he was giving up on the last row! (And in some cases he kinda did but still! XD) But anyway, yes. I think Kirby is just as strong mentally as he is physically. He doesn't need someone to talk to about bad dreams. He's the one who eats up bad dreams. ^_-

OG Animal friends (Rick, Coo, Kine) are all good in my book. Maybe they're just blissfully unaware of some of the chaos from the later games or maybe they're just okay with it cause they've got such a good foundation of support built up already? And despite creating "Apologies," I think Adeleine is not all that troubled on the day-to-day and is being an adventurous kid living her best life right now! Ribbon went through some trauma but I actually think she'd be handling it okay? She could arguably be moved down a tier though. Gryll MIGHT could be moved down a tier too, depending on whether you see them as a compulsive thrill-seeker or not! Elline is also doing great. That notebook-diary of hers is peak good mental health routine!

-

[Row 2 / Got Sorted Out in a Few Sessions]

I don't think Gooey's actual -problems- would/could be solved in a few sessions, but it's clear to me he's living his best life and I think our fictional therapist would see that and encourage him to keep going! Just let the guy know that it's okay to not know who you are. Bandee by my judgement has some issues, but he seems the type to respond really well to therapy and healthy suggestions!

Pitch could maybe be moved up a tier if he really is just a baby bird. But I look in those eyes and I just...wonder sometimes if he's okay up there?? Vul definitely needs someone to talk to, but I don't think his issues are all that severe either? Voted #1 Regular Guy on this entire table. The Fairy Queen and Claycia could use someone to talk to about possession trauma, I think. Void's here instead of a lower tier because the way I see it Void already GOT therapy in game! Clawroline and Gorimondo could be moved up a tier as well, but Carol may want to talk about seeing her partner, y'know, lose his soul and Gorimondo's routines MAY be slightly unhealthy?? (How many times are you going to let Meta Knight curb stomp you, man?)

-

[Row 3 / There's a LOT to Unpack Here...]

Whispy Woods has got a long history with Kirby, sure, but the whole attacking people as soon as you wake up? I think life's taken a toll on him and that's gonna need some discussion. Dedede is...obvious. Nothing unique to add here! Chuchu's placement depends on if she's still crushing hard on Kirby after all this time or not or just sees them as friends now. Kind of a joke placement at her expense! I’m sorry, Chuchu! I really do think you’re great! Best flapjack octopus!!

Skirby could maybe be moved down a tier as their coping methods are leaning a little into the sketchy as of late! Have they turned to violence for kicks or are they just challenging their mainverse self to grow stronger? Daroach is less here for Dark Nebula and more for all the OTHER stuff he lets slip in Mass Attack! (When did your hatred of tomatoes first start, Daroach?) Prince Fluff is here entirely because of the unused missing mom lore. Without that, he's so fluffy (haha) I'd moved him all the way up to "Doesn't need therapy." Flamberge definitely has issues, as the who~le cult does, but she still strikes me as the most balanced of the three mages? As I recall it, she actually sounded kinda excited to see the Star Allies during their second fight, as opposed to the first, which was just revenge for Fran. Leongar could be bumped down a tier, since he had his soul shattered in addition to being body-puppetted and forced to speak and adopt a foreign culture for years (?!) by an evil alien lifeform(!!) but...I dunno, he seems so chill in the ending and is seen back with the support of his pack? I think he'd be really receptive?? Elfilin also has sooooo many issues, but he's demonstrated so much growth already that I think with some help processing the return of/unification with his other self, his prognosis is very good!

-

[Row 4 / Gonna Be There for the Long Haul]

It's not that I think the lonely/jealous thing for DMS is particularly damning, but when combined with the ~Dark Matter~ thing and the fact that it may be nearly impossible for them to willingly go against hive programming/defy Zero is what's gonna give them a difficult road ahead. (Gooey's a sign it can be done though.) Honestly, Drawcia might could maybe be moved down a tier? I mean, if you see her "art therapy" as the World of Drawcia then... :sweats: But I have a lot of positive Drawcia HC and I want her to be happy ^^

I think Magolor is another self-explanatory one. Even Merry Magoland makes you wonder if he's still, y'know, "okay" on the inside. Taranza and Sectonia are obvious ones too. Susie is the only one I would consider maybe moving up a tier because she's got issues but the only one she was clinging badly too in my mind was the stuff with her father and she's moved on from that better than Taranza, who was still looking to resurrect Sectonia circa Star Allies. Was tempted to move President Haltmann down a tier simply because...I don't think a therapist can do anything about the evil super computer induced brain damage/LITERAL MIND DELETION.

Francisca gets here because of the corpse-sicle thing but maybe she should be moved down a tier too? ^^ I think most of the fandom has similar feelings on Zan and her level of damage. (/loving) And while he would have deserved it mid-game, I didn't want to put Hyness in the bottom tier now because that felt kinda cruel given the guy is trying his best to get better in the end of Star Allies!

-

[Row 5 / "...Well, I think we're done here."]

I don't think there's ANY reasoning with Kracko. Kracko is just a lifelong hater! (And we love him for that!) With Marx and Meta Knight, of course the joke is that they're both irreparably unhinged (/pos) but I think there's an element of, "Well, you SEEM to have your life sorted out according to priorities that make the most sense to you (...even if those aren't what the rest of society feels is healthy OR safe...) and you seem happy where you are so, best of luck to you!"

Zero is either emotionless or made of negative emotions and neither feels receptive to therapy, I'm afraid. With Galacta Knight... I just think it's best for the therapist to get out of there before the office is destroyed! Why risk the chance it doesn't work out?! And while I don't think Dark Meta Knight is hopeless myself, I DO think the therapist would be totally valid to politely tell them, "...I don't think you need MY help ^^; Have you considered checking out your local SCA chapter?" (Alternatively, DMK could be raised a FEW levels because between the joy with which he goes at those crayon drawings and the wing-sunning flappies, he may know how to treat himself better/ know better self-care than MK - hilariously.)

ShaDe may a walking bundle of possessions in a body and I don't know how you would tackle that in therapy?! Get him an exorcism?! Sillydillo is also living their best life with, um ...a-art...therapy... so I think they're fine...? Yes. Fine. Let's go with fine. (I love you so much, Sillydillo. I love you and your only-boss-in-Kirby-with-a-one-hit-instant-kill-attack-and-it's-shockingly-brutal-in-a-still-safe-for-little-kids-way! Shine on, you crazy star!) ...Attempting to talk down Fecto Forgo nearly led to the destruction of TWO planets so let's give them a little more time centuries to cool off first, yeah? Sounds good!

...Lastly, I almost moved Morpho Knight up to the first tier because, I mean, THEY don't seem to have any problems. THEY'RE just doing their job! Maybe their problems are everyone else's problems?! XD

-

As stated before, this is more my HC (with a dash of humor) rather than an entirely objective view of the Kirby cast and is all meant in fun! (Especially the placement of guys like Meta Knight XD)

I hope it amuses/inspires rather than upsets...!

[kirbybecomesastarwarrior]

Prince Fluff's Father

Okay, so you guys can keep reading if you want spoilers, but.. if you guys wanna put in any, guess feel free.

But believe it or not, I have mentioned Prince Fluff's father 2 or 3 times before... you guys just didn't know it.

I may not have the event play out exactly like this (have Falspare less angry), but... Prince Fluff... is the son of the FISHER KING! Believe it or not, I planned this plotline ever since I introduced the Fisher King into the story.

Kirby and the gang aren't going to see Fluff any differently but Falspar...

Ya'know like Fishnet (cloth)- Fisher...

Yeah, I know far far-fetched connection but bear with me! This is just my way of connecting the game lore is to mix it with Arthurian lore, there are a few more surprises but the ones I have on the list.

Ribbon & Ripple Star's connection (Morgan Le Fay/ Dame Morgan)

Epic Yarn/ Prince Fluff's Connection (the Fisher King/ Fluff's father)

Planet Robobot Susie Haltman (Sir Icarus)

Moving on...

And a quick poll and more info on Fluff's father. (keep reading)

You know just enough to spook Falspar and make him wince and make him think it's the Fisher king at first glance.

After the whole incident (also mentioned here)... this was awake up call to the Fisher King. (I don't know whether to change his name to something else or keep him with a name.)

He magically isolated his planet, locking away Patchland and separating it from the galaxy & the war. (Also, so he can escape Uther's wrath for pulling away his support; so yeah all of that blame and anger went to Falspar.)

Basically, the land that suffered was not Patchland but the galaxy... Being cut off from the biggest source of good, destroying the galaxy's economy.

The Fisher King did do the work and eventually did become a better person... In a sense, the Pathland, (while still wealthy & stable in his rule) still suffered deeply inside. Tolling away regretting his actions...

A part of him does want to rejoin the galaxy, but he's too afraid that people will still see him as the man he was... the fear and shame kept him away from it all... Everyone!

He put the well-being of his kingdom and his people first... they loved their king. Patchland was prosperous and thriving while their king suffered in silence. He'd put on a smile and watched on in the shadows... Denying himself the love of his people and the fruits of his labor... (Basically, he was punishing himself for years...)

Until a certain, (Fluff's mom) had broken through the barrier by mistake... I have a cute love story planned out for them, but yeah, she was the only one who saw the king's hidden sadden.

Fluff's mom: Why do you suffer?

FK: Because I was a terrible man... I deserve to suffer.

Fluff's mom: Are you the man you were before.

FK:No... I uh-

Fluff's mom: Then why should you suffer?

Basically she's the one who "freed the Fisher King"

Yeah, long story short they fell in love, got married, and had Fluff... You're probably asking "Wait, hold on a minute didn't the Fisher King receive an injury that left him impotent." (unable to have children)

Yes, that is true... which is why he sought out a certain Yarn Wizard: *cough* Yin-Yarn! Who was able to magically create a son for him that was biologically his & his wife's. Giving her the child she's always wanted...

And the Fisher King... WAS THE BEST FATHER TO FLUFF! And loved him so much... He prepared him for the outside world. And told him of the man he was, before... regardless Fluff loved, respected, and adored his father dearly and never saw him differently.

Having a family gave him a newfound purpose in life... and gave him the confidence to return to the outside- Oh no, tragedy sets in... he falls ill (and slowly starts to lose his mind... the only thing he could remember was his wife & son.)- the price he had to pay for Fluff's birth... but he did not regret it at all.

Resulting in his wife & son having to see him lose his mind and his life fade away... bedridden. But all his plans to rejoin the galaxy and the GSA remain untouched... ready to be used.

Basically, the Fisher King's death plays out like this...

However, even though he passes on these plans to his son he gives him the option to never use them as well... knowing how difficult it would be for Fluff... being his son.

Even telling him, "Should anyone who has any grievance with me... accept it, don't deny it, and apologize to them, alright."

The Fisher King started off as an arrogant two-faced King but died a kind and loving man... he considers Fluff his greatest achievement... and his greatest regret is not being able to see the fantastic ruler he knew he would become.

He dies leaving his wife & son to grieve... two years later Prince Fluff's mother disappears... I know it's sad.

Prince Fluff looks over these plans but isn't sure if he can do it... though after meeting Kirby the gang he feels confident enough to do it... He's just going to need their support.

I'm not gonna reveal how this goes down just yet but... Flaspar was never able to find closure with the Fisher King incident... but perhaps he can find closer with his son. (>:3)

[kirbyderb]

Okay so, got a few questions

What is your favorite color (obvious is obvious)

favorite cat breed?

Favorite superhero

favorite tumblr moment (mine was the one that included the word “tea-fication process”

this isn’t really a question (well it sorta is, I just need some advice) how can I create better ocs

fav smiling critter

fav horror games/movies/characters

fav movie genre

(I know this is more than a few, I’m sorry)

☀️ HELLO!!!!1!!!!

1. Green, actually.

2. I'm more of a canid fan! (Can you tell?) But my Prototype... I love Ragdoll kitties and black cats! :D

3. SPIDER-MAN. NO CONTEST. I WATCHED ALL THE MOVIES. HALF THE SHOWS. Best actor is Tobey Maguire. Favorite Spidey film? Sam Raimi's Spider-Man 2.

4. "The flag of Japan but it's actually this hand towel with a perfectly-placed water stain"

5. Better OCs? Well, uhh... IM NO EXPERT! !!1! BUT. What I think is fun is looking at those "questions to ask your character/character development sheet" things. Like how would they get through a fence while being chased? Just run cartoonishly STRAIGHT THROUGH IT? Find another way? Jump across? Maybe also try to imagine why they are the way they are, and be sure to give both positive/negative traits. If your character is very affectionate—TOO affectionate— maybe they don't know personal space? Or if they're lazy, they might be really good at finding the shortest way to do a task. Maybe crank up some positive traits for bad traits, or see how it could create a bad trait, and vice-versa!!1!!! :D

6. Dogday.

7. My memory isn't good so I may have more, but... Dogday, any Smiling Critters, Cy-dog even though it isn't ever used in PPT, Sunny/Omori, Glamrock Freddy, Wooly, Starved Tails, Kinito—

I'M NOT A FURRY. OKAY!!?????

8. Hmm.. SCI-FI?!?!??? :D Hypothetical scenarios with viruses or outer space are pretty cool! Also love historical films, 2d animated films, psychological horrors, mysteries, anything to do with my current interest. Feel free to recommend me stuff ! :]

Maybe I should say a genre I hate?

Romance.

You're not gonna catch KIRBY ever watching any 18th-century rom-coms. No TELENOVELAS FOR ME!!!1!!!!!!

THOUGH I'm very willing to IRONICALLY watch a movie with people. I like to watch them suffer WITH me and it's hilarious. ANYONE WANNA WATCH RATATOING!!1?!???

[tardigradetv]

About me

I'm Alex (he/him)♂️, but you can call me by my username Tardigrade TV [GER/ENG]

My username is inspired by an old hyperfixation on Minecraft YouTubers and, obviously, tardigrades. A blue tardigrade with only 6 legs is my personal mascot, representing some of my personality traits. (I have a knitted tardigrade plush and a crocheted tardigrade plush)

I'll post whenever I feel like it, usually something about Hypmic or my creations. I'm a Nintendo gaming nerd who likes to imagine crossovers with my biggest interests. (Writes crossover ideas but never posts them 'cause I wanna put my ideas into drawings or crafts first) But I think it's also good to know that I love bugs! Entomology for the win, haha!

Mobile games I play right now: Hypnosis Mic Alternative Rap Battle; Hypnosis Mic Dream Rap Battle

If you wanna be friends with me on the ARB, just ask for my ID

My computer died, so I can only play games on mobile or Nintendo Switch (or Wii (u), (3)DS) for now (I miss PC games 😭)

I'm a hobby artist (traditional only). 🎨 I mostly use multimedia paper (Canson imagine mix media) with alcohol markers (Ohuhu, Copic), fineliners, brush pens and manga pens like G-Pen and Maru-Pen. I also like to craft things (Papercraft, etc)

As a friendly reminder: I'm autistic and very shy, so please don't be surprised if I act awkward or tactless at times (I'm trying my best 😅)

interests:

science, gaming, Hypnosis Mic, Team Fortress 2, Pikmin, Donkey Kong, Mario & Luigi RPG, Vocaloid, Needy Streamer Overload, Splatoon, Fran Bow, Little Misfortune, Sally Face, Kirby, Pokémon, Ori, Cuphead, Doki Doki Literature Club, Kirby, Slime Rancher, Snake Pass, Tasty Planet, Don't Hug Me I'm Scared, Oyasumi Pun Pun, Mad Father, My Child Lebensborn, Portal, Facade, Jack Stauber, Vsauce, Unravel, Untitled Goose Game, Angry Birds, Doodle Jump, Kung Fu Panda, Yume Nikki, Everything (game)

Other social media:

Pinterest

[izunias-meme-hole]

Top 5 supervillains?

LOOK AT THIS DUDE ASKIN' ME FOR MY TOP 5 SUPERVILLAINS!

In all seriousness though, I'll be glad to indulge, though be forewarned that my top 5 consists of supervillains from Marvel and DC, so like if this seems basic forgive me but I am allowed to be cringe in this instance because I've been dragged back into full on purgatory.

Number 1. Doctor Doom -As I've said before, I've always respected Victor, but I've never been super crazy about him. His animated and game adaptations are good but not perfect, and the movies so far have failed to get his character across in a great way, so that might've been a part of why I wasn't a Doom Superfan. Though after getting back into the absurdity and impactfulslness of superhero comics, it soon hit me... Doctor Doom is a villain made for comics. He's overdramatic, grandiose, terrifying, bombastic, egotistical, pragmatic, powerful, absurd, nuanced, insecure, lonely, the whole package placed within a suit of armor and a green cloak. He's an arrogant, tyrannical, cold hearted technological and magical genius who embodies every inch of supervillainy you could imagine, while remaining a genuinely sophisticated, and honorable figure even with his history of pettiness. Overall Doom is just one big magnificent bastard.

Number 2. Loki - Stan Lee, Jack Kirby, and Larry Leibber making the norse God of Mischief, the Poetic Edda's best figure, a supervillain... wasn't a bad idea. The result of that however was a wannabe king in a silly little outfit with devil horns who also happens to be Odin's adoptive son and the brother of Thor. This is inaccurate as hell and shouldn't work, yet it somehow does. He's a delightful trickster at every turn with a lot of gears consistently turning in his head, and while in the comics he's not really a villain anymore and his (in)famous run in the MCU ended on a surprisingly high note, he's still fun. Am I overrating him? Maybe.

Number 3. Magneto - He's honestly on par with Joker in my honest opinion, and I'm saying this as someone who's been familiar with Erik for a LONG time thanks to the X-Men films and Evolution, and has gone through his history in the comics. Magneto is basically one of the most famous examples of a "Knight Templar" in fiction, a self-righteous figure fighting for a crusade that he deems noble at any cost. As for why he feels the need to do this? He's a holocaust survivor, it's as simple as that. The comics are the legit only piece of media that go into deeper details about Magneto's life in the concentration camps and the aftermath of that hell which only led into more hell, but that's the basic gist of what makes him tick. Magneto's lived in a world where innocent people got killed because of state approval, and he's not letting that happen again.

Number 4. The Joker - The Joker is a crook who fell into a vat of chemicals and got a clownish makeover, who ended up becoming the nemesis of Batman. While the other rouges have their particular danger levels, they all have some type of cause they're fighting for or they're purely out to benefit themselves. Joker just causes chaos, death, and suffering, for the sake of his twisted sense of humor. He is willing to kill and ruin lives in the most creative way possible, so long as he finds it funny. Yet despite how twisted he is, this evil ass clown actually can be funny. Not only that, but he's the most effective contrast to Batman, even more than the other rouges. Batman is a frightening figure with a semi-demonic visage who suffered one bad day in his youth, yet he is a hero dedicated to the cause of justice and protecting the innocent citizens of Gotham City. Joker is a colorful figure with a big 'ol grin on his face and a jovial demeanor, yet he is perfectly okay with causing as much unwarranted harm to others for the sake of artistic chaos. Ultimately, the Clown Prince of Crime is a villain that's managed to last for decades, despite the ever marching clock, for these exact reasons.

Number 5. Lex Luthor - Superman's biggest hater being a self-made millionaire that is the embodiment of the best and worst of humanity will never not be fitting. Though if I'm being honest, I don't feel like DC has gone far enough with Lex. Still he's genuinely a pretty good villain for the man of steel to face.

[benkeibear]

Going to have hell of a week 🥹

My practical exams are this week,after the exams I'll need to take some medication that literally knocks me out and I'll be visiting and staying over my besties this weekend after not seeing eachother since last year cause we're both students at different unis

After that I'm immediately going to the dentist to remove both my bottom wisdom teeth 😭😭😭😭 I'll also have to study within the same week for my theoretical exams (the rest of my year is going to be just as busy so I can't postpone the dentist visit)

I sent you the baby berry pics! They'll take alot of time to grow but the place where I live is always sunny, even in the winter so their growth won't be stunted

My sister got us tacos (6 beef 6 chicken) from our favourite mexican place (it's not authentic but it's the closest there is where I live)

This year feels like one bullet wound after another 🥲 once I finish my sem 1 exams I have to think about a project for the conference our institute holds every year (it has to be good because there's a 75% chance I'll show up on TV, like the years before) and then it's sem 2 immediately

At least my favourite video game series is releasing a new game this year I can enjoy during my holiday 🥹 I'll also try finishing my ALMOST 3 YEARS OLD cardigan project that I'm lowkey hating rn but I'll stick to it until it's assembled

What a year.... Sorry most of my words are just me crying lol but there's genuinely not many good news (the Christmas presents I ordered haven't arrived so I have to improvise) but luckily this year I have 2 maybe 3 potential scholarships if I pursue higher education so that's great (I'll need to graduate from 5th year first so like....I'll need 2 more years 😮‍💨)

MIMIIIIIIIII HELLO 🥺🥺

I hope you have / had fun at your besties and that the meds weren't too mean to you!

How did the exams go??

I won't ask about the dentist because I know you sent a follow up 🥹 know that my heart is with you!

Please send some sun over I haven't seen it in 3 weeks at least and I miss it severely :((

The tacos look so extremely yummy I wanna go Kirby mode and eat them through the screen 😩😩 please tell me if they were just as good as they look??

MIMI ON TV!! MIMI ON TV!! MIMI ON TV!!

I'm wishing you the best of luck and all the strength you need to be successful with the conference and the sem 2 things! You're so incredibly smart and hardworking- it surely pays off 🥺🫶

WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE GAME SERIES I AM NOSY PLEASE TELLLL MEEEE

That duckling picture sends me so hard and ever since you sent it for the first time, I can't get it out of my head 😭

I hope 2025 will be kinder to you and allows you calmer days and peace. You deserve to rest as well 🫶

[vgtrackbracket]

Video Game Track Bracket Round 4

Mirror Temple (Mirror Magic Mix) from Celeste

vs.

Vagrant Counting Song of Retrospection from Kirby: Planet Robobot

Propaganda under the cut. If you want your propaganda reblogged and added to future polls, please tag it as propaganda or otherwise indicate this!

Mirror Temple (Mirror Magic Mix):

This is the song for Celeste's chapter 5 B-side. It's a remix (of Quiet and Falling) by 2 Mello

Vagrant Counting Song of Retrospection*:

this is a long one (~8 minutes) but my god is it so good. i don't even really know how to adequately explain the in-game context this song(s) play in, but it fits perfectly and i would argue this is the best final boss theme the kirby series has had (although i don't think i've really properly listened to forgotten land's one, so i might be biased). i don't really have anything else to say aside from "just listen for yourself" but if i was well educated in music theory and terminology you can bet your ass i'd be writing a full analysis rn

*[Mod note: The original video submitted was a combination of this track and Vagrant Keepsake of Oblivion, a variation on it. This was pointed out to me and the track name and video were updated, so the propaganda is not 100% accurate (specifically the reference to the track length).]

[xx-psych0-rabbit-xx]

Top 5 kirby gamesss

not on the same line as my tierlist bc i went more w personal preferences for this rather than "has this flaw, so no platinum" lol

1.amazing mirror:its still the most fun game to me+the only game w a proper focus on the best freaking trope of mirror anti worlds.its silly :3

2.star allies:I LOVE YOU RELATIONSHIP THEMES I LOVE YOU ABUSE THEMES I LOVE HOW THE GAME BORDERS ON EDGY.ALSO ITS CUTE N THE MENTAL ILLNESS IS AT PEAK HERE

3.crystal shards:it just has a rly fun neat style i like it :3 also again the edge i wove you zero two XP

4.planet robobot:objectively speaking i believe this is the best kirby game, good amount of dialogue, long enough, has a cool set aesthetic n susies literally one of the best characters in the series.theres even a meta knight extra mode.thats so awesome.

5.super star ultra:its super star but ultra.its self explanatory.

[samcscreams]

“Truth or dare?” Mindy asked looking over to Chad.

Game nights were a regular with the core four. But now they got to add Kirby and Danny to the mix. It was usually board games but they were all wanting to try something knew that would end with less yelling and destruction.

“Dare” Chad said

“I dare you to chug milk” Mindy said with a devilish grin on her face.

“Oh come on Min you know I’m lactose intolerant.” Chad whined

“Rules are rules dingus” Mindy said as she pushed Chads shoulder.

With a grown, Chad got up and headed to the kitchen grabbed the milk and poured a glass. He walked back into view and chugged the glass.

“How are you not vomiting?” Mindy asked as Chad headed back to sit down

“I like Almond milk in my coffee” Tara chimed in

“Never said what type of milk I had to chug” Chad said beaming at Mindy

An eye roll and a scoff escapes Mindy as the room bursts into laughter.

Chad slowly scans the room trying to find the perfect victim. He already got his revenge on Mindy by finding the loophole in her dare. Danny was already grilled on his and Sam’s relationship by Tara. And Kirby was still mad after Mindy dared her to say the best Friday the 13th was part 2. Then there was Sam who so far was pretty unscathed.

“Sam, truth or dare?” Chad asked

“Ummm truth” Sam answered surprising everyone. Sam was usually a dare type of person. Most people are the opposite but Sam would do anything you asked. She’d look of fool or eat something disgusting. For her it was always easier than the truth. But as she was growing tired she thought to herself it’s Chad he’ll ask me my favorite color or food. Like normal she was wrong.

Well shit Chad had thought of the perfect candidate but not the perfect question, Sam never chooses truth. He was gonna dare here to do a 10 push ups with Tara on her back but now he needed something new and he had to make it count.

“Earth to Chad? You have to ask a question now.” Kirby told him

“Ya I’m finding it. Sam never chooses truth. Gotta make sure it’s good” he said

Sam’s stomach dropped at Chads words. The longer he took asking the question the more Sam could feel her anxiety burn through her chest. Her mind was racing with what Chad could ask her. She knows they would never judge her for her truth. But they couldn’t stop her from judging herself.

Tara watched as her sisters breath caught on Chads words. Her jaw clenched and her hands started to fidget more than they already were. Tara reaches over and just puts her hand on Sam’s leg. She could feel her sister relax under her touch. Sam was still stuck in her head but her body knew it was safe. It was a reassuring feeling for Tara to know she had the power to calm Sam with a simple touch. Honestly, it just felt good to know it went both ways.

“I got it!” Chad said

“About time” Mindy added

Turing to Sam Chad took a deep breath. Sam tensed all of her muscles as if someone was about to throw a bomb at her and she had to withstand the blow.

“What’s something you’ve never told anybody before. Not anyone in this room can have heard it before” Chad says sternly trying to make sure there isn’t any loopholes in his question.

Sam swallows hard. Trying to think of an answer was hard especially with Tara and Danny there. The sisters agreed after the latest ghost face attacks no more secrets. They had spent plenty of nights talking about little things from the past. And then there was Danny who she would uses to rant to for hours. She could make something up or saying something Danny would know and he’d play dumb. But no she couldn’t lie to them anymore. Tara would know and The twins would pick on her for years if she gave a weak answer. She could feel everyone’s eyes on her. How they all were hanging on the edge of their seat with anticipation. The pressure was too much. She could feel the walls she built crumbling around her.

“I came back” Sam blurted out

“What?” They all said in unison

“To Woodsboro” she said looking at the floor

“Ya Sam we all know that it’s not a se…” Mindy said but was cut off

“No before that. I came back when I was 21.” The room was silent. Blank faces stared back at her. Sams heart felt like it was gonna explode. And then it did.

Tara took off to her bedroom.

“Tara wait” Sam said running after her sister

“Nice going dingus” Mindy said as she hit the back of Chads head

“I thought we said no more secrets” Tara said sitting on her bed as Sam entered the room.

“I know. I know I just didn’t want to remember this one” Sam said in a defeated tone

“I really could have had you back sooner?” Tara with tears in her eyes looked up at Sam

“No, yes, maybe but it didn’t happen like that. It’s complicated.” Sam said as she moved to the bed next to Tara

“Then tell me” Tara whispered

“Okay. Okay. So I had been clean for about three months. I had a stable job and thought maybe it was safe for me to come back. The night I left I made a promise to myself that when I did come back I was gonna be the big sister you deserved. I thought I was ready. When I got back I snuck into my old room like I used to. I could hear you downstairs. I was gonna sneak back out and come through the front door but you weren’t alone. Amber was there and my curiosity got the better of me. I waited upstairs just listening to you talk. I could barely recognize your voice. It broke me knowing how much time I missed with you. I was about to leave. Maybe give it a day or two and try again. But then I heard Amber mention me. You know Sam could never love you like I can she said. Her words just pissed me off. Like she knew I was there listening. I was about to rush downstairs when I heard you say i don’t need her anymore just you. I was frozen. To hear you so confidently say you didn’t need me anymore to agree that someone else could provide you the love I had for you was all too much to take… I broke my sobriety that night.”

Sam was crying before she could finish. Tara took her hand and just looked at Sam who was so broken down she looked like a husk of herself.

“I remember that day. It’s not true I just said that because I was mad. I shouldn’t have said that. If I didn’t I might have had you sooner. I’m So sorry” Tara said trying to get Sam to look at her.

“I didn’t want to tell you for this exact reason. My actions are not your fault Tara. You had every right to be mad at me for leaving.” Sam’s eyes were sharp and sincere.

“I know but you still left again. If I didn’t…”

“No Tara I left again because of mom. I spiraled that night and landed in jail for public intoxication. Hicks called mom to bail me out. She said she only would if I promised to leave again. That you didn’t deserve to be known as my sister. That you moved on and we’re doing better with out me”

Tara jumped onto her sister Bear hugging her. Sam shook as she let out a sob. The touch of forgiveness and understanding swirled around them.

“I’m so proud to be your baby sister. I’d shout it from the roof tops if I could. I’d alert the presses and call the president. The news stations would be buzzing with head lines “this just in Tara Carpenter is honored to be Samantha Carpenters sister” the world deserves to know just how important you are to me.” Tara pulled away from her sister as they both started to chuckle

“I’m the lucky one” Sam said in return

“Ya but everyone already knows that” Tara said through a cheesy grin.

“Hey” Sam said as she slightly shoved her sister in a playful manner.

Tara got off the bed and walked to the door before she opened it she turned back to her sister.

“You could have lied but you didn’t. Thank you for telling me.”

“I just can’t lie to you all anymore. It’s gotten us nowhere.”

Tara just nods her head in agreement As she opens the door

“I think it’s time for eye spy” Tara says as the sisters walk towards the group.

Nobody dares ask anything. They all just agree to the game change. Before the sisters part ways and go back to their seats with the group Sam grabs Tara’s hand and squeeze three times.

The first squeeze to say thank you.

The second to say Im not going anywhere.

The third to say I love you.

[shoppncart]

Shopping Cart's Best Games of 2024

as in games i played during 2024 not just games that came out in 2024. Given that I've started logging a lot more of my media experiences this year, games primarily, I thought it'd be fun to rank those which I enjoyed the most and give a little more thoughts and recommendations on them. I prioritized games I first played this year, or ones I played for the first time in a while. I skipped over some great games because of this, like Portal 2 and Kirby Super Star Ultra, but those still are really good too! So, if you want some gaming rec's based on what I played this year, give a read.

10 - Little Nightmares

Little Nightmares was easily able to wriggle its way into my favorites thanks to its style alone, with solid, simple 3D Platformer-feeling mechanics to support it to boot. Though the game is extremely linear and quite short, each part of it is very well designed and fleshed out with various props and hidden details. It was fun getting to use each part of the limited moveset together, as well as comb little side areas for secrets. In all honesty it could probably be ranked higher but I played it so late and haven't even gotten to the side story yet so that doesn't feel quite fair.

9 - Kirby's Adventure

Kirby is always one to provide a very solid, enjoyable experience, but special credit has to be given to his NES outing, which is so good that it’s likely the best game on the console. Kirby’s Adventure is such a colorful, varied and well-composed treat, featuring quite of a bit of content between its long level list, plethora of Copy Abilities to play with, and numerous level secrets. It’s really impressive comparing it to its nearest relative, Super Mario Bros. 3, which in my opinion it blows out of the water. It’s rife with charm and personality too, with all of its little animations and bonuses, special example going to the iconic Drawing Song seen every time on boot-up.

Kirby’s Adventure ain’t perfect granted, it’s doing so much on the NES that it is prone to slowdown quite a bit, and has a tendency to drop inputs, and has the older Kirby quirk of knocking your Ability out of Kirby every time he gets hit, especially irritating in levels where you need to carry an ability to solve a puzzle late in the stage. The 3DS Classics revision fixes a lot of the technical issues at least, so that’s one of the preferred ways to play it. Not sure if the SP version on Switch Online does that too but, I know it exists.

8 - Pokemon Crystal Legacy

I’ve always had a soft spot for the second generation of Pokemon, I think it’s got a really charming style and has a ton of impressive features for a dinky little Gameboy RPG, but always had a hard time coming back to it due to how limited or poorly planned out some things in it felt. I mean, half the new Pokemon either aren’t available for a majority of the game or are just plain unusable, and that makes the whole appeal of Pokemon (at least in my opinion), using a varied team and trying out new ‘mons on repeat playthroughs, a real struggle.

Crystal Legacy, meanwhile, is an excellent Quality of Life romhack that does a whole laundry list of things to improve the experience. It overhauls a bunch of encounter tables, adding Pokemon where they previously didn’t appear or adjusting percentages so rare encounters weren’t hair-pullingly uncommon. It adjusts a bunch of Base Stat Totals and movepools, making underpowered Pokemon more evenly capable. It even readjusted several of the enemy trainers to provide more of a steady challenge and throw a curveball for veterans like myself, surprising me and making me face roadblocks with a little more thought than before.

I was really impressed by everything Crystal Legacy changed with the base game, and would highly recommend it as the definitive way to replay Gen 2 Pokemon if you’re ever interested in going back to it.

7 - Half-Life

Clear to see why this one's a classic and a big landmark for First-Person Shooters, the first half of the game leaves an extremely strong impression and even today all of its little events and cinematics are entertaining and impressive to see. As someone not super savvy with FPS games it probably had even more of an impact, and felt pretty welcoming with how the difficulty and scale of enemies gently rose throughout the game. Stuff like the introduction of the soldiers with their squad tactics was quite the challenge early one while also being a big surprise compared to the usual alien mooks of the super-early game.

Unfortunately I didn't enjoy myself as much as the game progressed, with the later game levels (Surface Tension being a prime example in my mind) lacking that sort of entertaining factor the early segments had and primarily focusing on empty areas with little NPC interaction and frequent sources of damage. Being followed and barraged by a helicopter was not the best experience in this game. Surprisingly I didn't hate Xen as much as its reputation would imply, I kinda liked getting to use the Long Jump ability in low-grav environments. The Nihilanth was a dreadful final boss though I'll agree on that.

Overall it was pretty solid though and I can easily see why it's as highly regarded as it is. Eager to get to Half-Life 2 one day.

6 - Pizza Tower: The Noise Update

Pizza Tower was already a phenomenal game with incredibly creative gameplay, visuals, and music, and the Noise Update just goes ahead and adds a whole extra layer of wacky goodness on top of it. The Noise’s controls and mechanics are just similar enough to Peppino to not feel unwelcome while still offering a bunch of new ideas and possibilities to make things feel fresh, it’s really absurd what you can end up doing with the Noise sometimes and the speed you can accrue in parts where Peppino had to take it slower.

Not even to mention all the various little aesthetic differences where the Noise differs from Peppino, such as the various transformations (many of which have slightly different properties with the Noise compared to the base game), the new escape and handful of level music, and even a couple changes to some boss fights. It overall might not be as comprehensive of a new character campaign as something like Shovel Knight had, but it’s still a plethora of welcome changes that make the best game of 2023 even better.

5 - Team Fortress 2

I’ve always been a big fan of TF2, but haven’t really played it that frequently in recent years, not helped by the rampant bot crisis that had been afflicting the game in years prior. However, this year, Valve finally stepped up, wiped away almost all of the bots, and allowed TF2 to finally flourish as a chaotic and fun team shooter once again. It’s definitely my most played game of the year, and ate up a lot of my time in October during its annual Scream Fortress event. Valve didn’t even push a major content update or anything, but getting to experience the game without cheaters and with friends again really helped breathe life into it, and now I can’t help myself from coming back every couple days and continuing to fight in its many maps, and trying out new tricks and ideas I keep coming up with.

Solider and Engineer are my classic go-to’s, but I found myself having a lot of fun with Demoman and Scout this year, and really feeling my aim starting to improve, if still in small increments. I’m finally getting a concept of how to airblast and hit flare guns properly with Pyro, have found out that Heavy’s pretty fun to fall back on if the team’s got other roles filled, and pick up the role of team Medic quite a bit. There’s just so much to the game that it still hasn’t felt like it’s gotten stale, even after about six straight months of consistent playing this year.

4 - Psychopomp GOLD

This one came out of nowhere but I was really happy to get to experience it. Psychopomp GOLD reminds me of various other PS1-styled horror games like Lost in Vivo, and comes with a thick layer of character too. Some environments may be the typical dark, grungy hallways you’d expect, but others are colorfully lit and intricately designed in really appealing ways, not to mention the various weird creatures and monsters you meet that just have pleasant rambling conversations with you. It helps to paint a better picture of the main character when you realize this is the type of thing she’s dealing with and still treats without much surprise.

Exploring each of these environments and the weird things in them makes up most of the game’s charm, as well as making it further into this broken, twisted world and putting together the clues of what other horrible things might happen. It’s even got a few effective actual scares at points, despite mostly focusing its horror on tension throughout.

The game’s pretty light on story on the surface though, and its authentically-classic PS1 movement (ie. grid-based tank controls), both of which are sure to turn some people off. I’d say it’s still worth giving a shot, and the free original version of the game is still available, featuring the game’s first three, more grounded and realistically-styled levels. GOLD is quite the treat and comes with a bunch more bonus content to really flesh out the setting, so I do recommend it.

3 - Anthology of the Killer

Anthology of the Killer was a game I didn’t expect to like nearly as much as I did, but I was had a really good time with it and enjoyed nearly everything it put me through. For what’s effectively just a walking simulator-visual novel sort of combo, Anthology of the Killer provides a large handful of entertaining comedic-horror stories with a very charming style, referring to both its writing and visuals. The writing leans pretty heavily on the comedy half most of the time, but never quite loses its horror half, with its absurd aesthetics, low-lit environments, and strange sound design never letting the unease fully dissipate.

It really felt like going through some weird funhouse attraction and I enjoyed seeing every character go through their little plots and escapades. It was a very fun ride and I’d highly recommend at least trying out some of the individual episodes, available for free on GameJolt. The Anthology has its own pluses and it’s great experiencing them all back-to-back, I think.

2 - The Big Catch: Tacklebox

An incredibly impressive experience for what is basically a free demo for an upcoming project. There’s so much to do, and its open-ended format is really cool and helps add to the length by not funneling you through linear levels. Everything presentation-wise is superb, with fantastic sixth console generation visuals and excellent music. The basic controls and gameplay are especially tight and fluid too. I gotta give special mention to the propeller flowers that you can grapple onto and launch yourself in their direction, then immediately grapple back onto and rubber band yourself in the opposite direction with even more force. Several of the game’s challenges focusing on these more slick element were where the game shone its strongest.

There are some moments where the game wants you to be more precise that don’t work quite as well as it feels like it should (the massive temple area that you spend a long time climbing to the top of felt pretty unforgiving at times, though had frequent shortcuts to make up for it at least). The controls were a little strange to get used to as well, such as the specific ways to use the fishing rod or mechanics like wall running-to-jump combo, but most of the game was forgiving enough that it never got too irritating.

If you’re a 3D Platformer fan or nut for slick movement-focused platformers I highly recommend at least trying it out for a couple hours, and keeping and eye out for the full game’s release sometime in 2025.

1 - Corn Kidz 64

This one was such a pleasant surprise to me. I had heard a few scattered words of praise for Corn Kidz, but once I finally got to playing it myself I found a game that combined so many elements that appealed to me personally that I didn’t even think someone else would ever make a game like this. If only it had a grungy aquatic level then it would be truly perfect…

Corn Kidz 64 is a 3D Platformer taking clear cues from fifth gen consoles in both visual and gameplay styles, with its major inspirations seeming to draw from Banjo-Kazooie and Spyro the Dragon. It also has a delightful late 90s-early 2000s gothic-Hot Topic aesthetic that warms my heart even more. I didn’t even know I wanted a Banjo-Kazooie spiritual successor to look like Invader Zim fanart but Corn Kidz delivered alright. The music is super on-point too, not sounding like Kirkhope’s stuff but other synthy and grungy tunes of the era. The character animations are pretty fluid and appealing as well, using what looks like a lot of vertex-based stuff you'd see in Spyro or Crash Bandicoot.

The gameplay itself follows the usual collectathon form, with a couple densely packed levels to explore for goodies and secrets, with an agile moveset focused on climbing and wall-jumping to really boost that feeling to scouring over every surface to find collectibles. Granted, the actual gameplay is where I’ve seen Corn Kidz fall apart for some people, and I can see why, there’s no double-jump or mid-air recovery tool, which is pretty unheard of for 3D platformers (the air dash you are provided is very situational and sometimes required for platforming challenges, so isn’t usable as a recovery tool). There’s no Totals page to keep track of all your collectibles, irritating for potential completionists, and there are a few moments in the level design that can lead to repeated backtracking (the church and graveyard segments of Wolloh’s Hollow is a large example that even caught me up in my first playthrough).

While these flaws can be pretty irksome, I was able to look past them by how appealing the game was in every other aspect, and was able to find a comfortable understanding of the gameplay not long after starting. The final challenges of the game are pretty brutal, especially the long and checkpoint-free bonus level, but using everything the game had taught me in a tightly packed back-to-back gauntlet had its charms. Even better, Corn Kidz 64 emulated the weird and mysterious vibes of Banjo-Kazooie’s most hidden secrets with its Void Screw collectibles. These are bonus collectibles hidden in extremely obscure spots used to unlock totally hidden rewards tucked away in what feels like an unused area of the game, complete with access to (what is presumably) the game's Dev Test Room. It so well captures the feeling that chasing Stop n Swop secrets had back and in the day and I was so happy to see a developer accurately recapture that feeling, with the bonus that there were secrets even beyond that that took months for anybody online to even find.

Corn Kidz 64 is the best game I played this year, almost entirely for biased, nostalgia-pandering reasons. I’m fully aware of the flaws it’s got (which can really turn off some people, I understand), and am always going to be just a smidgen disappointed with it (it’s only got TWO major areas…), but goddamn. It sure as hell does what it’s aiming to do really well. It’s a grungy gothic late 90s 3D platformer successor and that’s a really easy way to get into my heart.

[amalgamgooze]

the most annoying Smash Brothers character butterfly effects me into studying Japanese

(Big Earthbound/MOTHER 3 spoilers ahead!)

Back in December of 2018, Super Smash Brothers Ultimate for the Nintendo Switch had released. I didn't think much of it at the time--it was just a game that I'd end up playing with my cousins over Christmas break. It functioned great as a party game back then in that more innocent time, since we all sucked equally at it.

We'd most often play with the standard rule set, forcing ourselves to choose random characters so nobody could get good at using one spammy character.

It was this fatal mistake that introduced me to the character known as "Ness", otherwise known as the kid who screams "PK Fire" several times before exclaiming "Okeh!". If you know how to do this, he becomes a rather irritating character to play against in casual settings.

Fortunately for my cousins, they only suffered the wrath of Ness for one single game.

Unfortunately for everyone, I decided I would get better at playing Ness in Smash Brothers just for the fun of it.

Fortunately for everyone, I didn't really become much better than knowing how to use the shield button and following the PK Fire spam with a swift swing from his trusty wooden bat--which is still annoying to play against, but not terrible to avoid if you know how to.

Of course, when I got my butt handed to me repeatedly in Smash's online matchmaking, I stopped really trying to get better at the game. Even through that disappointment, though, there was still a nagging impulse to try Earthbound, the game that Ness originates from.

Fast forward to 2020, the year the world went weird. In the boring isolation of the pandemic summer, between bouts of working on a Minecraft mod that never got finished, wasting away on the servers of Team Fortress 2, and attempts to stay in shape for the upcoming soccer season, I started playing games on my 3DS again, sticking mostly to eShop-exclusive titles such as indie and Virtual Console games. (RIP 3DS eShop, you will be sorely missed by many.)

Of course, in the midst of indie titles like VVVVVV, Cave Story, and The Binding of Isaac, there lay Earthbound: the original Earthbound-inspired indie RPG. About depression.

I'm kidding, of course. Earthbound explores more existential/absurd themes as opposed to tackling depression. In fact, the only Earthbound-inspired indie RPG I can think of is OMORI. (I think Undertale ends up getting lumped into that category a lot too because of its substantial story--though at that point I'd rather just call the genre "Indie RPGs with interesting stories". But enough ranting.)

Surprisingly, I'd managed to play Earthbound without getting major spoilers about crucial story moments--which I think really adds to the experience of anything. Though, that's kind of obvious. Still, I think the story still lands and hits just as hard even if you know what's coming.

Earthbound, as mentioned earlier, is a 1994 SNES RPG produced by Ape Inc. and HAL Laboratory (yes, the masterminds behind the Kirby series!), written/directed by Shigesato Itoi and with (legendary) lead programmer Satoru Iwata. There's more interesting history behind the game and its development, but I'll leave that up to you whether you want to read into it more or not.

The story of Earthbound itself is built upon the quest for Ness (and his friends) to save the world from the evil alien Giygas--though the looming threat of world destruction honestly feels so minor in the quirky world of Earthbound. Sure, there's robots and animals that have been influenced by Giygas to kill you, but Giygas's influence ends up nothing more than a justification as to why otherwise peaceful entities go out of their way to chase you down on the overworld map.

There's so much to Earthbound to unpack that, again, I've only really got space to discuss my top-very-most-favorite moments of the game.

Perhaps one of the best moments of the game happens about a third of the way through its course--it's got no official name, but Earthbound fans know it as the "Coffee Break" scene.

After defeating a mound of ooze that's been terrorizing the curious Mr. Saturns, Ness's party takes a short rest in a hot spring while drinking coffee served by a Mr. Saturn. The screen fades to black, and an epic monologue begins scrolling in front of a psychedelic blue-and-green background. The end of this monologue is perhaps the most inspiring part:

One thing you must never lose is courage. If you believe in the goal you are striving for, you will be courageous. There are many difficult times ahead, but you must keep your sense of humor, work through the tough situations and enjoy yourself.

(Earthbound "Coffee Break" Scene)

Now, when I experienced this scene for the first time, I was nothing but a weird anxious mess of something between a middle schooler and a freshman, daunted by the world and its uncertainty. So of course this scene resonated well with me.

Four(ish) years later I'm in a much better place psychologically and these lines still inspire me. I've been fortunate enough to receive a print with those exact lines that's now proudly displayed on my dresser in my room.

This is just one example of Itoi's masterful writing in action--though unfortunately it's not the 'original original' text--it's been translated. I think the translators did an excellent job with these games--but no matter how good a translator is, it's just fact that you're not reading the original text and thus you might not be picking up on the author's true voice.

Anyway, continuing on with Earthbound's awesomeness, there's a scene much later in the game where Ness ventures deep into "Magicant"--a world formed from his own memories. This is where I feel like Earthbound's story's "coming-of-age" portion hits the hardest. It's a very literal representation of Ness reflecting on himself and continuing to grow throughout his adventure--especially at the end of the stage, where upon defeating "Ness's Nightmare", a short cutscene plays where our hero receives massive boosts to every single stat--much more substantial than after any other fight. It's to reflect him overcoming his fears and doubts, and growing immensely as a result--returning to that idea of courage again.

If I ramble any longer about Earthbound, though, I'll never finish this post.

So, moving on, after beating (and loving) Earthbound, I obviously searched for similar games to play next.

MOTHER 3 tends to be high up on these lists of "what to play post-Earthbound". Being another game written and directed by Shigesato Itoi, I obviously had to try it next!

Unfortunately, it's never been officially released in English. In fact, at this point, it's just comedic how Nintendo sort of refuses to mention the game to non-Japanese audiences outside of Smash Brothers. There's even a Robot Chicken skit about it!

Thankfully, there's a fantastic fan translation for the game (project lead Clyde "Tomato" Mandelin) that lets stupid Americans and other English-speakers play the game without learning a new language.

So I'd tried this fan patch that same summer. Unfortunately, I got stuck right before the best part of the game started, so I never got further than the beginning of Chapter 4.

And it stayed that way for years.

Until last summer.

Towards the end of the summer last year, I'd picked my now-modded 3DS back up again and decided to hack the MOTHER 3 fan translation onto it.

I know I said the game only gets good after Chapter 4, but that's not because the beginning of the game is terrible. It's just sort of slow--at least in my opinion. The story for these sections are fantastic too--it's very good exposition, in my opinion. Somehow, though, the later story manages to dwarf that excellent exposition with how well it's done.

There's so much else I could rave about this game too--but again, in the sake of finishing this today, I've got to stick to my favorite parts.

First, the hardware upgrade. The graphics and soundtrack for MOTHER 3 are permitted to be much more expressive because of refined console capabilities. Every single animation is so expressive--from the cutscenes to the gameplay, everything just exudes personality. Perhaps the expressiveness of it all makes it an excellent case study for the idea of "show, don't tell"-- something I've noticed quite a few modern games lacking in.

Shigesato Itoi obviously does a wonderful job of tackling emotional themes again in this final installation of the MOTHER series. This game's story jumps from character to character at the start of the game, eventually focusing on Lucas's response to the rampant urbanization of his once-peaceful hometown--as well as his dead mother, missing brother, and mourning father. His ragtag party grows to include his dog Boney, the assertive princess Kumatora, and the limping thief Duster.

There's a scene late in the game where the party washes up on the shores of Tanetane Island and consumes psychoactive mushrooms, leading to a miserable trip filled with hostile hallucinations. At points, people important to the party members end up ridiculing and threatening them. There's an incredibly memorable moment where Lucas hallucinates his brother and his father threatening to beat and flog him. It's easy to see this scene as just "Generic Drug-Fuelled Hallucination Scene #87", but in reality it confronts these very real (and sometimes rational) fears of being betrayed by those closest to us.

Again, I could go on and on about MOTHER 3, but for the sake of time, I have to move on.

After beating MOTHER 3, I started reading into a lot of media regarding it--stuff I'd avoided beforehand to avoid any more egregious spoilers than the ones I'd already unfortunately received. One of the most interesting pieces of media, in my opinion, were the lead translator's "commentary" on the process of translating the game. (These notes can be found here, if you're interested!)

Being an aspiring story-rich-game developer myself, the notes were incredibly fascinating to me, with all the minute changes and creative liberties that were taken in order to preserve the original intents of the game while preparing it for Western audiences. If I remember correctly, the team needed a programmer to modify the text scrolling methods the game had in order to print English text properly!

This ultimately inspired me to start learning Japanese myself, in hopes of trying out the original, untranslated MOTHER 3 and experiencing the differences for myself.

After weeks of literally studying just the characters of Japanese hiragana and katakana, I'd finally started actually "studying" Japanese with the help of Duolingo and my friend who'd been part of a Japanese exchange program before.

Just over 200ish days later, here I am with a 199-day streak on Duolingo spending hours earlier today studying how to discuss public transport and houses in Japanese. It's a slow process, but if I keep studying my textbooks and learning vocabulary, I'll become more and more fluent until I can play MOTHER 3 untranslated.

And to think this all began with the worst character to play against in Super Smash Brothers Ultimate.

…

Thanks for reading ALL of this! I know it's SUPER long, so I really appreciate it!

See you later!

…

(PS: There's probably issues with my post. Unfortunately, I'm a little pressed for time right now, so I can't really go back and proofread right now. Sorry!)

[keystone8379]

keystone you should talk about something in regards to kirby fighters 2 community edition

Oh you're right I haven't done that yet! Regarding Kirby Fighters 2: Community Edition, there is a metric TON of stuff to talk about here. The dev team is some of the closest friends I've ever had. Smash Tactics is a thing because I was able to test the game over and over again with the members of the dev team. We've spent many hours sharing progressively crazier character ideas. We have created some warcrime moves. (or, well, more warcrime moves. KF2 already has plenty of those) I think, however, the best place to start for CE on the KF2 lore account is probably just a development history.

So it's late September, the year is 2020. Kirby Fighters 2 was leaked, got a trailer, and released all within the span of 24 hours. Soon after that, firubii (you might have seen her before) shows her findings from a Twitter datamine, that being evidence of a 3D Kirby game. "Wow! Awesome! I sure hope it's nothing like Battle Royale!" I say at the time. But I digress.

A few months pass and eventually fish gets in touch with Firubii for I believe checking hitboxes and frame data? We get a few things for some of the weirder moves from characters like Ninja, but the fact that a modder was among us got people excited. The prospect of a balance patch mod was an undeniably appealing one and could breathe new life (and a time) into the game. And one that Firubii was interested in.

March 16th, 2021 rolls around and Fish pings everyone saying that they had set up a poll for balance suggested for Firubii to implement. They also got an all star cast of top players and fighting game expects and colgate and me. because I "have lots of opinions." We're all put into a dev chat and poll responses start flowing in.

This poll was crazy. You had Ninja downplaying Mag like crazy. You had Celica Trying His Best. You had nonsense adjustment suggestions like "Not really that effective." But my favourite would have to be probably Qwertz saying to EVERY balance suggestion box "The game needs no balance changes, only quality of life changes."

So we all in the chat start throwing around ideas while not really getting anything done. This will be a running theme. About a month later I was like enough is enough and starting pinging people for proper balance discussions and locking in changes. There's a few notable things we did for v0.1, including making Sword a LOT faster, giving Hammer Palutena's Lightweight, (the s4 custom move) making Bandana Dee's spears stick into the ground for a few seconds, and making Cutter's boomerangs bounce off walls. That last one was our first real criminal change, as Cutter could effortlessly lock down the entire screen. I spent hours labbing counterplay only to find none and grew to despise the character and suggested massive overcorrections for v0.2. Oops.

Overall v0.1 was pretty good! It had some iffy stuff and launched with a Whip desync in game but other than that it was a success I think. It came out during July of 2021, a little under 4 months from the initial announcement. There's a few public tourneys with good turnouts but run via Parsec and Parsec makes me want to commit violent crimes. Progress on 0.2 also goes fairly well. There's some bad ideas in there like making MK not very fun but overall it's not so bad.

Until development just HALTS. To my understanding, I believe it was something personal Firubii was going through but I don't have all the info. Then again, I didn't ask. Like sure, I'd like to have the new CE versions as soon as possible, but ultimately the well being of the people actually making the mod is the top priority, it's why it's so irritating when people are jerks about CE's slow development. Obviously I want the new versions out. But we all have lives outside of this and sometimes other things need doing.

Eventually 0.2 gets out, at the start of Febuary 2022. It's solid but still has some things that irk me. After a few months, we ask for player feedback on overall balance and specific changes and get not many results. Granted, CE doesn't have much players so balance discussion is somewhat meaningless for a game this unexplored. I think 1.0 fixes all of the glaring flaws though.

At some point, once again, development freezes, and this one was rough. No communication from Firubii led to a lot of dooming, especially with how close we got to actually launching 1.0. We DO actually know why she vanished for so long this time, it's because her house caught fire. It didn't burn down don't worry! But this still caught us all SUPER off guard.

Anyway, CE resumed development and went for a little while, but hit a brick wall when trying to add training mode. I'm not an expert on the inner workings of KF2 but I know Firubii talked to Ryn (yes, the goku in strive Ryn) about it a little bit. I actually posted about this to my Threads account but who gives a shit about threads. That's more or less where we are now. It's been a while since the last tester build but what can you do.

There's also a few other things but there wasn't really a good place for them. Colgate thought it was a good idea to make a tierlist video for a game no one could play. It wasn't. I had to spend the days after that video doing damage control. There was a playlist where people could suggest songs to add to CE, but tbh it was more just an excuse to listen to music in VC while we could still do that. We were gonna move off Gamebanana because the site is run by N*zis but this was during the fire arc so didn't happen. AV also thought it'd be a good idea to shittalk CE and ask to join the dev team in the same day. There was also the time we had to rush out a trailer for Savi's Dream Display but I have a few criticisms about that which I'll share with him one day.

I think that's it? If you wanna download the mod I'll link it right here: https://gamebanana.com/mods/303920