#super Mario maker 1 could never

[lumi-of-frost]

the

[bluefever]

MMV2 Soft AU [Pt. 1]

M (“Horror Mario/Ultra M”)

[DESIGN TBA]

M -an unknown entity in the form of a human- is a former musician and a talented toy maker (instead of a video game expert like in the original). He always dreamt of working for a toy company, but failed to find one that would accept him, so he went onto “Plan B” and took the musician job, where he would partner up with Frank Fairest (this whole thing would’ve taken place years back, even before Benjamin was born). Frank wasn’t the best man to M, but if sticking by his side meant gaining money then so be it. The music business began to lack interest for M and even would sometimes miss rehearsals for toy ideas. At some point in this, Frank got extremely pissed and wanted for M and him to have “a chat”. At the same time in this, M finally had the money to work at a well known toy company in another state far away from his, but before he could get to where he wanted to be, Frank pushes him aside and kills him by cutting his head open with a butcher knife and trapping his corpse in a toy box (since Frank had the idea of M “becoming something he loved” or something like that). Remaining in the toy box, M reincarnates in a Mario like form, but horrifying and “broken”. To relief his anger from his dreams being crushed, he uses his powers to create his own world in the toy box, controlling the entities/individuals who enter like his own, little toys. 

M’s real name (in the AU) is AdaM (his surname is unknown), which is one of the reasons why he is referred to M (despite the other being him taking the form of Mario). He doesn’t like to be referred to the name anymore as he believes that it was a sign of his former self being weak.

M could be a bit prideful at times but had never wanted to be too cruel (until he was killed). It was believed/assumed that he had NPD, which once diagnosed, wasn’t the case at all (so no, M/AdaM doesn’t have NPD).

M’s favorite types of toys are puppets or dolls, liking them for their ability to “do as M tells them and understand him” (another reason why people assumed he had NPD), and also for their fascinating features. 

His first ever toy he created was a puppet, it (or he, the puppet) being M’s greatest masterpiece, despite the puppet looking a bit creepy and people believing that the puppet would “steal your soul”. (Oh you know who I’m implying, do you?) M ignores those people and kept the puppet as his most prized possession.

M never was big on video games, but late on in life became quite obsessed with Super Mario Bros once finding out about them. With his toy making career, he imagined making Mario toys for Nintendo, wanting that to be apart of his goal (this would be the reason why M took the form of Mario for his reincarnation). His favorite Mario game was “Super Mario World”, but would’ve really loved the “Mario vs. Donkey Kong” games if he lived long enough for them.

In this AU (only), the following is canon: M’s the age of 38 (being +30 in the OG), he’s both bisexual and asexual (in a way), and has an ex girlfriend who he rather sees as a sister now days. 

For now, it is unknown of what his “Ultra M” form would look like, but would possibly take the form as some mixed up doll with mismatching limbs representing the entities of the Toy-Box, calling this the “Amalgam Puppet” (this isn’t official, but it’s an idea). 

Once Benjamin and Pico end up “entering”his Toy Box, M would figure that Ben was a musician once realizing he’s the father of Frank Fairest (despite Ben actually really wanting to be a artist, but M doesn’t know this and doesn’t bother anyways). With this, he insists on having an “encore” with Benjamin before he plans on either turning him into one of his “puppets”, just straight up killing him, or maybe letting him go free (mostly likely not the last one). He also ignores Pico who tries confronting M.

The Toy-Box

The Toy-Box is apart of M’s world and the “entrance” of getting in (that’ll be when M grabs a hold of you), this would be the OG mod’s replacement for M’s Cartage. Its appearance looked just like the ? Block from the Mario games but lost its color over time -mixed with stains of blood- during M’s decomposition in the box. It’s just an ordinary, dirty-up’d toy box, but by the grab of M’s hand, you could be pulled into his own little wonderland of madness.

Ben and Pico would had found it during a stroll, spotting the Toy-Box nearby a dumpster. They checked it out, noticing dried up blood that leaked through the lid of the box and once opened by Ben (who hesitated when lifting it) quickly gets grabbed by M’s hand. Pico gets concerned by this and starts looking in the box, wondering where Ben was dragged off to, not shortly after Pico getting grabbed by the same hand into the box.

The world inside is similar to the OG’s, but more wonderland like and full of tricks and tactics.

Despite being the Toy-Box, the world can contain other types of entities, but are all still considered puppets to M.

[tmntxthings]

一∑ leonardo hamato。・゜・☆

(pics from pinterest)

> raph’s < | > donnie’s < | > mikey’s <

—————————————————————————

version: rottmnt aka rise

aesthetic: blue + hobby-oriented

song association: me and your mama by childish gambino

—————————————————————————

author’s note: same concept as donnie’s & I picked that song bc leo’s a little shit and would pick it for the title (turns out it’s a banger too)

> Profile <

name: the greatest ninja of all time leonardo hamato

nicknames: leo, lee, nardo, leon

aliases: the greatest ninja, champion, neon leon / prime time

location: NYC babyyyyy

species: red slider turtle duh & lou jitsu's looks

age: ~sweet 16~

height: 5'5 (hehe, donnie wishes he was taller than me)

weapons: my rad ninjocity skills, odachi / cool swords

appearance: handsome ;) lovely green complexion, superior red facial markings, sturdy shell, original blue bandanna, super handsome, lean green crime fighting machine, and did i mention handsome?

personality: uhhh definitely the funny / punny one (don't believe a word donnie says), all-around amazing, the cool one too, quick-thinker, trouble maker and savior, really i'm just the whole package, confident.. most times, protective, cunning, brave, the list can go on and on

likes: cool things, like swords and comics and jupiter jim movies / lou jitsu movies #hotsoup, family, senor hueso, gram-gram <3, magic shows, attention, affirmation, hugs, blindsides / backstabs / betrayals, drama, (but what you should take away from this is that i put family wayyy before donnie put family :p) pranks, being #1, competitions

dislikes: kraang / anyone who comes for my family, draxum, apologizing, boredom, getting sentimental or serious, when no one laughs at my jokes T^T, leading, losing

other: i don’t really know what to put here, but profile application complete (that took wayyyyy too long heh ((put a check mark right here anyway :P)), after your school project is over you should swing by! yk so i can beat your ass in mario kart or any other game you think of ;p you should hurry cause i’m getting boreddddd and may just have to portal over, don’t worry i’d never dream of annoying you while you do your homework :D what else should i put on this thing…agh forget it i’ll just tell you about my day so far, i woke up looking as dashing as always, time-skip past playing on my phone / eating / mundane other stuff that’s boringggg and boom, fighting against the foot clan bc those guys are back again?! lemme just say i took out most of them, my hermanos could hardly keep up with me fought very well.. it was such a team effort.. :p that should be enough right? as donnie would say, parting is sweet and all that jazz, but don’t worry i’ll bless you with my presence shortly.. meaning right now, ~portal timeeeee~

[calextheneko]

Mario Maker 2 Self Promotion: Super World and Sky Tower Saga

So getting back into Mario Maker 2 and for those who don't know I freaking love Mario Maker. I currently have 80 levels uploaded in the second and forgot how many I have uploaded in the first. Never as many cause I never got enough likes to expand my upload pool in that one. Glad 2 through that mechanic in the trash.

Anyway, this post is just to blow my horn and talk about some of my favorite levels I've made. I'm far from the best or most popular level designer but I do put my heart into them! If any strike your fancy it means the world to me if you play them! So let's go on.

First off if you want to find me and pull up all my levels

Creator ID: GKP-1RT-HNG

Can use that to pull up my profile. If you see the name Calex and my little guy wearing the cat suit you got the right one!

So first up, my Super World found on my profile.

This follows basic 8 world progression, made in the Super Mario world style. I did my best to make it feel like a Mario game while adding in some unique twists. Worlds 1-6 have four stages including a boss stage, and world 7 and 8 have 5 levels including boss stages. I try to stay true to form with fighting the Koopalings and progressing but giving them unique mechanics or battlefields to fight on to freshen the fights up.

The levels start on the super easy side as I've attempted to scale the difficulty up as you progress through the worlds. I'd say world 7 is where you notice a big bump up.

I recently redid the final level of it 8-5: Seat of the King. Mainly, while I liked the original version the boss fight with Bowser took way too long. I wish they had a way to adjust his HP. So I updated it so Bowser will get damaged much, MUCH more quickly, as well as adding in a couple secrets that can let you skip round 1 with him. It's not nearly as hard, but I'll take fun over difficult any day of the week.

Most of the levels I'm proud of are later in the games as I made them more complex as part of turning the difficulty up. 7-1: Blast Off! might be my favorite of the set. As for hardest, for me personally I think 8-4: The Koopaling's Last Dance! As it contains rematches with each Koopaling that you fought throughout the game and then a fight with Bowser Jr. I put two checkpoint flags right on either side of a pipe for this one so you can reactivate them any time you want to save your progress in this level.

I could gush about each level but there are 40 of them total in the Superworld so going to move on so we're not here all day.

Sky Tower Saga

Sky Tower Saga is a series of levels I made back before the game had Super Worlds using the Mario 3 layout. Sky Tower Saga contains much more and often difficult twists on its boss fights and each of the levels has its own boss.

Sky Tower Saga is a five level collection that basically tells the story of Mario's journey to Sky Tower after it mysteriously appears in well, the sky, and his effort to stop Bowser from seizing the tower's strange powers for himself.

Sky Tower Saga Part 1: Journey

Course ID: 402-DQ9-LSG

Journey has you start in a winter themed level, as you platform your way along before reaching the Tower's entrance. Once inside you climb the first few floors before facing Boom Boom. This level is the only completely normal boss fight in the series, as it serves as a warmup level before you enter the tower proper. So Boom Boom has no mechanics. There is sadly a Soft Lock in it, there's an area you can go down under after hitting a P Switch and find a 1-up. But if you don't have the Super Leaf then it's not possible to get back up and eventually you die once the P-Switch runs out.

Sky Tower Saga Part 2: Ascent

Course ID: 1DT-J87-6RF

Ascent where the series starts using vertical levels as you climb higher and higher into the Tower. This level also has far more secrets in it than the first, including eight key coins that if you gather you can unlock a special bonus door right before the boss fight. You can also use the key to skip the boss fight if you want, but kind of ruins the fun. Up to you if you want to get through faster or if you want to fight it! Whatever you feel like! But the fact the boss can be skipped is why I later stopped using red coins in boss stages to prevent that. I just like putting in secrets for people to find. XD I feel it makes things more fun.

Anyway, this time the boss fight is against a Flying Boom Boom but now we start to have new mechanics introduced. This fight has a time limit beyond the actual course timer. As the fight continues one of the walls will closely close in giving you less and less room to move around in. You need to defeat Boom Boom and unlock the exit door before the wall closes in completely and squashes you flat. I left the timer very generous.

I designed it by using a Bill Blaster as the wall. It doesn't shoot anything, but I put it on a conveyor belt that tries to carry it right. However there are switch blocks in the way blocking its progress. Below it is a shell that is fired onto a conveyor belt that tries to carry it right but the shell is shot left making it travel very slowly. At the end of it is a Switch Block. So each time it hits the block the Bill Blaster is released from a switch block and moves right. Meanwhile the shell is quickly delivered back to where it started before bouncing and slowly moving towards the switch again. During the fight you can see it moving so you can see exactly how much time you have before the wall moves again.

Sky Tower Saga Part 3 Secret

Course ID: K47-5M0-5RG

Sky Tower stretches so high into the sky you start to leave the atmosphere. As a result any time you are physically climbing the outside of the tower there will be less gravity. Thankfully it seems the Mushroom Kingdom invented artificial gravity so inside you're fine.

Once again we have red coins to unlock a secret room as you travel up. And once again it can be used to skip the boss fight if wanted. But surprise twist! There are two boss fights! More on that in a second.

Secret introduces something important in the form of the three Fire Orbs with wings that will be seen again. These are used to represent an entity called Tower Soul who will be a problem in a later stage, but for this one you just get a glimpse of them. Meanwhile, the challenge takes in the form of scaling the place while managing the lowered gravity. There is also a snake block to ride, but don't worry there's a two-way pipe right before it so you can exit and re-enter if you fall off and need to respawn it.

As for the fights. It's Bowser Jr with a round 1 and a round 2 against him. The first round is simple, some Throwmps slam down activating an on and off switch which drops Bowser Jr and two red Bill Blasters into the room. You have to hit Bowser three times while dodging homing Bullet Bills and you're done. But round 2 things kick up a bit. Bowser Jr is now protected in the safety of the Tower and you must fight him while dealing with the Tower's defenses. Your only platform is a seesaw that goes up and down but this is to your benefit once you realize what you need to do. You need to jump on Koopa Troopas and then shoot their shell into a small hole where they'll travel down and hit Bowser Jr. If you stand on the left side of the seesaw it will form a perfect ramp that you can slide the shell along right into the hole instead of having to jump into the air and fire it. While you continue to fight the tower will release other defenses including buzz saws so watch yourself as you take it down. This fight is good training for a future fight that's a much bigger problem.

Sky Tower Part 4: Apex

Course ID: W7B-R7W-XKG

Finally you reach the apex of the tower. But as you reach the top, you will find none other waiting for you than Bowser! Charged up with the Tower Soul the entire Tower is now at his command as he attempts to destroy you!

Once again, up in space so low gravity when climbing the exterior of the tower, but most of the platforming takes place in the interior as you climb up the last few floors. Beware of Bullet Bills as they'll be a constant threat when you climb. When you have to charge forward towards a Bill Blaster remember to look for holes in the area you can jump or duck in to dodge the bullets. Also, as you navigate flying beetles and other surprises there might be a chance to grab an unintended upgrade along the way.

Apex is where the red coins stop as I realized I was undermining the levels, as well as this is where you face a much bigger threat for the boss. Bowser himself is the boss fight this time. When you finally make your way up to him, the arena will look familiar. You fight Bowser in the same was as you did in Mario 3, but with a slightly simplified arena. Naturally a you can guess from the previous fight this is just a warmup for the real fight.

Grab the Fire Flower after round 1, it will make your life much easier, I promise. For fight 2, you'll be facing Bowser in a Fire Car, but you have a Fire Car of your own. If you grabbed the Fire Flower you shoot three fireballs instead of one which will make things much easier. Dodge Bowser's attacks and take him out with your own fireballs to proceed forward! However, Bowser is probably the smallest worry you'll have at the moment. The Tower Soul will be seen flying around the map damaging you if it impacts you, as well as there are tons of cannon balls being fired. Navigate the maze of obstacles carefully as you fight Bowser and finally finish off the fight... Except, not quite. At the end of the level you'll see though Bowser is gone, Tower Soul remains.

Sky Tower Saga Finale: Soul

Course ID: 5S2-81B-XGF

It's the final level. With Bowser defeated Tower Soul has gone berserk. If the tower is left unchecked its destruction power will spread to the Mushroom Kingdom. Are you ready to fight an entire freaking tower? Cause you're fighting an entire tower. Or at least the heart of it.

This is a boss stage, no platforming to get here. Instead, you get some power ups and then are instantly thrown into a battle with Tower Soul. That's right, the final boss is a completely original thing instead of being Bowser again! I know it turns out I am capable of originality at times!

Now then...This is what the Bowser Jr fight earlier was practice for. You will see the Tower Soul inside a huge contraptions once you step into the heart of the tower. The ticket is once again to kick shells into a small opening so that it can damage the tower. But it's going to be much harder this time. There's no ramp you can shoot it up through. Now you'll need to either throw the shells from the air, jump up to the hole or time it perfectly off a moving platform to get a hit in. Each time you land a successful hit you'll see the tower start to fall apart as bricks fall from overheard.

This fight took a long time to design and went through a lot of versions. First I had to get it to actually work so that you could get a key for defeating a thing the game doesn't regard as an actual entity. I hit an enemy that's never visible on screen but is killed right after you land your final hit on Tower Soul. That enemy holds the key so that's how I made it look like defeating Tower Soul gives you the key. After I got this working though the fight was too insanely hard. So believe it or not this is the tuned down version of it. Keep aware of the threats around you and practice your timing with shells until you earn victory.

But the level isn't over yet. The Tower Soul flees as the entire tower begins to collapse. It's time for a Metroid this place is gonna explode escape sequence with some fun music. But, how do you escape Sky Tower? Well... You'll see when you get there. Defeating Tower Soul is the hard part the rest of the level is super easy and I don't want to spoil the fun of what's happening.

Anyway that's stuff about my Super World and Sky Tower. I may post more of these with other levels I worked on and their course IDs as it goes on. We'll see how it goes. Will also be trying to come up with some new level ideas cause the itch to make levels is bugging me like crazy now. Thanks for taking the time to listen to me rant, and super special thanks to anyone who plays any of the levels too!

[realroykoopa]

My Zelda Timeline

My Zelda timeline inspired by lorulean historian, Brian David Gilbert, and Bird Keeper Toby: Includes fan creations:

keep in mind not everyone may agree on this timeline. This isn’t to discredit anyone else’s personal timeline it is simply the way I see the games as fitting together:

Majora’s Mask prequel manga 

Minish cap and split:

Timeline 1: Minish cap bad ending: Zelda is turned to stone and Vaati briefly rampages but Link seals Vaati in the four sword leading to the rest of the four swords trilogy.

Four Swords

Four Swords Bonus Manga Stories 

Four Swords Adventures 

Timeline 1A: link to the past and other classic Zelda games: A branch off from the four swords trilogy in which Ganon tries to steal the triforce and gets sealed in the sacred realm. 

A link to the past 

Nintendo Land: Zelda Battle Quest 

Oracle of ages and seasons 

Ancient Stone Tablets and Link’s awakening 

The Time Break and BS The Legend Of Zelda: Link goes into the multiverse after being stranded in the Mario universe, whilst he is gone the events of BS The Legend Of Zelda happen in which a different set of protagonists battle Ganon since link is absent:

Super Mario RPG

Donkey Kong Country 3

Captain Rainbow 

Super Mario Maker

Super Mario Maker 2

Mario Kart 8

Soulcalibur II 

Sonic Lost World Legend Of Zelda Zone

Scribblenauts Unlimited 

End of time break: Link returns to his own universe:

Oath of Riruto

A link between worlds 

Tri force heroes 

Zelda’s Adventure 

End

Timeline 1B: CDI Shenanigans: Instead of going to the sacred realm Ganon goes directly for Hyrule leading to the original Zelda games and media. 

Zelda Game watch

The legend of Zelda and the moblin’s magic spear book presumably takes place at some point during the original Zelda game. 

The Faces of Evil 

Zelda Game and Watch 

The wand of Gamelon 

Crystal Trap and Shadow Prince

Zelda Tv Show and Valiant Comics  

Captain N 

Zelda 2: Adventure of Link

Battle of Mirage Castle

End 

Timeline 2: Minish Cap good ending: the regular ending of Minish Cap leading to the prospering of Hyrule and a different origin for Ganon. 

Cadence Of Hyrule 

The Skull Kid And The Mask manga story 

Ocarina Of time 

Rouru Of The Watarara Manga story 

Link and the Portal of Doom 

Tingle’s Rosy Rupeeland

Tingle's balloon trip of love 

Majora’s Mask 

Link’s Crossbow Training

Twilight Princess

Wind Waker 

Phantom Hourglass

Tingle’s Balloon Fight DS 

Spirit Tracks

Timeline 2A: Terrako doesn’t go back in time resulting in the breaking of Demise’s curse and Hyrule prospering for eternity:

Breathe Of The Wild 

Tears Of The Kingdom

Timeline 2C: Champions succeed: Terrako Travels back in time allowing the champions to succeed. However Ganon was meant to be destroyed for good to break the curse so unbeknownst to them they have doomed The Hero, Hylia, and Demise to reincarnate for eternity meaning there will never be true peace in Hyrule:

Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity 

Hyrule Warriors 

Hang ‘Em Hyrule a Zelda western fan Film 

Modern Zelda Fan Film 

Demise’s curse is never broken leading to Link, Zelda, and Ganondorf reincarnating for the rest of time. 

Timeline 2D: Cadence doesn’t come to Hyrule:

Octavo’s Ode 

Ganon’s Fury 

Symphony Of The Mask 

Ocarina Of Time 

Wind Waker Arc (Hyrule Warriors)

Leads back to Phantom Hourglass in Timeline 2 and continues as normal from there 

I haven’t been able to figure out where the hell Skyward Sword fits on the timeline though. It clearly can’t be first since the first timeline cannot logically include Skyward Sword as part of its backstory due to the fact that Zelda 2 gives a different origin story for the very first Princess Zelda. Unless the Zelda from Zelda 2 is the same as the one from Skyward Sword this would not work. It could go after Minish Cap but it would be hard to explain how the humans go from living on the ground to in the sky. The easy solution would be to say that the timeline was never unified in the first place.

[lunarsilkscreen]

Mario

Mario Brothers 3 is the definitive version of what a Mario Game should be.

Before Super Mario World, SMB3 came out at the end of the original NES lifespan. It often gets overlooked for just how innovative it actually was.

Taking in Designs from the other project "Doki Doki Panic", which ended up reskinned into Mario2 for North America, Super Mario pushed the NES to its absolute limits, with a modern a design that capstone's everything Nintendo Learned about video game and software design up to that point.

Seriously, Compare Mario 1 to Mario 3...

Mario 1 is extremely limited in every aspect from graphics, to music, to color and scope.

And Mario 3 is goshdarn Stage Play.

Many fans of the series Praise Super Mario World for reinventing the series, but I honestly believe it was SMB3, and, I think 3 was even more innovative than World.

Because a lot of what world did, was exactly what SMB3 with some extra bells and whistles. They showed off what the SNES was capable of, but it didn't really push the hardware's limits.

I'd say the closest game we had to pushing the hardware's Limits was Star Fox, even though there were games that literally needed more storage and power than your average cartridge could do.

Super Mario World isn't that much of an upgrade. But it does give us a lot of freshness that we don't actually see in Mario Games these days. (Or many games at all these days.)

I would say that it wasn't until Mario64 that we got that *extra* oomph that can be felt in Mario3 vs Mario2 and 1.

And this continues to this day, despite the many iterations and variations of Mario since then, the most innovative and really inventive Mario Game that we've seen since is Luigi's Mansion.

Even the Wario (Not WarioWare) that we got on GameCube wasn't as good as the Gameboy Wario Game that it was based on.

And it's really fine, as Mario's entire niche is as a beginner friendly game that eases players into gaming and the digital world as a whole.

But why does Mario 3 stand out, even when Mario World doesn't? Not that Mario world *doesn't*. It just feels like the original Mario 2 that was released in Japan.

I mean, not as difficult, for sure. But the difference in design? Slight modifications, different levels.

Honestly, Mario Maker is probably the absolute freshest Mario will *ever* get.

Giving players the power to design levels is fantastic, despite the draw to Kaizo inspired levels.

And yet ... What is it about Mario 3 that keeps drawing my attention to it? I could say it's the one game I actually shared with my father. But that's not the whole reason. Sure we've got parent/child bonding time over it.

But there's something else about Mario 3 in general.

It's jena se quois. The invention and story about Mario that doesn't exist these days.

It starts with a stage play. Despite being the main character, Mario could probably double as the stage and set builder. And probably is.

It is literally a playground for Mario and Luigi. The opening cinematic is them practicing their Mario skills.

Even though its purpose is to show off why you should want to play the game, and give hints as to how to play.

Then there's the ability to drop behind the stage... Power-ups that you rarely see and that some players have never seen during it's original release. Like the Teddy Bear and the Hammer Bro suits. (I said teddy bear to distinguish Tanuki Suit better, as Tanuki and Racoon tail could sound similar.)

Introduced design concepts that were later reintroduced in Mario Party.

What is this draw that this faux Kabuki Theater has?

I think it's that the game introduced this world *outside* the game they are playing. They are characters inside this play, but they definitely exist outside it as well.

And the characters and actors themselves get along outside that, despite putting on this play and overacting.

And the different "Mario Worlds" are different productions that the characters themselves put on.

It's *this* feeling that was removed from subsequent Mario games.

A game about a plumber and his friends and family putting on a show for shots and goggles.

I think *that's* what modern Mario is missing. After the Mario game and his fight against D K. They went their separate ways and started using those stages for Kabuki Theater--Just because it was a fun thing to do.

And that's why they regularly have reunions over go-kart, board games, and tennis.

Luigi's Mansion takes place in *this* world outside of the stage play. Perhaps he's putting on his own show, because he likes the Halloween motif. Like your autistic Goth Jack Skelington fanatic.

I think this is the avenue Mario *should* explore. I think it would help give depth and sticking power to the spin-offs seem to be missing these days as well.

Though, they kind of do in Paper Mario. But only Kinda sorta.

[surveysandthings]

7.

Do you have a specialty dish that you're really good at making? I have lots, actually! I’m a really good cook.

What video games did you play when you were growing up? Video games weren't a huge part of my childhood but I did play a lot of Sims when we had a computer that would run it and I remember playing Mario Kart and Crazy Taxi with my cousins.

Are you good at making big decisions alone or do you tend to seek approval from others? My husband and I make big decisions together. If it’s something I’m unsure about, I’ll consult different opinions online but it’s very, very rare that I’ll talk to a real life person about it. I just think its better to make your decisions privately rather than getting everyone you know’s input.

Does your town or city have good public transport, or is it easier to drive? You have to have a car here. There’s a very limited bus route and no taxi service.

 What was the last cocktail you drank? Oh god, I don’t know. I don’t drink very often.

Are you good at keeping running counts and tallies in your head? Um...depends on the thing I guess?

Does your country have its own edition of Big Brother? I assume so? I’ve never watched it tho.

How often do you take a nap during the day? I’ve been napping a lot more frequently lately (which isn’t saying much as it used to be never) but it’s still pretty sparse. I would say once every couple weeks?

What social media platforms do you use? Instagram and TikTok are my two main ones and then I check Facebook every so often but I have notifications turned off and I don’t post anything. I only ever use Tumblr for porn and surveys.

Are there any foods you hate the smell of but like the taste, or vice versa? Those two things go pretty hand in hand. If I don’t like the smell of something, the taste is gonna make me wanna puke.

Do you have a dishwasher? Ugh no, I wish.

Who do you live with? My husband and our pup!

Are you listening to anything right now? My husband is playing Pokemon so I can hear that!

What is one of your favourite sitcoms? I never know what does and doesn’t count as a sitcom??

Do you make to-do lists? Oh yeah. I’m a huge list maker...a list doer tho? Not so much.

If you could magically become fluent in any language, what would it be? Spanish would be the most helpful I think.

Have you ever tried vegan ice cream? Yeah and not a fan. Everyone talks about how amazing it is and how you can’t tell the difference but I just find it to be so grainy with a weird aftertaste.

What pet names do you use for your friends/loved ones? I call my husband honey or beebs most often. I don’t think I have any nicknames for my other friends besides like ‘my love’ or an abbreviation of their name.

What pet names do you like to be called? As long as it’s not ‘baby’, I don’t care. Baby is so cringe.

What was the best concert you've ever seen? Greta Van Fleet was pretty awesome but Paramore was my favorite.

Do you have any hobbies? Oh yeah, tons. I love sewing, embroidery, photography, typing, baking, coloring, making collages, doing puzzles...just anything where I can be creative!

What is your favourite pasta shape? Radiatore (sp?)

Have you ever developed your own film? I mean I'm old enough that when I was a kid, our cameras still had film that had to be developed. But I've never physically done it with my own hands.

When was the last time you stayed in a hotel/motel and where was that? We saw Greta Van Fleet in the next town over back in the fall!

What breed was the last dog you saw? A yorkie!

Do you watch the Super Bowl? Nah.

What's your favourite Disney movie? Encanto was my favorite from this year!

What's the most stressful job you've ever had? I worked at a now defunct department store for like 6 months and my boss was a literal nightmare.

What was the last text message you received? A ‘YESSSS.’ from my sister in law.

Should you be asleep right now? If so, go to bed! Nope! It’s 1:43pm.

[legend-of-zelda-voices]

Compilation Post

Sachi Matsumoto

Part 2

First Role as Link: The Wind Waker

Other LoZ Roles: Skull Kid (MM), Aryll (WW), Link (FSA, PH, TFH)

LoZ-Related Roles: Smash Bros., Hyrule Warriors, Super Mario Maker

Main LU character: Wind

Other LU characters: Skull Kid, Aryll

Alternate LU Voice for: Four

Some characters with the same voice:

Sewashi Nobi (Doraemon 2005), Asagi Caldwell (Super Robot Wars Alpha 3/Mobile Suit Gundam SEED), Pike (Princess Tutu), Joseph/Yusuf (Beyblade), Luke (Clock Zero ~ Shuuen no Ichibyou ~), Hasmodai/Teo (Fantastic Children), Jarred as adolescent and child (Deltora Quest), Naoto Yamada (A Penguin's Troubles), Shinatsuhiko Yuuhi (Yozakura Quartet)

...

In the game:

The Wind Waker (Link)

Four Swords Adventures

Hyrule Warriors (Toon Link)

Majora's Mask (Skull Kid)

Majora's Mask (Skull Kid without the Effects)

Hyrule Warriors (Skull Kid)

The Wind Waker (Aryll)

Original Post

_______________________

Singing

"Kami Nomi zo Shiranai" from Yokazura Quartet

Translated title: "Only God Knows"

This song is for the character Yūhi Shinatsuhiko.

I could only find it on SoundCloud.

This is the only song I found where she's trying to sound like a boy.

Original Post with Lyrics

---

"Moonlight Tango" from the album Godless Wonderland

Original Post with Lyrics

---

"Kagero" from the album Godless Wonderland

Translated title: "Heat Haze"

Original Post with Lyrics

---

"Akane ni Somaru" from the album Godless Wonderland

Translated title: "Dyed in Akane"

Original Post with Lyrics

---

"EXEC_NULLASCENSION/." from Ar tonelico: Melody of Elemia

Also called: "Song of Destruction", "Song That Must Never Be Sung"

This song uses both Japanese and a fictional language called Hymmnos.

This song is a duet.

Original Post with Lyrics

_______________________

Part 1 - Click Here

[blazehedgehog]

What is your favorite Nintendo game?

There are too many angles to come at this from! Nintendo has made hundreds of games in dozens of genres.

I have played Breath of the Wild for 300+ hours, something I don't usually do with very many games. I did almost everything there is to do in that game, and I did 99% of it without a guide. Just about the only thing I didn't do was get all Korok seeds.

I still find Super Mario 64 to be a tremendously fun game and I don't understand the people who say it's too dated to be fun anymore. Sure, yes, okay: the camera system needs a lot of modernization. But the controls, objectives, and level designs are timeless. Most 3D Mario games are great, but Mario 64 will always be the one that's the clearest in my memory.

If you asked me I would probably say Mario Kart 8 (the original one for Wii U) is my favorite Mario Kart, but I've probably put more time in to Mario Kart DS. I'd also complain, openly and at length, about Mario Kart DS. Snaking, for one. Chaotic item balance. But there's also a lot to love about it, too. Like designing your own emblem. And the tracks are incredible. But Mario Kart 8 is also probably a bigger, better balanced game overall.

Honorable mentions:

Yoshi's Island, for being a technical showpiece and and artistic masterpiece. A high water mark for creativity in a 2D platformer I measure everything against.

Donkey Kong Country, technically more Rare than Nintendo, but just for the way level design is this big flowing string of fluid action. I always try to design my levels to play this smooth.

Earthbound, for being totally nostalgic decades before reselling nostalgia became a big industry. One of the most heartfelt games ever made.

Metroid Prime 1, for its unparalleled atmosphere. It would be the perfect Metroid game if not for that key hunt at the end. (It's harder for me to quantify my feelings about Super Metroid, because I didn't play it until decades after everyone was constantly gushing about it)

F-Zero GX, for being absolutely beautiful even today, and never too afraid to challenge the player. I only wish there was more of it.

Super Mario Maker, for defying every expectation of what people thought Nintendo could do, and being the best use of the Wii U gamepad.

Splatoon, for basically the exact same reasons as Mario Maker, but for completely different reasons. Nintendo can be very cool, when they want to be, and this game is the #1 reason I sometimes consider hooking my Wii U back up again.

[gamersonthego]

Chase Koeneke’s Top 25 DS Games

The DS was a fascinating system. It was the first salvo in Nintendo’s pivot to more innovative and oddball gaming, priming an audience for the Wii console that was about to come. It was easy to laugh at this thing. How the hell were you supposed to pay attention to two screens at once? And yet, developers found interesting new ways of using the dual screens to create a slate of awesome and original titles. I haven’t played every DS game. Hell, I haven’t even played all the ones I’ve wanted to (like The World Ends With You or Mario & Luigi: Bowser’s Inside Story), but here is a list of my 25 favorite DS games. If you don’t see one of your favorites listed, let me know. I could always use another game to add to my never-ending backlog. 1. Advance Wars: Dual Strike 

I may be president of the Fire Emblem fan club these days, but back in the DS era, it was all Advance Wars, all the time. And Dual Strike represented the peak of the series, even if it may have gotten a little too complex for its own good. The dual front mechanics and new units types felt mostly superfluous, but the online play is what made this game truly special in its day. It’d be great to see Intelligent Systems come back to this series one day. 

2. Dragon Quest IX: Sentinels of the Starry Skies

I love to tinker. I love to grind. I love job systems with lots of unique skills. Dragon Quest IX has all that and much more. While some may not enjoy the blank slate party you’re given, I loved building a completely customized team. The main campaign is extremely meaty (HowLongToBeat clocks it in at 48.5 hours), but the amount of endgame content is truly staggering. With proto-StreetPass and SpotPass functionality, the game felt truly limitless (for comparison, HowLongToBeat says a “completionist” playthrough balloons up to 752 hours!)

3. Pokemon HeartGold/SoulSilver

Nostalgia keeps the original Red & Blue as my favorites of the series, but if I’m being honest with myself, these are the best Pokemon games ever made. These remakes smoothed out the few rough edges from Johto and added in the modern functionality from Diamond & Pearl (like the Global Trade System). This double-long Pokemon adventure is one of the best, with expressive new sprite work and a remastered soundtrack.

4. Monster Tale

Don’t be discouraged if you’ve never heard of Monster Tale. No one has. It came out late in the DS lifecycle (like, five days before the 3DS launched), so it very quickly was buried in the mix. And that’s a shame because it’s one of the best DS games ever made. Developed by the makers of Henry Hatsworth (#19 on my list), Monster Tale makes great use of the two-screen concept, having a Metroidvania brawler on the top screen and a virtual pet simulator on the bottom. The two games worked in tandem as your pet could come up to the top screen to help solve puzzles or battle enemies. An excellent aesthetic and tight controls make this one of the best games you’ve never played.

5. Naruto: Path of the Ninja 2

Speaking of games you’ve never played, what is a licensed anime game doing in my top five? It’s here because it’s actually a really great RPG. You get access to a large cast of unique characters and arrange them on a 3x4 grid for surprisingly tactical combat. You may rub a hole into your DS’ bottom screen with the game’s poor special attack quick-time events, but if you can get past that, it’s a real gem. I wrote more on this series back in an old GOTG SP if you like what you’ve heard.  

6. Mario Kart DS

This is the best Mario Kart game, don’t let anyone tell you different. No silly gimmicks like two people on a cart or motorcycles or anti-gravity: Just good, tight racing action. A bevy of great new courses (like the incomparable Tick-Tock Clock) and retro tracks (Moo Moo Farm, Choco Mountain, Donut Plains 1) complete the package. There are plenty of other good Mario games, but this one’s the best.

7. Golden Sun: Dark Dawn

Look, I’d be lying if I said this game was as good as the ones on the Game Boy Advance, but I love Golden Sun with all my heart and this entry does have some cool ideas. Lots of cool characters, some amazing summons and a very useful encyclopedia that can be accessed within the natural dialogue of the story: There’s good stuff here. The graphics may not be great and the game may be too easy, but I enjoyed my time with it, even if I was mostly reminiscing about the GBA games.

8. Final Fantasy III

I’ve mentioned it on a number of shows and in some of these GOTG posts, but I just don’t enjoy Final Fantasy’s Active Time Battle (ATB) system. I like my RPGs strictly turn-based. And Final Fantasy III is that. While not the strongest game in the series by any stretch, it does have a fairly robust job system that I appreciate, and the updated 3D graphics were great for the time (and led to a beautiful, yet too difficult version of Final Fantasy IV not much later).

9. Picross 3D

I love Picross. I’ve written about it here before. But Picross 3D changed the game, literally. That extra dimension made for much more interesting puzzle mechanics as you strategically chipped away blocks to reveal the figure within. So charming, so fun and occasionally, so challenging. I’m glad a 3DS sequel was eventually made, but this original is still the one to play.

10. Meteos

My very first DS game, Meteos immediately showed me how the DS era was going to be different, both in design and input. In this puzzle game, you’d need to skillfully use the touchscreen to line up blocks and bury your opponents while monitoring their progress on the top screen. Each planet you played on had a particular quirk to it, keeping things fresh as you matched and rocketed your way to victory. Extremely fun and a sign of the innovation to come.

11. Animal Crossing: Wild World

12. Pokemon Diamond/Pearl

13. Chrono Trigger

14. Metroid Prime Hunters

15. Retro Game Challenge

16. Professor Layton and the Diabolical Box

17. Pokemon Conquest

18. Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon

19. Henry Hatsworth in the Puzzling Adventure

20. New Super Mario Bros.

21. Pokemon Black/White

22. Space Invaders Extreme

23. Advance Wars Days of Ruin

24. Kirby: Canvas Curse

25. WarioWare D.I.Y.

[bltngames]

SAGE 2020: Fan Games

I’d hoped to have this article out a little bit sooner, but I overestimated how long it would take to write about some of these games. Whoops! Like I said when I outlined the posting “schedule” on the first day, we’re playing it fast and loose, so this is just what you get.

Today is the day I talk about fan games! And even though SAGE has “Sonic” right there in the acronym, it’s always hosted fan games from all types, so today we’ve got Mega Man, Mario, Rayman, and even fan games of fan games, if you can believe it.

Sonic Pinball Panic!

Pinball is one of those things where I’ve always been obsessed with it, but never very good at it. And now, with access to digital pinball collections like Pinball Arcade and Pinball FX, I don’t actually find myself playing as much pinball as I thought I would when I was 14 years old. Still, I find myself fascinated by a good pinball table, and this honestly caught me off guard. This could very easily be an official DLC release for one of those aforementioned pinball collections and I wouldn’t even bat an eyelash (in fact, if you ask me, this is better than Pinball FX, which has always had weird ball physics). This looks, sounds, and functions exactly like a real pinball table should. My complaints are minor: for starters, the table feels kind of easy. I’ve never been a pinball wizard, but I was losing balls left and right here and it still took a good 15 minutes before I finally got a game over. Score accumulation is also pretty slow; most pinball tables will dump millions and millions of points on you, but here, it felt like a struggle just to reach the 379k I finished with. Both contribute to the fact that the table feels a little flat, like it’s missing a spark to really put it over the top. And, third, it would be nice if it had controller support. The keyboard works just fine, here (it’s just pinball, after all) but I find that the triggers on a controller feel really good with pinball flippers, and mapping the plunger to the right stick is great, too. This is a Unity game, so I wouldn’t think it’d be that hard to hook it up to the controller mapper. Still, I came away impressed.

Mega Man: Perfect Blue

There are two things out there that always give me pause: fan-made Doom level packs, and Mega Man fan games. Fan made gaming content generally has problems when it comes to difficulty balancing anyway, but these games have earned a certain reputation for their difficulty, which creates a problem when you have content made by fans, for fans. This insularity means these things are usually way too hard for what I would consider “normal” people (read: casual fans and outsiders). Add on to the fact that I’d even say that there are official Mega Man games with bad difficulty balancing, and you have a recipe for frustration. Sadly, this is how I’d characterize Perfect Blue: though this introductory level isn’t impossibly hard, it’s definitely pushing that edge where it’s not very accommodating to someone who hasn’t played and finished every Classic Mega Man game ever made. It almost immediately throws you into scenarios where you have jumps you can barely reach, insta-kill spikes, and enemies that not only actively dodge your shots, but invincible enemies that launch counter attack homing missiles. And then it starts making you juggle all of this stuff, together, at the same time. None of this is insurmountable as long as you’re paying attention, but as a very casual Mega Man fan, it’s an unfriendly first impression and makes me worried about what the rest of the game is going to be like as the challenge naturally ramps up. For those hardcore Mega Man fans among you, the rest of this is solid, at least. The presentation and controls are excellent, and the new sprites are beautiful. It’s a game I’d love to enjoy when it’s done… but I’m assuming I’ll be left out in the cold. A shame, really, because there’s so much promise here.

Sonic and the Mayhem Master

There’s a lot to like about this game, but there’s a part of me that really wonders if this should even be considered a Sonic fan game. Mayhem Master’s depictions of Sonic and Amy Rose are atypical to put it mildly. Here, Sonic seems to be a bookish nerd of sorts, a sidekick to Amy Rose, who has been turned into a burnt out, cigar-smoking detective. Most of the game plays out as half an adventure game, half an RPG, where you roam around the world talking to NPCs and gather clues while being assaulted by random battles. The battle system is super off-the-wall, too, perhaps taking inspirations from games like Mario & Luigi and Undertale. This means that battles aren’t passive -- you spend most of each fight dodging or nullifying incoming attacks with simplistic action-based commands. It’s weird, and different, and occasionally even a little bit overwhelming. That’s kind of the whole game, really. It’s the sort of thing that really doesn’t feel like a Sonic game at all, but it also doesn’t feel bad. The artwork is very charming, I’m interested in seeing the characters develop, and there’s plenty of worldbuilding and mystery. Would this still be as intriguing if you removed the Sonic connection, even if it’s so threadbare? That’s a hard question to answer. I know that some of my interest in this game is seeing how it spins more familiar Sonic elements into something that’s completely different. Worth checking out, for curiosity’s sake if nothing else.

Sonic and the Dreamcatcher

This is a fairly brilliant little game with two unfortunate quirks. If you didn’t know, the special stages in the original Sonic the Hedgehog were inspired by an arcade game of the era called Cameltry, published by Taito in 1989. Now, Sonic’s special stages were different enough from Cameltry that it wasn’t a case of Sega outright stealing the gameplay, but there’s a clear lineage there, and it only becomes clearer when you compare the special stages in Sonic 4 Episode 1 to Cameltry (spoilers: in that game, they’re nearly identical). Dreamcatcher is also from this lineage, but is infinitely more charming than either Sonic 4 and maybe even Cameltry itself. The idea is that you must collect a specific number of blue spheres in order to reveal the Chaos Emerald, after which you have a limited amount of time to find and collect it. It’s very simple, but the presentation really sells the game’s charm. It’s just a game that looks good and sounds good, with an interesting premise executed very well. Also, you get a dedicated “& Knuckles” button to spawn infinite Knuckles to help you collect blue spheres and bash enemies. Being able to have unlimited numbers of these guys sounds like it would break the game, but once that countdown clock begins, the last thing you need is 20+ echidnas clogging up the route back to the emerald. The first quirk this game suffers from is that there’s only two levels. Parts of this have a very “game jam made in a weekend” vibe to it despite the rock-solid music, sound, and gameplay, and only having two levels contributes to that. Hopefully more are coming in the future. The other quirk? You can’t actually download this game -- it’s embedded in a webpage. I’m sure this is to make it easy to play on any platform with a web browser (phones, PCs, etc.) but I find myself greatly desiring a hard copy of this game that can live on my computer forever.

Sonic Galactic

Now here’s just a good old fashioned Sonic fan game. Though it clearly takes inspiration from Sonic Mania’s aesthetics in some places, it’s clearly doing its own thing, featuring not just the core cast of Sonic, Tails, and Knuckles, but also Fang the Sniper, and even a brand new character named Tunnel the Mole. Unlike a lot of Sonic fan games at SAGE, this appears to be using something besides Clickteam Fusion, Game Maker, or Unity. Here, it’s the “Hatch Game Engine,” whatever that is. Whatever the case may be, the game runs very well and is basically indistinguishable from just playing Sonic Mania. Visuals are sharp, music’s good, the two included boss fights are surprisingly fun to fight -- everything seems to be in order. As a result, there’s not really a lot to say. This is just a good, fun game. Anything else I’d say would come off sounding like nitpicks. For example, there’s no way to set graphics options yet, so the game is stuck in 2x Windowed mode. Fang and Tunnel are cute additions, but I wonder how much utility they have as characters. Unless I missed something, Fang’s pop gun is mainly for a weak double-jump ability, and Tunnel’s ability to dig and ricochet off floors, walls and ceilings is cool, but it doesn’t have quite the universal utility of Tails’ flight or Knuckles climbing and gliding. It’ll be interesting to see how or maybe even if their abilities have a chance to grow into something special. Anyway, like I said, those are nitpicks, so try to give this a shot if you can.

Sonic Robo-Blast!

Remasters seem to be a bit of a theme this SAGE, between Sonic Triple Trouble 16-bit, Sonic 2 SMS, Sonic 1 Revisited, but this is perhaps the most surprising of them all: a loving remaster of the original Sonic Robo-Blast. SRB1 was perhaps one of the first true “landmark” fan games, given that it was basically a whole entire game that people could play. It's not a stretch to say that SRB1 probably helped kickstart the fan gaming community that still survives to this day -- I certainly owe my involvement in the community to seeing SRB1 for the first time. The problem is, as historically significant as the game might be, it’s nearly impossible to go back to nowadays -- it’s much, much too dated to be any fun. This remaster completely re-envisions SRB1 as a regular Sonic game, while also pulling in gameplay elements from Sonic Robo-Blast 2. It’s a bit of a time paradox mindwarp, but it helps give it a bit more personality than just making a bog-standard 2D Sonic. It works, aided by the fact the sprites, music and overall presentation are fantastic. The only downside is the Act 2 boss, which commits the cardinal sin of taking away player agency and making you wait around far too much. Here’s hoping this gets finished, because it’s definitely on my radar now.

Super Mario Flashback

This has been floating around for a few years now and I’m glad to see it’s finally starting to get some more substantial content as it moves towards becoming an actual game. That being said, this is also one of those games that’s kind of hard to talk about because it’s just… really polished. The art is incredible, it controls exactly like a Mario game, and there’s already a decent mixture of ideas at play in the demo. Anything else I’d say would sound like nitpicking -- like, for example, the backseat game designer in me wonders if maybe the game is prioritizing aesthetics a little too much. This is a wonderfully animated game, absolutely gorgeous, but some actions, like the butt-stomp and the wall kick, feel a bit sluggish, and I think it’s because they show off fancy animations. Even if it’s a split second, waiting for Mario to attach to a wall to kick off of it feels slow. Really, though, that’s an insignificant complaint. This demo is still well worth checking out.

Sonic Advance 4 Advanced

This game seems like a greatest-hits of Dimps best ideas, spanning the first Sonic Advance all the way to Sonic Rush. There’s just one problem: the game seems broken. Now, my desktop PC is starting to show its age. I built it four and a half years ago, and though it can handle game like Gears of War 5 on high settings at 60fps, slowly, newer games seem to be leaving it behind. That being said, I don’t think a game like Sonic Advance 4 here should be running at what appears to be half its intended speed. It also originally launched in a teeny-tiny window (we’re talking, like, smaller than a postage stamp) and even though the options menu has a toggle for full screen mode, it doesn’t want to work. Something about this game under the hood seems to be struggling very, very, VERY hard. It’s a shame, because if this actually played at the proper speed, it seems like it might actually be an alright game, if a bit complex and busy.

Sonic 2 SMS Remake

Here’s a game I was all buckled in expecting to enjoy. Like it says on the tin, this is a remake of Sonic 2 for the Master System (and Game Gear), but with wide screen visuals and huge expansions to the mechanics, roster of playable characters, and levels. On the outside it seems really impressive, and to a certain degree it is, but something about the controls feel a little off. Sonic’s heavier here than he is on the Master System, perhaps to simulate “real” Sonic physics a little more accurately, but you can also pretty much stop on a dime, and the combination of the two feels awkward. The camera also needs a lot of work, as it’s basic at best and does a poor job of letting you see what’s below (to the dev if you’re reading this: there’s actually video tutorials out there on how 2D scrolling cameras work, it might be worth looking a couple of them up). It also leans into some of the tech limitations of the Master System, like how you aren’t given any rings for boss fights (and even hiding the HUD, a move done to save on resources for the large enemy sprites). I could be picky on a bunch of other little stuff, too, like how the flight mechanics feel, but there are other games to play at SAGE and I’ve got at least two more articles to write. Needless to say, this is a solid (impressive, even) foundation but it’s missing a lot of late-stage polish to clean up the tiny little rough edges.

Rayman Redemption

I tell this story every so often, but it was about three quarters of the way through Rayman 2 on the Sega Dreamcast when it struck me, suddenly: I love this game. I was being chased by a pirate ship through some rickety bridges and even though I was dying over and over and over again, I realized I had been enjoying Rayman 2 enough that I might put it in my top ten Dreamcast games. But that was 2002, and the years haven’t been so kind to ol’ Rayman. From the strangely celebrity-infused Rayman 3, to the tragedy of Rayman 4 (eventually becoming Raving Rabbids) to the endless, careless ports of Rayman 2 to every platform under the sun, one gets the impression Ubisoft maybe didn’t know what to do with Rayman. Especially now, when most of Ubisoft’s games are some form of online live service or cookie cutter open world experience (or increasingly both). But the fans know what they want. Rayman Redemption takes the original 1995 Rayman game and lovingly gives it a fresh coat of paint. The results are akin to what Taxman and Stealth did for Sonic CD in 2011, with wide screen visuals, improved controls, touched up level design, but gameplay that still feels faithful and accurate to the original experience. Except that Sega charged money for that, and here, fans have released this for free. Ubisoft’s loss, I guess. I didn’t play Rayman 1 until well after I’d finished Rayman 2, and I’ll admit, I kind of bounced off of it back then. It felt slow, and awkward, and when the difficulty ramped up, it got very hard, very quickly. Now, admittedly, I’ve only put about 30 minutes into Redemption here, but just the addition of a run button is incredibly welcome, and the retooled level design and powerup mechanics helps the game feel way less obtuse overall. It’s just a cleaner, tighter, more accessible and more polished version of Rayman.

Stay tuned for the next article: Indie games.

[bakudekuficlibrary]

Hey, do you have any fics where Deku calms Bakugo down from a panic attack or some sort of anger episode? Or vise versa?

I payed more attention to fics that focused solely on the requested idea or had multiple scenes of it. (and boy was there a decent amount!) If you know of longer fics that include this idea (even if it’s your own XD) feel free to reblog or reply with them so people can find them in the notes c:

-Jay 

30 Works.

Dark Side of the Sun by Synnie( T | 51,597 | 20/20 )

Staying up too late playing video games, Kirishima wasn’t expecting to get an urgent call begging for help. Next thing he knew, he was letting his classmate Izuku Midoriya take refuge in his apartment - without consulting his always angry roommate.

SeriesPart 1 of Dark Side of Space

[Graphic Depictions of Violence | Past Abuse | Self-Harm]

Can We Not? by vulcanhighblood( T | 32,740+ | 17/? )

Journalist Midoriya Izuku stumbles across Ground Zero brutalizing a vending machine. Unfortunately, he can’t just walk away from a Pro Hero in dire need of caffeine. So when a hero on the brink shakes him down for coffee, only to offer a coffee date in return…? Well, he doesn’t refuse. (He does, however, get said hero’s number, and ends up spending a lot more time with him than could have been predicted based on that first encounter.)

Grief Counseling by Merrywetherweather( E | 48,279 | 19/19 )

Katsuki remembered the first time he had failed to save someone, watched helplessly in horror as an elderly man had been crushed beneath the girth of a thrown car. He had already propelled himself forward to grab a small boy when he noticed, too late, the car fly by overhead. Two other heroes had been on the scene at the time and had assured him.

There was nothing that could have been done.

Most of class 1-A had already gone through a similar experience. The only one left with a clean track record in the rescue department had been Deku.

Well, except for today.

A slowburn fic where Kacchan tries to convince Deku to take advantage of the grief counseling provided for free to heroes experiencing their first failed rescues. Lots of flirting. Healing their relationship comes first. The romantic bit where they fall helplessly and stupidly in love comes after.

[PSTD | Panic Attacks]

Dream Sweet in Sea Major by showtiime ( M | 122,562 | 22/22 )

The day of the Hero Incident ends much more horribly than anyone could’ve imagined, but only Izuku knows that. He thinks as long as he forces himself to push through it that he can get over it, but of course, that’s not how things go. His mom, friends, teachers, and even his childhood friend-turned-rival take note of his odd behavior and try to help, but he refuses to talk about what really happened. How long and how thin will Bakugou’s patience go until Izuku finally confides and accepts the help he needs?

(in this fic, Shigaraki takes more from Izuku than he should’ve, Katsuki comes with the class that day at the mall, and there are still finals to be taken. Plenty can happen in only five to six weeks.)

(playlist)

[Rape/Non-Con | Underage | Abuse | Dissociation | PTSD | Panic Attacks | Suicide Attempt | Self-Harm]

Paper Moons and Glass Stars by Soundsoftherain( M | 82,948 | 18/18 )

The last time Katsuki had seen that mess of green hair had been during the summer after their first year of middle school, a boy sculpted from the purest sunlight sadly waving goodbye as he moved away.

That had been seven years ago.

Now that mop of wild curls was straddling his lap while scantily clad in black, leaving little to the imagination. The shy boy he once knew was now the star of Paper Moon, a strip club he’d been unwillingly dragged to by his friends. But through the muffled music one thought overwhelmed the raging whirlpool of his mind.

…What the actual fuck?

SeriesPart 1 of Glass Stars

[Graphic Depictions Of Violence | Panic Attacks | Stalking]

be loved by bonnia( T | 5,403 | 1/1 )

They sit there, in the darkness of the common room, about a few centimeters between them, but miles apart. Somehow, the quiet is companionable. More than it has been in many years. Katsuki knows he’s responsible for the rift between them, and he knows even more that it can’t only be Deku who attempts to mend it.

“Hey,” he says, after a while, and Deku turns to him in question, but Katsuki refuses to look his way. “Touch me again.”

(or: the kidnapping incident leaves bakugou traumatised about being touched on the back of his neck, and midoriya decides to take matters into his own hands)

[Panic Attacks | PTSD]

2,645 Miles by mynameis152( E | 131,839 | 38/38 )

Izuku wants so badly to get to the other side of the country without his parents realizing he’s missing. He just wants to find out who he is.

Katsuki is desperate to make it to Los Angeles without being caught by the police, desperate to fix his mistakes.

Neither know what to expect, but on a roadtrip across the U.S. involving four fugitives, two oblivious runaways, a high risk crime ring, and a police taskforce, the two will discover that there’s more in store for them than what they originally thought.

SeriesPart 1 of Guide Me Home To You

[Graphic Depictions of Violence | Panic Attacks | Attempted Sexual Assault]

As One by semiautomatichearts( G | 2,508 | 1/1 )

Katsuki knows Izuku as he knows himself, as he knows the worn pages of a treasured book, the creases within his own hand.

He sees when something is wrong, and reaches across abyssal expanses, past the maw of his own pride, and he heals.

[Panic Attacks]

What’s up danger by The_Crafty_Cracker( M | 2,220 | 1/1 )

Because apparently,The fic where Deku punches a bigoted entailed asshole Alpha in the face wasn’t an appropriate title.

Poor Katsuki has his handful with his mate nearly getting arrested, again!

P.S there is also a joke about a quiche.

Super Mario Maker by Pop_Rocks (v_love)( E | 3,734 | 1/1 )

Midoriya is smart, and a nerd, meaning that when the entire class decided to take on the aspect of buying Super Mario Maker for the collection of games in the common area that he became sort of a living legend when it came to designing the levels.

Some were just joyous well designed little prank-type levels, others were difficult — but not impossible — and the rest? Well, those were impossible.

For all but one.

His Kacchan.

————

In which Bakugou rages.

SeriesPart 4 of Kacchan and Deku’s Shenanigans

Out Of Darkness by Arrival_Of_Dawn ( M | 78,364+ | 18/? )

Izuku Midoriya is legally dead for forty two minutes at the hands of a new villain, Nightmare. They are the longest forty two minutes as Izuku finds himself trapped in his own personal hell. He may have come back from nightmare induced death, but that does not mean the nightmares are gone. They haunt him at any given moment and neither he nor anyone else knows how to save him.

[Graphic Depictions Of Violence | Panic Attacks]

Twenty-Four by SharkbaitSekki( T | 15,874 | 1/1 )

Izuku gets himself kidnapped, and Katsuki is dragged into it with him as they face villains with particularly terrifying illusion Quirks.

It ends up being a living nightmare, but Katsuki can’t bring himself to regret following Izuku into it all. Because between the pain and the terror, between the lies and the illusions, between life and death, at least they can always hang onto one another. Even if everything else is fake, they know that they will always be real.

[Graphic Depictions Of Violence] 

Chapter 26 of an entire month for the broccoli boy and the shouty boy by Kasplode( T | 23,200 | 30/30 )

Acute fear pollutes his body, concentration increasing exponentially with each shallow inhale he breathes.

Deku, standing just in front of him, knocks at the familiar door to Midoriya Inko’s apartment.

They’re having dinner with her tonight. Introducing Katsuki as Deku’s boyfriend.

[Panic Attacks]

Someone to Stay by Maru_Chan( M | 5,462 | 1/1 )

He hears Izuku’s jeering laughter again and even when he can’t see him any longer, his last words ring loud on Katsuki’s ears, heavy and final like a sentence.

“Goodbye Kacchan, maybe you can try again in your next life”

And then everything is dark again.

It’s dark, he’s cold, he’s numb and he’s alone.

And it’s everything he deserves.

[Panic Attacks | PTSD] 

saltwater fears & saltwater tears by writedeku( T | 4,540 | 1/1 )

It’s not that Katsuki hasn’t hurt people before, but this is the first time he’s seen something so irrevocable. So tangible. Izuku will look back, ten, twenty years from now, and he’d still see the scar in the mirror, and still be a scared little boy in pain all over again, crying in the hallways.

(The middle is a time that makes Katsuki feel proud and ashamed, all at once.)

SeriesPart 3 of the saltwater saga

[Bullying | Past Abuse | Panic Attacks] 

What’s Mine But Only You Can Have? by masteremeraldholder

( T | 9,480 | 1/1 )

“What’s mine… but only you can have?”

Deku’s face softens, his eyes wide, mouth a little ‘o’. Baku’s stomach turns, maybe he shouldn’t have said it, maybe he should’ve listened to the quirk-stealers and kept his fucking mouth shut, but he knows that he couldn’t have even if he tried.

He’ll never get tired of Deku and his annoying antics, his patient nature, his shit ton of freckles, and if that’s what it means to love someone, then he’s gladly in it with Deku.

SeriesPart 2 of Schizophrenic Bakugou

[Panic Attacks | Self-Harm | Ableism]

Words to Never Say by InkspillsNotebook( T | 2,586 | 1/1 )

Regardless of how much time has passed, Izuku is still unable to hear those words without fearing that he’s lost the most important person in his life.

SeriesPart 7 of Drabble Expansion Pack

[Panic Attacks]

[Abandoned] Chapter 4 of Angry Kids by MrJokerBoy( T | 9,251 | 12/? )

Deku has a nervous breakdown and here comes Kacchan to the rescue 

[Panic Attacks] 

Chapter 1 of Things You Said: Bakugou/Midoriya by AutisticWriter( T | 3,100 | 2/2 )

A collection of one shots written for a prompt list. 

[Self-Harm | Ableism | Transphobia]

{Curator’s Note: This chapter depicts Bakugou assisting Midoriya through a meltdown, not an anger episode or panic attack.}

A Classical Storm by oceanswrath( T | 1,400 | 1/1 )

In that moment only the two of them existed, a force to be reckoned with greater than the storm raging outside. 

[Panic Attacks]

The Bonds that bind by EloFromMars( E | 2,818 | 1/1 )

Izuku is excited, tonight is their anniversary. He had planned everything. Or so he thought. 

[PTSD | Panic Attacks]

Only Us by yoichipines( T | 3,105 | 1/1 )

“What if it’s you, and what if it’s me and what if that’s all that we needed to be and the rest of the world falls away…what do you say?”

A Katsudeku fanfic very much inspired by ‘Only Us’ by Laura Dreyfuss and Ben Platt? Sign me tf up!

[Panic Attacks]

No Matter What by Empress Explosion Murder (LdyFcknNoir)( M | 4,393 | 1/1 )

BNHA Angst Week Day Seven: Roses/Time

-or-

“I-I’ve failed you… He escaped.” Katsuki rasped out.

Any remaining strength in Izuku’s body fled, and he melted to the ground on legs that were no longer able to hold him up. His body began to tremble violently, his teeth cracking together with the force of his shaking. Black edged around his vision as he couldn’t pull any oxygen into his lungs, air rent from his lungs completely with just five words.

SeriesPart 7 of BNHA Angst Week

[Past Rape/Non-con | Panic Attacks]

Yeah I’ve Got Issues by Abitginger( T | 2,782 | 1/1 )

One-shot written for BakuDeku month of wonder, day 2:festival/apology. A little late but such is life ~

Izuku and Katsuki go on an undercover mission at a festival.

[Panic Attacks]

to be made of flesh and steel by bluntforcedrama, gutsdumpster( T | 635 | 1/1 )

Bakugou learns his triggers, his tics. He’s kind of psychic actually since he tends to know when something is about to happen. Or maybe it’s Izuku’s fault for making it so glaringly obvious: he gets nervous, hands twitching more than usual as his eyes follow any sudden movement around him. Sometimes his breathing becomes labored and he swallows down more inhales than exhales and Bakugou will have to thread his fingers with Izuku’s, as if to say calm down, I’m here.

Or: Izuku is an ex-soldier struggling with the mental and physical repercussions of such heavy combat, and although Bakugou doesn’t know exactly what it’s like, he’ll still do everything he can to help.

[Panic Attacks | PTSD | Implied/Referenced Homophobia]

I know you wanna (slip under my armor) by Herbalmint( T | 3,528 | 1/1 )

Life just keeps developing new ways of beating Bakugo down. (Katsuki has a panic attack)

[Panic Attacks | Dissociation] 

In Your Arms by EmbretheWorld( T | 3,771 | 2/2 )

Bakugo’s freaking out, and no one really knows what to do, but Yagi and Aizawa are really grateful that Midoriya is there. And Aizawa is really good at comforting people too.

SeriesPart 3 of You Melt My Heart

[Panic Attacks]

Chapter 2 & Chapter 7 of Standing Together (Pride Month) by EmbretheWorld( M | 17,972 | 29/29 )

This book will be filled with multiple ships that I will write and post on a daily for Pride Month. Each chapter will be based on a prompt. Hope you enjoy!

I ended this book early because I couldn’t find any motivation to write in it anymore.

SeriesPart 6 of You Melt My Heart

[Panic Attacks]

Anxiety by MistyBlueJay( T | 3,530 | 1/1 )

Izuku and Katsuki go to the mall, the Bakusquad joins them in a mini shopping trip. It’s a crowded day and Izuku falls behind, panic ensues.

[Panic Attacks]

In Weakness there is Strength by DarcyIncarnate( Not Rated | 3,011 | 1/1 )

Five times Izuku breaks and Katsuki picks up the peices, and one time Katsuki isn’t there to help. 

[Panic Attacks]

[enddaysengine]

Building Mario (L5R)

Between working from home, freelancing, and well… everything, I’m feeling a bit burnt out, so I want to try something different today. I love building characters, and an exercise I particularly enjoy is recreating characters from media as RPG PCs. I contemplated doing this for Pathfinder or Starfinder in the past, only to discover that Tulok the Barbarian was already doing precisely that on Youtube for 5e, so I shelved the idea. (Tulok’s Building Character series is great though, check it out!) 

While social distancing, I’ve been digging into the latest Legend of the Five Ring RPG properly for the first time. I never played the L5R card game, but Rokugan has a special place in my heart since I started playing D&D right at the same time L5R did their d20 experiment with WotC’s support. In fact, that was one of my first books! Plus, a couple of my freelance colleagues and developers work on L5R, and I try to go out of my way to read my peers’ work. 

So today, I’m going to give you my take on building Mario in L5R! And while Mario may seem like an odd fit for a samurai drama, allow me to present my counter-argument: 

(Also, it’s my series, and I find this fun, so I’ll convert who I like!) 

I’m not going to dive deep on all of L5R’s Twenty Questions, but I will cover enough to give all the mechanics and a basic background, as well as some suggestions for advancement. I’m also going to try to restrict myself to only using schools from within the character’s clan, although as I make more characters, I’m sure I’ll break that rule a couple times. Here are my goals with this build: 

Mario’s a plumber, which means he’s not afraid of getting his hands dirty and doing some manual labour. 

Mario’s got some magic on his side, allowing him to shoot fireballs at his enemies. 

Mario’s athletic, allowing him to stomp on his enemies or pound him into submission with his hammer. 

First off, we need Mario’s clan. The plumber doesn’t translate smoothly into a samurai fantasy, but since Super Mario Maker is a thing, I’m going to interpret that as him being a proficient engineer. We know he is a supremely dependable warrior who defends the Mushroom Kingdom, both of which point me toward the Crab and their Earth Ring. For a bonus, this gives us a rank in Fitness for more jumping action and sets our Status to 30. 

Moving on to Family, we see the other reason I wanted Mario to be a Crab (that sentence is weird if you take it out of context). If we are talking about a Crab engineer, we must be talking about the Kaiu family. Boost your Fire Ring, Mario’s a passionate guy and knows how to do about a billion jobs, so he’s got to be a quick learner. This also nets the Smithing and Labor ranks we need to be an engineer and sets our Glory to 40. 

Moving over to school, I’m making Mario a Hida Defender. This maxes out our Earth Ring at character creation and bumps up our Water Ring. Take Fitness for more jumping action, as well as Martial Arts (Melee), Martial Arts (Unarmed), Meditation, and Tactics. Take Striking as Earth as your optional Kata, as you get Lord Hida’s Grip, perfect for downing Bowser and his oversized Bosses once you boost your Void Ring. Finally, we’ll get Mario his hammer by taking the ōtsuchi as part of his starting outfit. Within the school, Mario’s Void Ring distinguished him. Boos, walking skeletons, giant dragons, Mario faces them all down without losing his nerve. 

95% of the time, Mario has to go out and rescue Princess Peach, which gives us a nice, clear giri. Mario is out to rescue a noble captive, likely a courtier (I will leave details up to you). Picking a ninjō is tougher given Mario’s lack of character development, but he is the most famous working-class hero in video games. I’m using it to suggest that Mario wants to be known for his hard work. Thus, since he is an engineer, I’ll say his ninjō is to build a world-famous castle (again, see Mario Maker). 

Many distinctions work for Mario, but I’m trying to preserve that working-class everyman feel, I’m going to give him Ebisu’s Blessing instead. In a similar vein, we can also give him the Adopted Peasant adversity to reflect his humble origins. Although it is easy to miss in the games, if you listen carefully, Mario is clearly enjoying all of the ridiculous worlds he has to explore to save Peach, which gives him the Daredevil passion. There’s also not much in the way of mercy in these worlds, Mario pretty much has to beat up his enemies until they are toast, so we can give him the Ferocity anxiety. 

Mario’s relationship with the rest of the Crab Clan is good, he certainly upholds the Courage virtue, so we’ll take the boost to Glory. Likewise, there aren’t any tenants of Bushidō Mario would disagree with, so we’ll take the increase to Honor too. 

For a mentor, I’m choosing Yoshi since he literally saved Baby Mario’s butt time and again. That’s a positive relationship (sacrificial jump memes aside), so we’ll take the advantage and choose Support of the Dragon Clan. Yes, I’m being exactly that literal. Your Game Master may want you to make that more specific, but it works as long as it’s Dragon related. 

For relationships, we’re going to say that Mario took the axe that destroyed the floor of Bowser’s castle back in the NES games, so we’ll give him an ono as well. It doesn’t reflect the mechanics of any Mario game, but it is a nice continuity nod. 

We don’t really know anything firm about Mario’s parents, although double-checking what we do know did give me a new headcanon. 

Art by Marcus Williams

What I do know is that we want Mario to have at least one rank in Medicine, courtesy of Dr. Mario. Smash may make them into different characters, but I’m not. Finally, that leaves us with Mario’s Heritage. If your Gamemaster lets you pick your Heritage, take Stolen Knowledge, then use it to pick up the Flame Fist kihō for Mario’s fireballs. We could also take The Fires from Within invocation, and I had that down for a long time since it has range. Ultimately, I decided on Flame Fist since it fits this build a bit better mechanically. 

And that’s a-me a-Mario! 

Clan: Crab

Family: Kaiu

School: Hida Defender (Void)

Ancestor: Stolen Knowledge

Rings: Air 1, Earth 3, Fire 2, Water 2, Void 2

Skills: Fitness 2, Labor 1, Martial Arts (Melee) 1, Martial Arts (Unarmed), Medicine 1, Meditation 1, Smithing 1, Tactics 1

Honor: 45

Glory: 45

Status: 30 

Composure: 10

Endurance: 10

Focus: 3

Vigilance: 2

Void Points: 1 

Kata: Lord Hida’s Grip, Striking as Earth

Kihō: Flame Fist

Abilities: Way of the Crab

Giri: Rescue a captive from the lord’s court

Ninjo: Build a famous castle

Distinction: Ebisu’s Blessing, Support of the Dragon Clan

Adversity: Adopted Peasant

Passion: Daredevil

Anxiety: Ferocity

Wealth: 5 koku

Items: Lacquered armor, traveling clothes, daishō, ono, ōtsuchi, club, knife, traveling pack.

For advancement, we’ll want to keep raising the Earth, Fire, and Void Rings (remember Lord Hida’s Grip keys off Void).  Water would also be appropriate since Mario is friendly and flexible. Fitness, Labour, Martial Arts, and Medicine will be the essential Skills to increase, and we’ll want to put some ranks into Games for Mario Party as well. If you’re a Mario+Rabbids: Kingdom Battle fan, put some in Command and Tactics too. Mario’s been in more than a few RPGs, so Honest Assessment and Touchstone of Courage represent his ability to help members of his party. At the same time, Iron in the Mountains Style and Rushing Avalanche Style makes your hammer even more brutal, and the various Striking as [Ring] katas can represent different jump attacks for unarmed combat. 

[killscreencinema]

The Legend of Zelda:  Link’s Awakening (Switch)

Whenever a new console comes out, I never buy it immediately, usually because it’s too expensive, but also because the first year of game releases is typically not very stellar.  A console’s gotta have what’s now called a “killer app” for me to buy it, and the remake of The Legend of Zelda:  Link’s Awakening was that killer app for me.

I’ve been a long time Zelda fan, but Link’s Awakening for the Game Boy has always been the game in the series I more or less ignored.  I tried to play it off and on over the years, but would always get bored or frustrated with a particular dungeon, before giving up.  It was only a couple of years ago that I finally played through the entirety of the original game, and learned to appreciate it. 

What I’m trying to say is I was never a huge fan of the original, so when this remake was announced, neither nostalgia nor sentimentality influenced my desire to buy a Switch so I could play it.  No, rather I was enthralled with the completely revamped graphical style of the game!  I loved the artistic choice of making the world of Link’s Awakening look plastic and toy-like.  While playing the game, I noticed the outer edges of the frame were blurred in such a way that gave the game an appropriately fuzzy, dreamlike quality.  It was such an inspired but perfect creative direction I knew the game would be worth revisiting by virtue of this remake.

As it turns out, I was right!  While The Legend of Zelda:  Link’s Awakening remake overhauls the graphics and music (more of than later), and adds a few new features, it is more or less a 1:1 faithful adaptation the original game.  Fans of the original will adore it, while new fans will discover a lost gem of a Zelda game they might have foolishly overlooked.

I say “faithful”, but there are some additions, such as the “Create a Dungeon” feature, which strikes me as Nintendo’s practice run for a potential Zelda version of Super Mario Maker.  During the game, you’ll eventually run into Dampe the gravedigger, who has a part-time hobby of creating dungeons.  Through talking to him, you can either create your own dungeons out of scratch, or complete his challenges, which reward you with important items like heart containers or fairy bottles.  Dampe’s challenges are surprisingly engaging, as it applies a puzzle-solving element to creating a dungeon that subtly teaches the player the fundamentals of the new tool without being as tedious or boring as a tutorial.  I must admit I got confused as to how rooms with stairs are linked up, but otherwise, I found this to be a fun new aspect to the game.

I also LOVED the music.  The Zelda games have always had excellent soundtracks, but what sets Link’s Awakening apart is how music is an important part of the overall plot.  You are searching for magical instruments after all, so it would make sense that the soundtrack would be a highlight.  The music has a bouncy, Studio Ghibli quality, while each dungeon has a distinct theme.  It’s a constant treat for the ears and definitely worth popping in the earbuds for if you’re playing mobile. 

Link’s Awakening is how you do a proper remake: you take a game, give it a graphical and musical polish, while retaining the gameplay and charm that made the game beloved in the first place.  So what I’m saying is, Square Enix, please, PLEASE, don’t fuck up the rest of the Final Fantasy VII Remake games like the ending of the first game implies!  Uh, I mean, what I’m saying is Link’s Awakening remake is fantastic and worth checking out!

[bluriginals]

soopa...soopa Mareeoh???

please ma’am.............let mareeoh be Real

so 64 is gonna HAVE to be remade cause it's so old and galaxy duo will probably be remastered, but sunshine could go either way tbh. as long as they clean up some of sunshine's design/physics shortcomings i won't mind! also 3d world is gonna be a port, obviously

i was actually getting ready to replay galaxy just yesterday so this is super DUPER exciting. might mess around and replay all the 3D mario games i own to completion again. then do it again with the remakes. you know. for the controversy.

i wonder if they're gonna intergrate 64 ds into the 64 remake at all. i've never played it and from what i've seen people are split on whether it's just objectively better/worse than 64, but i feel like it has some pretty cool things it brings to the table. i hope it gets acknowledged in this remake to SOME degree, whether it be the game actually being a remake of 64 ds (a remake of a remake lol) or including some of that games QoL improvements

also noah fence but if this is real it'll be like, the objective best mario anniversary of all time. mario all-stars anniversary edition and mario maker 1 don't even consider interacting. on the other hand if this ISN'T real it'll be the cruelest april fools joke of all time and i'll also be eternally salty because setting the foundation for your april fools joke before april 1st is CHEATING and-- 

oh uh. also paper mario being alive is pretty cool. never played that either but i'll hope it's an RPG on y'alls behalf.

lastly this would HARD explain why we never got odyssey 2 or dlc. and why n64/gcn/wii games on switch aren't happening in our lifetimes. a fair trade i think

[wolfgabe]

Nintendo, Super Mario Maker 2, and the problem with outrage culture

So recently it has been stated that Super Mario Maker 2 will not allow to play online with friends. Now yes I find this somewhat odd but I myself never expected to see so much vitriol and outrage erupt over the lack of a single feature. People are literally cancelling their pre orders and calling for a boycott of a game simply cause you cannot play online with friends as far we know.

As easy as it is to just once again proclaim Nintendo as incompetent and clueless when it comes to online I can’t help but feel this highlights what I see as the biggest problem of what I call the outrage culture which I can’t help but notice has become a bit of a problem with various games companies including Nintendo in recent years. While yes at times I can come off as somewhat apologetic towards Nintendo and many of their decisions I am not against criticism at Nintendo at all. The problem in my opinion is that most people in the realm of the internet either don’t know how to express their criticisms in a civilized rational manner or they just complain to Nintendo in all the wrong places. I have heard how Nintendo does monitor their various social media sites as well as forums like Reddit for feedback but just screaming into the void on Reddit or flooding their youtube videos with dislikes and whiny comments doesn’t really help at all really. In fact with the Nintendo Switch subreddit a lot of what I see isn’t exactly what I would call constructive criticism. A lot of it is just people complaining about how Nintendo can’t seem to do anything right or how Nintendo should do X thing.

Now lets take a moment to talk about the online of Mario Maker 2 itself. Most of the outrage of course has been directed at the lack of the ability to play with friends online and randoms only but most people don’t seem to be considering perhaps why that may be. According to a statement from a Nintendo Treehouse rep the lack of friends is primarily to avoid potentially causing conflicts with the matchmaking on global leaderboards. This statement feels like a departure from Nintendo’s past statements in that they have actually offered a somewhat more detailed explanation on why online with friends is not possible. One thing I have been curious to know is how exactly Mario Maker 2′s matchmaking algorithm works. Does it work like in Smash Ultimate and find players based on your location or does it consider things like ranking or connection quality?

Just recently Nintendo came out with their own official statement on the matter  “This is true. As the game is now, you cannot create friend lobbies online. You can only play online with randoms." Note the phrase “As the game is now” which probably means we could see friend lobbies added in post launch. Now a lot of people often love to give Nintendo shit for being so limited or restrictive with online in their games and paint them as out of touch and incompetent. However I think its highly premature to think Nintendo never considers or actually tests with these sorts of things. This is really the first time I can think of where I have heard that the ability to play with friends online was omitted due to concerns involving the matchmaking itself. This leads me to my main theory which is that Nintendo or someone on the Treehouse team discovered a major bug in the lobby system which could severely impact the matchmaking as well as perhaps make it easy for players to cheat the system. By the time The Mario Maker 2 dev teams was notified of the bug it was probably too late to go back and fix it without risking a potential delay and throwing off their whole release schedule especially now that Mario Maker 2 has probably gone gold.

I think people seem to forget we now live in an era where games are no longer kept in their final state at launch anymore. This holds true even for companies like Nintendo who has developed a good track record in recent years of giving their games relatively extensive post launch support even for games where online multiplayer is not really the focus. Of course it’s also important to remember Nintendo as a company also has to worry about satisfying their investors in addition to their fans. As an example lets look at Super Smash Bros Ultimate for a moment. It’s fairly impressive in terms of size and scope but of course one can easily make out where sacrifices probably had to be made. It wouldn’t be too surprising really that certain features either had to be cut(trophies) or put on the backburner until post launch(stage builder) so they could focus on the game balance especially with how large the roster is. I have seen people argue that they should have delayed the game so they could have some of these features in day 1 but of course that would be an extremely risky move business wise as it would have left Nintendo in a potentially bad spot during Holiday 2018 especially considering that they were no doubt intending Smash to be their big tentpole game for the Christmas season.

The biggest problem with outrage culture though as it usually means jack shit as there are probably millions of other people who will still buy Mario Maker 2 regardless as the internet often is mostly just a giant echo chamber that generally reflects very little on the general public. Also imagine if Nintendo does announce they do intend to add online with friends in an update post launch or maybe even in a day 1 patch. In that case people will have pretty much wasted their breath and energy getting so worked up over a problem Nintendo was aware of and planned to address from the beginning.