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kafus · 4 months

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i really need to talk about why Gestalt is the perfect song to kick off Kaf's new era a little bit or i'm going to explode

talking about this requires some background knowledge and i'm aware most people who are going to read this probably don't know that much about Kaf so i'll talk about her history a little bit - Gestalt is Kaf's first solo release in a whole year. this is a considerably long time for her, and it's because the person who had been writing her songs for/with her for her entire career, Kanzaki Iori, left Kamitsubaki Studio early last year due to personal complications with himself as an artist (he is still on very good terms with Kaf and the rest of Kamitsubaki's staff!!)

additionally, Kaf's music with Kanzaki had always primarily been centered on various bittersweet and painful themes, but especially the pain of growing up/becoming an adult. this was especially pertinent because Kaf started Being Kaf when she was 14 years old, so she was singing from a place of genuine teenage angst. as she began to inch closer to adulthood and then became an adult herself, however, the feeling of her music shifted from singing about a far-off adult future, to an incredibly immediate one, with songs like her final song with Kanzaki, Kaikou, but especially Kyoukankaku which also came out during those last few months of Kanzaki being around. (i will spare you a whole ramble about these songs, you just have to take my word on the thematics up to this point lol. feel free to look into it further if you like)

so, Kanzaki leaving left Kaf in a bit of a limbo state for a while since so much of her musical identity was built off of her work with him and the topics they explored. she would need to form a new musical identity and figure out where to go from Kanzaki leaving... she spent about a year releasing her last songs with him as well as pumping out covers and collaboration songs with other musicians. but now, finally, she's back to releasing her own work! Gestalt was actually debuted at her KAIKA concert back in January, but only now has the studio release and full music video come out.

Gestalt is representational of her finally entering her new era after this big transitional period. even the official english description for Gestalt says:

KAF embarks on the next stage of her journey.

and oh boy does she!!!

Gestalt looks and feels like a super fun dance song in both the song itself and the MV. the description also says:

Over a year since KAF's last solo release, "Gestalt" is a 'killer dance tune' for the modern age.

and they're right. it is a killer dance tune. this shit slaps. but there's more to it than that.

it's immediately apparent when looking at the lyrics that there's more going on here - take this bit from the official english translation of the first verse for example:

From emotions to configurations When they start to break down I lose all understanding In so many ways Ahh I can't breathe Celebrating suffocation I can't take this

doesn't sound very fun or happy right? sounds chaotic. kaf is suffocating. she is losing her shit. but then it's followed up with:

Drop the beat! This disruptive Unnatural Forbidden gathering "Don't come here" "Don't look there" This is where it all starts to get good It's greedy Warped and twisted But hold me tight It's so hard to get it right, this losing game Seems like working together is the only way

to me, this is Kaf inviting the audience to dance with her amidst the chaos that she and all of us are suffocating in. the "unnatural and forbidden gathering" part is referring to how her and all of us are outcasts of society, how us trying to dance and experience joy while suffocating is looked at strangely. but the only way to survive in "this losing game" (of adult life) is to Work Together! be together!! dance together!!

that idea of being together in spite of suffering is the core message of the entire song, which is even brought out by its title, Gestalt. Gestaltism is essentially the idea that the whole is greater than the sum of its parts, that the whole is worth more than the individual components. both the title and the lyrics of the song emphasize togetherness and dancing as a whole.

this is already a much more optimistic take on those themes of Adulthood Hard and Life Is Pain, portrayed in a much peppier way than Kaf is generally used to. it's familiar, it feels like Kaf, but there's a new spin on it now! it really feels like Kaf is debuting her new era with explosive energy. it's very much "i lived bitch" to me - she's an adult now like she always dreaded being but despite it all she's dancing within the chaos and you should join her for that in this new era!!

but it actually goes deeper than that, because Kaf's MVs have always been made thoughtfully and usually pertain to the meaning of the song, and this one is no different. the animation also ties back into this transition and meaning.

^ these screencaps are from Gestalt (2024) and Just Forget About It (2019) respectively. both music videos were directed by Kawasaki Kenji, who worked on most of Kaf's older music videos and was the person who defined her visual style for a good portion of her career. older Kaf MVs almost always had some element of Kaf existing in real life environments, like some sort of alien girl wandering the streets of Tokyo. she was often put into very mundane locations with a good amount of wide shots, creating this ethereal feeling.

well, Kenji implements those themes into Gestalt for sure... a lot of the MV feels like an older Kaf MV. but there's a couple MAJOR differences...

instead of just idling around and looking wistful like in her older videos, she is DANCING!! and the usual typography in her videos is extremely stylized and much more colorful than usual, plus the environments are decorated with a ton of colorful and overlapping shapes breaking up the relatively mundane and even melancholic looking environment (for the record, "gestalt" is also a type of visual design involving closed shapes, so the typography and shape language here also ties into the title of the song lol).

essentially what they've done here is draw back on the Kaf everyone knows and loves but gone hey, now it's colorful and explosive and high energy! this is new, too!! which is exactly what the song is trying to do as well! familiar themes but portrayed in a completely new light

and as one last aside, it is also worth mentioning real quick that Kaf's current outfit for the year or so, Raichou, was debuted at her concert in January where this song was also debuted, and while not specific to Gestalt, her character designer PALOW really made sure to change how Kaf looks a lot more than usual this time for her new era. Kaf has a new main look every year or so and those outfits can define entire eras for her, and usually they're darker and heavier on the blue, but Raichou is nearly devoid of any blue and has a very different feel. they even changed her hair to be cut flat, something she hasn't done before.

anyways TLDR; my takeaway from Gestalt is i'm dancing with Kaf in this new era amidst the world being on fire so hard. joy and whimsy in the face of suffering bitch‼️get ready because Kaf is going to keep making banger music in new ways the likes of which we have never seen!!! this song is literally a perfect transitional song drawing on Kaf of old and bringing her into the new. absolutely genius. Piedpiper has done it again. thank you Jazzin'park for your service

#kaf #kamitsubaki studio #kamitsubaki #kiki was here #kiki.txt #long post

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king-crawler · 1 year

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My life is like a video game 👾👾👾🕹️🕹️🕹️🕹️😁trying hard to BEAT THE STAGE!!!😭😭😭😞🥺 all while I am still collecting COINS!!!!!!!🤑🤑💵💸💸

#girl ur so evil… ahaha staawwp 💅#HES SMOKIN A CIGGY SORRY!#sketches #turbo #turbotastic #drug usage #drug #drugs #turbo wir #turbo wreck it ralph #🐛VIRUS OFFERINGS #🎨#🤨unwise

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kushblazer666 · 7 months

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my life is like a video game

trying hard to beat the stage

all while i am still collecting coins

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peeblogger · 5 months

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chat My life is like a video game,

Trying hard to beat the stage,

All while i am still collecting coins ! ,,,, 🤣🤣🇳🇱🇺🇿🇺🇿

#this is a girlblog #just girly things #this is what makes us girls #weird girl #girlblogging #send help #gonna woogwoog some whangalang #goofy

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starlitangels · 2 years

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Smash Night (Shaw Pack Edition)

Hi. Here’s something silly. It’s been a long while since I wrote something just really silly and fun Titled as such because there might be a Smash Night (D.A.M.N. Fam Edition) coming later? 2.2k words

—

I laughed, making sure to keep my drink away from flailing limbs, sitting on the floor. David and Milo were on either end of David’s sofa, Sam was in the armchair directly behind me, and Asher was sprawled out on the loveseat—for the safety of everyone else involved, to use David’s usual phrase. Asher tended to get really physical when he played video games, and Super Smash Bros was the worst offender. Empty and half-empty pizza boxes were haphazardly stacked on the coffee table, along with paper plates and an assortment of disposable plastic cups filled with various sodas, names scrawled in everyone’s handwriting in permanent marker.

David, Asher, and Milo’s mates were all outside, having a night swim. They’d invited me to join but I’d been having too much fun watching—and I’d forgotten to bring a swim suit and hadn’t fancied the drive back to Sam’s house (our house, I reminded myself) in wet jeans.

They were also all having a discussion—that sounded more like an argument through the screen door—about whether or not a Stealth who was cloaked the whole time they were outside in the sun needed to wear sunscreen and whether it would affect a skin tan for skin tones that did significantly change from sunlight.

“Hey,” I piped up during a lull in the fight—and the trash-talking of my packmates—when David had smacked Asher and Milo clean off the stage and Sam tried to attack the wrong direction. “Whoever wins gets to hand me their controller and give me a turn.”

Asher groaned. “David, don’t let Tank play!” he complained.

Sam’s leg tensed against my shoulder. “Why not?” he asked.

Milo snorted and shot a quick glance at Sam. “Because, no matta what, or which character Tank plays,” he began sarcastically, “Tank will always kick all our asses. Items on or off.”

“That is not true,” David grumbled.

Milo scoffed. “Oh really? Do I need to pull up some of the replays we got on this system? Their name is very clearly over their head whoopin’ all of us into next week.”

“No,” David growled.

Sam chuckled.

Ash made another noise of complaint. “David, don’t let Tank play!” he repeated.

“Ash, if you keep talking like that I’m gonna shove your controller where the sun don’t shine,” I snapped. Which earned me a bark of laughter from Milo.

“Tank is allowed to have a turn,” David said. “Besides. I’m about to beat—” He fired off a combo that launched Asher straight off the screen and into death with no chance of recovery, quickly followed by a quick snap at Sam that threw him off too, terminating his last life. “—two of you, and I need a break to go check on my mate anyway. I promised those three I’d grab them anything they needed so they didn’t track water all over my house.”

David ended up winning the match. And by a lot. They tended to play with five lives, and David still had two by the time he got Milo’s last one. He handed me his controller and got up. I cackled, took his spot on the couch, and quickly deselected Bowser once we’d finished arguing over which map to play on while Sam listened politely to me, Ash, and Milo bicker.

“A’right,” Milo said reluctantly. “Who do you plan on beatin’ the hell outta us with this time?”

I spun my pin around the character selector menu, pursing my lips. On the one hand, it was always funny to hear my try-hard packmates complain when I kicked their trash with Kirby. On the other hand, it was more satisfying to beat them all with one of the emo anime pretty boys that for whatever reason the game was chocked full of.

I selected Cloud and picked the most emo skin before switching the name from David to Tank.

Asher groaned, flopping his head backward onto the loveseat. “Whyyy,” he complained.

I laughed. “For exactly that reaction,” I said, hitting the + button on my controller to get the fight started.

Everyone spawned in with their character animation, and immediately Milo and Asher ganged up on me. Sam was the least threatening opponent by far. Milo and Asher had been “trying” to help teach him (occasionally shouting advice at him without telling him how to actually do it) and button bashing could really only get him so far against me and my packmates. I wasn’t particularly concerned about him yet.

I needed to eliminate Milo and Asher first. It’d be a clean sweep afterward. If I wanted it to be.

Part of me wanted to fake losing to Sam to make him feel better by letting him beat me.

But at the same time my competitive spirit had revved to life and I wanted to win.

Asher jerked and thrashed on the loveseat, somehow always managing not to throw his controller halfway across the damn room. His mate had once mentioned to me that when they were still new to their relationship, they’d made a blanket fort on the couch in the apartment Ash and David used to share and played through every Halo game in a weekend. I’d snarked to Asher that I was surprised his mate didn’t still have bruises from getting elbowed by sitting that close to him while playing a game. To which I’d gotten some indignant reply from Asher and a laugh from Milo.

“Sam, ya gotta figure out how to play a character that has a counter,” Milo remarked casually, as if his character—he was trying out Marth tonight—wasn’t in an all-out war with mine.

“A what?” Sam asked.

“A counter,” I explained, “is a certain button combination that, when timed right, essentially negates your opponent’s attack while immediately delivering an attack of your own.”

“I know what the concept of a counter is in a fight, darlin’,” Sam grumbled. “I just didn’t realize they were in this game.”

“Yeah, not every character has one,” Asher added, “and they’re hard to time. If Milo wasn’t such a show-off we’d probably never—hey! That was me, idiot!” I laughed as Cloud jumped out of the way, causing Marth to smack Jigglypuff halfway across the map.

“Sorry,” Milo said, not sounding sorry at all.

“I don’t think ‘bein’ a show-off’ is entirely contained to just Milo,” Sam said softly.

“Oh, definitely not,” I agreed. “We all are.” I couldn’t help but smile and laugh as I realized my B-button attack had fully charged up. I got Cloud close to Marth and unleashed the full-powered attack. Marth launched off the stage with a pillar of light exploding where he’d disappeared, killing him.

Milo swore creatively while I laughed. Sam chuckled slightly, though the sound was strained behind his concentration.

“Tank, have you and Sam ever just played one-on-one?” Asher asked. Probably trying to distract me.

“Nope,” Sam replied instead.

“Why not?” Milo put in as Marth dropped off the respawn platform and rushed toward Cloud. “Scared he’s gonna get better than you?”

“Resigned to it, actually,” I said. “Vamp reflexes are nothing to knock. And I know a one-on-one, slow practice battle while someone teaches another the controls is the easiest way to learn the game but watching him play it by himself was more fun.”

Asher swore as I hit Jigglypuff with a charged attack. “Tank!” he shouted.

“Yes?” I asked placidly, following up when he floated back down to me and launching him off-screen.

“How are you still so good? I swear you don’t play anywhere near as often as we do.”

“I don’t. I just know you guys. Ash’s strategy is literally only optimized to piss off David and he really doesn’t care about anything other than that. David is really aggressive but Bowser is still slow as hell and isn’t the greatest at range. The only one of the three of you that poses a genuine threat to me is Milo since he switches up characters almost as often as I do.”

They didn’t need to know that I spent literal months recovering from the injuries Quinn dealt to me up in Washington playing Smash just to pass the time and get out some energy while I was more or less bed-bound and barely able to do much else. Devoting hours to each individual character until I considered myself proficient with them. It sounded pathetic and sad and I didn’t talk about my time with my family in Washington much anyway.

Sam swore as Captain Falcon got caught in the crossfire, but he didn’t fly too far. He recovered and made it back to the stage no problem. He hadn’t taken much damage anyway this round because Asher and Milo had been too focused on me.

General banter and trash-talking died off somewhat as we got more intense in the fight. I was floundering a little bit under a concentrated attack from Milo and Asher, but I could still beat them.

At some point, David showed up and leaned against the back of the couch, watching. “Are you aware that Sam is still on five lives?” he asked.

“Mmhmm,” Milo said.

“Yup,” Asher agreed.

A long string of expletives followed as I got the Smash Orb—Smash Ball?—and caught Asher in Cloud’s Final Smash. “Ha-haaa! Omnislash, suckers!” I exclaimed. Sam chuckled and I even caught David suppressing a grin.

After a bit longer—no more than two minutes—I’d whittled Asher and Milo down to their last lives and threw them off the stage, while still having two myself. Sam was on four after accidentally Falcon Kicking himself downward at the wrong angle and plunging into the abyss below.

Milo and Asher, of course, started rooting for Sam to beat me. “C’mon Collins!” Asher cheered, digging a slice of pizza out of one of the half-empty boxes. “You’ve got double the lives! Just take it slow!”

I scoffed and rolled my eyes, but backed off my aggressive fight strategy from taking on the two of them at the same time. One of the things I liked about Cloud, in particular, was that he was primarily melee-based, but had a ranged option. It wasn’t a good option, really, but it was useful. Especially back when Amanda played Pit all the time and just spammed arrows from a distance like a wimp.

Sam and I fight one-on-one slowed down a lot. I talked him through things, guided him into combos, advised him on which buttons to push and what move to use when, gave him examples of how to time his attacks—

And still promptly kicked his ass and won the match anyway.

Milo and Asher both groaned in complaint as I hopped off the sofa and gave David back his controller. “Thanks for the turn,” I said. I returned to my spot on the floor in front of Sam and took a long drink of my soda before also finding another slice of pizza to munch on.

—

“Tank,” David said as we were leaving. Ash and Milo had already gone home with their mates. I paused, one foot halfway in my boot. “It was nice to see you smile and hear you laugh so much again. It’s been a long time.”

I cleared my throat, finding the toes of my boots to be the most interesting thing in the room to avoid meeting his eyes. “Thanks,” I said, finishing shoving my foot into the boot. “It, uh... it was nice to see you smiling a lot too. I don’t think I ever have seen you laugh like that.”

He held out a hand as though we were going to shake. I took it and pulled him into a hug, wrapping my other arm around his back. He did the same, resting his forehead against my shoulder.

“Here’s to being better and brighter for—and because of—our mates, yeah?” I whispered.

“Yeah,” he agreed.

I pulled back. “See you at the office tomorrow. Asher has finally bullied me into picking up a job with you guys.”

“I look forward to it. I’ll have a new hoodie out for you. Your old one is way too ratty to be professional now.”

I looked down at the old Shaw Security hoodie I’d had since David started being more serious about the business than Gabe had been. The logo printed on the left of the chest was cracked and peeling. Faded against the black fabric. I made a face. “Rude—but true. Thanks,” I said.

“See you tomorrow,” he said.

“See ya.” I finished tying off my boot and reached out for Sam. He took my hand and we walked to his truck. I waved at David—and his mate who’d appeared at his side in the doorway—as I climbed in. He raised a hand back.

Once the door to the truck was closed, I glanced at Sam.

“How much of that did you hear?”

“Darlin’, I coulda heard that from halfway across town, remember?”

“Mm. Right. Have fun tonight?”

“Well... I expected to get my ass handed to me. Just didn’t realize it’d be by you.”

I snickered. “Sorry.”

“Don’t be sorry for bein’ good at somethin’ you enjoy.”

#Redacted ASMR #fic #Redacted Sam #Redacted Darlin'#Redacted David #Redacted Asher #Redacted Milo #Redacted Audio #Starlit Fic #Sam Collins #Darlin'#David Shaw #Asher #Milo Greer #Sam #David #Milo

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microwavingtoniii · 8 months

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As I live on I think about my life. Is it heaven? Is it hell? Is it a tragedy? Is it a comedy? Well it seems I’ve figured it out on this website. My life is like a video game, trying hard to beat the stage, all while I am still collecting coins.

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heroicleader2763 · 2 months

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My life is like a video game

Trying hard to beat the stage

All while I am still collecting coins

Trying hard to save the girl

Obstacles, I'm jumping hurdles

I'm growing up to be a big boy

I battle with the evil ways

I travel far and try and save

Sorry, but your princess isn't here

I take a rest, I push the pause

Level up and move along

In hopes that the next stage, I will clear

I fucking passed, asshole

I'm just trying to keep from dying

It's just a game that we play, and for heaven's sakes

Looking for a better way to play it

Life is for keeping score and forevermore

Stop complaining and start changing it

Today I went to therapy

Told him my embarrassing

Issues that I'm having with my life (with my life)

He told me that I need to change

Life is not a video game

So stop playing and open up your eyes

I'm just trying to keep from dying

It's just a game that we play, and for heaven's sakes

Looking for a better way to play it

Life is for keeping score and forevermore

Stop complaining and start changing it

Don't talk about it, just be about it

Don't ever doubt it, even when your brain is clouded

I may be crazy, but life's amazing

And through it all and even with your problems facing

So just know that it's okay

My life is like a video game

Trying hard to beat the stage

All while I am still collecting coins

Up, up, down, down, left, right, left, right, B, A, select, start

It's just a game that we play, and for heaven's sakes

Looking for a better way to play it

Life is for keeping score and forevermore

Stop complaining and start changing it

It's just a game that we play, and for heaven's sakes

Looking for a better way to play it

Life is for keeping score and forevermore

Stop complaining and start changing

Thank You video game Guy

#asks

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demonfox38 · 9 days

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Completed - Wild Guns Reloaded

What do you mean, you can't use a single screenshot from a video game as both your feminist philosophy and gender identity?

How about two? Would two work?

Man, so many things confuse me about Natsume as a company. Like, its history, for one. Splitting to form two different companies, both of which use Natsume in the name (Natsume Co. vs. Natsumi Atari, which no, is also not the Atari you are thinking of.) Then, of all products for Natsume-associated games to become popular, it's "Harvest Moon." Like. What? Why? I'm not saying the library of Natsume works is the most creative set, but they're all excellent zeitgeist encapsulations. Like, you want hard platforms with ninjas and bullet hell adjacent shooters with snappy music? Man, Natsume has you covered. But apparently, it's the dating/farming sims that the masses are all about. I just don't get it.

Look, man. I live in Iowa. If I wanted to do "Harvest Moon" shit, I would have done it in real life. Ya know. Joined 4-H. Picked rocks on my grandparents' farm. Showed animals at a county fair or two. Get knocked up in high school. Worked in an industrial slaughterhouse for Tyson. The kind of stuff that I have deliberately avoided.

Shooting robots in petticoats ain't something I can get in real life, so that's the game from the Natsume library I'm playin'. Living that sweet South Dakota lifestyle, I guess!

"Wild Guns Reloaded" (not to be confused with "Wild Arms," despite me doing that multiple times) is a 2016 remaster of Natsume’s SNES title "Wild Guns." Set in a vague futuristic depiction of the American West, you are charged with blasting the notorious Kid gang's faces cranially inward through a series of bullet-riddled levels. Do you have the structural integrity of a paper plate? Yes. But you also have access to several gun styles, bombs, electric lassos, grenades, and a drone being led around by a little long-haired dachshund. You'd be surprised what you can do with such an arsenal.

Look man, you're not playing this game for plot. You're doing it for the challenge and the sweet, sweet aesthetics.

Like, God. The original "Wild Guns" was already a stunner with its large, detailed sprite work and bombastic music. "Wild Guns Reloaded" has doubled-down on that, smoothing out its animations while keeping its bright sprites, broadening the play field, remixing its score with higher-fidelity instruments, adding two new stages, and throwing in two new characters with unique playstyles into the mix. And man, what a choice they made there, too! Getting a cute little doggie? Adorable. Getting a gigantic gal with legs like a Ninja Turtle action figure and the ability to pitch grenades in heaps at will? Outstanding!

Could there have been more logical character archetypes to pull? Sure. An Indigenous American, Latino, or Chinese immigrant character could have made sense, if care was taken into their implementation. But, man! I appreciate the stones of a game to toss a second Big Bertha into the mix. I'm not gonna be the bitch to argue against a dog, either. Excellent choices! Very creative! Bark bark bark!

As cool as it is, "Wild Guns Reloaded" is an unyielding steel wall in terms of difficulty. Like, yeah. I'm used to getting my teeth kicked in with certain games, so I wasn't surprised when even the first screen of the first stage was enough to push me back on my first try. What did surprise me is how few people on Steam have been able to drive through that first barrier. We're talking a 46.7% achievement rate for people able to beat the first boss. Next boss? 22.1%. Like, holy crap. Are we as a community that weak willed in spirit?

Having said that, I don't think it's actually very well communicated how to even play this game. Like, yeah, there's a manual. A whole whopping three pages long! But, that doesn't even remotely get into the logic behind the game. Or, hell. Even how to properly shoot.

So, I want to take a good chunk of this evaluation to do just that! Because damn it, this game is too fucking cool to not help other people get into it.

At heart, "Wild Guns Reloaded" is an arcade-style shooting gallery. In some sense, it could even be seen as an extreme variant of Treasure's "Sin and Punishment" series, or perhaps a game akin to "Galaga" or "Gradius." To survive, you need to not only dodge shots, but turn the tables on your enemies, using reflexes and memorization to hold waves back and smack bosses around for daring to try the same trick twice on you.

You have two planes of action to monitor:

The red space is your general field of play (where you are expected to shoot down.) The green space is the area that you occupy. Aiming and walking are tied to the same controls, so you will move around a little bit when you are drawing a shot.

If you are in danger of getting hit, the game will let you know with a little "Look Out!" message.

You can also watch the trajectory of an enemy's fire through this flashing cursor on screen:

Missiles will have a subtle shadow effect on your territory as well, so keep an eye out for them:

Your evasion options are either:

Walk with the control stick/directional keys (not generally advised unless you are playing the dog)

Jump using a dedicated Jump button (gets above obstacles)

Dodge by hitting the Jump button and your directional controls left or right while keeping the Fire button held (keeps your character on the ground; allows for faster recovery)

If the enemy lobs a stick of dynamite at you, you don't necessarily have to run. Stop firing, pick the dynamite up using the Fire button, and toss it back at your foes for a little extra damage! Whatever you decide to do, commit to it ASAP. You do not want to be around with that goes off.

Generally speaking, it's to your benefit to plant your heels in the center of the screen and only move out of it when you are about to take a hit. (If you had a buddy, perhaps you could split the screen. But, good luck with that…) The game tends to punish you for hanging out in the corners of the screen, often deliberately planting sentries at the edges to rebuff you. Camping in the corners also reduces your space to evade, so it's better to keep your options open for evasion by owning the center.

Your offensive options differ depending on the character you play. For the original characters (Clint and Annie), the standard style is:

Hold the Fire button to shoot an uninterrupted stream of bullets

Tap the Fire button repeatedly and release to shoot out an electric lasso that stuns your target (allowing you to return to regular file and blast the crap out of them for a few seconds)

Whack the Fire button when an enemy is in your territory (sending them flying back)

FYI—you should notice a brief change in your character's stance when you can whack an enemy.

Normal:

Whacking:

Doris' play style is based on building up power to unleash barrages of grenades at a target. Unlike Clint and Annie, she's waiting for a perfect opportunity to strike once and as hard as possible. Hold the Fire button to charge up her attack, then release it for her to unleash it. You can charge Doris' grenades up to an x7 multiplier, but most situations can be handled with at least a x3. Also, you can preserve her multiplier through dodges, so prioritize dodging on the ground to jumps where possible.

Bullet's style separates his hit box into two separate entities (the drone and the doggie.) The drone can be activated by pressing the Fire button. It will continuously attack anything that comes into its aiming reticle, but it will have to be released and reset for new targets outside of its range. Bullet can't defend himself, but he can wiggle around much quicker than other characters, so it makes it easy for him to avoid getting hit while his robot buddy provides a steady stream of damage.

You will have to disengage the robot to whack people back on the playing field, so make sure to keep Bullet by his buddy when someone comes creeping along the bottom of the stage. It is important to note that the robot can also be stunned, so you should try to keep it out of enemy fire when possible. It's just not a run ender necessarily if it takes a hit.

All characters have a bomb ability to clear the room when necessary to keep the screen from getting too busy. These are limited, so use them with discretion.

Be sure to pick them up any time you see them on screen! You can usually find them either by killing specific enemies or blowing up chunks of the terrain.

Clint, Annie, and Bullet can get limited-time modifiers for their weaponry. This can include a machine gun for faster damage, a shotgun for a broader range of damage, a grenade launcher for big and heavy damage, a laser gun for some precise spicy damage, and a harmless pop gun designed just to screw with you. All have a limited ammo account (around 50 for everything), so use (or deplete) wisely!

The machine gun, shotgun, grenade launcher, and laser gun will all appear on screen as an icon with a single letter for their ammo type (M, S, G, and L, respectively.) A randomized weapon (including potentially the pop gun!) comes out of these:

Everyone has a green meter on their HUD.

This builds up as they hit and kill enemies. When it maxes out, this triggers the Vulcan Cannon. This weapon not only deals massive damage on hit, but it also makes your character invulnerable. It will run out of steam within a few seconds, so don't be too reliant on that status. But, it can help in a pinch.

Everything past that? It's standard video game stuff, ya know? Memorize waves. Endure a minute or so of gunplay to get to the next boss. Learn their special moves. Find the glowing weak point. Crack it open. Regular Peppy Hare behavior.

Honestly, getting a handle on your offense style and movement capabilities is most of the challenge. The weird little movement ticks were what caught me off guard. I would be studying what few YouTube videos I could pull up for this game, stop, then go "Wait, what? I can do that?" before booting the game up and doing exactly what I saw. Like, I didn't even know how to fire my goddamn gun right. I didn't even think about holding my Fire button! I just went into rapid tapping! That's how far behind I was in all of this!

Having said that, you may want to remap your controller to something like this:

(Buttons pictured correspond to an Xbox 360 controller.)

It'll allow you to keep spraying bullets with the back of your thumb joint, then kick in jumps or dodges as needed with the front of thumb.

As far as other issues go? I would have liked having some kind of screen select or boss rush for practicing. (I suppose just playing the game is practice enough. Still, I would have liked to focus on a few trouble spots at my leisure.) I know some people in the forums for this game on Steam were disappointed that the multiplayer function was local co-op only, but man, I can't imagine what a mess the net code and rollback situation for this kind of game would have been like. Especially, when you live in the middle of Fuckoff, Iowa and the really cool players are out in South Korea. I guess people out here do okay with whatever flavor of "Call of Duty" is available, but those games are also far more forgiving when it comes to injury and death. It's hard to get people recruited for this kind of abuse.

Although, I could see my dad playing this. Maybe just once!

Look, this game isn't for everybody. I get it. It’s a tough cookie. But, I think "Wild Guns Reloaded" deserves more than for half of its players to give up on it within 0.3 seconds of their first death. It's a wonderfully constructed game, and there's a lot of logic underpinning its challenges. It does require some gumption, analytical skills, and reflexes to push past the worst the game throws at you, but it's not insurmountable! Hell, the game gives you infinite continues! You just gotta grit your teeth and get in there!

Hell, I got my first game clear in under four hours of playing! It can be done, and maybe even in a reasonable amount of time! (Though, maybe keep your playing sessions under an hour and a half to give your hands a break.)

If you feel like you could use a waltz with a Winchester, "Wild Guns Reloaded" is currently available on Steam for $14.99. You may want to wait for a sale, if you're feeling iffy on it. Fine. Reasonable. Definitely more so than the average going price of ~$250.00 for the original SNES game. I might be a sucker for the retro market, but damn it. Even I've got to put my foot down every once in a while. Especially, when an affordable upgrade is available!

Life is hard. Sometimes, people just want to work on their cutesy little gardens and snuggle with their video game spouses. Get through the sadness softly. There's room for that in this world. Hell, there should be more room for it, if we're being honest.

But, uh…I prefer having a hearty digital ass-kicking instead. Even when neither the computer nor I know whose ass is going to get kicked.

#post game evaluation #wild guns reloaded #image heavy #D. F. 38 tries to teach how to play this damn game

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