theclarkystuff-blog

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If you support gay marriage reblog this. If you're on the homophobic side, keep scrolling.

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It's official, I'm a cunt

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A Weekend In The Vita

PlayStation Vita always had an unusual life despite being home to a very loyal fanbase despite strange adverts involving 4 boobed women to later being marketed as a PlayStation 4 accessory the system has managed to avoid a complete death unlike  similarly aged home console the Nintendo Wii U with support often coming in from the Indie and homebrew community. With a handful of Vita games I am interested in, alongside my old PSP and PSOne Classics collection I thought maybe now is the time to look into this exotic beast and see if the system was an underrated gem that many owners claim it to be or just trash. 

The successor to Sony’s original handheld effort the PlayStation Portable code named NGP (Next Generation Portable),  would advance the tech used in the PSP greatly including some better ideas like cartridge support as opposed to the battery draining UMD’s while addressing several problems like true analog sticks as opposed to the PSP nub and front and back touch sensors offering a similar but different input influenced by the Nintendo DS and a gyroscope which would allow players another great alternative to aim or steady camera’s in game. Sony hyped the handheld unit in a similar way to the PSP often boasting of its graphical power compared to other handhelds on the market by showing  mock up demos like Mel Gear Solid 4 being shown it would appear to be similiar to PlayStation 3 levels of power with ports of many popular games of the time like Ultimate Marvel Vs Capcom 3, Mortal Kombat, Virtue’s Last Reward and Rayman Legends, it would also see ports of HD collections like Metal Gear Solid, Jax and Daxter, God Of War, Final Fantasy X and Sly Racoon, it would eventually become an indie darling platform with ports popular games like Shovel Knight, Terraria and Hotline Miami being available to people on the go without much having to be compromised. PS Vita would sound like a great concept on paper but Sony’s mismanagement of the system including a lack of first party support after a few years of support, a much decreasing customer base with many making the moving to mobile phone platforms and expensive DRM ridden memory cards, they would prove to be enough to doom the Vita from mainstream success. 

For this venture rather than put down a couple of hundred on a PlayStation Vita I decided to invest in the home console model of the unit, the PSTV as this unit could be found as cheap as 20 dollars with other higher priced deals including a Dual Shock 3 controller or a copy of The Lego Movie Video Game. PSTV was Sony’s attempt at trying to bring handheld and console gaming closer by allowing customers to finally be able to play the Vita’s game on the big screen and giving others access to the Vita library as a budget home console line but with stupid decisions like blacklisting certain games from working on the system and virtually no marketing the PSTV would quickly become a discontinued flop within a year of coming to the market. Powering on this tiny device we are given 2 input methods, the Dual Shock 3 or 4, both can be used in wireless and wired USB modes. For this I used the DS4 as I felt the touch-pad would provide a good enough substitute for the touchscreen and touch pads used on the Vita. 

This unit alike to the Slim portable model comes with 1GB of built in storage space perfect for saves, DLC or a small game but for anything else this space will quickly be spent as some of the systems launch titles alone like Uncharted:Golden Abyss roughly weigh in at 2.54GB while Persona 4:Golden is roughly 2.8GB, it would have been easy to imagine if you had a PSN+ subscription that when it came to Vita games it may have been a repeating act of frustration when you may have to juggle between re-downloading or deleting games if you had a lower sized memory card with the only solution being to spend 40 dollars on 16GB or 100 dollars for 64GB with no alternative available on the market, it has always been a tough pill to swallow but reflecting on this at least people would be able to save there games using cartridges on this model, unlike the original Vita.

Lucky for me the PSTV came on firmware 3.50 making it vulnerable to software hacks with the only obstacle involving getting the unit on firmware 3.60 so software exploit Henkuku can be launched, using a simple set of instructions on they’re website it was easy to use a simple DNS trick to download and install the right firmware with the rest as simple as loading up a website on the built in Vita web-browser and clicking install making it so simple compared to early home-brew methods employed on the Vita that involved owning certain PSP titles digitally and buying them before Sony would remove them from the market place, making it a tough race and usually only for hacks that would benefit the PSP side of the Vita. Installing this temporary hack we are given full control of the system which will allow us to overcome 2 of the biggest flaws with the PSTV system, the storage system and the blacklist. 

Booting into home-brew program Vita Shell it is possible to mount almost any USB mass storage device as a PS Vita Memory Card finally giving us an alternative to Sony’s card which can often work out much cheaper I decide to use my Wii U’s old SanDisk Ultra Fit 32GB USB 3.0 Flash Drive as I bought this specifically due to the low power output the Wii U has on it’s USB ports, a problem which the PSTV appears to suffer from as well which may require using alternative power solutions. Formatting the USB stick to exFat and loading up Vita Shell I am able to easily mount the USB storage as a memory card giving me 28GB to use which should be more than enough for the collection of compatible games I have bought over the years on PSN. With a quick installation of a home-brew package through Vita Shell I am able to install an app which will remove the blacklist from the system allowing me to boot all Vita games so now it would be a good time to install those games.

 Connecting to PSN via a firmware spoof hack we are able to connect to Sony’s servers and download the games, although some games which are compatible with the system like the Crash series on PSOne Classics for unknown reasons are not downloadable to the system despite various glitches being present that involve either using a PS3 or a PC to send excluded games to a Vita but at this time I will not go to any lengths to set up another console or swap HDMI cables back and forth achieve this. 

After hours of downloads and installs we can finally get down to some actual gaming on the system, the first titles to be taken for a try are Freedom Wars and Uncharted:Golden Abyss. FW being an action-rpg with game-play similar to Monster Hunter, you’re main goal is to often kill a target and then use rewards to upgrade equipment, the game seems to handle what appears to be a steady 30 FPS although sometimes when action picks up I believe I noticed some frame drops despite a friend assuring me that they never noticed any frame drops playing on an original Vita model so take from that what you will. 

Moving onto Uncharted: GA the game shows itself to be a victim of being an early launch title as the game appears to shutdown some network functions of the system to allow the game to run although the game appears display a stuttering frame rate with some visuals which make Drake’s Fortune look like as visual masterpiece in comparison. At this point I look more into more mods the home-brew community has to offer like “overclocking” the CPU and GPU on the system to help preform performance, originally Sony down-clocked the cycles on they’re chips in an effort to improve battery life of the system although the PSTV appears to operate fine with the CPU running at 444mhz and with the GPU running at 222mhz, helping lock UC at a stable 30FPS making it somewhat more playable. Playing the actual game on the PSTV will becomes a chore as the game-play is designed most of the Vita’s functions like the touchscreens, forcing players to cycle threw menus and tap in certain places to move forward, while this maybe easier to play on a handheld unit the DS4 becomes a hassle to use often having to revert to the touch-pad to simply close notifications in game but some cool functions do come out of this like being able to draw the path you would like to climb and having Nathan do it automatically. Bend studios could have been onto something or not. While Bend Studios attempt with the Uncharted series may not present itself well on first impression it is a game I would like to try before I completely slate it off though.

Trying a host of PSOne Classics the system appears to upscale the games to 720p giving the games a cleaner look on modern televisions compared to they’re original resolution but don’t expect to be blown away it appears Sony’s emulator tries to be more faithful to it’s original system rather than trying to enhance games like other home-brew emulators which can render at higher resolutions, use perspective correcting to fix “wobbly polygons”, allowing games to render at a true widescreen ratio instead of stretching a 4:3 to fill modern 16:9 displays or allowing overclocking to be done to the main CPU which has been known to improve performance in certain games which has made it more comfortable to re-visit these games today but I can’t fault the emulator. It plays games as good as the PS1 ever did and with modern convenience like wireless controllers and not needing to use CD’s I would actually pitch the idea at Sony that if they had any warehouses full of PSTV stock they would probably repackage them as PlayStation 1 Mini’s alongside however many games that could be bundled with and see how much profit Sony could make with these as a simple cheap Christmas idea.

PSP games appear to work fine with such options as being able to re-configure controls so that many camera controls that originally maybe mapped to the d-pad can be mapped to the right analog stick allowing players to enjoy hits like Metal Gear Solid:Peace Walker and Monster Hunter with controls more similar to they’re console counterparts although on initial impression it doesn’t appear anything is done to clean the image although I did notice while playing Street Fighter Alpha 3 Max that there appeared to be input lag present, if the problem lied with the game, the unit itself, wireless controllers or maybe some extra delay due to HDMI outputs as opposed to having its own screen but I could imagine this being a deal breaker with games that require quick inputs, although with an impressive collection of Japanese RPG’s on the system this shouldn’t necessarily be an issue that effects the whole library. . 

For my final test I decided to try the remote play function with the PS4 that would allow me to stream most PS4 games to the Vita family of systems either locally or over the internet which I always was intrigued by as I keep my PS4 in my personal room making it awkward having to move the system back and forth to the front room so I can entertain friends and family. Within minutes and having to mess around with options on the PS4 and PSTV I was able to get BluePoint’s remaster of Uncharted:Drakes Fortune running although I was soon met with a sense of familiarity as the game was being streamed at 720p while running at 30FPS, almost making it almost even with the original PS3 version although I have often preferred higher frame-rates and performance over pretty images I ended up playing with the options to broadcast at a sub-HD resolution while displaying at 60FPS, surprisingly this option didn’t appear to backfire as the sub-HD scaling comes across more like down-sampling effect as opposed to a downgrade making it a very playable alternative to shelling out on another PS4. I found this feature to be one of the better features to come out of this system.

The hacking community has managed to make up for many of the systems shortcomings Sony would have never addressed making it as good as a product as it ever could have been although I never found the Vita’s library too interesting as a large selection of it could often be found on other systems with better versions while Sony’s seems intent of saving whatever games it can by giving them PS4 ports like Tearaway, Gravity Rush and WipeOut 2048. Having access to a device that is able to play VIta, PSP and PSOne Classics natively and without issue is great, PPSSPP and Mednafen PSX are both free alternative that are able to play many of the same games with many enhanced options outweighing the PSTV system. While a port of Retroarch exists for the Vita I never took time to play with it as I already have more than enough devices that can emulate up to the 16bit era well like Android devices or a Rassberri Pi although none of these devices can boast about being able to play Vita games. Looking deeper into the homebrew community it appears coders believe that emulating the N64 on this will not too hard and ports of streaming app Moonlight already proving that it could handle streaming from a PC with an equipped Nvidia card the future of the Vita family looks interesting as Sony seem more interested in chasing the home console market it appears the home-brew community for most part will be finishing the Vita’s legacy with hopefully more software that can mature into better products like a complete custom firmware rather than having to re-load an exploit every time the system is powered off. I would like to reflect on my thoughts again at a later date to see how my opinions on this system change and if a handheld Vita would be a better fit than the home console itself but that will be for another day, right now it is time to enjoy this for all it is worth

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Lately

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Star Fox 2 - A New Hope

Star Fox, Star Wing, Lylat Wars, whatever you know it by has always had a weird relationship with publisher Nintendo, being a flight combat game with a cast of cute furry woodland creatures taking the fight to monkey emperor Andross in 1994, developers Argonaut impressed many with it’s groundbreaking polygon graphics on Snes provided by the SuperFX chip, built into the cartridge the chip basically treated the Snes as a pass-through device allowing it to render visuals which may have been impossible on the original hardware, although this early implementation of 3D graphics would come at the cost of basic looks, terrible draw distance and an inconstant frame-rates, although the emulation scene and even modders had success to overclock these chips many years later leading to better performance.

Argonaut continued working on it’s hardware leading to the SuperFX2 chip alongside Star Fox 2 designed to showcase new abilities of the chip, although that honor would end up going to Doom and Yoshi’s Island as Nintendo and Shigeru Miyamoto wanted to a clean break between 3D graphics on games consoles and worried about comparisons to 3D games on more powerful systems at the time like the PlayStation or Sega Saturn. Star Fox 2 aimed in to bring a whole host of new ideas such as all terrain mode, new pilots Fay the dog and Miyu the lynx, rivals the Star Wolf team, walker mode for Arwings, multiplayer modes and a single player with multiple endings, these ideas would later be re-used in later Star Fox titles. Nintendo EAD would take up development on the next Star Fox on Nintendo’s upcoming N64 resulting in a retelling of the original but with impressive smooth 3D graphics, all terrain battle mode, fully voiced cast, multiplayer modes, new vehicles like tanks and submarines, most importantly though pay have been rumble support. The game being bundled with the Rumble Pak it would help make a gimmick into an industry standard with Sony and Sega releasing there own versions.

Easily becoming an N64 classic it would appear Nintendo somehow managed to miss what made Star Fox 64 as loved as it was with the next entry in the series being a Star Fox skinned GameCube remake of unfinished Rare Ware N64 game Dinosaur Planet. Rare’s effort with the IP would be closely compared closely to The Legend Of Zelda - Ocarina Of Time and garner positive reviews, this entry would also introduce new pilot, Kat. Q-Games, who had been founded by original Star Fox programmer Dylan Cuthbert would develop Star Fox Command for the NDS, being a combination of strategy and flight combat, including multiple endings and horrid stylus controls that would drag down what may have been an interesting concept, Command would gain mixed reviews. The last Gamecube entry would be Namco’s attempt with Star Fox Assault, a sequel set after SF64 which returned to flight combat on rails and managed to include horrible third person on foot sections and level designs which just didn’t manage to meet the same standards of SF64.

After mixed reactions to these games in 2011, Q-Games alongside EAD would both return to the Star Fox series remake Star Fox 64 as Star Fox 64 3D for the 3DS, including new visuals, re-recorded dialog, gyro controls and 2 modes that catered to a more classical experience or a new mode balanced towards the gyro controls and 3d effect. The remake reviewed well despite lack of online play and lack of the original rumble feedback SF64 had but reminded people why Star Fox 64 was a solid fun game. The success of this remake would lead to the development of 2 new Star Fox games on the Wii U, Star Fox Zero and Star Fox Guard. Star Fox Zero would be another reboot of the series, with Miyamoto stating he wanted the presentation to be structured episodically, drawing inspiration from television series Thunderbirds, featuring classic and experimental levels and ideas. Despite having this entry co-developed with Platinum Games the game would be reviewed negatively due to a reliance on using the Wii U Gamepad gyro controls and having to switch between the Gamepad screen and TV to see some targets. While I personlly found Star Fox Zero to be a good entry a lot of public outcry seemed to focus on the issues the game had as major ones and tower defense pack in Star Fox Guard was mainly viewed as being a low budget extra.

By this point it would be hard to not assume that Nintendo may have been ready to give the Star Fox series a rest in a similar fashion to F-Zero after new IP like Splatoon have managed to connect more with an audience based on its artistic direction and strong online community, it comes as shock when the biggest surprise from the Snes Mini Classic announcement is that Star Fox 2 will come included in this unit alongside the Snes original, assuming that Nintendo and Argonaut have finally overcome rumored legal issues over patent of the Super-FX chip in regard to emulating it, which is what may have prevented the original Star Fox and Yoshi’s Island releasing on the Virtual Console. Cuthbert has stated in an interview Nintendo Life conducted in 2015 that Nintendo had given access him to a finished ROM of Star Fox 2 which had been reviewed and debugged by Mario Club and that this build contained many elements not seen in a leaked earlier prototype  which many fans maybe familiar with. Many will argue in this age of digital gaming where the idea of being able to release old  games, prototypes or even un-translated games shouldn’t be an issue with only minimal work needing to be done to make it a commercial product available to fans, as seen by Nintendo releasing a NES translation prototype of Mother on Wii U as Earthbound Beginnings or like Sega with Monster World IV bringing it with a new translation after 18 years to Virtual Console, Xbox Live Arcade and PlayStation Network. 

With NOA actually saying with the Switch that they had been trying to listen to customers more and actually read comments on popular sites like Neo-Gaf it actually seems like they may actually mean it and not using it as a PR piece. With the announcement of 2 new Metroid games, going region free with the switch, cross-play between Xbone and PC gamers, a Netflix style subscription based service of its back catalog with added online play, it is actually starting to feel like some of the impossible dreams could happen, Mother 3 which has been an outcry for its release in English ever since it’s 2006 release on Game Boy Advance, could we finally see that happen now with the eShop and the Switch? or if more outrageous ideas like Marvelous, For The Bell The Frog Tolls, Fatal Frame 2 or 4 or maybe even Captain Rainbow? While I won’t be placing any bets on any of those games coming out anytime soon or at all the announcement of Star Fox 2 actually being released officially by Nintendo still feels like part of a crazy dream and makes me wonder if bigger or better surprises are in store? With the subscription service Nintendo has planned lacking in solid details right now I can only ponder at the potential this service may hold.

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Snes, in mini form, with 21 great games and Star Fox 2 hopefully in a complete form? Yes please

Now you’re playing with super power!  Play 21 Super NES hits, including the previously unreleased Star Fox 2, when the Super Nintendo Entertainment System: Super NES Classic Edition launches September 29!

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Love it

Steamboat Stomp by FuzzyInk

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Arms (Switch)

Nintendo has a reputation of pushing out re-hashes of Mario and Zelda despite putting out new IP every so often like Splatoon which made a successful breakthrough but can Nintendo do it again with its new fighting game Arms?

Set in a world where people suffer from an abnormality making their arms long and coiled, a professional fighting circuit exists which makes its competitors challenge each other in combat and skill and sports. Diving straight into this game we are given a quick tutorial on the controls to game, which can either be motion controlled via the Joy-Cons or played with traditional controls including Pro controller support. The tutorial covers the grounds showing how you can either punch with your left or right hands similar to Punch-Out, how to jump and block and how to set off a rage mode which will allow players a limited time charged up to get in high damaging combos. 

After the tutorial you are given the option of going straight to the the single player or multiplayer, to get used to this game I tried the single player first. Here we are then presented with our cast of 10 fighters we can play as ranging from Millhouse look-a-like Spring Man, spunky pop singer Ribbon Girl, lab experiment gone wrong Helix, robot duo Byte & Barq and an amnesiac living dead Master Mummy. The game has a nice variation of characters with an impressive 4 women, 4 men and 2 others be it a lab experiment or gender-less robot this feels diverse but with the characters being coded male  I still feel this game has a better balance of different characters than you would usually see in other games.

In the single-player Grand-Prix you must face off against 10 opponents before facing found and champion of the Arms league, Max Brass. For the majority of the game will fight off against opponents in special arenas tailored to the personalty of each fighter and allowing for destructible objects and transforming stages that can either be a hazard or a great advantage. During these fights special zones may appear which can allow for contestants to regain lost health or charge up a rage meter quicker, although bombs may be also dropped into the arena which can start a countdown after a single hit.

To break up from traditional fighting all the time we are given other competitive games like basketball where you have to throw your opponent through the hoops, volley ball with a bomb or a hit the target combo game but be careful as your opponent can hit you as well and rack up points as well.too. I have grown quite fond of these modes as they serve as a nice break break between the intense fighting allowing the player to remain a calm or resort to more tactical game for a moment. Upon completion of the Grand Prix we are awarded money which can be used to buy time in a mini game similar to the target combo game in which random Arm upgrades and new items may drop, requiring you to just punch them once to acquire. The new arms add a whole new level of strategy to the game as you can equip 2 different ones during fights allowing players to mix up with skills like being able to stun or slowdown opponents but to regain health while defending, giving people plenty of opportunity to cater there own fighter to their personal tastes. 

Exploring the multiplayer options we can see the game supports up to 4 players on a single Switch at the cost of resolution and frame-rate, although Switch’s can also play this via wieless against other Switch consoles or online. Going online you can either be put fun matches or ranked matches, both modes also allowing for players to get obtain more money, although in ranked there is a bigger chance to gain more although at the risk of losing it too. The matches are similar to what is seen in the Grand-Prix with fighting, volley ball, hit the targets and basketball available to play including team matches, the game seemed to handle really well online in wireless mode with no lag or frame drops present, it should be interesting to see if a strong online community for this game can be built.

My initially impression with this game a very good one, I feel like this could be the off-spring of Punch-Out and Power Stone, coming in a great arcade package making it easy to access and difficult to master. Assuming Nintendo will grow this game it will be interesting to see if it will come with seasonable updates like Killer Instinct or Street Fighter V which could include new stages or characters like Max Bass so far being the only confirmed fighter coming later as DLC or if Nintendo would straight up try and build a sequel off this but for the time being I am going to enjoy this game and maybe re-visit my thoughts on it again down the line to see how I truly feel about this one.

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I still get around

ANYONE OUT THERE 👽

Our community has dwindled, many are no longer active, many disappear for a while (I know I’m guilty), many are just gone.

SO THIS IS A CALL OUT POST.

REBLOG THIS SHIT IF YOU STILL OUT THERE AND ACTIVE TICKLE COMMUNITY

we still a fam, I just wanna make sure those that are still here are all okay and living well. ❤

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So true

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Just another good looking skin here

Reblog this if you’re into tickling so other fellow tickle fans can see who else is out there and follow. 

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Time to buy again?

Cave Story+ out now on Nintendo Switch

One of the most popular indie games of all time is available now on Nintendo Switch, and in physical cartridge form no less!

Each game comes with an old-timey instruction booklet and companion soundtrack. If you get it at Gamestop, you get one of three adorable keychains and mini tote bag. In the summer, an update will allow for local co-op. Nice!

Buy: Cave Story Switch, Mega Man Toys

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Loving them

the april rainers just released their latest music video - whether girl ☀️🎶💫

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new art of zelda and the champions shown during nintendo's e3 presentation

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Nice, I can see this leading to all kinds lol

Yes! Hori is developing a Nintendo Switch USB Keyboard!

How are you going to use this?