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weirdmarioenemies · 1 year ago

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No one stopped me but myself, but I'm back to ranking all the Super Mario Galaxies

Sorry this took so long! Mix of some busy weeks and some low energy. These are long posts! Takes a lot of time to write them.

Hello, everyone! Today we're approaching the top of the mountain. The very best galaxies these games have to offer... at least to me. I know I've stated this a lot but like, opinions are totally subjective, and what appeals to me may not appeal to you and vice versa! But these ones appeal to me and quite a lot.

By the next entry, we will have covered all of the galaxies there are, which is pretty exciting. You can expect it on some Sunday, but given how the last few weeks have gone, I won't make any promises about the specifics of when. And if this is the first time you're seeing one of these posts and want to catch up, I've got you covered. Here's part one, part two, part three, and part four.

With that out of the way, I think we're about good to go! Let's start covering some of the best these games have to offer!

20. Grandmaster Galaxy

Game: Super Mario Galaxy 2 Tier: S

Grandmaster Galaxy should be grateful we're not ranking the galaxies in the order you play them, or else it'd be dead last.

If I'm not mistaken, Super Mario Galaxy 2 was the first game to feature a very long, very difficult gauntlet as a "final test" of sorts, and here it is! This is another of those things that has basically become a series staple of Mario games at this point, with similar levels existing in 3D Land, 3D World, and Odyssey, and given they've latched onto this concept so much, it's probably not controversial to say that the first instance of this probably did something right.

And it did! The Grandmaster Galaxy throws a number of different obstacles at you, from a segment where all you have to get around is those Yoshi Tongue Flower Things, to a segment with electrical mazes, to a segment where you have to dodge Ring Beamers around flip-swap panels and disappearing platforms, to a segment with some tricky pull star timing. I would go ahead and say the segment with the flipswitches and Sentry Beams is on the easy side, but that's towards the start, so it's probably fine.

The first run of the galaxy is challenging, but also feels a bit like a "practice run," giving you room to acquaint yourself with each step of the galaxy before the Perfect Run, where you have to do the whole thing in one go with only one health. This is the time where I admit: I've only ever beaten the Perfect Run with help from a Co-Star Luma. Is that cheating? I dunno. I never promised I was great at video games! Only good enough to 100% most of the game and beat the Grandmaster Galaxy non-perfect run, and still do the Perfect Run with a little help. ...That counts for something, right?

Either way, I think Grandmaster provides more than an adequate challenge, making it succeed as both a test of skill, and as a finale for the rest of the game to build up to.

19. Matter Splatter Galaxy

Game: Super Mario Galaxy Tier: S

If you exclude boss missions, I'd say Matter Splatter Galaxy is probably the best one-off galaxy in the first game. Actually, the Garden in general is a really good dome. This is the first of its galaxies I'm covering on this list! (As long as you don't look at the Hungry Luma standing outside. I question how much Snow Cap Galaxy single-handedly weighs down this dome if you're willing to include it.)

I've kinda ragged on a lot of the smaller-scale galaxies in the first game, and while the small scale is maybe part of the reason I've been more dismissive of them, as a whole, I think what hurts them more for me is that I rarely find their gimmicks all that unique or interesting. If a gimmicky one-off galaxy has a good enough gimmick? Then yeah, I'll love it to bits! And Matter Splatter Galaxy has that "good enough gimmick".

I touched on this one a bit when talking about Sweet Mystery Galaxy, what with how both make use of the "what you can see is all that's there" concept, but as a whole, I think Matter Splatter does it a bit better, due to the lack of player control. It adds an element where you have to consider when you want to approach, and makes for some fun improvisation when your timing is off. You lose out on some of that improvisation when the location of the ground is something you have more control over, you know?

But what truly escalates Matter Splatter to me is how much variety they get out of its gimmick. For the first half of the galaxy, droplets of matter will "light up" the ground you can walk on, with the ground gradually fading until another drop hits the same spot. It's a fun test of pattern recognition and timing, and it comes with both 2D and 3D segments for a bit of added variety! As a whole, I'd say I generally prefer this half of the galaxy since it feels a bit more distinctive, but it's not like this galaxy suddenly becomes weak in the back half.

The back half switches things up, focusing on large, moving "spotlights" you have to keep yourself in, changing to a bit of an autoscroller, where you have to swiftly adjust to whatever obstacles are coming up ahead, now testing your reflexes and improvisational skills a bit more. Once again, we get both 2D and 3D segments for added variety, and the mix of the galaxy's unique gimmick and autoscrolling format allows for some really fun misdirection in this part. It's a fun switch-up that doesn't depart dramatically from what makes this galaxy so great. All of this comes together to make a one-off gimmick galaxy that feels like it truly gets the most out of a unique concept.

Before I move on, though, I want to talk about the Spring Mushroom. The Spring Mushroom is a weird power-up. It's pretty infamous, and like, for good reason. It's difficult to control, it feels kinda jank to use at times, and most people find it more frustrating than fun and like. I'm not even gonna say I disagree with that sentiment! And yet somehow, against all odds, every galaxy that prominently features the Spring Mushroom has ended up scoring really highly for me. Are these galaxies just great in spite of featuring the Spring Mushroom? Is the Spring Mushroom's jank secretly a good thing? Or is there just something wrong with me? The answer is probably a mix of all three.

18. Bowser's Galaxy Generator

Game: Super Mario Galaxy 2 Tier: S

Oh hey, it's the finale of the main Super Mario Galaxy 2 campaign! These big finale boss missions are always great, and while I think Galaxy 2's doesn't quite stack up to the first game's, I'd still say that I'd consider it a worthy successor. It still absolutely succeeds as one last grand mission to close out the main game.

Like any good boss galaxy, I love Bowser's Galaxy Generator for its length and sense of variety. Possibly even more so than the Galaxy Reactor from the first game, the Galaxy Generator seems to try testing your knowledge on everything you know, featuring most of the game's brand-new power-ups, save for the Rock Mushroom and Bulb Berry. I think this idea of focusing on the game's new content was the right call, since it helps it feel a bit more like a finale to Super Mario Galaxy 2, specifically.

The level is also adequately challenging! I find the Yoshi segments towards the end to be the toughest, with the Dash Pepper segment being tight enough that even the smallest mistakes can be punishing, while the Snake Block section afterwards requiring some pretty tight reflexes to dodge the Magmarrghs.

With that out of the way, while the level is solidly challenging, I do think the final boss fight is a bit on the easy side. Both the asteroids and Bowser are big enough that landing the hits isn't too much of a challenge, even in the second phase. Heck, arguably less so in the second phase, when replaying this level, I always think of that phase of the fight as being sort of a freebie.

But I also wouldn't say it's a bad fight -- it does a good job escalating the game's previous Bowser encounters, and ground pounding asteroids into a massive Bowser while hurtling through space definitely has a sense of grandeur that I really appreciate. Maybe it could've been a little more difficult or a little longer, but it's certainly memorable, and still very fun, so the fact it's not as difficult as it arguably should be doesn't bother me that much, and doesn't hamper the Galaxy Generator from its S-tier position.

17. Flip-Out Galaxy

Game: Super Mario Galaxy 2 Tier: S

I find it a little weird that this is the penultimate galaxy in Super Mario Galaxy 2, you know? Between the boss rush and ultimate challenge levels, you have this weird one-off gimmick level that introduces a variant of a gimmick seen back in World 1, just with an added twist. I guess they wanted the final Hungry Luma galaxy to be a parallel to the first one? I'm not really sure. None of this matters of course, because Flip-Out Galaxy is fan-flipping-tastic!

Yeah, I know that doesn't hit as hard as a real F-bomb, but we try to keep the blog at least somewhat family-friendly, you know? And also the pun!

Anyway, as you may remember, I love Flip-Swap Galaxy quite a bit. Top-notch weird gimmick galaxy, always a joy to play. So I think it goes to say that I love this more difficult spin on its gimmick just as much, if not even more, if the rating hasn't spoken for itself already. Flip-Out Galaxy shifts the focus from the red and blue Flip-Swap panels to red and blue walls that pop in and out when you spin. And of course, that means it's time to perform some Wicked Wall Jumps! This is what that weird short mission in Honeybloom Galaxy has been training you for!

Since this is the penultimate galaxy in the game, it's a pretty tricky one, since a poorly-timed spin can take out not just the walls you're jumping on, but the floor underneath as well, and you'll have to spin a lot when alternating between red and blue walls! Timing will also prove important, not just for exiting a wall jump and spinning to give yourself solid ground to stand on, but also for a segment where you have to keep wall jumping until the spikes underneath you recede, which becomes especially difficult when you throw in the Cosmic Clones...

On that note, I love the decision to use specifically the Cosmic Clone mission for the second Green Star here, and putting it towards the end, too. Makes grabbing it a bit trickier, which is nice for a galaxy this late in the game! Flip-Out does pretty much everything I'd want it to -- it brings back a great old gimmick, changes it up in a way that feels unique, and uses it to craft a fun, albeit challenging late-game mission. My only knock against it? It being so late in the game means you have to play a lot to get there, and they crowd so many of the game's worst galaxies before it, just to rub salt in the wound. But hey, if it's for a galaxy this good, it may as well be worth it.

16. Cosmic Cove Galaxy

Game: Super Mario Galaxy 2 Tier: S

I know a handful of people have been disappointed by the low rankings I gave to a lot of these games' water galaxies, so consider this an apology. Well, an apology of some sort, it's not like I decided to move up Cosmic Cove a bunch because people were upset that I didn't like some of the water galaxies. It just happens that I felt a lot of them suffered from having weak missions, hampered a bit by somewhat janky underwater controls. Give me a water galaxy that mitigates both these problems, and I'm sure to fall in love with it. "Underwater" is like, a pretty notable part of My Brand! There's a reason I've put three water galaxies on today's list, everyone!

Case in point: Cosmic Cove Galaxy! Cosmic Cove Galaxy is just gorgeous. I'd say that it's aesthetically one of the strongest galaxies in Super Mario Galaxy 2, which definitely counts for something! I mean, have you heard its music? The harps and pianos create such a relaxing atmosphere, and it sort of reminds me of the music in the next entry on our list...

But let's not get ahead of ourselves! Cosmic Cove isn't surviving on looks alone, because it's a pretty fun galaxy to play as well! I think they hit a really nice balance here, where the underwater sections have a somewhat linear path to take, so it doesn't feel like you're wrestling with those Janky Water Controls, but if you decide to go off the beaten path, there's a good bit more to see than you'd expect, which is nice, given this is a very pretty galaxy and one I enjoy spending time to take in! Obviously there's less to do once you've frozen the water, but having a big open plain to skate around on is also pretty fun. And while we're talking about ice skating, the Hungry Luma star is probably the second best bunny chase in the Galaxy games.

And let's not forget the second main mission, either! The underwater sidescroller is really neat, especially when they start having blocks of water floating in space, and even moving on their own. I think this is another of those concepts they brought back in Super Mario 3D World, if I'm not mistaken! It's such a memorable part of the galaxy, that I sorta forget there's that planet with the Spin Drill and the Micro Mecha-Bowsers and the Fizzlits at the end, but that planet is fine too.

Cosmic Cove manages to do a seamless job blending aesthetics and gameplay to create one of the series' most memorable galaxies. And it introduces us to Snoodles and Fizzlits! Those are like, maybe two of my favorite enemies. Bonus points for that!

15. Space Junk Galaxy

Game: Super Mario Galaxy Tier: S

Can I be honest? Space Junk Galaxy is one of those galaxies that mostly made it this high for the vibes, above all else. Don't get me wrong, I like Space Junk Galaxy a lot. I think all the missions here are fun, if I was rating it on gameplay alone I'd probably still rank it highly. Space Junk on its own is a solid A-tier galaxy, but I think this is one of those galaxies where the atmosphere brings it up a tier higher for me.

While most of the galaxies in these games focus on the grandeur and excitement of exploring the cosmos, Space Junk Galaxy takes a more melancholic approach to the setting, the idea that outer space is mostly, well, space. Space Junk Galaxy isn't really focused on having big, exciting setpieces. Space Junk Galaxy is about everything inbetween, from lost spaceships, to small asteroids, to well... miscellaneous space junk. And I think it works in its favor!

I could make the same argument that I made against Gusty Garden Galaxy, that Space Junk Galaxy feels like it was cobbled together from miscellaneous bits and bobs of larger levels that were getting too big, but in this case, I think that's the point. To the extent that something trying to be a cohesive level design in a 3D platformer can at least, Space Junk does a really good job capturing that feeling of emptiness, in the best possible way. The first mission here, which largely consists of Mario floating through space via a trail of Pull Stars, may not be the most exciting mission, but it has such a specific atmosphere that I can't help but say it may very well be one of my favorites across both games.

Admittedly, this is the part of this review where I have to concede that Space Junk's biggest strength is probably also one of its biggest weaknesses, that a galaxy so focused on all the emptiness and in-betweens of space struggles to find enough content to fill out six missions. The second mission basically has none of the atmosphere, instead being a weird Airship mission with a boss fight at the end, and then the third mission has another boss fight, because what else are you gonna do here? Don't get me wrong, these are still fun missions, but I think they end up working against the general atmosphere and tone that this galaxy sets up in the first mission. I think this is one that would benefit from the sequel's smaller-scale galaxies, with two "main" missions, and a comet or secret star or something.

Still, this is a galaxy that is fun from start to finish, and when it goes for being atmospheric, it nails it. I mean, have you heard the music here? This has easily gotta be a top 5 song across both games for me, I love it so much. While I think having fewer, more focused missions could've benefited it a little, Space Junk Galaxy will always leave such an impression on me that I can't help but feel like it's one of the standouts from these games.

14. Cloudy Court Galaxy

Game: Super Mario Galaxy 2 Tier: S

I've mentioned before how a few of the galaxies in Galaxy 2 feel like they're meant to be "sequels" to galaxies from the first game, and Cloudy Court is no exception, feeling like a bit of a follow-up to Gusty Garden Galaxy. I mean, you have the grand orchestral score, you have the "garden in the sky" theming, you have lots of segments where you're riding on wind currents, even the Japanese name, "Cloud Garden Galaxy" ends up harkening back to the first game's "Wind Garden Galaxy". I think there's a reason they showed this one off a lot in the game's earliest trailers.

That being said, while it does feel a bit like an attempt to capitalize on Gusty Garden's success, in many ways to me it also feels like a refinement of Gusty Garden, taking some of the concepts that worked there and expanding on them a bit to make something that, to me at least, feels more interesting and cohesive. In my review of Gusty Garden, I characterized it a bit as a galaxy largely carried by its music, that otherwise felt like it could've been thrown together from leftover assets from galaxies that had gotten too large. Cloudy Court manages to avoid that feeling pretty easily, it was pretty clearly built from the ground up, and given how much it changed from the initial trailer to the final release, it seems like one they spent a lot of time on trying to get just right.

And in that regard, I think they largely succeeded! Cloudy Court manages to hit on the familiar elements we love about Gusty Garden, but also manages to hold strong on its own, with a number of distinct and memorable segments. I don't know why the drum trampolines are here, but I'm not complaining, it's fun to have them! And the combination of the wind currents and the Cloud Flower makes for some very memorable platforming challenges. And some fun secrets, as well! Obviously as a Galaxy 2 entry it's gonna be a bit more linear by default, but even then they manage to hide a lot of 1-Ups here, adding a little extra reward for going off the course, which you know I always appreciate.

While a lot of "sequel" galaxies end up falling flat to me when they struggle to live up to what came before, Cloudy Court is one of the rare exceptions that not only lives up to its predecessor, but in my opinion, surpasses it. I feel like we think of Gusty Garden as a better galaxy than it truly is, but Cloudy Court simply is that good, which to me, makes it a contender for one of the series' very best.

13. Boo Moon Galaxy

Game: Super Mario Galaxy 2 Tier: S

Man, it's hard to go wrong with ghosts. Nice for an appropriately spooky galaxy to end up at #13, huh? Maybe that was a little deliberate on my part, but it's not like I don't think Boo Moon Galaxy deserves it.

Boo Moon Galaxy is so, so stylish I think. I feel like Super Mario Galaxy 2 goes for a bit of a "storybook" aesthetic, so why not have a galaxy that leans into that a bit? Stuff like the dark maze at the beginning, poison swamp folding up at a 90 degree angle to match the snake blocks, the crescent-moon see-saw planet, and the haunted house pop-up book at the end are all such distinctive visuals with a bit of that Storybook Feel to me, and end up making for a galaxy that manages to provide a very fun twist on an already fun theme.

Not to mention that this is also a decently tricky galaxy! I gotta be grateful for those musical notes that spawn the three 1-Ups during the Snake Block section, because I've fallen into that poison swamp more than a couple times, especially when going for the secret star, and even more so when going for that one Green Star. The second mission, which I believe is the sole appearance of the Boo Mushroom in Galaxy 2, also involves some precise timing as you weave your way through Octoboos, particularly towards the end.

I'm a sucker for a good ghost galaxy, so this one was probably gonna get high marks no matter what, but with a stylish and distinctive aesthetic, that's enough to bring it up to a top-tier with a fittingly spooky number. Happy Halloween, everyone!

I mean, it's September. That's basically Halloween.

12. Tall Trunk Galaxy

Game: Super Mario Galaxy 2 Tier: S

Really, shoutout to World 3 of Galaxy 2 just giving you a choice between two absolute bangers right off the bat. I think Tall Trunk ends up just barely winning out against Cloudy Court for me, but the two are really close in quality, and no matter which I'm in the mood for, I know I'm in for a great time.

Like Puzzle Plank, this is another galaxy that brings such a high level of unfiltered joy whenever I reach it in a playthrough. Maybe there's something about these big galaxies made of wood, I dunno. Probably also has something to do with the music. Yeah, I know this one just borrows the music from Yoshi Star Galaxy, but I always associate it with Tall Trunk first and foremost. Unlike Puzzle Plank however, I think Tall Trunk feels a bit more fully realized -- I never really feel underwhelmed playing through Tall Trunk, which let it climb a good bit higher on my tier list.

Tall Trunk is a galaxy not only with a great aesthetic, but two very fun and very distinct missions! The first mission is a showcase of the Blimp Fruit, and I love how it gets used in so many different ways, from climbing a tree, to searching for Star Chips around a cylindrical planet (Super Mario Galaxy 2 has a lot of those, huh?), to making your way through a long spiral to grab the Power Star. Then there's the slide, which weeeeeee wheeeeeeeeeee yippeeeeeeeeeee wahoooooo!

It's fun.

This galaxy also has to get bonus points for being the home of the Whittles, arguably the best Galaxy NPCs. Don't get me wrong, the Gearmos offer close competition, but the Whittles are just too adorable. Also, the Tall Trunk Galaxy is a sacred site to the Whittles, giving us one of few glimpses into Religion in the Mario Universe.

I think I have to agree with the Whittles when it comes to this galaxy: "Treetop. Good." Truer words have never been spoken.

11. Flipsville Galaxy

Game: Super Mario Galaxy 2 Tier: S

Oh hey, I've talked about this one before! I mean, clearly I have to enjoy this one a good bit to give it its own post with some in-depth analysis, though I hate to say, I still have yet to figure out who's selectively breeding Pupdozers, why they'd be doing it, or if that has even happened at all. Sorry. I know you're disappointed in me. Maybe I'll have the answer next time I talk about Flipsville.

I did sort of go over my opinions in that post, though more of it was dedicated to talking about the galaxy itself, so I probably don't have to fear repeating myself too too much. To reiterate: I think this one is great! The gimmick of the grates that reverse the gravity of the galaxy is really really neat, and this galaxy uses it in some interesting ways, particularly during the autoscroller where you have to flip at the right time to avoid running Mario into spikes. (That being said, my favorite usage still gotta be that one Green Star that you can only reach by taking a leap of faith from underneath.)

Also shoutout to the Pupdozers as an enemy design that takes advantage of this gimmick! I'm pretty sure they're only in this galaxy, so I may as well talk about them here. I also have to shoutout this galaxy's distinctive aesthetic, "weird 1950s suburban house" is not really a level theme you see in video games often, and it gives this galaxy more than just a unique gameplay gimmick. I really dig it.

Speaking of digging, I do remain a little iffy on how the second mission shifts focus to the Spin Drill, I feel parts of it end up feeling pretty similar to the Spin-Dig Galaxy, but the gimmick of flipping between the two sides of the planets remains in tact, and the final room with the gravity walls that switch in time with the music where you have to use the drill to grab Silver Stars or Purple Coins is really cool, so I can't complain about it too much. I mean, it's not like it makes this galaxy any less fun, y'know?

Flipsville Galaxy will always stand out to me as one of the most distinctive galaxies in the sequel, both in its theming and in its gameplay, and for that I will always consider it a personal favorite!

10. Slimy Spring Galaxy

Game: Super Mario Galaxy 2 Tier: S

Slimy Spring Galaxy is one of the most atmospheric galaxies... well, I was gonna say in Super Mario Galaxy 2, but it's really one of the most atmospheric galaxies in general. I'd say that as a whole, the first game typically wins out on atmosphere, but there's a few places where the sequel really shines, and more than any other, I think Slimy Spring showcases that.

Slimy Spring Galaxy is so, so very claustrophobic. You're given a green shell, and from there, it's a long, linear swim through a narrow underwater cave. Besides the very start, there's hardly any coins or air bubbles to refill your air meter, so you have to rely on what little air you do have to make your way to the end. And believe me when I say that these tunnels are designed to be just long enough to run you to the very end of your air meter. You only really get a brief breather in the middle, and with limited air, mistakes made in this galaxy can be especially punishing.

I love the way Slimy Spring Galaxy puts you in this distinct state of mind. Watching your air slowly run out while making your way through a dark, seemingly unending tunnel can be a bit nerve-wracking, but obviously the game's not gonna present you with a galaxy that's impossible to beat. You just have to trust that the game's gonna take you where you need to go, and try to avoid letting any obstacles this galaxy throws at you trip you up. Admittedly, I still see my fight-or-flight reflex kick in when I reach the Gringills.

Slimy Spring Galaxy is one I've really only grown to appreciate more and more with time. It's not really one of the game's most "fun" galaxies by any stretch of the imagination, but it doesn't really feel like it's trying to be -- the rest of the galaxies exist to be fun, so what does it matter if Slimy Spring Galaxy tries to do something else? Slimy Spring Galaxy is pretty much unrivaled in its atmosphere, and for that, it has easily become one of my favorites.

I really love the sunset at the end of Slimy Spring. It sort of feels like the game saying that even in the most uncertain of times, everything's gonna turn out alright at the end. I feel like I'm being a bit wax poetic here, but I dunno. I think Slimy Spring Galaxy just does that to a person.

9. Honeyhive Galaxy

Game: Super Mario Galaxy Tier: S

So remember how earlier I said this was a top 10 Galaxy? Well how many of you guessed it'd show up at #9? Congratulations if you did! I'm sorry I don't have anything to award you, besides I guess my review of Honeyhive Galaxy, but even people who didn't guess correctly are getting that... Sorry.

Whatever. Honeyhive is great! I mean, you've seen me talk about it when talking about every other bee galaxy. This is the honey-gold standard all other bee galaxies strive for, and few can achieve...

What makes Honeyhive so great to me is its sense of scale. It arguably has the largest starting planet across both games, with lots of little nooks and crannies that all get utilized throughout its many missions. I get the feeling you wouldn't even need to add more to this galaxy to give it a full set of missions, but Honeyhive Galaxy is here to spoil us anyway, because it's Honeyhive Galaxy, and it's great. It does a very nice job making each mission feel familiar, yet distinctive, which I really appreciate.

I also think it does a really good job showing off the Bee Mushroom, with lots of high ground that becomes much more accessible with it, plenty of water to show off its main weakness, lots of flower and cloud platforms you can only access with it, and honey walls to climb up. Not only do you get to spend time among the bees, but you get to join them. Become one with the hive.

Oh, and have I mentioned that the main missions here are all super great too? The first mission is the big showcase for the Bee Mushroom I mentioned above, but the second has some fun platforming through a wooden obstacle course, and the boss fight against Big Bad Bugaboom is always a blast that makes some great usage of the Bee Mushroom. The Purple Coin and Luigi missions are sorta whatever to me, though I appreciate the Cosmic Mario race and the weird shortcuts you can take in it, I think it's nifty.

Really, I think the thing holding back Honeyhive from an even higher spot for me, and this is pretty unfair, is the fact that it's so early in the game, that the novelty of it all has kinda worn off for me. It's hard to get excited about Honeyhive when it's a place you have to go to early in the game, you know? But again, that's a small gripe that ultimately changes nothing about just how good this galaxy is. It's sweet as honey!

8. Deep Dark Galaxy

Game: Super Mario Galaxy Tier: S

Deep Dark Galaxy is one of those galaxies that always kinda surprises me when I play through the first game. It's one of those galaxies I never really think about all that often, and I'm rarely that excited when I get there, but then I play through it and go "wait a second, this one rules!"

I'm wondering if it's because it's in the Garden, where it has to deal with some serious competition. Being "that water galaxy with the dreary atmosphere in the way of Dreadnought and Melty Molten" isn't exactly the most flattering look, but at the very least it makes for a galaxy that always manages to surpass my expectations. Hopefully, putting this one at #8 will make me stop forgetting how good it is once and for all.

Still, I don't think counting the dreary atmosphere of this galaxy against it is really fair, because that's kinda what it's going for -- it's literally called "Dungeon Cave Galaxy" in Japanese. And you know what? For a Dungeon Cave, I love how silly they still let this Galaxy be! Stuff like the weird inflatable duplicate of the Gateway Planet, the weird floating circus platform, and that planet where you have to ground pound tennis balls into a watermelon to make it grow are such odd things to put in a galaxy like this, but I think they all end up working in its favor. The added surrealism makes this place so much more memorable.

And man oh man, I know I've talked a few times about how I love galaxies that let you goof off and do whatever, and I think no galaxy does that better than Deep Dark. I swear, in my latest playthrough of Galaxy, I spent more time in the spawn beach area than I did playing the rest of the mission. For an area that looks to have so little going on, there's lots of hidden goodies to look for, and shooting yourself out of the cannon at the Gateway and Octoguy planets is so, so fun.

While I'm sort of lukewarm on the mission where you swim through Guppy's eight rings, everything else in this galaxy I think is super fun, from the Kamella rematch on the pirate ship, to the aforementioned weird watermelon planet, to even the untimed Purple Coin mission! Usually those untimed exploration-based Purple Coin missions are never my cup of tea, but in this case, I think the combination of a smaller area to explore, better utilization of the underwater areas, and no places to fall off makes it feel a lot less grueling to me.

Deep Dark Galaxy is a great galaxy that always surpasses my expectations, and for that I think it deserves a spot in my top 10.

7. Freezeflame Galaxy

Game: Super Mario Galaxy Tier: S

Freezeflame Galaxy is so cool. And also so hot. That's kind of its whole gimmick. I feel like I made the same joke with Shiverburn Galaxy. Whatever. Freezeflame Galaxy's missions consist of an excellent ice level, a pretty good fire level, and a combination of the two, to make a galaxy that is as varied as it is fun. I will come forwards and say I like the Freeze part of this galaxy a bit more than the Flame part, but again, both are good.

I love the feeling of verticality you get from the ice sections. I love that upwards climb with all the varied obstacles and Ice Flower platforming, followed by a pretty fun boss fight against Baron Brrr. And then you can climb the other side of the mountain too, with its own varied obstacles and platforming challenges! Let's just say this one's good for my inner West Virginian mountaineer, okay? And then you have a Purple Coin mission that makes you climb both sides, which might be a bit much, but I'm glad they were being thorough.

But while the peak of the mountain may be the peak of the mountain here, it's not like the fire mission isn't doing any heavy lifting here, either. It's no Melty Molten, sure, but the Fire Flower gets used for some pretty fun timing puzzles, and I appreciate the use of the Galaxy games' gravity shenanigans halfway through. Really, most of my gripes with this section come from how the Fire Flower is handled in these games. The fact you need to spin to activate it, combined with how it stops you in your tracks when you throw a fireball just doesn't feel very good at all, especially when you throw in the timer. But that's not really this specific galaxy's fault, is it?

Gripes about the Fire Flower aside, I'm happy to say this galaxy's two great tastes taste great together as well! I'm a little bummed it takes until this galaxy's third mission to put the fire and ice together, but when they do, they use it very well, making for fun segments where you switch between the two, followed by a memorable segment where you use the Ice Flower to skate across lava. And on that note, I really enjoy the Cosmic Mario race here. Lots of places where I decide to take a risky shortcut, and it doesn't pay off and I fall in a Black Hole. Classic.

The Freeze and the Flame aren't perfectly balanced, from the levels to the Flowers featured within (no seriously. where was the Ice Flower in Galaxy 2), but both are very enjoyable, and the combination of both in one galaxy makes for a very memorable location. Not surprised at all they decided to revisit this idea in Galaxy 2.

6. Chompworks Galaxy

Game: Super Mario Galaxy 2 Tier: S

Look, I can spend all day talking about the gorgeous atmosphere of Cosmic Cove or Slimy Spring, or the exciting challenges of Grandmaster or Flip-Out, but when you ask me what my favorite galaxy in Super Mario Galaxy 2 is, I'll probably say it's Chompworks, because I'm only human, and I love Funny Chain Chomp Factory Galaxy. This is literally a place where Mario enemies are made! How can I resist?! There's Star Bits arranged like Chomps in the sky and everything!

I just love everything about Chompworks, from the music, to the theming, to the gameplay itself. It's one of those very unique galaxies that always stands out in my head, and if you know me, that can only be a good thing! I really appreciate the light timing puzzles they incorporate into this galaxy, the balance of needing so set everything up just right so the Chomps can reach their goal, but also not get too close because as you may realize: getting hit by a huge ball of steel rolling at you, even at slow speeds, hurts a lot.

I really like the active role this galaxy gives you in Chomp Production, how even when the Chomps start rolling, you'll need to make some adjustments to its path if you don't want it to crash early. Like, this galaxy has one of the rare inclusions of Flip-Swap panels outside of Flip-Swap Galaxy, just for the purpose of crafting a puzzle that can use them, and I appreciate that! If anything, I feel like there's room to elaborate on this mechanic even further, but I'm not gonna pretend that this galaxy isn't doing more than enough already. I think the Cosmic Clone comet is a fun enough shake-up, since you're gonna need to stay in one place a lot for some of the challenges.

You know, this factory doesn't seem very efficient. All their assembly lines are weird obstacle courses that need manual intervention, and most of the Chomps get destroyed at the end anyway. The Gearmos always chastise you for your poor efficiency, but maybe they wouldn't need Mario if they just built a more efficient factory. You see Gearmos? This is why you're only the second best Mario Galaxy NPC species. If nothing else, feel grateful your horribly-designed factory is a really, really well-designed Video Game Level.

Circling back to what I said about the Spring Mushroom earlier, same sentiment applies here. Not a great power-up on its own, but when I reach the mission that uses it here, I never see myself going "Ugh, the Spring Mushroom?", probably because the level is designed with it in mind, and the trickier control scheme is kinda the point. That being said, if you really don't want to use the Spring Mushroom, know that there's a fun optional challenge in trying to beat the level without it! As far as I'm aware, it's possible, and I know I've had my share of fun backflipping over Chomps in the past.

Is Chompworks Galaxy the best galaxy in Super Mario Galaxy 2? Maybe not, but since when has this list been about objective quality? I don't want to pretend I'm presenting anything other than my personal opinion here. Chompworks Galaxy appeals to my autism brain in some incredibly specific ways, and with a mix of that and its unique theming and design sensibilities, managed to end up at the top of Galaxy 2 for me. Sorry you couldn't make the top 5!

Speaking of the top five, I think they're all worthy of their own post, as I've hinted to a couple times at this point. It probably shouldn't be too hard to figure out which ones they are via process of elimination, though I do find it fascinating that after Galaxy 2 generally performed better, all the top 5 are from the first game. Again, Galaxy 2 is a remarkably consistent game that clusters around A-tier, while Galaxy 1 has some higher highs and lower lows.

The finale for this series should be ready next week, or the week after, or the week after that, or the week after that. I'm not really sure anymore. There's a Splatfest again next week, so I'll probably want to tune into that (Go Team Frye!) but I also have fewer galaxies to cover in general, so it might not take along as this one. Then again, I probably have more to say about my favorites... Either way, thank you for reading the series up to this point! Nothing matters more to me than knowing that people will listen to my ramblings about 10-to-15 year old Videos Games.

#mod hooligon #super mario galaxy #super mario galaxy 2

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megamagimugi · 3 months ago

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Fandom in a nutshell?😂

Watching Ralph in anguish fuels me

#rare non mario post #this is supposed to be a hate comment but could have also very well come from a hardcore fan #lmao

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preeningpisces · 8 months ago

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Non-curse AU! Choso is a big ol' nerd

A/N: As a big ol' nerd myself I feel passionately about this, so I have way too many thoughts repost bc it wasn't showing in the tag for some reason

Below the cut because I'm a yapper!

♠ Definitely the type to meet his S/O through discord because I think non-curse Choso is much shyer than regular Choso

❥ He wouldn’t be an admin. He’d be the quiet type that’s always there reacting to posts but rarely talks. Has the sickest emotes tho

❥ Prefers smaller discord communities, mostly video game servers

❥ I think he'd like the vaporwave aesthetic and all the RBG setups. Keeps his computer area neat and tidy

❥ Choso fucking loves video games. He'll buy those $300 special edition pre-orders and get the cool figures

❥ HUGE Soulsborne fan. His favorite is Bloodborne (on the nose but I couldn't resist). Also really loves Monster Hunter. Cares a lot about the monster's details, like their eating habits. I think his fave would either be Odogaron, Nargacuga or Zinogre.

❥ Picks the edgiest weapons lmfao. Definitely a longsword user in Monster Hunter. Went blood build in Elden Ring

❥ *Sigh* he does consult reddit for his builds and is a min-maxer. I'm afraid Choso is a reddit user but in a 'I need a thorough understanding of this' kind of way

❥ Function over fashion: he dgaf if that helmet is as ugly as sin, it gives him +2 endurance and he's gonna wear it

❥ Lets you create his character & name them & everything.

❥ If you can't be present for the character creation portion, he'll make his character you! Definitely made you his dream guardian in Baldur's Gate 3 (which in the early access was called the Dream Lover, which is even cuter)

❥ Not pretentious at all about what is/isn't gaming, and plays all sorts of genres

❥ LOVES NINTENDO GAMES. Mario has a special place in his heart. DEFINITELY mains Shy Guy in Mario Kart

❥ Will literally cry and die if you play video games with him. You don't have to be good because he'll happily teach you. Just watching him play and asking about the details will make his day

❥ Definitely would do those cute Animal Crossing museum dates. Loves the relaxing, chill music so much. Despite his min-maxer approach to other games, he's absolutely not a time traveler in Animal Crossing. He's of the mindset that it ruins one of the core features of the game

❥ Stardew Valley? Stardew Valley. Honestly, I can't decide who he romanced first. My heart is telling me Leah, but chat pls advise

❥ Speaking of chat, you just know he's a fan of let's players. Always watching a YouTuber or Twitch Streamer. He's a Markiplier fan. You know it, just accept it

❥ Tbh that's a cute thought: Choso being a fan of the reader that's a small twitch streamer. Should that be a thing?

❥ Really good at singleplayer games. AWFUL at pvp

❥ He'll play something like Fortnite or Overwatch for Yuji, but needs to be hard carried because he only plays when someone asks him to. He can't stand how toxic those communities are, and doesn't want to socialize with strangers just to play a game

❥ He gets HEATED SO EASILY when people are toxic, especially if it's directed at Yuji or someone else he cares about. Definitely the type to step in and check other ppl when they're being toxic. Like those clips where it's a woman in a lobby and the dudes all start being sexist. Choso will not let that shit fly!

❥ Teabag him if you want to see him lose his shit

❥ On the note of Overwatch: the only character he can and will play is Mercy, and he just pockets Yuuji the whole time. Yuji has to beg him to heal/boost their teammates

#these may or may not be incorporated in the mini fic im working on for him #nerd!choso i see you and i understand you #I have so many thoughts about the characters in jjk playing video games #especially overwatch bc i unforunately played it for years #headcanons ☽#dreams ☽#dreams of choso ☁︎#choso headcanons #choso x reader #choso x you #jjk headcanons #sweet dreams ☽

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pretty-idol-hell · 10 months ago

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Idol Land PriPara 10

Well... That was a lot.

I figured I'd open this post the exact way the episode opened. Mario's crotch.

(I'm trying to compare this scene with anything that happened in King of Prism and having a surprisingly difficult time. I think we may have gotten a few Alexander crotch shots, but they were surprisingly rare now that I think of it. And yet, here we are in Idol Land PriPara...)

So, Mario is back in DanPri with his strawberry boxers on full display as he tries his best to overcome his embarrassment so he no longer turns into his rabbit form.

And, actually, it works. Literally flinging the crowd's chant of "deseze!" (lame) back at them, he is able to change it into IIZE!

And so, with a brainwashed Shinya and lots of bugs in tow, Mario's rampage begins.

Instead of getting brainwashed, the dark key meant fror Amamiya ends up locking him in the bathroom, though.

(Which may have answered one of the most randomest questions I've had about PriPara/DanPri. Are there bathrooms? Are they gender-neutral? Yes, but no it seems.)

Mario decides to give the dark mic he found at the end of the last episode to Shinya, and he goes ham as well, launching a direct attack on PriPara as a concerned Ushimitsu ninja follows him.

Amari and SoLaMi Dressing arrive to find PriPara in shambles, with everyone feeling the brainwashing "whatever" effect of the dark keys.

Mario confronts them, causing Shion and Dorothy to immediately whip out their kendo sword and okonomiyaki spatula respectively as this is war.

Amari brings out her greatest weapon, Mario's strawberry boxers, only to discover it no longer works. Mario even offers to show them before Amari quickly interjects.

Meanwhile, Shinya is confronted by Ushimitsu just outside the gates. Ushimitsu sobs and grips onto Shinya's leg as Shinya rejects him. But just as Ushimitsu is about to be consumed by the bugs, however, WITH arrives with vacuum cleaners and goat onesies to save him.

After a quick scuffle, Koyoi is able to incapacitate his former teammate as he can see his weak points... only for Ushimitsu to throw a smoke bomb and allow Shinya to escape out of habit.

Ushimitsu quickly realizes what he's done but it's too late as Shinya runs off to wreak more havoc.

Meanwhile, back inside the gates, Non Sugar has joined the battle, as well as the PriPara nurses. But just as things seem like they are looking up, another threat is revealed:

Shion is dueling a copy of herself. The bugs have started replicating everyone and making dark copies!

The dark copies each threaten their originals in different ways. (Dark Dorothy just lounges around picking her nose, causing Dorothy to flip out about her image being ruined.)

Gaarmageddon-Mi is also fighting the battle in their own way, by performing a ritual outside the gates, when Gaaruru feels the bug inside her stirring again. She wanders off and runs into Mario again who recognizes the bug inside her, reminds Gaaruru of her past, and asks her to join him and return to the way she used to be.

She refuses, so Mario calls Shinya to call bugs to consume her. But Falulu suddenly appears to push Gaaruru aside at the last second and the bugs take her instead!

Mario, however, is pleased with this. Falulu is the ultimate vocal doll, the ultimate idol. Copying her would make the ultimate dark idol!

Falulu vows to protect PriPara, and agrees to challenge Dark Falulu as long as Mario agrees to leave if she wins.

Mario winds up Dark Falulu for the challenge. (I don't think we've ever actually seen the crank on unawakened Falulu used before, have we?)

Mario declares the winner will be the one who completes Cyalume Change. Which is very usual to me, because Cyalume Change has never been difficult to achieve in the past? Don't we usually declare the winner by who has the most iine? Hmm???

This is the halfway point of the episode, btw.

Falulu changes into her unawakened form to challenge Dark Falulu (as apparently she can do that at will?) and we get this kinda cool mirrored performance of the vintage 0-week-old.

Dark Falulu proceeds to copy everyone's Making Dramas just like Falulu once did in season one. But Falulu states what she herself learned, that you can't win that way, and awakens herself again in her original Making Drama.

Falulu Cyalume Changes and Dark Falulu is just never seen again.

So, since Falulu is the clear winner, Mario agrees to leave... the arena, He's not leaving PriPara.

Instead, Mario and Shinya escalate things even further, now hurling bugs into the SKY!

Hibiki, observing the situation from their helicopter, quickly decides Meganii is not doing enough to protect PriPara and once again takes things into their own hands.

The sky is darkened, and Yui is no longer responding as Takki is frozen shut. Mirei points to the sky, where the Yumeme is swarming in bugs. Janice and the time twins rush to try and free it.

As the others try to decide what to do, a crying voice can be heard. "Amari-chaaan!!"

It's Pololo. She thought she was coming to PriPara to visit with everyone, but now she's crouched at the entrance crying in fear over what's going on.

But, determined to show Pololo that PriPara is still PriPara, Laala steps in to solve this problem like she solves every problem: A live!

SoLaMi Dressing and Gaarmageddon plus Gaaruru, Falulu, Fuwari, and Ajimi put on a repeat performance of All Idol Song Precious from the PriParis movie!

This screen is shown before the performance despite several characters above not appearing in the performance because they weren't characters yet when the movie came out.

But anyway, again it seems to be working! Pololo's happiness starts to convert the bugs once more as kirakira rockets up towards the Yumeme key. A quick shot shows us that Mario isn't going to stand for that, however, and just as the girls begin their Cyalume Change...

The performance is interrupted as bugs rocket up from the manhole covers to flood the skies once more. A live feed comes up to show Mario explaining the "present" he sent them is all the bugs Laala has been collecting all this time have now been released from the cave all at once... (Wow Laala was working hard... but anyway.)

The kirakira has now been depleted to the point where even the time twins and Janice can't keep up. The key falls from the sky to crash into the fountain and Janice even turns back into a baby, falling from the sky as well to safely land into Non's arms.

Shinya is celebrating their victory when he is swiftly and quietly kidnapped by Ushimitsu and WITH while everyone is distracted.

Meanwhile, Amari, who has been suffering internal conflict throughout the episode, drops to her knees as she looks upon what PriPara has become. The fallen key, Pololo's tears. It's all my fault. Why am I like this!? She thinks to herself. And, in a moment of weakness she yells out how much she hates herself, for everyone to hear.

Mario appears before her and once again invites her to join him, as they'd once planned. But, she slaps his hand away, deeply disappointing him once again.

And, through tears, Amari formally challenges Mario. If he wins, he can do whatever he wants. But if she wins, he has to stay out of her sight forever.

Mario gloomily accepts.

Amari quietly apologizes to everyone, and explains that since she's the one who created him, she's the one who has to defeat him.

To be continued.

So... yeah uh, as you could imagine. I have a lot of thoughts about this episode. A lot of mixed opinions.

Idol Land PriPara has been honestly amazing and the pacing has been surprisingly good... up until now. This to me is the first and only episode so far that felt extremely rushed. But with the length of the current series as a whole, that's kind of impressive in itself.

If this were classic PriPara, several filler episodes would have taken place in between this episode and the last while Mario tried and failed to handle his embarrassment before finally succeeding and launching an attack. Considering the whole Mario turning into a rabbit thing was just introduced in the last episode only to be overcome in the next, it made me initially wonder why they bothered to introduce it at all.

Also, the whole Falulu vs. Dark Falulu thing would have been its own episode as well, and it would have been proceeded by some scenes if not a whole episode to remind us of the connection between Gaaruru and Falulu. I mean, yeah it makes total sense that Falulu would jump in to save Gaaruru like that, but anyone watching just this series wouldn't fully understand why. It kinda comes out of nowhere.

And it really felt like Falulu, who played such a huge part in this episode, barely spoke at all. Heck she's barely spoke in Idol Land at all!

So this episode was at least three episodes in one, basically. I think they could have easily just made this whole episode just around Mario launching an attack, Pololo getting scared, and the other girls trying to fix things before failing without any of the Mario rabbit/Falulu duel stuff leading up to it. Why bother?

Or so I ask myself while already knowing the answer.

The Mario rabbit thing was just too good to let go. The Falulu duel was too good to let go. This was all stuff they planned out long in advance, perhaps before they knew the series was going to be this short, and they were too good to let go. So they made it work. Sort of.

And honestly. I appreciate that.

That shows love. That shows people who really care about PriPara, about this anime.

So at the end of the day... I liked this episode. They did the best with what they had.

All Idol Song Precious is again, a VERY special song/performance to me (actually my favorite PriPara performance of all time!) and I remembered that recently even before this episode aired while going through my old ticket binders since I found I was using the PriParis coords in some of my last games before leaving Japan. The red/white/blue one had to be collected by visiting the movie theater week after week so it's somewhat rare to have collected all of it.

(Sadly, I left before the actual song was added to the arcade though...) So, I was really happy to see it featured again! I was literally thinking wow, it's so nice to have a version of this uninterrupted by the battle that takes place during the movie when--IT WAS INTERRUPTED and they didn't even finish the song. GAAAAHHHnoooooo...

But I do understand, as far as the episode narrative goes.

And Amari yelling about how she hates herself even after all the growth she went through this season hit me right in the feels. Goddamn, she's so relatable.

And Mario. Behind all of this he's just hurt and lonely and just wants Amari to acknowledge him. So I'm sure that will come out in the next episode.

Anyway, there were no new coords in this episode so I don't know if we'll be getting an episode-based gatcha? They probably will release those PriParis coords in some way but IIRC they were all just SRs so I don't know if they would bother with a gatcha.

If anything, the next song might be morning? (Falulu's arcade song. I think it was on the Switch.)

Oh, I guess I was thinking of one of the 3DS games. I'm surprised 0-week-old is actually on the Switch. So yeah, definitely our next song.

#idol land pripara #hopefully these posts are helpful #they take a long time to write sometimes haha

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alexissara · 1 year ago

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Upcoming Sapphic Games Goddess List

Hey, well to my check in with upcoming sapphic games, this list cover every single game I saw in my research that is in active development that showed signs of sapphic content. This list because of time of writing potentially may contain a game or two that was released or just by the time of you reading this later but I am doing my best while looking at everything I can to figure out where gay may be. Games on this list are filled with my opinions and don't represent the companies opinions and I wasn't paid or anything to put any games on this list. This post is split into 5 categories Non Visual Novel, Narrative Games, Make Your Own Gay, A Gay Exists and Potentially Gay. So feel free to skim across sections.

Non VN

These are games that are not visual novels that are centered on an explicitly sapphic character. This character's sole romantic interest does not need to be sapphic but the sapphic desires have to be seen as a core part of the character or game.

Cycle

All Lana wants is to figure out the mystery behind her mother’s death. She embarks in a Megaman Zero inspired journey into a strange tower to get her answers. Lana has a girlfriend who is a core part of the story and is prominently shown in the trailers, art and stuff. I believe I even saw her fighting side by side with her girlfriend in a boss battle in the latest trailer.

Contains: Sapphic Lead, Her Girlfriend

Thirsty Suitors

Enter the world of a Southeast Asian bisexual disatar Jala in one of the most stylish games I’ve ever played [the demo of]. It blends some fun skateboarding, with a really neat turned based RPG, and apparently even a cooking mini game into one complete package. The RPG combat is fun, funny and delightful. The story hinges on two romantic relationships that have broken down for Jala, both of whom are women, one she recently broke up with that leads her to go back to her home town and the relationship she fucked up big time in her home down with her former best friend. She battles against her not so evil exes in these RPG style mind palace fights where they resolve their feelings current and former and come to some kind of resolution.

Contains: Bisexual Lead, at least two ex girlfriends

Boss Game [PC Release]

This game is already out but it has a PC release coming up and that’s amazing and great and opens the game up to more people. A pair of Girlfriends need cash and so they take gig work hunting demons but as they take the jobs they start to figure out what’s really going on and to do the right thing.

Contains: Cis Lesbian [lead], Trans Lesbian [lead], A non binary character, a bisexual character

Kitsune Tail

A mario inspired adventure about a little gay fox girl trying to save her crush from also a cute villain she might be into. It’s a super adorable platformer with a very light hearted tone invoking classic games with a modern queer twist.

Contains: Sapphic Lead, Sapphic VIllain, Sapphic Damsel

Love’s Crescendo

This is a Rhythm game visual novel hybrid about a couple of lesbians who are both doing music in their lives at this pivotal point. Valerie and Cadence complete each other, musically. This romantic musical adventure gives a lot of sweet and cute moment for these two and nice musical gameplay.

Contains: Two Lesbian of color Leads

Narrative Games

These are Visual Novels and similar games where the gameplay is mostly reading a story, maybe making choices along the way or playing a few mini games but the mini games do not comprise the core gameplay loop of the story.

Love In A Bottle

Ankora is a lesbian love demon looking for love, in a visual novel point in click adventure she can choose to go after four different ladies. This game boasts a bit of dress up on on Ankora you can unlock while playing the game. It’s a rare dating sim where everyone is a clear adult and everyone is another kind of fantastic creature.

Contains: Let’s Go Lesbians, Let’s Go

Pen Pal Princess: A Queer Romcom Visual Novel

You play as a queer princess looking to make her own love story. This is a game about online dating in a modern fantasy setting, it’s a cute and sweet concept and feels so relevant in a world where so many queer people date long distance.

Contains: Sapphic Lead, some amount of sapphic romance options

Flower Knight Hú Dié

A solar punk RPG with a lesbian main character, Hú Dié. After the Flower Knights failed her most important friend she wanted nothing to do with them but she finds herself thrown into a situation dealing with the monsters and more that infest the world.

Contains: Lesbian Lead, Sapphic Romantic Interest

High Elo GIrls

You play as a black college dropout who gets drafted into an all women esports team. You can choose if she is Top, Jungle, Mid, DPS, or Support and the kind of relationship she has with each woman. I am not currently aware if polyamory is an option but there is some degree of customization to the relationships.

Contains: Sapphic Lead, 5 women to romance including at least 1 trans woman.

Hardcoded

You're a sexy trans girl android and you are gonna have sex with some people. There is mysterious in this cyberpunk world you gotta solve and the best solution for a service android like you is fucking your way to the top. You explore, make out with hot women, and do your thing.

Contains: Lesbian lead, Big old lesbian cast [maybe they have some other sexualities and genders]

Make Your Own Gay

This category goes over games that queerness is an option but I believe it is possible for a heterosexual who doesn’t like gay people to play the game and just kinda, miss the queerness. This is typically games where you choose to ship characters together, normally your avatar character. This places games under a pretty high bar because straight people are not very smart on the whole and are really bad at reading media critically or engaging it. For me a lot of these games are obviously queer in some way and also these games are not out, so I have no way of knowing for sure. This placement is not an insult and I actually expect several of the games in this part of the list to be some of my favorite games.

Fields Of Mistria

In this game, you start a farm in a new town, connect with local villagers learning their stories and potentially even romancing some of them, your gender does not matter. Enjoy a cozy environment of lovely people and enjoy a wonderful farming adventure. Explore dungeons, fight monsters, and more. Customize your character with a selection of appearances and customize your home and make it feel like it’s truly your own.

The games special thing is an amazing 90s anime aesthetic. It’s magic for farming system also seems particularly streamlined.

Contains: Women, Men and Non Binary characters you can romance. Customizable character.

Moonstone Island

This games special thing that it has monster tamer with a really fun deck building element for your attacks.

Contains: Women, Men and Non Binary characters you can romance. Character who you can just assume is whatever gender, they are never gendered.

OVA Magica

This games special thing is that it’s kinda like pokemon and has cute little slimes.

Contains: Some women you can romance Customizable characters.

Story Of Seasons: A Wonderful Life

In this game, you start a farm in a new town, connect with local villagers learning their stories and potentially even romancing some of them, your gender does not matter. Enjoy a cozy environment of lovely people and enjoy a wonderful farming adventure. Customize your character with a selection of pronouns and appearances [She/He/They] and customize your home and make it feel like it’s truly your own.

This games special thing is that you grow old and die and get to see your kid grow up.

Contains: Women and men you can romance. Customizable character including three sets of pronouns.

Fae Farm

In this game, you start a farm in a new town, connect with local villagers learning their stories and potentially even romancing some of them, your gender does not matter. Enjoy a cozy environment of lovely people and enjoy a wonderful farming adventure. Explore dungeons, fight monsters, and more. Customize your character with a selection of pronouns and appearances [She/He/They] and customize your home and make it feel like it’s truly your own.

This games special thing is that is has online multiplayer and fairy shit.

Contains: Some Women you can romance. Customizable character including three sets of pronouns.

Lakeburg Legacies

A city, kingdom, town, world building type game where the game centers around pairing the people you put into your town, having them work jobs and create resources and them creating babies. You can decide what characters you want to move into your town and pair them with your gender of choice so you can filter out men totally if you don’t wanna see them [except you can’t pick babies genders]. It doesn't’ appear to have any trans stuff going on and the characters are like randomly generated silly things with a few traits. Still it’s a fun type of this game and I could see myself enjoying a few loops of it.

Contains: The ability to pair people up with the gender of your choice. You can’t control the gender of their babies.

Our Life: Now and Forever

This is a truly deeply in depth life sim that trades the depth of romantic options opting for two to give you a truly ridiculous amount of customization about yourself from growing up and transitioning changing your pronouns to altering all sorts of things about yourself and relationships. This is a game about living your life from childhood to adulthood together with someone.

Contains: Genderfluid and Lady Romantic lead, your able to pick your characters pronouns, transition them during the course of the story, and more. Customizable kind of relationship dynamic from love at first sight to slow burn.

The Office Type

What if office stuff was hot, you can date that hot office stuff. It’s a dating sim where you can pick your pronouns and stuff and date all sorts of office themed hotties.

Contains: Choose your own romances and choose the genders of all the options in the game between Lady, Guy and non binary.

Imperial Grace

A diplomacy and romance visual novel where you make choices for your kingdom and choose who you would like to smooch.

Contains: Contains Customizable Queen, 1 lady you can romance, has a detailed list of triggers for players to be aware of what their getting into.

Solace State

A cyberpunk story about building a revolutionary movement as Chole. YOu build relationships with people and communities. Chole can hack people’s brains and get information on their thoughts. A moral system that seems to be based around your choices in not a binary way but a, how do you evaluate the ethics of doing the actions your doing to make the world better. You can make the world worse or better in the game.

Contains: 1 Lady you can romance

Call Me Under

An Eldritch Horror romance where you can pick between three sets of pronouns He/She/They and romance a collection of hotties in this 50s inspired horror world while trying to figure out about the missing people in town and the other horrors brimming of late. You can be half siren or a human depending on that things in the story will change.

Contains: Several Women and Non Binary romantic options, a Sapphic Polyamarous route, character who can pick between human and half siren and She/he/they pronouns.

Stray Gods: The Roleplaying Musical

A muse has died and your character got her power, now the worlds a musical and you gotta solve her murder otherwise you're gonna be the one who pays for her getting killed. It’s a unique musical visual novel with a big cast of big names.

Contains: Woman Lead, two romacable women [? not confirmed], main character is probably canon bisexual but couldn't confirm in demo so here for now [but probably actually a narrative game].

Spirit Swap

Spirits are all around us and matching 3 pops them. In this match three game you play as Samara and look for love while trying to fix the issue with the spirits in town to utterly amazing low-fi tracks. For people looking to take a break from the story of the game you can also enjoy several other mods including playing against other players.

Contains: Multiple Romantic options of varying gender including sapphic ones. Main character is probably canon bisexual but in the demo her attraction to men was a lot clearer to me then her attraction to women and I think a straight person might not catch she is gay.

Love Shore

A true cyberpunk adventure where you pick between one of two protagonists. For our purposes your Farah. This game is probably not properly a make your own gay but your not gonna get any sapphic content in one route and I think you can technically avoid it. Regardless, this game boasts a really awesome weaving plot and some sexy horric monsters you might be able to kiss too. There is some hidden stat elements which is a neat part of the game and it overall seems really cool.

Contains: Your selection of one of two protagonists, one of whom is a woman and queer. You got to choose her to get to the sapphic stuff with at least three romance options that are ladies.

Gales of Nayeli

This game is still really early in development as far as I know so it’s hard to say how much will remain consistent but I was told directly that Nayeli and Keri could have a romance and Nayeli is the title character of the game so the main character of the story is sapphic to some extent [they also assured me it wouldn’t be the only sapphic pairing in the game]. I simply cannot judge if that is something we see in the story because we’ve not got that kind of trailer yet. There is also an avatar, one we can assume can have romances, you can pick their pronouns but not edit their appearance. This looks like a really fun strategy RPG in the vein of Fire Emblem, with grid based tactics and if your into that and want some sapphic stuff, this is one to keep an eye on.

Contains: Sapphic pairings between party members, self insert character who you can choose the pronouns of but not edit the appearances.

A Gay Exists

This Category is for games with ensemble casts, in which a sapphic character might exist in the game, be playable, be unavoidable but they are also not the focal point of the story but instead just a small part of the story. A gay does exist in this game they in theory could even be in the lead but you might not know it like a game starring Wonder Woman or Harley Quinn where in canon they might be bisexual but the game simply might avoid ever stating it.

Granblue Fantasy Relink

Set sails through the sky in a high flying action RPG with a wide cast of characters from the popular gacha series Granblue Fantasy. It features the canon bisexual icon Rossetta as a playable party member seemingly from the start of the game.

Contains: At least one playable canon bisexual. Player insert who can change genders on the fly. One playable subtextual sapphic knight.

Granblue Fantasy Versus Rising

Bullshit could or could not be blazing in this Arcsystem Works fighting game follow up expanding the cast of Granblue Fantasy Versus and the general contents of the game. We don’t know the full roster but the roster of all the last game is included giving us for sure several pieces of representation.

Contains: Two Trans women, one canon lesbian, several more subtext sapphics.

Potentially Gay

These are upcoming games I think probably will be sapphic to at least some extent in any of the above categories. Simply put, unlike the one’s above, I Am not confident enough to include them in the lists above because we simply haven’t seen any evidence to show that sapphic stuff exists. At least not in any trailer, demo, interview, or whatever that I researched when putting together this already very long list, so please be easy on me.

The Cosmic Wheel Sisterhood

The Cosmic Wheel Sisterhood is a card creating, fortune telling, narrative game about revenge, isolation, and more. You play as Fortuna, a witch who has been put into isolation without her magic or the ability to see anyone else by her Coven’s leader. She calls on a mystical being and makes a pact so she can get her revenge. During the game you can express romantic, sexual, etc desires and it seems like you’ll be able to craft some relationships as well as the cards.

Rune Factory 6 and Rune Factory Dragon

In these games you’ll probably be able to pick your pronouns, romance people regardless of gender, and use magic to enhance your farming. Both will likely contain dungeons with simple combat and a light action RPG story to play. You probably can get married and have kids, you maybe won’t be able to customize your character beyond picking gender but you probably will be able to customize your house.

Fantasy Life I: The Girl Who Steals Time

The first fantasy life made it where you could only be straight but at this point, Fantasy Life would be the last remaining life sim series to not let you be gay unless they totally cut out romance. I think literally the last life sim with romance to not let you be gay was like Rune Factory 4, a 3DS game. This game isn’t a farming game but it stands out next to the sims and other similar games as well.

Hades 2

The first one had a bi guy lead, I assume this time you’ll be a bi girl.

Dark Deity 2

The first one had an gays, I assume this one will have an gays as well, hopefully more, I wasn’t totally in love with how they did supports in Dark Deity 1.

Beastieball

Really this one is just vibes based, the art style says “queer” to me. Also your little beasties can start romances with each other and tehy don’t have genders but I bet you could do some making your own gay shipping with your little pokemon.

En Garde!

The vibe of the main protagonist is serving lesbian. Please Devs at Fireplace games, tell me she kisses a woman, even in private, I won’t tell anyone if I am not allowed too, the game looks fun and I just want her to kiss a girl.

--- That is all for now but if you enjoyed me doing all this research and putting it together in a really nice place for y’all then consider backing me on Patreon or Ko-fi or recommending me for work,I got my card on my page with professional contact info. Other than that you can always just follow me, reblog, share on whatever other social media sites are your poison. If you know any other sapphic games that are not yet released PLEASE let me know, want to know them all and I’m going to keep a new list after this article goes up for a few months from now when a lot more of these games are out or maybe next year around not E3 time again.

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toadtowngazette · 17 days ago

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Humans in the Mario Series

In this post I would like to talk about the presence of humankind within Mario's universe, since it is a strange topic that isn't directly addressed much in the games.

General Information

It seems that most intelligent life seen throughout the games are non-human, such as Toads, Koopas, Shy Guys, Beanish, even intelligent versions of real-world animals like Penguins! Humans however, aren't shown nearly as much, although this doesn't mean they are rare in-universe, they just aren't the focus.

The only recurring human characters are: Mario, Luigi, Peach, Daisy, Rosalina, Pauline, Wario, Waluigi, and E. Gadd. The WarioWare series has many human characters however, making up most of the main cast of those games. The main Mario series seems to be limited to the ones mentioned above though, with rare exceptions.

Nintendo themselves have talked about this subject before, stating in an interview why humans are not featured much outside of the main cast:

"If other characters looked too human, for example, you may end up with a world where Mario seems superfluous as a protagonist. When creating original characters, it's important to develop characters and a world that Mario wouldn't feel out of place in."

It seems that Nintendo wishes to make Mario, as well as a few other select characters the sole humans, in order for them to appear more unique from the rest of the various characters throughout the series. It also implies that they try to design characters to be less humanoid in general.

The Sports Games, and the "Real-Life Earth vs Mario's Earth"

Before mentioning any of the following information, I must first state that "Mario's Earth" is a different place than the "real-life Earth". Shown in Super Mario Odyssey, none of the real-life continents appear on the world map alongside the Mushroom Kingdom, establishing that world as being separate from the real one. Mario and co. still visit the real-life Earth on rare occasions, and it is sometimes mentioned as being a separate world from whatever world the Mushroom Kingdom is located on.

In the older Mario Golf and Mario Tennis games, a numerous amount of human characters appear, and seem to look similar to how Mario and Peach do, with the same cartoony art style as them.

One may think this implies humans are numerous in Mario's Earth from this alone, however further inquiry shows that many of the humans from the sports games originate from the real-life Earth, as many of their countries of origin are real-life ones. For example, Bird (bottom right in the image above), is stated to be from Ireland on the JP Camelot website. It appears the humans from real-life Earth visit the Mario universe often for various reasons, and vise-versa.

Many humans are confirmed to be from Mario's Earth however, meaning that humanity likely independently exists in both worlds. We know the Mario brothers are from the Mario Earth because of Yoshi's Island's story showing them being delivered by the stork there, and it seems that Peach and Wario were born here as well, as they appear as infants in Yoshi's Island DS. Other human infants are seen in the intro of this game alongside them too. Rosalina also appears on Mario's Earth in Super Mario Galaxy as a child. As for others, it is mostly left ambiguous.

As for the strange connection between Mario's Earth and the real-life Earth, it seems that the two worlds can be visited by plane travel as seen in the story of Mario Tennis: Power Tour. How this seemingly interdimensional travel is accomplished I am not aware of, but we do see the real-life Earth again in later games such as Mario Kart Tour, so it's more than just an older game "one-off" sort of thing.

New Donkers

The New Donk City locals, known as "New Donkers" by the game's brochure, are characters that appear in the Metro Kingdom in Super Mario Osyssey. These characters are humans, albeit depicted very realistically, as opposed to the usual cartoony ones we've seen before.

This not only confirms humans are indeed numerous within Mario's universe, but also that many of them look much more realistic than Mario and Peach's "type" of human does. Nintendo has stated New Donk humans are a separate race than the Mario styled humans, meaning there is in fact an actual difference that isn't just an art style.

This does not mean that the New Donkers are originally from the real-life Earth, though. As stated above, many of the sports games feature cartoony humans that are from the real-life Earth, so the New Donkers' realistic look seems to be unrelated, and could imply they were always a part of Mario's universe. This is purely speculation however.

Final Thoughts

While Nintendo seems to have phased out the more frequent human appearances in the games, they aren't completely absent outside the main cast, as shown with the New Donkers, and a few other obscure examples. This post was made to show that the Mario Earth is still a lot like ours, even having full human civilizations, despite them being far from the main focus of the series. I hope you all learned something, thanks for reading!

#mario #super mario #nintendo #humans #mario tennis #mario golf #earth #mario lore

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game-boy-pocket · 21 days ago

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Based purely on nothing other than the fact that the Donkey Kong Country theme park has seemingly rolled Rambi's design back so hat he no longer looks like he did in Tropical Freeze, and instead is going back to how he looked in Barrel Blast , which was closer to how he looked in the Rare games...

My theory for the future of the Donkey Kong IP's identity is this...

If the rumor is t rue that Nintendo wants to develop Donkey Kong games internally at Nintendo instead of letting one of their partners take care of it... then I think what we're going to end up with is something that resembles what the Donkey Kong series looked like during the post buyout pre Retro Studios days.

I'm not talking about the nature of the games. I'm pretty sure Nintendo realized that a bunch of lame spinoffs aren't goin to make Donkey Kong fans happy if there's no mainlnie platformers to accompany them. I'm purely talking about the look of the characters, the cast of the characters, and how they are portrayed.

Donkey, Diddy, Dixie, Cranky, and Funky will remain unchanged from Tropical Freeze. Rambi will look like he did before Retro Studios.

For better or worse, I do expect Candy Kong and Tiny Kong to come back with minor roles, using their most recent designs. I think it's 50/50 on the other DK64 Kongs but I don't think they'll be playable if they do show up again.

I think Kiddie and Swanky have no shot at coming back. Wrinkly Kong I am unsure about. And we will only see the ride-able Animal Buddies who appeared in DKC2, plus maybe Expresso, and a new buddy. But I don't see Winkie or Ellie, or any of the non ride-able buddies. I don't think we'll be seeing the Snowmads again. I think if any of the generic animal baddies from DKCR return, they'll get a bit of a makeover, while still remaining easy to identify, but being real, I don't expect many to return, maybe the inflating frogs since they were in Mario Kart. I think it's up in the air if we see the Tikis again, the Universal Ride really made things weird.

I do think the Kremlings will return, but K. Rool won't look like he did in Smash Ultimate. His Belly will be yellow, not gold, he won't have a tail, not even a short stumpy one, and I don't expect any more fun costumes unless there's plot reasons for it like Bowser in Odyssey dressing for a wedding. I do expect a new voice though. They're not bringing back anyone from Rare or his Paon era voice actor. And I think it's 50/50 that any of the new Kremlings from Barrel Blast will come back. Depends on how weird Nintendo is about using spinoff-specific characters made by other teams the same way they are about Waluigi.

As for the presentation and writing, I expect it to be very clean and unremarkable, very similar to the most safe Mario games. All the characters who aren't evil are very polite and friendly, so shit talk from Cranky. All the bad characters will be charming, but a certain ineptitude and crudeness from the Rare era will be missing.

This is pure speculation just based on Rambi looking like he did in the paon games in Universal, nothing more.

This isn't my best case scenario, but I would still be plenty happy with this.

#donkey kong country

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empressofthewind · 7 months ago

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14 + 18 for meronia and 10 + 12 for mattlight pleeeeeeease <3 ^_^

Thank you for these!!

14. Do they enjoy PDA, or are they more private with affection? (Meronia)

My God. Neither of these two have any concept of boundaries. The only saving grace for the public is that Near rarely leaves the house, so the opportunities are limited for him to be a menace outside of his own headquarters/in front of his own staff; but god forbid Mello decides to bring him out for the day, everyone around them is going to bear witness to the most horrifying display of PDA and general bizarreness. Imo Mello has a constant, crippling need to show the world that Near is His, and Near would not be bothered enough about social norms to stop him. If Mello had agreed to work with Near in the first place, I’m convinced they would’ve made out in the president’s office.

18. How do they care for each other when one of them is wounded/sick? (Meronia)

I'll do this one in two parts!

Wounded - given how gentle Near is, I imagine he'd actually be very good at treating an injury, minor or major, without causing Mello too much additional pain. Post-Kira case, Mello would likely have acquired some decent first aid skills from his various serious injuries incurred over the years, so he'd also know what to do in a situation like that. I think they're both be pretty concerned when the other is wounded, and would express this in different ways - Near by checking in on him and asking standard medical questions about his level of pain and other details regarding his injury, and Mello most likely by berating him for ending up in whatever situation got him hurt.

Sick - in my (slightly deranged) opinion, I feel like they are so co-dependent that they wouldn’t be able to stay apart even when if of them has a highly contagious illness. So if one of them gets sick, they both get sick. I think Mello would be better at caring for Near given that he'd be looking after Near even when he's healthy, so he would make him warm soup and buy him the relevant medications if necessary. In the same vein, he'd be fairly self-sufficient when he himself gets sick, and I also think he'd be pretty resistant to help even if he needs it. He'd encourage Near to stay away from him and insist that he can look after himself. If he's especially unwell, I imagine Near would enlist the help of an independent third party. The idea of him inviting over Rester or Gevanni to take care of Mello is very amusing to me hgdhgsjd as I do NOT think anyone involved (other than Near) would be even remotely pleased about this arrangement.

10. Do they share any hobbies or interests? How do these things bring them together? (Mattlight)

Canonically they are both into video games to some extent - Light plays Mario Golf with Ryuk, and I’m sure I do not need to cite references for Matt’s interest. I could see them both getting pretty competitive, even with casual games, and I can imagine Light getting somewhat worked up over this, but I think Matt would be pretty effective at calming him down. I am also convinced that Matt would rope Light into some minor delinquency - in my mind, they would only get together in a non-Kira AU, and I think the version we see of Light at the beginning of Death Note could be swayed to get up to a little mischief. The shared experience of committing a crime together and getting away undetected would, in an odd way, bring them much closer. Also they would smoke weed together. SORRY.

12. Do they have a difficult time when separated from each other, or are they fairly independent? (Mattlight)

I honestly can’t imagine these two being particularly clingy? They’re both pretty independent and I feel like they’re the kind of couple who want each other rather than need each other, if that makes sense. They’d for sure think about each other when they’re apart, but I can’t imagine either of them struggling to function at all.

For this ask game :-)

#asks #ask game

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kylesvariouslistsandstuff · 7 months ago

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Well this came as kind of a surprise to me. The live-action/CG hybrid picture IF - from writer-director-star John Krasinski - scored $35m (estimate) on its opening weekend...

For context, this is an original family film not based on any pre-existing source material... And a largely live-action one at that...

This beats out the post-outbreak likes of... ENCANTO ($27m) and ELEMENTAL ($29m), in addition to non-sequel PG pictures that also happen to be based on something, such as THE BAD GUYS ($23m) and MUTANT MAYHEM ($28m). That's also just great for a live-action family film... Those have been kinda rare over the last 10 or so years. You have your occasional LYLE LYLE CROCODILES, but it's not like the '90s and '00s where they were seemingly everywhere as much as the animated ones were.

What went right here? I couldn't tell ya, I wasn't sure how this thing was going to do. It must've just hit right for audiences at the right time, especially after blah pre-sales. While it has a bit of a hurdle to leap (its $110m+ budget), this indicates - along with an A CinemaScore - that this one's gonna be leggy. Despite GARFIELD, despite INSIDE OUT 2, etc. Maybe families were just starved for some something to see together for a while, as KUNG FU PANDA 4 came out in early March... Tie that to the premise and the celebrity cast, yeah... Uhhhh... Possible breakout here?

I've long been writing on here about how animated family films play a much different game at the box office, post-outbreak. Families tight on money are choosier, and for a more original picture or something adapted from untried source material, the odds of opening big just aren't that high anymore. They have to leg it out. ELEMENTAL had to do it, so did MIGRATION, THE BAD GUYS, etc.

IF must've had some kind of pull. I mean what do I know? I'm not the general public, I thought the picture just looked kinda there. A typical live-action kids' movie with cute CG creatures in it. That somehow out-opened "funny duck movie from the Minions/Mario studio", "Pixar's people-as-the-elements movie", and so many other not-sequel animated movies released in the recent years. I wonder if being a live-action movie?

I'd love to see those kinds of animated movies open a little bigger again, like they did during the '10s. When a new DreamWorks or Blue Sky could feasibly hit $40-45m with ease. A massive budget film like ELIO would sure need it.

Anyways, I wonder how it fares next weekend against THE GARFIELD MOVIE. My cinema held a special advance screening of it earlier today, and the auditorium was JAM-PACKED. Right down to the front row. I had predicted this one would open pretty well, but who knows... It might really break out. After all, it *is* Garfield. It may just win next weekend, even if FURIOSA is thought to be the one. Reminds me of when BIG HERO 6 opened the same weekend as INTERSTELLAR in fall 2014... Who would win? Nolan with a space epic and fresh off of his blockbuster DARK KNIGHT trilogy? Or the Disney animated Marvel movie with the marshmallow robot? BIG HERO 6 won by a few millions, won domestically, while Nolan soared worldwide.

Maybe that repeats for THE GARFIELD MOVIE and FURIOSA? After all, the latter is an adult sci-fi/action movie. MAD MAX: FURY ROAD opened - unadjusted - with $45m back in 2015. I reckon this equals that, at least. We've been starved for a movie set in the wasteland, so a 9 year wait could really help that open pretty big. I won't call this the next Barbenheimer, the Garfuriosa, as it's not uncommon to open these kinds of pictures next to each other. Like how DreamWorks opened TROLLS on the same day as DOCTOR STRANGE, both did pretty well. Or FERDINAND opening the same day as STAR WARS: THE LAST JEDI. Barbenheimer was its own unique situation for sure, given the subject matter of both films, given that OPPENHEIMER was a three-hour biopic... We're talking about a 5th movie in a decades-old sci-fi/post-apocalyptic franchise vs. a comic strip movie.

Anyways, summer movie season is probably here. Ready to watch how GARFIELD, INSIDE OUT 2, DESPICABLE ME 4, and the like all do.

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veinsfullofstars · 10 months ago

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⭐ Welcome! ⭐

Henlo. Hope you’re doing well. Thanks for poppin’ by. I’m Veins, an art goblin on the internet with abnormal levels of anxiety and chronic video game brainrot, and this is my introduction post. Any updates or news on my end will be added here as well. I hope you’ll be patient with me and enjoy your visit!

(Last updated 11/25/24)

---

Who are you?

A sad pile of meat filled with regret barely surviving on a very lucky rock hurdling through space, just like everyone else... but you can called me Veins. Ivan or Yves is fine, too. Nice to meet you!

Wait, didn't you already have an account here? With the same username?

I did. I, uh, panic-deleted it in response to the data-scraping fiasco and regretted it almost immediately. As a result, you might see reblogs from the deactivated account still floating around. There is, unfortunately, nothing I can do about those unless the blogs that shared them take them down themselves (and, hey, if you happen to be one of those folks seeing this, I'd super appreciate it if you'd maybe remove the old reblog and replace it with the new one from here if you can). It's my mistake for overreacting, and now I just have to live with it. Sorry for any confusion.

What are your preferred pronouns/gender?

Thanks for asking! I’m non-binary, and I use they/them pronouns.

How old are you?

Ancient (in my 30s).

What is your avatar supposed to be?

A goblin. Very smol, very nervous, very puntable.

What are you using this blog for?

Art, mostly. I draw digitally and rarely make stuff with yarn. I've also been writing since I could hold a pencil (though I don’t have much finished, so art will be the main focus for now). Also, expect a lot of reblogs, shitposts, and/or silence between posts - I am a simple hobbyist and neurodivergent as hell in a very exhausting world. I’ll do my best, but - again - I hope you’ll be patient with me if things go quiet from time to time.

What are your interests?

I love stories. I love characters. I love folks who can weave whole worlds with nothing but words on a page or color on a canvas. I grew up on fantasy novels, short horror stories, and late ‘90s/early ’00s animation. Later on, I learned to appreciate slice-of-life and slow-burn romance (especially the queer kinds). Mythology and folklore also slaps, and I wonder sometimes if I should’ve majored in psychology instead of lib arts. My playlists are nothing but video game OSTs with a little heavy metal and j-rock sprinkled in for flavor. I sold my soul to Nintendo years ago, but sometimes I find indie darlings to fall in love with for a time. Dogs are adorable little menaces, and I love them all with my whole chest. Cats are okay, and I am allergic to them. (Does that answer the question? I think I lost track towards the end there…)

Any current hyperfixations?

Tons, but the biggest ones at the moment are Kirby, Hollow Knight, and Paper Mario. More nebulous interests include (in no particular order) Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Sky, Rain World, Stardew Valley, most Soulsborne titles, Hades, Darkest Dungeon, The Legend of Zelda, Undertale/Deltarune, OFF, The Binding of Isaac, Ace Attorney, Luigi's Mansion, Animal Crossing, The Magnus Archives, Sonic the Hedgehog, and countless more. When I say “multifandom,” I mean it, homie.

Do you have any other social media?

Just this and an AO3 account. So, if you see my name anywhere but these two places, it’s probably not me. For now, Tumblr will be the best place to keep up-to-date with my stuff. If anything changes, I’ll let y’all know here.

Do you have a list of tags you use on your posts?

I tag things obsessively, but I’ll try to sort out the most relevant/unique ones I use here:

#veins art - for any art I’ve made (chrono link)

#veins fanart - for art I’ve made featuring characters from other IPs

#veins ocs - for art I’ve made featuring my original characters/stories

#veins sketches - for any of my unrendered doodles/sketch dumps

#veins old art - for reposts of older art I made before moving to Tumblr (Note: these posts are here for archival purposes and may not reflect my current style/interests.)

#veins writes - for any written works I’ve made

#veins ships - for any posts (reblogs included) featuring romantic pairings; I will also try to include specific pairings as “#(blank) x (blank)” and/or any ship names

#veins rambles - for random thoughts/text posts

#veins answers - for any of my responses to asks sent in (chrono link)

#veins in dream land - for any rambles/headcanons about the Kirby series specifically

#veins reblogs - for anything I reblog, obviously

#childhood friends au - for art from my Kirby AU where Dedede and Meta Knight first met as kids (masterpost | chrono link)

#kintsugi au - for art from my Kirby AU centered around the Mirror World, the Wave 2 gang, and the Darkroach ship - warning: may contain angst and suggestive content (masterpost | chrono link)

#kirbtober 2023 - for my Kirbtober 2023 art (chrono link)

#kirbtober 2024 - for my Kirbtober 2024 art (chrono link)

#mtddweek2024 - for my MetaDede Week 2024 art (chrono link)

I’ll update this with new tags if/when they pop up. Anything else will have generic tags to fit the context of the post. I also mark trigger warnings with tags like “#(blank) tw” if necessary.

What do you use to make your art?

For digital art, I use Clip Studio Paint and a Wacom Intuos Pro S drawing tablet. I don’t draw traditionally as much anymore, but, when I do, it’s usually just quick sketches with pencil and paper. For writing, I use TextEdit or whatever generic rich text editing software I can find. For crafting, I use yarn and plastic canvas.

What brushes do you use?

For sketching and linework, I use a slightly modified version of the Wick Pencil from the 8 Particle Pencil catalog made by saturns_day. For flats and rendering, I use the default CSP hard round brush, airbrush, and G-pen. For effects and extras (clouds, textures, sparkles, etc.), I use default effects brushes or whatever I can find from the CSP Asset Shop.

Can I share your work through reblogs? And are tags okay?

Of course! Reblogs are absolutely fine and always encouraged. I’m also fine with tags as well (though I ask that you not mark anything as a ship unless I’ve marked it as such on the original post - look for the tag #veins ships if you’re ever unsure).

Can I repost/use your work for my own personal/commercial use?

Absolutely not. While I am always in support of creators inspiring each other with our works and endeavors, that does not mean anyone should engage in art theft (intentional or otherwise). Under no circumstances may you repost, reupload, reproduce, copy, trace, modify, sell, use, tokenize, scrape/integrate into A*I, and/or otherwise claim as your own any of my art/written works. Never assume a piece of art shared online in yours for the taking - that is someone else’s hard work and passion, and you need to respect that.

Can I dub one of your comics?

As flattering as that would be, I worry about lack of credit or my work being stolen for others’ content, so I sadly have to say no.

Why is there a big watermark on your art?

People are just kinda garbage sometimes, so I make sure to sign and WM anything original I post. I know it’s not exactly fun to look at (maybe even distracting or bad for engagement), but I’d rather be safe than sorry, so we'll both have to just deal with it.

Do you have an askbox? Can we send in questions/comments/etc.?

Yes, the ask box is currently open, and I'm more than happy to receive any questions, comments, etc. you guys might have (even if it makes me a bit nervous, haha)! I just ask that you read the rules first before you submit anything.

Do you take requests/commissions/suggestions/collabs/etc.?

Sadly, I do not take art requests or suggestions unless I put out a specific call for them. I'm also not really in a position to take commissions either. Collabs I'm on the fence about - maybe with mutuals or folks I know personally, though no guarantees (chronic social anxiety is a real bench sometimes).

Is this an inclusive space?

Of course! This queer little goblin accepts everyone under the LGBTQIA+ umbrella, along with folks of all shapes, sizes, backgrounds, disabilities, and colors. That said, there will be absolutely no tolerance for (inhale) racism, sexism, transphobia, queerphobia, xenophobia, misogyny/misandry, bigotry of any kind, ableism, p***philia, inc*st, selfc*st, z**philia, RPF, trolling behavior, self-promotion, the promotion of N*FTs or A*I art, or any otherwise harmful, toxic, or hurtful rhetoric. Anyone seen behaving as such will be blocked, reported, and forgotten. I do not feed trolls - I let them starve. :)

Is this an all-ages space?

No. While I probably won’t be posting/sharing anything too lewd or graphic, I’m not opposed to things like swearing, angst, fluff bordering on suggestive, and discussions of mature subject matter (all of which I will make sure to tag with content warnings as necessary). Obviously, I can’t police everyone who wanders into this blog (especially since some people omit or lie about their ages online), so the best I can do is ask for good faith on your part. If you are under 18, interact at your own risk. The last thing I want is to make anyone - myself included - uncomfortable because there are kids in an adult-allocated space. Again, I hope you understand.

What is your stance on shipping?

The vernacular around pro- or anti-shipping confuses the hell out of me, so I’ll just try to explain my personal philosophy on it: I have ships I like, ones I’m indifferent to, and ones I won’t touch with a ten-foot pole. I only reblog (and tag) ship-related content I’m in support of, even if it’s not one of my personal favorites. Most importantly, I don’t bother others about their personal preferences. Anything I don’t like or don’t support, I simply do not engage with. Or, if it makes me too uncomfortable, I block outright. The same should apply to your experience as well - if you ever see ship stuff here that you don’t like, feel free to block the tags (look for specific pairings, ship names, and/or my personal tag #veins ships) or even the blog entirely. You are not obligated to like the things I like or engage with media you don’t enjoy. Respect for each other and curation of your personal online space is always key. Additionally, I 100% will not ship minors, blood relations (including adopted family), self x self, anything relating to b*stiality, or anything relating to RPF.

Are you okay?

No, not even a little bit... but fuck it, we keep going.

Why do you put a comma before the “and” in a sequence of three or more words?

You can take my Oxford comma away from me when I’m cold, dead, and rotting in the dirt.

Is there anything else?

Nah, I think we’re good for now. Thanks for taking the time to read all this. Hope it wasn’t too rambly or weird - just trying to cover all my bases. I hope you all have a lovely timezone out there, wherever you are. Be sure to wash your hands, wear your mask, and stay hydrated. Remember to be strong, be safe, and, for the love of dog, be kind. Peace!

-Veins (originally posted 08/07/23, reposted 02/29/24, updated as of 11/25/24)

#veins rambles #introduction post #FAQ #disclaimers #long post #check for updates #veinsfullofstars

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