#menu music for some wii game

[thekidsfromyestergay]

YOU SHOULD WRITE A COVER OF BABY YOU'RE A HAUNTED HOUSE BY EVERYONES FAVOURITE GERARD WAY

Unsure how we ended up here but. It is what it is!

[mememan93]

Happy Birthday Skyward Sword! Hot take the wii version is the definitive version of the game

[dr-spectre]

You mentioned something about Splatoon 4 thoughts earlier today, and I really wanna hear you ramble about that. But I also really wanna listen to you ramble about a Hypno Callie rewrite lmao. So if you haven't already, since there's a good chance I missed it lol, what would a Spectre Hypno Callie rewrite look like?

OH DUDE NOW YOU'RE GETTING ME ALL PUMPED UP TEHEHEHEHE! ITS TIME FOR ME TO RAMBLE!!! Imma go ultra autism on you!!! It's gonna border on fanfiction territory! (Not the creepy or romantic kind...) Don't say that I didn't warn you...

Splatoon 4 Ideas.

Now here's the thing right. I only have a few ideas on a Splatoon 4 so I don't think I can do a giant ramble about it yet. But so far I got the idea of Splatoon 4 taking place in a giant futuristic city near the beach. So you get this cool plaza area near the beach and I got that idea from the AMAZING Project Splatoon 3. Seriously go check that out, it is amazing!!!!!!!

But you can also go into the city and explore some of it. And you can ride a bike to different shops and have your own apartment!!! I know people want apartments for the next game and yeah I agree. We NEED an apartment maker, it's the next logical step from lockers!

Also for weapons... I would LOVE to have a flamethrower weapon but instead of fire it's mist. A crank operated shooter made out of bike gears where you gotta keep spamming the ZR button, kind of like the Octoshower's weapon. A Wii Zapper charger!!! PLEASE NINTENDO! A saw blade Splatana. Maybe a pool noodle Inkbrush? That would be funny. Maybe a Painbrush that has a fan on it? Man... I'm starting to sound like Sheldon HAHAHA!

For the new Idols, it would be a duo instead of a 3 Idol group because oh my god 3 team Splatfests are so unbalanced sometimes. They would have the colors red and cyan. I don't have much on what they would look like, but I imagine one of them is a female Inkling with a cyan color and the other is a male octoling with a red color. It's time we have a proper God damn male Idol that isn't a giant manta ray!!! Now since I cannot draw for shit and I don't have the desire to draw (drawing has made me so angry so multiple times so I stick to writing and rambling) so I'll just show some pics to show you what kind of vibe I'm going for.

(Yes I'm not fucking joking. I've gotten inspiration from Silver the Hedgehog and Spider-Punk...)

I think it would be an interesting dynamic to have a fancy, highly teched out character paired up with a grungy and punk character who's loud and funny. I can imagine their music to be futuristic and techno while including segments of rock. Basically techno rock with romantic elements in it.

I would like some quality of life improvements and just general improvements as well, like being able to customize EVERY part of your look without having to go through that annoying character creation menu in the crater. Faster levelling up for abilities, ability drinks and food actually giving you which ability you want instead of a chance at it. Way more pants and a pants shop. WAY MORE hairstyles, eye colors with an option to select from a color wheel, eyebrows, scar and tattoo options too with a new tattoo vendor. (the tattoos are explained in game to be temporary ones even though they secretly aren't, to make sure parents don't get the wrong idea lmao)

Maybe some gameplay tweaks too? like including very slight momentum when going downhill? It has to be very slight though for balance. I would like to add a dolphin dive like mechanic where if you press the jump button in the air in your swimming form, you'll quickly stomp to the ground, and that speed will be carried over when swimming in ink for a little while. Maybe faster horizontal wall swimming too? Basically make the gameplay a little bit faster is all I'm trying to say, Splatoon doesn't need a giant gameplay overhaul, just small tweaks to make the last game seem worse to play lmao.

And of course, BETTER SERVERS! WE NEED DEDICATED SERVERS! NOW!!!!!!!!!!! EVEN IF ITS JUST A FEW IT'LL BE SOOOOOO HELPFUL! STOP BEING STUPID NINTENDO! GOD!

Um... anyways!

Now, in terms of story.... I would have 3 parts, one is the main campaign while the other two are DLC. The main campaign is focused on the Salmonids. You play as a new agent (Agent X or something, i think that's a cool name) as you explore these islands Super Mario 64 style where you do missions and try and stop the Salmonids from getting out of control as they gone on a rampage from an unknown cause. You have to complete enough missions on an island to go to the next.

Basically, think of Salmon Run maps and areas found in Mario games but they are WAY LARGER and more complex areas to go through with NPCs to talk to. I really want Splatoon 4 to expand on the concepts found in the hub worlds in Alterna and go fully into a 3D Mario sandbox style game.

You also have to team up with Frye, Big Man, Neo Agent 3 and Marie who join up with a new cast of characters who are in charge of guiding you to new islands (haven't thought much about what these characters are) to figure out what's going on. Callie doesn't appear in the story as it's explained in a Sunken Scroll that Callie is helping Octavio figure out what to do with the Fuzzy Octarians that are still trapped in Alterna. And yes Octavio has now fully joined the New Squidbeak Splatoon which Callie is very ecstatic about.

Cuttlefish is fully retired and doesn't appear, and Captain is taking a break from captain duties, leaving Marie to watch over Frye and Big Man as she is their boss anyways. Now, where is Shiver in all this? Well... here me out... she's the villain. And no she doesn't have any sort of bullshit evil headgear on. She's a villain due to being corrupted by greed and wanting more power. She has become addicted to the high she gets from winning and feeling powerful and has teamed up with the Salmonids to gain even more power and cash. She's been fully consumed by power and cash and Frye and Big Man are not on board with her plans as Shiver doesn't wanna give back to the people in Splatsville anymore. So Shiver leaves the group and gathers up the Salmonids and commands them.

However it's revealed that Shiver is doing these things because she had a bad family upbringing in her clan and was always talked down to and treated as weak. So all that trauma and resentment is finally on the surface and Shiver is lashing out at everyone because her pain is so much for her. There could be some themes about found families and healing trauma with the people that you love and stuff like that. Haven't thought too deeply about it. But I would really love to see Deep Cut forgive Shiver and just hug and cry it out. I'll cry alongside them lol.

Now, the second story is focused on the Squid Sisters and takes place before the events of the main campaign. You play as Agent 4 and Callie finds you lying on the floor and tells you that Inkopolis Plaza has been covered in a strange fog and a weird green substance that looks like gooey moss. The buildings have changed and there's all this weird plant life and dust everywhere. Callie escorts you to the tower found in Inkopolis Plaza to figure out where Marie went and that's where you meet Octavio who got shot down in his mech from a laser.

The three go inside and the building looks very similar to the aesthetics of Side Order but with a hospital liminal space edge to it. It looks like a twisted dream hospital environment with a giant lobby in the middle.

This kind of vibe but more open and less hallway like. It should invoke the feeling of going to a hospital as a kid.

However, instead of an elevator to go higher, it's a giant spiraling staircase that grows after each floor Agent 4 completes. Basically the gameplay is the same as the rogue like gameplay found in Side Order but its heavily expanded upon with new enemies, objectives, color chips, etc. However... during the first 12 floors you hear these weird whispers and voices that sound very similar to Marie's voice.... Callie says she's getting major Deja Vu, and then Marie's voice is fully clear and echoes throughout the building, telling Callie in specific to leave her alone and to get out of here. They don't listen and continue forward.

When you reach the 12th floor, you go inside a giant white chamber and you see Marie in a new outfit that's similar to this outfit found in the Splatoon 2 artbook. Basically this but with a cool cloak and squid tentacle patterns on it and a gas mask instead of shades.

She's standing on some kind of green gooey moss and looks angry. Marie attacks Agent 4 with her charger and its a stealth boss where you gotta sneak around and get up to Marie and knock her down from the moss pile. Evil Marie has always been a beloved fan concept in the community, like Hypno Marie has so many cool fan designs out there and i think that could work honestly.

Callie manages to knock the mask off of Marie with a splat bomb but she's still angry. Callie grabs onto Marie and Marie calms down and cries. Agent 4 looks at the gas mask and its just filled with regular oxygen, nothing special about it. No hypnosis gas or anything. Just regular oxygen... Marie says she's sorry and explains that stuff from her past is catching up to her and making her unwell (you can guess on what I'm referring to wink wink.) She was unable to sleep for several days and was being manipulated by someone...

The thing behind Marie's manipulation appears from the ceiling and it's this giant white metallic squid that has transparent glass on some of it's body and arms, which shows this bright green goo flowing inside it. (think of Overlorder but he's a squid). I don't have a lot of information for this guy but this villain was created to cure Fuzzy Octarians, but due to unknown circumstances it went out of control and its coding was changed to "heal" people's pain by covering the planet in a modified and twisted version of Marie's low tide ink which now has evolved to be very similar to plant life. This goo/ink neutralizes certain parts of the brain, leaving the victim completely unfeeling and depressed, unable to feel anything, even physical touch or sensation. The villain manipulated Marie by going inside her head, analyzing her memories and telling her that all she has to is to get rid of "the intruders" and he will "heal her pain."

After the Marie boss fight, you have to travel up to 40 floors instead of 30 and during the downtime you get to learn about the Squid Sisters. Stuff like Callie and Marie before they blew up, who came up with their outfits, more info about their parents and managers, Marie talking about how she has trauma and nightmares from the events of Splatoon 2 and is terrified that one day Callie may leave and never come back again, Callie diving into her time in the Octo Canyon and finally clearing up what happened to her, Octavio showing remorse and sorrow for the actions he has done over the past 100 years. Basically Side Order but with the Squid Sisters, Octavio and Agent 4. I know it's a lot like Side Order but Side Order is so damn good so why not do it again but improve upon the gameplay you know?

That's all I got for this story and it's probably gonna change and be tweaked over time.

Now for the third story of Splatoon 4. I barely have anything for this but it will star the new Idol duo of the game, Off the Hook, Eight and Captain. I think it'll be like Octo Expansion in terms of gameplay and difficulty, but also expanded and longer to complete.

OKAY! NO MORE SPLATOON 4! TIME TO TALK ABOUT HYPNO CALLIE!

Hypno Callie Rewrite.

Honestly, the way I would go about rewriting Hypno Callie is very simple... Remove the Hypnoshades. That's it. She can still have them as an aesthetic part of her outfit, but i would make it so Callie is no longer hypnotized and it's WAY MORE clear to the audience that Callie is suffering from mental illness and that she left with the Octarians, not "kidnapped, overpowered and brainwashed into being a mind controlled slave." Splatoon 2 was always about the separation of the Squid Sisters and their eventual healing and reunion, it was always gonna be about that but due to time constraints probably, they rushed it and introduced bullshit shades to make it easier and simpler, they then tried to fix it later with an obscure post with a relationship chart that no one even fucking talks about, even timeline explainers fail to fucking mention it... ugh...

Making Callie an actual antagonist that has been manipulated by Octavio, whispering to her and playing into her insecurities and pain is way more compelling and makes more sense for Octavio to do as a character. Like how the fuck did he come up with the Hypnoshades and why did he only use it on Callie? He can just make hypnosis tech out of nowhere? Huh? It makes way more sense for Octavio to just manipulate her as he is a master of words and propaganda.

So what I would do is introduce a new mandatory collectable in the Splatoon 2 Hero Mode called "Callie's diary." At certain moments in the campaign Agent 4 and Marie find pages from Callie's diary as she explains her feelings and pain from being overworked and feeling some resentment as Marie has stopped calling or texting her. Marie looks so ashamed and disappointed and starts blaming herself for Callie's disappearance. Some of the diary entries include the photos found in Sunken Scrolls 21 and 22. The last diary entry found in Sector 4 is an emotional rant from Callie the day she went missing. She rants about how she can't take working anymore and how she's so lonely. Her last line is "if no one truly cares for me up here... Then... Maybe..." And there's a small tear stain at the bottom of the page.

Now for the final boss, the main plot points would occur sorta the same way, you fight Octavio and Callie, after a bit Marie comes in and shoots her in the eye, Callie calms down, blah blah blah. I actually really do like the idea of the "low tide ink" that the English translation team introduced. I think it's a neat idea that Marie has this special ink that calms someone down so I'll keep that for the rewrite.

However, during the final boss, i would make it to where Marie is really trying to reach to Callie and trying to convince her that she is loved and she matters, she tries to apologize for her actions and explains that Octavio is just manipulating her for the Octarians' goals. Callie fights back and doesn't wanna listen to her, constantly trying to shut her down. Marie even reminds Callie of their childhood and it almost gets to Callie, but she becomes more emotional and angry, she's so confused because deep down she knows Marie is right, but she's so scared to listen to her because she doesn't want to get abandoned again.

However what really gets to Callie is Marie collapsing on her knees and crying, just begging her badly to come back to her. And Marie says "I love you...." Callie is in shock and starts getting flashes of good memories with her and Marie. She holds the shades in her hands and destroys them. Callie leaps into the air and collides into Marie's arms, and they cry their eyes out and say sorry to each other.

The battle plays out the same but i would like to add another cutscene after Octavio gets his shit kicked in, Callie and Marie are on Sheldon's van and they look at the sunset together. I think that would be really sweet and connect beautifully with the credits and Fresh Start.

I took a lot of inspiration from the game Marvel's Spider-Man 2 and two boss fights in particular. The Miles vs. Peter fight, and the Spider-Man vs. Scream/MJ fight. In those boss fights, it's sort of like a therapy session for the characters in that the people under the symbiote are venting about their issues and expressing their anger they have kept hidden for so long, and the person on the other side is trying desperately to reach for them and save them from themselves. It's really powerful shit honestly and it made me feel emotional seeing Peter go "ALL I WANTED WAS TO SAVE EVERYONE! MJ! MAY! NOW THE CITY THINKS I'M THE PROBLEM! you think I'm the problem." Like i know it's kind of crazy to take inspiration from a game made for adults and take some of it into Splatoon but... I really don't give a shit. Children's media can show powerful scenes of characters struggling with their inner demons. They can do it and have proven to be successful. Children can handle it, they can.

Now... i have worked on a Splatoon 2 finale rewrite and I'm pretty much almost done with it, i need to finish the last bit of it and then go over it again so I'm fully happy with it. However i don't know how to present it as it's in the form of a script and idk how that's gonna work on tumblr, i mean i could put it on AO3 but idk if i wanna make an account just to post one thing on there and idk how many scripts get posted onto AO3 anyways...

It's like I'm a chef and I'm cooking something, but there's no waiter to deliver the food lmao.

ANYWAYS! Thank you for reading my autistic ass ramblings! I got so much free time that i just so much of it just writing down fan concepts for things on different games and stuff (I have a 42 page and counting document on a potential Sonic Frontiers 2.) Yeah... I got THAT kind of autism, not the maths and science one... Again, thank you for reading!

[aquatark]

My previous post made me realize that not a lot of people here are aware of Endless Ocean's bowmouth guitarfish glitch fiasco, which I think is a shame because 1) it's an interesting look into this game's history, and 2) I find it really funny... long-winded explanation incoming!

So! you see this guy?

You can place him in the game's aquarium, right? I bet if you've played the game, you've done it without even thinking twice!

...Well, in the initial Japanese release of Endless Ocean (known over there as Forever Blue), you couldn't. In fact, attempting to place this little scrimbly in the aquarium crashes your game.

Now this isn't too bad, since you can just press the reset button and continue your game normally, right? well... if you happen to leave the aquarium and save the game after having opened the creature placing menu, selecting a bowmouth guitarfish, and then closing the menu without placing anything... then congrats! you can never use the aquarium again, because it autoplaces whatever you left in that menu on your next visit! :D

In case you're wondering what this looks like in action, this video taken around the game's launch showcases it well, while also using the game's MP3 playback feature to put some anime music in the background, which I think adds to the experience:

So... how does this happen? How could something like this make it into the final game?

Turns out, this is due to how Endless Ocean categorizes creatures internally. Each creature in the game falls into a category, depending on the movements and behaviors the developers wanted to give them. For example, "migrate" type creatures follow a set of coordinate points creating a route around a stage, whereas "swim" type creatures simply swim around the area in which they are placed within a certain radius. Think of a whale shark's movements versus that of a butterflyfish - they have very different AI telling them how to behave.

Now, trying to load a creature of one type as a creature of another... does not make the game happy, to put it lightly. It doesn't know how to handle the request, and so crashes to prevent further weirdness from ensuing. There is only one byte (literally the second smallest unit of digital information storage you could use) per creature responsible for telling the game what type to load the creature as, and this includes when placing creatures in the aquarium. A slip of the keyboard caused a dev to type the wrong number in this byte, making it attempt to spawn bowmouth guitarfish placed in the aquarium as "swim" type rather than their correct "migrate" type. Literally one wrong number caused the game to crash, and for ears to bleed across Japan.

Since the aquarium is unlocked so early in the game, people discovered this on day one, in their first play session... and since Endless Ocean was a launch game for the Wii in Japan, that's even worse. It's not exactly a great look for your brand new console to have a game break so bad you can't use a mechanic anymore. And Wii game crashes are not pretty. So, Nintendo put out a statement on the day of release, notifying people of the problem, how to avoid it, and saying that a recall would be put in place. A week later, they released another statement, which stated people could apply to have their games replaced with an updated version, which would be mailed to them free of charge, by either phoning in or filling out an application online. This service continued up until 2020, over ten years after release! They really didn't want any copies of the broken version around... good thing we have archives of it!

The updated version even has different box art, with an added blue bar at the bottom, showcased in this incredibly crunchy image:

I love picturing Nintendo executives freaking out after a humble diving game causes such a mess they have to print the game again, losing them a lot of money and causing the game to get a lot of negative press...

I've seen old forum threads talking about the game as if it's garbage before it even came out internationally, because this situation was pretty much the only major news coming out about it. Can't have helped sales, at least...

Anyway, the game was patched to fix this glitch, along with a few other minor tweaks, and it was this version of the game that got translated worldwide. Japanese fans love joking about the whole ordeal, and I can see why! For example, on the bowmouth guitarfish's Niconico Pedia page (for which the closest equivalent in English would be something like Know Your Meme), this is recounted comedically as "...probably the most notable moment for the bowmouth guitarfish in the history of the internet", which is probably true! There's even image macros about it!

So yeah. The bowmouth guitarfish's reputation was forever tainted, and some Nintendo execs to this day probably wince when they see one.

tl;dr - A developer for Endless Ocean typed one number wrong in the code, making the game explode if you place a bowmouth guitarfish in the aquarium. Nintendo had to recall the game, and that specific fish has lived on in infamy among Japanese fans ever since.

Next time you use the aquarium, try putting a bowmouth guitarfish in there, and be grateful you can at all!

[6lostgirl6]

Promiscuous E.T.

Pairing: Male!Yautja x G/n!Reader

Summary: Since you both were completely different species, you wanted to show your yautja boyfriend one of Earth's finest creations. Just Dance.

TW: cute moments, yautja rage quit, hint of sex towards the end.

Based on this post!!

"Come on," you muttered, fiddling with your old Wii console that was once sitting in your closet collecting dust. Now, it was getting set up to your living room television. "Stupid thing."

For a while, since the beginning of your relationship with your alien lover, you have tasked yourself with showing him things from your world. It started off with the basics, including food, fashion trends, music, and much more. Now, you wanted to show him a small piece of your childhood.

Your yautja watched silently as you fiddled with the old Wii station. He didn't understand your urge to show him these strange things from your planet. However, he thought you were very cute when your Ooman eyes would light up and your smile would brighten when you showed him things. Therefore, he indulged your little antics.

"And what is this contraption, little blade?" He asked in his language with various clicks, which made you pause.

The crackle of the translator embedded under the skin behind your ear took a second to translate, his clicks turning into words in a mere second.

You smiled and turned towards him, "I wanted to show you a game that's very popular on my planet!" You continued to fiddle with it for a few more seconds before the screen finally lit up. "Sweet!"

Before he could continue asking more questions, you quickly headed towards him, holding something similar to a remote in your hand.

"This is a Wii remote," you handed the pink device into his awaiting claws, his hand practically dwarfing the remote as he stared down at it. "You use it so the console can monitor your movements!"

He let out a few curious clicks as he played with the remote in his hand, similarly how you would wield a knife which almost made you giggle. The device was shaped like a thick stick that was decorated pink. He also noticed that it was covered in some rubber sheath with a dangling string.

"How do I wield this?" He asked, patiently allowing you a moment for the translator to help you understand. He stared down at you, silently admiring how small you were compared to him, especially in the nest.

Oblivious, you started explaining the device. "Okay, well, you'll hold this and follow the movements on the screen, basically copy them. The remote will monitor and track on how well you're doing!" You took the remote and pulled out the string as he listened.

"This goes around your wrist and can be adjusted! This makes sure you don't accidentally throw it or drop it." You finished, carefully strapping the fabric around his wrist.

As you were doing that, your yautja continued to admire you. Using his other hand, he played with your hair, careful not to accidentally hurt you with his claws. He loved how smart you were, teaching him something new practically every day. He let out some affectionate purrs the more he thought about it.

He was proud to have such a worthy mate.

Your cheeks flushed a little, smiling up at him which he returned in his own way. His upper mandibles moving to resemble something similar to a smile. "All done, big boy." You teased, pulling away to grab your own remote.

Going through the menu, you selected the game that you inserted a bit ago. After a few more clicks, the song list appeared and you were already searching through some of the songs available.

"Anything that you wanna try?" You asked, looking up at him.

Your yautja shuffled through the songs before one captured his attention. Surprisingly, the beat was very catchy and the characters on the screen was interesting.

"Let's do this one." He said, returning your gaze for your approval.

"Okay! I'm excited for this one, so I'm glad you picked it!" You exclaimed, clicking on the song and getting into position. After a second, you had to pull miserably on your yautja to do the same.

Curse him for being so big, but you wouldn't have it any other way.

Halfway through the song, you noticed that your yautja was getting a little frustrated. For the past few minutes, he's been getting a low score.

And your yautja is very competitive.

"Pauk!" He cursed, continuing to get 'ok' on his score and he was starting to get more frustrated.

"You're going great!" You tried encouraging, allowing yourself to get a few low scores purposely without him seeing. "I'm getting a few low scores too!"

However, he didn't hear you, continuing to get more frustrated and moving his arms rougher.

After a moment, something snapped and he swung his arm. In that second, he forgot how powerful he was and his superior strength. The remote flew from his hand, the wrist strap snapping as the device slammed into the screen of the television.

Leaving a large crack.

"Cjit..." He muttered, staring at the television with wide eyes and mandibles spread.

You stood there, facial expression matching his own, your own remote still in your own grasp.

"Pauk, I'm so sorry, little blade." He said, turning towards you with guilt for ruining something that could have been very expensive.

However, you could only laugh as you hunched over, hands on your knees which surprised your mate.

"I-I'm not mad, my love." You reassured, wiping a lonely tear from your face as you straightened yourself. "It was honestly funny."

"But, I broke your television, I shouldn't have lost control like that." He revoked, standing there with his arms crossed and head bowed.

You simply smiled, standing on your toes and patting his head, which made him look towards you.

"I could care less about it. I care more about you and your enjoyment." You stated, leaning in and kissing his lower mandible. He sighed and returned the affection, allowing a few of his mandibles to tickle your cheeks.

"What would I do without you, little mate?" He purred, looking down at you in adoration. He wrapped an arm around your waist, pulling you closer.

"Cease to exist." You teased, biting your lip. You smirked and slowly brushed your fingers through his dreadlocks, tugging on a few. You were rewarded with a low growl.

"Why don't we do something else to let off some steam?"

Spam Liking = Blocked

Taglist: Comment to be added!!

@prettywhenibleed

[archoneddzs15]

Sonic 30th Anniversary Symphony (2021) - My reaction 3 years later

I am going to admit one thing. I am a Sonic fan, and it has always been this way since 2006 when I got my hands on Sonic Advance 3 for my Game Boy Advance SP. At the time I was one year away from starting elementary school and my family was not well off at the time, so I had to make do with what I could play. Little did I know that my first encounter with the blue hedgehog would change my life forever as I know it today.

Then as I grew older I was able to get some extra games for the systems I did own, such as my childhood 32 bit console, the Sega Saturn. I got Sonic Jam which was my first gateway drug to the classic 16-bit Sonic games, and I even got to roam around in the Sonic World for a bit, doing tasks like collecting rings and such. The Sonic series has its ups and downs, sure, but there is one thing that the Sonic series never fails on, and it became even more apparent when I saw this comment on one particular live-stream where a music teacher was gob-smacked by how fuckin' awesome the Sonic Adventure 2 soundtrack was!

Anyway, this little long-winded intro out of the way, though it still rings true as the picture says. Let's get right into it. As a 30th anniversary birthday present to Sega's premier franchise Sonic the Hedgehog in 2021, Sega decided "Why not make it bigger and better?" They got some Czech Republic philharmonic orchestra to do the orchestrated medleys for many a Sonic game under the sun, all of which remain one of my favorites. Keep in mind, this Symphony came out before Sonic Frontiers and Superstars. Also, I am not the best in terms of being a music critic unlike the Anthony Fantano types so my reviews of them are going to be relatively brief.

Part 1: Countdown

The music playing during the first 15 minutes of countdown is nothing short of spectacular. The track list is as follows:

A New Journey - Sonic Unleashed

Comfort Zone (Main Menu) - Sonic Mania/Plus

Sonic Goes U.G. Mix - Sonic Gems Collection

Fist Bump (Piano Version - Theater Room) - Sonic Forces

Mission (theme of Sonic 3D Blast) - Sonic Generations

Tropical Resort (Area Theme) - Sonic Colours

Part 2: The Orchestra

The Philarmonic Orchestra masterfully conducted a beautiful rearrangement of almost every Sonic game's soundtrack out there. I say "almost every" because for the Orchestra portion it's missing Sonic CD, the GBA and DS Sonic games and Sonic Boom. But that's minor substitutions in favor of something a lot grander, and I appreciate it. I mean, they even represented games like Sonic Drift 2 and Tails Adventures! Even NiGHTS got a shoutout. How about that for cool?

Part 3: Tomoya Ohtani

Tomoya Ohtani Band. Oh man, what can I say? Well, they played three songs, so let's get right to it.

Reach for the Stars (Re-Colors)

The Re-Colors version of Reach for the Stars as found in Sonic Colours Ultimate, the remaster of the Nintendo Wii game now available on PS4/5, XBOX, Switch and PC. This song absolutely rocked the socks off when I first played the original game on the Wii, and this arrangement is even better still.

Speak with Your Heart (Original + Rainbow Mix)

Things go normal for the first few minutes of this song, which I like, and then Tomoya Ohtani drops a bombshell when it turns into the "Rainbow Mix" which has a trap beat type vibe to it. I love it!

Endless Possibility from Sonic Unleashed (vocals: Nathan Sharp)

Nathan Sharp is the guy who sings covers of Sonic songs under the best name you could ever give, "NateWantsToBattle" under his record label "Give Heart Records". Endless Possibility is a song that people have loved for years and years and years. It's a song which was originally performed by the same people that did the vocal intro for Phineas and Ferb. Nathan Sharp swoops in and delivers the BEST version of the song yet!

Part 4: Crush 40 (Jun Senoue & Johnny Gioeli)

Crush 40 is also a staple among Sonic fans. From hit songs like Open Your Heart, Live and Learn, Sonic Heroes, I Am... All of Me, and so on, their music has touched lives everywhere around the world. Fun fact, they used to be known as Sons of Angels for a short period of time, where some of their Sons of Angels-era songs were used in the Sega arcade game NASCAR Arcade. The songs in NASCAR Arcade would be released in the only music album to bear the Sons of Angels artist name, "Thrill of the Feel". Speaking of which, they sang six songs before adding two more after fans (this was in 2021 and we were still in lockdown so....) "demanded" more from them. Fun fact: Jun Senoue also did some songs for the Game no Kanzume "Sega Games Can" discs for the Sega Mega CD. Johnny Gioeli also provided vocals for another band under his wing called Hardline. The six initial songs are as follows, which all really will rock your sound system off.

Open Your Heart (Sonic Adventure)

Sonic Heroes

Green Light Ride (Team Sonic Racing)

Sonic Boom (Sonic CD) (Crush 40 VS Cash Cash version)

I Am... All of Me (Shadow the Hedgehog)

Knight of the Wind (Sonic and the Black Knight)

Part 5: The Grand Finale Songs

Whooo~!!! Here comes the big ones. Two legendary songs all from one game. All before ending it off with an orchestrated mix of "Friends" by Hyper Potions.

These two songs are all from one of the best Sonic games of all time, Sonic Adventure 2.

Escape from the City (vocals: Nathan Sharp)

No one in their right mind would want to tell you that this song from after Sonic jumps off the helicopter in a bid to escape GUN forces is not legendary.

Yet here is Escape from the City, one of the BEST Sonic songs. And, of course, another spotlight by the King of Sonic song covers, Nathan Sharp. The Philarmonic Orchestra also added to the grand vibe of the song by making it even better still.

Live and Learn

There's nothing I can say. One of the GOAT (Greatest of All Time) Sonic songs just got a whole lot better.

[docilepillow]

2024 January Media Post Thingy

i dont post on tumblr.com a whole lot i mostly just love to reblog but i wanna see if this novelty thing sticks because for like 2020-2022 i had like a text file i did that i stopped doing in 2023 or so for like video games in particular and i unno it was fun but i got distracted cus half that month i was doing retail anything special happen this year yet? not especially, but since soon ill be very busy with something that IS indeed special, and my bday, i may as well make a post now bc i feel like i will be preoccupied for the first good bit of febuary personally ( exciting life stuff ! ) last disclaimer is that at some point i would want to add movies and shows to this list when i get around to it , but for me december and january've kinda blended in that regard.. me and my friends watched Wonka recently and i was kinda so-so on that just cus' i think the original movies a certain way i guess. oops. i think there were other movies/ shows too and comics as well but once again, december-january blurr for me. Furthermore, any piece of media i pick out for this will also have a completely arbitrary doc-ism secondary title just because i feel like it. Enjoy! VIDEO GAMES! ! MARIO GALAXY 2 < SECOND ROUNDEST MARIO GAME >

I wanna say i spent from the first of january to the third on this game, but my Wii Menu calendar is a little fucked up....

Whoops! Regardless, i do have a bit of a background of not completely " gel-ing " with the original Mario Galaxy gameplay wise in my own friendgroup, to mostly dismayed reactions n junk. In short, i think artistically the game's merits are absolutely fantastic, but since i played it on the switch 3d mario collection some time after sunshine, i do think the control scheme is overall pretty limited, and that does apply to mario galaxy 2, i guess, but methodically, i think playing this game on a wiimote does make the limitation feel i guess more fair in terms of like camera control and deliberacy n stuff... the galaxy games and presentation are completely amazing works of art obviously and theres some good music here but i think between galaxy 1 and 2 i definitely prefer 2 mechanically. i enjoy the level scenarios more thats primarily it, i think. I'm so-and-so on how comets work and how many stars you need to get to get to the end ( I think how comets spawn is a little filler-ey and waiting for them to appear in a level i don't know it'll appear in was a little obtuse to figure out, even if i did eventually manage it and actually enjoy the challenges they offer. its mostly just really annoying comet spawning mechanics that were a drag. a very deliberately- controlling mario i guess and being more familiar with galaxy's control probably was why i was able to enjoy this one more ? Yay! I think i still enjoy 3d world more then this and most other 3D marios, though. It's a good video game and i liked the boss fights in it, theyre surprisingly cool and dynamic for what i'm used to from the mario series. I didn't do the special world, though. i wasn't compelled to go that far past the credits. ( You'd think this game's doc-ism title would come from it being the sequel to mario galaxy, and thus, second roundest, but honestly, i think in terms of the mario series scale, Mario Pinball Land has round mario in it, and galaxy 2's starship mario is definitely, i think, rounder then the comet observatory from galaxy one. That makes Mario Galaxy the third-roundest mario game! )

From around the 6th to the 13th, I ended up playing --- ACTRAISER RENAISSANCE < THE CEREAL-BOX GOD GAME >

actraiser is definitely a mixed video game for me, because i definitely see the merit in it. It's a very unconventional splicing of both sidescrolling and city-development game, a " remake " of a novel SNES/Famicom game with the same premise. You're like a big god of light guy who sends your soul into this little warrior guy who cleanses the land of monsters for around 6 different settlements to florish in with the assistance of a cute little angel friend and whatever area's flavor of local legend the game gives you after a story event or two to hold down the place from encroaching monster dens and such; and, apparently exclusive to this version, there's also little tower-defense segments that come in waves around four or five times per area, which in my opinion are kind of this game's weakest link, but not without like Some kind of merit. At the end of each town segment, there is also a big boss fight, usually tying into the story in some way.

( I think one of the things that genuinely pushed me to give the game a try was the cute angel design in it..... ) (I usually take an excessive number of screenshots whenever i'm playing on switch, just because doing so is very easy and i'm a sentimental freak ( For actraiser R, this is 148 screenshots ) ) ( If i continue doing this next month, i'll try to include the foresight to actually use my capture card for images, instead of taking pictures with my phone.. ) ( I think one of the things that genuinely pushed me to give the game a try was the cute angel design in it..... ) (I usually take an excessive number of screenshots whenever i'm playing on switch, just because doing so is very easy and i'm a sentimental freak ( For actraiser R, this is 148 screenshots ) ) ( If i continue doing this next month, i'll try to include the foresight to actually use my capture card for images, instead of taking pictures with my phone.. ) Some things i like that this game does, alot ---

i think it has a very very cool " world select " map. one very postive thing is that it updates in real time with your progress in the area, so you can watch it all expand from your little sky palace once you've done your buisness there. it's really satisfying and pretty... this game's got really good 2d art, i think. I've heard people be mixed on the sidescroller art in comparison, but i think it's got a charm to it. I think it's cute and while its probably more a budgetary limitation, i do like how everything kind of looks like one of those fantasy stills you can sometimes buy from arts and crafts stores. The framerate on them is like a bit lower then what you'd expect from a modern game but mechanically its still very responsive, which makes me feel like it's a stylistic choice to look more stop-motioney, i guess. Maybe im just a fan of ham, i unno.

In terms of the overhead segments, it's pretty basic and automated, which is fine by me, and perfectly workable for what it is, i think, conceptually ( they build out on your own but you do kind of " guide their hand " when it comes to where paths go, at least. It does lead to a weird meta thing being to zap your own people with holy lightning to destroy stuff you don't want though, which feels flavorfully odd for a benevolent god.... I guess it's fair enough

the main problem with the game is that the tower defense segments, the main major feature and addition of this remake, does kind of take the game's pacing and drop flat in the middle of it. They're usually decently long segments where you can only indirectly fight, and are kind of slow. They also usually need you to protect or have a certain number of buildings left by the end of it ( having all of your farms in tact by the end, defending the main temple, not having every house burned down ) which can be a bit more difficult then it sounds. i dont think the segments are bad or anything, there's just.... entirely too many of them??? like mechanically theyre fine they just happen every other second between story events and it feels kind of padded after like the second one in one area, and there's about 5 per area of increasing difficulty. i definitely think if anything could be reined back, it'd be that. I don't think the story is too special , either, the angel kind of just quips sassily about the story at you from time to time and your followers make requests of you at the temple, usually manifesting in the town segements as " have x number of y " or getting the population to a set threshold, or getting x number of resources. The structure of each area isn't shaken up too much, mostly just " new settlement, find a guy, guy isnt so sure about this lord of light guy but through fighting alongside u and some small character arch, they become a champion of yours or something and you meet the scary boss guy and kill them and weaken the big bad dark lords forces behind it all, but there were two segments i liked, both pretty late-game, with the ice wyvern and this guy named shemall whose only affront to you is having a more popular humanitarian ideology ( who actually becomes the dominant ideology in the segment leaving the church literally empty for a good portion of it , and is only tied into the status quo by the dark lord himself possessing the other temple and shit and starting a really really bad storm of eeevil , who i like a bit ) and a boss in the last area who was implied to once be a force of good but ultimately subservient to the bad guys will, which is basic but i tihnk neat. also they have cool designs. )

Shrug! I think it's neat but it has problems that bog it down! Waah! i dont regret playing it or anything but it's like a 7! ( It's kind of like a game you'd get in one of those cereal boxes, and it's a little cheap, but its endearing to me ? ) TOREE 3D < LEAST-CONSEQUENCIAL SPOILER AWARD >

finished this game the same day i finished actraiser, in one sitting. Ummm... i know this game's like a crowd favorite, and it's, like, solid, but i don't really have all that much to say about it ..... Like, it's an OK platformer, with like really great value for your dollar, but i don't really have all that much to say about it, endearment-wise. I think also that the VHS horror elements are largely unnecessary and are kind of whatever, but I know i'm not really the audience for it. That's the spoiler, i guess. Around the same time, in a date range I don't remember, I basically ended up completely reorganizing my room for Life Stuff, and ended up giving a really cool fan project a try, from a series i've always wanted to try more of, if not for the language barrier, in the form of -- STARFY ORIGINS ( Densetsu no Stafy ) < SPLASHABLE VIDEO GAME >

Waaaaaaaa ! i love starfy ( Stafy? ) You probably wouldn't have the background on it unless you knew me, but i'm a real DS head, and one of my earliest games on the system, one i have vivid memories with, was The Legendary Starfy, an " underwater platformer ", mostly known as being a kirby-like game in style, and being the last entry in a mostly untranslated series of platformers that're japanese-exclusive!

Essentially, what this means for me was that there was , for a very long portion of my kid-years, a bunch of video games out there that i knew i'd be instantly endeared by if ONLY i could play them ( since, even at the time, gba emulation for me was kind of mystical and out of my ability ) ; and , at least in my mind, that meant it'd have just as many lovable characters and such as the the starfy I got to play, anecdotaly meaning the only exposure i'd have to these games beforehand is ferverously looking up stuff on the starfy wiki and watching youtube videos of the final bosses and stuff; basically just lementing for years that " aww,, theres no translation. i guess it's just too obscure " with the rest of the starfy fans i've heard about online, until recently! I emulated this game on Vita and overall i'd just have to say its a cute, decently-novel-but-slightly-padded 2d sidescroller. I'd say it was like ok-levels of worth the wait, but im honestly just floored that a translation of the first game happened at all, and i think its awesome what's been done. It's selfish to want, but i'd really like to try the other DS starfy game sometime, whenever that's translated. It's honestly one of the few loose-end games i can even think of and mechanically that one's a whole lot more out there then this one, which, other then the novelty of playing this game i've only heard murmurs of for over a decade, is just kind of alright. kudos to the fan translators making this game work out!!! I wonder if the team that did this have plans for the others now that this game's been translated....

Wew, halfway down the list, i'm sick of typing, but i'll keep going with ---> DEATHSMILES < SCARY >

Cool bullethell shmup with really tight gameplay my friend endeared me to with a single screenshot and a slightly empassioned ramble i forget the exact context of

idk i think this green girl is neat and the arcade style bullethell gameplay's really fun on steam deck; i just think the girls should be like 7 years older each then what the game says because the loli aspects of this game are kind of uncomfortable and unavoidable and i don't like them at all... the gothic horror halloween aestetic the game has otherwise absolutely rocks and is just up my alley, though. i guess its just part of the style theyre going for, but it's a really unfortunate Japanese quirk you kind of have to just tolerate for the other Very Good aspects the game has gameplay and artisticly wise ( music and art direction is awesome )

the girl's dragon familiar is named booboo by the way. just thought that's important. LITTLE GOODY TWO SHOES < GAME **MOST** RESPONSIBLE FOR SINGLE-HANDEDLY HOME-WRECKING MY BRAIN CHEMISTRY THIS MONTH >

Another game my friend reccomended whicch is completely awwesome and my entire aestetic and i love it alot and i think its my game of the year unless something else comes around and im absolutely floored with it and i went into it completely endeared and its completely wrecked my vernacular and its so pretty and its so artistic and its so different and its so pretty and its so girl and its so gay and im Elise and im in the woods i like being in the woods this game has the best aestetic of any game ive played ever and it feels like no competition and ummmmmmmmmmm

idk just fucking look at it its so so so so good i love this games world so sooso osososoos s oso ososo o os so mcuh its so good it so nice its so charactered genuinely great little slice of life slash horror slash social sim game with admittedly some jank portions of it that piss me off a little bit but holy fucking shit this games aestetic is the best besy best best bersy tbest best thing ever made i think its really really good pelease watch this segment on youtube its so silly

im not gonna type anything else this game Is its narrative and i dont wanna spoil anything but its great its got a lovely dark fable aestetic and i think everyone should play it especially if you like rpg maker horror type games / are gay as hell / love fairytale aestetics like I do

i like ummmm Lebkuchen by the way. if u wanna know what my ending is. there is some fucked up shit that happens in this game though despite how absolutely adorable it looks. everything in this game points to it being one of my favorites of all time or at the very least it will definitely poison my brain forever at the expense of my friends who havent played it yet. Waaah..... no i dont think talking about a fanmade pokemon rom hack after arguably a massive artistic achievement is disrespectful thats just how the month flows POKEMON ROWE < I broke it, oops... >

really cool open-world emerald rom hack, similar to crystal clear and the like. I've technically played it already, but this is the first time i've completed it, though i completely broke the game really early into it that undermined it in a way i didnt realize for about 7 gyms, before i accidentally nuked the overworld with a massive bug that scrambled my player's gender and made the overworld color pallete fuck-ey, which, im not ggoing tto blame the developer on, i'm summing that up to a cosmic ray or something. i think with time and with more polish i could see myself liking this more then crystal clear, but time'll see. ( Team was as below )

MIGHTY GUNVOLT < tie in video game i've ever played >

typing this like an hour ins making me realize this docism thing might not stick but mighty gunvolt is neat i guess i never finished it when i first played gunvolt and obsessed over that when it was new ( Mighty gunvolt came as a free download if you bought the first game digitally, you see ) because of the first boss, but now as a more experienced gamer, that's really just because the fire boss is kind of just a weird difficulty spike at the start that the rest of the game difficulty wise doesnt really match up to. It's a cute, very short ( i beat all 3 character campaigns in two hours , liesurely ) platformer styled like megaman, and that's all it really needed to be at the time. i wouldnt go out of my way to play it these days if it wasnt for my own baggage with the gunvolt series in general, and if it wasnt for my much greater affection for its sequel, mighty gunvolt burst.... I'm just gonna say if this game interests you , you really should just play burst instead. Even if you've played the latter before, you're really not missing out on much more then a moderately ok side scroller. it sure is a tie in demake on the early 3ds ! 6180 THE MOON

Surprisingly, this game's on alot of platforms? I just kind of chose it on a whim 'cus it was on the top of the list of H-SHOP stuff and i was looking for something short to play, but it's pretty artsy.

It's a puzzle-platformer where the gimick is that the ball wraps around the screen when you fall down or up, which works really well with the 3ds in my opinion. with the compression and stuff on the 3ds and how the game was laid out, it affectionately reminds me of a flash game you'd find on coolmath or the such, and its very relaxed ( if a little wonky ) . i dont have anything bad to say on it or anything its just a small little game i played on a whim. it's very minimalistic, if you're into that aestetic, you might like this. That's the last of the wholy " new " stuff i finished this month, and id say overall its a solid start for me, and kind of out of season ( very octobery-feeling game lineup in retrospect..! But that month's always usually crowded with obligations and stuff, so i doubt i'd be in a mood for them even at that time of year.. )

Also, i gave a try to cavestory on wiiware, first time i've played the game in a few years now since the switch rerelease! I think its just as fun as i found it when i first discovered it on 3ds, and, while i have a friend who adamantly disagrees, i actually really do like the OST of this version. It's a cute mutation on the games ost that in my opinion enhances the kind of forelorn vibe the game originally had, and i really like the blown up art of this version of cave story, even if it does have nichalis's hands all up in the matter. since it's unlocked from the start, i played the game on Curly Story till the true ending. I still love this game alot. Sometime i'll trick a certain individual into finishing it, i hope.

That's all i have to say! this is the first time i've made such a big post on any kind of social media period, so, hopefully its not unreadably disjointed or self-absorbed. Whatever!

play little goody two shoes

[cut-content-contest]

Shipwreck Cove

There's a good amount of cut content, but Shipwreck Cove is an *entire level* where there's chunks of it left in the files, but it's not present in the main game. The entire island can be pieced together from models left in the files, the in-game map is there and drawn, and there's a collision map too. There's even a transition package, though trying to use it crashes the game. Character models of the island's residents, their associated UI icons, music for a "Pirate Lighthouse" and two character's houses, and even log strings still exist in the files. Honestly, I wouldn't be surprised if someone manages to mod in a functioning version of it someday. There's also an image of one of the island's residents that would've shown on the main menu, too. Also, I want to add that one of the log strings is "pirate_buddy_getsoul_reward." I'm absolutely fascinated to what task that would be related to.

tcrf link: https://tcrf.net/MySims_Kingdom_(Wii)

MySims Agents 2

THE ENTIRE MYSIMS AGENTS SEQUEL WAS SCRAPPED AND I'M SO MAD ABOUT IT. For context, MySims Agents is a Wii game (there was a DS version too but it's unrelated) in the MySims series. It's a... I guess you could say point-and-click detective game? With some platforming segments? Obviously made for kids, but I still enjoy it. The plot of the game ends with one of the protagonists and the antagonist both getting sucked into the Nightmare Dimension. Then there's a text adventure thing where you can choose to save one, but not both, and IMO the text adventure feels very hastily tacked on. This is because MySims Agents was supposed to have a sequel, which was scrapped. Some characters were added to MySims SkyHeroes, which was sort of a flight simulator racing thing. I've seen that game described as a 'funeral service' for the series, which I think is pretty accurate.

tumblr post: https://mysimspc.tumblr.com/post/717135279400566785/everyone-wake-up-mysims-agents-2-story-outline

[retrogamechampion]

"Wii Music" Soundtrack

Lawl. I put a poll on my Discord server to see, out of 18 games and series, which soundtracks people would like me to put together next. Their #1 pick?

... Wii Music.

The absolute madlads have won, and so here it is: All 98 songs from the game, with various menu tunes, jingles, and all of the included pieces of music to play along with.

Wii Music was honestly a very technically impressive game, with 66 different-sounding instruments to jam along with. Just imagine, out of all 50 programmed music pieces, each one was tracked with 66 different instruments, just waiting for you to compose and play with endless combinations!

It was a lot of fun to hang out with friends and sit around the TV, holding your Wiimotes like whatever instrument you were using, and just rocking out with no regards to a score. You could record your performance and even create custom album art for it, then share the end results with others! There hasn't really been anything like it since.

Though some folks have labeled it the "black sheep" of the official Wii/Mii titles, it's certainly worth some plays, even today. Until then, jam out to a very weird and random mix of music with this soundtrack. You nutters. 

[allsonicgames]

Sonic and the Secret Rings

Original Platform: Wii

Original release: 20th February 2007

Available to buy: No

A Sonic game with a unique control scheme. In Sonic and the Secret Rings, Sonic automatically moves forward and you make him move left/right by tilting the Wii Remote. Holding the jump button will make Sonic slow down and charge up a jump while you can move backwards while twisting the Wii Remote towards you. The latter is not explained by the game well at all, as the on-screen description implies you just move it so its facing towards you, when you actually have to flip the whole Wii Remote upside down. Once you discover that, the controls are still a bit odd, but functional.

You will progress throughout a series of levels that take place in the world of Arabian Nights, starting with the desert level you would expect from a setting. The other levels, however, definitely take a lot of liberties, such as a jungle with dinosaurs, pirate ships, a floating city on top of a giant manta ray and a fiery factory. Each level is fun to play, with some great music throughout, and even with the fairly poor (for today’s standards) graphics, still have a nice visual style.

Unfortunately, the game’s structure really lets it down. When you beat a level, you’ll get a cutscene (in a nice hand drawn style), where Sonic will indicate heading to the next level…but you can’t access the next level. Instead, you have to progress through a ton of challenges. Some of these are fun, but others are just repetitive as you play through the same parts of a level collecting rings, or killing enemies, or not killing enemies. Some of these are required to progress through the game, while others are optional…except the game gives no indication of which ones are which, so you’ll go through a lot of them anyway until one of them moves you on. When you unlock a new mission, the screen will just state a new mission unlocked and won’t even tell you which level its in.

What doesn’t help is the main song, Seven Rings in Hand. I enjoy this song (especially the Crush 40 version), but it will drive you crazy throughout Sonic and the Secret Rings as it’s on a constant loop throughout all the menus, and the ranking screen plays a smaller snippet of it. You’ll hear it so much that it will annoy you pretty quickly.

Another big issue with Secret Rings is how Sonic is at the start. The game has a levelling up system, where you will unlock new skills and assign them (you can have four different layouts), so as you approach the end, it gets significantly better, but really all of the speed ones should have been default as it really does give a bad first impression.

I really like Sonic and the Secret Rings. Despite its flaws, there is a lot of charm to the game, with some really enjoyable levels. I would love a “Storybook Collection” remake with some more traditional controls as an option, as I think it really does deserve another chance.

[miloscat]

[Review] Sonic Unleashed (Wii)

The better Sonic Unleashed?

In between Secret Rings and Black Knight, some subset of Sonic Team was working on a version of Unleashed for SD consoles: the underpowered Wii and the last-generation PS2. To create this companion game they also subcontracted Dimps, who had just made the excellent Rush and Rush Adventure which Unleashed itself cribs from. While much of the design and concepts are shared between the HD and SD games, the actual game content here is all new, with Dimps handling level design for the Day stages, and the Sonic Team team covering the Night ones.

If you missed my Unleashed HD review, I think the game while flawed represents a confident direction for the series after the high profile misstep of Sonic 06. It gets the tone right, has high production values, and a killer soundtrack (identical in this version, down to the unfortunate choice of combat music overtaking the night stages). It sets the template for a new era of Sonic games with boosting, a combination of 3D and 2D sections, etc. It does have problems with pacing, difficulty, and performance… all areas that the SD version actually does better!

At least on Wii, loading times are fairly quick and I never had issues with lag or slowdown which is more than I can say for my experience on PS3. Part of this is the general streamlining and cutbacks in this version. But it’s hard to mark it down for constraints when they produce a more stable and dare I say enjoyable game.

SD Unleashed cuts a lot out. The explorable towns are now just a menu, with static dialogue screens. Mazuri just has the town and a boss fight, and Empire City is missing entirely. Tails's boring plane levels are gone. There’s no NPC quests, inventory, experience system, or collectible-gated progression. But these mechanics felt superfluous anyway, and besides it’s not all cuts.

New in this version are modelled interiors for the Gaia Temples that act as the level hubs. These aren’t too exciting but they include puzzle rooms unlocked by sun and moon medals (now given as end of level rewards). These rooms are the only time that switching between Sonic and his Werehog form is actually used as a game mechanic which is novel. They also award extra life stocks in the reworked life system; you won’t earn 1-ups during a stage, but each time you start a level with your maximum amount. This works pretty well, especially because levels are shorter and easier than their HD counterparts.

Levels being broken up is a natural consequence of the weaker hardware, but it also makes for a smoother game experience as your lives get restored and you can take a break between Night stages and come back to them. The quantity of Night gameplay still overwhelms Day, but it feels better balanced especially with the integration of side missions, some of which feature original level segments. The way these are handled for the most part feel like the Storybook games, with your main level giving rise to smaller challenge missions within that level. It's a better approach than HD's hot dog missions, that's for sure. Breaking up levels also makes for more distinctive level units in Night areas built around particular set pieces, and it certainly makes Eggmanland a much more bearable non-abomination.

Toning the difficulty down in general only helps the game in my opinion. This may have arisen as a concession to the controls: on Wii, the default control scheme uses the Remote and Nunchuck, with much swinging for basic game actions; similar to the approach Black Knight would take immediately after this. But since they were building for PS2 as well, the game also has a traditional scheme even on Wii, accessed via Classic Controller or Gamecube pad. Unlike on HD, homing attack is on Jump as it should be, and I prefer the Werehog controls here where you alternate attack buttons.

There's other tweaks that I think work better in this iteration of Unleashed. The Werehog does still level up, but in a linear progression by points earned from defeating enemies and breaking environmental objects (so there's a much better reason to engage in that now). The way Sonic controls in the daytime feels better, and there's less memorisation, quick time events, and cheap deaths. Progression is more straightforward. The Shamar boss is a real fight—albeit a short one—instead of a weird gimmick fight. The final boss isn't complete ass; it feels very similar to the Storybook final bosses actually... so it's still bad, but not as bad.

On the other hand, boosting is done in discrete short-term units which I think isn't as satisfying. But it's a small price to pay. And you may turn your nose up at the 480p (at best) visuals of SD Unleashed, but it does its best with art direction to still look good. Overall I think that by trimming the fat and generally making smarter choices this version ends up a more solid package than the HD game! It's certainly not just a tossed-off port to be overlooked. Of course the true Unleashed experience is holistically playing both, with their individual strengths and weaknesses, especially since you get distinct levels in each. And of course, don't miss the J2ME versions either!

[genie-does-things]

ML: Unsilenced Copy

Let me get one thing straight: I know I'm going to sound crazy. What I'm about to say is going to sound absolutely bonkers. But I need to write it anyway.

To get the introductory out of the way, my name is Zach, and I've always been a huge fan of classic 2D platformers. I have very fond memories of playing New Super Mario Bros. Wii when I was 7 back in 2009. I'm 22 now, and not much has changed. I played Super Mario Bros. Wonder almost immediately after it came out. Celeste is a particular favorite of mine, and Pizza Tower was a blast. I also own Sonic Mania Plus.

Recently I was at a garage sale and found something that seemed to unlock a memory from my childhood. It was a CD copy of Marshmallow Land. I have vivid memories of loving the game to death. It didn't seem to be the original case though, since it was just a generic CD case with a paper stuffed in the front, with crude Sharpie reading "Marshmallow Land". The person running the garage sale saw me and walked over. He was a man in his late 40's who lived alone since his wife died a couple years ago. "How much?" I asked him, holding up the case. "I'm willing to give that away for free. I don't want it in my house anymore" he said with a look of fear in his eyes. "Though I will warn you, you shouldn't mess with it. Don't put it in your computer, just leave it be." "What kind of sense does that make?" I said with a chuckle. "It's just a video game." "I-I can't even begin to describe it…" he said, trailing off. He turned around to go talk to the other people there. Since he said it was free, I decided to pick it up and walk back home. Inspecting the disc closely, it was the real thing. I remembered that the disc my parents had looked exactly the same, if a little less beat up. I hugged it tightly to my chest for a moment, excited. I had always wondered what the end of the game was, I had never had the skill to beat it as a child.

Arriving home, I sat down at my computer right away. I shook the mouse to wake the thing, and it sprung to life right away. Realizing my computer didn't have a disc drive, I rummaged around and found an auxillary one. I placed it on top of my machine, and plugged it in. I put the disc in and closed the drive. The whirring commenced, letting me know it was reading correctly. Soon enough, an explorer window popped up on my screen. Nestled right there, among the engine files, was MarshmallowLand.exe.

Double clicking it, nothing happened for a second. Then the game window popped up, and it sprung to life. 8-bit music filled my headphones, and the art was exactly like I remembered. It went for a simplistic black and white artstyle, being very simple in terms of sprites. The game had a very non-typical title screen. You controlled the character to navigate the menu, like an in-game main menu.

I used the arrow keys, and walked over to the play button. I pressed enter, and was flung into the actual game. Walking forward, there was an NPC. He looked kind of sad. Interacting with him told me pretty much all the plot this game had. Essentially it's just a hostile country takeover. Walking past, I just on my first enemy, a little fireball guy. He gets squished, and dies. They physics, just as janky as ever, instantly teleports me to the ground. This has always slightly amused me.

Nothing really notabable happens. It's just level one, exactly as I remember it. When I got to the end, the classic "You finished!" screen appeared. When I loaded into level two, something just felt… off. I couldn't quite put my finger on it, but something just wasn't right. I moved the character right and ran into a wall covered in some glitchy texture. Weird, I thought, thinking maybe I just didn't remember this from the last time I played. So I walked left. Instead of a level, it was more like a level plane. No platforms, no terrain differences, nothing. Soon enough, I saw a red pixel texture on the ground, overlaying the existing tiles. "That isn't…" I said out loud.

I kept walking forward, beginning to feel a little uneasy. What I saw next, made my stomach drop. It was the mangled corpse of one of the little fire dudes, ripped to bloody shreds. Red pixelized sploches covered the floor and the nearby tree. There was also something else I noticed. The expression of my player character had changed from a cheery smile to an almost fearful expression. With a little hesitation, I continued walking forward. I walked past dead marshmallows, dead coal guys, and dead bats. Some were ripped to pieces, others hung on trees by ropes. In the back of my mind, I began to wonder if this was some kind of sick joke. Some sort of mod, or bootleg. But then why did it seem so official? Why did it come in a CD case of all things?

Just then, the game screen went black. After a second or two, text popped up on the screen. "Not what you expected, isn't it?" Of course it isn't! I thought. Suddenly, I found myself back in the first level again. Walking forward, there were no NPCs, or even enemies. It was just barren land, empty and sad. As I reached a small climbing bit, the screen went black again. More text appeared, saying, "It's missing something, don't you think?" I thought it was missing all the gameplay, but I can't say I didn't expect what… whatever was saying that thought. The ground was positively covered in pixelated blood, and walking forward revealed slightly more high resolution corpses.

Dead animals, humans, fires, and marshmallows were everywhere. They coated the floors and walls, their blood smeared everywhere. All of the structures that were fine a second ago were now all collapsed. This was all making me severly uncomfortable, and I'm wondering how this even happened. The expression on my player character was that of utter disgust, seemingly hating every second I forced him to walk over the blood soaked land. Soon, at the top of the tower that marked the end of the level, stood a marshmallow.

At first, my player character looked relieved, before becoming more… on-edge. He began backing away from the other marshmallow, a weary look on his face. With a sort of morbid curiosity, I pushed him forward. Before I could run into the other guy, the screen blanked again. I decided it was too much, and tried to close the program. Instead of it closing, more text showed up. It read: "I don't think that'll work, Zach." A jolt of fear ran up my body to my brain. H-how does it know my name?! I thought. More text appeared, saying "Let's play a game, shall we?"

I found myself on that endless plane again. My player character was rapidly gesturing at me to move to the right, so I did. Eventually, after what felt like a whole two minutes, there he was again. The marshmallow was there, with a Firekin in front of him. The marshmallowed picked it up, and ripped it two. Blood splattered everywhere, and I winced at the realistic sound it made. With a long laugh, the marshmallow turned to me slowly, his skin turning to a harsh shade of red. "Nostalgia won't carry you forward, Zach." Just then, spikes errupted in the background and foreground, with dead bodies skewered violently on them. The ground was once again covered in blood. My character was now really scared, and I felt the same. Using him as a vessel, I ran away from the persuing marshmallow. He wasn't even touching the ground, He was flying. He had also grown to two times it's original size. I ran and ran, but he kept creeping closer.

Before he could reach my character, he vanished. I kept running, trying to just get as far away as possible. Then, before I could stop, he came into frame in front of me. My player character slammed into him at full force. The screen went black, and I heard my character scream in pain. A second later, I saw the bloody aftermath. I sat there, a look of shock on my face. This was the last thing I expected to see today, and quite frankly, I was horrified. The screen blanked again, before more text popped up. "It's been fun playing with you, Zach." It said.

Then the game closed, leaving a message box behind. All it said was: "Just know, I am the one true god of this world."

I was kind of shaken. That was certainly not what I wanted out of this afternoon, let alone my childhood game. After the game closed, I immediately ejected the disk from the CD drive. I put it neatly back in it's case, and put it on my bookshelf, resolving never to touch it again. Getting back on my computer to browse Youtube as a mind-clear, I noticed a text file on my desktop. It was named "the future.txt". Opening it, it only had two lines of text:

It was my mom's actual death date.

(Published on January 17th, 2013)

Comments: 3

(thelastelor28) bro nice cliche creepypasta story XD Reply from (zachhhattackor32) I'm not lying! This actually happened!

(badger96) hehe sonic.exe ripoff

(tinkywinky_kills) dude you're not special, i could write this hot garbage in a day tops

[dualbrew]

How to easily stream your (New) 3DS to a PC

For a long time, capturing footage from a 3DS was a pain - streaming the 3DS screens either required a hardmod to install a capture card (which, if you can, should still do if possible), or use one of the several wireless methods (NTR CFW and HzMod) that gave poor results, especially on Old 3DS.

Today, thanks to the effors of zbash92, there is now a way to stream the New 3DS display to your computer with actually decent picture quality and low latency!

New NTR CFW test done back when it was firstly released

Here's a few applications of streaming your 3DS to a computer:

Playing on a bigger screen

Recording footage of 3DS games

Capturing audio for OSTs or music you made on 3DS

Below is a guide to setting everything up, including audio capture.

Requirements

A hacked New 3DS system (Old 3DS users might use HzMod via a separate guide but the performance is VERY POOR. Old 3DS can still have their audio captured by audio cable.)

A good network connection that both the New 3DS and your PC share

(If you want to capture audio) A 3.5mm to 3.5mm audio cable and either a microphone port or a Y splitter that has a microphone port

Setup wireless streaming (3DS)

Install the .cia file onto your 3DS from the latest release of this NTR fork

Run the newly installed app, go through the setup until prompted to run a desired version - pick 3.6 HR at the very bottom

Press X+Y to open the NTR CFW menu and choose Remote Play (New 3DS) - this will show you the IP address your console has, and will also let you configure quality and performance options

Setup wireless streaming (PC)

Install one of the following NTR viewers: - NTRViewer (Windows and Linux, x64) - Snickerstream (Windows, x86 and x64) - kit-kat-slim (Windows, allows using input redirection AKA controlling your 3DS with the PC) - Twix (Windows, also allows input redirection and looks fancy) - cuteNTR (Linux) - cuteNTR-OSX (Mac OS) There are other ones, including for Windows 10/Xbox and even Wii U, but the performance may not be ideal for these

Run the NTR viewer you chose and input the IP address you got earlier. You can also set quality and performance options in the viewer as well as rendering options if available

Connect to your 3DS and enjoy looking at your console on a bigger(?) screen!

Setup audio capture

Connect the 3.5mm to 3.5mm audio cable to your 3DS headphone port and PC's microphone port (directly or via the Y splitter in computer's headphone port)

You can test the audio by either enabling listening to the new microphone device or using a program such as Audacity or OBS

Notes and Issues

TRY NOT TO CLOSE YOUR 3DS LID! It can sometimes lead to black screens and no response from the console, in which case you should hold the power button until it shuts down

This CANNOT record your DS, DSiWare or GBA VC games. Those require a capture card or using an emulator instead. Audio can be captured regardless of what your system is running

Some games may disable your internet connection, which means that you need to use patching option provided by NTR CFW or your NTR viewer of choice

If your NTR Viewer doesn't work, check firewall and viewer's render settings first and then try other viewers for your system

If your viewer disconnects on still screens, increase the timeout/wait time of the viewer if available (for Snickerstream, it's in Advanced settings)

If you have choppy framerate, decrease the quality, fiddle with QoS value and Encoder Priority, or get a better internet connection :p

If you have audio issues, try switching between microphone out and line out

-- Red

[doamarierose-honoka]

Today marks the arrival of the Mario Kart 8 Deluxe 'Wave 6' Booster Course Pass DLC for Nintendo Switch. This is the final wave of additional content and brings the total amount of DLC courses to 48. All up though there is now 96 courses from across the series to speed through.

This new update comes with the Acorn Cup and Spiny Cup, and eight courses in total covering the SNES, GameCube, Wii, 3DS and mobile era of Mario Kart. Along with this, Nintendo has added four more racers including Diddy Kong, Funky Kong, Pauline and Peachette.

And to top it off, there are also some new Mii Suits, a new jukebox option, and some "general" updates and fixes. Here's the full rundown, courtesy of Nintendo's official support page:

Mario Kart 8 Deluxe - Ver. 3.0.0 (Released November 8th, 2023)

Support for DLC

Added paid DLC: Mario Kart 8 Deluxe – Booster Course Pass, Wave 6 (two cups, eight courses, four characters, 17 Mii racing suits).

General

Added “Music” button to the top menu.

This is a feature where you can listen to the background music that plays during the game, as you like.

Even players who don’t own the Booster Course Pass can listen to the background music of the DLC courses.

Added feature where other players who aren’t friends can join in a Room.

After creating a room, press the + Button or – Button to display the Room ID on the Room screen, and tell your fellow racers the Room ID.

The other racers can join by entering the Room ID in “Search by Room ID.”

Made it so that you can create a Room even if you have 0 friends registered.

Added staff credits for the Booster Couse Pass.

-Conditions for seeing the credits

-Increased the invincibility time of a portion of characters and vehicle customizations.

-Made it so that you can’t acquire strong items when taking an Item Box by stopping or driving in reverse, or taking an Item Box that is in same location multiple times during a race.

-Shortened the time between when an Item Box is acquired by someone until it is restored.

-Lowered the appearance rate of Mirror and 200cc in “Worldwide” and “Regional.”

-Made it so you can acquire the “Varia Suit” when using a Metroid series amiibo.

-Made it so you can acquire the “Hylian Suit” when using a Legend of Zelda series amiibo.

-Made it so you can acquire the “Kirby Suit” when using a Kirby series amiibo.

-Made it so you can acquire the “Daisy Suit” when using a Daisy amiibo.

[todayimgonnaplay]

Today I'm Gonna Play: No More Heroes (PC)

I've heard this series get a lot of praise and people pleading to play it. I have vague memories of seeing the cover art but only really got the name in my head after NMH3 released. I was curious to know what it was all about, so I've jumped into the first one.

For the pros, the art direction is pretty great, I'm always a sucker for anything cel-shaded, it helps preserve a sense of style even when the game has aged. The character designs are a highlight for me. Everyone has unique silhouettes and personalities that make them memorable. The story and thematics are straightforward but very meta, and although at times I felt it was grating (such as the crude humour), I like that it didn't take itself seriously and simply exists to have a fun time. Travis is quite a degenerate, but I like having to see flawed protagonists at times, which makes me root for him.

The cons however, is the overall gameplay loop being repetitive. Majority of the progression requires you to grind for money by doing a number of part-time jobs or missions disguised as minigames in an open world, which are fun the first time! But not so much when you have to do them repeatedly. I've read that the developer intended it to be this way in order to replicate the mundane nature of working jobs, which is an interesting choice. I think trying to replicate something monotonous in real-life isn't necessarily a bad thing, but the lucky thing about games is that it tends to offer shortcuts (or cheats for games like The Sims or Grand Theft Auto) that make ''life'' in the game easier. Implementing cheat codes could be one way of going at it, which could be fitting for a game that is very GTA-esque in terms of the 3D classic era. Although this wouldn't really be possible as this was initially released for the Wii (although it'd be interesting to know how cheat codes could be implemented, if there aren't any other games out there), it could be an addition for other consoles/PC ports. The other alternative is to have menus and triggers instead. Grinding should be rewarding, but also convenient. By having a retry button after the mission (by standing at the entrance of the mission area), or being able to access past missions from the pause menu would allows the player to easily get back rather than having to go back and forth to start the mission and actually do it. Fortunately, many modern games have this implementation already. Another issue in the repetitiveness is also the level design, and some aspects of combat. For the former, there is not much of variety in the layout, often feeling like I'm running in a straight corridor (and one level is ACTUALLY a very very long, straight corridor). It felt frustrating and draining that in order to make it bearable, I had to change my perspective and not treat the game like other hack and slash games I've played, but rather like 2D beat em' ups that happens to be in a 3D environment and camera. If this was the intention, then it makes more sense. As for the latter, the combat has some variety and some occassional fun gimmicks with wacky phrases, but I felt there was little to no use of different tactics when it came to boss fights. Most of the time, I felt I just had to block, evade/counterattack and then mash attack until I find an opportunity to stun or slow down time to mash some more, while enemies only show a few seconds of vulnerability. Only once was there some variety which was trying to press a button to shoot back obstacles like a batter in a baseball game. It also didn't help that the camera was often clunky throughout the game. Both aspects also felt very dragged out and padded for the sake of extending game time. But regardless, the boss fights are the most entertaining part of the gameplay as they're also intertwined with the story. I've also heard praise about the game's soundtrack but...in my experience I could barely even hear the background music and whenever I did, not much stood out to me. I may have to listen to it separately in my own time.

The game is really charming, and I think should be experienced for its strengths. But it gets heavily bogged down by its weaknesses. I heard that NMH2 has a lot of improvements however, so I'm still willing to give this series another chance.

[owlixx]

Games I’ve Booted Up Lately (GBA/Wii)

I’ve been kind of between activities since the road trip last weekend so I haven’t really haven’t gotten back on my Twilight Princess play through properly. Since I got a new old original GBA in addition to my modded GBA SP, I’ve been booting up lots of GBA games but also some Wii zapper games because of my arcade visit.

1. Nerf N strike - I remember playing this as a kid and I did try the multiplayer a few months ago but I wanted to see the story mode. Seems like it’s just a series of multiplayer mini games against the AI or a against a target score strung together by low budget cutscenes. Still, I find this game charming for what it is.

2. Nerf N Strike Elite - I assumed this would basically be the first game, but it’s much more of a fleshed out rail shooter instead of a light gun minigame collection. I was honestly kind of impressed by the in depth gun customization. My main issue is that it requires a red lens decoder to solve some puzzles and I just have to guess those. This might be a decent time in coop, certainly more straightforward than the first game.

3. Golden 007 - I tried playing this with Wii zapper and honestly found it uncomfortable with how many buttons are involved in playing this game. The accessory really isn’t built for needing to hit any buttons on top of the controller. Playing with a knockoff pro classic controller wasn’t much better, but maybe it’s because my third party controller was cheap or the sensitivity was wrong. I’ve never seen another game tell me at the end of a level “sorry you didn’t do all the objectives so you can only continue on easy mode”. Seems like a bizarre game design choice, I wasn’t even aware of this other objective. Kind of funny that the original game was supposed to be a rail shooter.

4. Ghost Squad - saw this but didn’t play it at the arcade, but I had played just a short bit a few months ago. Definitely shines in coop. Died on the third (and final?) stage because my coop partner dropped out and I was trying to dual wield Wii zappers unsuccessfully. Excited to play arcade mode and level up to unlock new guns, and also to show my partner the very silly water gun and bikinis mode.

5. The Wii U menu played a special song for my birthday, and that honestly meant a lot

6. Okay I did play a bit of twilight princess - beat the temple of time and hoofed it back and forth between Hyrule castle and kakriko, which I am still in the midst of

7. Yoshi topsy turvy - I had this as a kid and was kind of ambivalent on it then. I think I still am now, but it was just neat to get to play it for the first time since then, even if reconfigured to use L/R instead of tilt controls (which removes some of the charm). Just the menus and music and UI really brings me back

8. Super Mario Advance 3: Yoshi’s Island - I had played the first level or two of this before, but playing it on a real GBA highlights just how impressive and expressive the graphics and animation are. This game looks and plays and sounds really well and I need to dive in further before too long.

9. CIMA: The Enemy - someone said this game had a good soundtrack, and I wanted to test my ability to hook up my GBA to speakers. The OST didn’t blow me away but I also saved and quit before I got to the first combat. Reviews for this game seem pretty mixed in the escort mission nature, so I likely won’t return too much.

10. Ultimate Card Games - again, OST came recommended and it delivered the goods. I’m terrible at solitaire, the game I decided to try, but this game’s UI honestly kind of impressed

11. Warioware - not unfamiliar to me, but all the more charming on a smaller, dimmer screen. Feels really tailored for the GBA and especially the original GBA, especially in contrast with the GameCube port.

12. Castlevania: Harmony of Dissonance - again, not unfamiliar to me but the blue outlines on enemies and the player really pops on the dim screen. And that main overworld music is so good.

13. Konami GB Collection - just played this version of Gradius because of my new casual interest in shmups. Lots of slowdown but kind of cute.

14. Star Sigma Saga - this game was featured in my first ever Nintendo power issue, which I reread many times over the years, so it holds a special place in my heart for that. I never know it was way forward! I died on my first attempt at the tutorial so I was just happy to beat that part. Not super likely to return to this since I hear the whole game has pretty unforgiving checkpoints, but neat to finally play.

15. Donkey Kong ‘94 - funny, I was playing this just before Mario Vs donkey Kong got announced. Fun use of my GBA’s ability to display Super Game Boy borders/colors and just a fun game in general, especially as a long lost predecessor to my childhood fav MvDK.

16. F zero maximum velocity - played because of the OST recommendation, not because of the battle royale announcement actually. I like f zero alright but I need a second play to play more than a track or two at a time.

17. Kirby’s Dream Land - just been using this to test original GB games, feels right at home on my dimmer original GBA compared to my modded SP

18. Silent Scope - I just think it’s funny that they even made a GBA port of this. It’s surprisingly good honestly and I’d like to beat it someday but I’m honestly kind of bad at it once it starts to pick up. Definitely not a lot of discourse about this version of this game online so I like the idea of kind of adopting it as my own.