#the wii u is my second favorite console after the wii | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

lscholar · 5 months ago

Text

A SEMI-REASONABLE 40 CHARACTER SMASH ROSTER

An exercise in indulgence and egoism, and posted as the same.

THE RULES:

1. Characters shall be semi-reasonable! Beatoriche I love you but this needs to be a roster composed of characters who could conceivably actually make it into Smash. They should be from video games, and ideally ones people care about.

2. Characters shall be gender balanced! I separated my picks into four categories: GUYS, GIRLS, and CREATURES AND CHARACTERS, TYPICALLY PLAYER, OF EITHER CARDINAL GENDER (like Pikachu or the Animal Crossing Villager). the number of GUYS shall be EQUAL TO OR LESSER THAN the number of GIRLS. I set this restriction on myself and so should you.

3. Characters shall be 40 of them! but you could tell that from the title.

GUYS

MARIO - You have to have this guy. also like it's been like 20+ years since Sunshine can we not give him something other than FLUDD?

DONKEY KONG, LUIGI, NESS, BOWSER, FOX, WARIO - You also have to have these guys. I cut Captain Falcon, as we already had Fox as a Smash original character.

LINK - Someday we will be able to put Link in the CHARACTERS OF EITHER CARDINAL GENDER list, but not yet.

KING DEDEDE - Sakurai made this so his faves get a little extra attention. I claim that same right.

SNAKE - Updated for MGSV, naturally.

SONIC (Palette Swap: SHADOW) - I really really don't care about these guys. I kind of actively hate them actually. but they deserve to be here, even if all their moves are the same (turning into a ball and the ball flies at you).

CLOUD - The iconic Final Fantasy pretty boy. Would I prefer Lightning? yeah. but this is the semi-realistic roster.

PHOENIX WRIGHT - I know, preaching to the crowd here. This guy is a tumblr darling behind only his boyfriend Miles Edgeworth. But they've put him in fighting games before! And he totally has a moveset, right? Presenting his badge as a jab, shooting OBJECTION and TAKE THAT! (HOLD IT! is a grab!), submitting paperwork and random items hoping and praying that they'll be accepted as evidence...

Barely missed the cut: Sans Undertale, Sekiro, Shulk, Solaire, Paper Mario, Sora.

GIRLS

SAMUS - You have to have this girl.

PEACH/DAISY - Ideally Daisy would get Luigified (this is the very technical term for when a Smash character starts out as a clone and then gets differentiated) as the Mario Sports Game Representation. But that probably wouldn't happen. Peach is fine. kind of

ZELDA (Breath of the Wild/Tears Of The Kingdom) - The opposite of the Smash Ultimate dynamic. Smash Lscholar Link is old-school Link; Zelda is newer Zelda. Like in Hyrule Warriors she fights using runes on her magic ipad/wii u pad/nintendo switch game console. Bombs, Ice Block, Ultrahand - and the ability to Recall all of them, sending them flying backwards along their trajectories when the attack is reinput. An evil zoner but let's be honest: she already is. Maybe she has a "take a picture" that can stun?

ISABELLE, ROSALINA - both need reworks. Isabelle in particular has the potential to be a Kirby for new players - but hitting with her is so hard that most try her for a round and play Toon Link instead.

BAYONETTA - No notes.

HORNET (Hollow Knight: Silksong) - Clear moveset, fan favorite, zero questions.

D.VA (Overwatch and, fine, Overwatch 2) - The single most popular Overwatch character by far, and a much needed female heavyweight character. Would translate pretty well to Smash as a pushy zippy tank-type.

EDELGARD VON HRESVELG (Fire Emblem: Three Houses/Three Hopes) - big smashy axe, avowed militant atheist, Vriska, Fire Emblem rep. Smash Lsclr's Ike. Slow but dangerous, with surprising range, much like Byleth; unlike Byleth she is an actual character. also her axe twirl has to be a taunt. Also she's canonically bisexual. which would make her the second bisexual smash character after Snake, and the third in my heart after Cloud Strife (Byleth isn't real).

REIMU HAKUREI (Touhou) - Iconic rep from possibly the single most important indie game series.

CHUN LI (STREET FIGHTER) - Honestly surprised they put Ryu in Smash. I feel like if you asked anybody to name a Street Fighter character Chun Li would be first?

UNDYNE (Undertale) - Fine. Susie (Deltarune) is also acceptable.

VI or JINX or SOME LEAGUE OF LEGENDS GIRL (LoL) - as with Sonic I don't care for these but they have undeniably earned their places. Arcane was better than it should have been and I really hope Mel Medarda survives into s2.

SABER (Fate/Stay Night) - It's Saber! I know this seems like a meme pick but I really do think she deserves to be here.

Barely missed the cut: Karlach or Shadowheart, The Silent, Arle Nadja, Vriska

CREATURES AND CHARACTERS, TYPICALLY PLAYER, OF EITHER CARDINAL GENDER (like Pikachu or the Animal Crossing Villager)

PIKACHU - You have to have this thing. Brand recognition on par with Santa Claus or Jesus. A creature for sure, even if its tail indicates biological gender.

KIRBY - This is technically a Guy but in practice this is a creature. also I have one less Guy than Girl so I could put him there, but I chose not to.

YOSHI/BIRDO - Put a trans woman in Smash. She's just a Yoshi reskin and that's fine.

MARTH/LUCINA - The other Fire Emblem rep. Why does Awakening get like three characters? may have to make Marth a bit less floaty to make this work but they really should consolidate these two.

POKEMON TRAINER (Charizard, Ivysaur, Squirtle) - good on nintendo for making it possible to play pokemon trainer as a guy or girl.

POKEMON TRAINER 2 (Gengar, Gardevoir, Lucario) - We have so many pokemon and here's three more. swap out one of your choice for Jigglypuff or Mewtwo or Mimikyu or Greninja or whatever, as long as your substitution isn't from Kanto. This pokemon trainer is a bit more of a tryhard, and wears darker clothing. also their pokemon are category balanced: one is a guy, one is a girl, and one is a creature.

INKLING - Kind of a creature and definitely not of either cardinal gender. these kids squids are nonbinary. A good addition to smash; may they goop and bloop for many games to come.

Wii FIT TRAINER - Mix in Wii Sports and Ring Fit and whatever else.

ANIMAL CROSSING VILLAGER/MINECRAFT STEVE AND ALEX/PACMAN AND MS PACMAN - CHARACTERS OF EITHER CARDINAL GENDER

NOAH AND MIO XENOBLADE (XENOBLADE 3) - Like Pyra and Mythra but less gross. Mio has faster short range chakram attacks and mobility; Noah has slower harder-hitting moves.

THE ASSASSIN (Assassin's Creed) - Snake represents Solid, Naked, and Venom; why can't The Assassin be Altair, Ezio, and whoever else?

Barely missed the cut: Duck Hunt, Toad/Toadette.

if you got mad at me about removing your favorite character reply and I'll tell you why I took them out. probably because I didn't care about them.

#Smash Bros #super smash ultimate #super smash bros #been a while since I posted here!#ritual to expiate having opinions about video games

13 notes · View notes

thatguywiththetumb1er · 1 year ago

Text

So Super Mario Bros. Wonder is out and it’s great. But I specifically want to call out something about it’s approach to animation, because yes Wonder looks better than the New series but it’s important to acknowledge WHY.

youtube

This video, without words, does SO MUCH to demonstrate the difference between Wonder’s philosophy and the New series philosophy. And it's something I'll be discussing more... AFTER THE BREAK!

I think something that gets lost in the discussion about the NSMB series is how the series evolved graphically, because it’s easy to look at the difference between U over a decade ago (or U Deluxe just shy of 5 years ago) and Wonder and wonder (heh) just what was going on with U.

The answer is that for 5 years U represented the culmination of a different kind of graphical journey, one that I was there for and remember noticing even at the time. And look, YES the NSMB games are generic but let’s table that for a second and go on a bit of a journey here.

NSMB DS came at a time where having a 3D game on a handheld was a BIG DEAL, and NSMB reflects that in more ways than one. Because while the promo art looks like THIS:

The actual game looks more like THIS:

If you go back and play NSMB today the thing that’s going to surprise you is just HOW LITTLE 3D is in it. Yes Mario is 3D and most of the enemies are too but the blocks you bash, the Koopa shells you kick, the power ups you collect and the backgrounds you run through are NOT. They’re all rendered as 2D sprites to help the game run smoothly on the DS.

Why do I point this out? Because it’s indicative of the New series’s approach to 3D. The sheer act of being in 3D is a spectacle, having a 3D rendered Mario is a graphical trick so cool that the first game has to invent its own hybrid art style to show it off.

Now let’s flash forward to Wii:

Immediately we’re looking at a big shift, we’ve still got a hybrid art style but one that looks much more cohesive.. This game is a much more significant graphical leap, it LOOKS in gameplay like the first game’s promo material! And this trend would be continued by 2 which upped the saturation in its art style (2 is both my favorite game in the New series and my favorite pre-Wonder 2D Mario (no really) and I usually hate that it gets the shaft but that's a discussion for another time unfortunately). Now jump ahead to U:

Nintendo's first game on an HD console, U was considered U-niversally (heh) underwhelming by graphical standards but for my money I think U still had a distinct graphical goal: to create environments that were U-nique (heh) to the previous games. NSMB is famous for using the same world themes in every game, but U takes them, polishes them up, and gives them a bit of personality to help stand on their own. From the moai and dessert motifs of layer cake desert to the mushroom trees of acorn plains to the night skies and auroras of frosted glacier. YES its the same themes but they have a bit more pop this time and that's intentional. What HASN'T changed is the approach to animation, and this is where we circle back to Wonder. The "Wow" factor of these games is still that it uses 3D models, so it doesn't focus on HOW it uses models as much or how those models look in 3D space. Go watch the video again and what stands out is how... for lack of a better term... utilitarian the U animations are. The Wonder animations are all peppered with bits of personality but the U animations are all focused on just manipulating the models, because the 3D models are the (theoretical) draw.

Moreover, look how the models are constructed. U Mario faces forward as if he is in a 3D space, while the Mario Wonder model is built to more closely resemble the Super Mario World sprites. If you look at the Mario Wonder model closely it doesn't totally make sense, Mario is tilted at a diagonal angle at almost all times, why? BECAUSE THAT'S WHAT LOOKS BETTER IN 2D. The U model is technically what looking at Mario from a side on perspective would be, but the Wonder model brings in elements of 2D animation to create something more visibly appealing. Honestly that's basically the MO of Wonder's graphical style, ignore realism and create visuals that LOOK GOOD with the perspective of the game. It's one of the reason that I find it so strange for the game to use the standard character models in the promo material:

Compared to how they look in game:

But that's just my thoughts. I'd be interested to hear what more seasoned artists think as well! And thanks for tuning in to this tangent haha.

#Youtube #Mario #Mario Wonder #NSMB #New Super Mario Bros #Art style #3D art #2D art #Video games

3 notes · View notes

ottspot · 2 years ago

Text

I Bought A 10 Year Old Nintendo 3DS Game And Loved It - My Thoughts on Fire Emblem Awakening

It all started one day in December, just one month before the year was over. I woke up with the sudden urge to buy one game I had been meaning to get all these years, a game that I've had interest in but just never got to for some reason... Fire Emblem Awakening for the Nintendo 3DS.

I had been exposed to it a number of times via Club Nintendo promotions, "Best Of The 3DS" lists, praise from my friends, and even playing the demo all those years ago. I may be almost ten years too late but I bought it second-hand from a retro game store (cheaper than GameStop!), and I couldn't have been happier with my decision.

In the age of the PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, and the Nintendo Switch, many consumers would be baffled at the idea of buying games for older systems, like the Nintendo 3DS. Some people in this case would often ask, "why not emulate or pirate?" There are advantages to doing that of course, especially considering that Nintendo doesn't even make money off of second-hand physical copies, and they soon won't be able to make money off of even the digital versions, with the company closing down the Nintendo eShop of the 3DS and Wii U systems in less than three months as of writing this!

The thing is, even in a time where we can just get games and DLC for these older games without spending a cent, I still wanted to experience getting a game officially one last time. And that's what I did late November of 2022, where I bought... Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney and Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney - Spirit of Justice. Yeeeah, I thought the Zelda "Oracle" series games on the Virtual Console would be my last digital purchase, but I saw those two on sale and they were the only ones I was missing on 3DS, so... I bit the bullet. And those were my, as of now, final Nintendo eShop purchases on the 3DS system.

But just one month later, I woke up and thought about one game in particular. A game that I believed I should get not in a digital form, but a physical copy. Indeed, it was the one I stated before and the main subject of this post, Fire Emblem Awakening. I drove to my local retro game store that morning and I picked the game up.

The inside cover had some pretty nasty water damage, but I plan on getting a new case entirely at some point, so it's okay.

I booted the game up, and discovered that there was a save file already there! Thanks to my modded 3DS system, I backed it up before erasing it. That way I can go back to it and see how they played.

After making a new save of my own, I chipped away at the game bit-by-bit until I finished it on January 3rd. I would have finished it already by now but I had other plans in my life, as well as a few other games to play a little bit of as well. But regardless, I did beat the game! And let me tell you... I adored it.

Now, this wasn't exactly my first experience with Fire Emblem. I had played Warriors on the Switch a while back, and I played a hacked version of Fates (only the Birthright path) and they were alright experiences. But Awakening was on another level entirely to me. The story, without giving too much away, had lots of tension, pain, and moments where I genuinely gasped out of fear. The other games I had played never made me feel that way about the story before.

The gameplay is a favorite of mine, too. I really like tactical RPGs like this, even if I haven't played a lot of them. I appreciate games giving me some time to plan out my moves and selecting which units to have fight the enemy, or stay back so they don't die. In that way I really felt like a tactician, just like the main character.

Speaking of, all the characters in this game were very lovable. Their writing was phenomenal and I loved their little voice lines. Lissa is definitely a favorite, and was always one ever since I played the demo back when it first came out. And that's the thing! Even early on in the game I learned to love and care about these characters. That's how good I feel the writing is.

Overall, I feel that this game deserves the reputation that it has right now. After 16 and a half hours of playtime, that couldn't be more obvious to me, and it's easily one of my favorite Nintendo 3DS games now. While it's great to see new games in the series release due to the success of this one, I don't believe there will be another game that will match just how great this entry is. So yes, once again, I bought an almost ten-year-old Nintendo 3DS game and I loved it. And I think you should buy it too, because it's 100 percent worth the money.

Thanks again for reading! I hope this will push me to experience some older Fire Emblem games someday, and hey- it might get me to try Three Houses or Engage too.

Next up: My Journey With The Nintendo 3DS... Does It Still Hold Up?

#fire emblem #fire embem awakening #nintendo 3DS #game review #retro #why did it take me so long to get to this damn game #nintendo #lissa is the best character fr fr

7 notes · View notes

zaptap · 3 years ago

Photo

ive made a few of these bingo sheets and theyre fun so i decided to make one not just for e3 but also JUST for splatoon 3 (not just for e3 but for like the whole lifetime of the game). also heres my updated list of characters id like to see in smash, ordered generally by which id like more and/or think are the most realistic

since min min got in i took out helix, and since i couldnt decide whether to add in waluigi or madeline i added another row (realistically i dont think any indies are getting in but i threw some in anyway). also i was like “oh yeah maybe theyd put in a gen viii pokemon” so i threw in hatterene since thats one of my favorites.

also as for waluigi (and shovel knight for that matter) i think it would be nice to see an assist trophy get in just to break that rule. also i remember being super surprised he wasnt in brawl (back then i thought he and wario were equally important) and even though that was based on a wrong impression ive still felt like he should be in there ever since

notes about the bingos under the cut

really is about time for those n64 games, especially now that mario is dead so theyre free to release sm64 on it. game boy games would be nice sometime too

would also make sense to include banjo-kazooie in that, nintendos had a good relationship with microsoft lately and the total absence of anything banjo-kazooie on the switch is odd since it’s a dlc character (every other one has a game on switch they can use for cross-marketing, even if joker’s took a while) and i think the best explanation for that would be that theyre holding off for the nso n64 app (this is easiest from a technical standpoint because all they have to do is make a deal to use the roms)

when are they putting octolings in mk8d

xenoblade chronicles x is one of the only wii u games left that they could port (aside from ones that wouldnt make much sense like splatoon and ssb4) so i guess that might as well happen sometime. also monolith soft might be doing something else besides helping with splatoon 3

im not ready for metroid prime 4 (im over halfway through mp2 and therefore the trilogy as a whole) but it’s been a while, they might show it and it could even come out this year

hal apparently recently hinted at a new kirby game or something

the upgraded switch is obviously going to be called the Nintendo Switch ͥ since they already did the ds lite so theyre clearly naming everything in the family after the ds family, theres absolutely no flaw in this logic. idk if theyre showing it, but unlike 2019 they didnt say they werent showing new hardware (just that they were showing software, which could be taken as denying rumors, but they sometimes specify when certain things arent being shown)

metroid prime trilogy also might come this year. would make sense to release it before mp4 since not everyone is going to buy a wii u to get it (and at this point that doesnt get nintendo any money since they stopped making them)

where is detective pikachu 2. i hope it has the blue pikachu from that first tease they gave us in like 2014 (2013? that was a loooong time ago idk)

they said this was MOSTLY 2021 so i am absolutely getting my hopes up for splatoon 2

the two sinnoh games could likely be there

would be super cool if oddity came to switch. and almost as ironic as megalovania getting into smash

we havent seen the botw sequel for a couple years so we’re kind of due for an update on that

it’s ace attorney’s 20th anniversary this year so maybe theyre doing something. theyre already porting those games though so idk. maybe he’s getting in smash

whats with that watermelon mario render

i held off on watching a playthrough for ndrv3 on the off chance it came to switch and i could play a dangan ronpa game for real for once but it’s now been 4 years and we just passed the 10th anniversary of the series (albeit during a pandemic when i wouldnt expect them to have done anything) so it would be cool to see the series come to switch. i think if it still doesnt after this though i’ll just watch the playthrough, 4 years is long enough. amazed ive avoided spoilers this long, i still know next to nothing about the game

im about done with acnh but im still waiting on those splatoon items. and i ran out of storage in february so i need more of that too

nintendo did stuff for zelda’s 30th anniversary so i doubt theyre forgetting the 35th. maybe wwhd/tphd ports, idk

been a couple years since fire emblem, intelligent systems is probably up to something besides planning yet another paper mario spinoff

miyamoto forgot pikmin 4 in the oven 6 years ago and it got burnt to a crisp and thats why it hasnt come out yet because he had to start over

and splatoon

the inklings scared daft punk into quitting so now that theres no competition in the robot musician scene they should have a daft punk style group

i waited and waited and neither of my top two splatoon stages (flounder and d��alfonsino) came back in splatoon 2 so i hope just because splatoon 3 isnt in inkopolis doesnt mean they still wont return

would be sick as hell if there was a real hide and seek mode instead of just sticking to your own rules in private battles. havent played that since 2015 but it was super fun

show us the effects of the chaos world

i wanted mc craig to have a song in octo expansion and they didnt deliver. heres another chance

splatnet 3 baby

cant wait for nogami to do a funny 3 pose

abxy came back for splatoon 2.... am i gonna be that lucky again...?

salmon run doesnt make sense if youre friends with a smallfry but they could either change the story context (you just fight “evil” salmonids?) or replace it with an equally fun co-op mode

amiibo!!! i think i said this before but they should label them by weapons if these cephalopods dont have genders, would make more sense (the gendered ones had different weapons anyway)

returning characters!!!! would like to see everyone have a role of some kind

maybe #GearForAll wasnt successful in getting the emperor/spy/mecha gear, but perhaps theyll at least consider not making that stuff exclusive this time around

squid girl gear should be back. and they should call it a dress instead of a tunic because its a dress. and theres no gender now anyway

as ive said before... TRIPLIES!! you hold one in each hand and another in your mouth. and you can spin around like the tasmanian devil

remove splatfest tee annoyances: you should have a prompt at the end of a splatfest to pay to scrub your tee (to make sure you get the chunks) also it should be on a neutral brand so you dont end up with an overabundance of ink resistance up (or whatever else)

better online and cloud saves would certainly justify having a second splatoon game on the same console, as much as im loving that it exists

hopefully theres a global testfire again

sooner or later the workers will rise up and kill mr grizz

remember in splatoon 1 where if you had squid beatz (via the amiibo) you could “play” it in the lobby and change the music? then you were stuck listening to only bubble bath in splatoon 2? why did they take that option away they should bring it back

looking at those apartment buildings in the trailer i think it would be cool if you had your own room and could decorate it

an octavio redemption arc would be fun to see. in the manga he stole the zapfish because the octarians had an energy crisis, and in the end they worked out a deal to share the electricity

#nintendo direct #e3 #e3 2021 #splatoon 3 #splatoon #ssbu

38 notes · View notes

nintendowife · 3 years ago

Photo

The year is almost over and it's once again the time to pick my favorite games. I didn't really manage to trim down my backlog this year - got 52 new games and only finished 46. I'm proud of finishing some games I've had in my backlog for 10+ years though! I revisited LittleBigPlanet 2 and Metal Gear Solid 4 on PS3 and was able to cross them off my list of unfinished games. One of the highlights this year was when I realized Project Zero 2 (Fatal Frame 2) is available on Wii U eShop. I own the original game on PS2 but never finished it, so for Halloween I got Project Zero 2 Wii Edition and finally saw how the game ends. My "now playing" list didn't lack quality games, so choosing the top titles was difficult. But enough meaningless chatter and onto the best games I played in 2021!

1st place: HITMAN 3 (PS4, also available on other consoles and PC)

Agent 47, gaming's best-dressed bald guy is here to sweep the board again. Intricate assassination master plans can be cooked up while strolling through Argentinian vineyard or in the middle of a rave party in Berlin.

+ Adds great new ideas to the tried and true mission formula + Highly inventive ways to get rid of your targets + Gorgeously designed levels and wealth of in-game challenges offer high replayability + Dramatic and impactful story moments balance out the silly tone of the game + The whole World of Assassination trilogy is playable within the game if you own the prior games - Some glitches and bugs at least near launch

See my posts about Hitman 3

2nd place: Titanfall 2 (PC, also available on PS4 and Xbox One)

Unexpectedly great experience. This first-person shooter took me by surprise even after hearing a lot of praise and going in with high expectations. I only played the single player campaign and even just that was enough to rank Titanfall 2 this high on my list.

+ Interesting setting and great characters, good story + Fun and varying gameplay with fluid controls and good combat + Piloting a mech is such a cool experience + Beautiful, immersive environments and impressive level design + Good audio with cinematic soundtrack - No Ansel support breaks my heart

See my posts about Titanfall 2

3rd place: AI: The Somnium Files (Nintendo Switch, also available on PC, PS4 and Xbox One)

Brilliant murder mystery visual novel with a sci-fi flair. Story so unpredictable even Hercule Poirot and Sherlock Holmes together couldn't have seen it coming.

+ Pleasing presentation with clean visual style, animations, skillful voice acting and fitting music + Fleshed out characters made me invested in the game + Well-written dialogue and a grim story that kept me guessing to the end + A good amount of gameplay sections with unique mechanics in addition to visual novel content - Some timed gameplay sequences required trial and error for me to figure out how to proceed

See my posts about AI: The Somnium Files

Honorable mention: Watch Dogs: Legion (PC, also available on PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series)

I almost couldn't stop playing all the side content to progress the main story. It was so much fun to just pester around in near future London with my team of hacker grannies. Spent over 60 hours in the game and also got the story DLC.

+ Appealing setting and story with memorable villains + A lot of freedom to customize your team of operatives and gameplay style + Impressively beautiful open world, seriously good work on this front + Good soundtrack and voice acting - No Ansel support, photo mode could have been better - Some crashes to desktop and occasional glitches - Recycled base character models made operatives less distinct in the long run, though recycling is understandable with the whole London population being available for recruitment

See my posts about Watch Dogs: Legion

Honorable mention: Attack of the Friday Monsters! A Tokyo Tale (Nintendo 3DS eShop)

It was a tough choice between this slice-of-life adventure and Bravely Second: End Layer but ultimately I thought Attack of the Friday Monsters deserves a mention thanks to the unique feeling it evokes.

+ Heartwarming story and curious perspective to storytelling + Beautiful art style and graphics + Environments and characters bring out an unprecedented feeling of coziness + Short and sweet experience - Card collecting gets a bit tedious if you want to complete everything in the game

Honorable mention: Project Zero 2: Wii Edition (Wii U, also available on Wii)

A remake of a classic Japanese survival horror game initially released on PS2. The atmosphere of this game is to die for (heh).

+ Beautifully remade character models and textures + Superbly chilling audio design + Terrifying atmosphere and tension throughout the game, a master class of horror game design + Interesting story and lore - Not as interesting rituals as in the first game - Horizontal camera motion controls with Wii Remote were unintuitive - No Japanese audio option

See my posts about Project Zero 2

Honorable mention: Metroid Dread (Nintendo Switch)

Metroid Dread was surely worth the wait for series' fans and a great addition to any action-loving Switch owner's collection. Samus is back to refine the genre of metroidvanias.

+ Good looking environments and tense atmosphere - E.M.M.I. is a truly great enemy addition + Nice ambient audio + Gameplay gets the more fun the more you progress and unlock abilities, satisfying boss fights and tight controls + A good amount of challenge and the game's length is just right + Cool story (game also begins with a good recap of series' story for newcomers) - Probably the first game where I feel I would have needed accessibility options for controls (Shinespark) - Occasional frustration with E.M.M.I. encounters and not knowing where to go next at some point in the game - I didn't feel a need to go back and replay the game or get 100% completion

See my posts about Metroid Dread

Nominees for my personal Game of the Year 2021

Only games I have finished in 2021 have been included.

7th Dragon III Code: VFD (3DS) A Short Hike (PC) AI: The Somnium Files (Switch) Aragami (PC) Attack of the Friday Monsters! A Tokyo Tale (3DS) Bayonetta 2 (Switch) Bravely Second: End Layer (3DS) BUSTAFELLOWS (Switch) Café Enchanté (Switch) Code Vein (PC) Deliver Us The Moon (PC) Disaster Report 4: Summer Memories (PC) Donut County (PC) Fire Emblem Fates: Revelation (3DS) Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice (PC) HITMAN 3 (PS4) Kirby: Planet Robobot (3DS) LittleBigPlanet 2 (PS3) Mass Effect: Andromeda (PC) Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots (PS3) Metroid Dread (Switch) Monster Hunter Rise (Switch) Monster Hunter Stories 2: Wings Of Ruin (Switch) New Pokémon Snap (Switch) New Super Mario Bros. 2 (3DS) Part Time UFO (Switch) PGA Tour 2K21 (PC) Picross e7 (3DS) Project Zero 2: Wii Edition (WiiU) Psychonauts 2 (PC) Rain on Your Parade (PC) Samorost 1 (PC) Sanrio characters Picross (3DS) Sonic the Hedgehog 2 (PC) Super Mario Galaxy (Switch) SUPERHOT: MIND CONTROL DELETE (PC) Superliminal (PC) The Ascent (PC) The Procession to Calvary (PC) Titanfall 2 (PC) Watch Dogs: Legion (PC) Watch Dogs: Legion - Bloodline (PC) What Remains of Edith Finch (PC) Xenoblade Chronicles 2: Torna ~ The Golden Country (Switch) Yakuza 3 Remastered (PC) Yakuza 4 Remastered (PC)

Wishing you all the best to year 2022!

#game of the year #goty #hitman 3 #titanfall 2 #ai: the somnium files #watch dogs: legion #attack of the friday monsters #project zero 2 #fatal frame 2 #metroid dread #hitman #fatal frame #watch dogs #pc #ps4 #nintendo switch #nintendo 3ds #wii u

5 notes · View notes

slade-neko · 4 years ago

Text

My Thoughts on Super Smash Bros

Just something I wanted to write up since Smash Bros is one of my favorite game series and kinda got me into video games. (WARNING: Its fairly long...)

Super Smash Bros. (N64 & Melee)

Super Smash Bros. was my first 3D game. Got it one year for Christmas when I was a little kid with a Nintendo 64. That game introduced me to video games. Before that I had only played Super Mario Bros. and Duck Hunt on my parents’ NES console. I wasn’t hooked on video games until I got my hands on a Nintendo 64. “Whoa! The graphics are so 3D!” It also introduced me to so many major Nintendo characters I did not know about like Link, Samus, Fox, and Kirby. It was the best gateway a kid could ask for to “get into” video games. Inevitably I ended up getting a Gamecube with Super Smash Bros. Melee as my first game on it too. Melee was great just like reliving that original feeling all over again. What made these games even more special was unlocking the characters. In a time before internet, you had no clue who was in the game and how to unlock them. The excitement of seeing that “Challenger Approaching” screen was like nothing else. A lot of your information came from questionable sources of kids at school. Rumors with no real answers (until you get an official guide book.) No internet leaks or spoilers. Those were good times!

One word I would use to describe the overall feel I got from Smash 64 and Melee would be Classic!

Super Smash Bros. Brawl

Years later, Super Smash Bros. Brawl came out. I’m not sure why, but I really got into that game. It was probably due to the timing and circumstances. The longest wait between Smash games being Melee to Brawl was 7 years and that brought a lot of desire for a new Smash game for me. Also the memories of being a kid playing this with my friends after school on weekends, big sleepovers, using the game’s crappy wi-fi connection, good times! I also did not understand the game’s mechanics as a kid and why people hated them, so I couldn’t complain about that. The art style of the game wasn’t necessarily my favorite, but it worked well for that game. It went from the bright vivid colors of Melee to a more dull, colorless, gritty style. Best example is Ocarina of Time Link being swapped over to Twilight Princess. Oh, and the game really picked up as a lot of fun when I began modding it. Turns out Wii’s were very easy to Homebrew and Brawl was fairly easy to mod. That brought out a HUGE replay value of installing new mods, making my own mods, and all sorts of endless possibilities with the game. Getting Project M (a fan mod for Brawl that reworked the entire game more competitively) really opened my eyes to the competitive side of Smash and showed me why normal Brawl was so bad.

One word I would use to describe the overall feel I got from Brawl from its art style, orchestrated full choir theme, to its fantastic Subspace Emissary cutscenes would be Epic!

Super Smash Bros. 4

Smash eventually died down for another 6 years until Super Smash Bros. 4 came out. Man, Smash 4 was exciting because “Hey, new Smash game!”, but seeing it in full... it was honestly very weird. The 3DS version launching first felt like a big demo... at 240 pixels... wow. (I hated 3DS for taking wonderful games like Smash, Monster Hunter, the N64 Zelda remakes and dragging them into a low resolution, portable Hell!) That aside, I forcibly played the 3DS version until the Wii U one came out. Then the true game began and well it still wasn’t the Smash I was hoping for. It was fun, some cool new characters, but some more cuts too. Questionable new game mechanics among other things that made gameplay pretty un-fun. Hearing about how the 3DS version dragged down the Wii U version was quite disheartening too like Ice Climbers getting cut because they simply would not work on 3DS and the two games just HAD to be the same was stupid. The 3DS was a horrible anchor weighing down the game. Oh, and I don’t think they had a very clear direction with the art style of this game... The Zelda characters are still Twilight Princess designs, but are now bright and vivid? It just looks weird and out of place for them. Ganondorf looks exceptionally ugly because of that.

One word I would use to describe the overall feel I got from Smash 4 from its theme music and the whole game’s aesthetic feels very Sporty.

Super Smash Bros. Ultimate

Not long after and Super Smash Bros. Ultimate came out of the dark to save the day. Ultimate is really amazing. They took the crappy Smash 4 and cut its chains from the 3DS so it could soar above and beyond. A lot of it is Smash 4 assets ported over from the Wii U to a better console, the Switch. They somehow got EVERY single character back with a ton of new ones, almost every stage, so much amazing music, and well it truly is deserving of the Ultimate title in terms of content!

So the game is pretty great and has A LOT of content, but its still not without issues (at least for me.) This is me being overly critical with the game and my MELEE FANBOY BULLSH*T opinions coming through, but there are quite a few things I don’t like about this game. The theme music (albeit catchy) is super sappy anime bullcrap music. I don’t mean that in a negative way, despite how I worded it, IT is very sappy anime music about the forces of good fighting evil together. The World of Light mode isn’t a lot of fun at least for me it wasn’t. It wasn’t Subspace Emissary, which I know its wasn’t meant to replace it. I had the most fun with Adventure mode in Melee and would’ve preferred to have a little mode similar to that instead. Spirits are seriously just the stickers from Brawl. I frequently call them that unintentionally when playing the game. Doing Spirit Board battles is nowhere near as fun as doing nicely planned out battles like Melee’s Event Matches (nothing can top Event Match 51!) Spirit Battles are typically just jokes that can be beaten in less than a minute. Also no trophies... I understand why they chose not to because of how much work they require, but it still doesn’t mean I can’t miss them. The gameplay is definitely an improvement over Smash 4, but I still crave that fast paced action Melee/ Project M had. Heavier gravity, harder to recover, quicker to KO, L-Canceling, hit-stun and proper combo potential are all things that made faster, higher speed action. I’m not super big into the competitive scene, but even I think the faster pace of Melee-style gameplay is far more fun to play and watch.

Then there’s issues created because the devs are pushing too much into the competitive side of the game such as picking stages first then characters second, not having the game remember my character when returning from a match, having to make new rulesets just to change a few options. I’m pretty sure these are all things competitive people want that help out in tourney situations and stuff, but I don’t like them for normal matches. These are small issues in the long run, but I am bothered by them every time I play and I don’t see them ever changing that. All they need is a few new options to fix this. Toggle an option for stage select or character select first, a quick customizable ruleset option and have saved rulesets separately, and the option to remember your fighter. Heck they could even go a step further have it remember your preferred color to each character saved to your name data like how Smash 4 3DS did (that was a cool feature!)

The one word I would use to describe Smash Ultimate is HYPE! Nothing builds hype like a Smash Ultimate trailer. Every single trailer builds more hype for this game. From the original reveal trailer with the Inklings, Ridley, King K. Rool, and now Sephiroth?! Seeing those trailers, I can’t help, but smile and get hyped up and excited! Despite my nitpicky issues I have with the game, I can still say its a pretty darn good Smash game! I applaud Sakurai, the dev team, and Nintendo for going big with this game and putting so much effort into it and I can still enjoy it even if its not quite at the exact level I want.

#my thoughts #Super Smash Bros #personal

4 notes · View notes

theonceoverthinker · 5 years ago

Text

Nintendo E3 Wish List

In just a few short weeks, gaming’s most exciting event will be upon us!

I’ll be honest and own up to my bias: I love Nintendo! Apart from some of the console war BS between Microsoft and Sony that I basically treat the same way most normal people treat any given episode of The Bachelorette, Nintendo is the only one I really care about. I have a Switch and I can’t wait to load it up!

So what do I want to see from it? Well, here are a few things divided into some simple categories!

GIVENS - Stuff that we know for a fact is likely going to be showcased at E3

POSSIBILITIES - Stuff that we have evidence to suggest is coming to the Switch, but no confirmation as to when

REACHES - Stuff that we have no indication is coming, but I want to see nonetheless

This got long, so everything’s under the cut!

GIVENS

Pokemon Sword and Shield release date and new Pokemon - We ALL know this is coming. That said, we’re also getting a Direct next week, so we won’t be getting anything too extravagant, but still a little bit more news. My hopes for this are the stage two evolutions of the starters and one or two random others.

Animal Crossing’s release date and gameplay footage - Animal Crossing is on its way! I think it’ll be released sometime around mid-November and I can’t wait! What I want this time will be a deeper means of growing relationships between yourself and your neighbors. As for my big, out-there prediction for the gimmick of the next game, as stupid as it sounds, maybe something with time travel. Jumping ahead to our favorite holidays is part of what makes Animal Crossing so much fun, and Nintendo knows it. They even made ‘time traveler’ one of the rumors

Second Smash Bros DLC Character Reveal - Yeah, this is gonna happen. My predictions? They’ll be released sometime this summer -- maybe August. As to WHO it will be, my predictions are Sans, Banjo, a Monster Hunter character (I heard a rumor and there’s a Monster Hunter-themed Smash Bros boss), Waluigi, Professor Layton, Shantae, and Sora (More on him later). Sans is my biggest hope for because I’m Undertale trash and want to go all Megalovania on Jigglypuff, the Ice Climbers, and Ridley!

More Labo VR Stuff - I haven’t been sucked into the Nintendo Labo hole yet, but I will say that the VR stuff for Odyssey seems pretty cool and VR is a growing big deal in the industry! This is Nintendo’s answer to that and if they do things for a few more upcoming and already released titles, I’ll have to check it out! My predictions are that we could see the Labo VR stuff happen for Yoshi’s Crafted World and the upcoming Animal Crossing title.

Fire Emblem: Three Houses - I feel like we’re only gonna spend a few minutes on this game. it comes out a month after this conference and the time spent here will just be to entice a straggler or two into buying it.

Link’s Awakening - Like with Fire Emblem, I think this will be very short and just touch upon the basic changes and updates, but given that it closed out the last non-specialized Nintendo Direct, I’d be SHOCKED if it went without a mention.

POSSIBILITIES

Ace Attorney - From what I understand, we’re supposedly getting an Ace Attorney game this year, and I figure if any place will show it off, it will be at E3. Do I think it’ll get a red carpet or anything? No, but I could easily see a little clip of it during a run through of upcoming third party titles and that would be more than enough for me! I can’t wait for the next game!

Ocarina of Time and Wind Waker Re-Releases - So I don’t know how many of you saw Nintendo’s April Fool’s Direct (I’ve watched it...several times because it is laugh out loud HYSTERICAL), but some things stuck out to me as possibly legit, and those were the two Zelda ports. Both had trailers, and Wind Waker on the Switch had a ZR button on the screen with the rest of Link’s supplies. Could it possibly be coming to the Switch? And as for Ocarina, it’s been nearly ten years since it was re-released on the 3DS! With release dates that were slated for this winter, I think it’s possible that both could be on the way. Maybe they’ll even co-release Ocarina with Majora’s Mask!

REACHES

Super Mario 3D World Deluxe - There have been a TON of ports on the Switch from the Wii U. I don’t think that’s a problem at all -- the Wii U was not a commercial success, and the Switch was, but the Wii U had really impressive titles. I’m glad that they’re being re-purposed for a system that’s selling so more people have the opportunity to play these games. But out of all the ports, THIS is the one I want the most. I never had a Wii U and I want to play this game bad enough that I’ve seriously considered buying the now defunct console for it...BUT even as something of a Nintendo collector, I don’t want to HAVE to. So Nintendo, want to do me a solid and bring this one over? I know I put the word “deluxe” in there, but that’s only because you’ve done that with basically every port that’s hit the Switch thus far and given that you’re...you, you’ll probably add a playable DK or Wario or Waluigi (This is why I love you, Nintendo -- you don’t just do ports, but you make new stuff for your ports too), but honestly, if we JUST get a more or less straight port, I’ll be more than happy.

THIRD Smash Bros DLC character reveal - It has been a WHILE since the first DLC fighter was revealed back in December. We’ll DEFINITELY see the second fighter revealed at E3, but maybe, just maybe, we’ll see the third as well. I have no evidence of this, but hey -- a girl can dream, am I right?

Stardew Valley Update - I heard the creator of Stardew Valley is working on an update to his hit game, and I am PUMPED to play it! Maybe E3 will be the showcase for the updates given how popular this indie title has become.

Kingdom Hearts...something - Once again, just so I don’t spread any misinformation I have NO evidence whatsoever about this (I’m just a Nintendo fan and a borderline casual one at that), but given how Nintendo has released so many Kingdom Hearts titles, maybe we’ll get something. Now that Nintendo and Square have gotten so buddy-buddy between Cloud being in Smash and the releases of the Play Station X’s Final Fantasy titles on the Switch, I don’t think this is too far out of left field to suggest. Now, this could come in the form of a side title for the Switch, Sora in Smash, or hell, maybe one of the compilation re-releases, but I just have a feeling that this could happen.

#nintendo #e3 #e3 2019 #mario #legend of zelda #ssbu #super smash bros ultimate #animal crossing #fire emblem #pokemon #stardew valley

4 notes · View notes

supertrainstationh · 2 years ago

Text

I’m retiring the console cam from my stream for the foreseeable future.

I don’t want to send the message that I’m trying to make a “statement” with some of the equipment I use, particularly when it comes to my Analogue systems.

I invested in Analogue’s Mega SG and Analogue Pocket because I had a personal interest in being able to share my thoughts and experiences with my favorite games with the cartridges I’ve been using since the early 90′s.

The thought that I could play my first video game, the Game Gear version of Sonic, with the same copy my dad handed me back in 91, is what inspired me to start streaming.

But using “fancy” equipment or owning original copies isn’t necessary to enjoy these games, I just use Analogue stuff because using original cartridges just what I find special and interesting when its practically possible to do so.

I never thought this weird “mystique” or “curiosity” would develop around Analogue’s after market FPGA systems, if I was trying to have them appear on camera in order to flex my gear, I wouldn’t also have featured far less interesting stuff like the NES Classic or the Wii U on camera as well.

There’s something else I could use my second webcam for anyway.

#analogue #retro gaming #streaming #stsh streams

0 notes

samuelryanlilly · 2 years ago

Text

Steam Deck First Impressions

For anyone unaware, the Steam Deck is a handheld gaming computer developed by Valve with the main purpose of getting their Steam library onto a portable platform. After the their commercial flop of the home console the Steam Machine, they basically shifted towards a number of solutions to make sure their next attempt to bring Steam games to more people would go a little smoother. Enter the Steam Deck, a device that's best described as a chunkier yet beefier Nintendo Switch that is specifically tailored to run Steam games quickly and conveniently. I've been using it for roughly a week and half now and wanted to share some of my first impressions.

The physical design is pretty good. While it's a bit big to be going in any pockets and a bit heavy too, it's ergonomically very fitting to the hands. There's enough to hold onto so that makes it feel a bit lighter and to be fair, it's not as big as the promotional materials lead me to believe. For size comparison, it's about as long as the Switch with the Hori Split Pad Pro joycons on, though still thicker. Or relatively similar in size and feel to the Wii U Gamepad, though notably heavier than that. I got the 512GB model but it does have a microSD card slot for external storage expansion. There's also a headphone jack and a USB-C port for charging and peripherals. I tested these out some with headphones and a headset in the jack. I used the USB port to connect a mouse, a keyboard, a controller, and a USB hub to do all three at once no problem. I even connected a USB-C to HDMI cable to use it on my TV in the meantime waiting for the official dock to come out (which has at the time of writing this). I didn't test anything with the bluetooth connection but most of the USB stuff I connected with a USB-A to USB-C adapter with no issues.

After a quick setup I was logged in and ready to start using the Deck. The SteamOS interface here is pretty smooth aside from a few pages that require touch input or a mouse to navigate. You can tweak some settings but the biggest ones are brightness and frames per second because these will make a noticeable difference in battery life. While it's only a 1280x720 16:10 LCD display, being able to play in 60fps with this much powerful hardware is definitely a jump up from a Switch in handheld mode. One of my absolute favorite things they've implemented on the Deck is the compatibility system. Fixed specs means they can test if games are compatible or not pretty easily. Anything with a green check mark is considered great on Deck with full compatibility. A yellow “i” means it'll work but some features may not be ideal for the Deck such as interface, text, and so on. There are unsupported titles which may work just fine but are considered too much of a hassle to get working, among others I'm sure just won't work. I haven't found any yet that failed to launch or run but I did have one poorly optimized indie game become more trouble than it was worth to fix. And then there are the question mark ones that aren't tested enough to categorize. The reason I love this compatibility system is because I can just open up the store or the library, filter for everything with a green check mark, download, and I'm playing. No need to hunt through specs and hope it'll magically work with my configuration.

It's also even easier to play because most games will pick a default template for the Steam Deck controls, but you can also change templates to other presets or custom community ones. Plus the trackpads, touch screen, and extra back buttons give you lots of extra inputs and ways to control games otherwise not well suited to controller inputs. The innards of this machine are pretty respectable as well. Sure, it's no match for a full gaming rig, but for a portable system it does an admirable job delivering great performance and visuals. It feels so nice to just turn on a game, have it work, and be able to play with controller-type controls. I mostly have been watching YouTube stuff on the side while playing and it's great. No need to setup at my computer and plug in all my stuff. I can just pick this up, turn it on, and go. You do need internet for the cloud sync or downloading games, though. Cloud sync actually lets you switch between that and your PC pretty seamlessly. You can also use the auto-suspend of putting the Deck to sleep to resume games later without closing or leaving the system on. So easy and convenient and capable.

Is the Steam Deck a Nintendo Switch killer? Probably not. The libraries don't really overlap a ton so if anything it's like a Switch companion because if you already like playing games that way then you'll probably be more enticed to get through your Steam backlog on the Deck. It could replace it if you used a Switch emulator but that's not likely very legal. And to be fair, while I know you can do tons more with the Steam Deck in terms of emulators and dual booting operating systems and all that, I really just got it to play Steam games. That's what it was made for. And in that regard I think it excels incredibly well. It's a much cheaper alternative to gaming laptop for the ease of portable PC gaming. It's easier to pick up and play at a moments notice to relax than on a PC too. It can play a lot more games with more options and content than modern consoles and handhelds as well. And for anyone on the fence about which way to lean between console and PC, this comes in not only as a good midpoint experience, but also a midpoint price. It's just so impressive and it really does exactly what I've wanted for my Steam games for the longest time. It gives me the ability to spend less time troubleshooting and more time actually playing. If you think you'll like the Steam Deck already, you probably will. Go for it. It's worth it. But we'll see how it holds up past these first impressions as time goes on. I'll keep ya posted. Until then, thanks for listening to me ramble. It's just really nice to still find reasons to be excited about gaming.

VIDEO: https://youtu.be/uDrC7yvKnyg

#SteamDeck FirstImpressions Steam Valve PortableGaming HandheldGaming PCGaming SamLilly SamuelLilly SamuelRyanLilly NintendoSwitch

0 notes

megamoses · 7 years ago

Text

Backblog #5 - Mendel Palace (NES)

The game I played this time, which like last time was a game I previously had moved on from, was Mendel Palace (Quinty in the original Japanese release) by Game Freak. It is an action-puzzle game published in Japan by Namco on June 27, 1989 for the Famicom and in North America by Hudson Soft on October 12, 1990 for the Nintendo Entertainment System. It was later ported to the Wii U Virtual Console in Japan only.

The game is the debut release of future Pokémon creator, Game Freak. Prior to this entry into the video development industry, Game Freak was simply the name of Satoshi Tajiri and Ken Sugimori's self-published video game fanzine, which began running in March of 1983. The game was designed by Tajiri and features art by Sugimori. The American version, of course, takes the "angry eyebrows Kirby” approach and ditches the cute Sugimori art in favor of designs with more attitude (seen in the title screen above and on the American box art), which look just terrible.

The plot, especially in the American version, is pretty bare bones, as could be expected from an NES action game. The plot, which can be read in the manual, is your standard rescue-the-princess kind of story. The hero, Bon-Bon, must rescue Princess Candy after her dolls come to life, cast her into an eternal sleep, and cart her off to the titular Mendel Palace. The Japanese version provides a bit more detail and whimsy.

In this version, the characters all live in a country of dolls. The protagonist is named Carton (with the second player character being named Parton!) and the damsel is Jenny. The plot to capture Jenny is orchestrated by Carton’s sorceress younger sister, the titular Quinty. After Carton and Jenny fall in love, Quinty becomes jealous of the attention she is receiving and manages to convince her and Carton’s three older brothers to kidnap her, who comply with the hopes that Quinty will pick one of them as a favorite. I don't think Quinty or the brothers are ever named in any of the American material. Maybe Quinty's American name is Mendel? I guess? Whatever, I'll be using the Japanese names because I like them better anyway.

In any case, when the game starts you off on a map screen, allowing you to play through the eight dollhouses surrounding the central palace in any order. Upon entering any of the dollhouses, the objective is to defeat all of the dolls inside by flipping tiles in order to slide them into the walls. In addition to regular tiles, there are also others, such as star tiles, which act as coins and give you an extra life when you collect 100; shockwave tiles, which flip all other tiles in all four cardinal directions; and the bane of my fucking existence, the portal tiles, which spawn in another enemy whenever they appear.

Each of the initial eight dollhouses feature a unique type of doll, posing various levels of challenge. The easiest ones are the walkmen, which just pursue the player and, in later stages, split into two smaller versions if they are slid without them hitting a wall. They aren't even really good at pursuing the player, since they cannot walk into you if you stop moving. The others are much more challenging, such as the jumpers which cannot be slid while they are mid-jump, the mimics which move when you move and flip tiles at the same time you do, or the swimmers which quickly swim across the room and flip tiles behind them as they go. Each dollhouse contains ten rooms, the tenth of which usually contains a boss encounter (save for the walkmen dollhouse).

The bosses of the initial eight dollhouses are either extremely powered up versions of the dolls in the dollhouse or a fight with one of the brothers (though in the American release, some of the boss fights against the brothers are replaced with fights against Quinty). The brothers simply hop over you and can typically be baited into hopping next to a wall where you can easily defeat them. Quinty will use her magic to turn you into a doll, which allows her to slide you into walls to defeat you. But if she turns you into a powerful type of doll such as a sumo wrestler, who can flip rows of tiles, you can turn this against her.

The central palace (Mendel Palace in the North American version) contains all eight types of dolls and ends with a fight with one of the brothers followed by a cutscene of Quinty whisking you away to her true palace in the clouds. The palace in sky contains a ninth type of doll and ends with one last brother fight followed by a final battle against Quinty. As mentioned before, in the Japanese version you only fight the brothers in the dollhouses, so in this version, this is the only time you fight her.

So, as you can see the game has a lot of different elements that it plays with. Some of them seem pretty simple at first, but it quickly ratchets up the difficulty in each area with different tile configurations for each room. A lot of the most difficult rooms feature large amounts of portal tiles, which spawn in new enemies as you defeat them, forcing you to think of ways to quickly get rid of them. Other rooms will simply box you in with large amounts of block tiles which block your path or limit your options with large amounts of bolted tiles which you cannot flip.

However, a lot of this difficulty is sidestepped by the fact that you have infinite continues. This allowed me to hammer through the game pretty quickly. But now that I've beaten it and figured out strategies for a lot of the tougher points by just bashing my head into them I can see myself minimizing the continues with practice. The game also has a secret Extra Palace mode which can be accessed by holding Start + Select and then resetting your system and consists of a linear set of 100 new, more difficult levels. If I ever come back to this game it will be to play the extra mode.

Graphically, all of the sprites and animations in the game are very cute, which of course goes with Sugimori's art very well and clashes pretty badly with the North American art. Quinty in particular has a really cute design, so I felt kind of bad during the ending because she is just crying in the corner of the room while Carton and Jenny have their little moment. The music by Junichi Masuda is very catchy and reminescent of his later work with the Pokémon series. A friend of mine pointed out while I was streaming the game that the opening of the boss battle theme sounds like it could be the fanfare that plays during the transition into a wild Pokémon encounter.

So, even though I pretty much charged through this game continues blazing, I ended up enjoying it. I liked the cute style and all of the twists it threw in to the relatively simple formula. The game also has co-op multiplayer which might be another reason to revisit it, on top of the extra mode. I should point out that another new thing I did while playing this game was used the Retro Achievements website via the RetroArch multi-system emulator, which I plan to do for other games in the future where possible. Next time I'll be playing the original Fire Emblem by Intelligent Systems. Until then, take it easy~

#text post #backblog #backlog #backloggery #video games #mendel palace #quinty #game freak #hudson soft #namco #nintendo entertainment system #famicom #puzzle #action-puzzle

6 notes · View notes

aretiredgamer · 4 years ago

Photo

Nintendo + HDMI: A How-To

First off I wanted to thank everyone who got me over the hump and to well over 100 YouTube subscribers!!! The reason why this is important is because I will have custom URL on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/ARetiredGamer (link will go live on 08/31/20). So thank you again!

Ok, so I thought I could give you a look into my living room setup. I have a 55in Sony LED 4K TV. Which is awesome for television and movies, but not awesome for classic game consoles. In fact, there was no way at all to hook many of my systems, which do not natively use HDMI. I figure a lot you have this same issue, so I thought I would walk you through how I got them up and running.

Nintendo Entertainment System (Top loader): This version of the NES is great because it loads from the top. No more blinking light issue when the pins wear out. However, it only has RF hookup. I had to get my system custom modded for HDMI. I used a guy off eBay which I can’t say enough good things about. You send him your system and sends it back all modded. I also recommend you pay extra for the recap service (changes out the batteries in the system, which are prone to fail after all these years. But after hes done, your NES will have a HDMI output that looks professionally done. And get this, it will output in 1080p! Check him out here: Pink Skeleton Gaming

Super Nintendo (SNES Mini/Jr): I also have the second version of the SNES, which is great due to its smaller size, but again has a issue. This time, Nintendo stripped the RGB ability of the unit. So to get this going on a modern TV you actually need to do two things. The first is an RGB mod. My buddy Wes at RetroFixes.com took care of this for me. You send him your system and it comes back with the ability to do RGB. This is important because none of the HDMI converters work without RGB and there’s no mod for the system to do HDMI right out the back, like with the NES. Again, I’d recommend the recap service, as well. After you have an RGB-modded system, I HIGHLY, recommend a converter out of the United Kingdom called RAD2X. It takes the RGB signal and converts it to HDMI output. There are cheaper options but trust me they don’t look nearly as good as the RAD2X. Don’t go cheap, you want it to look right! Ok so here are the links: RetroFixes RGB Mod/ RAD2X Converter

Nintendo 64: There are plenty of HDMI converter options when it comes to the N64 but I have had a great experience with the EON Super 64. It has a button right on it that does smoothing, which really helps with the blocky vector graphics of the N64. In addition, it just looks so natural when hooked into the system. Snaps right into the back and you are good to go. Playing 4 player Mario Kart 64 on a large flat screen is just incredible. I did find that controller extensions helped with the N64 controllers, that way you can sit on a couch or chair further away from the TV. Here’s the link to the converter I used: EON Super 64

Nintendo GameCube: After having a great experience with the Super 64, I went with the EON option for the GameCube as well. I acknowledge the EON products are expensive, but I really enjoy how they are just plug and play. They have great build quality and look like they belong on the back of the system. The colors and plastics match and they don’t fall out of come loose. This converter for the GameCube does progressive scan 480p and makes GC games look incredible. I highly recommend it: EON GCHD MKII

Nintendo Wii: I love the Wii and there are cheap HDMI converters out there, but for my use, I put the original Wii in my son’s bedroom with the CRT TV, and instead used a Wii U in the living room since it has HDMI output. The Wii U will play all Wii games and even use the Wiimotes if you’d like. The Wii U is a greatly underappreciated system. My kids love the Wii U gamepad. The Wii U can be had cheap these days, so go get one.

I hope this info helps some of you out there. I think with my next video I’d like to take you through some of my current collection and have my kids show you their favorite game right now. I’m sure one of them will pick Super Mario 3D World (Wii U) which seems to be on the TV 24/7 these days. Also, a Renegade (NES) review is still in the works. Thank you so much for following along, take care!

#aretiredgamer #arg #aboyandhisblog #nintendo #hdmi #mods #pinkskeletongaming #retrofixes #rad2x #eon #gchd #mkii

0 notes

greyliliy · 4 years ago

Text

Paper Mario: The Origami King

I loved Paper Mario: The Origami King. A lot. It's my first Paper Mario game and it is an understatement to say that I adored it. Enough so that I want to write a full review on my thoughts for the entire game. o-o It’s been so long since I’ve felt the need to do that and it feels good. It feels so good. T-T

So let’s do this. :D This is going to be a long one, and I’ll probably put the cut right before I start talking about individual chapters. Hopefully before that there are no major spoilers, but afterwards its’ a free for all discussion. So spoilers will be present! :D

A Brief History of my Relationship With Paper Mario

I saw an Arlo video talking about it when I was randomly browsing videos on his channel (I found him for something else believe or not) and I think that was the first time I even realized this franchise existed. Lol. (Which is funny because I have a Wii U and Paper Mario: Color Splash was like the last big game for that console).

I was curious so I browsed the Paper Mario Reddit and watched his Color Splash reviews and got interested in the series.

I ended starting to watch play throughs of Thousand Year Door (where I am mostly through the game? The players just finished the area where you get Vivian) and Color Splash (where I am halfway through the game maybe?).

My opinion on both games: They both look fine. TYYD has it’s good points. Color Splash has its good points. I feel like I would be irritated by random battles in both of them, no matter the combat methods. Lol.

But honestly I leaned more toward Color Splash because I love the Paper Aesthetic. Good story + Paper Themed World = My jam.

Which means that first Origami King trailer smacked me in the face because it looked like I’d be getting both. I preordered the game as soon as I saw the trailer and it did not disappoint. Lol.

General Stuff

The Good: The characters! I adored all of them. Every character, whether generic minion or unique, was bursting with fun dialogue and moments that made me smile. Olivia was precious. I want an Origami Olly to put in my room (I love him so much) and the Legion of Stationary was surprisingly fleshed out. They were easily my favorite bosses in the game, which was a surprise after all the teasing they got in the trailers. Lol.

Plus: LUIGI. Oh my gosh. He’s amazing in this game. XD

The Music doesn’t need my praise. Everyone has praised the music in this game and it deserves it. Every. Single. Track. Is the greatest and I love this soundtrack. I’m listening to it right now (Where can I buy this Nintendo. TELL ME).

I also really enjoyed the battles. It had a nice blend of Turn Based & Overworld Action, keeping things mixed up and fresh. I wasn’t great at some of the combat (Which I’ll talk about below in the chapter by chapter section) but the game makes stuff easier if you fail too much...which I appreciated. LOL.

Oh. And the Confetti thing. I liked it. Filling holes with confetti was satisfying in a nice completionism way. It was kinda soothing, too, and it was nice to physically repair the world in addition to trying to save it in general.

The Critique: The game needed more time with Olly. I’m not just saying that as someone who loved him, I’m saying it as a story miss. We see Olly at the beginning. And we see him for like two seconds at a time between chapters to half-handedly ask Olivia to join him, and then...the final boss fight. One or two cut-away scenes showing what Olly and Peach were doing between the Streamer Banners would have been great and done wonders for fleshing out the story.

The Combat: Opinions on this have been highly mixed. Specifically, I have noticed a large crowd saying the combat is too easy; they line everything up on the first turn and kill everything on the first turn and then they’re drowning in coins so there’s no point to battle.

And then there’s Me: I rarely got the puzzle right on the first turn, which means I didn't get the bonus coins, and I usually burned through weapons and faster since I didn’t get the “Great Line Up!” on the first turn bonus. So I was...constantly fight enemies for coins (Stuff gets expensive in this game) and using them to get help from the Toads.

So when I got puzzles right on the first turn, I felt super accomplished. Lol. I did eventually get better at them (and used one of the help items from the Battle Toad) and was beating them in one turn 60% of the time. So while I really enjoyed the puzzle turn-based battles, I can see how some would get tired and bored of them.

I think a difficulty setting might fix the wildly different experiences with this. The puzzles get much tricker later, so if you’re solving even those too fast--the game could have given you harder stuff to solve.

Though it is sort of funny. If you do well at puzzles, you get a ton of extra bonus coins. But if you’re good at the puzzles, you don’t need those coins since coins are mostly spent on “Getting help for puzzles.” Which the people who are bad at puzzles need but don’t get...fun times.

Boss battles, however, were mostly scripted and I’ll talk about those in detail in the spoiler section below. XD

The Game

Okay! Let’s get into the meat and talk about each Streamer Section individually. o-o Whoooooooo. I’m glad the Game8 Wiki has a nice layout for me to reference. XD

Prologue

This is when I knew I was going to love the game. Luigi is adorable. Origami Peach is every bit as creepy as the trailer promised. And Olly stealing the castle was great. :D

The Red Streamer

This entire streamer is a tutorial. I can see how that could get irritating if you don’t like Olivia holding you hand (and I have seen many complain about it), but this is the only chapter where she does that.

Which I understand. Every streamer follows the same sort of pattern (explore two or more themed areas to open up a path to a temple, beat a temple, beat a Vellumental, go clear the boss building/area, fight the Stationary Boss). Giving the audience a clear how-to guide to get through an entire Streamer Chapter isn’t the worst.

Plus Olivia is adorable and I used X to talk to her all the time, whether I needed the hint or not. Lol.

Whispering Woods

The mini story with the trees and the the little Toad camp ground are cute. I was surprised that I had to back track here later in the game a few times. XD

Toad Town

The hub world! Here you can find the Museum (which has all the fast travel pipes), the Battle Practice area (which if you visit 3x will give you items to make the Ring battles easier), and the shop (please remember to actually use your membership card you get from here and don’t be like me who paid 24,000 coins in the late game for a collectible when I could have had it HALF OFF but I forgot to equip the membership card).

It also features: A cool Graffiti area I need to visit again because I heard it gets more art as you progress through the game, many Macho Gumbas to beat, the Docks, a Toad that’ll tell you what Power Up Hearts you are missing, more fast travel options, and a great scene with Luigi that kick-starts his sub-story as he hunts for Princess Peach’s Castle Key.

Picnic Road & Overlook Mountain

So many hidden Toads. Everywhere. XD It’s a very lovely area, but again, since this is a tutorial-ish Streamer there isn’t much there aside from enemies to practice fighting and a lot of examples of how Toads hide (including in the ground, in walls, as folded origami, on the other end of small over world puzzles, etc.)

Earth Elemental Temple & Fight

I loved the lead up to this Temple. The fake Koopa one with the small tour boxes was so great. It was funny, cute, and I loved that the fake Temple Tour ended with a real Temple.

The fight was easy (again...tutorial streamer) but I still messed up a few times. Lol. It took me a while to get the hang of the boss rings (and I kid you not, it was like five streamers in before I realized you could move the boss ring panels front and back in addition to rotating the rings).

Olivia turning into a Vellumental was a huge surprise. I’m not sure how I feel about it as a whole, but they use her transforming powers the entire game, so it’s thematically appropriate.

Overlook Tower & Colored Pencils

Fighting your way up the tower to get to the boss was fun. I loved the elevator bits & the drawings everywhere (Colored Pencils drew Olly!!!).

It was a very nice introduction to the future “Boss Building before the Fight” that you’ll face in every Streamer.

Also Colored Pencils having a personality was such a delight that I couldn’t help but grin. Legit, the Legion of Stationary are some of my favorite characters and I’m amazing at how much life and personality they shoved into these office supplies.

I’m sad they die afterwards though. T-T

But with the Red Streamer done, the game stops holding your hand and the game really gets going. :P

The Blue Streamer

One word: Bobby.

It’s fun having the second world be your favorite in the game. Lol. But it just hit all the right beats and made a great impact.

Autumn Mountain

Very pretty area. Lets you get to know Bob-omb (aka “Bobby” as Olivia likes to call him) and his personality as you explore a gorgeous, autumn area. Lots of warm colors and great music tracks. It had a few frustrating areas with the stupid falling Chestnuts (oh my gosh how long did it take me to figure out I needed to hit the wall to break it lol), but overall a good area.

Water Vellumental

I cheated on the slide puzzles. I’ll admit it. I paid the coins to have the Temple solve its own puzzles. LOL.

Years of playing Zelda made me terrified of a Water based Temple but it wasn’t that bad aside from the slide puzzles. A very lovely temple with a great design.

The boss fight was one of the easier ones, but I was still getting the hang of figuring out the pathing for boss fights so it took me a while to figure out how to execute the things I wanted to do (I figured out early I had to use Olivia’s Earth Vellumental form to avoid the Water Attack, but I wasn’t so good at lining u the On Button and the Magic Circles to do it lol).

Eddy River

Lord this was annoying. I missed one of the Holes to fill with confetti and that was the moment were I was like “I will never 100% this game” because the thought of going down that river again made me go “No.” XD

Shogun Studios

I loved running around this amusement park. There were puzzles and character interactions everywhere. (So many item trades between NPCs lol) and the Ninja Mansion was fun. Even if I had to do it twice because I missed Luigi the first time around...

Big Sho’ Theatre & Rubber Band

This was amazing.

Riding the up the tower in the audience seats. The captured Toad audience. The paper Macho actors. The different stage plays. Rubber Band yelling in the background before showing up as the Diva they are.

The Rubber Band fight was also a blast. I figured out the trick immediately and had a great time wrecking that boss. XD

It was fun. The Rubber Band Tower & Fight are easily my 2nd favorite Boss Area and Fight in the game.

Sweetpaper Valley to Breezy Tunnel

I know this area is technically part of the Yellow Streamer, but it feels like an interlude section, so I’m putting it in its own section.

I will admit, I had this part of the game spoiled for me. I knew about what happened to Bobby and I was like “Really. The game’s going to go there.”

And it did.

When you get to the Valley, Olly drops a bolder on Olivia and Bobby’s like “I know how to fix this.”

He takes you on an awesome adventure through the Princess Peach Cruise Ship that involves an incredible Macho Battle on the boat and the retrieval of a special item, and then when you get back...

Bob-omb saves Olivia.

The death of Bobby itself wasn’t the sad part. Honestly it was a little funny because the bolder explodes into a bunch of confetti that Mario picks up as he walks through it.

The sad part is Olivia.

When she realizes what happened to Bobby and runs away. Ug. Sitting with her in the dark as she sobs. Her grief. It’s so sad in the best way. And then Bobby! Bobby tells you to cheer her up and man.

That tiny “That’s not fair” she says to Mario when he makes her laugh? That’s the spot that got me teary eyed for the first time in the game.

It’s so good and it solidified this game as an all time favorite. Even if the rest of the game was horrible, it can’t take that scene away.

The Yellow Streamer

The. Music. This area has my favorite music. Every track is such a jazzy, awesome beat and I could hang out in the Snif City Hotel Pool Room all day to listen to that song. XD

Scorching Dessert & Snif City

Driving through the Desert areas felt a little like padding since you had to keep backtracking everywhere, but it wasn’t nearly as bad as the Purple Streamer later, so in hindsight it’s less annoying. Lol.

Snif City has a fun design and I loved exploring it, along with the desert area. The Luigi cameo was pretty fun (as was the intentional game over I triggered to see the animation lol).

Professor Toad is a fun partner character, though I will admit I got stuck for a while because I didn’t realize you could use him to dig in spots that weren’t glowing (oops).

Olivia singing to raise the temple was a treat.

The Fire Vellumental

This temple is how I found out the game makes stuff easier if you fail too many times. There was a jumping area where you have to only jump on blocks that light up and I failed so many times it dropped all the blocks you couldn’t jump on. Uh. Oops. XD

The Fire Vellumental has my favorite design. It’s basically Moltres and Olivia looks awesome as a fire bird.

The Temple of Shrooms and Hole Punch

This might be my favorite Stationary Lair & Fight. The temple was great to explore. The Faceless Toads were fun and creepy. And oh my gosh the DJ dance room caught me so off guard I couldn't help but laugh.

Great music. Great Boss.

The fact he wouldn’t come out unless everyone was partying was fantastic. The fight itself was also pretty fun with the guy hole-punching Mario and having to find your pieces on the grid. The Hole Punch’s theme “Disco Devil” is also so good I can’t take it. Who gave a song a right to be that catchy?

I loved every second of this temple & fight.

Captain T.Ode

And then of course everything ends with Professor Toad finding the Toad he was looking for, finishing out his mini story arc. And using your fire powers to free him (And after the Shangri-Spa Toads worked so hard, too!! Lol).

The Purple Streamer

This is the only area of the game I didn’t like. It had a few good moments (Luigi and the Mushroom Island, a few of the puzzles islands) but overall I wanted to get through it as fast as possible and almost rage quit at one point.

The only saving grace was the ending with the Stationary Boss.

The Great Sea

It took me way too long to realize I had to take the boat out into the mist before it would prompt Captain T.Ode getting his submarine. WAY TOO LONG. I was sailing around aimlessly and screaming in the Museum wondering why the guy didn’t come get the Marino yet for like a solid thirty minutes.

Everything about this area was slow. Swimming from Island to Island. The loading screens between the Submarine sections. The small Island puzzles.

Just. Ug.

And of course when I find out I can upgrade the boat to go faster I didn’t have enough coins. So I had to go to another area to fight baddies to get coins and come back. XD

Even meeting Olly’s creator on an island (with a great Luigi sequence) was a disappointment. It was so short and all we really learned was that Olly is the one who made Olivia (which makes him more her Dad than her Brother...which I have talked bout before but will let the topic drop here for now). And that was IT.

Give me a flashback to Olly being made. Give me more of a hint to what the Origami Maker wrote to make the kid go nuts. Just. Something. Anything! *throws hands in the air*

The Ice Vellumental

This temple was annoying. The sliding ice puzzles were just...no. They aren’t actually that bad. I was just really burned out from all the sailing when I got to this temple and was in a bad mood. I’ll be fair--the temple itself was fine.

(Except for one area where you had to climb the stairs while dodging falling boulders and I kept messing up my jumps and having to do it over and ARRRGH).

BUT THE BEAR.

I hate the bear. I had my first game over with the bear. I nearly rage Quit with the bear. And I beat him EVENTUALLY with 10 HP and because the game had pity on me and stuck the 1000 Arms Technique panel on the outer row.

I was fine up until the “Memorize the path and recreate it” section. The path would look easy. I’d remember where it was. But then the rings would get shuffled and I could not recreate the path for the life of me. I tried it so many times. I failed so many times.

*stares into the distance*

I watched a Youtube Tutorial that beat that boss in five minutes. It took me like an hour. There is a special type of frustration that comes from “I know what I need to do and I know the trick but I can’t seem to make it work.”

The Three Trials

I paid coins to make these easier. I was so done with everything by that point, that failing the stupid Strength Trial twice in a row was enough to just. End me. XD

The Sea Tower and Tape

A shining light in a horrible Streamer. Lol. The Tower was fun to climb and I got excited for the Tape boss.

Who did not disappoint.

His greaser Punk personality and calling Olly “Boss” was the first thing that made me really grin this entire streamer. Even Tape’s fight gimmick taping the panels down was almost a relief and a much easier fight than the Ice Vellumental.

I loved the Tape fight. XD

The Green Streamer

Aka “Kamek is awesome and bless the Bowser Minions.”

Shangri-Spa

I liked this area more than I thought I would. When I first got there and saw the theme of Angel Toads I was like “Why” and then I saw Bower’s fallen Castle, met all the minions paying off their debt cleaning, and Olivia thought Kamek was a housekeeper.

Bless all of it.

And then Bowser Jr. gets cut into pieces by a pair of scissors and it was like “Oh, shit.”

You fix him of course, but the implications were like “Dude, those scissors killed Bowser Jr.” I honestly think one of the reasons they leaned so much harder into the “paper” aesthetic was to get away with more violence/darker content. The entire Scissors lair and fight is the perfect example. It sort of follows TV and Cartoon logic - if it’s not human, you can get away with a LOT more violence (like robots getting ripped apart or derezzing characters in Tron).

It’s not actual gore, but if you think about what it symbolizes, it really hits you (and why Mario Game Overs getting cut in half instead of reviving with his Green Mushroom).

You get a small break after that exploring all the Spas and their mini puzzles to fix Bowser Jr. The Jungle Area is the longest of which and has some nice scripted Game Overs that are fun to trigger and Olivia, Kamek, and Bowser Jr. have a good “Pick me!” scenario that gets repeated.

The boss of his area is also Macho Chain Chomp which is a win in my book because Chain Chomp is Best Mario Baddie.

(I love Chain Chomps. I have a Chain Chompette on my Keychain.)

Bowser’s Castle & Scissors

I noticed a lot of people saying Scissors was their favorite Stationary Boss and I didn’t quite get why until this Castle & Fight. He’s not knocking Hole Punch out of the way on my own list (Seriously that Boss fight music), but he is up there on the “Dude” factor.

Scissors is creepy. He is a literal sadist who tortures everyone he gets his hand on. His shadow paper minions are creepy and have cool Ring Battles.

The mutilated minions he used to make up a paper Macho Buzzy Beetle was dark if you thought about it too long - but it was a great Kamek moment. XD

Scissors himself had a great “I want a challenge!” attitude and his fight was intense.

I also screwed up and broke the blade guard on the first turn and uh. I died very quickly. XD That note that says “DO NOT BREAK THE GUARD” wasn’t kidding. I’m not super at timing action commands, so uh, jumping over the blades didn’t work out so well (especially when Scissors started cheating...).

Second time went much better. I figured out how to time attacks to avoid hitting his guard. I got to see the awesome cut scene where he took the guard off. I actually dodged a hit. I had fun. XD

And then Bowser enters the scene for the final areas of the game. Whoooo!

Finale

Bowers’ Air Ship appearance was epic. Very cinematic and I loved how he was like “I might use this against you later.”

Mario and Bowser team ups never fail to disappoint, honestly.

The air battle was messed up.

After that entire scene with Bobby in the Blue Streamer...I am now firing Bob-ombs at planes freely and in mass numbers because I have bad aim. I just. I don’t know if I want to laugh or cry. XD

The crash landing and the race out of the volcano were fun, though.

Peach’s Castle & Olly’s Castle

Luigi finally brought us the right key. I haven’t talked about Luigi much, but every single one of his appearances brought a smile with them. I loved how he had a key in every chapter like clockwork, and even now, he came through.

Bowser talking about Luigi was also pretty great. XD

But most importantly:

I love Olly. His few appearances here desperately made me wish there had been more of him earlier. He’s a dramatic little brat and I want to hug him.

The transformation of Peach’s Castle to Olly’s Origami one? Amazing. One of my favorite cut scenes in the game.

Fighting the Origami Castle itself? Eh. Aside from the great music tracks, it was a little tedious. It lacked the cool levels of the earlier Boss Areas and was mostly “use 1000 folding arms” to progress. I didn’t hate the area, but it was a bit of a let down.

Stapler was nice though. He was a good dog. That I crushed in combat. o-o

King Olly

His throne room covered in Paper Cranes is my favorite designed room & man, I wish I remembered to take more screen shots. It was so creepy and so dark and it looked so good with this tiny paper King sitting alone next to an empty throne since Olivia “Betrayed” him.

I loved how his castle still had Olivia everywhere. Like they were meant to be together, but still separated. So good. T-T

The Princess Peach reveal was also so creepy and great.

But also made me wish for more cut scenes. Why did Olly want to make her into the wall? Why did he want her quiet? Did she annoy him? Or What? Tell me, game. Tell me!

Aesthetically it made the room look perfect though as his creepy little room. XD

As far as Olly's motivations go...I have mixed feelings. On the one hand, yes, it’s a little shallow. “A Toad wrote on me so now I’m going to destroy all flat paper beings and make them origami!” is sure...a thing. But I’m also a fan of Evil Characters that are just...evil. Maybe Olly really did just want to make everything Origami so they were like him. He was the first “Living” Origami creature and maybe he was just lonely. That’s why he made Olivia and wanted everyone to be like him.

But that’s also reading into it...and makes me want to write a fanfic exploring it, but this is a review. XD

I’m fine with “Olly was looking for any excuse to go nuts and take over the world and the writing will just have to do.” Even if it does make his little “I guess I lost so now I’m redeemed” moment feel forced. XD

The Fights

The Bowser Origami Sumo vs Giant Olly thing was...okay. I get what they were going for, but it kinda missed the mark with me.

The Actual Olly fight? Oh lord. I had to do it like 10 times.

I failed the Action commands...a lot. Which meant a lot of game overs since I went into the fight with like 40 health (I may or may not be bad at jumping and the Sumo fight throwing stars may or may not have wrecked my health) and didn’t doge Olly's attacks.

Thankfully the game made the ring puzzle easier each time so I could actually finish it.

And it only took me 4 times to get the action commands right? XD Something like that.

I DID IT which is the point.

(This is a case of “If I was better at gaming I would have loved the fight” but my poor skills made it longer and more tedious than it should have been - only’s awesome speech at the beginning loses its bite after the fourth time hearing it.)

The Final Cut Scene

Olivia saying Goodby to Olly had me teary eyed. Her holding his little hand. Reading the message their creator left. Olly’s request for her to make him into the last crane.

Olivia’s freaking WISH. Knowing that She, herself, was one of Olly’s creations.

The cut scene was beautiful. The cranes. The light. The castles’ return.

The party at the end. The two little empty thrones.

I was sniffing through the (very well done and great to watch) credits.

Olivia was such a good girl and I miss her and Olly so much.

This ending was the perfect example of “Wouldn’t change it because it made me sad in a good way but Bless Fanfics and their “Everyone Lives” alternate universes.”

THE END

The game had a few hiccups but overall? I loved it. I can very easily see how “Your first Paper Mario is your favorite” is going to hold true. Wonderful game.

I might have to actually go back and try to 100% the game to get that extra ending I’ve seen spoiled.

#Paper Mario #Paper Mario The Origami King #Nintendo #I loved this game.#I could talk about all of it even more #but this is the condensed version.#Review #Long Post

1 note · View note

diaryofanangryasianguy · 7 years ago

Note

Hey, sib! Not really anything to do with like, Asian news, but I'm planning on picking up a copy of Resident Evil Revelations Collection for my Nintendo Switch soon, so I wonder if you've ever played it before! I've never played it myself, so I'm kinda excited, and most people seem to like it well enough from the reviews I've seen, but I wanna know your thoughts on it if you played it before!

Hey sib!

It’s cool, not everything has to be Asian news related here lol. Don’t even get me started on the RE REV series…

RE REV1 is my all-time favorite Resident Evil game (RE4 coming in second). I have the 3DS version, the Wii-U version, and I kind of thought about getting the Switch version but meh. I think I’m going too overboard with it lol.

Anyhow, setting-wise: it takes place predominately on a large, creepy ship. You’ll also get to visit a snowy area and whatnot but the overall setting isn’t too diverse as you’re mostly on the ship. It’s very tight space-wise, so it’s great if you like the horror aspect, not so great if you’re claustrophobic. But if you’re a RE fan and miss the horror, this game definitely brings it back. The story itself takes place in-between RE4 and RE5. All I can say is that the first boss, and you’ll know what I’m talking about when you HEAR it and see it, is hard as hell. Try to use your partner as fodder otherwise, you’ll probably die a million times until you look up how to beat it very cheaply. I did lmao. The boss itself is cheap - it’s scary, tanky as hell, fast, and can one-shot you.

As for RE REV2…very good RE game, takes place after RE5. The difficulty spike, especially in the beginning is notably much more difficult than other RE games. Of course it depends on your settings but I always play at Normal or higher. If you play on Normal, you’ll die many times in the beginning if you don’t run. I personally like to stay and kill everything so lol. The game itself is broken into episodes that kind of go back and forth but it all makes sense the more you progress. I love it. What really stood out for me in REV2 is the amount of character bonding between all 4 characters that you’ll get to use. And Raid Mode for REV2 is so fun. REV1′s Raid Mode is pretty fun too - spent well over 100 hours on each game’s Raid Modes. Raid Mode is like a RE Mercenaries type game that has some RPG elements to it. It’s an entire game in itself.

Sorry I’m kind of rambling on because I love these two games so much. But the added feature for the Switch, I believe, is that you get to physically control your gun aiming and knife slashing with the mini Switch controllers. When it comes to the main RE installments, I believe RE4 Wii version was the only one that had this feature. All I can say is that it completely changes the game. Once you play an RE game where you get so much free control over how you play, you’re not gonna wanna go back to playing them on Playstation consoles lol.

TL;DR - Buy the damn game. It’s worth it especially if you haven’t already played it lmao.

Angry Asian Guy

#anon #ask #long reads #resident evil

8 notes · View notes

lunchbag-pokemon · 7 years ago

Text

Lunchbag Pokedex Volume 2

9 months later from my official start date of February 27th 2017, I have progressed to finishing 88 out of the original 151 pokemon.

Since there was at least 2 months or so where I was not drawing pokemon lunchbags, this averages out to me drawing around 12 pokemon a month, or 3 pokemon a week, which is kinda not great. I should be doing 4-5 pokemon most weeks, but issues happen, kids get in trouble and I have had to buy lunch bags and new marker sets a few times.

I definitely have been getting better at drawing pokemon after 9 months of this, but I think I might need to drop the sharpie thing. These new lunchbags soak up sharpie like its going out of style, so I cannot get quite as much detail as I did with some of the earlier ones (done with standard crayola kids markers) I have done a few pokemon roughs in pencils before inking them in with markets, which helps a lot, but I really just don’t find myself always having time to do that every day.

This edition of the Lunchbag Pokedex is going to be #035-073, ending in Tentacruel

For previous pokemon, see Volume 1 of the Lunchbag Pokedex.

035 Clefairy - It’s pink. My daughter loves pink. 036 Clefable - I did this one in highlighter, it’s colors really pop because of it

037 Vulpix - One of my daughter’s favorites, I tried to get this one done decently. I attempted an alolan Vulpix as well, but the anatomy turned out wonky so I just tossed it. Benefits of doing a drawing a night or two ahead of time. 038 Ninetails - This one came out as one of the best of the spring.

039 Jigglypuff - my markers were misplaced for a few days here, which is unfortunate, because I think they came out decently. 040 Wigglytuff

041 Zubat - this was done before summer, and was my last ‘mon for months 042 Golbat - first pokemon done after the summer ended, came out okay. My daughter first started questioning why I wasn’t doing evolutions (like crobat) that she knew existed, and I had to explain to her that I was only doing gen 1 pokemon? Why she asks? Because the thought of eventually doing all 807 is just beyond my ability to comprehend. Gen 1 is already a pretty big goal, equating to me drawing at least one pokemon every other day or so for a year.

043 Oddish - This evolutionary line is one of my daughter’s favorites? 044 Gloom - She dressed up as a Gloom for halloween last year, and my wife also has made her a custom crocheted gloom plush here 045 Vileplume - Vileplume/Gloom and Sylveon all are among her favorites.

046 Paras - always thought the whole parasitical pokemon concept was a bit dark for a game/TV show aimed at like 10 year olds. Maybe thats just me. 047 Parasect - this dude was super rushed, but it came out okay.

048 Venonat - this one was drawn LAST november, before I started the blog. To save on time I have been reposting old things to serve as some contrast to how I am drawing now. I wasn’t even using color back then, but my daughter loved little lunch bag drawings. I loved that she couldn’t lose another lunchbox. 049 Venomoth - Drawn 9 months later, I started using color, and things in general have improved quite a bit. At least I think so.

050 Diglett - This was a perfect pokemon to draw in just a few minutes before the bus came to pick up my kid. I got lucky. 051 Dugtrio (Alola Forme) - My daughter is really interested in alola formes, so this is the second one I drew her. The first was a regular and alolan sandshrew this trio is fabulous. Really it is.

052 Meowth - This guy was rushed, and done in 5min, but looks way better than that poor malformed persian 053 Persian - Sometimes I draw straight from Ken Sugimori’s original artwork, aping the pose and all, other times I try to do my own poses. I attempted to draw this from a real life cat reference, and it came out terrible. Theres another badly drawn attempt if you click the link.

054 Psyduck - After the atrocity that was the Persians, I took plenty of time to do these two, doing them the day before after work and before my daughter came home. They came out great. Some of the best ones I have done possibly. 055 Golduck - It really does make a difference taking your time to do things right instead of rushing to get a drawing done in the 15 minutes you have free in the morning before the bus comes.

056 Mankey - This dude looks angry as hell, which is super appropriate. having such heavy sketchy lines doesn’t work for all pokemon, but I am definitely using it for some pokes. It looks pretty decent. 057 Primeape - ANGERY MONKEY IS ANGERY!

058 Growlithe - My daughter could not stop saying “PUPPER!!!” the entire day that she got this on. She loves puppers. 059 Arcanine - Similarly, my daughter could not restrain herself from saying DOGGO!!!! for about 24 hours after getting this.

060 Poliwag - I started playing Pokemon Snap! on my Wii U’s virtual console, so my kid was pretty excited, because she loved the river stage with the poliwags. 061 Poliwhirl - did you know the poliwag line is based on a real frog with a real spiral on it? Check it out here 062 Poliwrath - This dude always looks angry. Kinda like Russel Crowe.

063 Abra - “It’s so SLEEPY!” my daughter always yells while laughing. 064 Kadabra - My wife drew this one for me, as I had just drawn a really detailed Charizard Y for my daughter’s friend at school (I got a request from fans at her school!) and the Abra. Guest artists are a good idea. 065 Alakazam - Not quite as good as my wife’s Kadabra, but it has cool psychic effects around it. Kadabra/Alakazam’s head is weird.

066 Machop - This dude looks like little hercules, which is creepy as hell tbh. 067 Machoke - He’s here to PAHMP! YOU! UP! 068 Machamp - My daughter loves that he is holding a sign for some reason.

069 Bellsprout - I think this one came out great. Bellsprout has a nice simple design that comes off well. I think it is one of the least weird plant pokemon. 070 Weepinbell - Then this dude is like the awkward teenage phase of the line. 071 Victreebel - I don’t get how Weepinbell or Victreebel move around? Also why do they have a stem? Like, WTF?

072 Tentacool - Every so often if I have time I will try to draw in a background, and maybe some cameos from later generations like these luvdisc. Having a background is difficult though because of how dark sharpies come out. I am considering using sharpies for the main pokemon and using crayolas for BGs. 073 Tentacruel - Another heavy lineart pokemon that looks pretty good. Sadly my daughter was being bad, and did not get this pokemon for a few weeks. I threatened to give it to our stupid cat, who might possibly eat it if my daughter didn’t stop losing paperwork at school. She got it eventually.

And that’s all folks! I am actually up to #88 so far, but I don’t want to make these posts too long.

For earlier work, here is Volume 1 of the Lunchbag Pokedex

#lunchbag pokedex #pokemon #lunchbag pokemon #lunchbagart #pokémon #lunchbagdex #lunchbag dex #drawing #pokemon drawing #I made a thing

2 notes · View notes