#pirate something from Nintendo they will survive

[kemihaydeestantonva]

I'm literally so tired of this conversation.

YOU ARE NOT ENTITLED TO TRENDY CLOTHES SIMPLY BECAUSE YOU WANT THEM

Knock-offs have existed for a long time, yes, but knock offs are notoriously ripping off expensive BRANDS, as in COMPANIES. What Shien does is rip off individual artists and small self run businesses. If you steal a purse from Chanel, babe idc. If you steal a purse from somebody who is running a lil Etsy shop, it's just them or maybe they have two or three employees, these people are making these items themselves, in house, trying to make ends meet JUST LIKE YOU, yeah sorry but that's problematic. These people don't have access to the same resources, they aren't buying supplies or materials in bulk on the cheap, they don't have sweatshops overseas, ofc the price is higher??? Plus, the make is MUCH more likely to hold up over time - I feel like it's a given that clothing we're getting from companies like Shien is flimsier and flimsier.

Like, anybody who wants to argue with me on this point - go make literally any item of clothing for yourself. Buy the fabric, the thread, block it out, cut it, sew it, then come back to me and let me know how much money you spent on materials, how much time you spent constructing it, and tell me you still think it's okay to rip off individual people who are out here trying to compete with these huge companies.

[duckyfruitbat]

So Ubisoft Says we Need to Get Comfortable with "Not Owning" Our Games

Well that's a hell of a statement if I've heard one. The very statement alone is not just an invitation to piracy, but a giant neon sign with pyrotechnics and a symphony orchestra playing a fanfare as Blackbeard's ship pulls into port.

This article by Kotaku has all the details and even points out major issues with the very idea including game preservation, and the longevity of these subscription services. The Ubisoft director of subscriptions Phillippe Tremblay was the man who spoke those words, he compared it to how we're comfortable with not owning our DVD or CD collection. Here's the problem though, we all still own a CD and DVD collection, enough of us still buy these things to justify a DVD, CD, and a vinyl record section in all the big box retailers. No one has accepted the idea of not owning their collection, they only accepted the streaming services as a replacement for rental stores.

Circling back to the older games, there's the problem if the games are even going to be preserved in ten years. That's a problem that Nintendo had with the virtual console, that's a problem Nintendo still has with all of its retro games. The games that aren't available can only be played either on the original system or through piracy. Game services are also littered with exclusives that can be deleted at any given time. Something that video streaming is struggling with right now, if something gets deleted from a streaming service, and it was only on streaming, that's it you can only pirate it.

In the same interview Tremblay talked about gamers not owning their games he also floated the idea that services will remain. That is something that is not true, only a few services have bested the test of time. Keep in mind that Blockbuster also had a service that could be compared to Netflix. If these services go down, I can't trust that any of the games would have a backup. For example remember all the live services that started popping up a few years ago? Remember how they started dropping like flies? This is the eventual outcome of an all digital future.

So will this idea survive the next decade, this is actually a resurgence of the idea, someone said something similar with the idea of buying a game is actually just purchasing a licensing agreement. This resurgence is already getting massive backlash, the points I've made have already been made by people bigger, better, and hotter than me. As I've also subtly alluded to, this will cause a massive surge in piracy with just the statement alone. Given the lack of preservation that these services already have, I imagine that piracy was already pretty rampant and it has only been emboldened further.

Welp, thems are my thoughts! As always piracy is a crime, I don't endorse it, and pineapples do belong on pizza!

[an-aussie-button-masher]

Now Arriving, The Hype Train - Five of the Most Anticipated Games of 2024

   Happy new year, readers! You know what the best thing about a new year is? New games to look forward to! Well, for me, anyway. There've been some exciting announcements from last year, from big name new releases, like Nintendo and Star Wars games, to long-awaited sequels of beloved indie games. There’s something for everyone; Ubisoft’s marauding pirate game Skull & Bones, a supervillainous shooter in Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League, and plenty of remakes and remasters, such as yet another Final Fantasy remake. On top of that, rumours abound about a potential successor to the Nintendo Switch being announced later this year - they’re only rumours, of course, but it’s certainly an exciting idea. Now, for something more substantial: I’ve gathered up a list of what might be among the most highly-anticipated game releases planned for 2024 - take a look for yourself!

Princess Peach: Showtime!    One of the most famous women's faces in gaming will finally be taking centre stage once again in 2024 - literally! Trapped in a stage play overtaken by the Wicked Grape and her sour minions, Princess Peach will be rescuing herself this time as she fights her way across theatre-themed stages with her new powerful sidekick Stella. Stella will allow Peach to transform into various different costumes, each granting her unique abilities like swashbuckling Swordfighter Peach and expert tracker Detective Peach. It’s been over 18 years since Peach headlined her own video game, but considering her growing protagonistic role in recent Super Mario games, leaving her damsel-in-distress role behind and joining Mario in the action, it’s about time she gets the leading role once more! Princess Peach: Showtime! will be coming to a Nintendo Switch near you on March 22nd.

Hades II    Hades, Supergiant Games’ mythical roguelike that has taken gaming by storm since 2018, is getting an almighty sequel this year with Hades II planned to enter early access in the first half of 2024. Once again, players will battle through the ever-changing Underworld of Greek mythology, encountering various gods - both new and familiar - that will help or hinder your grand odyssey. Play as Melinoë, sister to the first games’ protagonist Zagreus, daughter of Hades and the immortal Princess of the Underworld, as she faces off against the mighty Chronos. The Titan of Time takes the role of the main antagonist this time around, having kidnapped dear old dad Hades and plotting to wage war against all of Olympus. Will Melinoë survive the trials of the treacherous Underworld and save her father, or will her time run out?

Hyper Light Breaker    Better brush up on your swordplay skills and practise that aim, because it’s time to return to the world of Heart Machine’s Hyper Light Drifter in its upcoming successor, Hyper Light Breaker! Following Risk of Rain’s example, Breaker is taking the leap from Drifter’s pixel-art isometric style to a grand, 3-D open-world adventure with co-op multiplayer and roguelike elements. Players will control one of a ragtag group called the Breakers, navigating the dangerous Overgrowth with hoverboards and gliders at breakneck pace. Customise your Breaker’s loadout with whatever gear you find on your journey, mixing-and-matching melee and ranged attacks to fit your personal playstyle. Get ready to explore new corners of the world introduced in the award-winning Hyper Light Drifter from a new action-packed perspective as Hyper Light Breaker enters early access later this year!

Star Wars Outlaws    Rev up that hyperdrive, get a good blaster by your side, and return to the galaxy far, far away in a brand new, single-player open-world interstellar adventure: Star Wars Outlaws! While the Empire is busy battling the Rebellion and Han Solo is in the middle of a carbonite nap, a new scoundrel on the scene named Kay Vess aims to make a name for herself in the galaxy’s thriving criminal underworld. Pick sides or go it alone in a choices-matter storyline, combining sneaking around and straight fights across plenty of planets, both familiar and new. In the current age of live-service, microtransaction-laden online PvP games, it’s a welcome sight to see a big-name, purely single-player, narrative-driven release like this. Outlaws has no specific confirmed release date, but as Ubisoft tends to release games around October or November, we can expect Outlaws to release sometime in the latter half of 2024.

World of Goo 2    Feel that nostalgia? That’s right; World of Goo, one of the earliest and most definitive examples of a successful indie game from way back in 2008, is finally getting a sequel - fifteen years later! Announced completely out of the blue during the 2023 Game Awards, there hasn’t been much confirmed about the game quite yet besides an expected release in 2024. Even so, the announcement trailer brings back much of the familiar satirical humour and strangely-unsettling monochromatic artstyle that fans loved from the original. For those that didn’t grow up playing this classic, World of Goo is a physics-based puzzler all about building precarious bridges out of goo balls, crossing gaps and avoiding obstacles to get as many goo balls from point A to point B as possible, all under a narrative of corporate greed and consumption that rings truer than ever nowadays. The sequel will certainly have a lot to talk about, I’m sure.

   Of course, there are plenty more games set to release in 2024, many of which haven’t even been announced yet - who knows, we might even finally get Silksong this year! I can’t be wrong about that two years in a row, right…right?   Which of these games are you most looking forward to? Are there any other games not listed here that you’re hyped for? Let me know! Feedback, reblogs and likes are much appreciated!   Thanks for reading!

An Aussie Button-Masher

[godofcreatitivity]

One Piece the Movie

(the following is a nonprofit fan based parody any characters from one piece is owned by Eiichiro Oda, Toei Animation Co., Ltd., any characters from super Mario are owned by Nintendo, any characters from troll hunters, are owned by DreamWorks and universal)

Chapter 9: into the dark world

Vanellope felt a light but stunt tap on her right shoulder waking her up from her sleep.

She decides to ignore it and turns to her right side to try and go back to sleep.

But instead of stopping the tap and continuing on her other shoulder forcing her to wake up and open her eyes to see who it was.

And to her surprise, it was Zoro.

He was standing over top of her with a worried look on his face.

”Hey kid you alright”, he started asking her in concern.

Vanellope started to lean up and rub her eyes”Yeah what happened”?, she asked curiously.

He took a couple steps forward before answering,”Well good news is we survived our little fun vacation trip”, he said reassuringly.

“That’s good, wait then what’s the bad news”, she asked as she brushed herself off.

“The bad news is that our destination isn't as colorful and pleasant”, he said as he stopped to look at the area.

Vanellope looked up in confusion as to what he was talking about.

But when she did she was filled to the brim with fear.

Because what she saw next was horrifying.

The area they were in was surrounded by giant cracks in the ground that were filled with fiery lava.

The trees that also surrounded them looked dried out and burnt to a crisp from the fires.

And worst of all the skies were filled with dark gray clouds that shot out purple lightning.

If this place wasn’t hell, then it was damn near it because it looked absolutely terrifying.

Vanellope looked on in shock as she started to step towards Zoro,”W-What is this place?”, She carefully asked him.

Zoro (who was still making short but efficient glances at their surroundings) turned to her with a serious look on his face,”Don’t know, this is the first thing I saw when we got shot out of that pipe”, he said as he pointed to the green pipe behind them.

It was covered with dark black vines that came from the tree above it.

“So that's what that guy used to bring us here huh”,she asked.

“Yeah, guess he didn’t care much for sanitary traveling, I mean I personally would’ve rather flown here”, he responded sarcastically.

She sighed before turning to face the distance,“Please tell me that this is a part of my imagination and that we didn’t die”, she asked in a worry.

Zoro shook his head,”Fraid not, all this is very real minus the dying part”, he said before grabbing a stick and throwing it in one of the magma pits,”And very hot too”.

After a few seconds of looking out into the distance, Vanellope began to notice something,”Hey wait Zoro where's the Sunny”.

They both turned around towards the pipe and saw that the ship wasn’t with them.

They too started to look around a little bit to see if it had just been shot out of the pipe faster and farther away than they were.

But after a couple of minutes of searching they found out that the ship wasn’t anywhere in sight.

Wherever it was it wasn’t with them.

It must not have gone through the pipe with them when they arrived.

Zoro Grunted,”AH GOD DAMN IT, It must've gone through another pipe before we got in here,”SHIT”!!!, he shouted in frustration.

Vanellope started to back away slowly in fear of what she saw.

They were not only lost in another world, but he didn't even have a ship to help get them out of this horrible situation.

She had never seen or been in anything like this before, especially not in person.

She has always hoped to go on an adventure with the Strawhat pirates, but never an adventure like this.

She was completely engulfed in fear and couldn’t help but panic a tiny bit.

While she was going through that, Zoro did his best to keep calm and started looking around a tiny bit trying to find out where they were.

But unfortunately for him, he was having a hard time getting that done especially in a place like this.

He’d been in plenty of situations where he was separated from the group sure but this one a tiny bit different.

He’d never been sent through a multi dimensional portal before much less with a little girl that he’d barely known a day.

Worse thing was that this time they knew there was someone out there strong enough to come after them.

Wait, that just reminded him of something…..

LUFFY

Zoro pulled out his transponder snail (which looked exactly like him but was a snail with green skin).

He brought it up to his face and began to speak into it,”Captan you there”.

There was no response, only the sound of static.

‘

He tried again,”Captan do you read”, still nothing but static.

He tried once more,”Captain we just got outta our pipe where are you”, nothing.

He grunted in frustration and threw the snail back into his pocket.

Vanellope (who had soon calmed down and got herself together) saw this and walked back over to him,”Please tell me that it’s not more bad news”.

Zoro slowly turned to her,”Sorry to disappoint, like I feared, my snail isn’t able to connect to Luffy’s or any other snail of the crew”.

Vanellope rows her shoulders in confusion,”So what does that mean”.

Zoro quickly turned to her,”Transponder snails are supposed to be able to telepathically connect and respond to each other no matter how far they are or where they are in our world”, he started to explain.

She responded to that by giving him a confused stare,”And so what is it broken”?, she asked as she stepped forward.

He slapped his hand on his head in frustration,”The fact that I can’t connect to the others doesn’t mean that they’re broken in fact it they’re perfectly fine”, he said before walking closer to her and looking out into the distance,”It means that were not in the our world anymore, hence why the snails aren’t connecting to each other and that Luffy isn’t here with us otherwise I’d be able to contact him”.

“Then if he isn't here with us, then where could he be?”she asked desperately.

Zoro shrugged his shoulders,”He must've also gone to a different world too”, He suggested.

Just then a loud thundering sound erupted in the distance causing both Zoro and Vanellope to jump.

This place wasn’t exactly giving off a homey feeling and the lava and lightning wasn’t helping.

Zoro turned to face the pipe that they just came out of.

If it was able to travel them from their world to this world, or maybe if they go back through the opposite will happen.

He wasn’t fully sure that this would work but honestly it was a lot better. Have a plan and just sit there and stay in a world that they knew wasn’t safe.

not to mention the fact that the guy who said he was trying to kidnap Luffy was probably from this world and was trying to bring him back here.

If anything, there were probably a lot more people like him in this world.

As much as Zoro would love to get into a new fight and push himself, he also had this little girl that was with him, and therefore under his protection.

If he wasn’t careful in that fight, he would risk getting her killed.

Hence why his original plan was to gather the rest of the crew, and hopefully five off this new enemy in a safer place.

But unfortunately, that plan fell through and now they were in this situation.

He turned to Vanellope and tapped her on her shoulder to get her attention.

She quickly turned to him wondering what he wanted.

“Alright kid I think we’ve spent more than enough time here, come on let’s see we can use this pipe to help us find Luffy and hopefully the ship”, he said.

Vanellope nodded and started to speed walk over to the pipe.

Zoro started to follow her.

As much as he didn’t really trust the pipes, he knew that it was at least a tiny bit safer than the world they were in.

Especially if there was a possibility that there were more people like the white suited man waiting for them in this world.

Their only option was to find Luffy and go back home where they could find the rest of the crew and think of a plan on how to handle this situation.

They were right in front of the pipe when Zoro suddenly had a strange feeling in his gut.

He started taking quick glances of his surroundings.

He couldn’t tell what it was, but he felt as if something was watching them.

No, not just watching…..

Following them….

Tracking them……

It was like all eyes were on the two of them as they made their way back to the pipe.

After a few more seconds of glancing around he was finally able to find where the feeling was coming from.

The pipe….

He quickly moved in front of Vanellope and used his left hand to block her from the pipe.

Vanellope looked up at him in confusion,” what’s wrong”, she asked worriedly.

Zoro made himself and her back up slowly,” We’re not alone”, before placing his hand on his sword handle.

He didn’t know who it was, if it was the guy in the whit suit or someone probably more dangerous.

Either way, he wasn’t about to take the chance nor get out of there without a fight.

They took a few more steps back before he yelled out,”YOU BETTER BRING YOUR ASS OUT HERE NOW OR I'M GONNA COME OVER THERE AND CHOP YOU TO BITS”.

He then stopped after taking a few more steps, wanting to wait for the assailant to present themselves.

After a few moments of waiting, he finally spotted something coming from inside the pipe.

From the inside of the pipe, they both saw two bright yellow eyes appear out of the dark.

Seeing this made both of them tense up and on guard.

The brightness of the eyes slowly grew as the figure began to creep closer toward them, and out of the pipe.

they stood there, silently, as the figure began to reveal itself to them.

The figure suddenly hopped out of the pipe and landed right in front of them.

And what they saw next had them both shocked and confused.

It wasn’t a giant beast……

Or the guy in the white suit…

And it definitely wasn’t human…..

Instead it was something a lot smaller

And a lot greener.

What came out if the pipe was a fairly small creature with big pointy ears and had a frog-like body.

Both Zoro and Vanellope both looked at it with confused faces as it revealed itself.

They originally thought that this thing would’ve been like a dangerous monster or something.

But instead they encountered what this little guy was.

And it was exactly their size either.

Though it may have been a tiny bit bigger than Vanellope, she surprisingly wasn’t as scared of it as she thought she’d be.

Honestly fear wasn’t even the word to describe their current feelings they had with this situation.

If anything they felt more confusion about the creature than fear.

It came out crawling on all fours and slowly made its way towards them.

Zoro let go of his sword sheath and began walking up to the pointy eared critter,”Hey there little guy”, he said in a friendly tone,”You must be a resident of this lovely…..”, Takes a quick look at the terrifying world before looking back,”ish-ly ugly neighborhood”.

The little critter simply growled in response to Zoro’s claim.

Zoro nodded before continuing,”Cool, cause you see we aren’t really from here, we just got out of a quick little fight with a bad guy that resulted in him sending us here through that pipe which you so happen to be…. crawling in front of”, he said, pointing to the green pipe.

This made the critter turn to face it for a second or two before quickly turning back to face them with a snarl before slowly saying,”Waka Chaka”, in response.

Zoro tilted his head to the side in confusion.

What the hell did that thing just say?

And was it something good or bad?

He was used to seeing different creatures, but this was definitely different.

At least the other creatures were able to speak his language

“Waka Chaka”, the critter repeated, this time crawling a tiny bit closer to them.

It was trying to tell him something, he did know what it was but it was something.

“Waka Chaka”, it said once again.

Zoro turned to Vanellope to see what she thought about this.

But if anything she knew a lot less about this thing than he did so she responded but shrugging her shoulders.

This was definitely something that she had never seen or heard of before.

Whatever this thing was saying it definitely didn’t sound like anything he ever heard before

He then quickly reached back and grabbed Vanellope by the arm,”Ok so I’ll take that as an I understand, So if you don’t mind just get on out your hair and be on our way, if that’s alright with you”.

The two of them began to make their way towards us when the little green suddenly charged and lunged right at them, claws and teeth out screaming,”WAKA CHAKA”!!!!!

It was charging closer and closer to them.

Preparing to attack and tear them apart.

Vanellop suddenly gasps in shock causing her to stumble back as it was coming right for them and she didn’t have time to react.

Zoro thankfully didn’t have that same problem.

He saw the critter coming at them before he even started to charge at them.

As soon as the critter was close enough he grabbed his sword and quickly pushed Vanellope out of the way before slightly pulling it from its sheath.

He then charged at the critter as fast as he could (still holding his sword in his sheath) in the same direction the critter was coming towards him.

It wasn’t until he was a foot away from it when he finally drew his sword and used it to slice the critter in half from head to toe.

Zoro then stopped as his sword sliced through the critter in a strong stance before slowly slipping the sword back into its sheath.

Once he did that it took a second or two before its body split into two halves and fell lifelessly onto the ground.

Zoro turned to look down at its lifeless sliced up corpse.

Some of its limbs were still twitching as it laid there drenched in what looks like its own green gooey blood.

It was dead and gone just like that it was out of their hair.

Vanellope stood there with a shocked expression on her face as she looked down at the now dead critter.

Everything that just happened next looked as if it was in slow motion, or at least to Zoro it did.

To her it looked as if Zoro had used super speed to run right past the critter without even drawing his sword.

Yet somehow he was able to slice that thing clean in half with little to no effort.

She barely had time to process that through her head.

It was almost terrifying once you noticed just how strong the vice captain of the straw hat pirates really is.

If he could do something like that without using an ounce of his strength imagine what he would be capable of at full strength.

This was completely and utterly a shock to her, considering how much she knew about Zoro and his strength , but to see it in action was incredible

Zoro at the end clapped his hands,”Welp take notes kid cause now we know that “Waka Chaka” means war in their language”.

Vanellope looked up at him,”Well which one means we come in peace ,”Chaka Waka”?, she asked in a sarcastic tone before picking up a chard stick off the ground and poking its corps curiously,”What is this thing anyway”.

Zoro responded by shrugging his shoulders,”Don’t know and at this point I dont care to sit around this place and find out, lest move-“, he started before he had that feeling again.

The feeling of being watched….

He looked up and noticed something ominous inthe distance.

They almost looked like a bunch of lights that were growing bright by the minute.

He would’ve played them off as the flames from the lava but something was different about these lights.

He walked away from the corpse and used his observation to give him a closer look.

When he’d finally got a better look at what was out there in the distance.

And when he did he started to tense up.

Vanellope stopped poking the corpse and walked over to see what Zoro was looking at.

And that’s when she too saw it.

It was more green looking critters, a lot more.

They were all quickly crawling up to where the two were standing.

Looking just as mean and snarly as the last one they had just encountered.

It wasn’t until after a few moments of looking around that Zoro noticed that they weren’t just coming from that one direction.

They were coming from all different types of directions.

“Oh shit”, he said as they started to come into view.

The more they came to view the more visible the hordes around them were too.

This sight made Vanellope take a step back and get behind Zoro as they came closer to the two of them.

Zoro decided to start backing up towards the portal quickly as the green critters started to close in on them.

Once they were all gathered up to the two of them the critters stopped and started snarling right at them.

Almost looking as if they were about to make their move.

Zoro (while still keeping Vanellope behind him) started to take a small half-step forward,”Well look at this, and they say hospitality is only a human thing, we’ll look thanks again for the generous welcome, wish we coulda stayed longer but we have to go”, he said before making his what towards the pipe and ushering Vanellope to come along.

Just as they were a few feet away from the pipe, one of the green critters spotted they’re dead comrade (or at least one half) that Zoro had killed earlier. And ran over to him in a panic, another one did the same.

They ran over and started tapping him on his body, trying to wake him up.

But no matter how much they tapped, their fallen comrade showed no sign of movement.

And it was the same thing for the other critters as well.

They put the pieces together in their heads about what happened there before suddenly looking towards Zoro and Vanellope (who were quick pacing towards the green pipe while looking back at them) and snarls angrily at them before shouting,”WAKA CHAKA”!!!!!

And just like that, all of the critters start rushing towards them in anger and determination to kill them.

Zoro and Vanellope looked back to see all of the little creatures coming right for them.

“Ok time to go”, Zoro said quickly as he ushered her to the pipe.

They were just a few feet away from it when suddenly some of those critters started crawling over the green pipe and cutting them off.

Zoro and Vanellope watched in horror as their only way out was now blocked off to them.

Zoro then began to groan in frustration,”OH GOD DAMMIT”!!!!

This was bad…

They were now trapped and surrounded by an army of green critters.

And now the only way out is currently being guarded.

This was definitely a tough situation for the two of them alright.

Zoro could handle himself just fine in this situation but he couldn’t say the same for Vanellope.

Though she did have some experience with devil fruit powers, she was nowhere near as experienced in battle as he was if she stayed with him, she would only slow him down while he was trying to protect her.

Vanellope turned to him in a panic,”NOW WHAT DO WE DO”.

He didn’t respond…

He was too busy thinking of his own plan to get them out of this annoying situation.

He needed to find a place where she could highball he fended these things off but where.

Zoro looked around with quick glances, trying to find anything he could have her use as a hiding spot but nothing out there looked good or safe enough.

After a couple of moments of looking around, he finally spotted something out into the distance.

And thankfully for them, it was located right in between a massive gap in the critters defense, that if timed right you could get there.

And after using a bit more observation, he finally got a clear enough view on what it looked like.

It was a dark and almost ruined, looking castle, surrounded by a lake of lava.

It wasn’t too far away from them and if Zorro could just keep them distracted Vabellope could get over to the castle and wait there till he was finished with them.

That was the best choice of action for them to go with right now. He turned to her and whispered,”When I say so you're gonna run over to that castle, barricade it, and hide somewhere inside until I’m finished with all these guys, ok”.

Vanellope looked over to the castle for a second before looking back at Zoro with worry,”But what about you, you're not gonna be able to take em all down yourself, and plus I can help you-“, Zoro put his hand up, interrupting her.

“Out of the question, we promised Curly we keep you outta trouble”, Zoro said with a serious look on his face.

Vanellope responded by pointing at the literal army of green creatures surrounded with a blank look on her face,”Little late for that don’t you think, plus with my glitch I can help you out-“.

“NO, kid look as useful as you powers are, they also have limitations, and going up against an army like this, small or big, is gonna wear you out eventually especially if you haven’t gone on as many adventures as me, sorry kid but you know this is the best course of action, alright”, he said in a stern tone.

She bowed her head down in disappointment but nodded her head reluctantly.

She wanted the chance to prove how much pirate potential she had, even if she was still a kid.

But she also didn’t want to slow Zoro down in any way.

So she would have to try and prove herself later when they were in another less dangerous situation.

She got herself into a running position, ready to run off when the time was right.

Zoro placed both of his hands onto two of his swords and he readied himself into a fighting position,”Ready”,he said slowly.

The critters were coming in close as Zoro continued,” And”.

The critters were just a few feet away from them.

Vanellope prepared herself for what was about to happen next.

“GO”!!!he shouted to Vanellope as he jumped up into the air and used his sword swinging motion to once again create air blades through the slashes of his swords that went in every direction.

The slashes began to attack the critters that were coming right for them.

The attack killed them or cut them up on impact.

By doing this, it gave Vanellope time to glitch herself in the direction of the ruined castle as fast as she could.

Some of the critters that weren’t hit by the air slashes saw this and almost immediately ran after her.

Zoro spotted them following her and made his way back to the ground.

Once he was back on the ground he spun himself around in a circle, starting his famous DRAGON TWISTER, a twister that trapped a lot of the critters inside and cut through their bodies as they spun around like a tornado.

This attack caught some of the critters and swooped them up away from Vanellope.

This gave her more time to make it to the castle.

So saw that she was out of the way and grinned widely before turning to the other critters that were coming towards him and charged back into battle.

He had full intent on buying her time to get her out of harm's way.

and he wouldn’t have much difficulty doing that, considering the weak opponents that were in front of him.

He just needs to slice up a good amount of them in order to scare them off.

He’d be done in no time and would be able to regroup with her and find Luffy.

While that fight was going on, Vanellope was making her way to the castle.

She was able to see it even through all of the charred trees that surrounded them.

She was running through the dark forest as fast as possible while trying her best not to trip on anything that would slow her down.

She was still making her way through the forest when all of a sudden she saw something she was coming up to and a hand reached out from the ground and tried to grab her leg.

She glitched over it and stopped a few feet away before turning to look at the hand to see who it was.

It was one of the green critter’s from an earlier hand that was coming out of the ground.

A second or two passed before it lunged up from underneath the ground and ran right for her.

She instantly glitched herself to a tree to get farther away from it.

But once she was up onto the tree she spotted some of them climbing and jumped off the burnt tree branches to get to her.

She sighed in frustration and glitched herself further towards the castle until she was right in front of the castle.

This time she sighed in relief as all of the running from the bad guys would finally be over.

But there was just one problem……

Between her and the castle was a boiling lake of lace that surrounded the entire castle.

This was definitely a no for her and she was sure if she could even glitch herself that far yet.

Especially if she was starting to get tired from all of the running and glitching.

She might as well take her chances with those critters than to cross that lava.

She turned around to run in another direction, but was shocked with the surprise that there were a lot more of them than she originally expected, like dozens more.

And they were all coming in a bunch of directions towards the castle.

Zoro must not have been able to catch all of them in time to stop them.

Vanellope quickly looked between the lava and the critters to see which option would be better.

When she took a closer look and saw that there were more critters coming from other directions, her mind was pretty much made up.

She turned to the love of trying to figure out a way over there that didn’t involve her using up all her glitching energy.

When she spotted giant rocks that were floating amongst the lava, she came up with an idea.

She didn’t have to glitch all the way over to the other side.

She could just glitch onto the rocks just to keep her from using up too much energy or pushing her to her limit.

She took a deep breath, stepped back and ran over to the edge and glitched herself onto the first rock.

She had almost fallen over when she landed due to its wobbly nature, but she managed to keep her balance.

She turned back to see that some of the critters were about to start jumping over the edge to try and reach her.

She then quickly glitched herself over to the next piece of rubble to try and get ahead of them.

They all started jumping in after her, somewhere, lucky enough to land on the first piece of rubble, she landed on, others weren’t as they went, tumbling into the lava instantly being engulfed in flames, and sinking slowly.

She was trying her best to glitch as fast as she could across the broken bridge over to the castle.

The critters were right on her tail, still leaping over from one rubble piece to another.

One had even managed to catch up to her and land on the same piece.

she instantly kicked him off and into the lava lake, burning him to death.

After one last glitched leap over to the end, she finally made it to the castle.

She turned around to see that some of the little critters that were still alive weren’t too far behind her, and they were many more behind them as well.

So she ran towards the castle doors and pushed as hard as she could to force them open.

Because it was a bit massive, it was harder for her to open the door.

But thanks to her small size, she only needed to open it small enough to get herself inside.

The critters had finally made it onto the same platform as her and ran over to attack her.

She saw that they were coming closer and pushed harder on the door, trying to get it open.

After a couple more pushes, she was finally able to get it open enough for her to slide through.

Once she was on the other side of the door she quickly started trying to push the door close so that the green critters wouldn’t get inside.

The door was a lot easier to close than it was to open because she was having a better time pushing it closed.

And just when it was about to shut, some of the little critters started shoving their hands past the door’s open trying to grab a hold of her.

She pushed on the door harder trying to keep them from getting in but it was harder to do so with them pushing on the door.

She needed to find a way to get this door shut and quickly before they got in.

She quickly glanced around until she found some small rocks by her feet.

This suddenly gave her an idea.

She grabbed one of the rocks and started slamming it against the critters hands, causing them great pain and making them pull their hands back and away from the door.

She hit one of them (who had managed to get the head through) in the eye with the rock.

After a couple more whacks she gave them with the rock, they finally stopped putting through the door.

This helped her finally be able to close the door and lock it from the inside, shutting them all out.

They started banging on the door hard trying to get in.

But it was no use, the door’s lock was too strong for them to barge through.

She sighed in relief, she was finally safe and able to hide herself.

Or at least she thought….

She turned around and she saw to her whore that there were already at least a dozen little critters that were inside the castle.

They were everywhere on the walls on the staircase, and even right in front of her.

She was pretty much surrounded and with no way of escape.

She had glitched herself too many times to be able to conjure up another one for at least a little bit.

And to make things worse the door behind her was locked and even if it was open, it wouldn’t help since the rest of the critters were still outside trying to get in.

She was trapped on all sides, and I have nowhere to go.

And Zorro was still out there, fighting the rest of them, and there was no way that he would be able to hear her through all his fighting.

She backed up slowly until her back was against the door.

The critters crawled up to her, slowly, as if trying to talk to pray

Fear filled her stomach as she soon realized that this could be the end for her.

She didn’t get to say goodbye to Curly, her new mother, figure, or any of her family from Foosha village.

She would possibly die without anyone seeing what she was truly capable of.

And the worst part was that she didn’t even get the chance to become a pirate or show the Strawhat pirates how good she could’ve been at it too.

She closed her eyes and prepared for what happen next.

The critter lunged at her with his teeth, paired out, preparing to attack her when all of a sudden an arrow shot down landed right in between his eyes, killing him instantly.

Vanellope waited for the attack, but it never came. Once she opened her eyes. She saw what happened to the critter.

She tilted her head into Tesia and looked around and saw that none of the other critters have any weapons, so she wondered how that could’ve happened.

The critters did the same thing as they started, looking around to see who had done that to the brethren.

Then all of a sudden another arrow shot out of nowhere and hit another critter on the side of its head.

Vanellopr and the other critters look on Insha as I saw would’ve just happened to another one of them.

She took another step back towards the door out of fear.

How was this happening?

Who is doing this?

She sat there with the questions in her head as she stood there, frozen in fear.

Then, all of a sudden,”GET OUT OF THE WAY KID”, a voice shouted from somewhere in the castle.

Vanellope started looking around to see who had said before she stopped and realized that this voice meant her no harm.

In fact it was trying to help her get out of the way.

So she quickly started looking around to see if there was any place she could hide.

After a few seconds of looking she found a small spot under the staircase and ran over to it and hid under it.

Even though she was hidden, she was still able to see what was going on in front of her.

And what she saw next was crazy.

All of a sudden, dozens upon dozens of arrows came crashing to the ground killing some of the critters that didn’t see it coming.

Then while the critters that were left who weren’t hit by the arrows were left looking around in a panic trying to find who was killing them when suddenly a hooded figure dropped down to the middle of the floor and used their bow to shoot another critter right into its chest.

One of the other ones that saw this happen started charging at the figure with its sharp claws and teeth out.

The figure responded by side, kicking it down to the ground, pulling out an arrow and stabbing it right in the eye a few times.

The figure then ran over to two of the critters and pulled out a small blade before jamming it right into its neck.

The other critter didn’t have much time to react before the figure used their other hand to stab it in the ears so deep that it went out of the other ear hole.

A few moments passed of them pitifully struggling until both their bodies slowly fell limp and started twitching a bit.

The figure removed both the blade and arrow from the critters and stood up straight.

The last one of the critters that was inside the house, stood across the room from the figure, shaking and shivering in fear

The figure turned their head over to face it,”Your move”, they said menacingly.

The critter filled with anger as it began to charge at the figure in a fit of rage.

Biggest mistake of its life……

The figure kicked it down to the ground and began to curbstomp its head.

Every stomp started to cave in on its head exposing pieces of brain matter, broken skull, teeth, whatever was easy to break.

They did this to the point where there was nothing left of the critters head, but a bunch of green meaty mass with bits of bone chips.

The critters' lifeless body stood laying there, twitching slowly.

Vanellope just sat there, completely shocked at what she had witnessed.

This figure single-handedly took out a bunch of little critters that have been causing her and Zoro so much problems.

Not to mention how skilled they were with a Bowl and their fighting styles were incredible.

She only thought that the Strawhat pirates were good fighters never really anyone else, especially from another world.

The figure removed their foot from what was left of the meaty mass and stepped away from the scene right before they turned to face the hiding spot that Vanellope was hiding in.

The figure began to walk toward at a normal pace, causing her to begin to back up.

The figure put their hands up,” hold on wait I come in peace”, the figure said, in a more calm tone, then earlier.

Vanellope stopped backing up,”W-who are you”,she asked curiously.

The figure stopped walking and stood up straight, “Oh sorry hang on”, they said before taking off their hood to reveal themselves.

And to Vanellope’s surprise it was a girl.

She was a slender and tall woman with green hair that was long in the back and short in front, with two braids at the side. She wore a green sleeveless archer corset, shorts, a pair of uneven black gloves, knee high boots, and a hood. And she wore a black sleeve over her left arm, which looked as if it served as the arm guard for her bow arm.

But that wasn’t the part that surprised her.

Even though she looked like a regular human female, there was one distinct difference that would've made her stand out from them.

It was the fact that she had long pointy ears on both sides of her head.

She started making her way over to Vanellope and holding a hand out to help her up,” Here let me give you a hand”.

Vanellope paused for a second before reluctantly, reaching out and grabbing her hand.

The girl pulled her up off the ground and dusted the little girl off,”There that should be better”, she said before taking a step back to get a better look at the Vanellope,” Are you hurt anywhere I need to worry about”, she asked him concern.

Vanellope shook her head in response,” no, I’m fine”, she said, before taking a look at the girl’s ears.

Vanellope tilted her head to the side in confusion and in curiosity,”What are you”

The mysterious girl bowed her head in an introductory kind of way before placing a hand on her chest,” I’m an elf warrior, well an archer technically but I can fight pretty well too”.

Vanellope looked shocked,” wait so you’re like a soldier”, she asked.

The elf archer shrugged her shoulders,”Yeah you could say something like that”, down to the little girl's eye level in curiosity,” so how did you get your kid and are you alone”.

Vanellope quickly shook her head,” no no my friend was sent here, but we were attacked by those green things, and he stayed behind to fight them”.

The elf responded by name down and placing her hands upon the little girls,” OK do you know where your friend is? Maybe we can help him”.

Vanellope was about to answer when they suddenly heard a loud noise coming from behind the front door entrance.

The noise caught both of their attention as it sounded like a loud banging coming from behind it.

The elf turned to the little girl and grabbed her arm quickly,” OK get behind me I’ll handle it”, she said before she reached behind herself, grabbed her bow and arrow, and got into a shooting position.

The banging on the door grew louder by every moment that passed by.

Vanellope stood behind the elf, nervously shaking because she didn’t know what was behind that door.

To make things worse Zoro still isn't back yet as far as she knew, so she was basically by herself with an archer that she had never met before.

And whatever was behind that door definitely sounded like it was big, like really big.

Penelope still was a little bit too tired to glitch them somewhere else unfortunately.

So they were basically stuck in this building with whatever was out there trying to get them.

After a couple moments of more bang, the elf was about to shoot at the door, when suddenly the banging stopped.

Just like that it was over as if it was a temporary prank or something.

After a couple moments of waiting, they figured that whatever was out there had walked away and found something else. Interesting.

Just when they were about to take a deep breath, the door suddenly collapsed into pieces.

The two of them covered their eyes as a wave of dust flew past them and filled the air.

After a few moments of coughing up and waving away the dust, the two of them begin to see a figure appear out of the entrance of the doorway.

They had then gotten into another stance like before prepared for whoever it was to come and attack them.

But then, once the smoke began to clear, Vanellope had gotten a clear review on Julia sealant was, and you wouldn’t believe how happy she was just to see him.

It was Zoro!

He was standing in the doorway, holding one of his swords in his hand, as he had just used his sword techniques to cut down the door.

Vanellope got from behind the elf archer and ran up to him,”Zoro you’re OK and you made it here in one piece”.

He stepped forward as he began to place the sword back into its sheath,” Oh good, you are all right”, he said, before Dustin himself off and putting her on that,” sorry for the wait kid, there was a lot more of them than I thought and some outside too, so I went ahead and took care of all that”.

The elf girl put her bow and arrow away and folded her arms,” so I took it this was afraid you were talking about a kid”.

He looked up to see the elf standing across from them and so he pointed at her curiously,” who the hell is this chick”, spots her ears,” and what the hell’s with the ears”?

The elf decided to ignore that last question and instead answer the first one,“Alicia Elvenhign: High Elf Archer”, i’m an elf from the elf kingdom”, steps, closer to them and extends a hand,” and judging by the look of you to, and your attitude, I have more than enough of a feeling that tells me you aren’t really from this place scratch that this world are you”?

Zoro definitely was taken aback by her telling him she was an elf, but since he had met other creatures before, it wasn’t really that much of a surprise to him so he decided to shake off the weirdness, and take the friendly gesture and shake her hand,”Roronoa Zoro, and no, you could say we were kind of given a free ticket here by a guy in a white suit”.

Vanellope stepped forward to introduce herself,” and I’m Vanellope von Schweetz, a hopefully future pirate in the making” she said cheerfully.

Alicia tilted her head in confusion,” pirate”?She asked curiously, not knowing what that was.

Zoro was about to explain it to her when he realized that the danger wasn’t over. They really needed to go and find Luffy before that guy in the white suit did and so they really didn’t have much time for small talk, much less from a stranger.

So he did the best thing he knew how to do in that situation completely avoid the question and get a move on,“ Look I’d love to explain that to you hopefully in another lifetime, but right now, me and this kid need to go back where we came from to figure out our current situation, but anyway, thanks for keeping the kid safe, great to meet you, all that, hope you have a nice life and bye”, he said, as quickly as possible before turning to Vanellope and then towards the door,” come on kids let’s go”.

Vanellope nodded her head and quickly turned to Alicia and waved goodbye as she ran over to where Zoro was walking towards.

Alicia just stood there days that she had just engaged herself into.

The two of them had moved so fast that they didn’t even give the elf a chance to say anything which was somewhat rude.

And to be honest, she would’ve let them be but part of her gut was worried because since they want from this world like they said they want, there’s no way she can guarantee that they could find a way around this forest on their own.

Not to mention the fact that there were still other dangers that were still out there that they probably didn’t know about.

She would’ve let them be, but she knew she would’ve felt guilty of something that happened under her watch.

So she decided to run after them to see if she could at least help them find their way home.

Once they had walked outside and made it over, past the rubble bridge of lava they were met face-to-face with the dark forest that just came out of.

And that’s when a curious question popped up in Vanellope's head,”Hey Zoro, you do remember where that green pipe is right, I kinda sort of forgot do to all the running away”, she asked curiously

Zoro looked at her confidently before, turning and pointing to the distance,” of course I do it’s…..uh”, he started confusingly, waving his finger in a different direction, trying to pinpoint where he last left the pipe.

Vanellope looked at him and confused,”Uh Zoro you do remember where the pipe is right”, she asked in concern.

The last thing they needed was to be trapped here, especially with this whole situation going on.

“Uh yeah sure uh……”, he said, despite just now realizing that he had completely forgotten where the pipe was.

He had been so caught up in the bell he forgot to remember where the pipe was.

“Uh come uh aw DAMMIT”, he shouted in frustration as he wasn’t able to figure out which way to go.

Vanellope soon realized that after Zoro’s long responses to her question painted a lear enough picture for her,”No no no no no no no no no you didn’t”, he did respond,”No come on Zoro don’t tell me you forgot where it was”.

He definitely forgot where the pipe was.

And now they were officially trapped and stranded in an unknown world.

Zoro shook his head and stepped forward,” OK look, I may have forgotten where the pipe is but that’s why we have nature’s greatest survival tactic looking around we’ll just do that until we find it”.

“what how we’re gonna do that with your sense of direction, wound up walking around in circles in the wrong direction for days if we do that”, she said angrily to him.

Zoro turned and walked toward her with his hands on his hips,” well kid. If you have a better idea on how to find it, then by all means lead the way, do you know if anything why don’t you just glitch around the fourth so you find it”.

She responded by looking down at the ground on her head,” I would, but I’m really tired from using it so much when I was escaping from those little guys, so I might not have enough strength to do that”, she said sadly.

Zory placed his hand on his face and tiny bit of frustration seeing as though they were now lost.

Suddenly they heard a voice call from behind them,”Hey are you guys alright”.

They both turn to see that it was Alicia, the elf, who is standing right behind them curiously.

A thought suddenly popped into Zoro’s head and he turned to her curiously,”Depends, you wouldn’t happen to know the way to a certain green pipe here would you”, he asked, almost in a sarcastic tone.

Vanellope turned to the elf as well,” We forgot our way back to the green pipe we came out of and that’s our only way home without it. We're stuck here, we could really use some directions”.

Alicia placed a hand on the back of her head,” sorry you guys I can’t really help you with that. I’m not really from here myself, I am mostly just passing by on orders from a rebellion I’m a part of”.

Zero turned to be in curiosity,”A rebellion, against what”?

The elf princess turned and pointed to a certain statue that stood out in front of the castle.

It was a beast like monster standing in an almost conquering pose, as if he were a leader of some.

”Against him”, she answered ominously before turning back to the two of them.

Both Zoro and Vanellope looked at the statue then Alicia, confused”Who’s that”, they both asked curiously.

That last question completely shocked Alicia.

Maybe they didn’t know what he looked like.

She tried again,”Bular”, she said.

Their expressions didn’t change.

She tried once again,”Bular The Butcher”.

Still nothing from them.

“The God of war, The king of the trolls, The crusher of skulls”,she tried her best to hug something up inside their head.

But they simply stood here with blank expressions on their faces.

Vanellope slowly shook her in response to the questions.

“We obviously don’t know who you're talking about so maybe if you elaborate maybe we might know who you're talking about, specifically who are you? What is this place and what does that statue have to do with all this”.Zoro suggested

Alicia signed, and turned to face the statue as she began to explain the situation.

“I’m part of a rebellion built as a first line of defense against the troll empire, some mainly bular the butcher whose statue you see before you, who is the leader of this empire, he’s known for conquering kingdom, who worlds, countless armies, enslaving innocent people, and mercilessly, killing anyone who stands on his way or who might pause the threat to him,”, she turns to them with a serious look on her face,” he is one of the most powerful being in this world, and has one of the largest armies and kingdoms and some of the most powerful warriors aiding him”.

Zoro raises a brow in curiosity,” well if that’s the case, this guy must be pretty powerful”.

Alicia nodded her head,” yes, one of the most powerful beings in this realm, no one in history has ever been able to defeat him”.

Something about what she just said sparked a lightbulb in Vanellope’s head,”wait did you just say troll”, she asked in a concerned tone.

“Yes and this is one of his many realms,THE DARK LANDS, were everything here remains eternally night and those little creatures we were just fighting are called Goblins and they serve as some of his foot soldiers who watch over this land in case of intruders like ourselves”,she explained,”I'm only here because I was scouting the area for any threats which lucky for us we might’ve taken care of some of them”.

Zoro turned to her in confusion,” wait some you mean there’s more than just these guys”.

She nodded her head once again,”Yes a lot more, hundreds, thousands, who knows”, she said before stepping closer,” but what I do know is that it’s a bad idea to go wandering around these parts, especially with the dangers out there”.

That last warning left Vanellope a little on edge especially after just dealing with all those goblin things, she wasn’t really ready to keep encountering all these other creatures.

She can only glitch herself so many times before she begins to slow Zoro down too much.

So she was up for any good idea that didn’t involve them putting themselves in a lot of danger.

Especially if the danger involved them wandering aimlessly through the dark woods to look for a green pipe, that might not even work at this point or leave them to anywhere else good.

“So basically, we’re stuck here until we can find someone who can lead us to the pipe”, Zoro asked.

Alicia was about to say something when a thought suddenly popped up in her head.

Judging by the way, the sky looked, with the three swords, and all he obviously was a strong fighter, especially if he was able to handle a hold of goblins.

Getting there wouldn’t be such a bad idea now that she thought about it.

And it wouldn’t hurt to have some extra man power even if this guy could possibly end up as canon fodder.

She bore a sly grin before speaking,” well, I can’t really lead you to a pipe but maybe someone back at my camp can if you guys come with me I can show you”, she suggested before pointing in a direction.

Zoro was about to refuse when he suddenly remembered that he was lost in another world that wasn’t his own, with no way of contacting his friends.

He then suddenly turned to look towards Vanellope (who looked as if she was about to pass out from exhaustion).

It wouldn’t be so bad if it was just him by himself, but this time he had a kid with him who wasn’t as experienced or used to being on an adventure, especially one that is unusual, is this.

And with her limitation, she could get killed rather easily, if she gets too tired, or too worn out from the adventure.

At this point, accepting help, at least for the little girl, would probably be the best decision.

He responded by shrugging his shoulders and turned to Alicia,” you know what screw it, we’re not gonna go anywhere out here other than Lost, and a little bit of rest for the kids will probably be the best choice of action”, he said.

He then turned to Vanellope and pointed to her,”but we’re only gonna stay for a few hours. Then we’re looking for the person who can lead us to the pipe and go home”.

He turned to Vanellope,”That sounds like a plan”?

She responded by nodding her head

“Alright right let’s go”, he said, before walking in the opposite direction from where Alicia pointed.

The two of them caught this and Alicia called out to him,” Uh Roronoa, camp this way, " she said, pointing in the right direction.

Zoro instantly turned red and grown before speed walking past them in the right direction.

The two girls began to giggle before walking after him to the camps direction.

Their adventure had officially begun, and who knows what was waiting for them, in this new world.

(End of Chapter)

Hey everyone, sorry for the wait. Hope you like this chapter and the introduction to a new reviews character so now both link characters are officially out of the one piece world and into this new Nintendo world with all types of new creatures and characters waiting for them on this crazy adventure, more chapters are coming soon.

[tobias-fell]

I'm making this a it's own post, because the previous post I reblogged is both extremely important and specific and I do not want to derail it, so:

Let's talk about piracy.

I think pirating movies from monopolies like Disney and it's manchild (Marvel) is a great idea, and in general, if a movie/show isn't... like... a really small indie studio, you're probably not hurting anyone by pirating it. Same with Nintendo games and whatnot.

Books are different, though.

I only support book piracy in two situations: the author is dead, or they are the type of terrible person you are not going to give money to. This is because authors do not make a lot of money. They rely on their sales heavily, both for getting enough money to SURVIVE and also so they can get more book deals. If you go "oh, no one's going to be hurt by me pirating [x book with a living author]", you are wrong. If you don't care that you're hurting that author, you're an asshole.

You can get books without paying for them and without pirating VERY EASILY. Libraries, people. I am begging you to use your local library. It still helps the author, and you don't have to pay for something you can't afford or give money to Amazon. You don't even have to leave your house anymore! A ton of libraries have ebook collections!

I have 2 e-library cards, plus I use my school library, plus I can ask the school librarians to bring in books from other schools, plus (once restrictions lift more) I'll be able to go to the public library in person. Last year, about 65% of the books I read were library books. So far this year, 20% are. I have never pirated a book, and I do not need to.

Libraries are so, so good for people and communities. They are a collection of books specifically there so you can read them without spending money. If libraries stop being used, we are going to see Amazon Books and that shit become the new norm.

So next time you consider looking up "free PDF of [book]" or finding a google doc of it or something, stop. Look up libraries in your area. Get a library card. Use the library for it's intended purpose.

Libraries are there for a reason.

[aeondeug]

hikari-ni-naritai asked:2, 3, 5, 7, 11, 13, 17, 19, 23, 29 :3

2: Company you’re always loyal to? - I guess Nintendo counts as closest to loyalty? But even Nintendo I've gone "Wow fuck you people" to a lot. Especially of recent! If I am truly loyal to anything it's Dragon Quest. Like that specific part of Squeenix. The rest of the company can burn. I just need the people who churn out the same damned game on the regular like Grandma making me chicken noodle soup. 3: Best game you’ve ever played? - This is a very hard thing to go by. In terms of like. Artsy shit and how it made me feel and what I feel about it as art and was it fun while also doing that. Nier: Automata. Probably. In terms of like sheer fun and I just keep replaying it over and over though...Dragon Quest 3. That's a damned near perfect fucking jrpg. I love aspects of some of the later games more than it, but 3's just got a nice perfect mix of stuff going on that makes it endlessly replayable in a way that, say, 7 just is not. 5: A popular series/game you just can’t get into no matter how much you try? - I've tried Breath of the Wild several times now. I have some fun with it, but I inevitably get very bored of it and then never finish it. In general it just feels very lacking in things that compel me to finish a game or really love it. And the general design ethos leaves me feeling very unfulfilled. Like I like the electricity puzzles in Gerudo Desert a lot, but I'd rather just have like one big dungeon and an area leading up to it that just builds on that concept. With each further step getting harder than the last. Which is to say, I just want an older styled Zelda game puzzle wise. In particular, Skyward Sword I feel is the gold standard for puzzles and dungeon design in the 3D games. 7: A game you’ll never forget? - Nier: Automata feels like cheating but honestly that. Ocarina of Time and Final Fantasy 7 also have intros that are just burned into my brain because they were the first 3D games I ever saw. As much as I hate sitting through the OoT starting cutscene on replays there is just a charm to it that no other Zelda since has had. Indeed, they can't have it. 11: Hardest game you’ve played? - Any fighting game, honestly. Strive right now is currently proving to be The Impossible Thing for me. Especially because we're very determined to play as Giovanna. Gio's a rushdown with no ranged options and limited options in terms of safely getting into someone's face. She's extremely good on maintaining pressure so long as you keep up in someone's jock but like. I do not, in general, keep up in anyone's jock. I am terrified of that, in fact, and generally prefer to stay mid range or on the far side of the screen, only engaging as I so choose. I'm a coward by nature and I think too much. Gio feels fucking impossible to me because you have to be brave and turn your brain off to play her, and unlike May she does not have ANY projectile options. It is daunting and sometimes soul crushing. But like if I keep at it, I'll learn. And I just got to make friends and it'll be fun. 13: A game you were the most excited for when it wasn’t released yet? - Any Dragon Quest game but Dragon Quest 4's psx port gets a very special mention. Because it never got brought over. Period. I saw the ad for it on the back of DQ7's manual and so excited for a remake on a console I had. Because at the time 4 was my favorite of the series. And then it just...Never got brought overseas. This sucked. 17: What game do you never tell people you play? - I will tell people to play many things. A lot of questionable things. Even Castlevania 64 I will stand up for. I will not tell people to play Rule of Rose though. Not even I have played Rule of Rose. No one should play Rule of Rose. It is the best survival horror game you should not spend 300 dollars on and even emulating it is questionable. Just watch a let's play. 19: Which game do you think deserves a revival? - Rule of Rose needs a fucking remake. Like. Direly. It's such a good game in terms of aesthetic, thematics, characters, horror, etc. But the game's combat is some of the worst the genre has ever had and it makes actually playing it very unfun. That on top of copies being extremely rare and very pricey just...I wish it could be remade. So people could experience it. 23: Biggest disappointment you’ve had in gaming? - Breath of the Wild. It was a Zelda with none of the things I like about Zelda but all of the things I don't really care much about in Zelda. And after hearing for a year how lovely it was from people that just. Sucks? I had fun on the Great Plateau and then I had a horrifying moment where I realized that these were all the tools I was getting. And then my weapons broke. And then I got to a Divine Beast because I was told those were the dungeons and it was fun I guess but it wasn't even a Fire Temple let alone a Water Temple. We went from things like the Ancient Cistern and the Pirate's Stronghold to the Vah Ruta. That's such a step back. It basically has the reverse of the problem that Skyward Sword had. Where instead of sacrificing overworld exploration for better dungeons and tools, it sacrificed dungeons and tools for overworld exploration and freedom. And I just don't care for it. 29: Which is more important, gameplay or story? - This entirely depends on the kind of game it is and even then I'm not at all convinced that story is intrinsically something that can be "in the way". Is Guilty Gear's story necessary to enjoy the games? No. It's not. Is Guilty Gear better for having its ridiculous plot wherein a guy who names himself Sol Badguy has to kill copies of his wife repeatedly while hunting for a catboy twink he calls That Man? Yes. Yes it is. Dear gods yes.

[hey-hamlet]

Quarentine Recs

What with everyone munching through media like my dog munching on anything that could be considered edible, I thought I’d throw some general recomendations into the ring! Everything here is hopefully something you can start right away without needing to leave your house, if you’re ok with some quasi-legal pirating.

To watch: 

Ore Monogatari / My Love Story Romance / Comedy One Season Fluff to the max, Gouda Takeo is a massive first year highschool student of exeptional size and strength. While hes popular with the boys, most girls think he’s strange. When he saves Yamoto Rinko from a creep on the train its love at first sight, but she’s convinced she’d into his hot friend. Comdey follows.

Somali to Mori no Kamisama / Somali and the Forest Spirit Drama / Fantasy / Good Dad Golem  12 Epsiode Season In a world where humans have been hunted right to the edge of extinction, one golem and his human charge journey in search of the remaining few to reuninte Somali with her kind. Golems live very long lives, but finite ones, and Somali’s guardian is reaching the end of his. I’m two episodes away from finishing it but its really sweet, great dad content featuring multiple guest dads and their children. Somali is so sweet she’ll give you a toothache

Isekai Shokudou / Restaurant to Another World Slice of Life / Fantasy / Is food a genre? Because food Every Saturday this restaurant closes it’s doors to the public and recives visitors from another world. There isn’t much plot here but it will make you very hungry and strangely greatful for processed flour, canola oil and freezers. I’m pretty sure the chef is voiced by Aizawa’s Japanese VA and its amazing.

Gravity Falls Mystery / Drama / Comedy Two Seasons A Classic - A set of twins, Dipper and Mabel Pines wind up spending their summer holiday with their sketchy grat uncle Stan. But, as they soon find out, the town is not what it seems.

Features loads of action, fun mystery and loads of twists set up so well you’ll kick yourself! Good family relationships with rounded characters and fun villains. This series has a special place in my heart as something I grew up watching when I was twelve, and it finished in my second last year of highschool, its just a great story. The comedy is really only big in the first season and dies down fast when things get serious. Be prepared to hate a tiny 10-ish year old boy.

Steven Universe / Steven Universe Future  Comedy / Drama / Slow Burn / Action Six Seasons Considering it just finished, now is a great time to start. Steven Universe is a bubbly young boy who lives with the Crystal Gems, a strange set of gem creatures who knew his mother. Steven is half gem himself and the show features him growing up and helping the people around him grow as well. 

The show is slow and starts a little rough but its very sweet and ernest. Steven Universe Future is far darker than the original show (but, a minor spoiler, does have a happy ending) so be careful!

Over the Garden Wall Mystery / Drama / Supernatural 10 Episode Miniseries  Two half brothers, Wirt and Greg, find themselves in a part of the forest they don’t recognise with no clue how they got there. The deeper they go, the stranger it gets and the less certain their escape may be. And whats all this talk of a beast? 

This show has Wirt learning how to be a good big brother along with some delightful autumnal scenery and American gothic fantasy elements. I recomend you sit down with some tea and baked goods and watch it like a movie.

To play: 

Animal Crossing: New Horizons Nintendo Switch Brand new and very popular, you play a human on an island with delightful animal neighbours. Make friends, customise your island and live your life to the fullest! Features local and online mutliplayer with up to 8 people. Also feel free to play it with me because its taking over my life!

Yonder: The Cloud Catcher Chronicles PC / Play Station 4 / Nintendo Switch / X Box One A sweet open world indie adventure and exploration game with farming and fantasy elements. You find yourself shipwrecked on a strange island with only your magic compass that I can’t remember the name of to guide you. This game is mostly about expolaration and discovery and the enviroment is pretty enough that it works well.

Niche PC A boardgame like turnbased strategy that has you controlling a small group of creatures and tinkering with their genetics and breeding to try and survive the harsh world around you. Cute creatures, fun game.

Temtem PC A pokemon-like MMO that sees you capturing creatures call Temtem to fight for you. The game is still in early access so keep that in mind, but it’s pretty fun and the creatures are very well designed. 

Guild Wars 2 PC FREE TO PLAY VERSION AVALIBLE The only MMORPG I’ve ever played but boy it’s spoilt me. A one time purchase lets you experience the world of Tyria where you can play as one of 5 races or one of 9 classes. The personal story is great (unless you’re me and have played the sylvari stories so many times you can quote half of the lines) and the post game story gets real fast. Asside from that, its a really pretty game thats super fun with one of the nicer communities I’ve ever experienced. Co-operation is encouraged and the dynamic event system will have you playing with puppies one minute and murdering a giant undead behemoth the next. I have sunk so many hours in this game.

[tearasshouse]

Vidya ramblings pt 3B

Previous list here.

Onwards and upwards to the B-tier games. I guess its a good sign that we have so much to play, and that the general bar for quality has risen so much year on year, such that B-tier games would easily slot into my A-tier list in a slower year, or C-tier games slotting into B-tier for that matter. I have to deliberately go looking for chaff these days, is what I’m saying. “B-tier games” sound worse than what they actually mean on my list: those I had very few qualms about, or their strengths were enough to compensate for their shortcomings and I generally looked forward to firing them up instead of doing so out of my completionist’s sick, demented obligation. So! Pat yourselves on the back, game devs.

Fire Emblem Echoes: Shadows of Valentia (N3DS)

I’m not an FE mark by any means, but when I’m looking for something to play on a Nintendo platform (3DS is the only one I own), FE games are invariably among the scant handful of their franchises I turn towards. Awakening was my first FE, so as a latter day entrant I have to judge all future games by that metric. I wouldn’t outright call Echoes the better game, although it is a better game in many aspects. The “feet on the ground” dungeon exploration is a nice addition; the art is absolutely gorgeous, the soundtrack is stellar, and despite not having the romances or pair-up feature, the combat was solid, even if the maps and objectives are very rote and frankly dull. The cast was very enjoyable, and plot well, it’s typical dragons and destiny and royalty will save the day, blah blah vanilla FE storytelling. It was a nice distraction in the early months of the pandemic, but I might have to give the edge to Awakening here. I am looking forward to playing all 3 routes of Fates sometime this year or the next though.

Final Fantasy VII Remake (PS4)

Finally, I hear you groan, an actual 2020 release. Certainly the most lavish remake I’ve played since... RE2? I should have more nostalgia for this game, as the OG was technically my first JRPG and I’d spent an entire summer on it, with my friend’s PSX copy and his strategy guide laid out in front of me. But, I went into this with hype in check and nostalgia completely dulled, maybe because I actually am just a dried up, withered out old fart with a prune for a heart? Anyway, game is pretty good, there isn’t much to say about it that others haven’t already gushed over or criticized to death. I will say though that it’s been a while since a game’s difficulty tuning and mechanics absolutely kicked my ass. You need to learn the combat system in this or you won’t get very far, certainly not on Hard Mode anyway. I’m a bit wary about the 2nd and 3rd (possibly 4th?) entries in this project. Just how will they re-interpret the world map? How are they possibly going to tie everything up? How much of the OG game will be cut or reconfigured, and how much will be filler? Will we have to sit through more of those interminable “slide through narrow crevices to mask our shit loading times” sections? Will the environment textures actually load up properly? 

Hades (EGS)

Yeah, it’s a Supergiant joint, and I’m a mark for Greek mythology, what more do you need? The only reason it’s on a lower rung here, and it’s not a fault of the game so much as what I look for in games. I’m just not much of an arcade-style, score attacker or rogue/rogue-lite player. If I wanted creative re-use of assets with super high replayability, I’ll go for a MP shooter, or an immersive sim. All that is to say that the game is rather short and repetitive (by design), and the drip-feed of story, character development, unlocks or trying out new builds and personal challenges just doesn’t do it for me. What is here is quality, through and through without a doubt and the whole 31 hours it took me to do my first clear (again, one and done - that’s all for me) were just good old fashion gaming fun.

Death Mark (PS Vita)

Vita means life! This game gets the dubious distinction of being the last physical Vita game I’ll ever buy (I was as surprised as you you must be, mhm!). The only reason it’s on the B-tier list and not the lower rung is a testament to its successfully creeping me out from beginning to end. Which is saying something, because it’s a typical horror story of urban legends manifest as hauntings and curses, done as a very low budget VN fashion. If you’re used to VNs with more QoL features like in ye olde Steins;Gates or some such, well, you’ll be quite disappointed here. No text logs, no touch controls, extreme reuse of very limited assets, etc. I understand that the dev, Experience are uhm, experienced DRPG makers, and that influence is certainly felt in the “boss battles” here, though they are somewhat clunky and use adventure game logic, which is to say not very logical or poorly explained. This is also on Steam, Switch and PS4 so... go forth and acquire.

Gravity Rush Remastered (PS4)

Unlike Tearaway Unfolded, I will say that the PS4 version is the way to go with superior controls, performance, visual fidelity, etc. You lose nothing by going to the big screen. Still one of the most charming things Sony has put out, and like it’s successor, it’s still a somewhat underbaked game. The definition of a cult classic or a B-tier perennial, simply swimming in well-earned 7s. This would rate higher (while still within the B-tier) had it not been my 3rd time going through this, but newcomers will be treated to something fresh and special. Anytime I get to shill for Gravity Rush is an opportunity I will gladly take.

Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End (PS4)

The very definition of a B-tier game in my books! Well crafted and big budgeted enough by the task masters, technicians and actors at Naughty Dog to garner a guaranteed spot here. Again, I don’t mean to sound backhanded, but it’s really hard to truly love something this big, with this much broad appeal and craftsmanship. It really is everything that’s right (and wrong) with Sony’s (Western) first party output this past generation. I was slackjawed during the Madagascar car chase, touched during the dramatic moments between Nate and crew, the flashback sequences with Young Nathan were done really well (again, walking sim sections one and all), and UC4 reminded us about why pirate adventures are awesome (themes of obsession and seeking treasure at your own peril be damned). Crushing Mode in this one is truly diabolical (in the not satisfying, simply die-lots way), while the MP is... okay? Forgettable for the whole hour I devoted to it.

SOMA (Steam)

A downer of a sci-fi tale about post-humanism (or transhumanism?), deceptively snuck within a fairly spooky horror thriller. It’s made by the Swedes behind the Amnesia games, partly set in a curious recreation of my hometown of Toronto, about an average dude going through some pretty extraordinary circumstances, and none of it is treated with extraordinariness. It’s definitely a muted affair, and contributes to that grounded, depressing tone. Yeah the human race is long dead and the few consciousnesses left alive are going to live out the rest of their existences in virtual reality until the batteries run out, so what? Get to it, Simon. Smart and logical spatial puzzles underpin the walking sim aspect of the game, and though there’s the slight survival horror/stealth element, I played on Safe Mode cos I could only imagine how frustrating it would be to die to those things. Check it out, it’s great, but it’s not for everyone and in a pinch I wouldn’t want to play something like this, which is why it ends up here in the B-tier.

[chucklestheechidona]

Freedom Fighters - An Unceremonious Death

For the love of god let them die

Look, I like the Freedom Fighters. More the reboot than the preboot, they have less baggage, but still, I respect what they did. But if you’ve read my other dumb things you also know I think Red Dwarf USA had a real chance of working, so maybe I’m just insane.

Either way, this whole Rally For Sally business has been going around and disturbing the usual culprits from their dens and I feel I should say something.

“The American Canon“

This is a stupid sentence and yet thrown around as you like. There is no American canon, there is just “The Canon” and “Non-canon.” Believe it or not, the people who make the product get to decide what’s done with it and what is canon.

If you made something and then in France they made an entirely different story with concepts and themes you didn’t want to explore, you’d be hesitant about including or acknowledging it. Same with Sega of Japan.

But then why did Sega allow this to be made?

Well, I think this needs a tad bit of history behind it.

We’re going to the 90′s

Denim was in, the future was here, everything in 2000′s would be chrome and the Y2k bug was on the horizon.

Ohno

But Sega of Japan had an issue. Their arcade machines were selling like nobody’s business but they wanted that sweet console piece of the pie, but had no winning mascot. Alex Kidd, unfortunately, wasn’t moving as many consoles as they had hoped, god knows not enough to rival Mario.

They needed something cool, something different, somethi- It’s Sonic. You know it is, I know it is, I ain’t dragging this on.

It did well enough in Japan, but Sega was focusing on international markets with this game. It had a somewhat universal design, helped by the basis being Felix and Mickey Mouse which were popular around the world, with catchy songs based on both Japanese and American releases from the past.

It was going to be a hit.

Or... was it?

Did they need to do more?

Well, Sega doesn’t just have Sega of Japan. It had SOE and SOA as well. Europe and America respectively. Others too I’m sure but my memory’s off.

SoA and SoJ had a somewhat shaky relationship with each other, but then again, so did other companies back then. It was a new foray into public relations. Japan built the consoles that actually sold, America had to sell them, but there was a big gap between the countries, how things were interpreted, different values, and let’s not forget, American pride and greed.

AMERICA in the 90′s

SOJ needed this thing to sell big. Sonic was going to be a global success if they could help it. And let’s be honest, it was.

America had it’s own plans on what Sonic should be, and SOJ actually listened to some of them. Madeline Schroeder, product manager at the time for Sega in the US, actually went to Japan to say what she thought Sonic would be. As of this, they removed Madonna and Sonic’s tie-in with a band, as well as changing certain design traits in the US because “Sonic looked too Japanese.“

And then had the gall to call herself the “Mother Of Sonic”

Again, in a world where shitting on other people’s culture is a big no-no, and for good reason, how that managed to be fine is insane.

It’s a Japanese fucking product, Madeline.

Alongside this, as SOA hadn’t had much access to the Japanese backstories (although, the manuals should have been fine enough), when it came to marketing the games as an ongoing story (and ready in time for the cartoons they wanted to push) SOA made their own Sonic Bible, for use outside of non-Japanese territories.

This would have the seeds of what most people know, Freedom Fighters, Eggman once being good, Sonic being part of the good fight, etc.

[Astoundingly, when they made the cartoons and everything, Fleetway would be the one to actually stick closer to this than Archie/Satam/Underground/Aosth ever did so who’s talking about canon now huh]

Japan didn’t really notice nor take heed. One could make a good case for their complete obliviousness to what SOA was doing. You can tell because absolutely nothing from the bible/comics/magazine ever appeared in a Japanese Sonic game. Spinball was Sega Technical Institute, an American Division. Not Sega of Japan.

On top of this, as I see a bunch of people who go “Sega is disrespecting the American canon”, interesting fact. In Europe and Japan, the manual for Sonic CD clearly states Amy Rose is in the game. Sega of America actually edited this to say Sally, despite not going through and changing the sprites. If that’s not disrespect towards the creators of the games I don’t know what is.

The Canon

The problem I find with this is that, let’s be honest, if we had to look at this from an objective viewpoint:

Japan released a game.

America sought to profit off it, but didn’t like it was very much Japanese, not American.

They changed the story to be more American themed, changed the art design to look more American drawn, and ignored the Japanese additions to the games by editing out the Japanese characters in the manuals.

Because they wanted to profit off a different culture’s work by changing it wholesale so it didn’t resemble the culture it came from.

Nothing about SatAm’s premise or creation says anything about the original material it came from, just heavily adapted without any input from it’s creators to resemble a more American product.

You know how Japan saw Sonic?

This cute lad who acted more like a cartoon Felix the Cat type figure.

Now I get it, especially in the 90′s, everyone was localising. The markets weren’t as much the same, god knows they gave Ratchet attack eyebrows to be appealing etc.

But this was so anti-Japanese that the fact they were profiting at all from a Japanese product is insane.

Adventure

Ha

Back in Japan in the 90′s, they didn’t really have much of an idea what they were doing with the canon. They had plans but they seemed to be not as stable as they would have liked. The amount of games they were pumping out with different Eggman attacks and characters and if the GG games fit in with the MD games-

They needed something a bit more stable.

So when it was their time for their biggest game yet, they started to reign things in. In Japan. In Europe.

In America.

Sonic Adventure would be the basis for the stories for the next decade or so, with some revisions on what came before, what was mainline, what have you.

At this point, SOA’s cartoons had all died and the only thing remaining in the Sonic canon from that time was the Archie comic, still ongoing. But yet America still pulled this stuff off.

In the original script, Eggman is still Eggman. None of this “I AM DOCTOR ROBOTNIK, GENIUS OF THE WORLD” schtick.

No changing the manuals this time at least, so they’re getting better.

Over time, the only surviving things to come out of the canon, which Sega was nice enough to do considering, was

- Chilli-dogs - I HATE THAT HEDGEHOG - Robotnik being Maria’s surname

Didn’t you have something to say about the Freedom Fighters?

Why yes I do.

So, the Freedom Fighters for me, as much as I like them as , represent an American centrism. Not only was America not a Sega dominated market, for Nintendo did better and Europe was buying Sega consoles like candy, but the characters and show weren’t that popular outside the country anyway.

Ask someone in Europe in the 90′s who Sally Acorn was and unless they had access to a specific channel they wouldn’t have the first idea. Amy Rose, for sure, she was in the games. 

I didn’t know who Sally was until Mega Collection Plus came out, and the UK STILL manages to get Sonic games in the top of the charts when they come out.

Aosth was shown more abroad with more appeal, the comics weren’t sold internationally, let alone in Japan.

To be all “But these characters cemented the Western fanbase” is mental.

The comics sold somewhere in the tens of thousands in their hey-day. At the same time, Sonic games were selling millions. The comic and show are so old that unless you were part of the 20,000 buying the comics recently or pirated them, you don’t even know who they are.

Fleetway was the only Sonic comic we got in the UK, and there’s more fans that have grown up with Sonic Adventure being the basis which had absolutely no inspiration from the Western products.

These characters are relics of America taking the mick out of a Japanese product in order to make more money and produce shows.

To say they’ve made a big impact on Sonic in the world is really stretching it.

F.A.Q

But you said you liked the FF’s!

I do, but in the same way I like AU’s. It was interesting, of it’s time and it said a lot about the culture it was made in. Like, comparable to Tails gets Trolled or Fleetway

B-but I really like the FF’s!

Good for you, don’t let me stop you. Again, I like a bunch of the stories.

Are you a Japanese purist?

Fleetway is cool and I liked the Boom show, and I liked Robotnik better than Eggman as a name.

I heard that some Japanese fans actually liked the FF’s though...

And more power to them. Again, Red Dwarf USA does a lot to shit on what made the UK version so good but I respect what it tried to do. Again, even I like the FF’s to an extent.

Why did you write this all out?

Seeing all this Rally for Sally has brought out all the insane people who shout at SOJ for being gits for not respecting the American canon despite the American canon being born from a disrespect to the Japanese creators.

What about IDW?

Ironically I actually liked Reboot more but also I was younger when I read them.

What do you think of Tangle and Whisper getting in?

I need to read more of IDW but they’re good enough. As for getting in the games, these designs were vetted and passed through SOJ first and the comic is overseen by them. On top of this, T+W don’t come from a place of SOA taking the mick.

But Sega has used these characters before and ESTABLISHED this as canon why are they changing it now-

I see this a lot, usually with certain people. Dobson’s a good example of why this is stupid. When the Japanese revert changes made to characters like Mario/Zelda/Samus by the West, they didn’t radically change their personalities, they just reset them to what Japan intended.

Japan never intended for the FF’s, the three heavily contrasting cartoons and Knuckles is Jesus Christ Superstar.

They just reverted him back to the sole guy on Angel Island.

Do you think Sally should get in to Sonic Dash?

No more than I think Tekno or Sonia does. They’re old, irrelevant, gone. If they do get brought in for a cameo I’d be happy enough, I like dumb nods to non-canon things.

However, there are crazy people out there and you give them an inch and they’ll take a mile. Best to leave it.

Hotel?

[dropintomanga]

On the Industry, Fans, and Piracy - My Feelings on Manga Today

This year has been quite an interesting one for anyone who’s involved in manga industry happenings with regards to piracy.

As most of you may know, an infamous manga app known as Mangarock was finally shut down this year after years of proliferating as a “legit” manga-reading app on the Apple and Google Play Stores. They finally got shut down when a Western comic artist found their work being distributed on the platform. While this was good news, there has been criticism about whether there were signs of subtle prejudice towards manga (since it’s a foreign medium) as it took a Western comic to bring things to attention.

There was also the news of Mangamura, a well-known Japanese raw scan site, and how the head honcho of the site got arrested in the Philippines this year and will face consequences for his actions. (Update: 12/21/2019 - Now Mangastream and Jaimini’s Box are out of the game with regards to scanlating popular titles)

While this is good news for people who love to support the manga industries in both Japan and overseas, things are still the same. The pirates will keep coming over and over again. I wonder when enough is enough or maybe I’m just tired of hearing the same old debate on legal vs. illegal manga.

I see multiple Twitter threads from pro-industry folks on why everyone should support buying manga. I also see threads on why manga publishers suck. They’re both right if you ask me.

Lately, I’ve been thinking about how this industry vs scanlators fight is similar to what I’ve been reading about in the mental health field recently - psychiatry vs. anti-psychiatry.

Psychiatry advocates believe that taking medicine is the best way to solve mental health problems and mental illness. They realize that things can happen in the human brain that lead to something worse. However, they think a lot of issues warrant medication when it may not be the best solution.

Anti-psychiatry advocates believes that medicine isn’t the best way to solve mental health problems and mental illness. They dislike how the mental health care system treats people with mental health problems. Yet they believe that “mental illness” doesn’t exist.

So throwing it back to manga -

The manga industry believes that supporting the industry involves purchasing their books at any costs. You buy the books, you support the mangaka drawing them. Yet the system that drives the industry is terrible. As we all know from Bakuman and tales from manga professionals, the system to become a successful mangaka involves often-poor working conditions in the form of long hours, strict deadlines, and a good amount of isolation.

Scanlators believe they are doing the manga industry a favor in providing free exposure to titles that would go undiscovered by fans. More often than not, scanlators do what they do without any care for profit. However, they tend to go a bit extreme with regards to translating certain text. Some scanlators also become a bit too egotistical for their own good and end up causing ridiculous drama among other scanlation groups over material they are technically stealing.

Tying this back all together with all regards to comparing psychiatry vs. anti-psychiatry and industry vs scanlators, there’s a third party being affected that’s ignored in both debates.

For the 1st war (psychiatry vs. anti-psychiatry), there’s not enough focus on the seriously mentally ill. The seriously mentally ill are the community suffering the most right now and present a great deal of harm to themselves and others. A 3rd party group that addresses them would utilize certain views and rejects certain views from the psychiatry and anti-psychiatry movements to help the seriously mentally ill. They are often forgotten as a lot of money goes to those whose mental health issues aren’t as bad on both sides. 

For the 2nd war (scanlations vs. legal manga), you can argue that there’s a huge crowd of fans that are willing to pay for manga as long as you give them almost everything on one platform a la Steam/Netflix at a very low price. That platform also needs to be easily accessible with little-to-no regional restrictions. There are so many fans in certain parts of the world that can’t purchase manga due to lack of access to bookstores/libraries or availability of them. I’ll put this in caps in case people don’t get it - THE WHOLE WORLD IS NOT THE UNITED STATES OR ANY OTHER NOTABLE AND PROLIFIC COUNTRY. I sometimes think certain fans that are able to buy manga forget how lucky they are.

A side note: While a huge step forward for legit digital manga, Viz’s Shonen Jump isn’t enough because not everyone likes shonen. All the other subscription services are fine, but everything’s kind of fragmented a bit compared to how Crunchyroll has almost everything anime-related (though they are going through a big streaming war that’s causing fragmentation as well).  Though to be honest, I think the scanlation community and the manga industry have to band together on one thing I think both sides can all agree on - it’s the relative value of manga compared to other forms of media in general.

To explain, I watched a video feature on the mangaka Shinichi Sakamoto, creator of Innocent and Innocent Rouge. Sakamoto goes into a discussion about manga’s value that really got me thinking. He talks about how manga is treated as “disposable” and how he tries to make his works worth keeping and remembering.

In the end of the video, Sakamoto says: “I feel manga is something that is read, then thrown away. For example, people would read a manga during their work commute and throw it away once they finish reading it. Or they would read a manga at a restaurant during lunch break. Then they would close it once the food is served and forget about it. I thought at first, manga was something that was read then thrown away. However recently, since I started to adopt my current style, I now want to make something that stays close to readers. Something that remains. It’s what currently motivates me to draw manga.

I ask myself what to do in order to make something that stays for a long time, using themes or opinions that they stay engraved in the minds of readers without being forgotten. I keep this in mind in order to leave something behind. It is what motivates me.”

The quality of manga made in Japan isn’t the best. The paper is comparable to toilet paper. If you ever browsed through a manga magazine in person, it feels like going through a super-thick newspaper. Compare that to overseas volumes of manga and it’s a world of difference. I’ll admit that publishers like Viz Media, Kodansha Comics, and Yen Press do a great job in making their printed manga high-quality albeit at a higher cost to fans.

Yet I realized that there’s a larger number of manga fans who don’t care about quality as long as what they want is accessible and cheap. That’s a big reason why scanlations have exploded and will continue to do so. Convenience is something that a lot of outside forces now push onto everyone. I frankly love print books, but I wonder what if the price of printed manga volumes reaches a certain point that makes me go “Yeah, I don’t think I can buy printed manga anymore.”

In the end of the day, even if you make it look pretty as hell and close to a luxury product, manga is still a “throw-away” item with little relative value to a lot of fans thanks to how it’s originally conceived in Japan combined with how internet culture takes advantage of what the meaning of “free stuff” is. Not everyone will find a sense of belonging with manga the same way that fans do.

There are certain folks that support purchasing manga that say things like “Wages need to be raised because they’ve stagnated” and when it comes to fans reading manga on an illegal site, their views sound like “You should buy no matter what” and/or “Just don’t buy.” I know there are those who will point to manga sales and they still aren’t exactly affordable to some fans. 20%-33% off titles with a high price point to begin with may not feel like a significant discount to someone who may not be a hardcore manga collector. Maybe it’s better to say, “You know what? Let’s just smash capitalism for ruining everyone’s lives” or better yet, “Let’s promote wage growth so that manga fans can actually purchase manga and manga artists can survive.”  

For now, let’s all be like Sakamoto and promote how valuable manga can be because appreciating the arts makes people better human beings than learning how to make a “efficient” website/software program look good for someone whose end goal is usually profit. The arts is what keeps people from turning into robots. Yes, this sounds like I’m saying “Let’s have the manga pirates keep doing what they’re doing then.” What I’m suggesting is that everyone from the top down (government, etc.) has to take charge in promotion of anything related to the arts (which manga and comics in general are a part of), not just the regular folks, as they appear to be all on-board the "let’s mindlessly consume/produce everything with ruthless efficiency” train.

I feel sympathetic towards anyone who works with on the American side of manga publishing (or anything that’s based in Japan) because Japan’s mentality on promoting their works overseas is awful. The Japanese want a level of control in how they want to be perceived outside of their own country. Compare that to a country like Korea (where K-Pop is now featured on major American TV networks), you can see how bad Japan is promoting their own brand of pop culture to the world. If you want an example, just look up Nintendo’s history of taking down anything overseas that looks to violate their principles of promoting their games.

I realize that I’m sounding like this Japanese manga creator who criticized publishers for how they handle piracy. Well, I dislike how manga publishers or professionals involved with the manga industry will shame fans for reading scanlations/raws. Almost everyone that reads scans/raws tends to be a fan of manga in general. A lot of them may not be unaware of the nature of scans (especially fans who meet mangaka in person and tell them they read them online). And even if they were aware, have you noticed how wages have stagnated for a lot of people across the world versus inflation?

Plus, how often do shame tactics work on people? They’re just as effective as most diversity training workshops hoping to change people’s bias on visible differences (spoiler alert: not very well). They never change anyone’s minds at all due to being short-term solutions that ignore the shamer’s role in perpetuating the problem. I realize changing minds takes a long time and requires a LOT of nuance (AKA not good for making immediate money), so it’s easy to focus on quick and fast.\

I also don’t like how scanlators disrespect localization efforts at times. I don’t like seeing multiple instances of swear words when most Japanese (or people in general) don’t talk like that in real life. Yes, some localization efforts are full of cringe. Appealing to a bigger array of new readers is important to having an industry thrive. Having just loyal customers isn’t enough.

Loyalty can only go so far. So many people don’t care about brands and/or will switch whenever it’s convenient to do so. There’s always a psychological disconnect between community and profit. That’s why you try to get as many new consumers as possible so they can become great word-of-mouth spokespeople for your stuff. Given how a good number of anime/manga fans stop consuming either medium after a certain age, replenishment of fans is an absolute necessity. I wish scanlators who frown at legit translators who bust their asses off to make manga accessible to a wider audience realize this.

There’s a final thing I want to address regarding the whole debate about scans and it was something I noticed at Anime NYC this year. So this year, Artists’ Alley and the Exhibit Hall were put right near each other on the same floor. In years past, they were separated via different floors or on different sections far away from one another in the same floor. I had a troubling thought and reading one convention recap reinforced it.

It’s the fact that Artists’ Alley is almost always fan works and the close proximity this time clashes with the Exhibit Hall vendors’ sale of official merchandise. There are anime industry members who dislike an arrangement like this with good reason. Bootlegs are a problem in an industry largely associated with piracy. Yet fans LOVE Artists’ Alley. Anime cons can’t just gut them to please industry folks. Supporting the fan artists at Artists’ Alley is a win-win for fans and con organizers. 

Also, some of the artists at Artists’ Alley I spoke to all read scanlations in some way, shape or form when discussing certain series. I have no damn desire to play moral police with those artists because I know they are lovable and messy people. Just enforce the golden rule - don’t be a dick in a public setting even if you have a good reason to because you will never change anyone’s views that way. 

I know some issues have to be made public, but go through proper channels first since I don’t want to see someone being labeled a mood killer without proper context in places that are supposed to be safe for fans.

Another thing - I have friends (both ‘20s and ‘30s) who work full-time jobs that read manga in not-so-legal sites. Some of them I’m very close with. I’m not ending friendships with them over the fact they may consume media differently. The one thing I can say is that even the best of the best will have questionable beliefs/do questionable things and all you can do is figure out what’s really important to you - their actions or the consequences of their actions. Don’t expect the people you idolize will think the same way you do in every thought you have. Everyone has their own closet of behaviors and thoughts that will always irk others.

So for anyone who’s confused on whose side I’m on, I’m on neither. I know the truth is a lot more complicated than what most people will tell me. I do want manga to thrive more overseas. It’s just that outside of Japan, regardless if you pay for or pirate a manga, there’s no appreciation for lifelong reading. Reading is treated as a pain than pleasure in the Western part of the world. Many anime fans are only tempted to read a manga because of how cool an anime adaptation of a certain series is or just from buzz. 

More than anything, I feel like there should be a bigger effort in promoting a sense of lifelong reading. I sometimes get jokes from corporate folks that I like to read and it’s depressing since libraries are always threatened by budget cuts. Reading books (fiction & non-fiction) has helped me processed a lot of things for my mental health. We got to do a better job in emphasizing that reading can be for fun and not just for achievement. Still, buy whatever manga you can for the artist’s sake if you really like the works (not for the publisher’s due to how I feel about capitalism sometimes). If you still want to read or prefer scans, then that’s your thing. You know, I’m glad I’m not really a pro-industry person and a pro-fan. I live in both worlds and feel like I have a balanced understanding of how people act in certain situations versus how they behave normally. I make a joke now that if anyone who works in marketing wants to really understand what their customers are like, they should go to a DMV (Department of Motor Vehicles) and see the misery there.

I guess you can say I blame Japan more than anything as I do buy what I can from the American side of things. I know the hard-working folks in the U.S. manga publishing business probably get frustrated with Japanese bureaucracy to a certain degree at times. 

Next year will be the start of a new decade after a decade of slow then fast growth in all things anime and manga. Things are going to get better and worse for anime and manga. Maybe once Luffy finally gets the One Piece treasure will manga piracy be severely hampered by then. I have some doubts because this is all reliant on what Japan will do as manga is here to stay in overseas markets. I know more Japanese manga editors have been traveling overseas to understand what’s going on outside of Japan. That’s a good start. So I just hope that the final chapter over here involves cultivating a joyful love of reading because I feel technology has to really pick up on that.

When reading really matters to everyone and takes some precedence over video in the minds of people, maybe we can see some meaningful progress in a battle where we might be fighting the wrong side(s) and/or missing a bigger part of the picture.

Regardless, it’s a fascinating and fun time to be a manga fan. I’m glad to have met many people who love and read manga regardless of how they consume it. Those experiences have provided so much value for me.

Manga may be considered “trash” in many ways, but to loosely quote a certain popular Naruto ninja, it’s at least better than giving up on the true joys of life.

Addendum (12/21/2019) - Two days after this post was made, two of the biggest manga scanlation groups on the net, Mangastream and Jaimini’s Box, decided to stop translating all Weekly Shonen Jump titles. I’m indifferent about either platform going away (or completely gone as Jaimini’s Box is still doing titles from other manga magazines). The one thing I will say is that Mangastream took advantage of the growing push for convenience in the minds of people over the last decade. I think about how much tech companies have abused “convenience” to generate unintended division and in some ways, Mangastream was like a tech company when they saw their ego being stroked by the large fanbase they were getting.

Photo Source: The Japan Times For one of my favorite takes on scanlations, read “Why Do Scanlations Persist?” from What Is Manga? There’s also this podcast from GeekNights about manga distribution in the United States which added some fuel to this post.

[thewritingstar]

I would ask you 1-100 but that's a huge request and doubt you'll do it, UNLESS🤔🙃

UNLESS....

1. Name- Deanna or as everyone knows me, Star

2. Nationality- American

3. Age- 19

4. Birthday- April 5th

5. Zodiac sign (or your primal zodiac sign)- Aries

6. Gender- Female 

7. Sexuality- Bi/Pan (im fine with either)

8. Your looks (add a picture or describe yourself)- Dark brown hair, greenish eyes and body of a 12 year old boy

9. What do you/did you study?- Animation

10. What’s your current job like?/What job would you like to have?- I work in an ice cream shop just as a job but i wanna be an animator or writer for shows

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11. Your birth order- Youngest of 2

12. How many siblings do you have?- One

13. Do you have good relations with your family?- for the most part

14. How many friends do you have?- I would say I have about 8 close friends and then just a ton of other friends

15. Your relationship status- single but accepting applications 

16. What do you look for in a SO?- usually a pulse and good hair 

17. Do you have a crush?- kinda but also no

18. When did you have your first kiss?- haven't yet :(

19. Do you prefer serious and meaningful relationships or casual dating/one night stands?- prob meaningful

20. What are your deal breakers?- smoking and drugs and how they treat others

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21. How was your day?- well i just woke up so i guess good. 

22. Favourite food & drink- Raspberry iced tea/Vanilla Lattes and Chowmein or burgers

23. What position do you sleep in?- either on my side or stomach. Im usually curled up in a ball so prime cuddle position...just saying 

24. What was your last dream about?- I think it was about cake..

25. Your fears- bugs and the overwhelming thought of me being a failure

26. Your dreams- being someone where others can be inspired by 

27. Your goals- to live a life with no regrets (i know typical right?) but also have a successful career. 

28. Any pets?- 2 doggos 

29. What are your hobbies?- drawing, painting, writing, video games, reading 

30. Any cool places in your area?- kinda but you gotta drive to them so not really 

31. What was your last awkward situation?- me stuttering over my words at work

32. What is your last regret?- idk 

33. Language/s you can speak- English and barely any French 

34. Do you believe in astrological stuff? (Zodiac, tarot, etc.)- hell yeah

35. Have any quirks?- i can make a guinea pig noise and can stand on my head for a while. 

36. Your pet peeves- having my neck being touched and mouth breathing

37. Ideal vacation- Any disney park

38. Any scars?- only mentally 

39. What does your last text message say? “Shes being a big girl and taking 5 classes.” 

40. Last 5 things from your search history- im to lazy to check but prob youtube or fics

41. What’s your [device] background?- Phone background is a painting from a museum and my computer is a bunch of Nintendo items

42. What do you daydream about?- being a voice actor or a pirate 

43. Describe your dream home- one that looks like a castle

44. What’s your religion/Your thought about religion- I was raised Catholic but i really dont practice it anymore. I think it its a beautiful thing and alot of good comes from it, however i dont like it when it is used to harm others or defend evil people

45. Your personality type- So i took a test based on the 16 different ones and I am an Advocate type which apparetnly is very rare and less than one percent of the pop are it. https://www.16personalities.com/ heres the link if you wanna take it!

46. The most dangerous thing you’ve done- I used to suck on batteries as a child

47. Are you happy with your current life?- for the most part 

48. Some things you’ve tried in your life- Snorkeling in Hawaii (which i almost died), Crystal Cave tour and donuts which i hate

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49. What does your wardrobe consist of?- hoodies and graphic tees 

50. Favourite colour to wear?- black

51. How would you describe your style?- comfortable and sometimes i look good 

52. Are you happy with your current looks?- ye

53. If you could change/add something to your appearance - impossible or not - what would it be?- I want blue hair one day 

54. Any tattoos or piercings?- have my ears and now my nose pierced but i do want tattoos in the future

55. Do you get complimented often?- usually for my hair and i find it happens often 

56. Favourite aesthetic?- Gothic and pastel 

57. A popular trend that you dislike- crop tops 

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58. Songs you’re currently obsessed with?- “Good Night Moon” by Go Radio

59. Song you normally wouldn’t admit you like.- My Little Pony and Sofia the First songs slap

60. Favourite genre?- pop punk or pop 

61. Favourite artist/band/genre? -Panic!, Taylor Swift

62. Hated popular songs/artists?- I wouldn’t say hate but im not really a fan of Billie Ellish, maybe i need to sit down and really listen but its just not my jam. I think shes a cool person and i love watching her on tv and what she stands for. By i hate Drake and Chris Brown for sure. 

63. Put your music on shuffle and list first 5- Head above Water, Happy when im sad, Love bug, Casual affair, I believe. So Avril Lavigne, Jonas Brothers and Panic!

64. Can you sing or play any instruments?- Im not the worst singer but im also not fantastic and i can’t play

65. Do you like karaoke?- sometimes

66. Own any albums?- like cds then yes

67. Do you listen to radio? What stations?- not anymore

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68. Favourite movie/series?- Any disney or pixar 

69. Favourite genre of movies/books/etc- YA like adventure books 

70. Your fictional crush/es- oh here we go. Juvia and Gray (Fairytail), Catwoman, Danny Phantom, Captain Hook and Regina Mills and Henry (Ouat), Steve (stranger things), Riddler (gotham) and Molly Hooper (Sherlock) and prob more. 

71. Which fictional character is you?- prob a mixture of Momo and Deku from My Hero and Honey from Ouran 

72. Are you a shipper? List your otps, if so. Am I a shipper? ha. aight Gruvia, Nalu, Gajevy, Jerza, Kiribaku, Kacchacko, Todomomo, tododeku, LadyNoir and the love square, Captain Swan, Outlaw Queen, The powerpuff girls and the rowdyruff boys (respected partners) and like five thousand others

73. Favourite greek god?- Hades and Persephone 

74. A legend from where you live that you like- literally nothing from where i live

75. Do you like art? What’s your favourite work or artist?- love art and i cant just pick one

76. Can you share your other social media?- i mean you can follow me on twitter at StarsnShortcake but all thats there is my shitty tweets and interactions with my friends and Voice actors lol

77. Favourite youtubers?- Mikes Mic, Macdoesit, Twamiz, Larri, Dan Howell, Amazing Phil, Jenna Marbles, Shane Dawson, Steph Inc, Garret Watts, and like a ton more

78. Favourite platform?- Tumblr or twitter

79. How much time do you spend on the internet?- too much

80. What video games have you played? Which one’s your favourite?- I love anything Nintendo

81. Your favourite books (manga also counts)- Kingdom Keepers, Suicide Notes and the Selection Series to name a few

82. Do you play board/card games?- Yes

83. Have you ever been to a night marathon in cinema?- nope

84. Favourite holiday- thanksgiving for the food

85. Are you into dramas?- ye

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86. Would you use death note, if you had one?- haha ye

87. What changes would you make in the world, no matter how impossible, if you had the power to?- no racism, sexism, homophobia and legal marriage everywhere. Also that no one goes hungry and everyone has a nice place to live.

88. Could you survive a zombie apocalypse?- probably 

89. If you had to be turned into a paranormal being, what would it be?- a hot demon

90. What would you want to happen to you after your death?- I turn into a goddess

91. If you had to change your name, what would be your pick?- ooo Celeste is a cool name 

92. Who would you switch your life with for a week?- hmmm Tara Strong 

93. Pick an emoji to be your tattoo- either the stars or the black heart or the fireworks

94. Write 3 things about yourself - only one of them must be true- Ive never eaten a chicken nugget, I can do the splits and I have cat

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95. Cold or hot?- hot

96. Be a hero or be a villain?- oooooo um im a sucker for villains

97. Sing everything you want to say or rhyme?- Rhyme

98. Shapeshifting or controlling time?- Shape shifting, i could be a plant

99. Be immortal or be immune to everything aside from natural death?- bold of you to assume i would wanna live forever

100. ….. or …..?- :0

--

HOPE YOU ENJOYED THIS ANON CAUSE IT TOOK FOREVER. 

[operationrainfall]

Title Day and Night Developer Ridiculous Games Publisher Ridiculous Games Release Date October 22nd, 2019 Genre Puzzle Platform Nintendo Switch Age Rating E for Everyone Official Website

As a fan of games like Tetris, I had to play Day and Night. It styles itself as an ode to the classic puzzle game, though I saw far more in common with a different game – Tetris Attack. Both games deal more with square blocks than abstract shapes composed of squares, and both are much more complex than they might first appear. In this particular case, you move groups of 4 blocks at a time, and can rotate them around to match 4 or more like blocks. The question then is whether Day and Night rose to the level of puzzle classic, or whether it fell short of its inspiration?

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The first thing that stood out to me about Day and Night was the theme. Apparently everything in the game takes place in a theater, with children acting out various roles, from ferocious lions to mustache twirling gentlemen to pirates and witches, with lots more besides. Even the field of play looks akin to something constructed for a elementary school drama, with a cardboard tree in the center. Now, while I am not offended by the visual style of the game, it also didn’t impress me. It frankly reminded me of a less repugnant version of South Park. Unfortunately, even toned down, I would still find the art of South Park simplistic at best, and ugly at worst. And though I can apply the same complaint to the art style here, there is a silver lining. Namely, despite the underwhelming art, Day and Night hides a surprisingly complex and robust game.

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Once the game starts, you are offered a gameplay tutorial, and I strongly suggest you let yourself be put through the paces. There’s a lot to remember, but the basic mechanic is strongly related to the title. It’s called Day and Night, and you will make use of Day and Night blocks accordingly. The kicker is that you can only use each type of block when the field matches it. When you fill up a meter by clearing blocks, the screen will change from Day to Night. If you haven’t cleared all the blocks off the board when it changes, those blocks will be essentially inert until you switch things again. You also might get blocks that don’t match the current field, so it behooves you to stack them so that when things change, they’ll instantly give you some points.

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If that wasn’t enough, there’s also a chain meter. After you or your opponent fills this up, eventually some garbage blocks will make a mess. That is, unless you make your own chains fast enough to turn off the bulbs. I admit I wasn’t amazing with the chains, but do like that they add a strong competitive element to the game. A feature I liked far more were the Season blocks in Day and Night. These all have a different shape, with green leaves and icy blocks as examples. Each of these provides a distinct effect when you match 4 of them. The green leaves will bury a green shoot on the opponent’s field, which grows and envelops other blocks, making them temporarily unusable. As for the icy blocks, when dropped they create a temporarily impermeable layer, at least until it melts. Besides these, there’s other special blocks, such as the black hole blocks and stone blocks. Black hole blocks will gobble up every block of the same type it touches, while stone blocks will crash through everything underneath them. The cool thing is that depending on how you place any of the blocks on the field, you can control when they activate by either dropping them quickly or slowly pushing them down. This added a great strategic element to the already complex mechanics.

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There are several modes of play in Day and Night. The main one is Story mode, which has you play through various acts as your chosen avatar to win. While I enjoyed Story mode, it was also a bit short. It probably didn’t help that each avatar plays exactly the same. Thankfully there’s the standard Versus mode, which lets you face off against an AI or human opponent. One of my personal favorites was Survival mode, which as you would imagine has you play until you lose. One cool element is this mode uses randomized seasonal changes to keep things fresh. Your chain meter also rewards you with helpful items when you fill it up, such as bombs. If you want more of a challenge, there’s the Dares mode, which has you beat the AI with very special conditions active. Some examples are playing with the screen upside down or with reversed controls. Much like Story mode, these Dares were fun, but there weren’t enough of them to keep me busy for long. You can also use Rehearsal mode to practice against the AI, but I found once I started playing, this wasn’t really necessary. Ultimately, I enjoyed all the modes in the game, but felt they didn’t last long enough. Thankfully, I was able to spend much more time invested in Versus and Survival.

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If you’re looking for more time to spend in the game, there’s also some unlockable costumes. There’s an extensive wardrobe, which lets you clothe your avatar in a silly outfit. Some of these you’ll get just by playing through the modes, others are gated behind more ambitious requirements, such as beating the AI on the hardest difficulty or surviving for an extended period in Survival mode. By the time I finished playing the game, I had unlocked more than half the wardrobe, but there’s still a few I need to acquire.

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As I said previously, visually I wasn’t that impressed by Day and Night. And that’s not cause it’s an ugly game exactly, but because it just is too generic and unimaginative. Sure, the kids doing a play theme is a bit different, but it’s also not that exciting. Some of their lines can be a bit cringe-worthy as well. If the game had instead opted for something more exotic, such as the Sun fighting the Moon, or aliens attacking celestial bodies, or even silliness akin to Kirby perhaps, I would have felt more invested. That said, the game is colorful, and the visual effects are appealing enough. The various wardrobe choices are also cute. Musically the game fares better. They wisely chose to stick to classical music, and there’s a ton of great tracks that shift as you play. Day and Night also uses sound effects effectively, and you can tell what’s happening just by listening. You’ll hear sprouts growing and fireworks popping. Altogether, though the art and sound aren’t life changing, they also didn’t distract me overmuch from enjoying the solid gameplay.

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Now, while I have been critical of some aspects of Day and Night, I still feel quite strongly that this is one of the best puzzle games I’ve played in a long time. Because while I am not enamored of the aesthetics, I also acknowledge one of my favorite games of all time, Tetris, also doesn’t feature mind blowing art. So I can cut this game a little slack. Especially since the basic mechanics work so well, and are so engaging. I probably spent 2-3 hours playing Day and Night for review, and enjoyed every minute. And given that this is a Switch exclusive, and it only costs $19.99, I strongly suggest puzzle fans which like playing on the go check this one out. I’m impressed by this entry from Ridiculous Games, and will eagerly stay tuned for their next project.

[easyreview cat1title=”Overall” cat1detail=”” cat1rating=”4″]

Review Copy Provided by Publisher

REVIEW: Day and Night Title Day and Night

[gamestreamingsetup]

Guide To Twitch Streaming

Who wants to sit and watch people play video games all day? Millions of people, it turns out. Live-streaming website Twitch is one of the biggest things in games, with 15 million daily viewers who come to watch the wealth of professional tournaments, gaming talk shows and casual solo sessions that the site's 2-million-plus broadcasters offer.

Twitch's biggest streamers are a new breed of Internet celebrity, with legions of dedicated fans who tune in daily to watch them dominate Fortnite matches or hilariously scream their way through horror games. Many of these personalities have a litany of sponsors and hundreds of thousands of social media followers — two traits more typical of a pro athlete than someone who plays video games for a living.

But while only a lucky few make it to the NBA or the NFL, anyone with a decent gaming PC or modern game console can be a Twitch streamer. If you want to take a shot at Twitch stardom, here's everything you need to know about how to become a Twitch streamer, from basic hardware requirements to tips from the pros on keeping viewers happy.

What You Need to Become a Twitch Streamer A Good Computer

Although there are a few exceptions I'll outline below, you'll likely be doing most of your streaming from a gaming laptop or gaming desktop PC. As far as specs go, Twitch recommends having at least an Intel Core i5-4670 processor (or its AMD equivalent), 8GB of RAM and Windows 7 or newer. (Don't worry; you can stream from a Mac, too.)

If you're streaming PC games, you'll need a graphics card strong enough to support whatever you're playing and, ideally, one that supports DirectX 10 and up. The faster your Internet connection, the better — you should probably aim to have an upload speed of at least 3MB per second, which should be attainable on most home Internet connections or even via mobile.

While we recommend streaming from a desktop if possible, going live from a laptop is totally doable with the right specs. If you want to go the mobile route, be sure to check out our guide to streaming to Twitch from a laptop.

One PC or two?

While Twitch's core system requirements are pretty forgiving, streaming and playing graphically intense games at the same time can put quite the load on your computer. Some popular streamers remedy this by using two PCs at once — one for gaming, and another for broadcasting. If that sounds too complicated, you can check out desktops such as CyberPower's Pro Streamer, which houses two complete PCs in a single body.

Fortunately, thanks to to recent strides made by Nvidia, creating a high-quality stream from a single PC is becoming more feasible. If you own a gaming desktop or laptop with one of Nvidia's new RTX graphics cards, you'll be able to take advantage of Nvidia's dedicated hardware encoder that's built into each card. This essentially relieves your CPU of having to do too much of the heavy lifting.

Open Broadcaster Software, which we'll touch on below, is optimized for the new Nvidia cards, meaning that it's quite easy to get a smooth single-PC stream going so long as you've got OBS as well as a system with an RTX 2060, 2070, 2080 or 2080 GPU.

A Twitch account

You can visit Twitch.tv to join for free, and you should probably add a custom avatar, banner and description so that viewers can learn a little bit about you. If you want to make sure that all of your broadcasts are temporarily archived for later viewing, you can head to Settings > Channel & Videos > Archive Broadcasts.

Streaming Software

The most essential part of any streamer's tool kit, broadcasting software lets you show your gameplay to the world. The two most commonly used streaming programs are Open Broadcasting Software (OBS), which is completely free, and XSplit, which has a highly intuitive interface but requires a paid subscription in order to use its key features.

Regardless of your choice of software, setting up your stream consists of the same general steps: picking your sources (such as your computer monitor, gameplay feed or webcam), laying out how they'll all appear for the viewer, and finally, syncing up your Twitch account and going live.

Microphone and Camera

While you can technically get by with a gaming headset, you'll want a dedicated microphone so that your viewers can hear you clearly. The $129 Blue Yeti is our favorite USB mic thanks to its crisp audio quality and adjustable pickup modes. If you're on a tight budget, consider the $36 Samson Go Mic; for something more portable, check out the $99 Blue Yeti Nano. For more on microphones, be sure to also check out our podcasting guide.

If you don't already have a webcam and want to show your face, the $49 Logitech HD Pro C920 is our top overall pick thanks to its sharp 1080p capture quality and wide field of view. The $99 Logitech C922 offers the same quality but with automatic background removal, which allows you to superimpose yourself onto your game without the need for a green screen. There's also the $99 Razer Kiyo, which is similarly sharp and offers a built-in ring light for illuminating your face.

Streaming from Consoles

If you're wondering how to become a Twitch streamer without any fancy PC hardware, both the Xbox One and PS4 let you stream directly from your console, without any extra devices or software. On Xbox One, you'll just need the free Twitch app; on PS4, you can go live right from the system's Share menu. Folks on Xbox can also stream directly to Microsoft's Mixer platform, which is just as easy to set up. While you won't get to customize your stream the way you would from your PC, console streaming is still a great way to get your feet wet.

If you want to stream from your Nintendo Switch or any other console (or just want more control over your broadcast), you'll need a capture card that records your console gameplay to your PC.

The most popular capture card option out there is the $129 Elgato Game Capture HD, which seamlessly records 1080p video from Xbox One/360, PS4/PS3, Wii U and just about any other system with an HDMI output. It also has a Component adapter, in case you want to stream from one of your dusty retro consoles. If you want smoother, 60-frame-per-second streams, you can step up to the $151 Elgato HD60.

Twitch is home to a growing stable of bona fide gaming celebrities who make their living broadcasting — but not just because they play the latest games or have a fancy stream setup. The top Twitch streamers are true entertainers; some are known for their incredible Call of Duty headshots, while others are famous for blowing through entire Zelda games in 20 minutes. But more than that, they're just great personalities.

"[Our top streamers] are humble, friendly, highly interactive and treat the people in their chat as if they are the stars of the show," said Chase (yep, just Chase), Twitch’s director of public relations.

If you're looking to get into the finer points of growing an audience, popular Hearthstone player Jeffrey "Trump" Shih's "Streaming 101" video is an excellent place to start. Shih neatly breaks down the core components of streaming into an acronym he calls OPTICS (Opportunity, Presence, Technology, Interaction, Consistency and Skill), noting that focusing on any number of these factors could help you make a name for yourself.

Grow big enough on Twitch, and you just might be offered a partnership, which allows you to get a cut of broadcast revenue and offer your viewers exclusive perks in exchange for a monthly subscription fee. No matter what level of Twitch stardom you're shooting for, here are tips from some of the streamers who do it best.

Find Your Niche / Games You Enjoy Playing

How do you stand out among Twitch's 2 million streamers? For Burke Black, all it took was a pirate hat and lots of patience. After two years of steady streaming, Black is now a partnered broadcaster with more than 23,000 followers that tune in to catch his late-night, swashbuckling-themed antics.

Fire up any of Black's broadcasts, and you'll see him in full brown-and-beige pirate garb, complete with a skull-and-crossbones bandana and an epic beard to match. The 36-year-old is the farthest thing from imposing, though, as he giggles and cheers his way through anything from Grand Theft Auto V to Pirates! (naturally) while enthusiastically chatting with his viewers.

"I consider it a show, not just some dude streaming games," Black said. "People come in because they like the atmosphere … [it's a] nice friendly environment where they can come and have a good time with some cheesy pirate stuff going on."

Becoming a pirate isn't the only way to stand out on Twitch. Perhaps you're exceptionally skilled at the world's most obscure platformer, or you have a really cute dog you can put in front of the camera while you blast through Counter-Strike matches. Find your specialty, and run with it.

Be Consistent

Consistency is crucial — just as people tune in to their favorite TV shows at the same time every night, they should know exactly when you'll be live on Twitch. Whether you broadcast in the afternoon or the wee hours of the morning, stick to your schedule, and make sure it's prominently displayed across both your Twitch page and social media sites.

"You will never get the same viewers if you stream at random times when you are just starting out," said That's Cat, a 26-year-old streamer that specializes in survival games and has almost 30,000 followers.

Make Some Friends

Sonja "OMGitsfirefoxx" Reid is one of Twitch's biggest stars, with more than 631,000 followers and her own merchandise store. While much of her success can be attributed to her unfiltered sense of humor and constant interaction with her viewers, one of her biggest breaks came from working with others.

"We started a daily Minecraft stream, with the idea of just playing some Minecraft with friends and hanging out," said Reid of "Mianite," a series in which she and other popular Twitch stars broadcast their daily hijinks in the popular crafting game. "It blew up, and turned into a huge series, which is going into its third season."

That's Cat also made a name for herself by playing with other broadcasters. In fact, the streamer had 500 Twitch followers before she even went live on her own channel, simply because she made plenty of friends beforehand.

"I ended up having over 80 viewers [on] my first stream, because of my presence in the community prior to streaming," said Cat, who got offered a partnership after just three months of broadcasting.

Be Very Interactive w/ Your Audience

What sets Twitch streams apart from other forms of entertainment is that the audience is almost always a key part of the experience. All Twitch broadcasts are accompanied by a chat room, which allows streamers to interact directly with the people who support them. The more you make your viewers feel like they're sitting on the couch with you while you play, the better chance you have at building a loyal following.

Reid affectionately refers to her fans as her "foxx family." Even with hundreds of thousands of followers, she makes sure to keep things personal.

"I get to know a lot of my [viewers], and remember what's going on in their lives and chat with them about it in stream," she said. "Having a community that really feels like a family is really important to me."

Audience interaction is a top priority for Black, who has a monitor dedicated solely to viewing his Twitch chat. Black also does frequent giveaways, which, according to the streamer, helps encourage fans to come back every night.

That's Cat's following has grown so loyal that she can count on having viewers no matter how obscure the game she's playing.

"I literally played Barbie's Dream house and still had my entire community cheering me on," she said.

Don't Stress About Your Gear (At First)

Just because your favorite streamer has a super-sharp webcam and a fancy green screen and streams from two high-end PCs at once doesn't mean you have to — at least at first. Twitch's system requirements are quite lenient, which means you should focus on growing an audience before you spend thousands turning your bedroom into an all-out studio.

MORE: The Best Gaming Keyboard You Can Buy

"I started streaming on an old HP laptop that overheated to the point of burning my hand, and an old foldout chair from Walmart," said Reid, who's been able to upgrade to a decidedly better setup as her channel grew.

Be Patient, and Have Fun!

As with any type of success, "making it" on Twitch takes lots of patience and hard work.

"If you're doing [this] just to make money, you'll usually fizzle out in the first three or so months," Black said. "For the first six months, it was just awful because I didn't know what I was doing. Try not to get discouraged, because everyone's been that way."

Black's patience is now paying off; the streamer is closing in on 24,000 followers, and his Twitter feed is full of pictures of loyal fans wearing T-shirts with his name on them. Black, who currently works in photography, is considering becoming a full-time streamer once he hits 500 paid subscribers.

Reid stressed the importance of relishing every viewer, no matter how few there are in the beginning.

"Even if you have three viewers, or 30 or 300, there are people that are choosing to hang out and watch you," Reid noted.

In the end, it's important to remember that we're all still playing video games. Whether it's a hobby or something you hope to make into a career, streaming should be fun — the more you enjoy yourself, the more everyone watching you probably will, too.

[maximelebled]

Growing Pains - Zelda, Tony Hawk, The Sims, games and related memories from my formative years

This blog post is about my personal history with video games, how they influenced me growing up, how they sometimes helped me, and more or less an excuse to write about associated memories with them.

This is a very straightforward intro, because I’ve had this post sitting as a draft for ages, trying to glue all of it cohesively, but I’m not a very good writer, so I never really succeeded. Some of these paragraphs date back at least one year. 

And I figured I should write about a lot of this as long as I still remember clearly, or not too inaccurately. Because I know that I don’t remember my earliest ever memory. I only remember how I remember it. So I might as well help my future self here, and give myself a good memento.

Anyway, the post is a kilometer long, so it’ll be under this cut.

My family got a Windows 95 computer when I was 3 years old. While I don’t remember this personally, I’m told that one of the first things I ever did with it was mess up with the BIOS settings so badly that dad’s computer-expert friend had to be invited to repair it. (He stayed for dinner as a thank you.)

It was that off-white plastic tower, it had a turbo button, and even a 4X CD reader! Wow! And the CRT monitor must have been... I don’t remember what it was, actually. But I do once remember launching a game at a stupidly high resolution: 1280x1024! And despite being a top-down 2D strategy, it ran VERY slowly. Its video card was an ATI Rage. I had no idea what that really meant that at the time, but I do recall that detail nonetheless.

Along with legitimately purchased games, the list of which I can remember:

Tubular Worlds

Descent II

Alone in the Dark I & III

Lost Eden

Formula One (not sure which game exactly)

Heart of Darkness

(and of course the famous Adibou/Adi series of educational games)

... we also had what I realize today were cracked/pirated games, from the work-friend that had set up the family computer. I remember the following:

Age of Empires I (not sure about that one, I think it might have been from a legitimate “Microsoft Plus!” disc)

Nightmare Creatures (yep, there was a PC port of that game)

Earthworm Jim (but without any music)

The Fifth Element

Moto Racer II

There are a few other memorable games, which were memorable in most aspects, except their name. I just cannot remember their name. And believe me, I have looked. Too bad! Anyway, in this list, I can point out a couple games that made a big mark on me.

First, the Alone in the Dark trilogy. It took me a long time to beat them. I still remember the morning I beat the third game. I think it was in 2001 or 2002.

There was a specific death in it which gave me nightmares for a week. You shrink yourself to fit through a crack in a wall, but it’s possible to let a timer run out—or fall down a hole—and this terrifying thing happens (16:03). I remember sometimes struggling to run the game for no reason; something about DOS Extended Memory being too small.

I really like the low-poly flat-shaded 3D + hand-drawn 2D style of the game, and it’d be really cool to see something like that pop up again. After the 8-bit/16-bit trend, there’s now more and more games paying tribute to rough PS1-style 3D, so maybe this will happen? Maybe I’ll have to do it myself? Who knows!

Second, Lost Eden gave me a taste for adventure and good music, and outlandish fantasy universes. Here’s the intro to the game:

A lot of the game is very evocative, especially its gorgeous soundtrack, and you spend a lot of time trekking through somewhat empty renders of landscapes. Despite being very rough early pre-rendered 3D, those places were an incredible journey in my young eyes. If you have some time, I suggest either playing the game (it’s available on Steam) or watching / skimmering through this “longplay” video. Here are some of my personal highlights: 25:35, 38:05, 52:15 (love that landscape), 1:17:20, 1:20:20 (another landscape burned in my neurons), 2:12:10, 2:55:30, 3:01:18. (spoiler warning)

But let’s go a couple years back. Ever since my youngest years, I was very intrigued by creation. I filled entire pocket-sized notebooks with writing—sometimes attempts at fiction, sometimes daily logs like the weather reports from the newspaper, sometimes really bad attempts at drawing. I also filled entire audio tapes over and over and OVER with “fake shows” that my sister and I would act out. The only thing that survived is this picture of 3-year-old me with the tape player/recorder.

It also turns out that the tape recorder AND the shelf have both survived.

(I don’t know if it still works.)

On Wednesday afternoons (school was off) and on the week-ends, I often got to play on the family computer, most of the time with my older brother, who’s the one who introduced me to... well... all of it, really. (Looking back on the games he bought, I can say he had very good tastes.)

Moto Racer II came with a track editor. It was simple but pretty cool to play around with. You just had to make the track path and elevation; all the scenery was generated by the game. You could draw impossible tracks that overlapped themselves, but the editor wouldn’t let you save them. However, I found out there was a way to play/save them no matter what you did, and I got to experiment with crazy glitches. 85 degree inclines that launched the bike so high you couldn’t see the ground anymore? No problem. Tracks that overlapped themselves several times, causing very strange behaviour at the meeting points? You bet. That stuff made me really curious about how video games worked. I think a lot of my initial interest in games can be traced back to that one moment I figured out how to exploit the track editor...

There was also another game—I think it was Tubular Worlds—that came on floppy disks. I don’t remember what exactly lead me to do it, but I managed to edit the text that was displayed by the installer... I think it was the license agreement bit of it. That got me even more curious as to how computers worked.

Up until some time around my 13th or 14th birthday, during summer break (the last days of June to the first days of September for French pupils), my sister and I would always go on vacation at my grandparents’ home.

The very first console game I ever played was The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past on my cousin’s Super Nintendo, who also usually stayed with us. Unlike us, he had quite a few consoles available to him, and brought a couple along. My first time watching and playing this game was absolutely mind-blowing to me. An adventure with a huge game world to explore, so many mysterious things at every corner. “Why are you a pink rabbit now?” “I’m looking for the pearl that will help me not be that.”

Growing up and working in the games industry has taken the magic out of many things in video games... and my curiosity for the medium (and its inner workings) definitely hasn’t helped. I know more obscure technical trivia about older games than I care to admit. But I think this is what is shaping my tastes in video games nowadays... part of it is that I crave story-rich experiences that can bring me back to a, for lack of a better term, “child-like” wonderment. And I know how weird this is going to sound, but I don’t really enjoy “pure gameplay” games as much for that reason. Some of the high-concept ones are great, of course (e.g. Tetris), but I usually can’t enjoy others without a good interwoven narrative. I can’t imagine I would have completed The Talos Principle had it consisted purely of the puzzles without any narrative beats, story bits, and all that. What I’m getting at is, thinking about it, I guess I tend to value the “narrative” side of games pretty highly, because, to me, it’s one of the aspects of the medium that, even if distillable to some formulas, is inherently way more “vague” and “ungraspable”. You can do disassembly on game mechanics and figure out even the most obsure bits of weird technical trivia. You can’t do that to a plot, a universe, characters, etc. or at least nowhere near to the same extent.

You can take a good story and weave it into a number of games, but the opposite is not true. It’s easy to figure out the inner working of gameplay mechanics, and take the magic out of them, but it’s a lot harder to do that for a story, unless it’s fundamentally flawed in some way.

Video games back then seemed a lot bigger than they actually were.

I got Heart of Darkness as a gift in 1998 or 1999. We used to celebrate Christmas at my grandparents’, so I had to wait a few days to be back home, and to able to put the CD in the computer. But boy was it worth it! Those animated cutscenes! The amazing pixel art animations! The amazing and somewhat disturbing variety of ways in which you can die, most of which gruesome and mildly graphic! And of course, yet again... a strange and outlandish universe that just scratches my itch for it. Well, one of which that forged my taste for them.

I can’t remember exactly when it happened or what it was, but I do remember that at some point we visited some sort of... exposition? Exhibit? Something along those lines. And it had a board games & computer games section. The two that stick out in my mind were Abalone (of which I still have the box somewhere) and what I think was some sort of 2D isometric (MMO?) RPG. I wanna say it was Ultima Online but I recall it looking more primitive than that (it had small maps whose “void” outside them was a single blueish color). 

In my last two years of elementary school, there was one big field trip per year. They lasted two weeks, away from family. The first one was to the Alps. The second one was... not too far from where I live now, somewhere on the coast of Brittany! I have tried really hard to find out exactly where it was, as I remember the building and facilities really well, but I was never able to find it again. On a couple occasions, we went on a boat with some kind of... algae harvesters? The smell was extremely strong (burning itself into my memory) and made me sick. The reason I bring them up is because quite a few of my classmates had Game Boy consoles, most of them with, you know, all those accessories, especially the little lights. I remember being amazed at the transparent ones. Play was usually during the off-times, and I watched what my friends were up to, with, of course, a bit of jealousy mixed in. The class traveled by bus, and it took off in the middle of the night; something like 3 or 4 in the morning? It seemed like such a huge deal at the time! Now here I am, writing THESE WORDS at 03:00. Anyway, most of my classmates didn’t fall back asleep and those that had a Game Boy just started playing on them. One of my classmates, however, handed me his whole kit and I got to do pretty much what I wanted with it, with the express condition that I would not overwrite any of his save files. I remember getting reasonably far in Pokémon before I had to give it back to him and my progress was wiped.

During the trip to the Alps, I remember seeing older kids paying for computer time; there was a row of five computers in a small room... and they played Counter-Strike. I had absolutely no idea what it was, and I would forget about it until the moment I’m writing these words, but I was watching with much curiosity.

The first time I had my own access to console games was in 2001. The first Harry Potter film had just come out, and at Christmas, I was gifted a Game Boy Advance with the first official game. I just looked it up again and good god, it’s rougher than I remember. The three most memorable GBA games which I then got to play were both Golden Sun(s) and Sword of Mana... especially the latter, with its gorgeous art direction. My dad had a cellphone back then, and I remember sneakily going on there to look up a walkthrough for a tricky part of Golden Sun’s desert bit. Cellphones had access to something called “WAP” internet... very basic stuff, but of course still incredible to me back then.

I eventually got to play another Zelda game on my GBA: Link’s Awakening DX. I have very fond memories of that one because I was bed-ridden with a terrible flu. My fever ran so high that I started having some really funky dreams, delirious half-awake hallucinations/feelings, and one night, I got so hot that I stumbled out of bed and just laid down against the cold tile of the hallway. At 3 in the morning! A crazy time! (Crazy for 11-year-old me.)

(The fever hallucinations were crazy. My bedroom felt like it was three times at big, and I was convinced that a pack of elephants were charging at me from the opposite corner. The “night grain” of my vision felt sharper, amplified. Every touch, my sore body rubbing against the bed covers felt like it was happening twice as much. You know that “Heavy Rain with 300% facial animation” video? Imagine that, but as a feverish feeling. The dreams were on another level entirely. I could spend pages on them, but suffice to say that’s when I had my first dream where I dreamed of dying. There were at least two, actually. The first one was by walking down a strange, blueish metal corridor, then getting in an elevator, and then feeling that intimate convinction that it was leading me to passing over. The second one was in some Myst-like world, straight out of a Roger Dean cover, with some sort of mini-habitat pods floating on a completely undisturbed lake. We were just trapped in them. It just felt like some kind of weird afterlife.)

I also eventually got to play the GBA port of A Link To The Past. My uncle was pretty amused by seeing me play it, as he’d also played the original on SNES before I’d even been born. I asked him for help with a boss (the first Dark World one), but unfortunately, he admitted he didn’t remember much of the game.

We had a skiing holiday around this time. I don’t remember the resort’s or the town’s name, but its sights are burned in my memory. Maybe it’s because, shortly after we arrived, and we went to the ski rental place, I almost fainted and puked on myself, supposedly from the low oxygen. It also turned out that the bedroom my parents had rented unexpectedly came with a SNES in the drawer under the tiny TV. The game: Super Mario World. I got sick at one point and got to stay in and play it. This was also the holiday where I developed a fondness for iced tea, although back then the most common brand left an awful aftertaste in your mouth that just made you even more thirsty.

We got a new PC in December of 2004. Ditching the old Windows 98 SE (yep, the OS had been upgraded in... 2002, I think?). Look at how old-school this looks. The computer office room was in the basement. Even with the blur job that I applied to the monitor for privacy reasons, you can still tell that this is the XP file explorer:

A look at what the old DSLR managed to capture on the shelf reveals some more of the games that were available to me back then: a bunch of educational software, The Sims 2, and SpellForce Gold. 

I might be misremembering but I think they were our Christmas gifts for that year; we both got to pick one game. I had no idea what I wanted, really, but out of all the boxes at (what I think was) the local Fnac store, it was SpellForce that stood out to me the most. Having watched Lord of the Rings the year prior might have been a factor. I somewhat understood Age of Empires years before that, but SpellForce? Man, I loved the hell out of SpellForce. Imagine a top-down RPG that can also be played from a third-person perspective. And with the concept of... hero units... wait a second... now that reminds me of Dota.

Imagine playing a Dota hero with lots of micro-management and being able to build a whole base on new maps. And sometimes visiting very RPG-ish sections (my favorites!) with very little top-down strategy bits, towns, etc. like Siltbreaker. I guess this game was somewhat like an alternate, single-player Dota if you look at it from the right angle. (Not the third-person one.)

I do remember being very excited when I found out that it, too, came with a level editor. I never figured it out, though. I only ever got as far as making a nice landscape for my island, and that was it!

A couple weeks after, it was Christmas; my sister and I got our first modern PC game: The Sims 2. It didn’t run super well—most games didn’t, because the nVidia GeForce FX 5200 wasn’t very good. But that didn’t stop me or my sister from going absolutely nuts with the game. This video has the timestamp of 09 January 2005, and it is the first video I’ve ever made with a computer. Less than two weeks after we got the game, I was already neck-deep in creating stuff.

Not that it was particularly good, of course. This is a video that meets all of the “early YouTube Windows Movie Maker clichés”.

Speaking of YouTube, I did register an account there pretty early on, in August of 2006. I’ve been through all of it. I remember every single layout change. I also started using Sony Vegas around that time. It felt so complex and advanced back then! And I’m still using it today. Besides Windows, Vegas Pro is very likely to be the piece of software that I’ve been using for the longest time.

I don’t have a video on YouTube from before 2009, because I decided to delete all of them out of embarassment. They were mostly Super Mario 64 machinima. It’s as bad as it sounds. The reason I bring that up right now, though, is that it makes the “first” video of my account the last one I made with the Sims 2.

But before I get too far ahead with my early YouTube days, let me go backwards a bit. We got hooked up to the Internet some time in late 2005. It was RTC (dialup), 56 kbps. my first steps into the Internet led me to the Cube engine. Mostly because back then my dad would purchase computer magazines (which were genuinely helpful back then), and came with CDs of common downloadable software for those without Internet connections. One of them linked to Cube. I think it was using either this very same screenshot, or a very similar one, on the same map.

The amazing thing about Cube is not only that it was open-source and moddable, but had map editing built-in the game. The mode was toggled on with a single key press. You could even edit maps cooperatively with other people. Multiplayer mapping! How cool is that?! And the idea of a game that enabled so much creation was amazing to me, so I downloaded it right away. (Over the course of several hours, 30 MiB being large for dialup.)

I made lots of bad maps that never fulfilled the definition of “good level” or “good gameplay”, not having any idea how “game design” meant, or what it even was. But I made places. Places that I could call my own. “Virtual homes”. I still distinctively remember the first map I ever made, even though no trace of it survives to this day. In the second smallest map size possible, I’d made a tower surrounded by a moat and a few smaller cozy towers, with lots of nice colored lighting. This, along with the distinctive skyboxes and intriguing music, made me feel like I’d made my home in a strange new world.

At some point later down the line, I made a kinda-decent singleplayer level. It was very linear, but one of the two lead developers of the game played it and told me he liked it a lot! Of course, half of that statement was probably “to be nice”, but it was really validating and encouraging. And I’m glad they were like that. Because I remember being annoying to some other mappers in the Sauerbraten community (the follow-up to Cube, more advanced technically), who couldn’t wrap their heads around my absolutely god awful texturing work and complete lack of level “design”. Honestly, sometimes, I actually kinda feel like trying to track a couple of them down and being like, “yeah, remember that annoying kid? That was me. Sorry you had to deal with 14-year-old me.”

At some point, I stumbled upon a mod called Cube Legends. It was a heavily Zelda-inspired “total conversion”; a term reserved for mods that are the moddiest mods and try to take away as much of the original foundation as possible. It featured lots of evocative MIDI music by the Norwegian composer Bjørn Lynne. Fun fact: the .mid files are still available officially from his website!

This was at the crossroad of many of my interests. It was yet another piece of the puzzle. As a quick side note, this is why Zelda is the first series that I name in the title of this post, even though I... never really thought of myself as a Zelda fan. It’s not that it’s one of the game series that I like the most, it’s just that, before I started writing this, I’d never realized how far-reaching its influence had been in my life, both in overt and subtle ways, especially during my formative years.

And despite how clearly unfinished, how much of a “draft” Cube Legends was, I could see what it was trying to do. I could see the author’s intent. And I’m still listening to Bjørn Lynne’s music today.

The Cube Engine and its forums were a big part of why I started speaking English so well. Compared to most French people, I mean. We’re notoriously bad with the English language, and so was I up until then. But having this much hands-on practice proved to be immensely valuable. And so, I can say that the game and its community have therefore had long-lasting impacts in my life.

I also tried out a bunch of N64 games via emulation, bringing me right back in that bedroom at my grandparents’ house, with my cousin. Though he did not have either N64 Zelda game back then.

The first online forum I ever joined was a Zelda fan site’s. There are two noteworthy things to say here:

It was managed by a woman who, during my stay in the community, graduated from her animation degree. At this stage I had absolutely no idea that this was going to be the line of work I would eventually pursue!

I recently ran into the former head moderator of the forums. (I don’t know when the community died.) One of the Dota players on my friends list invited him because I was like “hmm, I wanna go as 3, not as 2 players today”. His nickname very vaguely reminded me of something, a weird hunch I couldn’t place. Half an hour into the game, he said “hey Max... this might be a long shot, but did you ever visit [forum]?” and then I immediately yelled “OH MY GOD—IT IS YOU.” The world is a small place.

Access to the computer was sometimes tricky. I didn’t always have good grades, and of course, “punishment” (not sure the word is appropriate, hence the quotes, but you get the idea) often involved locking me out of the computer room. Of course, most times, I ended up trying to find the key instead. I needed my escape from the real world.  (You better believe it’s Tangent Time.)

I was always told I was the “smart kid”, because I “understood things faster” than my classmates. So they made me skip two grades ahead. This made me enter high school at nine years old. The consequences were awful (I was even more of the typical nerdy kid that wouldn’t fit in), and I wish it had never happened. Over the years, I finally understood: I wasn’t more intelligent. I merely had the chance to have been able to grow up with an older brother who’d instilled a sense of curiosity, critical thinking, and taste in books that were ahead of my age and reading level. This situation—and its opposite—is what I believe accounts for the difference in how well kids get to learn. It’s not innate talent, it’s not genetics (as some racists would like you to believe). It’s parenting and privilege.

And that’s why I’ll always be an outspoken proponent for any piece of media that tries to instill critical thinking and curiosity in its viewer, reader, or player.

But I digress.

Well, I’ve been digressing a lot, really, but games aren’t everything and after all, this post is about the context in which I played those games. Otherwise I reckon I would’ve just made a simple list.

I eventually got a Nintendo DS for Christmas, along with Mario Kart DS. My sister had gotten her own just around the time when it released... she had the Nintendogs bundle. We had also upgraded to proper ADSL, what I think was about a ~5 megabits download speed. The Nintendo DS supported wi-fi, which was still relatively rare compared to today. In fact, Nintendo sold a USB wireless adapter to help with that issue—our ISP-supplied modem-router did not have any wireless capabilities. I couldn’t get it the adapter work and I remember I got help from a really kind stranger who knew a lot about networking—to a point that it seemed like wizardry to me.

I remember I got a “discman” as a gift some time around that point. In fact, I still have it. Check out the stickers I put on it! I think those came from the Sims 2 DVD box and/or one of its add-ons.

I burned a lot of discs. In fact, in the stack of burned CDs/DVDs that I found (with the really bad Sims movies somewhere in there), I found at least three discs that had the Zelda album Hyrule Symphony burned in, each with different additional tracks. Some were straight-up MIDI files from vgmusic.com...! And speaking (again) of Zelda, when the Wii came out, Twilight Princess utterly blew my mind. I never got the game or the console, but damn did I yearn badly for it. I listened to the main theme of the game a lot, which didn’t help. I eventually got to play the first few hours at a friend’s place.

At some point, we’d upgraded the family computer to something with a bit more horsepower. It had a GeForce 8500 GT inside, which was eventually upgraded to a 9600 GT after the card failed for some reason. It could also dual-boot between XP and Vista. I stuck with that computer until 2011.

We moved to where I currently live in 2007. I’ve been here over a decade! And before we’d even fully finished unpacking, I was on the floor of the room that is now my office, with the computer on the ground and the monitor on a cardboard box, playing a pirated copy of... Half-Life! It was given to me by my cousin. It took me that long to find out about the series. It’s the first Valve game I played. I also later heard about the Orange Box, but mostly about Portal. Which I also pirated and played. I distinctly remember being very puzzled by the options menu: I thought it was glitched or broken, as changing settings froze the game. Turns out the Source engine had to chug for a little while, like a city car in countryside mud, as it reloaded a bunch of stuff. Patience is a virtue...

But then, something serious happened.

In the afternoon of 25 December 2007, I started having a bit of a dull stomach pain. I didn’t think much of it. Figured maybe I’d eaten too many Christmas chocolates and it’d go away. It didn’t. It progressively deteriorated into a high fever where I had trouble walking and my tummy really hurt; especially if you pressed on it. My parents tried to gently get me to eat something nice on New Year’s Eve, but it didn’t stay in very long. I could only feed myself with lemonade and painkiller. Eventually, the doctor decided I should get blood tests done as soon as possible. And I remember that day very clearly.

I was already up at 6:30 in the morning. Back then, The Daily Show aired on the French TV channel Canal+, so I was watching that, lying in the couch while waiting for my mom to get up and drive me to my appointment, at 7:00. It was just two streets away, but there was no way I could walk there. At around noon, the doctor called and told my mom: “get your son to the emergency room now.”

Long story short, part of my intestines nuked themselves into oblivion, causing acute peritonitis. To give you an idea, that’s something with a double-digit fatality rate. Had we waited maybe a day or two more, I would not be here writing this. They kind of blew up. I had an enormous abcess attached to a bunch of my organs. I had to be operated on with only weak local anaesthetics as they tried to start draining the abscess. It is, to date, by far the most painful thing that has ever happened to me. It was bad enough that the hospital doctor that was on my case told me that I was pretty much a case worthy to be in textbooks. I even had medical students come into my hospital room about it! They were very nice.

This whole affair lasted over a month. I became intimately familiar with TV schedules. And thankfully, I had my DS to keep me company. At the time, I was pretty big into the Tony Hawk DS games. They were genuinely good. They had extensive customization, really great replayability, etc. you get the idea. I think I even got pretty high on the online leaderboards at some point. I didn’t have much to do on some days besides lying down in pain while perfecting my scoring and combo strategies. I think Downhill Jam might’ve been my favorite.

My case was bad enough that they were unable to do something due to the sad state of my insides during the last surgery of my stay. I was told that I could come back in a few months for a checkup, and potentially a “cleanup” operation that would fix me up for good. I came back in late June of 2008, got the operation, and... woke up in my hospital room surrounded by, like, nine doctors, and hooked up to a morphine machine that I could trigger on command. Apparently something had gone wrong during the operation, but they never told me what. I wasn’t legally an adult, so they didn’t have to tell me. I suspect it’s somewhere in some medical files, but I never bothered to dig up through my parents’ archives, or ask the hospital. And I think I would rather not know. But anyway, that was almost three more weeks in the hospital. And it sucked even more that time because, you see, hospital beds do not “breathe” like regular beds do. The air can’t go through. Let’s say I’m intimately familiar with the smell of back sweat forever.

When I got out, my mom stopped by a supermarket on the way home. And that is when I bought The Orange Box, completely on a whim, and made my Steam account. Why? Because it was orange and stood out on the shelf.

(As a side note, that was the whole bit I started writing first, and that made me initially title this post “growing pains”. First, because I’m bad at titles. Second, because not that I didn’t have them otherwise (ow oof ouch my knees), but that was literally the most painful episode of my entire life thus far and it ended in a comically-unrelated, high-impact, life-changing decision. Just me picking up The Orange Box after two awful hospital stays... led me to where I am today.)

While I was recovering, I also started playing EarthBound! Another bit of a life-changer, that one. To a lesser extent, but still. I was immediately enamored by its unique tone. Giygas really really really creeped me out for a while afterwards though. I still get unsettled if I hear its noises sometimes.

I later bought Garry’s Mod (after convincing my mom that it was a “great creative toolbox that only cost ten bucks!”), and, well, the rest is history. By which I mean, a lot of my work and gaming activity since 2009 is still up and browsable. But there are still a few things to talk about.

In 2009, I bought my first computer with YouTube ad money: the Asus eee PC 1005HA-H. By modern standards, it’s... not very powerful. The processor in my current desktop machine is nearly 50 times as fast as its Atom N280. It had only one gigabyte of RAM, Windows 7 Basic Edition, and an integrated GPU barely worthy of the name; Intel didn’t care much for 3D in their chips back then. The GMA 945 didn’t even have hardware support for Transform & Lighting.

But I made it work, damn it. I made that machine run so much stuff. I played countless Half-Life and Half-Life 2 mods on it—though, due to the CPU overhead on geometry, some of those were trickier. I think one of the most memorable ones I played was Mistake of Pythagoras; very surreal, very rough, but I still remember it so clearly. I later played The Longest Journey on it, in the middle of winter. It was a very cozy and memorable experience. (And another one that’s an adventure wonderful outlandish alien universe. LOVE THOSE.)

I did more than playing games on it, though...

This is me sitting, sunburned on the nose, in an apartment room, on 06 August 2010. This was in the Pyrénées, at the border between France and Spain. We had a vacation with daily hiking. Some of the landscapes we visited reminded me very strongly of those from Lost Eden, way up the page...

So, you see, I had 3ds Max running on that machine. The Source SDK as well. Sony Vegas. All of it was slow; you bet I had to use some workarounds to squeeze performance out of software, and that I had to keep a close, watchful eye on RAM usage. But I worked on this thing. I really did! I animated this video’s facial animation bits (warning: this is old & bad) on the eee PC, during the evenings of the trip, when we were back at our accomodation. The Faceposer tool in the Source SDK really worked well on that machine.

I also animated an entire video solely on the machine (warning: also old and bad). It had to be rendered on the desktop computer... but every single bit of the animation was crafted on the eee PC.

I made it work.

Speaking of software that did not run well: around that time, I also played the original Crysis. The “but can it run Crysis?” joke was very much justified back then. I had to edit configuration files by hand so that I could run the game in 640x480... because I wanted to keep most of the high-end settings enabled. The motion blur was delicious, and it blew my mind that the effect made the game feel this smooth, despite wobbling around in the 20 to 30 fps range.

Alright. It’s time to finish writing this damn post and publish it at last, so I’m going to close it out by listing some more memories and games that I couldn’t work in up there.

Advance Wars. Strategy game on GBA with a top-down level editor. You better believe I was all over the editor right away.

BioShock. When we got the 2007 desktop computer, it was one of the first games I tried. Well, its demo, to be precise. Its tech and graphics blew my mind, enough that I saved up to buy the full game. This was before I had a Steam account; I got a boxed copy! I think it might have been the last boxed game I ever bought? It had a really nice metal case. The themes and political messages of the game flew way over my head, though.

Mirror’s Edge. The art direction was completely fascinating to me, and it introduced me to Solar Fields’ music; my most listened artist this decade, by a long shot.

L.A. Noire. I lost myself in its stories and investigations, and then, I did it all again, with my sister at the helm. I very rarely play games twice (directly or indirectly), which I figure is worth mentioning.

Zeno Clash. It was weird and full of soul, had cool music, and cool cutscenes. It inspired me a lot in my early animation days.

Skyward Sword. Yep, going back to Zelda on that one. The whole game was pretty good, and I’m still thinking about how amazing its art direction was. Look up screenshots of it running in HD on an emulator... it’s outstanding. But there’s a portion of the game that stands tall above the rest: the Lanayru Sand Sea. It managed to create a really striking atmosphere in many aspects, through and through. I still think about it from time to time, especially when its music comes on in shuffle mode.

Wandersong. A very recent pick, but it was absolutely a life-changing one. That game is an anti-depressant, a vaccine against cynicism, a lone bright and optimist voice.

I realize now this is basically a “flawed but interesting and impactful games” list. With “can establish its atmosphere very well” as a big criteria. (A segment of video games that is absolutely worth exploring.)

I don’t know if I’ll ever make my own video game. I have a few ideas floating around and I tried prototyping some stuff, though my limited programming abilities stood in my way. But either way, if it happens one day, I hope I’ll manage to channel all those years of games into the CULMINATION OF WHAT I LIKE. Something along those lines, I reckon.

[egseven-blog]

About The Author

I just turned 30 years old this year, which has thrown me into a further existential crisis. Not that i needed any help with that. Let us not start in 2019 though my friend. Jump into a time machine with me and let us go back to the early 90’s. The golden age of the modern world. Where I was inspired to become the writer I am now.

The first form of entertainment I can remember falling in love with was THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK.That movie changed my life. I grew obsessed with Star Wars in full. Its rich lore, ideas of good and evil, even story. I sketched as a kid, so I drew lightsabers and made up my own characters. My mom started buying me Star Wars books that took me almost no time to read. Soon after, I discovered the world of video games. I played Super Nintendo a lot, but didn’t catch my addiction until I was given a grey brick Gameboy. Then there was the alternate dimension known as Japanese anime. From Akira to Princess Monokoke. Don’t get me started with Dragonball z.

I was still a growing sketch artist. I even started drawing a comic book instead of school work at school. That is until my 6th grade english class. The teacher told us to make a short story. Something in me woke up after being given this assignment. I cant explain it. It was like I was hearing a voice calling to me in the reaches of deep space. So I wrote a short story. I cant remember what it was called, but it was about a young man helping a mermaid while trying to hide her from his pirate crew. It was okay I guess. I slowly began a habit of writing after that. The same year 9/11 happend. I witnessed it on some news channel in that same english class. I still cant believe we were allowed to watch it.

My family moved to Louisville, Ky that year from Elizabeth Town. I was in the 7th grade and was given another writing assignment. Write a poem. Again I heard that voice. But now it was louder. Thinking back on it now, I realize that 9/11 hit me harder than I thought. My poem was about a soldier surviving a war. My teacher approached me after we turned them in. I thought I was in trouble, but it turns out she wanted to use my poem as an example to show future classes. For all I know its still there, in that 7th grade class today.

Lets fast forward to high school where my puberty was on 10 all the time. I was starting to write more as well as draw. The two hobbies began to blend together. i was consuming books and shows and movies and comics at an accelerated rate. School wasn’t my thing though. i don’t think it was because i wasn’t smart or whatever. I think it was because it was boring. Because it is. Relationships with girls and a difficult home life made me write and draw a lot. In fact, I wrote poetry more often. Expressing my teenage angst. Before I was 18 I left home.

I started working, got a job and my own apartment. I worked at Mc Donalds in the bottom of a children’s hospital. Then got a second job working at a UPS warehouse. I ended dropping out of school my senior year. Had no intention of going back. That is until I realized that I was running out of gas at 19. Working 2 jobs to pay for an apartment I couldn’t afford. So I got a GED then showed up at a recruiting office with an afro and a fry smelling Mc D’s uniform. I ended up becoming an M1-A1 Abrams tank crewman. What I didn’t know was that I would be doing my basic training 30 minutes from where I had lived. Ft. Knox, Ky. The very place I was born. So my wait to get out and travel had been postponed.

While in basic training however, the voice of writing was now screaming. So, while training i wrote. i wrote letters home and plots, characters for stories. Basic was harsh. But I got through it. My first duty station was Ft.Irwin, California. Being from the south the state of California was mind blowing. The only thing that sucked was the base was located in the Mojave desert, 30 miles from civilization. It was there that I was able to afford to consume more media. Buy comics and books. Download anime and movies.Play video games when we weren’t training for 3 weeks a month, every month. I met a really good friend in Cali. He became like a brother to me. But before we could reenlist together he was killed in a car accident Super Bowl morning of 2010. I needed to get out of Cali. Out of America. So I reenlisted by myself for Korea.

Again i am a southern kid from Kentucky, so flying to another country was both frightening and amazing. The flight was 15 hours. I remember an elderly Korean woman asking me something in Korean and not knowing at all what she was saying. Camp Casey, Korea was a few miles south of the DMZ. It was in the center of a small exploited town called Dongducheon. Being an anime and kung fu movie fan, I loved it. Everything. The culture, the food, clothing. Koreans seemed to be a lot more passive than americans as well. It was nice. Seoul is basically an asian New York. It was always alive. I went to college while in Korea taking a language and culture class.It made things like traveling and really anything far easier. In Korea the voice was now stomping the writer in me. It was gnawing at my brain.

“Write!” the voice yelled.

So I did. I wrote 2 full books and several short stories while still in the army. One of which was my now published novella Revolutopia. As time went on the voice chose to exit the army for me. It wasn’t for me anymore. Especially seeing everything behind the scenes. Nah, I’m good. So I retired at 23. Moved back home and the voice made me self publish Revolutopia. I’ve written and published since then. That voice has only gotten louder since then. It wasn’t until recently that I realized what that voice was.

It was me. It was always me.

[incorrectsmashbrosquotes]

Okay but consider for a prompt: as retribution for Ridleys actions snake decides to return the favor to ridley....with metal gear REX. Cue Ridleys making a face of horror so Delicious looking samus would want peach to put it on a cake for her.

Ridley snickered to himself as he landed on the roof of his target with a powerful thud. “So much for the Champion of Nintendo.” he cackled to himself. It was pitifully easy how Mario and Megaman had fallen to him. The so-called heroes had been push-overs after all.

Still snickering to himself, Ridley pried open the metal roof of the facility. Ganondorf had sent him here to retrieve a valuable piece of tech, and now it was all his. Now his place in the league of villains was assured.

However, to his horror, he saw that the massive hangar was empty.

“WHAT?!” he screamed in rage. He flew through the hangar as quick as he could, scanning desperately for his prize, but there was nothing. Nothing!

“Looking for something?” asked a voice from the opposite side of the hangar. Snarling, Ridley spun around to glare at the intruder. “Solid Snake.” hissed the Pirate, slowly creeping across the floor of the hangar towards the soldier. “I should have known that this place would have vermin in it.” he growled. “But to find you, the man who abandoned the Smash Brothers, well I must say I am pleasantly surprised.”

“I know what I’ve done.” said Snake, not backing down. “I know I’ve hurt my friends. But I’m back now.”

Ridley barked with laughter. “Do you really think they’ll have you?! Do you really think they will ever let you be their friend again after you walked out on them?” he hissed.

“I don’t know.” said the soldier. “But they seemed pretty happy about me getting Megaman back to them in one piece.” he said.

“Ah, so the rust-bucket survived.” said Ridley. “It matters little. None can stand against the League.” he said confidently. He was almost touching noses with Snake now, but the soldier refused to back down. “And as for you? You can go back to them. Pretend to be everything you are not. Hero, Protector. Friend. Brother. But no matter what, you cannot change. You will always be... a murderer.”

Snake puffed on his cigarette and blew a puff of smoke on Ridley’s nose. “Maybe. But so are you. And They want you punished. You want this places tech? Take it.”

The only warning Ridley got was a massive rumble, and then the wall behind Snake exploded, sending the space pirate flying. When he finally got his bearings, the technology that he had been sent to retrieve stood before him, towering like a mountain of malicious metal.

The Metal Gear REX roared, and Ridley felt his bowels void themselves.

“Well... fuck.” was all he could say.