#plus I want to return to my dragon platformer so if I can at least get a demo done I'll be happy

[goldieclaws]

I'm only a few steps away from the longest section for my horde survival game (1 hour and 36 minutes) but once I'm past that the only other section that's daunting is 58 and 43 minutes and this project will be complete~

The final product will have 8 playable characters (but I would like to add extras ofc) but I'll still want more enemy variation and to add extra levels (potentially even based on scenes from these characters' respective stories) but I do at least have an idea for a demo I could share until I feel it's a project worth selling (especially as I am quite particular about that for any game).

[mxstball]

[Scorching Sandgems] That's Not How You Fish

"Mommyyyyyy-- I wanna go back to the cabiiin…."

The two were inside Mt. Coronet. They had recently explored Route 206 and 207 where they caught and released more species of Pokémon as well as ventured through Wayward Cave through careful flying. Lati even made a permanent friend in a Bronzor that decided to join them on their travels. Initially, Heidi was set on going to Hearthome, but Lati's insistence to return to the cabin was weighing on her.

"But Lati… we just came back from the Pokémon Center… you shouldn't be tired already…."

"Please, mommy? I miss home…."

Oh, the child was getting homesick instead. Well, that made some more sense. This was the longest that Lati has ever been away from either her or Rayquaza's homes… and honestly? She was missing home a little, too.

"Okay, baby. Let's unwind at the Cabin. I can teleport us there and then we can--"

"Noooo! I don't wanna teleport there. It's too fast. I wanna fly there! Mommy, can we fly there? You can hold my hand…."

Heidi was nearly ready to glare at this young child. She remembered why she didn't want to have children in the past. "Are you sure, Lati? We'll have to cut through all of Mt. Coronet to do that. It's going to be a long journey -- longer than getting to the next city, even."

"Yes! I wanna fly there!"

"..." A part of her wanted to just say "no" and then just teleport there. Another part, though, wanted to take Lati on the offer and watch as the little one realized that her warning should have been heeded. Plus, while they had plenty of time, it's not like they wouldn't have to do something like this later in the journey. Mt. Coronet was at the center of the region, after all.

"... Alright, but we're going the entire way, you hear? No asking mommy for a teleport later, but you can ask for breaks."

"Okay!" Lati reached for Heidi's hand to get ready to fly.

Heidi accepted the hand and the two started flying together. Heidi knew that it's going to take some careful maneuvering, so she ensured that she was taking things slow. The two flew above ponds and past platforms. They went under and then over some bridges. Heidi pushed several boulders herself and they flew across several gaps. The two flew outside in the snow and back into the cave… past the waterfall and over the grass. They flew down into the gap and around the maze, flying and gliding their way past various species of Pokémon.

Heidi checked on her child the entire time. Despite the travel time, Lati had not let loose of the grip that was entrusted upon the mother. The dragon didn't seem bored or tired, nor particularly annoyed. Occasionally, Lati would divert focus to look at a Pokémon never seen before in the grass, but it wasn't enough to affect the child's flight. If anything, Heidi was surprised that she wasn't asked for at least a small break or even a peep out of the little one.

… but then, they reached the foggy corridor.

Heidi and Lati stopped flying upon reaching the area. "Mommyyyyy. I can't see--" Lati gripped onto Heidi's hand even tighter.

"It's okay, Lati. Let mommy handle this. Just keep holding on to my hand."

"Okay!"

Heidi held her free hand out. With her psychic power, a strong gust of wind circulated around the area.

Latias used Defog!

The fog quickly went away, showing a clear pathway as well as a pond.

Heidi turned and smiled at her child. "There. We're almost there, okay? Just a little more and we're outside." 

The two started to fly down the corridor; however, Lati seemed to have gotten extremely distracted this time. The dragon let go of Heidi's hand and flew to the pond. "Wait! Mommy! I wanna play in the water! Can we take a break?"

Heidi halted and rolled her eyes. She flew to the edge of the water. "Okay, but don't stray too far, now. Mommy is going to eat sandwiches and watch you play."

Lati flew over to the water and started swimming in it. Heidi, meanwhile, stayed on the surface, allowing the other 4 Pokémon on her team to come out. Zubat flew over to Lati to join them at the pond, and the two were laughing and enjoying each other's company. Bronzor flew and joined in the fun as well. As for Eevee and Absol, they were enjoying sandwiches alongside Heidi.

"I can't believe she took so long to take a break." Heidi shook her head. "That girl's got her father's stamina, for sure."

Absol nodded. "[(I can tell that she's quite goal-oriented. Perhaps like you, Heidi?)]"

Eevee interjected. "[(Nah. I bet she just wanted an excuse to preview all of the Pokémon that's down here. She loves that stuff.)]"

Meanwhile, in the water, Lati was splashing Bronzor. Zubat was splashed earlier, but it was clear that he didn't like it. Bronzor, though, definitely didn't seem to mind.

"Hehe! Splish splash splosh! Whoo!" Lati was having so much fun!

Zubat was chuckling at how silly Lati was. "[(You're gonna splash the whole mountain like that, bud! One time, I heard that this big Gyarados was able to do exactly that! It was crazy!)]"

Bronzor didn't say anything, but instead used a little bit of psychic power to push a small wave at Lati.

"H--hey! You splashed me, Bronzor!" Lati was laughing. "That's it. Prepare forrrrr-- huh?"

Lati was distracted again. The dragon suddenly noticed something interesting from below. Lati looked down at the spot, then at the friends, and finally at Heidi…. 

"[(What's the matter, bud? You see something down there?)]" Zubat was concerned. "[(It's not something big, is it?)]"

"Uhhh. I don't know. Hold on. Let me see--"

"[(wait!)]"

Splash! Before anything could happen, Lati quickly dived right into the water.

Heidi nearly choked on her sandwich. She passed the rest of it to Absol. "LATI!" Instinctively, she dove right in the water--

But, before she could do anything else, Lati surfaced again. This time, the dragon brought....

…a Shiny Feebas!

"[Fee-bas! Bas!]" The poor creature was flailing around in confusion. She didn't know what was going on.

"Lati!" Heidi surfaced and swam over to the group. "You scared me for a moment. I thought something happened to you! Are you alright?"

Lati is busy giving affection to the new fish in the child's hands. "Soooo cute! New friend, and she's so cute!"

"[Bas?]" The Feebas slowed her flailing when she heard Lati's comments. Even she was confused from that statement.

Lati pointed Feebas at Heidi. "Look, mama! New friend. She's so cute, and I love her! Mama thinks she's cute too, right?"

"Well, of course. Feebas is kinda cute, but you can't just pull one out of the water like that, you kn-- wait, is that a Shiny Pokémon?"

"[Feebas?]" Feebas can hardly speak under these shocking conditions, but she was even more confused.

"You know what? Sure." Heidi summoned a Dive Ball and tossed it at the Feebas, catching it.

1… 2… 3… Click! Heidi caught a Feebas!

Heidi grabbed the ball from the water and tossed it to send Feebas back out. The fish then swam back to the group.

"New fish friend! Woohoo!" Lati was excited!

"Oh no, you don't. Out of the water! Now! Go join Eevee and Absol, because you could have put yourself in serious danger like that, Lati!"

"Awww… okay." Lati flew out of the water and went to land. Zubat and Bronzor followed suit.

Heidi glared and watched as the group returned to land. Absol should be able to watch them from there. Now, with that out of the way, Heidi turned back to the new fish. "Hey, buddy. Thanks for brightening up my baby's day today. She's really been enjoying meeting Pokémon like you… and uh… sorry for what she did to you back there." Heidi summoned an Oran Berry and offered it.

The Feebas accepted, eating it in her hand. She didn't say much else, though.

"Lati -- the Latios that took you out of the water -- she's my daughter. She and I are traveling around the region to bond together. Usually we catch and release Pokémon to register them, but she seems to really like you and wants to take you along. Do you want to join us?"

Feebas finished the Oran Berry before turning to look at Lati. Lati was happily waving at both Heidi and the new friend from outside of the water. Feebas then turned back to Heidi before looking at her outstretched hand from the Oran Berry. She jumped right on Heidi's hand.

Reflexively, Heidi grabbed the Feebas and brought her close to avoid dropping her. "Woah woah there. You're not in water anymore, kiddo. Let's get you back in your ball and we'll figure something out, okay?" Heidi took out the Dive Ball and recalled Feebas before flying over to join the others.

Now, she has a completed team.

[demonfox38]

Completed - Hylics 2

I just realized that I beat both "Hylics" and "Hylics 2" under a waning moon. I am both mad and pleased about this celestial pun.

Before I had played the original "Hylics", I also picked up "Hylics 2." Call it a leap of faith. I'm not sure if I first saw this sequel in a trailer, or if I saw a streamer working through it, but I believed continuing to support these efforts would be worth it. After all, "Hylics" the original seemed pretty sweet. If "Hylics 2" was that, plus another level of polish, wouldn't that be good enough?

For me, it was! But, man. I can definitely see where this game may scare away previous players.

"Hylics 2" follows the events of the previous game, in which Wayne and his crew succeeded in destroying Gibby (but not before he manages to blow up the moon, which dick move.) Followers of Gibby plan his resurrection, so it's up to Wayne (who may not be the same Wayne from the first game; details following) and his crew to stop these attempts. And, of course, clean up the resulting mess failing that.

More coherent NPCs are present in this game. Sages? Naturally. In addition to them, Dedesmuln appears to have either a sibling or a spouse (hard to tell), as well as Wayne having…essentially, an entire species all named Wayne living in a single Wayne house. With little Wayne larvae and an Old Wayne and everything in between. Is your Wayne the same Wayne from the previous game? Well, he seems more put together, but he definitely remembers the first game's party. It's a weird deal. Between them, the coffee shop guy, miners that can teach you to set people on fire, and an island full of TV antenna maintenance staff, the world's gotten bigger and weirder. More like something you want to see protected. Trust me when I say returning to previous randomized text in this game comes off way more horrifying than nostalgic.

How does Wayne et. al work through the world's grievances? The core of the game is mostly the same RPG layout. Get in fights, get wrecked, recover. Combat variability goes pretty wild in this game. There were several turns I had in progression, going from simply hoping to hold out, then slurping coffee, then charging power levels like a "Dragon Ball Z" protagonist, ultimately culminating in being a stalling tactician until the party could drop their preferred nukes of choice. This isn't a game where you can coast on just slapping away. You've gotta be prepared for special effect buffing and debuffing at every turn. One mismanaged encounter is all it takes to get ejected into the afterlife. But, hey. Sometimes, you've gotta pay it a visit anyway. There's still meat to grind, after all.

"Hylics 2" has two additional twists to its game mode. First, it has both 3D and 2D platforming, used respectively for everyday navigation and minigames. The 3D navigation can be overwhelming at first, especially coming hot off of a playthrough of the previous "Hylics" game. It doesn't take too long to adapt to it.

The 2D version, though?

Like, I don't want to bag too much on the 2D platforming sections. Attempts were made. And I'll be honest—I'm bad at platformers. Even with my deficiencies, I can still tell you that the first 2D platformer level in particular is roughly designed. The level roadblocks without clear progression when you follow the industry rules of going to the right, forcing a reset to the beginning to go left and make progress. The horizontal jumping is nigh infinite, but the vertical jump has a cooldown that makes it actively worse until you stand still for a second. That's not helpful when you're trying to navigate as well as obliterate horde spawning enemies and projectiles. At least an hour of my 10 hour playthrough was stuck just here, and it was not a good time. Let's just say it's probably not a good sign when a minigame has a God Mode to get past playing it.

And yes, playing them is kinda mandatory. At least, if you want the best spell in the game and to survive the final boss, it is.

The other twist—the one I liked, but I could see it turning others off—was an underground first-person maze! Like, if you wanted this game to be more "Megami Tensei", here you go! This was far more reasonable and appealing to me, even with hidden walls. Following the golden rule of moving along a single wall/direction for as long as possible worked well here. Additionally, you auto-healed after every fight, which made enduring it all the more manageable.

While the bug-squashing mechanic for Somsnosa from the first game is gone, you do have a slapping option while navigating. This allows you to crush bugs and recover much needed Flesh and Will points. I noticed that if you crush bugs, save your game, and reload it on the exact spot where the bugs previously were, they'll be back. So, you could use this to potentially abuse health recovery, if you wanted. Or, you could just keep hopping back to the underworld bathtub any time you'd like. That's also an option.

Aesthetically, this game is a stunner. 3D models are coated with color and shading filters to keep that cool pastel and black-shadowed style cohesive across characters and environments. The enemy designs are quite varied as well, looking less like manikins with clay lumps and more like actual, unique creatures. I was particularly impressed with the animation for furrier creatures and Fonthintrelpine, a "Space Harrier"-esque clay abomination. It's an older art style meeting an old game rendering trick to make something new, and man, does it look good together.

Also, I don't know what silent-era movie footage was used for the Accelerate gesture, but that's goofballs. I love it.

Chuck Salamone was brought in to compose music for the game, and man, was that a good call. Not that the original "Hylics" game had offensive music, by any means. But, this game? It's got tunes, man. The winning track for me was "Xeno Arcadia", a groovy cool piece that plays over the infuriating 2D sections, helping to make them endurable. A+. Good work. As much as it's fun to have an auteur complete a whole game by themselves, man, is it great to phone in a partner, sometimes.

Five years and a lot of spit-shine went into this game, and for the most part, it shows. Despite having a longer runtime, it has a fairly similar difficulty pace to the first game (which may cause some despondedness; see platforming rant.) I want to emphasize playing the first game before this one, just to see if you can vibe with its presentation. But, if you wanted a second helping of "Hylics" with more glaze and some additional quirky game mechanics, then here you go!

[delimeful]

the shapes in the silence (11)

new chapter at the behest of one of my patrons! hope you enjoy! >:)

warnings: terrible coping mechanisms, antagonistic but not "evil" deceit, semi-vivid panic attack, suicidal implications/thoughts, arguing, an antagonistic and also genuinely evil cliffhanger, take care for realsies

-

After a few days of solitude, Logan emerged from his room with a triumphant gleam in his eyes.

He dropped a comically large stack of paper onto the lounge table, interrupting their bi-monthly binge of Parks and Rec. Patton obligingly paused the television, smiling at the sight of the other Side.

Roman probably would have complained, except Virgil-- as Puff-- had been dozing on top of his head for the past twenty minutes, and one of his wings was draped over Roman’s face like a makeshift blindfold. So, he hadn’t really been watching anyways.  

“I’ve figured it out,” Logan said, gesturing to the meticulous lines of not-so-meticulous handwriting. “The shrinking.”

Everyone seemed to perk up in interest, and Virgil dropped onto Roman’s shoulder, kneading his claws lightly into the sash.

“You know why?” Patton prompted after another moment of Logan preening.

“Yeah, Specs, don’t leave us in suspense!” Roman demanded, valiantly restraining his gesturing for the sake of not accidentally unbalancing Virgil. The two of them had only had to learn that lesson once.

Logan nodded, adjusting his glasses briefly. “My current hypothesis is that our reduced states are the result of a sort of… mental lock. We shrink when the locking mechanism is triggered, and it takes a figurative key to restore our previous, normal stature.”

“A key?” Patton asked. “You figured out how to undo it?”

“Not for everyone. Think of it as customized locks. There’s a different key for each of us, and I’ve only discovered my own.”

Virgil tilted his head curiously at Logan’s words. The first bit was about what he’d figured, but a ‘key’ to change back? He used to think he only changed back in his room, but there had been a couple of occasions where he’d shifted forms unexpectedly. None of the others had had to be in their rooms to change back, either.

Roman was frowning in thought. “Wait, how in the name of Disney did you figure out your key?”

Logan looked delighted at the question. He moved to sit in his usual armchair, and then closed his eyes for a moment, his brow furrowing slightly and his mouth dropping into a frown.

In the next moment, he was doll-sized. “Extensive and rigorous experimentation,” he said, carefully getting to his feet on the plush chair fabric.

Roman and Patton immediately burst into excited chattering, each theorizing or commenting on Logan’s tiny stature, and Virgil quickly abandoned ship before Roman really did gesture him right into the air. He trotted along the back of the couch and kicked off of it, landing on the arm of Logan’s chair.

Logan looked up at him for a moment, before referring to a pile of tinier-than-normal flashcards pulled from his pocket. “Puff. I hope there’s no ‘hard feelings’ about my former hypothesis. It was nothing personal, I can assure you.”

It wasn’t like the theory had been too far fetched. Virgil hopped down to the seat of the chair and brushed against Logan’s side like a large, scaly cat. It seemed to do the job of convincing Logan that they were cool.

Logan looked back over at the other two. “Time to continue the lecture, I believe.”

With that, he clapped his hands together in a familiar pattern, one that had been used in countless classrooms in Thomas’s life. Two normal claps, and then three rapid ones.

Almost immediately, Patton and Roman clapped the returning pattern, paused as though registering what they’d done, and then turned to face Logan.

“Was… Did you just teacher-clap at us?” Roman asked, astounded.

Logan looked incredibly smug at his gambit working so perfectly, and Virgil barely had time to claw his way back up onto the armrest before the logical Side was back to normal.

“My key,” he said, “is being listened to.”

Then, as though he couldn’t resist, he added, “Who’s falling behind now, Roman?”  

Roman spluttered with exaggerated indignance, and Virgil was absolutely certain that Princey was going to spend the next several days rising to the challenge. He shook his wings out, the dragon equivalent of rolling his eyes.

Patton, on the other hand, clapped enthusiastically as though Logan had performed a magic trick. “Wow, way to grow!”

Logan sighed deeply. Patton grinned, and then paused.

“See, the only thing I’m wondering now is, why is this happening to us all of the sudden? It’s certainly not something we’ve had to deal with before.”

There was a terse silence.  

“I’m still working on theories in that regard,” Logan finally responded, mouth pinched slightly. “There have been many periods in the past where certain upheavals in Thomas’s life have led to our surroundings or our very selves changing. It’s entirely possible that this… ‘shrinking’ effect is a similar case. That brings me to my next point: we need to speak with Thomas.”

Virgil noticed Roman grimace for a moment. “Does he really need to know about all… this?”

“We certainly can’t keep it from him!” Patton replied as he walked closer to the rest of them and held out his arm. Virgil scaled it with ease, clambering up to perch on Pat’s shoulder like a parrot. For once, he agreed with Roman. He wasn’t sure this would end well, but... it wasn’t his job to bring up doubts right now. “He’s going to have to learn about it eventually, whether now or whenever he calls us up to talk about whatever is bothering him.”

“Precisely,” Logan agreed. “The more information we gather on this matter, the better.”

“I guess…,” Roman crossed his arms, but conceded. Patton gave him an encouraging hug.

“Plus,” he added as he pulled away, “if we go now, we can have Thomathy meet Puff!”

A beat late, Virgil realized just what that meant, and a flood of panic washed out the peaceful haze in his mind. They couldn’t take him to see Thomas! What if his host recognized him?

… What if he didn’t?

“It’s fine with me,” Logan added. “He does seem to be a rather permanent fixture in the Mindscape, though I’m not sure what that says about Thomas.”

“It says that he’s simply the coolest,” Roman shot back, his spirits seemingly lifted by the idea. He reached over and lifted Virgil off Patton’s shoulders, holding him in the air and spinning in a dizzying circle. “You’ll love Thomas, Puff, just you wait.”  

“Why wait?” Patton chimed in with an excited smile. “I’ll go let the kiddo know we’re coming!”

He sank out, and Logan spent a short moment making sure his tie was properly aligned before following. Roman tilted his head slightly as though listening to an invisible sound before smiling widely. “There’s our cue!”

Before Virgil could do more than feel a sense of impending doom, the world was blurring and shifting around them, and he was dragged up along with Roman.

The dizziness as he entered the real world was so heady that he nearly blacked out, his head spinning. When his vision cleared, he realized he was being held up like an infant Simba.

Right in front of his host’s face. He froze like a deer in the headlights, mind screaming wordlessly.

“Ta-da!” Roman announced. “The newest, cutest denizen of your mind! Aside from me, of course.”  

Thomas leaned in slightly, no trace of disgust or fear on his face. It made him look younger. “Woah. Hey there, little guy. Puff, right?”

He held his hand out carefully, and almost magnetically, Virgil placed a tiny, clawed hand on it. An encouraging smile was all it took, and then he was abandoning all caution and climbing right into the arms of the one who was supposed to fear him the most.

Thomas just shifted obligingly to create a better platform, and ran a thumb over his spine scales. Virgil craned his head up to look, and saw only quiet astonishment and awe on his host’s face.

There was no question. He didn’t recognize him.

Virgil had no idea what the emotion in the pit of his stomach was-- an amalgam of relief, disappointment, terror, sadness, so dense it was physically painful-- but after a moment, he let himself go lax. He could deal with it later. He could deal with everything later.

For now, his host was holding him close like he was something treasured, something precious. It was more than he’d ever hoped for and all he could ever need.

Whenever Thomas spoke, he could feel the words vibrating in his host’s chest. It was almost like a hug. He stayed there, content to listen only vaguely as the others explained what was going on and tried to work out the reason why.

After a while of circular discussion, Thomas went a little tense, catching Virgil’s attention. He hesitated for a moment before speaking.

“We’re trying to figure out what’s going wrong to cause this… inner turmoil, right? Why don’t we get Anxiety in on this? If there’s one thing he’s good at, it’s coming up with worst-case scenarios.”

Virgil went still and frozen, and Roman’s gaze darted down to him for a moment before his expression firmed into a frown. “Absolutely not. That villain won’t have anything helpful to contribute.”

“On the contrary, I believe Thomas has a point. Anxiety could have a side to this story that we haven’t heard yet, but if we were just to ask him,” Logan countered, “he may share.”

“Kind of strange that he hasn’t popped up already,” Patton added with a concerned frown. “The kiddo doesn’t generally like it when people talk about him without him there.”

“Let’s at least give it a shot,” Thomas decided, lifting a hand. “Anxiety!”

No, no no no. This wasn’t how he wanted it to go. Virgil braced for the irresistible tug on his core, the breaking apart of his fragile peace--

It didn’t come.

There was no pull. Why wasn’t he feeling the pull? He couldn’t detect even the slightest call, which was impossible, unless--

Perfectly on cue, a dark figure appeared from thin air on the staircase, jumpscaring Thomas and offering a mocking smirk.

“You called?”

It… was him. It was Anxiety, dark hoodie and darker eyeliner, sneer and all. Virgil felt the strangest disconnect from his own identity for a moment before things snapped back into place. No summons, his own desire for secrecy, a perfect doppelganger.

Deceit.

A low, rumbling growl started up in his chest, and his hackles rose instantly at the sight of that liar daring to wear his face.

Thomas’s hands jerked away in surprise, and Patton reached over to soothe him. “Easy, Puff. He won’t do anything to you, promise.”

“That’s right,” Roman agreed in a completely different tone, stepping forwards to put himself between the fake Anxiety and the others, as though Virgil was pathetic enough to be worried about himself and not whatever bullshit Deceit-As-Anxiety was about to feed the others. His growl lowered in volume, but refused to taper off.

“Like I care about your newest pet project,” Fake-Anxiety said, rolling his eyes in disdain. “I’m just here to do what I do best: tell you how you messed up.”

Logan frowned at him. “You believe our current situation is the result of Thomas erring in some way?”

“Not just some way. All the ways. It’s obvious, isn’t it?” Fake-Anxiety said, gesturing widely to Thomas with one hand. “Something’s wrong with you. You’re broken.”

“That’s not true,” Patton said firmly, frowning in disapproval. “Anxiety, I expected better from you.”

Virgil felt his throat close up, even though he wasn’t really the one Patton was speaking to. It wasn’t like Patton knew that. How was he ever going to look anyone in the eye after this?

“Wait, what? How am I broken?” Thomas asked, not as indignantly as Virgil would have preferred. He gently butted his head against Thomas’s arm for morale-boosting purposes.

“I mean, think about it,” Fake-Anxiety said, spreading his palms open in a faux innocent gesture. “How many times have you screwed up in the past couple of weeks? Speaking with family, hanging out with friends, even just basic customer service interactions. Those were all your fault, and you know it.”

Thomas’s hands shook slightly. “I…”

“Falsehood,” Logan cut in sharply, his expression severe. “A person cannot be ‘broken’, particularly not for simple mistakes. In any case, there is no meaningful connection to be drawn between your baseless accusation and our current conundrum.”

Before Fake-Anxiety could respond, Patton’s hands flew to his mouth. “Wait. Kiddo, you don’t really think that about yourself, do you?”

All eyes turned to Thomas, who hesitated just a beat too long. “No… I mean, not entirely. Not all the time.”

“Thomas…” Roman looked stricken. “There’s no reason to feel bad about yourself!”

“Emotions… are often without reason,” Logan said, sharing a look with Patton. “This is important information, though. It’s entirely possible that a negative sense of self could affect us, as aspects of yourself. This could be the cause.”

“Then… How do I fix it?” Thomas asked, voice strained.

“You can’t,” Fake-Anxiety said, inspecting his nail polish as though bored. “You’re going to be stuck like this forever.”

“The first step,” Logan said, with a complicated glance towards the figure on the stairs, “is not letting negative thoughts control you. I was hoping Anxiety would be able to shed a light on our discussion, but it’s become clear that he’s… not in a helping mood.”

Fake-Anxiety clicked his tongue. “I’m helping. Helping you not make an even bigger embarrassment out of yourself.”

“Don’t listen to that villain,” Roman told Thomas, glancing down at ‘Puff’. “You have the power to send him away, Thomas.”

“Don’t bother. I’ve said my piece, and you know I’m right.” Fake-Anxiety gave a mocking salute before sinking out, making brief eye contact with Virgil as he did.

“He’s not right… right?” Thomas asked, his face a little pale. “I mean, it’s Anxiety.”

In his arms, Virgil tucked his limbs in tighter against himself.

“You are not broken,” Logan reiterated calmly. “Take a few deep breaths.”

“You do feel bad, though,” Patton said, a hand pressed over his heart in sympathy. “Kiddo... why don’t you take today for yourself?”

“That’s right!” Roman gripped Thomas’s shoulder comfortingly. “Do something that you’ll enjoy, and you can worry about everything else tomorrow, okay? We’ll sort things out on our end.”  

They spoke for a little longer, making new plans and cancelling old ones, and Virgil felt as though his mind was full of static. Eventually, finally, he was back on Roman’s shoulder, ready to sink out.

“Nice meeting you, Puff,” Thomas waved, and something in Virgil’s chest twisted painfully at it all. He chirp-crooned back, and it felt like a goodbye.

-

Luckily for him, the others were all preoccupied with their own thoughts and plans. It took almost no effort to slip away, and before he knew it he was back in his own room, in the form that everyone hated.

His summon was nonverbal and insistent, and before long, Deceit appeared before him, this time in his own skin. Virgil wanted to yell, to rage and vent the emotions inside of him.

“How could you?” Instead, his voice came out quiet. Cold. Betrayed.

Deceit shifted, a flash of discomfort crossing his face before he composed himself. “They needed a villain. Last I checked, it was you who cast yourself in that role.”

A villain. He felt himself shaking, distantly. “You used me. Like an object.”

“To help Thomas--”

“To frighten him into doing what you wanted!” Virgil said, voice finally rising. “To guide the others like puppets on strings and to make me take the fall for your plan!”

“This is for you, too!” Deceit finally snapped back, before taking a deep breath. “This isn’t a framing, Virgil. It’s an opportunity. They won’t look for you, and that gives me enough time to fix things. Come home.”

Virgil laughed, once, harsh like broken glass. “No.”

Deceit held up a hand, sweeping it downwards and shifting himself into Fake-Anxiety again. It was like looking in a mirror, but the reflection was… different, this time. It wasn’t the one that had sat on the stairs before.

“Look at yourself, Virgil. Look at what you’ve been doing to yourself.”

The bags under his eyes were dark and sallow. He was shaking and sweating, his breath coming in stuttering gasps. His body looked like it’d been having consecutive panic attacks for days on end, and there were plenty more coming.

“You don’t have to do this anymore. We both know that you’d have an easier time if Thomas wasn’t always fighting against you.”

He tore his eyes away from the reflection. If he thought about it for too long, he’d spiral, and then all of it-- every comment, every look, everything he’d been tucking away for the past weeks-- would come rushing up to meet him. Like hitting water from a hundred feet up and finding it felt like concrete. Like drowning.

“Virgil?”

He was tired of this. “Get out.”

Deceit said something else, but it was his room, and it followed his will. The other Side was evicted, shoved out, gone. He took a breath, but it felt too shallow and caught in his lungs.

He wasn’t going to get anything done in this form. He wasn’t of any damn use in this form. Nobody wanted him like this. Why not ease his grip, let go?

He wouldn’t have to be Anxiety and everything that came with it. It would be selfish, but-- but Puff was better for everyone, not just him. It made sense.

He sighed in relief as the transformation washed away the vice grip around his lungs and the dizzying pounding of his head. The feelings were muffled, as though he’d put on thick, good quality headphones. It was nice.

It was also harder to focus in this form, unfortunately, but the idea-- the solution remained helpfully stuck in his head. He easily found his way into Roman’s room to collect what he needed, but Roman himself was absent.

He padded down to the commons, and found all three of them were there. Their discussion came to a halt as he carefully jumped up on the couch, dropping his prize into Roman’s lap.

“Oh, Puff…” Roman seemed sad, so he kneaded the creative Side’s leg with the dull edge of his claws.

“What is that?” Patton asked curiously.

Roman shifted, as though anticipating a scolding. “It’s a charmed bracelet. I designed it to keep Anxiety away from Puff. And you know what? I was right to make it! You saw how he acted today!”

Patton bit his lip but remained quiet. Something about the silence hurt, but that was okay. It wouldn’t hurt for long. He nudged the bracelet slightly, impatient.

“Why hasn’t he been wearing it, then?” Logan asked, a curious bend to his eyebrows.

“He… Well, he didn’t want it at first. Put it on yours truly instead,” Roman replied, carefully brushing a hand over Virgil’s head. “I suppose he changed his mind.”

“Did Anxiety really scare him that badly?” Patton asked, voice heartbroken.

Roman frowned determinedly and finally started undoing the clasp. “Whatever that scoundrel did, he won’t be able to bother Puff anymore. This will make sure of it.”

He carefully wound the bracelet around Virgil’s neck, gently adjusted it until it fit right, and reconnected the ends. The last thing Virgil saw before the world went hazy was the three of them, the best parts of Thomas, looking back at him without any fear or hatred.

Then, there was only Puff.

[popculturebuffet]

Ducktales Shadow Into Light (Lena Retrospective): Friendship Hates Magic! (Commission by WeirdKev27)

Hello all you happy people! And welcome, and to some of you welcome back to Shadow Into Light, my fully paid for but gladly done Lena retrospective, covering everyone’s faviorite lesbian emo shadow’s personal jounrey through all three seasons and some brucey bonuses.

So this time we pick up in mid-season 2.. yes MID season 2. Though for once taking so long to adress things had valid reasons. It dosen’t make the 8 month wait for Lena to return and for Violet to show up, her concept art having been shown off shortly before Shadow War aired during San Diego Comic Con, any less aggravating, especially since the episode did air overseas before that but never leaked anywhere properly. So I knew she’d be okay but not HOW. 

As I said though.. they had their reasons. The episode was set for episode 8 in production order, right behind whatever Happened to Della Duck? which answered the other big cliffhanger from season 1, Della’s exile on the moon. So while this episode was back in the queue, along with Della’s, which had to wait till after the christmas episode to air because said episode takes place before it. So waiting on this episode was fair on the crew’s part even knowing it was a hiatus. 

It ended up getting pushed back by a week once the episodes started airing.. but as outlined last time, THIS TIME Disney actually moved it for good reason instead of just doing so because shut up. See the problem with moving episodes around in season 2.. is Della’s return. Several episodes that in theory could’ve easily been pushed back instead of this one, Depths of Cousin Fethry, Treasure of the Found Lamp... couldn’t because they take place BEFORE Della came back and it’d be weird to air them after.  One features Donald, the other dosen’t but still lacks Della and it’d be weird if it did> While this episode takes place before Della comes back or was at least meant to, no one appears in person, and Beakly mentoning “the boys and scrooge” at the bin could simply be her forgetting Della’s a part of things for a second. It’s not entirely in character, but it’s much easier than explaning why Della’s not there and Donald is. 

They also moved one episode ahead of this.. but it’s one I approve of. See from episode 7 onward the episodes were aired in week long duckbombs, woo-ooo. I I don’t fault disney for it or the reason I suspect they had for doing this: while it wasn’t the intended way of airing, they likely did this airing style to get shows on Disney Plus quicker for it’s debut and given they’ve sunk a LOT of money into the streaming service and it’s a key part of their future, I can’t blame them for wanting the entire series thus far on the platform at launch. It’s one of if not their most popular show at the moment. They wanted it front and center. 

So this one took an extra week to air, and an extra day as they aired raiders of the doomsday vault right after Della’s return in “Nothing Can Stop Della Duck!”.. which is also not a bad move. Fans wanted more of Della and her bonding with the kids, I wanted more of that so while the wait was grumble inducing, it was worth the tradeoff to get more of this character and her bonding with Dewey.. and let’s face it Glomgold.  You know what i’m about at this point. 

So there were delays but not the mind boggling ones that reshuffled the season last time and by next season there’d be zero reshuffling with both holiday episodes designed to go anywhere. So with the history and the agonizing wait out of the way join me under the cut as a snark knight returns, a new fan faviorite debuts and Beakly gets sucked into Launchpad’s awful fandom. 

We open our story at the Duckburg Library. Man I fucking miss the library. I mean you can go by apointment and what not but I also have library card debt and stuff, and it’s just not the same. 

Anyways naturally Webby is going there to research the Shadow Realm in hopes of finding something to bring Lena back. Last week was “Children’s Card Games, Dark Magic and You! by Professor Yugi Moto which while enlightening got her nowhere. Next up is “Shadow Games on Motorcycles!: How a Crimson Dragon defeated a giant Shadow Monster and brought the dead back and I helped by Doctor Yusei Fudo”. 

But that one’s not in yet so she instead goes to the Librarian to get another book.. and it’s Quackfaster! Horay! As for why she’s working two jobs, she’s saving up for a retirement condo in BIRDDDBAAADDOOOSSSSS. I had to type it that way it’s ape law. 

But her next book “I Went there and it Sucked, My Time in the Shadow Realm by Mayor of New Jersey Joey Wheeler” is taken by “another strange little girl”. Quackfaster, you chase people around with a scimitar. Just accept your the weird one and live with it like me. You’ll be happier that way. 

And so we finally meet Violet whose introduced pitch perfectly. Webby gives out her usual “Hi I”m Webby”.. and Violet simply holds a finger up, finishes her page and gives a simple “Yes?” It demonstrates her quite nature, her love of reading and her lack of social skills all in one fell swoop. The ensuing dead language off is also pretty damn adorable reminding me of that scene from “Lisa’s Wedding” where she and Hugh fight over a book and reading it before making out.. minus the making out because these are children, no one wants that, and Webby is taken. .and even then again children. Most we get is an innocent peck and some blushing. 

So Violet, finding out Webby needs it and is researching the arcane too offers to research together tonight, bringing a sleeping bag just in case it goes on long... to Lena’s unheard objections as she’s rattled by the break in her normal routine with Webby, and the possibility of Webby falling for someone else. I mean this i framed as a friendship thing... but you can only say “friend” so many times in a work before you sound like a retired grandma in denial about their granddaughter. 

Later at the Mansion, Beakley is enjoying a nice quiet afternoon to herself. Turns out once a month Scrooge has “Binventory Day” where he and the boys catalogue the bin for hours giving her a night to herself and Webby. Webby loudly interuppts the peace as is Cartoon Law, but Beakley is pleased Webby is getting back on the friendship horse. 

Bentina ends up ruining it a bit though by bringing up her previous slumber party disasters... which even Lena at her most jealous admits were her fault and only agrees to in the hopes Webby’s going to cancel. Instead Webby decides to make this the most normal sleepover ever! The one where her new friend is coming to specifically help her with magic. 

 Bentina tries to back her grandaughter/daughter down from this insane logic, but Webby does, if innocently clap back well to her being the one to give her “Be yourself” advice.  “I’m not like you Granny, I need to have friends”

And while Webby quickly flees after Beakley tries to deny it.. she’s not wrong. She has exactly one friend who she works for and no social life to speak of.. and as far as I can tell she’s fine this way. Beakley is happy with her work and raising Webby and has someone to talk to in Scrooge. She has everything she needs, while Webby is a social butterfly.. a socially inept social butterfly. She needs people and loves meeting new people and needs friends and not just her family. One’s an introvert the other’s an extrovert. I’m both at times, and before you ask why yes it is a living nightmare thank you so much for asking. I get where both are coming from. And Beakley clearly had friends at one point it’s just a long war with FOWL and a sudden granddaughter probably whittled it down to just Scrooge. It’s okay to be yourself. 

So this is where the plotlines split off, so as usual, i’m splitting the up. 

Launchpad and Beakley in Getting To Know You And Getting Sucked INto Your Strange and Lovely Fandom

So Beakley naturally cries out “name one person I don’t get along with.. and in walks Launchpad , Nature’s Perfect Himbo, having destroyed the gate and at least being honest he probably will again. Why he’s here when the boys and Scrooge are all gone? 

But I don’t care as this subplot is just.. a nonstop delight. Starting with Beakly inviting Launchpad to sup with her.. which just confuses him. Look Bentina you have to use small words.. it’s a miracle he gets up in the morning, dreses himself and hasn’t died in a tragic gasoline fight accident. You have to know your audience. Still funny.

And “not knowing your audience” continues as Beakly serves them pea soup but Launchpad is intimidated by the spoons and while she does offer to help instead tries to use all of them then a straw and then falls facedown in his soup. And this is the SECOND TIME Beakly’s left someone living at the mansion to die. I mean that’s not a lot but it’s still weird it happened twice. 

Finally they sit quitely, Beakly reading the Scarlet Pimpernell, and Launchpad doing a coloring book. And besides the odd couple energy what I really like about this subplot.. is that it fleshes Beakly out> This is one of her ONLY plots in the entire goddamn series, yes really. 70 episodes and she only got five spotlight episodes/plots. But it does at least show her off: her upperclass pedigree we really don’t see often, showing that while she applied to the job as maid out of necisity she knows her stuff, her love of classic literature and her being out of touch with the common person. It’s not a ton but it’s more than ninja butler or “stop having fun with your kids della and be a parent”. I mean she wasn’t wrong but she could’ve been nicer about it given the circumstances. 

So Launchpad, given Beakley’s never shown any interest in him as a person before, assumes she’s going to fire him and was just softening him up. I mean Scrooge himself outright said he never would and if he did he’d do it to your face, hard as it’d be. But that aside, he’s fine with getting to know her once he knows that no he’s not being fired she just wanted to hang out, he’s everyone’s friend. But naturally an upperclash british former super spy and a dumb as a bucket with a heart of gold pilot have nothing in common, not even aircraft as “plane go up, plane crash going down’ is about the extent of his actual knowledge on aircraft that isn’t instinct or dumb luck. 

He does manage to break the ice though, mistaking her book for a Darkwing Duck book and deciding to show her the show since it might be something they have in common. At first she’s as unintuhsed as you’d expect a british lady who never watches the telly watching a 90′s kids show would be.. but by the end she’s gotten all the way into it.

 It’s really endearing, showning that two vastly diffrent people with nothing can common can be brought together by something as simple and glorious as liking the same show. I’ve had it happen with me. She naturally is all for filiming his fanscript after the finale provides no answers, being the one to suggest it and the two end the episode shooting it with her in full darkwing duck cosplay. I’ts a cute and entertaining subplot and a nice contrast to the main plot which while not super dark, does have a fog of tension over it. Speaking of which. 

Webby, Lena and Violet: In Two’s Company, Three Accidently Creates Monsters That Nearly Take Your Girlfriend Off Into The Shadowy Abyss So the slumber party gets underway with Webby shooing away Duckworth after clearing out her room to greet Violet herself and violet having brought pie... a great callback to an earlier joke where Webby wondered if pie was normal at a sleepover. No but it should be. So Webby welcomes her in to her totally normal room devoid of anything. Nothing suspicious about that. 

So Violet tries to get her into research, specifically Tulpas, an actual magical concept, a mental construct of some kind created out of desire, imagination or what have you. Gee I wonder if that will come into play this episode. Webby.. wants to play baggle or what have you or do makeovers and drags Violet along to do the second thing after Violet asks about Magica.  Lena then finds something glowing in Violet’s bag...specifically, her old amulet, cracked but still working and flowing with Magica’s power. 

Lena assumes Violet is Magica and goes to warn Webby only to find her HORRIBLY MUTATED! Naturally it’s a misdirect, as it turns out Violet is just REALLY good at special effects makeup. It’s something I honestly forgot about her... i’m betting one of her dad’s is an effects artist. Just saying that’d be neat. But Webby gives the “i’m normal really even though I live in a giant mansion with my dad I don’t know is my dad and my grandma whose actually my adopted mom” game away by pointing out the demon’s fang is crooked and Violet is curious and heads to Webby’s room finding a picture from said demon. He signed it and everything. Good man that Rakshaka. 

Webby is worried Violet will be freaked out by all the weird but nope, she enjoys it. And it’s not a suprise: violet is actively researching the shadow dimension. Why WOULD she be scared off. The conflict was in Webby’s head all along.. and partly out of PTSD, but we’ll get to that. Webby still tries to get her to baggle but they settle on ancient rune dice baggle and summoning some spirits. Lena scoffs.. until it actually works. It does make sense though: As we’ll see in her last starring role, Lena is kinda like Wanda Maximoff: she has an extreme amount of power but she has no idea how to use it and is simply making up most of her magic as she goes along or took magica’s lead. But the spell means Lena can touch the dice so she spells out don’t trust her.. but forgets she’s dealing with two nerds who love unlocking puzzles and assume the message is on the dice themselves. 

Webby and Violet decide they need more clarity and resume the seance.. which summons mysterious white shadow creatures Lena saw before.. .some now taking Magica’s shape. And Lena’s panicked “Oh not again” says it all. So Lena tries the tried and true bedsheet ghost cliche, grumbling about it but showing up as a ghost without any abillity to speak or talk to webby dosen’t do anything and Violet tackles the sheet before deciding to grab the amulet to dispiate the spirit.. only for Lena to show up for a breif second before she does show making the panicked child look incredibly supscious. 

Webby naturally tackles and interrogates Violet wanting the full story. And it turns out the big secret is.. Violet is entirely normal. Nothing to do with Magica, no possesions or secretly being her or a minon of hers... she was just a logic obsessed 12 year old who thought magic was a myth.. until the Shadow War proved “Nope it’s real everything you know is wrong. Up is down black is white and short is long”. She just happened to be close to the bin and found the amulet when the remains of the staff fell near her and compacted back into it. 

It’s a brilliant reveal. See first watch around your genuinely unsure if Violet is a real person or not.. unless you went in knowing she is, but semantics. Point is most first time viewers didn’t know she’d be a beloved member of the supporting cast and didn’t know what to expect. But looking back... it makes no sense. If Magica had the amulet.. why would she need to infiltrate the mansion. Revenge? Possibly but she’d want Scrooge there too. Even being evil on her own Violet had valid opportunity to pilfer Webby’s magical items, she has an entire box of magic rocks right there and then simply zap her with the amulet. But she didn’t.. because Violet is a person.  When she DOES use it she’s utterly terrified, and we can see her breathing heavy, scared.. something Magica has NEVER been of Lena. To Violet it was just a ghost. Webby hadn’t told her about lena and any information she had about her was second hand from newspapers and the like. 

Webby is sympathetic, as Violet’s feeling of being sheltered from this greater world naturally resonates and while Lena is still supscious, having reincorperated, it’s clear Webby trusts violet and simply dosen’t want to loose another friend to magic. Here trying to hide it now takes another tone.. she knows Lena was behind it.. but is so afraid of it consuming violet the way it did Lena, she forgets almost ALL of the weird magic stuff in sleepovers was magica’s manipulation, and that Lena died because her creator was a monster, not because of magic. Magic is not inherently good or bad, it just is, and that will come back as a theme in a few episodes. It allowed Magica to ravage the town and kill Lena.. but it allowed Lena to exist in the first place and while the terrible events with Magica clearly shook her.. it also shook violet out of her complacency and got her to research a world she never would’ve considered. Good can come from bad. 

And it’s with this in mind that Violet.. does not give up. She’s stayed in her box enough.. and now she knows the spirit is a friendly one.. she figures they can bring Lena BACK using the amulet. After all it was lena’s and the source of her powers.. it might be the key to reiviving her. And while Lena, if invisibly as always, remarks it’s dangerous.. Webby, with no hesitation agrees to get her girlfriend back. It’s risky sure.. but what Lena hasn’t gotten is she’s WORTH the list. She’s so full of self loathing from both her manupations of webby and Magica’s gaslighting and abuse that she can’t see herself being worth anything even as Webby spent MONTHS trying to save her, clearly still loves her, and only didn’t want violet getting hurt because she misses her.  Webby still loves and needs her for who Lena is.. Lena just can’t it and it hurts to think about that. 

So the girls once again try to summon Lena and it starts to work.. but also summons the Tulpa’s back... this time taking Magica’s form and causing a suspcious lena to panic.. and suck both of them into the shadow realm. We get the reunion we’ve been waiting for as Webby tackle hugs her happily.

But it’s soon cut short as Lena still thinks Violet is just manipulating Webby, lying to her and that “she’s mine!”

For the record Joss Whedon sucks, not taking that out on Anthony Stewart Head  or the guys who actually wrote the episode. Moving on. 

I feel Lena’s jealousy comes from the aformentioned self loathing, mixed with a life of having to live just to surivive at the beck and call of a throughly awful person who didn’t consider her a sentient being worthy of anything especially love. She can’t fathom anyone else loving Webby the way she does because she feels once webby has anyone else.. she won’t need her. It’s toxic and wrong.. but it’s easy to see why that’d happen when sh’es only had one healthy relationship. She barely knows the boys, Beakly only grew to tolerate her and she was only friends with Scrooge for like.. a minute. Webby is the only person she knows, loves and trusts and she just can’t risk loosing that and can’t convince herself to share. 

In a realistic scenario Lena would have to simply learn to trust and let her girlfriend have other relationshps and that hogging her all to herself is inhernetly toxic and bad. And while she still does we’re talking about a living pile of shadows smooching a clone, so yeah instead the tulpas come out and drag her off..and take Lena’s form. While Lena tries to blame Violet, Violet has absolutley none of that and makes Lena see the hard truth: Lena is so worried about being forgotten, she created the tulpas by accidnet. As I said her power is raw and unfocused.. so she didn’t do it on purpose nor did she realize how toxic she was being. This finally snaps Lena back to reality, and see Violet geniunely cares about Webby and any ulterior motives were just in her head, so the two agree to work together, using a similar chant to the one from Jaws to destroy the Tulpas and save Webby.

So the shadow realm is disapated and our trio are returned to the human world.. but Lena, not being part of it and no longer having a tether.. starts to disolve, with a really heartbreaking scene of Webby holding her hand, as does violet. But.. then a miracle happens. Since the Bracelet was Lena’s link to Webby, and to her own magic, with it and the amulet close by.. both swirl around Lena, and the power of love.. for a new friend and a first love... revivies her. Mist parts.. and we get one heartwarming sign that after all this time  “I’m back?!” Lena is confused.. but once again part of this plane of reality. She’s free and WEbby triumphanthly hugs her with Violet joining in. By letting go of her hate.. Lena returned to who she loved. They also run into the end of the other subplot and Launchpad’s casual hey lena is just great. 

So our heroes are reunited and doing horror makeup and I really love Webby’s updo here and wish more works fan nd otherwise used it. WE get a final fakeout as Lena seemingly disovles and Violet reveals herself as magica.. only for it to be a prank and Webby to just be glad the love of her life and her new best friend get a long. We get one last hearwarming image and we close out.. with Lena finally having what she always wanted freedom. And while she may not know it yet in accepting violet.. she’s finally found family. More on that in a few weeks. 

Final Thoughts: This episode is excellent. It’s not the best of the Lena arc, that comes next and it does drag once or twice.. but overall it’s a really great character piece, with a nice ballance betwen the tense main plot and the funny and goofy subplot. It adds more to Lena’s character, finally brings her back, while giving us a new and throughly fascenating new character to rave about in Violet, as well as giving Webby her own personal squad. It’s a great episode.. and only leads to a better one. But we’ll get to that in a week or so. First we have a bit of a detour and my plug. 

If you liked this review, follow for more, spread it around, and join my patreon. It’s almost time for new patreons to pay up and if you hit my stretch goal i’ll review a darkwing duck episode next month and every month! We’re just five bucks away people! And if you’d like to just comission a review directly it’s just 5 bucks an episode and avaliable via my dms, ask or discord. 

Next Time on Shadow Into Light: We take a break from the last two Lena episodes to go to one of her sources as we head back to Ducktales 87 with Magica’s Shadow War! I know almost nothing going in so... Shadow betrayals and stuff? Yay?

Tommorow: It’s Fenton’s birthday! And since i’ve done a LOT of ducktales recently and can’t do super ducktales till I hit my next stretch goal at 25 bucks, we’re going back to ST Canard at long last for Gizmoducks second apperance.. which can’t possibly be worse than the first so i’m excited. Let’s get dangerous tommorow!

[cat-medals]

Blinx: The Time Sweeper - S+ Rank Walkthrough (Round 8)

This is Mod Banana comin’ at ya with Round 8 of the S+ rank walkthrough!

I did some explanations of what this guide’s all about over on the Round 1 section, but for the sake of posterity, I’ll explain some things here too: this is a definitive list of all S+ rank times in Blinx: The Time Sweeper. If you wanna use this guide to get every S+ rank time in the game, I strongly suggest you go check out that list, as I’ve detailed some tips and tricks to getting S+ rank times there that I will be using to create this walkthrough!

Now, on with the show!

Round 8: Forge of Hours –

Stage 1 - S+ rank time (4:20) My personal best: 2:19:96 YOU WILL NEED: 2 slows, 1 record, 5 spike bullets, TS-2000 Freeze

Here it is: the final round! This round really cracks down with the hardest difficulty of all - which is at least fitting for a final stage! The time monsters are very scant (actually falling between Rounds 2 and 3 in terms of monster density, which is pretty crazy), but what time monsters are around are the toughest of them all. Like in Round 5, the difficulty is meant to come more from environmental traps and hazards, but unlike Round 5, it actually succeeds, creating an utterly brutal gauntlet of platforming challenges with instant death explosions, fireballs, molten metal, spinning blades and arc-lightning at every turn. Following this general increase in difficulty, the time limits are also less forgiving than in Round 7, but - in the later stages at least - if you know what you’re doing, you can still achieve S+ ranks without even trying. This Round also features the return of the Fire Dragons, which is why you’ll notice I’ve recommended the TS-2000 Freeze for each stage. It’s not as necessary here in Stage 1, but it’ll still save you a bunch of time.

Start by dropping off the ledge in front of you, falling all the way to the bottom of the area. Sweep up the broken car behind the Dust Herder down here, then hit your record to score a shot on it, dispatch the two Octoballoons, and fire out the rest of your spike bullets to be picked back up in real time. Once you’ve swept them up in normal time, you should have a total of 8 spike bullets in your sweeper, plus a broken car. Suck up one piece of trash to finish off the Dust Herder, then head on through the door to the next area. Slabs of molten metal whizz by on a moving floor, but if you turn your camera to see where they’re coming from, you can easily make it across the danger zone without using a time control. However, you will need to use one after you’ve stepped on that switch at the other end of the field: it drains the molten metal from the room up ahead, but it’ll refill before you can fully cross it, so once it’s as empty as it’ll get, head along the metal walkway and hit your first slow as you approach the corner. This should give you enough time to finish making your way across the ledges, and back up out of the room, where you’ll find yourself... on the other side of the grating where the metal slabs were speeding by.

Start by just ignoring the switch next to you, as its only purpose is to lower the level of the molten metal in the previous room in case you want to backtrack for... some reason. The slow should still be active, so proceed past the sheets of molten metal and take out the Octoballoon on the other side. Heading into the next area, you’ll need to activate another slow in order to steal a part from the level 2 Magic Golem. These guys aren’t any more difficult to kill than their level 1 variants, but they have broken clocks which rotate around them, making them slightly more deadly. It’ll also completely mess up your trash routing if you hit one of them by accident, but luckily they’re not very easy to hit... what a weird sentence. Anyway, ditch the Magic Golem part once it’s no longer able to be assimilated, and get to work on the other time monsters in this area: a Tyfoen and a level 4 Spike Blob. Be careful of the arc-lightning machine in the centre of this area as you go around killing things - it shoots in a fixed pattern, but you’ll probably be better off just jumping over its firing lines whether it’s actually firing or not.

When all the time monsters have been taken care of, shoot the target above the molten lake to raise some gears out of it. There’ll be fireballs arcing overhead, but as long as you don’t jump into the one that spawns closes to the start, you should be fine without the need for a time control. Once you’re on the other side, take a right to press down the switch. It stops a pair of gears that you’ll subsequently have to jump across (but which will start moving again if you’re not quick enough). Again, with the gears stopped for the maximum amount of time, you can hop safely across without using a time control. Up ahead is a rolling field of bombs and two Octoballoons. Intimidating, if you don’t know where they explode and don’t have spike bullets handy, but if you’re following this guide then that’s not an issue! The bombs mostly explode on the lava, and on the furthest edge of the next platform you’ll need to jump on, so as long as you stay close-ish to the lava (but outside the blast radius) and keep an eye on where the bombs are rolling from (like the molten metal slabs from earlier in the stage), you can make it to the platform easily, dispatching the two Octoballoons once you do.

Finally, the goal gate is just up ahead, guarded by a Fire Dragon and a Tyfoen. Just like before, there are fireballs arcing overhead on the run up towards them, but if you don’t immediately get smacked by the first fireball you can run into, then the rest should past harmlessly overtop of you as you go. Spike bullet the Tyfoen, use some of the trash lying around to freeze the Fire Dragon to death, and hop into the waiting goal gate!

Stage 2 - S+ rank time (6:45) My personal best: 2:23:53 YOU WILL NEED: 1 slow, 2 spike bullets - 1 super bomb - 1 spike bullet (in order of firing), TS-2000 Freeze

A sudden jump in goal time means you have a lot more room for error when getting S+ here. I still beat this stage in six minutes flat just using the TS-2000 Freeze and with no extra trash.

Start off by turning to your left and dispatching the Tyfoen with a spike bullet. Sweep up the large car nearby, and use it plus your second spike bullet to take care of the Spike Blob in this little starting pit. Sweep up the rusty engine, then jump out of the pit and fire it just to the right of the little entrance visible across the molten metal stream, where you can retrieve it once you’re over there. Speaking of which, hop onto the gear, then make like a funk artist and let the groove carry you to the other side. Fire off your super bomb into the room full of time monsters, sweep up the rusty engine you sent over earlier, then once the bomb has done its damage, head on inside to finish off any stragglers with the small trash lying around. Congratulations, we’re one paragraph in and you’ve already beaten over half of the time monsters in this level. Don’t forget to step on the switch in the corner to raise some moving platforms that you’ll have to cross after you leave this room.

Once said moving platforms have been traversed, you’ll have to make a rather mean jump (in that Blinx’s jump distance only just barely covers it) to a nearby platform. As you run ahead, a TomTom will spawn behind you, but just let him have his fun stealing the gold as you proceed up the stairs to a switch, timing your passage to dodge a fireball. The switch will stop some rotating gears up ahead for you to cross, and while they will eventually start moving again, the time limit is extremely generous - no time control required. You should make it onto the next ledge with just barely enough time to run forward and sweep up a part from the Magic Golem, but once you’ve done so and discarded it, you’ll want to ignore the Magic Golem entirely. Instead, sweep up the large piece of trash next to it, turn around, and get two trickshots on the red Octoballoon and the Tyfoen across the chasm. Doing this saves you at least one time control, a good twenty or thirty seconds, and a massive headache of trying to contend with the spinning platform that would usually get you across to that area.

Once that’s done, turn back around and spike bullet the Magic Golem, then sweep up two small pieces of trash. Now, see the gear attached to the wall behind you, above by where you jumped up to get to this ledge? Go ahead and jump into the groove of this gear, and let it carry you up to your next time monster, a Fire Dragon. The two pieces of trash you just grabbed will take care of it. Sweep up the large car and one more small piece of trash, then hop along the gears behind where the Fire Dragon was stood. You’ll see your final two targets on a ledge up ahead, but with the conveyors working against you and a lightning machine to dodge as you go, you’ll want to go ahead and activate your slow as you reach the final conveyor and hop onto the platform. Use the small trash to break the Fire Dragon’s illusion, and use the slowed time to steal a piece of the Magic Golem, then stand in a place where you won’t get zapped. Use either that Golem part or another piece of small trash on the Fire Dragon’s true form, and the broken car on the Golem, and with that, every time monster has been defeated. The goal gate is waiting for you on a walkway just beside this platform that overlooks the whole stage, so run on over and complete the sweep!

This stage also cuts off my replays after like a minute. Very annoying.

Stage 3 - S+ rank time (7:00) My personal best: 2:25:26 I RECOMMEND: 2 records (1 required), 1 pause, 2 slows, 2 spike bullets - 1 super bomb - 3 spike bullets (in order of firing), TS-2000 Freeze

So, here it is: the final stage of the game. You’ll notice that I’ve changed ‘you will need’ to ‘I recommend’. The reason for this is that... well, this stage is really buggy. It comes as a result of the stage design being very compact and layered into multiple ‘floors’, which can cause things from upper floors to adversely affect things on lower floors (or vice versa). As such, it’s impossible to route trash for this stage with complete consistency, so I can only offer my usual suggestions with the added proviso that you may have to ad lib things halfway through the stage because an enemy dropped off a ledge and onto your head.

First up in this stage is another field of bombs. Taking even a single step forward will get you blown up by the nearest of the bomb pits, but you’ve got spike bullets and you’ve got time controls; you don’t need to deal with this. Hit your pause as soon as you emerge in the stage, use the trash cans in from of you as pedestals to spike bullet the Octoballoons, and cross the frozen field to a frozen gear on your right. Make use of stopped time to not have to deal with the rotating spikes that sweep over the top of it, and land in the next area: a maze of swinging axes and Spike Blobs (plus a Dust Herder). The nearby button just stops the axes, which you’ll want to press to line up a shot with your super bomb, aiming for the middle of the three Spike Blobs at the back of the area. Once the damaged Spike Blobs have targeted you for steamrolling, hit your first record to let them pass harmlessly through you, then turn around and spike bullet them in the back. Take out the Dust Herder in real time, then proceed to the end of the platform.

A Magic Golem may drop onto you from above here depending on what mood the butterfly of chaos theory is in. Take it out if it does appear, then hop onto the gear up ahead and activate your slow, giving you time to jump onto the axle of the next gear, and from there to the top of the gear, and then onto the next platform. This area has a Fire Dragon and a Tyfoen for you to deal with, plus a large piece of trash to help you out. Watch out for the floor in general here: some obvious marked spots will crumble away when you step on them, but in some areas it’s also possible for the explosions from the bomb field below you to clip through the floor and kill you. Like I said, buggy stage. When all the time monsters have been cleared out, head over to the next set of gears and activate your second slow to help avoid the spike bar as you cross them.

This platform is where the Magic Golem will be sitting if it didn’t fall on your head earlier in the stage. The nearby button stops all the gears and the lightning machine, so if you need to take the Magic Golem out now, you may want to use it. Otherwise, carry on to the next spinning gear staircase, taking out the lone blue Octoballoon as you go. Finally, you’ll reach the last regular time monster in the game: one final Magic Golem. Take it out, hop over the large pipe... vent... whatever that thing is, and you’ll find a rather neat puzzle, the only one of its kind in the game. It’s a simple record puzzle, but it makes use of the fact that your recording is invincible to stand on an insta-death molten metal seesaw to slide a platform over to you, and then run across the seesaw to slide it back, ferrying your real-time self to the platform where the goal gate awaits you!

Boss - S+ rank time (4:00) My personal best: 2:57:46 YOU WILL NEED: 1 fast-forward, 3 records, 4 spike bullets

This boss has perhaps the most complex strategy of them all. Things start off simple: hit your fast-forward, run to the right to dodge the boss’ charge, shoot it with a spike bullet when it becomes vulnerable.

After that though, things get interesting. Unlike the Round 5 boss fight, this guy won’t become vulnerable again until you shoot all the little junk orbs he spawns. This is where your recording comes in: with your remaining spike bullets and the small trash that drops into the stage, activate a recording to take out the junk orbs, then just misdirect the boss while your real-time self chills out elsewhere. Repeat to score the second and third hits on the boss. The final phase of the boss will involve it jumping around the stage and destroying parts of the platform you stand on, but with your recording taking care of the junk orbs, the boss won’t end up doing a whole lot to you. Dodge out of the way of one more charge attack, then score the final hit to beat the boss!

Do note that the goal platform appears on one edge of the arena, but it does not stop rotating even after the boss is dead. Take care as you jump into the goal gate!

–

Time sweep complete!

[libertarian-druid-ny-separatist]

I honestly hope for a second American Revolution sometimes just so I can sit about innawoods singing sea shanties. But then I remember the commies will try to take hold.

But I could profit massively by starting a mercenary group of rangers. If it came down to it I’d fight on either side, just not for commies. They can’t pay with cash or with crops. But I can sail, sell, hunt, fish, farm, build, and run a faction plus I’ve already got 50 men who are willing to follow my command. So I’ll turn my town into a safe zone with their help and volunteers that I’ll get armed either from my personal arms or from the ak factory a town over.

Then it’s just a matter of building hedgehogs and dragon’s teeth which I also know how to do.

Shit, if CHAZ can pay me enough I’ll fly out there and train them on how to do this shit. Since last I knew their leader was using a vska, they at least need someone to train them with AKs which are my specialty. All I’d need in return is for at least one of them to get their hands on an AES10B so they’ve got one semi strong point in their defenses. So if they get one man there that knows “Spanish Ladies” and the money to pay me then I’m open to the idea of training them on any rifle platform, on basic agriculture, and on defenses. If they pay more, then I’ll do more. But the minimum is $1500 a week or $214 a day or $8.90 an hour. But of course that’s all 24 hours of the day. And of course they need steel and concrete as well as welding tools and something I can use as a mold or some stone carving tools. Believe me though, that’s probably the lowest price you’d find. But that is any rifle, from any time period, from any country. Sturdy defenses. Food. And I can make firearms and if the need were to arise, nitroglycerin or tnt if you want to be a little safer. Or grenades with a hand lit fuse. For all that knowledge $1500 doesn’t sound like a lot.

But as it sits, chaz was cleared. Meaning I ain’t making shit for cash there. Probably for the best. But if this shit were to happen elsewhere in the US, my offer still stands. $1500 a week. All that knowledge. Hell if you wanted I could even teach you how to expand further. That might cost slightly more though since you’d also have to deal with people not happy about it.

For those of you questioning the format of this post, it was a multi day draft. But the shanties part, I’m dead serious there. I want an excuse to sing shanties and most of those are militarily based.

I’ll sit up in my house, in its own cop free town, then go to work surrounded by police that seem to follow me. To end this long ass post that’s been days in the making. Have a song.

[ladala99]

Spyro Reignited Countdown - A Hero’s Tail

And finally we get... I guess it’s not really a return to form but it is a return to greatness.

A Hero’s Tail uses the Spyro characters and basic mechanics and makes it a modern (for the time) platformer. This does eliminate one of the franchise’s core features (finite gems), but ultimately, it did a good job and did the franchise justice.

And it also officially introduces Ember, who Spyro fanficcers liked to ship with Spyro, especially as a rival ship versus Cynder of later titles. Yes, that was a part of the fanbase I frequented. I am not sorry.

Gameplay

Spyro’s controls are brought to the modern (again, for the time) age, with a much more responsive camera and really that’s the only major difference. Spyro feels like Spyro. He flames, he charges, and he glides.

...Well, aside from the fact that they swapped the Flame and Charge buttons, and now you have to hold X to glide rather than just press it. I first played this game as a demo and legitimately thought the change was a mistake, but nope. Not entirely sure why it was made, but it was. Perhaps it aligns with other PS2 platformers better?

Mini rant, courtesy of how 3-year-old me remembered the controls: Circle is flame because it’s red and the mouth makes an O. Square is Charge because the sides are pointy. X is jump because the X is blue like air and you are in the air while jumping. Triangle is zoom in because the bottom represents a really wide view and the top represents a really narrow view. Why would you change this?

But anyway, it works for the game. Aside from not matching previous games, it’s easy to adapt to and the controls are very responsive. They’re not quite as tight as in the originals, but they’re very close.

Additional Playable Characters

We’ve got a few this time. There’s Hunter, Sparx, Sgt. Byrd and the new character Blink. Totally new. What are you talking about with the “but he appeared in a GBA game”?

While Hunter was technically playable before, this is the first time you can platform with him. His moveset’s pretty similar to Spyro’s, aside from one of his main attacks being very ranged. Aside from his arrows, he’s basically Spyro, but not as maneuverable. Yeah, he can scale walls and Spyro doesn’t in this game, but that ability originally belonged to Spyro, so it doesn’t feel unique.

What is unique is that one section that you’re forced to play as him as part of the story. That was neat. And frustrating because he does not platform as well as Spyro does, since his movements are floaty and you can’t correct them with gliding like you can Spyro’s, and this area has a lot of small platforms.

Sparx has a completely different gameplay style this time: rail-shooter. It’s honestly not that bad, especially in comparison to Season of Ice’s Speedways. I just prefer the other Sparx gameplay.

Sgt. Byrd, speaking of Speedways, takes over for Spyro during them. And his levels are definitely not designed in the same way the old Speedways were designed. It used to be that there was a clear linear path to take from one object to the next, but that is not the case here. I like these Speedways better than Season of Ice’s, but I don’t like them much.

As far as actual controls go, Sgt. Byrd does just fine. Sometimes his turning is a little difficult, but it works for how wide open the areas are.

Blink controls very similarly to Hunter, with the main difference being how the level is designed. Blink’s levels are all underground, having a specific set of enemies and such, and they’re all considered minigames with the goal of destroying Dark Gems. He suffers from the same floatiness as Hunter, and there’s certainly a lot of platforms. Somehow, though, his levels never got me stuck like Hunter’s did in that one section.

Sometimes I feel that Eurocom wanted to make a Blink game, not a Spyro game. While Blink’s levels are minigames, they’re really fleshed out and well-designed. They have plenty of variety, if not in appearance.

Collectables

Gems are not just currency to be used at Moneybags’ shop. They’re found everywhere, and can be collected from enemies multiple times. At the beginning you’ll be hurting for them, but by the end of the game you’ll have much more than you know what to do with. At least, that’s my experience.

Dragon Eggs return, with a twist. They’re pretty much optional, and much less valuable than the other main collectable. This time, dragon eggs come in different patterns and if you collect a set, you unlock a thing. A lot of those things are just the ability to play minigames from the main menu.

The things that I care about are the concept art gallery (as that’s always cool) and the Ember and Flame skins. Mostly Ember since I like playing as female characters. It’s just a skin, though, and it changes back to Spyro in cutscenes plus uses his sound effects. Still: first time skins are in the game, unless you count the color cheats!

Finally we get Light Gems. They’re used to power up gadgets and open doors. They’re required for progress in certain places, but not always. They’re always rewarded on the second round of minigames, which means everybody talks about how worthless Dragon Eggs are in comparison. We don’t want these unborn children, give us the shiny thing!

Oh, and Dark Gems. They aren’t collected, but destroyed. You need to smash all of them to continue.  They’re just scattered around the levels. You’ll come across them.

Powerups

Supercharge returns! Sort of! It’s one of the powerups that the Professor unlocks for you when you collect enough Light Gems. It really doesn’t feel the same, and it’s used for a few doors, some of which you can’t just charge to from the pad.

There’s also invincibility which works like it did in Lost Fleet, allowing you to travel through acid. Just with a stricter time limit and now it makes Spyro metal rather than red.

Finally I’ll mention the orb-thingys that let you use a ranged version of your breath abilities. I literally have never used them, but they’re there. I can’t say one way or the other how useful they are, but they definitely are not necessary.

Other Modes

The other minigames, as all minigames repeat, are turrets and ball gadgets.

Turrets aren’t hard, but they are stressful. You need to protect the thing while other things try to steal/eat/whatever it. Or you need to protect yourself and hit a huge number of enemies. I don’t like this minigame. Especially the baby turtle one.

Ball Gadgets are much more fun to watch than they are to play. The controls work, but it takes a bit to stop. There’s also a couple of on-rails ones that are really trial-and-error. Even knowing what to do, you’re going to fast to react so you need to memorize every action.

Breath Abilities

This game continues the trend of having them! And acts like it’s the first time at the same time. Enter the Dragonfly is apparently not canon.

Fire acts like it always has. They didn’t do the particle effect thing like Enter the Dragonfly did so it moves forward with you as it should.

Electricity starts out as a weaker Fire and then ends up being much more useful. It takes longer to defeat enemies, but there are certain enemies that are immune to Fire but not Electricity. After a point, it’s not worth it to switch back, since Fire just isn’t universally useful like Electricity is.

Water is just used for puzzles. Nothing else. This is also the only time Water is an element in the series.

Ice freezes certain things (like steam vents so you can use them to pole spin), and enemies of course. There are certain enemies in the final area that are only weak to Ice. (Maybe Water too, but I haven’t tried) Otherwise it freezes enemies so you can charge them like in other games.

Bosses

Finally, we get some new ones!

Gnasty Gnorc returns as the first boss. He’s actually far stronger than he was in Spyro 1, ironically enough. The fight itself is a pretty fun platformer boss fight, but his personality... it’s so childish. It’s like they didn’t know who he really was before.

Ineptune is a new character. The fight itself is, again, great for this style of game. Her character is kind of forgettable, though.

And then we get Red, who we fight twice. The first time is actually harder if only for the fact that you’re in an icy arena and thus the controls are more slippery. He’s not a very complex villain, but his fights are pretty fun, but very similar to the other two.

Special mention to the mammoth, who wins via being in a cutscene. You never see him again, having no chance to best him. He is truly Spyro’s greatest foe.

Levels

Continuing from Attack of the Rhynocs, the levels are much more seamless. They’re still very distinct, but in a lot of cases (moreso early-on than later) they feel like the same level as you begin in.

And again like Attack of the Rhynocs, the levels don’t have concrete ends. You can check your map and see how many Dark Gems are left, but it doesn’t really feel like you’ve finished even after you smash them all.

There’s no main conflict to defeat or anything, it’s just exploring and smashing Dark Gems, and occasionally finding a Dragon Elder to give you new skills. You get a checklist, but it’s not the same.

The theming is fine, if generic. Older Spyro games tended to have an irony to them, but not this one. Everything is played straight. Which, of course, makes it so this game doesn’t stand out very much.

Story

I don’t even know if I fully understand it. So Red’s an evil dragon who mined some Dark Gems to spread evil throughout the lands. And the Elders are very hesitant to tell you more.

Eventually it comes out that Red used to be an Elder, but he betrayed them. I really don’t understand why they couldn’t just tell Spyro that. Do the Elders just have a reputation that they don’t want to sully or something?

We get no motivation on Red’s part, and normally I’d be fine with that, but with all the secrets I expect a bit more. Also: who’s Ineptune in all this?

There’s parts where I feel I missed a game. Ember knows Spyro, and Spyro appears to know Ember. I feel like I should know who Ineptune is just because of how little introduction she gets.

I read that there was going to be a TV show that got cancelled but the games didn’t, but it was literally one forum post and it may have just been someone making things up. It would certainly explain things, though.

Unique in the Series?

Yes and no. It definitely has a unique feel as far as the series goes, but it’s very generic at the same time.

A lot of what it introduces is used again in later games, even though that part of the series is very different.

But yeah, Water Breath, Pole Spinning, and Wall Kicking are unique to this game in the series. They aren’t unique in general (See: Mario. Yes, even Water Breath. See: Sunshine), but for the series, definitely.

It’s at that weird awkward part in which it’s not anything groundbreaking, but it’s still really good.

Conclusion

Best post-Insomniac Classic Spyro, if only by default. It’s generic for its time, bringing Spyro fully into said time. It works, it’s fun, and I wish there were more to this part of the series that weren’t... well, Orange.

[advrik]

It’s The Big “E3 2019 Hopes and Dreams” Blog Entry!

Yep, it’s that magical time of year when all our favorite developers gather ‘round the great Sega Genesis with CD and 32X attachments and the Sonic & Knuckles locked on with Sonic 3 in the cartridge slot and sing about all their new games!

I’m talking about the Electronic Entertainment Expo, held every June in Los Angeles where all of the great developers and publishers, both console and software alike, come together and reveal new games, consoles and other video game-related stuff over, all over the course of three days!

At least, that’s how it was in times long past. Nowadays, the festivities kick off much earlier, with the first of the big brand names - Microsoft - holding their event two days before E3 actually kicks off.

As always, my list that is coming up here shortly after the break will focus almost entirely on Nintendo and Nintendo-related announcements. 

So without further ado, let’s get right into this because there’s quite a bit to cover on the Nintendo front this year compared to years past!

The Prediction List

Animal Crossing for Nintendo Switch A nice two and a half minute long reveal trailer, showing off the new graphical engine and quick glimpses of new features and locations. Releases later this year. More info and footage in the Treehouse event after the Direct.

Pokemon Sword and Shield A quick trailer collecting info that was revealed in the Pokemon Direct the week prior. November 15th.

Super Mario Maker 2 New short trailer revealing the sixth and final resource pack: Super Mario Bros. 2!

Pikmin 3 port, coming in early September, but the Pikmin fun doesn’t stop there!

Pikmin 4 is launching on Nintendo Switch in Q1 2020! 

Even more reasons to subscribe to NSO! Super Nintendo games are coming to the Switch! Subscribers can download the new NSO| SNES app today after the Direct and gain access to 5 SNES games immediately with new titles being added monthly.

The second fighter in the Smash Bros. Ultimate fighters pass gets revealed and it’s... a Dragon Quest rep! 

Cadence of Hyrule brings the rhythmic dungeon crawling action to Nintendo Switch TODAY. Available after the Direct.

Luigi’s Mansion 3 receives a subtitle and a new trailer showing off story elements. Mario and the gang are on vacation and are staying at what they thought was a normal hotel, but things quickly get spooky and the gang (minus Luigi) are kidnapped by the ghosts that haunted the seemingly normal hotel and it’s up to Luigi to rescue them. The game is structured similarly to the original, but with some side mission stuff akin to Dark Moon. October 25th, 2019.

Game Freaks digital-only title TOWN gets a final title, a new trailer and a July release window.

Awaken once more with The Legend of Zelda: Links Awakening! The remake we’ve all been waiting for after Nintendo ignored the game for the past 25 years. They show off new features, events and locations that weren’t in the original game, but also offer a 1:1 mode that follows the original game . Late 2019

Of course there will be a third party sizzle reel, showing off multiple games coming to the Switch from various developers, some of which are new.

The Witcher 3, the port that everyone thought impossible, is coming in September and it looks and runs well! Includes major side quest that leads to Geralt finding the Master Sword

Our friends at Microsoft have a very important announcement for you! They thank us for purchasing Cuphead and showing support for their unprecedented partnership with Nintendo, then announce Halo: The Master Chief Collection, coming November 2019! Cross-Play with PC and Xbox One/Anaconda included.

Astral Chain and Fire Emblem Three Houses get some new trailers, with Astral Chain getting a bit of a deep dive of info.

Retro’s new title is finally revealed after five long years.

Bayonetta 3 is revealed with a short trailer. 2020, witches!

“That’s it for our Nintendo Direct E3 showcase. We have one last thing to show you, so please stay until the very end.” Koizumi bows as the screen fades to black. Metroid 2: Samus Returns HD is coming to the Switch later this year with upgraded visuals and refinements, Samus’ previous 3DS adventure is making the jump to the big screen. And the screen fades to black again. "Mercury Stream presents...”

A quick 30 second look at some of the locales and glimpses of side scrolling gameplay.

Metroid V

2020

Thanks for watching.

That’s it for my predictions. 

I expect the Direct to give us several 2020 announcements simply because 2019 doesn’t have a whole lot of wiggle room left for new announcements. This is partly due to my being annoyed with how they have been loading the second halves of the year with heavy hitters but leaving the first half barren. I want them to dish out some 2020 titles to show that stuff is coming.

yeah yeah, I know, they specifically mentioned that the focus would be titles releasing in 2019. The keyword there is “focus”. They ALWAYS announce future titles despite their wording. Don’t @ me.

Now for my wish list, which is built with less restraint than my prediction list. 

During the Square-Enix presentation, they will finally reveal just what that Collection of Mana trademark was for and it will be... Final Fantasy Adventure, Secret of Mana, [x] of Mana(Seiken Densetsu 3, with an official translation!), Sword of Mana AND Legend of Mana. Launching on all three major platforms and Steam.

Also, Secret of Mana remake on Switch. Digital only. Same day release!

Mega Man X9 in the style of Mega Man 11 or another Legacy Collection consisting of the five Mega Man World Gameboy games plus Mega Man & Bass.

A Paper Mario sequel in the vein of the original/Thousand Year Door

MonolithSofts brand new game gets a reveal and it is a medieval action RPG with direct control over your characters versus the MMO-lite style that the Xenoblade games go for

Square-Enix pulls it off and announces a Final Fantasy VIII port for all major consoles, as well as several ports of the ugly Steam remakes of the other 6 Final Fantasy games.

Netflix announces a Dark Crystal turn-based RPG that follows the events of Age of Resistance during their panel at E3.

[gofancyninjaworld]

OPM Chapter 93 Thoughts

<20 in bold at the end.

It goes without saying that if you've not read this chapter yet, you probably shouldn't read this!

Typeset: https://imgur.com/a/cuCBt76

Youtube video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AopCejGDKMg

The ART!

If there’s only one thing I’d declare my love for, it’d have to be the art.  It brought the characters and the sense of place to life in a way I’ve not yet seen in One-Punch Man.

This chapter round, Murata did not pour his energy into elaborate backgrounds or spectacular scenes. His assistants did wonderfully at the backgrounds, particularly in showing the dereliction of City Z. So you'd think this chapter would be quick and easy to knock out? NO. WAY. Murata poured his art into detailing and delineating characters, bringing their very souls to life as we've rarely seen before. So many characters, both familiar and new. Along with the incredible character interaction, this chapter has been a real treat for the eyes as well as the mind.  

More thoughts still under the cut!

Chapter Theme: You Can't Escape the Pressure

Everyone is under pressure. It's on everyone, both that imposed by the external circumstances and that imposed on themselves by the characters. So much of the ugliness we see in the S-Class meeting comes from that pressure. I'll deal with Fubuki, Bang, King and Genos separately.

The collective pressure to prove themselves is on the support heroes. While they may be the support, their role is just as crucial and their objectives are many -- containing any escaping monsters, clearing an escape route and making sure that Waganma is escorted to safety. OneShotter definitely feels the toughness of the assignment while Needle Star focusses on the other side of the pressure: the potential reward of promotion.

Even at the top, the pressure is intense. If anything it's worse. Being based in A-City, the executives have to look at the results of their failure every single day, at the still-raw lunar landscape that used to be most of A-City. Metal Knight didn't even bother trying to fill in the larger craters, but just built road bridges over them. Sekingal may be ambitious but he has earned Sicchi's respect for not merely being the guy in the suit who sits back in relative safety while sending heroes to their doom. He's going to be there with them -- he's tied not just his reputation and career trajectory to the success of the mission, but his very life.

I don't think many people would begrudge Sekingal his ambition nor any of the support heroes for being politically shrewd in their desire for promotion. They're doing the work and taking the risks, why shouldn't they make sure to get their reward? It's people who use politicking as a substitute for doing the good work whom we object to.

Wanted: Leadership and Unity

ONE has long had a special dislike for experts without actual expertise. One of his early cameo characters was a Mr. Nanmoshirane (Mr. I don’t know) who was a pundit making useless pronouncements on the mosquitoes that had appeared over City Z. So, why is a ten year old in charge of S-Class? Because he's the best at the job and has lots ofleadership experience? HA, not a bit of it! It's because he's clever (technologically), is available, and is the only one who will speak up. 

Unfortunately, Child Emperor hasn't got the personal authority to shut down dissent and is having to rely on mollifying the egos of the other heroes to keep them all on side and focussed on the threat in front of them.   To watch the clash of titanic egos as they try to work out how best to approach the Monster Association raid is to feel for Child Emperor.  But he manages.

And then Sweet Mask appears.  As a deeply disliked and barely respected hero, his presence is unwelcome in the first instance and his insistence in not just joining the strike team but leading it started to create an ugly situation. 

Watching the S-Class meeting nearly implode into bloodshed, all I can think is with allies like this, who needs enemies? It's evident that no matter how talented the individuals are, without a sense of shared purpose around which they can rally and actual strong leadership, they're going to be easily working at cross-purposes to one another.

Fubuki: The Power of Spite

Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned? I guess Shakespeare knows what he's talking about -- here comes Miss Blizzard and she's looking to raise hell, both with the Monster Association and with her sister.

So much of her anger is not for the monster, Do-S, who brainwashed her group. After all, Do-S is a monster -- that's what monsters do. It's for Tatsumaki, who seriously hurt the members of her group and who has now had her dismissed without so much as a say. That's what she cannot forgive. She's taking them both on, both on a personal level and on the behalf of the group of heroes and compatriots she loves and nurtures.

While it's hilarious that she thinks of Saitama's group as her 'new' Fubuki group and is outraged at how completely she's ignored, her astuteness cannot be faulted.

Go Blizzard!

Bang: A Shabby Way to Treat a Good Man

I salute Bang's sense of responsibility in coming all the way out to A-City in order to find out what is going on, since the loss of his communicator has meant that he has no way to keep abreast of the situation. Watching Sicchi lie to Bang's face was just painful.

It's shocking how quickly narratives grow up around events. Sicchi may have defended Bang staunchly to the other executives, but he's asking if Bang let Garou go. Even Bomb is questioning Bang over it. And Bomb was there! You see how deeply this hurts Bang.

And yet, even now, Bang hasn't given up on Garou. He's jumped at the chance to 'accompany' King as he puts it in order to fulfil his duty to apprehend Garou. Maybe even to save him if he still can.

King: The Paper Tiger Becomes a Cardboard Tiger

King running away only to get himself deeper into trouble is nothing new, although it's wonderfully done here. His accidentally defusing the S-Class meeting's tension was absolutely stellar timing. And how freaky is it that even through several walls, Zombieman can hear the King engine?

However, what's new is that King can be mighty brave... so long as it's from behind Saitama. Watching King dying inside even as he puts on a brave face and says brave-sounding things has been quite the edifying development. He so wasn't counting on being bundled off to the Monster Association like a secret weapon though. Being deferred to and consulted by the other heroes was terrifying enough. The out-of-body experience he was having at the end is one for the ages. :D

You Wait Forever For A Cyborg And Then Three Come At Once

Conventional wisdom is that a cyborg is hard to kill. Defeat one, sure. Kill one, that takes some dedication. Accordingly, we see the return of Jet Nice Guy, phew! His backstory is that he won the lottery, then used his winnings on buying body modification surgery -- I'm glad they were good enough to keep him alive and that he's still got enough money (and enough desire) to return to hero work, looking better than ever. Learning that Drive Knight is also a cyborg has been awesome. Finally the question of what Drive Knight is has been settled, although the clues have been there for a while, mostly in Murata's art spreads, one of which shows him eating noodles through his mouth grille and another that shows him lounging in the swimming pool with a snorkel. His cyborg nature is why the rest of the S-Class are hoping that he may yet be alive, even if he's incapacitated.

I hope that we get to see what Jet Nice Guy and Drive Knight do. I hope the conventional wisdom isn't tested too hard!

As to the cyborg we know best, Genos, he has has gone dragon-crazy. [That said, his enabler-in-chief, Dr. Kuseno, has no right to say that it is Genos who is reckless: there's a bit of the devil in the old man too, what with putting such a badly-balanced build together for him.] I think I see the rational side of why Genos is gunning for dragon-level monsters so hard. As far as he's concerned, they're just a stepping stone in his path to strength -- huge, treacherous, bitey stepping stones, but stepping stones nonetheless. But they're rare monsters. If one pops up, it'll be assigned to Tatsumaki or a group of well-tested S-Class heroes. As a new guy who is still building his track record, Genos has no chance of being assigned one, not even to support another hero.

The conservative way to become a dragon-slayer is to painstakingly grind away, improving his proficiency with demon-level monsters until the HA is so confident in his ability to deal with them that they'd consider briefing him on joining other S-Class heroes to deal with a dragon-level threat. That'll take weeks. Genos is a little less... patient.

The Monster Association is the only place where he's guaranteed a crack at them. There are five main possible outcomes.

A: He gets killed or crippled (the scenario that literally keeps Dr. Kuseno awake). It is a risk that exists regardless of what he does -- monsters target even the most peaceable civilians. As a hero, Genos has a great big target on his back anyway.

B: He gets beaten down without taking out any dragons. Here's the thing: at the very least he's no worse off than beforeand he gets invaluable battle data to build up on. The data will help to sort between changes and strategies that were never going to work and those that might yet work with some improvement.

C: He gets beaten down but kills or critically injures at least one dragon. He gains that invaluable battle data plus a basis on which to consolidate gains. Gets a promotion to around S-10 (more likely rank 10 - 12)

D: He doesn't get beaten down and kills or critically injures at least one dragon. He can work on using data and experience to further refine the fighting platform. Gets promotion to well within top ten and to ask Saitama for his next assignment.

E: He doesn't get beaten down but doesn't take down any dragons, either. This scenario will have Dr. Kuseno sigh in relief, but it's the only really bad outcome from his perspective. He's lost data and the chance to tackle such monsters. He'll have to grind like mad and hope for another lucky break.

I rate the likelihoods of the various scenarios as A - 0%; (ONE isn't about to kill Genos over this fight), B - 60%; (no change from webcomic), C - 39%; (it's a big step up and still respects what happens in the webcomic), D - 1%; (in that case the first half of chapter 108 is redundant) and E - 0%; (don't worry boy, here be lots of dragons).

Rounding up

This may have been a set up chapter, but it was anything but uneventful. 32 people are responding to what is for most, the greatest challenge they've yet faced. Okay, one of them is Saitama and he's just wandering around oblivious to the import of anything.

I can't wait for the fights, when we see all the tensions and motivations explode into action.

<20: The keg is full of dynamite, and the fuse is lit. Bring on the explosion!

[authoressskr]

Secret Santa (Part Two)

Prompt: Secret Santa who keeps getting me random shit, like why would I want this blender AU (I Tweaked It A Bit)  ++  Pairing: Castiel x Reader  ++  Warnings: Language  ++  Word Count: 1,706

Note: Do NOT repost, copy and paste, post or share my works on any other platform without my EXPRESS PERMISSION. -+- REBLOGGING is fine! -+-

Two days later, Missouri rounded everyone up for an early morning meeting to go over the last exchange at the Christmas party that night. You nudge your elbow against Cas’s arm as you take a spot on the wall next to him, watching his mouth stretch into a small smile.

“Been busy with all the returns and checkouts this week? I haven’t seen you in a couple days.”

“Yeah - Dear Lord,” you sigh softly, pushing a piece of hair away from your face. “Just dealing with the handful of parents who refused to pay for their kids’ books was a nightmare. One book was missing a giant swath of paper and had gum stuck to the back inside cover. Then dealing with trying to loan out the books for the next classes...by the way, I booked your class for the second day back from break.”

“Thank you. I wasn’t expecting it that soon.” Your face falls a little.

“Oh. Well, I can switch it with someone else if that doesn’t work with you…”

“No. No! It’s fine. I just figured you would be busy after the break.” You’re kicking yourself at just assuming he would want to come that early, leaning against the wall as your good mood died. “I - I, uh, would love to come that day.”

“I’ll switch you with Mrs. Ferguson. Her time-block is on 15th. No big deal.” You force a smile as his fingers slip around your wrist.

“I’ll be coming the 9th, Y/N. And I’m sorry to have upset you.” Not realizing how much closer he was until you looked up into those big sapphire eyes. “You look lovely this morning.” You can feel the rumble of his voice from the hand you’d - apparently - placed on his chest, fighting the heat rising in your cheeks.

“Thank you, Castiel.”

“I didn’t mean to upset you. I simply wanted to let you relax and work before bringing in a horde of children just back from vacation.”

“Uh-huh.” His smile widens as his thumb begins rubbing along the inside of your wrist, making your mind stutter before kicking itself back into gear. “It’s okay. I tend to be more emotional than not.” You smile brightly up at Cas. “And I’m a terrible liar, so my emotions are pretty easy to read.”

“A soft heart is a gift.”

“IF WE AREN’T INTERRUPTING…” Artemis, the sixth-grade P.E teacher, calls loudly from the front. Both of you drop your gazes, a cute pink coloring Cas’s cheeks as you remove your hand from his chest, his fingers tightening on your wrist before letting it fall from his grasp.

“Well,” Missouri begins, shooting you and Cas a knowing smirk. “I’ll be keeping this short and sweet this morning...Today is a half-day, as you all know, and the Christmas party is tonight. We will be doing the last leg of the Secret Santa after cocktail hour, which is at 6 pm. Remember to control yourselves and hydrate. Alright, everyone have a good day and I’ll be seeing you tonight!”

As other people file past you and Castiel, openly winking or chuckling, he leans forward to whisper in your ear.

“I’ll see you tonight.” His deep voice is filled with promise and you watch without shame as he walks out of the Administration Building, his dark blue dress shirt and black dress pants fitting him to a tee.

“I hope he meant that in a sexual way. Whatever it was he said to you.”  Pamela mutters happily as she links her arm with yours.

“Really, Pamela?”

“Yes, really. Hit it. And hit it hard.”

“Jesus.” You mutter as you disentangle your arms, stopping in front of the library’s south side doors.

“Exactly. Make that boy see Jesus.”

“It frightens me sometimes that you used to teach children, Pam.”

“That’s why I moved to more of a supervisor role for the other teachers,” She leans in like she’s about to tell you a big secret. “Better for everyone. Plus, I get to scope out all the hot single dads.” You roll your eyes and enter the library after you watch Pamela sashay away. Your friends…

---

“Whatd’ya get her for the last present?” Dean calls loudly over his shoulder as he plonks down onto Cas’s couch with a beer.

“Two scarves and a necklace.”

“Jewelry? Same rules as the lingerie, man.” Cas sighs heavily, fumbling with his tie as he enters the living room.

“Perhaps you are single because you have so many rules regarding gift giving.” Dean snorted at his best friend’s words. “I just wish this was easier.”

“It’s a tie - not a lifelong commitment.”

“Not the tie, Dean.” Dean sets the half-drunk beer on the coffee table, rising to help Cas with his tie.

“You like this girl?”

“Very much.”

“Then stop listening to me. At least partially.” He straightens the backward mess of a tie and claps him on the shoulder. “From what you’ve been telling me, she digs you. She likes your nerdy little ass, so I’m sure whatever you’ve gotten her - she’ll love. Just be yourself, just, ya know, not the intense you that you get when you’re nervous. Okay?”

“You’re right. This will all be fine. I am just overthinking this.” He heads back towards the bedroom for his suit jacket. “Women are difficult, Dean. I don’t see why you do this on a regular basis.”

“Takin’ ‘em home for a night is a whole lot different than dating.” Cas nods as he slips his wallet into his jacket pocket, along with his cell phone, plucking the box from the coffee table to drop off with Missouri.

“Ready?”

“Yeah, Cas. Let’s go nab your librarian. Oh - and remember to point out all the single ladies.”

“Yes, Dean.”

---

Cas entered the Chinese restaurant, the silky red walls look extra festive with the green and gold garland swayed along them. As he and Dean pass the two medium gold dragons just past the entryway, Cas can hear his co-workers now, the clamor of conversations and laughter echoing lightly down the hall.

He stops short when he sees you shuffle nervously, taking a big sip from your drink before laughing at something Pamela said. His chest tightens as your eyes meet, an easy smile stretching across his face in response to the bright one lighting up on yours.

Drawn to you, he crosses the room with purpose - ignoring Dean as he lags behind.

“Hello.”

“Hi, Cas.”

“Hiya Castiel. Who’s your handsome friend?” Pamela flashes a promising smile to Dean, subtly playing with her long necklace as he gives her a heart-stopping grin in return.

“This is my best friend, Dean Winchester. He’s single, a mechanic and likes classic rock.”

“What a coincidence,” Y/N says with a bright smile. “My friend Pamela Barnes is single, into classic rock and wants to make you see Jesus. Have fun.” Cas’s eyebrows raise as Pamela laughs and loops her arm through Dean’s, leading him to the open bar. Upon seeing his semi-startled reaction, Y/N lays her free hand on his bicep with a laugh. “Pamela would’ve said something along those lines if she would have stayed, trust me. She has NO filter.”

“Yes, I am aware. She commented on my hair when I began working here. Sex hair, I believe she called it.”

“That’s what we all call it.” Y/N clarified with a bright grin, Missouri and Principal Donatello Redfield stepped up to the microphone, tapping a few times to get everyone’s attention.

“All?” Cas whispers by her ear, moving in closer as she just smiled and turned her attention to the little stage.

“All.” She confirms over her shoulder, Cas catching a corner of her smile before she turned back to face the stage.

“Welcome staff! With cocktail hour winding down, we want everyone to gear up to reveal their Secret Santa alter egos! We will then have a buffet dinner and a few raffle prizes. Alright, everyone, Happy Holidays and good luck!” Donatello hands the microphone to Missouri as applause rings out throughout the room.

“Alright, gird those loins, grab those last presents and give ‘em to your Secret Santa recipient!”

Cas swallowed hard before following Y/N to the table where all the presents had been set up, nerves fluttering in his stomach.

His box was smaller than most of the others, easily grabbed at the front of the pile. When he turned around, moving around the swarm of people trying to get to their presents. A few steps away, Cas scans the group for any sign of his librarian.

“Castiel.” He turns around, seeing a small red box grasped in her hands.

“I had hoped it was you,” Cas confesses, nervously returning her smile before holding out the dark blue sparkly box for her. She switches the red box for the blue, gently prying the lid from the box.

“Oh, Cas.” She murmurs as she takes the necklace from the top, before giggling at the two scarves tucked into the bottom of the box. “Favorite book quotes and my favorite animal!” Without thinking, she rose up and brushed her lips against his cheek. “Oh - uh, open your gift, Cas.” Cas nods, taking the lid from his box before smiling even wider.

“Wookie.” He says fondly, removing the Christmas Chewbacca Itty Bitty and giving him a wiggle. There are a scope and small booklet just under the Wookie, Cas removing them carefully.

“It’s a Stellarscope and star observer guide since I heard you speaking so passionately to your students abo-” Cas cuts her off as he crashes his lips eagerly against hers. She moves closer, their bodies touching as applause and whistles sound around the room, Pamela calling out “It’s about time!” a handful of feet away. “I’m glad it was you too, Cas.”

“I think I did pretty well,” Missouri said with pride to Pamela and Dean, nodding at the new couple. “Mama gonna get a wedding invitation before long.” She chuckled to herself as she wandered back to the small stage. “Dinner is ready to be served!” Cas’s fingers entwined with hers, leading her to a table - stupid, easy smiles lighting up their faces.

“So, about that blender...”

Tagging: @lucis-unicorn @clockworkmorningglory @sakurablossom4 @chelsea072498 @thewhiterabbit42 @nobodys-baby-now @unleashthemidnight @ourloveisforthelovely @sumara62

[popculturebuffet]

The Three Caballeros Movie Review: Rejoice Now Donald’s Been Laid (Commission)

It’s time at long last we talked about those three happy chappies in snappy serapes. Who say so? @weirdkev27​ say so! He’s planning on funding an ENTIRE retrospective on the boys, so in addition to my Tom Lucitor Retrospective (Expect that to return very soon as one of the episodes in it is time sensitive), Road to Just Us Justice Ducks, and look at “The Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck”. I’m proud to announce a new recurring feature on this blog “The Ride of the Three Caballeros!”, a look back at these birds of a feather who flock together and their wild and wonderful history cumulating in “The Legend of The Three Caballeros”.  Honestly I thank Kev for the idea as it’s a damn good one. Ever since seeing them on House of Mouse, which I both really need to cover and Disney needs to add already as we’re a year into Disney plus already, I’ve loved Jose and Panchito, and reading barks story years ago, and again recently, gave me a lasting love of these goofs. They have great snappy designs are the rare pre-ducktales 2017 non duck bird character, and have wonderful personalities. There’s nothing not to love and thus nothing not to love about covering their adventures. So i’m excited for this and not just for the much needed christmas money.  Naturally we’re starting the adventure here with the founding of the trio, though Kev, for now he could change his mind, choose to start with this movie instead of it’s predecessor Saludos Amigos,  on this date for two reasons. The first is it’s Friday the 13th, which besides being the basis for an utter classic of a Hey Arnold episode

Which yes for those unfamiliar with Hey Arnold features Arnold dealing with a spell of bad luck, some bullies and his grandmother dressing up wlike a black cat to rescue black cats, which is sweet.. and training them into her horrifying army of the damned, which is somehow still sweet as it is awesome.  It’s also the day this guy barges into my house thinking it’s camp crystal lake

I swear to gods Jason GET A FUCKING PHONE WITH GPS. We are not clearly not teenagers. And he’s always so embarrassed and the stab wounds always take so long at the hospital to treat. It’s just a mess.  But it’s also, according to this film Donald’s BIrthday! This was during an earlier point in his career, that will be important in a bit, so Disney hadn’t yet settled on their tradition of having their characters birthday’s being the same date as their first appearance. For the record that would make Donald and Della’s current birthday June 7th. I did a special on Donald Duck shorts for it this year. Not sure what i’ll do the next. We will see. And for fun and my own curiosity I looked up the birthdates of some of the other Ducktales castmembers as well as my boys here They are: 

Jose: August 24th (World Premier of Saludos Amigos)  Panchito: December 21st (The Mexico City Premiere Date for this very movie) Scrooge: November 14th (Thank you INducks seriously it’s a massive help with this.  Daisy: June 7th (Debut of Mr. Duck Steps out) Huey, Dewey and Louie: October 17th (First appearance in Donald’s Newspaper Strip) Webby, Beakley and Launchpad: September 18th, thanks to launchpad’s driver’s license as well as all three characters debuting in the opening arc. Though to separate them i’d likely  try to find different dates for both. For now i’m going with October 12th for Mrs. Beakly (The airing date for the Ducktales 87 ep maid of myth) and October 29th for Webby (the airing date for another 87 episode, this one about webby and a horse).  Gladstone: August 15th, as while it was released in january there is no firm release date for it. Plus a summer birthday fits him better anyways. Thank you Inducks for that.  Magica:  September 28th, finally a firm publication date. While there’s a creation date unlike Gladstone I see no need to use it.  Darkwing Duck/Drake Mallard: September 6th GLOMGOLD: July 26th Was that entirely necessary? No Would I do it again.. absolutely. It also means I really need to do something for Scrooge’s Birthday in two days. But that’s future me’s problem. Current day me has his own problems specifically a movie review to continue.  The films genesis was a in a good will tour Disney did in South America, as part of America’s Good Neighbor Policy. FDR started it in order to try and strengthen ties between Latin America and North America, to prevent any sort of war with our close neighbors and to foster good economic ties between both as well as integrate Latin culture into americans lives to make them care about those countries more. And given it was started as HItler’s rise to power grew, and America knew they’d inevitably be dragged into World War II, and thus wanted to put the kibosh on several Latin American’s Nazi Ties. So in exchange for Money, since Disney was struggling due to overextending itself and the big animator’s strike at the time, The US sent Walt and some of his animatiors to South America, where MIckey Donald and Goofy were big and to make a film based there. Hence we got Saludos Amigos which is .. kind of forgettable to be honest, though the Gaucho Goofy segment is fantastic as the “How to” shorts with goofy around the time usually were. But the film gave us Jose, hence why Donald and him are familiar with each other here, and was a moderate success. This lead to the Goverment, who’d already contracted a bunch of propaganda, one of which I covered in my Donald Duck Shorts Birthday Marathon because it contained prototypes for Gladstone and Scrooge, so another feature for South America was a win win: The US got another way to strengthen ties between the Americas, and Disney got a film they could put out during said war to lift spirits, as well as on that would likely be a hit in South America due to them not being under wartime money crunch or the misery of having a war looming overhead. As a side note. I found out after looking at the wikpiedia article on The Good Neighbor Program.. it eventually and sadly collapsed as the US post WWII shifted to the Cold War and thus threw away non interference if it meant beating the Russians. Classy.  So yeah.. this film and i’ts predecessor are technically propaganda pictures. There was also another disney full length propoganda picture about fighter jets, I only learned about this thanks to the slashfilm article I found on the movie that told me a lot of this in the first place. It’s not avaliable but it should be.. though at the very least unlike say House of Mouse, Wander Over Yonder, Penn Zero: Part Time Hero, American Dragon Jake Long, The Weekenders, Pepper Anne and MANY more, it’s absence from Disney + makes sense. And I will continue to bitch about this till Disney actually starts adding more legacy animated shows, or at least makes a few of it’s own, though I will concede reviving the Mickey Mouse shorts that Disney Channel started up is a VERY good first step and i’m sure What If and Proud Family: Louder and Prouder will be fine. I just want more animation content on the streaming platform of one of the biggest animation studios in the world with one of the most storied histories. I’m REALLY not asking a lot. 

That bit of bitching aside I will give Disney+ credit where it’s due. The service offers MOST of the Disney vault for a very reasonable price a month, in crisp HD, and thus allows someone like me, who hasn’t really dived into the disney vault and slept on watching three cabs despite borrowing it from some friends, to dive into beautiful animation like this any time. It also allows me to explore disney’s older films, the ones I want to anyway, at my leisure and it’s a REALLY nice feeling. It’s also nice to have all the various animated shows in nice clean copies. So while there are sizeable gaps in the library, many of which as highlighted above have no reason for not being there and some like Song of the South have DAMN GOOD reason for never being there, I still apricate the service for being a vast, glorious digital library of Disney content as well as stuff they’ve acquired like the marvel show library, and this review would not have been as easy to do without it. So with my opinions on D+ and the exposition for WHY this exists out of the way, as I couldn’t find much else on this flim’s background, join me after the read more for a full review of the film! Who says so? I says so! 

We open with.. the Disney+ content warning again. In my review of the last part of “Catch as Cash Can” I went on about how much I apricated it and it stands: while i’m not blind that it’s a blanket statement to cover disney’s rears, it’s still apricated for them to care enough to force the content warning on the viewer. Given how bad they usually are at falling on the right side of history, this is very admirable. Though thankfully this film isn’t as offensive as the last content warning I got for the last part of “Catch as Cash can” aka “Watch registered White Guy Hamilton Camp play a bad indian sterotype for 22 minutes while my soul slowly dies”. Here there are bits, which i’ll get to now to save me the trouble later: The Littlest Gaucho’s side characters are all drawn pretty carcturish and a bit cringe inducing. The other is of course Panchito our Mexican representative.. who wears a sombrero and shoots two pistols around. And there’s just a tinge of white man going ot another country to get laid with the way Donald behaves throughout the picture. Basically little touches here and there but nothing that spoils the picture overall or makes whole scenes unwatchable. Still worth having the warning up, but not worth getting too worked up over.  So onto the film itself and as mentioned i’ts Donald’s birthday! And I will say the film has lots of great little gags here and there.. I won’t be pointing all of them out because this film was 70 minutes long but their very charming. HIs first gift is a projector and screen.. which he naturally has to fight to get working and which first projects on his ass, already a good start. And a general thought I like is how receptive Donald is to soaking in another culture. He just seems joyusly enthralled by the various films, gifts and places his friends bring him.. 

But again we’ll get to that. Point is it’s very nice to see Disney portay learning about another culture so positively and with such a hot head as donald. Even if i’ts in part to appease the US Goverment, ther’es a genuine feeling that they truly fell in love with these countries and aren’t JUST shilling them because it’s in their contract, but because they genuinelly liked it there.  So with that we get to our first segment. See the film is one of Disney’s Package films, anthology films taking a bunch of short segments and pasting them together, but here it’s framed through the narrative of DOnald’s birthday, so there is KIND of a plot.. but it’s mostly an excuse for musical numbers, short films, and more musical numbers.

Dammit Elmo, we will get to it! So naturally i’l lbe dividing up this review into various pieces. First up...

1. The Cold Blooded Penguin: Life of Pablo, The Good Version This is a brief but endearing short about a Penguin named Pablo who dosen’t like cold weather, can relate, and wants to move to some tropical paradise, again can relate. It’s BARELY related to the theme of hte movie, celebrating Central and South America, but it’s so damn charming I can’t help but love it. And Pablo is so damn adorable, as are his friends. I mean look at him. 

He’s just so precious and you just want him to finally get to his paradise with the help of his friend, his boiler there smokey joe, and root for him as his farewell party dwindles from a bunch of penguins to just bob and gary here. 

I may love Gary, the tall one, more than I love Pablo honestly> His sad eyes or the way he’s the ONLY one who sticks it out to the end, seeing Pablo off at last. Pablo’s first attempts, going without his boiler, which just ends iwth him freezing and attempting to carry smokey joe on his back both fail, he eventually decides to go with a boat and cleverly simply saws the ice berg he’s on so it’ll drift with his house and possessions, and has Gary hit it with a bottle both to christen it and to send it flying. Plus having bags on the bags on my eyes myself, I can relate to their tired expressions. As can we all after this year. Just a month and a half and it’s finally blessedly over. 

Pablo makes his way through, finally finding his island only to nearly have his iceberg melt before he gets there. But he persevers and gets his paradise, even adorably eating a banana> Though it ends on a mealoncholy yet still funny note of Pablo missing home even though he has a pet turtle/butler now. Man I want one of those.  One final note is that the short is narrated greatly by Sterling Holloway.. aka the future WInnie The Pooh using that exact voice which while a little weird in hindsight, just makes the short that more adorable if you imagine Pooh is reading a story to you. Just a really damn cute short with some good and intentive gags, and penguins. I mean i’ll be honest I have a soft spot in my hart for those tudeoxed boys thanks to the comic strip BLoom County and it’s lead character Opus taking up a LOT of real estate in my heart and brain. Here’s a few samples of him just so you get why.  

Just a sweetheart. Though his honker would grow exponenitally with time. And once get grabbed by a card carrying MAGA asshole. But I can talk about my boy here and this strip again another day. Point is I may love pengies but even that aside this is a good short and a good way to start things off. Sadlly the pacing then lops out a bit as the next two bits aren’t QUITE as entertaining. 

2. Birds Birds Birds: Of Arcuan BIrds and Toucan Sex Donald then watches a film on birds, and i’ts basically just a bunch of short funny gags with various tropical birds. There are a FEW notable bit sin the short, and I will get to them now, but otherwise it’s just okay.. not great but not exactly memorable. I honestly forgot there was anything BUT the Arcuan bird in this bit. Speaking of which A) The Arcuan Bird, a hyperactive pink little guy who makes a little “yatatata” noise, and boops donald a bit and later shows up in the film to steal Jose’s Cigar. Easily the most entertaining part of this section and there’s a reason why he became a massive fan faviorite, as well as got a more expanded roll in Legend of the Three Cablleros. He’d also apparently later return for another Package Film. What a bird.  B) There’s a bit with Toucans, which I remember because I freaking love Toucans, the big colorful beaks look neat contrasted with their black and white bodies and they seem friendly and the one fictional one besides Toucan Sam I can rmemeber is Tuca of Tuca and Bertie. Nuff said. And because they mention the Tucan’s making love. First off this is how a Tucan makes love. 

And secondly, clealry the term has evolved considerably, but it’s still chuckle inducing to have that term in a disney movie, especially since it makes me think of a number of things most notably this. 

Which, fun fact, is the song that will likely be sung when Donald and Daisy finally have sex in the Ducktales Reboot. Della didn’t buy those choir robes for nothing. Though the joke here is simply that they can’t kiss because they have big noses. GET IT. Though I have seen incompatable noses end marriages. 

See I told you his honker got bigger. Okay onto the 3rd thing from this bit. 

C) The Flamingos, who retract into themselves while Donald adorably copies. What a boy. With that I can move on from this segement thankfully and onto... an even worse one!.. wait... 

3. The Littlest Gaucho: The Boring One  This one’s a leftover from Saludos Amigos, likely because that one already had a Gaucho Bit with goofy and because it’s not very good. But Disney was strapped for cash so use everything you got. And yes I advocated for using everything in my review of life and times part 1.. but that’s more for a shared universe and left “Oh hey I found this short in our garbage let’s put it in another movie to save money” way. I appreciate being cheap, I myself am unemployed and right now these reviews are my source of income, but you could’ve just you know.. let the film be shorter? You didn’t have to waste animation leading inito this bit.  This one is the story of a young boy, as narrated by his older self who can somehow see through the veil of time and yell at his younger self. How? 

But it dosen’t really help the story as i’ve seen far better interactive narrators and ones clearly editing history. Especially since, despite ending on a VERY sour note, How I Met Your Mother was a pro at this. It’s not the film’s fault, but even back int he 40′s I swear they could do this better. 

It’s the simple story of the little Gaucho finding a flying Donkey, befriending him, and then entering him in a jockey race which they win. There’s one or two good gags here, but it dosen’t have the cutness of the previous segments and only one or two good gags. It just feels like filler and if I watch the film again, which I probably will, I will fast forward past this. Thankfully after this we finally get a break. 

4. A Song For Bahia: They call him JOSEEEEEEEEE.. and he’s Donald

Jose enters! Donald’s next gift is a book from Brazil that’s smoking..mostly because so’s Jose. The two friends reunite, with Jose in a story book asking Donald about , what I assume is Jose’s home state of Bahia, one of Brazil’s 20 states and spelled Baia in this movie for some reason.  We then get an absolutely beautiful sequence of Jose’s voice actor singing about Bahia and showing off how beautiful the country is through gorgeous animation. It’s a really marvelous segment and really pretty to look at. And once that segment’s done the film starts to pick up in energy, though unlike the Gaucho segment, the Bahia song is actually good. 

5.  Os Quindins de Yayá: The Sleeper Has Awakened.. and by the sleeper I mean Donald’s Penis.  There’s a few bits here. We start with the wonderful song, “Have You Ever Been to Bahia?”.. which is almost entirely Jose asking that to donald who says no, with some fun mindscrewy animation.. the film has not BEGUN to mindscrew, but we’ll get to that. 

Also for this segment Jose apparently has Jamie Madrox powers.. or he’s from Cragg.. either way, Donald hasn’t been to Baia so let’s go. The boys take a train, the Arucan messes things up again, etc etc and soon their in Baia where two major aspects of the film show up: Blending Live action with animation, and Donald being really horny. It’s not to a creepy degree outside of one segment, we’ll get there, but Donald being really into live action women is a major part of three segments of this film. If your wondering while Daisy had debuted, she wasn’t the ETCHED IN STONE, presence she’d become for Donald. Which I don’t have a problem with, I love them in Ducktales 2017, their one of the few tolerable aspects of the quack pack’s i’ve watched, and they were great in House of Mouse. I”m just saying some works don’t really have her around in them (Donald’s spy and papernik adventures), while other more charming and eligible women are, while others have her as outright abusive (Legend of the Three Caballeros). I’m not against Donsy when done properly, again huge fan of the Ducktales 2017 version of the couple, I just dont’ think it has to be mandatory. The fact the Italian comics made Donald a fairly likeable alien queen as a love interest proves it. 

But yeah here Donald’s thirsty as fuck, can relate, and thus we get our next musical number.. and that blend of live action and animation. I will admit, especially on second viewing.. it’s pretty obvious their mostly using a green screened animated backdrop with the charcters on it. The other segments are much more integrated. That being said.. i’m perfectly fine with it, as Disney was on a really low budget, only able to get financing for package films like this since their main financer wouldn’t given them money for anything but shorts, so it was a workaround, not to mention having a mass talent exodus over the strike and World Fucking War II to contend with. So cheeping out on ONE segment in a large film, and STILL having it come out good is fine just fine. And it truly does, the segment centers around Yaya, a cookie seller and the object of Donald’s affections, though he gets mad when a guitar man slips in and woos her instead for a bit before eventually leaving her alone, with Donald getting a kiss. But while parts of that clearly haven’t aged well, it’s an utterly joyous and fun musical number in an already fun musical, and Aurora Miranda who plays Yaya, and is sister of Carmen Miranda something Disney actually put in promotional materials.... come to think of it I didn’t watch the trailer.. I’ll get to it in a moment. Point is, Miranda is very talented and it’s  VERY fun number. Have a listen since the sequence itself is WAY to long to put video of up on youtube. 

And having watched the trailer during that music break, it’s not bad, I expected more cringe. The most I got was them calling the women “latin american lovlies” which.. seems.. wrong. But with the romance of Bahia setting and Donald dragged out by Jose, we can get into our next segement as, over halfway in, we finally get our third Cabllero 

6. The Three Cablleros: Who Say So? We Say So!

HERE COMES THE PANCHITO Ladies and Gentleman and Others! HERE COMES THE PANCHITO! the moment you’ve been waiting for! HERE COMES THE PANCHITO! the pride of Mexico! HERE COMES PANCHITO! Panchito Pistoles! 

When then meet Panchito who joyfully shoots guns around, because stereotype but thankfully he’s also joyful, jubilant and likeable much like his pal Jose. Panchito’s just a thoughtly likeable character and next to his smooth talking pal, it’s easy to see why the two became huge fan favorites. And thus we get our title track. 

IT’s a beautiful, fun segment, that while some portions, such as Panchito’s yelling or “some Latin baby’ haven’t aged particularly well, is still a fun colorful number with amazing music and great gags, that utterly sells our boys camaraderie. I have no notes, ten out of ten flawless classic number. Who Say So? I SAY SO! Also given both boys kiss Donald at some point.. yeah these boys are bi as fuck and damn i’ts awesome. 

7. Mexico: Bored Again, Naturally.  Donald then gets a pinata and we get a short story about a bunch of kids going around to places only to be told “no shelter no posada”. Like the Gauchito bit.. it’s pretty boring and nonconesquential and only gets a leg up due to being far shorter and a little adorable versus not really as adorable as the segement thinks it is. The kids end up at a party with a pinata. We do get a fun sequence after this nothing of a story of Donald batting a pinata around while the boys mess with him a bit. It’s fun stuff.  Out of the PInata we get another storybook, and another slow segement of Panchito singing about mexico which is a less fluidly animated, and thus far less entertaining, version of the Bahia song.. diffrent song, same premise of a bird melodically and beautifully singing about his home land, but less engaging because it’s just still images. I get they were low on budget but while I can forigve that for the Yaya sequence.. this one.. I just can’t as they not only already did this, but did it less good the second time around. The song is lovely though, and I do miss a time in our culture when we looked at Mexico with fondness and didn’t have a FAR too large portion of our population think anyone from there should go back where they came when they come to our brave country to find shelter, aslym and opportunity just because they didn’t go through “proper channels’ even though that’s difficult. WHat i’m saying is fuck our immigration policy for the last 4 years, and bless the president-elect for planning to fix that ASAP. I felt it was worth mentioning in a review ABOUT a Mexican character who, in the reboot, is an immigrant to America. 

8. Everybody Dance: Another fun number. 

We’re onto Mexico and it’s time for another musical number

So our heroes dance, Donald hits on some more women.. stuff we’ve seen before but it’s still a fun beautiful song and unlike the last bit while the animation has clearly aged enough to be more obvious, it still looks great next to the various live action dancers and blends real well. A fun time that gives us more great music and another reminder from donald that...

I mean I get being thirsty as shit, again can relate.. but the next segment takes it from Donald and the Boys being kinda horny to. 

9. The Beach: Donald Gets Creeptacular

Yeah this bit is .. less endearing. The boys fly the serape over to a beach, and divebomb the girls, which isn’t a sex act.. that i’m aware of. But yeah chasing around several women, and donald leaving the Serape to chase them around old beach movie/benie hill/trying my patience style. It’s cringe is what i’m saying as a man literally chasing a woman around is considered flirtitng here and that’s all kinds of EUGGGGHHHH. The previous segments had Donald be kind of respectful in his woman chasing: while he was pretty horny, he also tipped his hat, flirted a bit, asked to dance you know, normal shit.. not decided “let’s chase them with a serape that will turn them on!’ jesus.. yeah not much to say here either just.. really creepy. But we have not reached peak horny donald yet.. oh no. 

10. Donald’s Surreal Revere: WHAT EXACTLY THE FUCK. 

Dora Luz appears in the sky of Mexico after the boys exit the book and flip to Mexico’s night life... just go with hit and Donald swoons over her before joining her int he book and after getting a kiss from her and swooning over her.. has an acid trip. I .. I don’t know how else to describe Donald’s surreal reverie. It’s clear Walt just told the animators do whatever. I will TRY to describe this sequence as best I can, but I make no promises except what I describe is exactly what happened, see for yourself.

Okay so after Dora’s magical floating kisses, just go with it, kiss donald he explodes, in a rocket blast clearly symbolizing his errection, then becomes a neon sign and a hummingbird, just go with it, tries to kiss Dora’s image appearing on a flower, then Jose and Panchito BURST out of the flower with tiny chipmunk voices and gun violence, a SCREAMING TECHNICOLOR TRANSTION, dora singing the song in the middle of a flower again , donald making out with the flower but it turning out ot be panchito with a giraffe neck saying “Some fun eh kid?”, donald falling through a sea of ladies, donald chasing the ladies on a serape. Donald’s disembodied head looking at the ladies before bursting out of the picture to chase them GOOD GOD DID WE NEED MORE OF THAT?! The boys ending up on female bodies and them some sort of horse abomination. Then we get into what must of inspiried a young david Lynch as donald kisses the flower agian, then ends up in one as they replay a creepy whispery recording of either Jose or Panchito saying pretty girls while we see still images of the girls from the beach. Hummingbird Flower Donald then has a romantic duet with a lady because WHY NOT at this point, then multiple donalds before he spins away. We get one last number with donald dancing with living cacti that turn into mini donald’s that’s slightly more sane and finally this bit is done. IN conclusion. 

I just.. I have no words. The giant mess of text up there should explain it and I purposfully didn’t divy it up as i’ve been trying to do more often, as it deserves to be one long string of nonsense. I just.. it’s beautiful to look at but what the hell was that. Is this going to happen every time Donald and Daisy have sex? Is this what Donald’s brain is like all the time? Did Panchito inject him with pure liquid acid?

So yeah we thankfully conclude the film after that with 

14. The Wrap UP The boys horse around with a bull and then heartwarmingly watch fireworks together.. there isn’t much to add it’s jsut fun to watch and a nice pallete cleanser after loosing my sanity. Isn’t that right keith david?

You always say that! So...

Final Thoughts: I’ve made my thoughts on the various segments clear, but what of the film as a whole? As a whole.. it’s pretty fun. Is it the best film Disney’s Produced? probably not. But it’s a fun, brisk 70 minutes, hampered by a few slow spots and some weird horny bits, and various segments feel like an acid trip despite having never taken acid. But our boys easlly anchor the surreality and thirst and all three have great chemistry both comedically, friendship wise and romantically. It’s also very easy to see why this film and it’s cablleros got big in Mexico and Brazil as the film seems like a love letter to both, and is fairly respectful. WHich for the time, sex tourism aside, is pretty damn inspried. So yeah in conclusion, this is a really fun memorable film, it was even better on a second watch and it’s an enjoyable colorful reminder of Disney’s package film era, which I might dig into a bit.. I just may have to borrow a copy of make mine music.. guess what just got added to my list of “why the fuck isn’t this on disney plussss?” 

Regardless this was a fun review and auspcious start to the ride of the Cablleros. if you’d like to comission your own movie or tv review, hit up my ask box or submit box or shoot me an ask to get my discord. You can also join my patreon, patreon.com/popculturebuffet, Until then you can check this space for the various ongoing series mentioned and regular Ducktales coverage every monday. Until then, Adios, with a christmas message from my personal fourth Cabllero

[tumblunni]

A random game idea I had! It could be really cool to have like a survival RPG where you play as a wild animal trying to survive in the world. Seriously there are barely any games about the coolness of nature from the perspective of the nature, and the only one I found was just a platformer/walking simulator type thing with not much appeal to it. Still worth wasting my money on it just so the universe can see there's a market for this genre, tho! So yeah anyway, random thoughts for this game idea!! * I was thinking it could be a bit more fun if you're exploring an entirely new world of magical creatures instead of a super realistic documentary on any real animal. Plus that's just more flexible for me to do whatever I want with how things work for this species. * My first thought was maybe like a very unusual 'dragon' that's more insectile in design. Like a long Asian dragon crossed with a fluffy caterpillar. Lotsa legs, and a sweet lil face! There's even that one species of Japanese caterpillar that has the big head with horns and an EVEN MORE sweet lil face, that would work perfectly!! And I was thinking maybe it can charge up and shoot electrical blasts from those back horns? Its still very much a small underdog creature in this ecosystem tho, usually all it can do is issue weak zaps to scare predators away but not really fight back all that well. And your lil babies can't zap at all until their horns grow in, so you need to be very strategic to choose your battles carefully and keep your family safe. * also I was thinking maybe the babies could kinda be your lives system? It'd be hard to finish the game while keeping them all alive, and if you lose them all its a game over from despair. And also they follow you around and are cute and helpful and love u lots! And ypu can see them grow up if you keep them safe for the whole game, you can watch them leave the nest in the end and be so proud! I want them all to have their own lil personality, I want the player to get goddamn attached to their lil monster fam!! * alternatively maybe you start off with just one baby and then gain more as the game progresses? Cos I'm picturing this as you playing as a single animal, you're a solo mama lookin after the babs. Maybe your previous mate died tragically in the prologue? Or maybe you just don't have one and you're just a sweet lil dragon who adopts abandoned eggs you find along your journey. You could go on quests to find all the hidden unlockable children around the world map! And maybe they could be a big ol variety of patterns, and different special powers. Multi talented bebs! * another idea for adding variety to game is 'what about customization?' Let's defy all laws of logic and have the player be able to choose the course of evolution for these critters! Your skill tree could be growing extra legs or fangs or becoming an omnivore all of a sudden. Who cares if it makes no sense! Tho that would kinda lend itself better to a plotless game with intimate amounts of generations, so we could at least make the evolution semi realistic. Inheriting traits instead of just abruptly mutating a million things within the same generation. But I kinda wanted this to be a more emotional journey of a single family surviving a small lifetime together. Just a lil warm and soft snippet of life in this world. Just a lil family that you can keep safe. * a random idea I had for a helpful NPC was a big giant scary monster of another species that you end up forming an unlikely friendship with. Big scary is only scary cos they're protecting their sick child, you can find out about this and help find the rare herbs they need to get better. And now you have won a very large friend's undying gratitude! Maybe they could remove an obstacle in your path by fighting off a giant unwinnable boss fight for you, so you can get to the next area. Or maybe you can ride on their back so they can carry you further away from your nest than you can usually reach. I'm imagining the player character being like the size of one of their eyebrows, lol! Oh, and maybe they could even help dig stuff so you can do bigger renovations on your nest? I was thinking it'd slowly upgrade as you gather more skills and materials throughout the game, and you could have a super complex luxury lil meadow grove by the end. * oh and a random other optional side quest idea! One of the various biomes you explore could be a wintery area, and you could find a prime spot where you can store your supplies and have like rudimentary refrigeration. Storing up food supplies in prime cache locations around the world would be a big gameplay element if you're playing as a herbivore, and this would be a gamechanger cos now meat can be cached away too. And I was thinking the Large Friend could also be a useful way to make the game equally playable whether you picked herbivore or carnivore. Herbivore players can trade meat to the Large Friend and thus still gain some benefit from defeating enemies. Large Friend can probably bring you cool exotic fruits from high up in trees you can't reach. Yay! * oh and I've kinda been calling those characters The Bigman and Bigman Larva. Cos I thought it'd be funny if this is some large mammal and the protagonist doesn't really understand the difference. Their babies totally come from eggs too, right? When's the lil guy gonna spin his cocoon? * ...it'd be even funnier if they actually did spin cocoons. I mean, its a magical world! I can make anything I want! Mice hatch into bats in the spring~ * also I had a neat idea of how to maybe handle 'dialogue' in this game. Cos it'd be a bit lame to just translate all this animal talk into English, and it'd be hard to have an RPG if its completely 100% silent. I don't have enough confidence in my abilities to say I could pull off the awesome nonverbal storytelling of Journey! So the idea I had was that maybe it could be.. A nonverbal language? You see your protagonist's thoughts as lil dialogue bubbles of images. Lil semi-complex rune type icons that the player slowly learns as they play through the game. Starting just with very basic representations of the actual gameplay commands like 'run' and 'hunt' and 'small larva whom I love and protect', and then by the end you're able to hold entire simple conversations with friendly NPCs. * also I thought it could be hella neat if you could acrually name your babies using this system! Pick two or three runes to combine into a lil squeak you shall squeak towards this particular ball of fluff. "I love you [FIRE] [FRIGHTENED] and [BRISTLE BUSH] [ACORN] [TAIL]" * also I was thinking a cool way to organically teach this language to players would be to kinda compartmentalize it? Youd start off with a library of basic words and then everything would be introduced using those basic words. Like 'predator' is [RUN]-[EAT], displayed with those two symbols when you first encounter this problem. But then after its become more of a common part of your life it'd be smooshed down into a new rune symbol that combines those two, and that's added to your dictionary. And now you're able to say things about that predator, and use the word predator as a modifier to other stuff. Like 'coyote' might be introduced as 'fast predator' and then if you spend a lot of time scavenging in the coyote territory and fighting them, 'coyote' would become an actual word too. And it could be kinda oddly satisfying to name your newest child after a word you didn't have the last time, symbolising how you've mastered evading that particular predator. Hold your head high, [COYOTE] [FEET], my new and prosperous son! * Also, hmm, it could probably symbolise 'this shit is wrong and terrifying' when something breaks the naming conventions and reminds you of the components that first made that word. Like every other predator is just [adjective] [RUN]-[EAT] but then a griffon is [SKY]-[EAT] and a snake is [LUNGE]-[EAT]. Hell, to someone who's literally never seen a flying creature before, they might just be classified as like.. 'Jump' creatures. It'd be a giant shaking up of the whole world for our poor protagonist who only sees things as a collection of running or not running! And humans would be even more terrifying cos they're the only predator that isn't 'eat'. Why on earth does this thing kill us and just leave the body there?? Thats TERRIFYING! Protagonist might even have nightmares of their poor kid's soul being unable to rest cos their empty shell was never returned to nature after they died. They don't have the capacity to understand that humans hunt for sport or exterminate things they see as pests... And man, I can imagine that scraps of human materials could be super useful rare objects along your journey and like.. HOO BOY its a good thing protagonist will never know how exactly humans make those things. 'Wow this weird human thing called a clothes is useful nest lining material!' she says, as she sits on a dragon skin coat. 'Odd how it reminds me of my grandma!' * anyway lol I have a bunch of ideas but they're not very organized so I apologise for this rambley post

[freezingicekirby]

DAY 30 - YOUR FAVORITE GAME OF ALL TIME

Well, I’m sure this ain’t surprising in the least bit, ehh?  Considering the number of times I’ve brought up both the character and his games throughout this whole 30 Day Challenge, I’m sure it was easy to guess that at least one of his titles would be on my favorite list.  

And wouldn’t you know it, my #1 favorite game of all time just so happens to be the one that started it all for the feisty purple dragon.

To tell you the truth, I like pretty much everything about this game.  Its graphics are quite nice (for the system it’s on), I love its soundtrack (it’s my personal favorite out of the three PS1 titles), I think the gameplay is very spot on (albeit with a few minor quirks), I think the level design does a great job of keeping things fresh and interesting yet never gives you anything too confusing or frustrating, the environments are quite nice to look at, among other things.  And naturally, I’m a big fan of Spyro, himself... and say what you will, but I still think Carlos Alazraqui is the best Spyro, despite Tom Kenny’s solid performances in the sequels.

Plus, it’s the kind of game that’s right up my alley.  For starters, it’s a 3D Platformer, and as I’ve admitted before, that’s one of my favorite genres.  Secondly, it’s a game that doesn’t try to over-complicate things by stuffing in a bunch of minigames, extra playable characters, and/or a ton of new abilities to learn, which are often pet-peeves of mine depending on how how carried away some games can get with them (like YotD and Tooie.........).  And finally, it uses my always-preferred system of allowing you to enter into a stage, collect everything and do whatever it wants you to do, and then get out and move on to the next stage in order to keep things going at a great and fun pace.  Basically, there’s no having to return to previous stages because the game forced you to leave and come back later with a new ability, no interference from the plot to prevent you from doing something or going somewhere, etc.... and I’m always grateful whenever developers avoid that kind of design.

I suppose if I had to nitpick about one small thing, it’s that the controls could’ve used some slight tweaking... and said tweaks actually made it into the two sequels.  I wish it were possible to include those improvements into the first game, but... meh, that’s a minor complaint.

At this point, what else is there to talk about?  Needless to say, I think the game is pretty dang great, and I simply adore it.  It’s the kind of game I can play all at once (and that’s even getting 100%) or break it up into chunks in order to enjoy during some free time.  It’s something that’s pretty special to me, and I imagine I’ll probably never find a game that’ll dethrone it as my #1 favorite game of all time.

So..... thanks, Insomniac!

(And contrary to what it must sound like, I actually do like Ripto’s Rage as well, despite it containing some design decisions I don’t care for.  I don’t like it as well as the first game, but it’s still pretty solid overall.  Year of the Dragon, on the other hand... ugh, don’t even get me started).

And because why not, here are some other games that are on my favorites list.

- Rocket Knight Adventures - Yoshi’s Island - Bubble Bobble (NES) - Tails Adventure - Daxter - Croc: Legend of the Gobbos - Okami - Wonder Boy: The Dragon’s Trap

As well as some others that aren’t quite on my favorites list, but still ones I really enjoy quite a lot as well.

- Rayman: Origins - The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess - Mega Man 3 -  Rainbow Islands (NES) - Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow - Metroid: Zero Mission - Banjo Kazooie - Ty the Tasmaian Tiger - Gex: Enter the Gecko

And... I suppose that concludes this 30 Day Video Game Challenge!  I hope you guys had fun reading everything I put down, and thanks for tolerating my goofy standards! ;P

[turkiyeecom]

E3 2019 in photos: Gooigi, crazy arcade machines, and a DOOM museum

"Great work!" — Plus, the National Videogame Museum returns with some of its craziest rarities yet. Sam Machkovech and Kyle Orland - Jun 16, 2019 1:00 pm UTC LOS ANGELES—If you couldn't or didn't make it to E3 2019, you're not the only one. Anecdotal evidence suggests this was the most poorly attended E3 in some time (though its organizers at the ESA insist that this E3 had only 3,000 fewer attendees than 2018's jam-packed affair), owing perhaps to Sony's no-show or the abundance of live-streamed options for enjoying the event at your own home. Luigi and Gooigi attracted hordes of attendees excited to pose for photos. Sam Machkovech Inside the Luigi's Mansion 3 booth, fans could pose with a guy in a Luigi costume. Nintendo went all-out building a haunted house for these kiosks, but my photos of it turned out terribly. It was easier to get photos of the toy dioramas built around the Link's Awakening gameplay kiosks. Nintendo built four of them in all. A closer zoom on the plastic minis Nintendo built just for this occasion. Link delves into a dungeon. "YOU SHALL NOT PASS!" "Wrong series, dude." I'll admit, I kinda lost my mind seeing this adorable Link and Marin meet-cute diorama. Marin in Smash Bros. Ultimate? A guy can dream, right? The EA Play event at the Hollywood Palladium included this impressive cast of paid Apex Legends cosplayers. Yes, the person cosplaying as Octane is a bilateral amputee. You couldn't buy these impressive 10" Apex Legends statues at EA Play. But you could buy a ton of shirts and hoodies. As an Apex Legends fan, Ars's Sam Machkovech nearly bought the "bamboozled" one. For some reason, EA Play hosted an Anthem gameplay session... and for some reason, attendees actually waited for it. FIFA '20 hosted an arena-soccer match. The McLaren Senna features in the new LEGO Speed expansion pack for Forza Horizon 4, so naturally, Microsoft had someone make a life-sized McLaren Serra model out of LEGO bricks. They went to pretty insane trouble to include significant elements from the real deal. Real wheels, real LEGO blocks. This refreshed version of the Xbox Elite Controller (dubbed "version 2") will launch in November for $180 and features such perks as a rechargeable battery, a controller-charging case, increased hair-trigger responsiveness, and more. We couldn't test the new XEC with any games, but its newly texturized grip and significant heft felt good to hold on its own. C'mon, Xbox, you think we're gonna steal this thing? How dare you. Say hello to one of Gears 5's newest, most disgusting monsters. It's not a Gears of War character if it doesn't have chest-high cover nearby. The best thing about Gears 5's new "Escape" mode is that it supports three-player split-screen co-op. More of this kinda thing, please, Xbox Game Studios. The newest LEGO Star Wars release this coming holiday season revolves around the "Skywalker Saga," so naturally, it's time to trot out the old LEGO Han in LEGO carbonite statue again. Coach's Pac-Man line of bags and accessories. For the discerning, fancypants gamer. More Pac-Man and classic-Namco swag. Pretty solid 10" Tekken statues. The entire Bandai Namco fancy-collectible wall was pretty great, honestly. I couldn't take photos of the Final Fantasy VII Remake gameplay kiosks, but I could take photos of the series' Shinra Corporation stuff all around it. For example, this recreation of an iconic FFVII backdrop. Square Enix put up a few Shinra advertisements around the kiosks. See? They have Midgar's best interests at heart! I really hope there's a full cartoon series hidden inside of FFVII Remake starring this cartoon dog. Someone please translate this for us. A small detail of the amazing theater room for Psychonauts 2. TEETH! Arcade1UP had a significant E3 presence with its home-friendly versions of classic arcade machines. The manufacturer used E3 to reveal its newest product: a Star Wars Atari arcade trilogy collection, coming "late 2019." Another look at its handsome side cabinet art. I had to stand on a stool to get a better look at the screen and controller. Because this cabinet was set up on a precarious platform, it was not playable at E3. An Arcade1UP representative said it collaborated with Disney and Lucasfilm in the making of this cabinet, then studied original classic arcade hardware to recreate the controller. Rather than answer my technical questions about how the controller was constructed in this modern version, the Arcade1UP rep insisted that it sought input from arcade cabinet collectors to confirm that its version nailed the original cabinets' feel and mechanical action. Another new Arcade1UP cabinet: the TMNT collection, which includes both of Konami's four-player brawlers in one cabinet. (Most of their cabs include at least two games, if not a few more.) It seems to comfortably support four players, but I liked this group's tweak: letting the middle player simultaneously control two turtles. Then there was this absolutely ridiculous thing that Arcade1UP built for the heckuvit. That's intrepid Ars Technica editor Sam Machkovech up there pretending to play the game. I hope the hand on the joystick makes clear how stupidly massive this whole rig was. But it worked... and Sam won his match. Really, Sam? Be professional. Sega's booth had its own oversized-controller gimmick to celebrate the impending launch of the Sega Genesis Mini this September. It's not really E3 until Ubisoft has a stage full of professional dancers and average fans getting down to Just Dance as one awkward collective. A peek at the poster-covered walls inside of Cyberpunk 2077's behind-closed-doors booth. Capcom had a relatively meager showing at E3, with this new Monster Hunter World expansion taking up most of the company's booth. But, hey, at least they had some nice 10" dragons under glass. Hold me closer, tiny draaaagonnnnns. Sorry, Street Fighter fans. Capcom didn't come to E3 2019 with any news about either SFV or any new fighting games. Just 10" figurines. Chun-Li and Cammy, kicking ass beneath glass. Larger than life. Just like Borderlands should be. Kyle Orland This was by far the best part of the Destroy All Humans revival attempt. Kyle Orland Pixl Cube was one of the more inventive games at the Indiecade booth, a tilt-sensitive box with LED dots that moved through a maze as if pulled by gravity. Kyle Orland In the entryway for Youtube Gaming's creator space, blocks from the show floor, a Google Stadia controller sits behind glass with a mock-up of a retro game store. Kyle Orland The YouTube Gaming space also featured some streamers on old-school CRT TVs, which was a weird look. Kyle Orland Cute. Kyle Orland The YouTube Gaming logo sits on a fake cartridge alongside... Hyper Chroma Ultra? Kyle Orland Nothing says "E3" like a guy in a Yoshi/Mario costume livestreaming himself as he balks loudly at the show floor's $6 pretzels. Kyle Orland New Wave Toys is expanding its Replicade line of authentic miniature cabinets with the likes of these two Capcom classics. Kyle Orland MyArcade is expanding from miniature cabinets to massive portable systems capable of playing actual NES and SNES cartridges. Kyle Orland MyArcade's upcoming Contra cabinet even includes link cable support for two player action. Don't you DARE touch this actual Contra cabinet in the MyArcade booth, though. Kyle Orland That being said, we attended, and Ars Technica came back from Los Angeles with plenty to show for it. In addition to a few more hands-on previews coming (which will build upon the best-of E3 2019 list we already filed), we took our cameras out at both the official E3 halls and nearby events (Xbox Fan Fest, EA Play). I gotta say, in this modern political climate, I have been calling every year "the year of doom." A very nice pencil sketch taken from the original PC game's box art. I'd never seen these minis before, but now I want to play DOOM-opoly. A better zoom on these metal beasts. Collect me plenty. Now for some impressive 3D molds of famed DOOM demons. See? It's like a museum. Funnily enough, this is my "I don't know what to do with my hands" pose when I stand for photos. The secret for awkward photo poses: turn your arms into massive rocket launchers. Way less awkward! As one of DOOM 64's longtime fans, I stood at this specific panel for a while. This might be the least-blurry these N64 sprites have ever looked. (The N64 famously smothered its sprites in a disgusting, smeary blur.) More figurines on display. More figurines on display. More swag on display. More swag on display. The result is a whopping three image galleries here. The first is a catch-all for most of the basic, expected fare, while the second and third focus on retro elements: a DOOM-specific mini-museum, and a curated collection of very rare gaming hardware and collectibles courtesy of the National Videogame Museum in Frisco, Tex. (If you've never been to that physical location before, we strongly encourage you to book a trip.) You know the retro portion of E3 is serious when they put this thing behind a rope. Truly one of a kind. Click the image to get a better look at the information placard. Yep, those are traditional Saturn controller ports. We'd never seen these Vectrex prototypes and variants before. The innards of a prototype color Vectrex system that never saw production. Kyle Orland Anybody think they can repair this thing? Yes, the only scoring cart that remains from this Super Nintendo championship event. Also, a killer Vectrex jacket. How the heck does the NVM keep finding and showing off such incredible game-history rarities? Some cool mementos from the original Mortal Kombat. The placard explains how rare this system is... ... based on this specific message signed by none other than Bill Gates. I don't care how puffy this jacket is. I'd wear it. Every year, the National Video Game Museum trots out at least one previously confidential binder taken from a major gaming company. This year's was Nintendo. I'm always fascinated by internal '80s and '90s documentation about piracy and cartridge backup systems. This section went on for a few more pages and even included grainy photos of various cartridge-copying devices. Video games: the board game! Video games: the, uh, VHS game! Well before the Game Boy revolutionized portable gaming, kids of the '70s and '80s were stuck with these clunkers. One wall was dedicated to particularly rare game consoles that launched solely in Japan. Eat your heart out, Donkey Konga. This is one of Gunpei Yokoi's classic electronic games that he designed for Nintendo in the '70s. This makes me wish Ulala was in an actual '80s cartoon. Kyle Orland In addition to popular and common fare in the coin-op section, the NVM trotted out a few machines we rarely see at classic gaming expos, like this fetching Jungle King cab. True story: we asked Double Fine studio founder and creative director Tim Schafer if he could step back for a second so we could take a photo of this handsome Omega Race cabinet. "I used to play this game all the time as a kid," he remarked before stepping away slowly. (If you're wondering, he signs his name "TIM" in high-score tables.) And we couldn't leave E3 without a walk through the almost carnival-like selection of vendors and inventions in the expo's very back hall. Look below at the show's weird "et cetera" section. Here's a gallery of E3 2019's oddest booths and products. "Wow, how nice and COOL!" we're sure you are saying to yourself. Kyle Orland Thermoreal uses superconductors (?!) to simulate a cold or hot feeling in metal. The company integrated this tech into VR-compatible gloves and a VR headset. As the VR environment changes, so does the sensation of real-life temperature. Trippy! Kyle Orland This 1,000 MaH battery pack for the Switch was heavy, but the harness made it pretty easy to slide on and off to use only when it's needed. Kyle Orland Some extremely generic-looking custom chip boards for use in mini-arcade devices and portable emulation devices. If anybody reading this has the rights to the Atari Jaguar Mini, look them up. Kyle Orland Why stream games to a smartphone with Google Stadia when the Smach Z packs an entire 1080p gaming PC with a 6" screen into a rather bulky portable package? Doom (2016) ran with noticeable judders, and the unit got noticeably hot in our test. But the fact that it works at all was impressive. Kyle Orland The Tactsuit haptic system jolts your body when playing compatible VR games and software. Kyle Orland The Vuvana system has something to do with using a new blockchain cryptocurrency to buy and "own" items in virtual reality, which you can view on a cell phone with this included viewer, apparently. Kyle Orland Oversized controllers were all the rage at E3 2019, but this one went to the trouble of building in a monitor for its game, Street Fighter 2. Kyle Orland Remember the iCade Mini? Someone sure does... Kyle Orland GameBoks is just like it sounds—a wooden box that houses a monitor, power supply, and a space to hold and connect your game console. Between this and the new Atari VCS, wood paneling is apparently the hot new retro-hardware trend. Kyle Orland Proximat is being sold as a "mousepad for your virtual reality feet." It gives VR players a physical indication of their play space's center point, complete with high-grade gel for foot comfort. Kyle Orland If this is a thing you're looking for (for some reason), E3 has you covered. Kyle Orland Amazingly, a product with "360 ONE X" in its name has nothing to do with Xbox (it's a 360 degree camera designed for VR) Kyle Orland Neither vinyl nor fidget spinners are dead at E3 2019. Kyle Orland I need some quick energy after seeing all of these amazing products. It's my lucky day! Kyle Orland How do you make money selling $100 worth of stuff for $40? It's an economic miracle! Kyle Orland This balance board is mainly meant for some easy exercise while at a standing desk, but its producers were marketing it to gamers with a Mortal Kombat 11 display. Kyle Orland And the award for "most dystopian sounding slogan at E3" goes to... Kyle Orland "In the 1989 Future" is a legitimately great tagline, we have to admit. Kyle Orland Listing image by Sam Machkovech Read More Read the full article

[attract-mode-collective]

The Breath of The Wild, Being Played In The Wild

All right, let’s get that E3 aftertaste out of your mouth, with a long overdue helping of Game Culture Snapshots.

Now, for those of you new to Attract Mode (sup, folks on Medium) here’s the deal: there is perhaps no better platform than Instagram when it comes to honestly and intimately illustrating the pervasiveness of video games in our everyday life, IMHO.

It’s something I’ve been doing my best to present for quite some time now, and after a bit of an absence around these parts (though folks like Oliver has helped filled that void), I figured it was about time that the thing one thing that best defines the Attract Mode blog, and perhaps Attract Mode as a whole, made a return.

At least until the Super Attractive Club is back in business. And… it’s been a while, as evidenced by the image above and below, of Jake Kazdal taken shortly after the Switch’s launch in Japan…

BTW, again for you newbies, I sometimes present Instagrams in whatever order. Other times, there’s a theme. Like this time, cuz here we have another depiction of buttons being pushed, of someone at The King of Games HQ lost in PS4 VR…

One will also find a Famicom Mini and this sign of exuberance over… okay, I can’t tell which level in Super Mario Bros was just finished, but from the looks of it, it was a hard one…

Turning back the clock even further, here’s a snapshot courtesy of Stuart Brett, from the 1986 edition of the Hudson Caravan. I just love how color coordinated everything is…

And this one’s from what appears to be an Instragram account belonging to a museum dedicated to the golden era of games (before Nintendo entered the picture). Hence this pic of kids checking out the merchandise at Sears circa 1978…

Though right here, right now, it’s hella hot all over the country. So when you need to stay cool, but also collect those Pokemans, like Adam’s kid Dante…

Meanwhile Adam Frost’s kid is handling the Game Boy for the very first time. Try to imagine a GB that’s similar to you in size, scale-wise… is there a handheld that currently exists that would work?

Here we have misterraroo’s kids lounging on a rug with squares that are reminiscent of the blocks from the original Game Boy version of Tetris…

He also recently caught this fellow Nintendo dork while waiting in line at Universal Studios with the kids playing with… a PSP?

Speaking of, was happy to see Cory running Suzuki Bakuhatsu on his…

Skot Deeming recently went to the Louvre and unfortunately had a hard time seeing the Mona Lisa in person, but thanks to his 3DS, he didn’t have get all that close after all…

And here’s kappuru playing… something… or maybe he’s checking out Google Maps on his phone, in front of a game center in Hong Kong?

Mark Essen recently encountered a Pac-Man player who clearly dresses for success…

Julius Viloria has a mini Neo Geo arcade cab, one that he lets Optimus Prime play, to blow off steam…

Meanwhile, Shawn Robare has a custom made Monster Squad cab that both Gizmo and Stripe are willing to team up to play…

Whereas microom shows us that Fuchiko, when she’s not hanging from the side of a cup, likes to play Dragon Quest 3 for the Famicom…

You know who also loves the Famicom? The undead, as Mare Sheppard shows us…

So I though my TV was on the small side; Tonyo’s place is only big enough to have a Nokia Windows phone, but at least it’s good enough for Akira and Kazuma…

themisterfalcon has a cat and it can play video games…

Patrick Miller also has a cat and it wants attention…

men_gunners recently attended a performance featuring my fave chipunter with a Famicom on his head, Professor Sakamoto…

Though when it comes to documenting that particular genre of music, no one does it better than Marjorie Becker; here’s a recent fave from her, of Fastbom at some chip show in BC…

One more from Marjorie, and the last pic for now, of a dearly departed friend; the local NYC chiptune scene was dealt a very heavy blow with the recent passing of Tony Ness. There’s not a whole lot to say here, other than how everyone who knew the guy also loved the guy. RIP…

Don’t forget: Attract Mode is now on Medium! There you can subscribe to keep up to date, as well as enjoy some “best of” content you might have missed the first time around, plus be spared of the technical issues that’s starting to overtake Tumblr.