#floaty the cell core

[weirdmarioenemies]

If you're even vaguely familiar with Kirby, there is no doubt in anyone's mind that one of the most iconic abilities is Parasol. It's a unique ability, it gets a ton of merch, and it's cute, to boot!

But when you think about it, there's not a whole lot of enemies for Parasol, is there? There's a lot of enemies that hold Parasols, there's the Parasol itself, which may or may not be sentient, but Parasol doesn't bring a wide variety of enemies to mind like, say, Fire or Spark might.

Believe it or not, there actually are a few enemies that give Parasol that neither HOLD a Parasol nor ARE "just" the Parasol...but they're wholly exclusive to a few games, and have not had a proper reappearance in the games since the SNES era. So, let me introduce you to all of them! Maybe there will even be some you like, or wish would come back!

But first, an honorary mention...

Name: Parasol (Kirby's Dream Land)

Debut: Kirby's Dream Land

You know it, you love it, it's...Parasol?!

That's right! Before it became the ability we all know and love, Parasol actually debuted in the same game Kirby did, which you might note did NOT have copy abilities! Like Waddle Doo and Sir Kibble, this is a classic example of an enemy that had an ability based around it, rather than vice versa.

I want to talk about specifically its iteration in this game, which is a bit different compared to future entries. First off and most noticeably, its appearance is wholly different! The hood is smaller and shaded but with no discernable pattern, the handle is thinner and the hook itself looks more rounded! Secondly, all Waddle Doos and Dees will let go of their parasol once they land, with none spawning while holding them or keeping them when they land anyway.

And another thing: you can't even dang inhale them when they're being held! The Waddler in question will be swallowed, but the Parasol will drift away or, in the Extra Game, even hone in on you! I told you they were debatably sentient! It actually does that in a few future games like Kirby's Adventure, but not nearly as commonly as it did in the original Extra Game. So strange!

OKAY OKAY time for what the post promised you now I promise. Hold my hand (and your Parasol) as I take you through The Parasol Enemies That Time Forgot:

Name: Floaty the Drifter

Debut: Kirby's Dream Land 2

"Floaty the Drifter", not to be confused with Floaty the Cell Core, is such a wonderful name. "Floaty" would already be a sillily obvious name on its own, on par with names like Flamer and Chilly and Cappy, but adding "the Drifter" makes it even moreso. Is that its species? Its title? Is Floaty an individual? Probably not, we see multiple of them in the same level and often, and this is not like Vividria where it's canonically an individual that just so happens to be fought in pairs for gameplay, but it's funny to consider. Imagine if they followed through with other enemies, like "Spikey the Poker", "Burnis the Scorcher", "Elec the Trocuter"…

Floaty the Drifter actually acts as the main provider for Parasol in this game, wholly replacing the titular object itself except for when Kirby uses it. On its own, it doesn't do much floating OR drifting, instead hopping around in its own little world, kind of akin to Cappy, but it lives up to its name when a Waddle Dee holds it, in which...it will just act like a normal Parasol! Wholly and entirely. Even when dropped, it flies off rather than initiate its normal grounded behavior. I think I've heard some of them fly at you when released, but I can't think of any instances of that, and that's still a Parasol behavior anyhow.

As you can tell, Floaty the Drifter's claim to fame is in its unique design, bearing a single mischievous eye and a stark green coloration only seen in artwork. In fact, despite being a one-off mook, this would even grant it its own role in the anime!

Floaty the Drifter, or just "Drifters" as they're called here (I guess it is a species!) are bought by King Dedede in the episode "Escargoon Rules" to attack Escargoon and his mother after presumably being "I'm With Stupid"’d all day. I did not watch the anime! According to the wiki, they're about as fragile as you'd expect a swarm of umbrellas to be, as while they swarm towards and wrap around victims, they are easily KO'd by Fire and knocked away by Kirby's own Parasol ability.

You might be wondering why, exactly, Floaty the Drifter even has one eye in the first place, considering that its role is largely the same as Parasol. To answer that, we'll have to move on to the next creature to feature:

Name: Jumpershoot

Debut: Kirby's Dream Land 2

I bet you never expected an ability like Parasol to have its own, dedicated midboss, did you? And such a sophisticated one, at that! It's even one of the few Kirby characters with toes, for the freaks in the audience!

As you may have guessed, Jumpershoot and, to a lesser extent, Floaty the Drifter are both based on the kasa-obake, perhaps one of the most ubiquitous yokai! And this is despite not really ever having appeared in folktales, if ever. I was always under the assumption that the kasa-obake was a tsukumogami, an umbrella after it had lived for 100 years, but apparently even this isn't set in stone, either!

Jumpershoot first appears in Big Forest, the second world of the game, and guards Coo because...some reason! I don't think it's ever mentioned why the Animal Friends are kidnapped, they kind of just are! And as for Jumpershoot, does he work for King Dedede? Dark Matter? I don't know how employed midbosses are. Mr. Frosty is on the Halberd once.

Our favorite umbrella attacks by jumping and gently falling towards the ground, then makes a rapid, Tornado-like spin around the room that, after a bit, repels attacks! Then, rather than dropping Stars, he throws his own sandal at you that you can shoot back at him! Don't worry, it regenerates, so you don't have to feel guilty for robbing him of footwear!

I really really like Jumpershoot. And apparently, so did Shimomura, because he reappears in Kirby's Dream Land 3, acting much the same but with more detailed sprites! He's such...a cool character, you know? You wouldn't expect a Parasol midboss to be a yokai, of all things, especially one that acts so rowdy! I love him!

Sadly, as much as we'd all love to, there is no game where you can play as Jumpershoot. Tragic, but true! But...you can get a taste, a crumb of its rapid spin attack by having the Parasol ability while riding Coo, which makes Coo spin around invulnerably just as he does! And while he would later find himself joining the foray of midbosses abandoned after Kirby's Dream Land 3, Parasol Coo still appears in Kirby Star Allies, so his soul is still with us...

This would be the end of the road for Jumpershoot, in terms of games, but luckily for Jumpershootheads, he would make one final appearance in a piece of Twitter art, joining a medley of other monsters by spooking Channel PPP! He's still got it!

Sadly, this wraps up the Jumpershoot section of this post, and thusly we have no more Dream Land 2 Parasol enemies to speak of. But don't worry, we still have more parasolic beasts in the next title...

Name: Sasuke

Debut: Kirby's Dream Land 3

Although Floaty had a cute design, it's rather appropriate that the enemy that replaced the Parasol of Kirby's Dream Land would itself get replaced in Kirby's Dream Land 3, isn't it? But Sasuke is no mere living umbrella!

Sasuke's design might bring to mind Bumber for our veteran readers, and its behavior is much the same! It drifts down slowly and steadily, and starts walking back and forth on whatever block it lands on, just like Parasol Waddle Dee, but its hat never detaches, so it will never not give Parasol! Personally speaking, though, I think Bumber is MUCH more cute and memorable...sorry, Sasuke! At least you will always have Naruto to confide in.

Sasuke also made an appearance in the anime, where he's built a lot more like Lololo & Lalala. Here, he draws a gun at King Dedede and Escargoon, an

Name: Klinko

Debut: Kirby's Dream Land 3

The oddest Parasol appearance in both looks and functionality, and our final Parasol giver, is Klinko! It looks like it would give Cleaning if anything, with its hat reminiscent of a besom! It doesn't even drift down slowly like every other Parasol enemy does at some point–in fact, while it hops around, it doesn't share any traits with the Parasol ability at all, and is the only Parasol enemy like that! So, why does it give Parasol, then?!

The answer is: it's not wearing an old broom, but actually a straw umbrella, because it's based on yet ANOTHER yokai! Shimomura seemed to think yokai were the future of the Parasol ability, and who wouldn't!

The amefurikozō, unlike the kasa-obake, has a bit more concrete lore, being children that appear in and sometimes cause rainfall, hence why they wear straw umbrellas. This is true of Klinko, too, as it appears in cloudy stages or stages with heavy snowfall! Its Japanese name, Kinko, might also suggest some relation to the separate yokai Yukinko, a child associated with heavy snow, which could also explain its tendency towards icy levels.

It's easy to see why such an unparasolic enemy would not be used any further, but I kind of like them more for it. They're an anomaly! Sure, this is essentially just Floaty the Drifter's hopping behavior, but the lack of any other Parasol attributes than just wearing an umbrella really make it stand out to me! And that's the beauty of these enemies—the longer Parasol goes without any new enemies, the more these guys will always stand out, and that's wonderful, I think!

What do you guys think? Is the time right for some of these guys to make a comeback? Is Parasol better with the limited enemies they use now? Or should they make new ones? Tell me! I can't do anything with your suggestions but I have nothing better to do than read them!

[chickenpeep77kirbyau]

Popstar creatures part 5

1 Gordo: Levitating sea urchin/starfish like organisms with a hard spiky shell, sharp arms, and a ring of stalk eyes.

2 Long Gordo: Gordo but long. Needed more points of articulation for the shell.

3 Blado: Gordo relative with cutting implements.

4 Turbite: Small electrical magic user relative of gordos.

5 Floof: Curious levitators that create a cloud cover around them for camouflage. May pick up objects.

6 Haley: Fast floof relative.

7 Bo: Shy shadowy things. Hangs out in darker areas like caves during the day.

1 Noo: Territorial fire magic users preferring to live in caves. A pair of tendrils are bigger and more specialized for manipulation.

2 Plasma Wisp: Cave dweller with electricity magic. A pair of tendrils are bigger and even more specialized for manipulation.

3 Booler: Lacks tendrils. Has some illusions of fire and invisibility cloaking at its disposal.

4 Mumbies: A levitating organism protected by ribbons of its own silk.

5 Degout: Mumbies relative that uses a metal shell. The opening can be used as a pseudo beak.

6 inside Degout/Mumbies covering

7 Cupie: Flying critter that can shoot arrow shaped magic projections.

1 Kabula: Big floating sky creature. Its mouth is ringed by six eyes. Its markings resemble a scary face. Its single arm can generate orb shaped magic projections. It is often used for interspecies combat, but is known to sometimes attack any flying creature or object big enough to be seen as a rival. Shots are not usually fatal, but still pack a punch (Can't have them be murdering each other constantly). Imagine looking up and seeing a couple of blimp like creatures shooting orbs at each other from a distance but neither will back down so they end up arm wrestling.

2 Smaller Kabula: A smaller species.

3 Magical Sweeper: A floating slime creature that covers itself in a shell. It has six eyes, two of them long ones. If it opens up its shell it can shoot magic projections.

4 Laserball: Orb with a metallic shell. Perceived threats will be warded off by stinging lasers. Can become intangible. Imagine how frustrating it would be to have these around. You can't keep them out of your house if that's where they want to be for some reason.

5 Bubbles: Slime creature with a slick coating on its elastic skin. Attempting to grab it may result in bouncy shenanigans.

6 Droppy: A creature capable of mimicking other organisms, even down to its magic abilities. Its not always perfect in its mimicry though.

7 Oro: Normally low to the ground. If its disturbed it will attempt to make itself look large and intimidating.

8 Mahall: Also known as a trap door slime.

1 Floaty Drifter: Snake like organism with a large frill with fake eyes to startle predators. Can leap into the air and float away.

2 Perara: Flat flying creature.

3 Maiga: Slug like thing. Attempting to eat it will result in it releasing a gummy slime that will glue your mouth shut.

4 Chilly: Slime creature with ice magic.

5 Floaty Cell Core: Aquatic organism that keeps itself moist by surrounding itself with its slime as it levitates. The slime can also be used to make appendages to pull in prey or be launched as projectiles.

6 Pluid: Water mimicking slime.

7 Drop: An unrelated water mimicking slime.

8 Sparky: Slug like creature with electricity magic.

1 Caller: Fuzzy flying creature with wind magic.

2 Bouncy: Uses its coiled tail to bounce. Blade arms are usually kept tucked against its body.

3 Popon: Large slime with acidic flesh and attacks.

4 Twister: Levitating creature with wind magic. If disturbed it will spin into the air. Its eye stalks and large four pointed mouth is the only thing outside of its metallic shell.

5 Mopoo: Levitating creature.

6 Boxy: A creature that produces silk and an explosive substance. It wraps up globs of it to hurl at enemies. It also wraps up prey and food for later. Sometimes it gets its silk packages mixed up and ends up hurling food instead of bombs.

1 Mosomoso: Floofy floating bug things.

2 Soot Bug: Small floofy bug things.

3 Pasara: More floofy floating bug things.

4 Tick: Slug thing with a stabby proboscis to paralyze and liquify small prey.

5 Apolo: Bug things that suck sugary plant sap. They are tasty. If disturbed it will rapidly move itself to the other side of the plant. (I've seen some plant bugs do this irl its cute)

6 Uja: A bunch of bugs in a telepathic hive mind. The work together to form a solid magic surface over the group in order to attack prey or threats.

7 Soarar: Flying creatures. Sometimes grab things and fly away with them.

8 Capiller: Large caterpillar with inflatable fake eyes to startle predators and announce its bad tasting toxins. Not that big of a deal, unless you happen to be allergic to it or something...

9 Needlous: Spiny caterpillar like creature.

10 Beetly: Somewhat resembles a beetle in appearance.

11 Mariel: Fuzzy poisonous bug thing. Gloms seem to be immune to the poison.

12 Barampa: Flying creatures with an exoskeleton that group up in lines to appear larger.

[c7thetumbler]

Quick Game reviews: January 2024

... Huh that banner looks pretty empty without a years worth of games on a lot of different platforms on it. I'll have to think of a better way to fill space

Anyway, let's be a bit better about being on top of this. Also, instead of just scrubbing google without mentioning where I got the screenshots from, I'm going to start putting link where I got the screenshots from underneath. If I didn't put it, it's art from that game's store page.

Most of these games were ones I picked up in bulk during the Steam winter sale, so there's a few weird ones.

Slay the Spire (Steam)

Opening up with a strong one. I'm very late to Slay the Spire; so late that I had believed that it was much older than it was because just everyone had referenced it so many times and I still hadn't touched it I didn't realize it's only like 5 years old.

It holds up very well! A Rogue-like card game the plays a lot like Dominion but vs enemies instead of other players, with RPG elements to top it off. Despite having "beaten" it, I keep going back to it and I'm having a great time. It helps having played dominion before, as you have moments playing this kind of game where you realize core aspects of it. For example, taking all of the best cards every time you can isn't a great idea, as the more cards you have the less chance you have at drawing any one of them. It's better to have cards that combo well together, or with relics you've acquired, than to have a bunch of good cards that don't. It's best to stick to a particular aspect of your character, like focusing on whether you want to play The Silent as a machine gun that can rapid fire shiv the enemy dozens of time in a turn, or a tanky poisoner who can last for a long time to build up poison stack. It's much more beneficial to pick one while you're gathering your materials, than it is to say "Well attacking a lot is a nice and passive poison is also nice" and doing neither well.

It was also interesting having gone back and played this after having played so many lazy game projects or cash grab games that just did this exact style of gameplay and didn't make it interesting. I had no idea I was literally just playing Slay the Spire, but not as good.

Highly recommend it! It's a very fun game, and a good time to just play a round or two while you're watching a video.

Mail Mole + 'Xpress Deliveries (Steam)

This is a game I 100%'d!

Mail Mole is a linear 3D platformer akin to Super Mario 3D world, but you play as mole who digs underground and can combo dashing with jumping and good timing you can really blast through levels. You collect carrots instead of coins, turnips instead of green stars or giant coins, and each level has it's own time goals for bronze, silver and gold medals.

It's pretty fun! The jumping takes a bit to get used to as your jump happens when you release the button instead when you press, and your momentum from your dash carries over but only for a set amount of time after a landing dash. Overall the controls are easy to understand. With some practice and an understanding of how comboing jumps and dashes works, the game can feel pretty satisfying, if a little bit floaty, as you fly from platform to platform attempting to not fling yourself off the ledge long enough to make it to the end and get the gold medal.

As far as content goes, there's 8 "worlds" each with 4 levels. Additionally each world has a vs bot mode where you race 3 npc bots to the end of a level for an additional power cell, the game's main progression collectible. There's a significant amount there, and with the extra 'Xpress Deliveries levels it's worth its weight. I ended up with 7 hours on the game, which for an indie platformer is pretty good.

That being said, the game isn't necessarily very challenging. Jumps are pretty straightforward, with some rare exceptions, and if you just want to "beat" the game you can do so without breaking much of a sweat. The real meat of it is trying to get everything and do well in the levels to get those medals, which also isn't an extreme task. 100%'ing it took 6.7 hours, and I was never really stuck on a single level more than 2-3 replays after the intial run through the level

Overall, I'd recommend it to fans of laid back 3D platformers; if you've play 3D land, suzy cube, or other cartoony 3D indie platformers, you'll be right at home here

screenshot from The Cutting Room Floor

Mario Party 3 (N64, Switch Online)

This was one of things that I, as a child, had decided I would do someday, and then each time I played it over the years I kept thinking, "Oh I never did Get S Rank Miracle star in the story mode on Hard Mode to see if you get anything" and then proceeded to not do play it. I finally changed that!

.... It wasn't worth it. While at the time Mario Party 3 had a lot of uniqueness and charm, nowadays it's simply just been outdone, and the sheer amount of minigames in modern Mario Parties just outclasses it. Additionally, getting those scores is hard as balls, getting all the minigames requires a substantial amount of luck, and in true Mario Party fashion you can just lose everything very suddenly and that's just on you.

Nostalgia carries the N64 Mario parties pretty hard, and in a world where Mario Party Superstars and Super Mario Party exists it just doesn't hold up. Also Mario Party 2 is better.

The Citadel

What a title I have a cursed history with. anyway.

I did end up playing this for not very long. I have a long history with Doom and similar fast paced mindless shooters (Boomer shooters? is that what the kids are calling it?), so when I saw this game on the store a few years ago I shoved it on my wishlist. I finally picked it up, and it's pretty tough from what I've played. But I just quickly lost interest; didn't feel as satisfying or punchy as Doom does and I had other games to play. I haven't played this enough for a great recommending opinion, but my first impression is that it's just fine.

Screenshot from promotional screenshots on the game's Steam page

Pseudoregalia (Steam)

Props to my boy Keewy for streaming this and making me think "Huh I could try that".

This game's incredibly good. But obviously not everyone's cup of tea. You play as a tall rabbit goat woman who fights with a big cross baton and platforms using a variety of skills you pick up along the way. It's very much focused solely on the skilled platforming aspect within rooms. Like if Celeste was a bit slower paced, 3D, and had progressive upgrades in an open environment. I guess that's probably not a sensible comparison; It's more like if Metroid Prime was solely melee, 3rd person, and focused on platforming. It's hard to describe in text, but a quick look at some gameplay and you'll get it.

A key aspect of this is it doesn't take any time to explain to you what's going on, how to play, or even where you're at. You start out basically only able to jump, and through some well paced rooms slowly get the idea of how to attack, and a couple of hallways later your path branches out to a number of different ways where you can go and explore. There is no map, so you'll have to make note of areas you've not been able to fully explore before moving onto another area and trying your hand at that. The major upgrades all tend to be very well done, often giving you non-standard movement options that give you different ways of approaching jump situations that don't necessarily have just the one solution.

Most of the game consists of hallways and big rooms with an N64/ PSX aesthetic, with blocky geometry but gothic-reminiscent architecture and texture. The music does a good job of complimenting these areas, making the time you spend attempting to chain wall kicks and dashing slides to get to the next platform feel like you're wandering surreal, oppressive hallways but with a sense of curiosity and freedom given by the game's abilities.

I'm not sure if that made a whole lot of sense. But I collected everything because it was just really fun! Take a look at a gameplay video, and if you like the look of the gameplay the game delivers very well on the whole experience

Screenshot from promotional screenshots on the game's Steam page

Lil Gator Game (Steam)

I 100%'d this one as well:

Another 3D platfomer, but this time a very open world setting. Basically a very small version of Breath of the Wild where your main actions are to attack, jump, float, and climb. You play as a little gator, whose acting a out a legend of zelda style adventure with cardboard monsters and animal friends as NPCS with quest givers in order to inspire your Sister, who used to play these games with you, to join in on the fun instead of focusing on her college work.

It's a very simple game; you're never really going to have moments where you don't know what to do or feel stuck, and you can't even take damage because "kids can't die in video games." Instead, it's solely about roaming around, finding all your friends and doing their quests (solving their problems) so they will go back to the main hub area and build up the adventure town for your game.

It's a very chill romp, and I'd recommend it to anyone who just wants to turn their brain off and jump around with a cute little game with an adorable story and aesthetic.

Screenshot is a screengrab from a frame of the trailer on the game's Steam page

HAZAMA_QUEEN (Steam)

Another 100 % (though it only took 45 minutes)

I'm not sure how this one ended up on my wishlist; I probably saw it during one of the steam sales that encourages you to go through your discovery queues and thought "sure why not."

This was interesting because it took a run or two to realize what the game actually wanted. It's not a doom style game where you try and shoot monsters and progress through the level; it's a fast-paced runner game where you MUST kill enemies and run to the level in time before your health meter runs out. This meter is of c0ourse only filled more when you shoot enemies, so it's a lot of balancing between making sure you kill what you need vs moving past it to actually finish the level.

Additionally at the end of each level you get a choice of 3 cards, which can give you different weapons and upgrades to help you go through future levels easier. These cards can be quite vague however, as the game was clearly originally made in Japanese and contains a number of references to streamers and culture that I didn't understand. Alternative weapons are half "this gun is more powerful probably" and half "what even is this thing", and the while the games aesthetic has some charm in clearly being a small passion project only one or two people worked on for fun, it doesn't really carry it very far and things are more weird than interesting. Like if I did get it it wouldn't add that much to the experience.

Overall, it's a fun, very short and fast-paced game. At $5 it's definitely not worth it, but I'd give it a try if it ever goes on sale for like a buck or lower.

Screenshot from promotional screenshots on the game's Steam page

Spidersaurs (Steam)

I didn't want to touch this game after I beat it lol.

The purely fictitious group of people, fans of mine, will know that me and Wayforward go back. Even before Shantae I was playing Mighty Flip Champs, and am generally a huge fan of their offerings outside of Shantae like the remake of Ducktales, Mighty Switch Force, and...

*squints at their catalogue*

Oh I guess I do mostly just like them for Shantae.

Anyway, on paper this game looks fun. I was never a huge fan of Contra because I get mad very easily, but this looked very campy and like it had enough unique charm to look past that. In reality, unfortunately, it plays like Contra with some hand drawn cartoony aesthetics that WayForward is known for, and doesn't really have tight enough level design or gameplay to make me want to go back anytime soon.

There's a number of levels, bosses, and even just enemies that just don't feel right; nothing's particularly satisfying to accomplish and it's very easy to get frustrated when you accidentally scroll the screen too far and now you can't go back or die off the bottom. Enemy placement can be infuriating, and in an effort to keep you moving there's an enemy that comes out of nowhere and attacks you if you sit still for too long. That got me more times than it should've while I was waiting for a weapon I didn't want to despawn, or waiting for an enemy to come out of its hole so I can shoot it.

The art's good. I'll give it that. WayForward continued its trend of quality visuals and the character design it's known for, but that can't carry a game. I'd give this one a pass.

Screenshot from promotional screenshots on the game's Steam page

Monster Girl Manager (Steam)

So I don't think I've played Darkest Dungeon, but I feel like it plays similar to this but without a few mechanics around bonding with your monster girls and swapping positions. THe general crux of it is that you summon randomly generated monster girls with their skills and abilities based off of the kind of creature they are and their personality (all defined in typical anime tropes, ie tsundere, yandere, etc) and try and build up their stats so you can progress through a 10 level section of the dungeon.

The dungeons themselves aren't too complex. Traversing the map takes energy and you run into events that can either help or harm you depending on your squad and enemies with aa variety of different attributes. Like Slay the Spire, you can run into a number of relics that improve your abilities and can try and get them to compliment your girls' playstyle to progress further. On paper, it's a pretty solid loop and I did find myself enjoying some of the dungeoneering and crazy combos.

In practice however, it's a lot of grinding. Whenever you start a 10 level section you begin with no relics, so you have to re-find stuff and build up again. This runs into trouble when you beat a boss easily, but then the next block is too hard for your girls' current stat, so you have to pass time improving them by managin their motivation and telling them to work jobs throughout the week that will lower their eneergy and motivation, but improve a specific stat, again dependent on the girl's type and personality.

Again, that doesn't sound too bad, however there are many limitations that just make this frustrating. Specifically, your girls only exist for a number of weeks (I think like 10 or something) before they fade away. New girls you summon are back at level one, so now you have to use your winnings from previous squad arrangements to upgrade your facilities and gear to help them level up *slightly* faster so you can get further with them. This puts an unnecessary amount of stress and grind time on top of an otherwise decent gameloop, and after my first squad got Ship of Theseus'd I was over it.

I would avoid this one; it's pretty grindy and not all that interesting past the initial premise, though it could be someone's cup of tea.

Also, to be clear, it's not lewd. Just very anime trope-y

Screenshot from promotional screenshots on the game's Steam page

Quake II (Steam)

Finishing up the list is the remasted version of Quake II that unexpectedly released halfway through last year. Quake II wasn't one that I played when I was a small'un, mostly limited to Doom, Doom II, and Chex Quest, but I did play the original Quake as well and saw my dad playing this in those years so I decided to give it a try.

The updated graphics and controls are refreshing; a lot of the time when revisiting this error you have to argue with the game to get it to play in a way that works for modern sensibilities, but this redo holds up very well. Something I didn't realize is this melds more with Half-life style gameplay than it does with the single-level action that Doom and Quake were known for. While the game is still broken into levels, each level has a number of interconnected sub areas that each have their own oibjectives, enemies, and secrets to find before you can finish and move onto the next, and they can get surprisingly long.

This is a classic and now can hold up to the test of time with this release; I very much recommend it!

________________________________

So how do I end shorter ones like this? DO I say my favorite game I played during this period?

I guess it would have to go to Pseudoregalia. While I thoroughly enjoyed and continue to play Slay the Spire, Pseudoregalia's satisfying gameplay, intriguing world, and well done level design stuck with me a lot harder than another well-done rogue-like did.

I also wanted to pick up Palworld, but have held off and will continue doing so for a bit while the dust settles and it continues to get updates, so that's why it's not on here.

[litsnobconfessions]

A Year of Animation Day 49: The Dragon Prince, S1E1-4

Date: February 18, 2025

Day: 49

Content Watched: The Dragon Prince, Season 1, Episodes 1-4

Year: 2018-2024

Rating: TV-Y7

Run Time: 104 minutes

So why follow ATLA and Korra with The Dragon Prince? To begin with, it has an elemental magic system (but this time, six elements instead of four). It's seasons are referred to as "Books" and it's Episodes as "Chapters." Each book is titled after a different element with seven books in total (one for each element, plus the additional non-elemental magic). None of this is surprising when you realize that Aaron Ehasz and Giancarlo Volpe are both producers because what else did they produce? Avatar: The Last Airbender. Oh yeah, and Jack de Sena (the voice of Sokka) stars in it. Plenty of other ATLA related things as we go along, which you'll see when we get there.

As per the usual, let's begin with the animation. The Dragon Prince is CG animation, though I will admit that at times, the characters look hand-drawn, which I'm guessing is due its being cell-shaded. I also read somewhere that they reduced the frame rate in the first season because CG animation is known for being "floaty," but fans didn't like it, so they upped it in later seasons. I will say I noticed a couple of spots where the animation looked choppy. All in all, I don't like the animation as much as ATLA's, but it's still very pretty.

What I really like about The Dragon Prince is the storytelling, and now that the show is complete, it makes going back to the beginning so much more meaningful. The story is incredibly tight, with so many important elements being introduced in these first four episodes. Elements that we will see come back in the second half of season one and beyond include the mirror, the ability of moonshadow elves to create illusions (in the form of the assassins turning themselves into trees), King Harrow's bird, the fact that glowtoads are popular bait for deep sea fishermen, the introduction of primal stones (and Callum's stone in particular), and (my favorite) King Harrow's line that "we will pay the price [for dark magic] eventually."

But I think that today, I'm mostly going to talk about the characters because the quirky characters and, even more importantly, their relationships are what really made me fall in love with this show. Let's start with Callum. I love that they immediately introduce his interest and skill in drawing by having this be the first thing we see him doing. Like Hiccup, Callum always has his notebook with him, and I don't remember, but wouldn't be surprised if it is, at times, plot relevent. We also learn that he's Ezran's brother, and this first interaction indicates a pretty strong bond between them.

But the really interesting choice for me was to give Ezran and Callum different fathers. Far more importantly, I appreciate how loving his relationship is with both his brother and King Harrow because it's something we don't always see in stories, probably because so many of our stories are based on fairytales with evil step-mothers. Instead, it's clear that Callum cares deeply for his little brother, who looks up to him, and now that I'm writing this, I think this core relationship may be the reason I took to this show so quickly. Like Ezran, I have an older sibling with a different dad, who I looked up to as one of the coolest people alive when I was a kid. I tend to be drawn to sibling relationships in stories anyway (another thing I like about ATLA and Korra) but this one hits particularly close to home. 

One of my favorite examples of this in the show is the mention of Callum's "jerkface dance," which is his way of showing Ezran remorse and helping his little brother feel better after he's hurt his feelings. Obviously, a jerkface dance isn't going to heal every injury, but it seems like a good thing to have in place for those close kind of relationships where there is a deep bond of love, but it's a given that injury will happen anyway. Obviously, Callum was not trying to be harmful to Ezran, but accidentally lashed out due to his own anxiety. I like they have an established routine for handling these kind of conflicts. (This is not the only time I will talk about this, and not the only show it will pop up in--stay tuned!) Also, before I forget, when Callum learns that Rayla is there to kill Ezran, he pretty much doesn't hesitate on telling her he's the prince in order to save his brother's life, and I admire him for that.

Callum's relationship with Harrow is also beautiful. Harrow doesn't like Callum standing on ceremony, and he tells Callum that he thinks of him as a son, even though they are not blood-relatives. This is also made clear through his actions and the drawings in the credits (did I mention the credits have additional drawings--that give us more storyline?! I love them!). And finally, Callum and Rayla is one of my all time favorite relationships in fiction. I'll talk much more about it in the seasons to come, but I like how their relationship begins with them literally saving one another from their own (theorhetical) allies. Callum is willing to face off against Claudia to help Ezran and Rayla escape with the egg, and Rayla does the same against Runaan. They haven't known each other very long, they still have lots of biases (Callum thinks elves drink blood!) but they're already willing to take a risk on the other because they recognize aligning morals.

Speaking of elves drinking blood, let's talk about bigotry! It kind of goes without saying that this immediately made me think of blood libel (the belief that Jews drink the blood of non-jews). That's not to say that I think that the elves are supposed to be representing Jews here, but I like that they took something that is very real bigotry and included it in their story and pointed it out as bullshit. Also, I know they set up the moonberry juice to look a lot blood because Rayla uses it in the first episode to make Runaan think she killed the sentry. Nevertheless, when Callum sees Rayla's flask he could have reacted in surprise "Uh... what is that? Please tell me that's not blood" But he didn't. He assumes it is blood without a second thought, which reveals that he has been raised with stories of elves drinking blood (which makes sense, seeing as they are described by humans at other times as being "bloodthirsty.")

Lord Viren doesn't take long to show his hand, but his children are more nebulous. Soren feels like a such a bully for emphasizing that Callum is just the step-prince, but then he does help Callum look good in front of his sister? I guess he's just supposed to be the stupid lug who thinks he's funny all the time and is only funny half the time? Like, maybe he doesn't realize it's rude to call Callum the step-prince? He just thinks it's funny? I find him hard to peg in the early seasons, but I guess that just gives him more room to grow.

I like Claudia's complexity. Like Callum, she's been raised to believe certain things about the world, and even though she tries to be a good person (she's pretty nice to Callum and she actively voices a possible need to stop her father from doing something wrong, even though she doesn't know what he's going to do), but she's also acting on these ideas that she's been raised with--that elves are evil, and the egg is a weapon. I think tthis is the starkest moment with Claudia--when she's trying to get the egg back. She's holding the primal stone, and is preparing to shoot lighting from her hand, but at the same time, she's telling Ezran it's okay and she's going to protect him from the bloodthirsty elf. Rayla, on the other hand, looks incredibly nonthreatening and may not even have her daggers out. I think this goes to show that we need to pause sometimes and consider what we look like from the outside. If I were Ezran, I would also take the egg and run. For fear. Of Claudia. (As a side note, I also like that she taps her nose when she has an idea because I totally have a friend who does that)

And, of course, we have to talk about Amaya, who might be my favorite character, aside from Bait (of course, this "favorite character" will probably be more nebulous, like Korra, rather than obvious, like ATLA.) Mostly, I appreciate that like ATLA and Korra, they introduced a disabled character who is OP. Okay, her being over-powered isn't as obvious as Toph or Ming-Hua, but she is a general, which says a lot about her. From an animation/storytelling standpoint, I appreciate that they took the time to learn about ASL and animate Amaya using an actual signed language. After finishing This Tender Land earlier in the year, I am so pleased with the amount of sign language in the media I've been consuming. Also, I want to take a moment to say that I think we should make ASL a national requirement in schools. Maybe, if we're lucky, characters like Amaya will make it a more popular language to learn.

On that note, let's talk about this scene. Because I have some problems. My biggest issue is that Callum signs at the end of the episode, so it's clear he knows how. This would make sense, considering (1) this is his mother's sister, and (2) they clearly have a close relationship. It's likely Callum learned to sign at young ange from his mother and Amaya herself. For the same reasons, it is likely Ezran can sign, though we don't him sign in the episode. Why then, when Amaya rides up, does Callum not sign? It's obvious that Amaya is also a good lip reader, but even if Callum is just choosing not to sign here, he shouldn't have difficulty understanding Amaya when she's signing to him. So is Gren just translating out of habit? The whole thing is a little weird. I'm guessing they wrote it this way to introduce Gren as a character, easily establish that Amaya is deaf, and to have a way for viewers who do not know ASL to understand what she's saying. And since it's a kids show, it's possible they didn't want to limit acceissbility to viewers who haven't developed the fluency necessary to read subtitles. So it's not a big strike against the show, but I do wonder if there could have been a more in-universe way for the scene to play out.

But I also can't end this without at least touching on the magic system. I love that this is basically an elemental magic system, but that instead of going with something that already exists, they made something new. Furthermore, the six primal sources are six things that are kind of necessary for life. Therefore, dark magic is a perversion of this because it requires killing things. And the spells are all spoken backwards.

Finally, I like the creation of things that exist in our world within their world. Obviously, ATLA and Korra did this too with things like "movers" and "four o'candle," but The Dragon Prince does it more and in more entertaining ways, probably because the writers decided to describe things exactly as they are, like Caludia's "hot brown morning potion." There are plenty more where that came from.

[marioalmanac]

Floaty the Cell Core (Kirby Star Allies)

What a name... Floaty is not just a cell core, they're THE Cell Core, and must always be addressed as such.

[katyahina]

Kinda late birthday drawing for Kirby Star Allies! For this I drew every character which debuted in this game.. Heh, I am a little bit closer to my goal of drawing every Kirby character at least once!

[guildtree]

Ok ok since you said you want to talk gw1 - what has been your favorite part of it? Any unexpected things you recognized from gw2?

Oh excellent, hahaha. I have so many thoughts, long post incoming!

My favorite part has actually been the combat, which surprised me a lot because I usually prefer the faster, looser style you'd find in GW2. I think it's a huge testament to GW1's quality that I enjoy the tactical, slower combat there just as much as something that's more classically in my wheelhouse. More than that though, I like the enemy design. I was shocked at how SMART the enemies are. They resurrect each other, they target your healers, they heal themselves, etc. Different groups have different tactics and require different strategies, and you start to learn those as you go through the game. I can DPS through a krait monk's healing, for instance, but a Stone Summit dolyak rider healer will stall me forever. It's tactical and consistently challenging enough that I have fun just running around the world killing stuff, and because they stay dead it's a lot more satisfying to do that.

Seriously, the enemy design is sharp enough that I had down to a science exactly how many Afflicted it took to murder my whole party of henchmen down in the Kaineng sewers. 4 or less was an easy win for us. 5 made me pay attention. 6 was a hard fight, and any more than that would kill us, guaranteed. Oh hey, guess how many Afflicted tend to be in the patrolling groups down there? 5-6.

Couple of things I was surprised to see: First, the humor is still there. There's less of it, but from the way people talk about the first game, especially Prophecies, I was expecting a serious almost grim-dark adventure. Instead, while there are quests about losing your homeland and the trauma of that, there is also a quest where I have to find treats for a pet devourer named Joe so that it stops eating the Vanguard soldiers' rations. There's the running joke where every female henchman in Cantha has a crush on Mhenlo and Cynn is about to set them on fire for it. I think the game actually does a good job balancing humor and tragedy to make the tragedy hurt more. And like, humor is a way people process trauma, so it makes sense for Ascalonians to have a dark sense of humor.

Other surprising thing: the amount of developed female characters, especially ones that can kick your ass. Even back then ANet wasn't afraid of making women a key part of the adventure, which is refreshing compared to other MMOs of the time and even other MMOs now. 3/5 of the core henchmen you'll see on the box are female. Beyond that, there are important female characters throughout all three campaigns, like Salma, Evennia, Danika, Kormir, Gwen, and many more. And there are female villains too - I just met Varesh Ossa, for instance, and I know Minister Reiko is in there somewhere. I have some grievances, but for an older game it's pretty impressive, and it's clear the developers aren't afraid to just let women be badasses. While I wouldn't say I'm as connected to these characters yet, there are definitely some that I fell in love with. Like Danika - she's the only Kurzick with any brain cells and I love her.

Other random things I discovered: mursaat are awful bastards. Like, I knew they were terrible lorewise, but having to actually fight the floaty buggers that shoot deadly magic at you and hide behind their bulky golems makes them so much more annoying. Titans are horrifying enemies (why do the ash ones BLEED???) that I can't believe aren't talked about more, since apparently we've just got a sealed-up apocalypse hanging out down in the Fire Islands. There's another lich besides Joko!? How does that happen!? Do you just become a lich if you're a powerful necromancer whose entire nation gets destroyed?

Also the Jade Sea is like ... blue in this game. I think I like it better. You can burn down Old Kaineng though, that place is terrible.

Alright, I'll stop rambling now. Thank you for the ask!

[yogaadvise]

The four main bandhas

What are bandhas?

You know those little mixes locks you obtain when travelling? You pop them on your bags, with the loopholes of your zips, to keep the contents in and also secure as well as secure? Well, your body has comparable locks, called bandhas. 'Bandha' actually implies lock, to tighten up, to close-off and also block. There are 4 main bandhas in the body:

Mula Bandha - the root lock

Jalandhara Bandha - the throat lock

Uddiyana Bandha - training of the diaphragm lock

Maha Bandha - all 3 locks at the exact same time

So what is the factor and also objective of shutting off the throat, having and raising the abdomen as well as of attracting internal at the centre of the pelvic flooring? Both individually, as well as all at the same time?

Essentially, bandhas are engaged to get control and lock your energy - prana, being vital force - the means you desire. The locks are utilized to attain control of your energy system, and to route this energy to the parts of your body where you prefer it to go and also whatever action you want to perform.

Essentially, bandhas are involved to get control and lock your energy - prana, being vital force - the means you want.

Where are the bandhas located?

The root (Mula) and throat (Jalandhara) bandhas' function are to seal the upper as well as reduced end of the spine. Jalandhara bandha temporarily protects against prana from going up, while Mula bandha blocks the down activity of energy and draws it back in the direction of the navel region. When both are engaged with each other it is like 2 sticks being massaged together - with the application of the belly lock also, multiplying it to create the fire of warm.

Bandhas are usually initial discovered as well as involved during techniques of kriya and pranayama as well as when mastered can be administered in asana method also. Keep in mind, it might take some practise till you're able to engage your bandhas to one of the most refined level. While Mula as well as Jalandhara bandhas can be performed both after inhalation as well as exhalation, Uddihyana as well as Maha bandha are just taken part in Bahya Kumbhka - external retention.

The advantages of engaging bandhas

So why is this securing up so valuable, when yoga exercise is obviously everything about opening?

Well, bandhas are incredibly fruitful for the brain centres, the nadis (channels whereby prana streams) as well as the chakras (power centres). They purify, remove blockages and harmonise as well as stabilize the self. Bandhas briefly stop the streaming of blood, so when released there is an enhanced flow of new blood. This flushes away the old, dead cells and also activates the body organs to strengthen, restore and also invigorate as blood circulation is boosted. Engaging the bandhas also educates as well as enhances single point focus, the consistent as well as regulated breath and also a clear, tranquil mind. It assists in regulating your interior systems, from sexual to hormonal to metabolic and also digestion.

It's advisable not to involve Mula bandha during menstruation (the initial 2 to 3 days) or when applying Ashwini mudra (a kriya workout where the anus is clenched and also unclenched).

How do we find the bandhas?

Mula bandha - the root

If the bandhas were to be clarified in 4 steps, Mula bandha would be the first. Men can locate it by getting the location between the rectum as well as the testes. For females - contract the muscular tissues at the bottom of the pelvic floor behind the cervix. In the beginning, the anal sphincter will likewise 'lock up', but with time and also with practise you will discover to differentiate and focus on the specific location of the root. As well as a much easier means to nail it? Well, three different pointers:

First: look at the suggestion of your nose - you will instantly really feel the experience of the Mula holding. Second: for women; if you've ever worried that you've leaked through during 'that' time of the month - the training feeling you make is locking Mula in. The muscular tissues you contract to hold in what is desiring to stream out is the Mula region. Third (though this may take a little bit of creativity!): rest cross-legged and also make to rise to the skies - instant Mula activation!

Mula bandha likewise naturally enters into play during lots of everyday tasks, climbing stairs, riding a bike, bring shopping bags home. Engaging your Mula bandha during your yoga exercise method enables your energy to stream up, not down and out, making it grow manifold and also leaving you with that said 'floaty' sensation. You will be lighter on your limbs, lighter on your floor covering and also lighter in yourself.

Want to recognize even more concerning Mula? Read: Mula bandha - origin lock

Practise in class with Andrew Wrenn: Core Support and Mula Bandha

Jalandhara bandha - the throat

'Jal' means throat, 'Jalan' means net and 'dharan' means flow or stream. Therefore, Jalandhara can be taken the locking of the energy flow through the nerves and also vessels of the neck area. When involved with Khecari mudra (crinkling the pointer of your tongue back to the roofing system of your mouth), its impact wonderfully increases.

To discover Jalandhara, sit tall and cross-legged. With your palms pressing into your knees, breathe in through your nose and bring your chin in the direction of your neck. Align your elbows, pull your chin back as well as involve the muscles there so you feel them tighten up, then preserve. It's the double chin you do want!

Jalandhara isn't typically done alone, instead, it is executed in mix with the various other secure breathing techniques. It presses the sinuses as well as primary arteries of the neck, taxing the throat to balance the thyroid and regulate metabolic process. And also, it relaxes you and also minimizes stress.

Uddiyana bandha - the 'false inhale'

'Uddiyana' suggests to fly or increase up, as well as is all concerning doing simply that with your diaphragm. To discover to do so, it's valuable to stand with your feet carry distance apart, bend ahead - with a straight back - and position your hands on your knees (or shins, if your hamstrings allow).

With a 'incorrect' breathe in (that is, the action of taking a breath without actually taking air in), make an upward activity as well as feel your abdominal wall and body organs raise and in the direction of your back, sort of like a suction back and also up of all your withins as if you're trying to make your waistline smaller.

Your ribs need to be protruding over as well as in front of your abdominal muscles. You hold this for as lengthy as you can, leaving by launching your hold, breathing in (constantly with your nose) as well as cleaning.

Uddiyana relocates energy upwards with a lot even more pressure than a pure Mula bandha alone. It creates a soft massage for the deeper inner muscles of the reduced back, and also is a fantastic solution for stomach and also belly troubles, in addition to a stimulant for digestive system juices.

For much more on Uddiyana Bandha, reviewed Uddiyana Bandha - Upward Flying Lock

Practise in course with Nichi Eco-friendly in her Prana Flow 4 Core class

Maha bandha - the 'ultimate' bandha

To do the supreme of the bandhas? Initially involve Mula, totally breathe out as well as turn on Jalandhara, after that flex onward and also 'suction up' to hold Uddiyana. This is Maha bandha. To launch, do so in the reverse order you involved (Uddiyana first, Jalandhara second and finally Mula bandha).

[weirdmarioenemies]

Name: Floaty the Cell Core

Debut: Kirby Star Allies

Hiii! I come here on this Funky Friday bearing a very splashy dude, Floaty the Cell Core! From that name alone you can expect great things, it’s such an endearing name, this is not any Cell Core, this is Floaty, everyone loves Floaty!

They are a blob with conjoined eyes for most of its face, and they’re floating in a water bubble! which itself also floats around, I guess this is a “Cell”, Floaty being its core.

So from this name we can assume Floaty is just one from multiple Cell Cores right? Well in-game they are the only one, bur fortunately, HAL Labs released a TON of concept art for this guy! And most of the beta designs are SO drastically different, but they all are creatures inside a bubble of water, so I like to think those are the other non-Floaty Cell Cores! This post will be about this lovely family!

Starting with this guy! A funny octopus with two tiny tentacles, they look crossed, I assume this means they’re constantly moving to keep them afloat, swimming at all times, must get tiresome! They also have a big siphon that looks like a cannon, a classic Funny Octopus Enemy trope! this design is also very reminiscent of Gushen from Super Mario Odyssey! Being another Funny Octopus Enemy inside a water bubble.

This little cutie has a sleepy face, which seems to peek out of the water bubble a bit! and two funny ears

This guy IS the Cell water bubble, they’re shaped like a propeller and have a silly mouth, their Core seems non-sentient, and like some sort of amoeba!

This cutie is one of my faves!! They look so excited to be here! two tiny arms and a tip on the bottom! As for the Cell, the funny ears are back, and it’s shaped like a pacman ghost!

Also there are a lot of these guys, big family of Cell Cores! So the rest will be inside a Read More ==:) Hopefully You’re already convinced they are all so lovely you’ll want to meet them all!

This one has got to be one of the most beloved ones, it’s a little green Blipper that’s controlling the Cell through some funny levers! He looks like he’s doing his best in there, he must’ve trained hard to learn how to control this

This one is very interesting, the Cell is a fishie! and the core is a surprisingly realistic heart! it also kinda looks like a butt hehehe

This guy means BUSINESS, they’re clearly a veteran Cell Pilot, they’ve been doing this for years and they’re very confident, also the Cell looks like a Mamanti which is awesome!

The Cell in this one is another propeller, but it’s the Core that’s an absolute revolution! There’s a silly little bean guy inside! Just smiling! Happy in the knowledge they are floating inside a funny bubble, Kirby is shocked by the incredible energy of their presence.

The Propeller Cell is EVIL now, and the Core is a mischievous spiky little guy to match!

A Blipper inside a Cell shaped like one! and it has some sort of breathing apparatus!

And a matching set for Bronto Burt! This one’s specially funny because Bronto Burts have bug wings, what are you doing underwater! They gave them goggles though and they seem rather content!

This was the first concept art sheet, the next one has a LOT more and with more developed art, which means there really was so much love and effort put into the Cell Core enemy, and I’m glad.

This innocent little guy is peeking from within the Cell, which has little bumps around, I also love the funny dangly bit they have on top of the head, really important feature

Another one of my favorites! Sweet little tadpole friend, they have a cute snout, and a bobbly! Everyone loves bobblys! The bobbly seems to be enveloped in a different kind of water, which is interesting

The Cell shapes are really getting interesting! they got wavy patterns too! and the Core guy here reminds me of Victini, a very compressed Victini

UFO Alert!! UFO Alert! Everyone loves UFO enemies, and one made out of water?! With a little shark-looking guy inside? Delightful!!!

These guys decided the Cell was too big for just one little guy, so they share one! One of them is happy and green, while the other is red and sad, but I’m sure they love each other regardless of their different emotions, look! They’re holding hands!

The Cells kinda became shapeless blobs, but that is ok because the guys inside are still so so delightful! Look!!! This is one of my big big favorites, little dish-shaped fishy with cool-looking long fins! And their colors! So pleasant!

WOW what a cute little guy inside! little ‘w’ face, nubby little arms, and their head has the shape of a fat chocolate chip! They also seem to have some floating limbs in little compartments of the Cell, another one of my fave ones! Such a delight!

This one is very much a Metroid! But shhhh they’re sleepin! They don’t mean any harm they just want to nap inside their Cell

A Puffer Fish! Very reminiscent of Fatty Puffer Jr. from Kirby’s Return to Dream Land, They’re back and they found a cool H2O-shaped Cell to live in!

Another Pufferfish! but this one has 4 stubby little legs which are very adorable! And their Cell is covered in spikes! I doubt spike-shaped water would do anything but it’s the aesthetic that’s important for them

This one is so silly! Look at that jolly smile! This is a fish that would make silly jokes and laugh with a charming chuckle

What’s wrong little guy? Is your mushroom-shaped Cell too tight for your mushroom-shaped body? I’m sure you can get more water in there for a bigger space, I love you, everything’s gonna be ok.

Oh it’s you again! But what’s this! your funny stubby legs got removed! This is so tragic!

ooghooghoghough THIS ONE! Such a good one! They’re a Mola mola! With very charming eyes and expression, their Cell has a hole in it shaped like a pair of goggles for them to see better! So cool!

Look It’s dish-shaped fishie from before! But they’re angry this time! Oh no! Is it because their fins became shorter? Or perhaps they don’t like their new pink stripes, I think they look wonderful on you!

The Core is identical to the Metroid one! But the Cell has the shape of a Clione! a Sea Angel! The color of their core and their horns really make for a good fit!

Oh god Realistic Eye hello there! This guy’s Cell is a blob with cute little ears, they reinvented the basic Slime enemy!

Oooh look at this! Getting closer to the Floaty we got in the final game! Their face is the only thing that’s drastically different

And there’s what we were missing! It’s the same face from the official Floaty! It seems they fused these last two guys to end up with our beloved Floaty!

And finally, to wrap things up, the final member of the Cell Core family, Butt Frog! They’re an angry green dude with 4 stubby limbs, and REALLY big buttcheeks, they’re almost their whole body! The artist really wanted to emphasize this with a very illustrating rear-end view, lovingly shaded to look shiny. Absolutely incredible

And that’s it! Really big family huh! I really wish we had gotten all of them in the final game, maybe randomly picked every time they spawn, they’re all so full of personality and charm! I’m very happy we got to meet them all! Thank you for coming with me in this splashy journey of Cells and Cores! Hope you found some you can dearly cherish!

[kirbypost-generator]

[1]

...Bonjam. Today, it will be I, Francisca, to show off the production material. Here is a Driblee, a new character who possesses the Water ability. This is a selection of different designs, all with a water theme and different passes of motifs. These soggy enemies... I have to say that I like them all.

[2]

Again, Bonjam. This is Floatie the Cell Core, whose concept art will be the second I show today. It's called this due to its trait of being immersed in water, a design which it consistently kept from conception. These unique forms are all charming, I think. I could use some ice to freeze it up and add it to my trophy collection... heh.

[timeguardiansarchive]

In Over Our Heads: Mel & Street

@avictimofthejazz (Preplotted Asylum Verse au)

"Jim?" Melody rasps. His name is eternally etched into the grooves that criss-cross her parched lips. She feels like she's drowning in a well so deep it could never be escaped. Ebony lashes sweep begrudgingly over the curves of her cheekbones as she strains for a semblance of consciousness.

"No! Melanie." A harsh voice cuts. A warmth presses to the globe of her cheek and remains there in a feigned comforting gesture. "If you don't stop summoning your imaginary friends, you will never get out of here. Don't you want to be --my-- good wife? It's me. Your beloved, caring husband, Phillipe."

An elongated huff escapes her as she tries to rouse herself to a higher level of consciousness. Though her body feels weightless and floaty, she is vaguely aware that she is being moved by a man. Where he is taking her, she can not imagine. There is little she recollects outside of the scantly lavished, padded room.

"Come on," Phillipe snappishly urges. "Say you remember, Melanie!"

Groggy, Mel's eyes do linger hard upon him, willing herself to remember who and what she is.

Exasperated by her lack of cooperation, Phillipe raises her left hands so that her bleary eyes might view a golden ring. "Look Melanie.."

Was he her husband? Was she violent? Her whirling mind tries to puzzle things together. "I--I don-- don't remember" Mel utters on the verge of tears.

-------

She hasn't seen him in nearly a month. Despite Phillipe's repetitive efforts to banish her every memory of Jim Street, the damnable SWAT officer, has been interwoven into the very tapestry of her being.

Never once has she beckoned for the prince responsible for her stay. There are no hazy freudian slips, no yielding for him in the face of desperation, no accidental urges to acknowledge the truth Phillipe had attempted to fabricate. It didn't matter how oft he attempted to convinced the ebony-haired woman that she was his wife, that her identity was Melanie of Cambridge, that she was extremely violent, or that Street was dead, or little more than an imaginary friend, Mel still kept clinging tightly to the desire for Street.

Prince Phillipe's patience is rapidly waning, dissolving like sugar into water. A fact, of which, the entire staff has been made very aware of. With a flash of money and a sense of urgency, he insisted they up whatever medication she was on to the highest dose to make her even more susceptible to his suggestions.

Overcrowding had a way of overriding express orders from the irate prince. They were running out of rooms to accommodate patients. The staff knew they couldn't exactly keep the "secret occupants" under wraps much longer. Especially, if an accidental cell-mate couldn't keep their mouths shut. The operation would be safer if the princess and the swat officer were kept in the same room.

After hours of profuse deliberation, Phillipe caved. So long as they continued to sedate her, that they keep her in a straight jacket, and treat Street like a figment of her imagination, the prince resolved the rest of his qualms about her new accommodations.

-----------

The sound of wheels against marbled tiles is the last she remembers. She must have dozed off for the next time she opens her eyes, she's in another white-washed room and Phillipe is gone. As is the incessant headache the timbre of his voice had inspired.

Mel drags the flat of her foot along the sticky surface of the hospital's mattress and groans as long crumpled muscles unfurl for the first time in ages. All except for her hands. Mel gives a soft tug to them but realizes they are held steadfast and secure.

Sucking in a breath, she wills her core muscles to help her raise a little. After all, she saw-- was it? Yes, it had to be another person. With a parched wallow she mumbles. "Y-- you okay o-over there?" She blinks still a little ot fuzzy to even think about moving to the figure's side.

[calicomsicgal]

Floaty the cell core (yes that is their name and it’s amazing)

[metavanaj]

What the hey, AJ? | First Assault [Volume: January 2019]

YES, THE TITLE IS COMPLICATED.

Hi - if you’re reading this, you know the drill. My name’s MetaVanAJ, insert quirky catchphrase and/or ‘your mum’ joke here. Welcome to the first volume of ‘What the hey is AJ play...ing?’ Yeah, the title isn't the greatest but hey it rhymes...mostly. I just thought I’d use this as quick way of communicating what I’m playing (or going to play) at the moment, & hopefully give some quick recommendations, to pique your interests in some really good stuff. As much as I would love to do a video version of this, I feel I would lose the spontaneity behind the idea; once I get my shit together I’ll do one of these in video form, someday. The only reason I’m writing this now is because January 2019 is so jammed packed with excellent NEW titles (despite most of this article being about ports & remakes), that I literally won’t be able to keep up. And I can’t even keep up in an off-season so this is just exponentially worse. So, ‘what the hey is AJ playing’ in January 2019?

Travis Strikes Again: No More Heroes

(Platform(s): Switch | Release Date: Jan 18th)

Travis Strikes Again: No More Heroes is taking another core title hostage so please buy this game. Joke aside, I am still looking forward to this title. Like everyone else, I’m a bit iffy and uncertain about how the gameplay is shaping up but I’ll be picking this up day one. Why? For one reason only, of course: Suda51. You see Goicha Suda is a brand - he is a different, ‘special snowflake’ and he makes different ‘special snowflake’ games. His name has been slapped on various works the past decade, and then some, but he actually hasn’t directed a game since 2007’s No More Heroes, on the Nintendo Wii. Travis Strikes Again marks his return to the directorial seat, albeit an odd-way to do so. But hey, this means pure unadulterated Suda-vision, the same vision that gave us Killer7 and No More Heroes; meaning narrative-wise we’re up for, what the kids call, some wacky shit. That and being able to blast through this with a bud, in co-op, will ease any of the pain, if the gameplay isn’t to mechanically engaging. Pain divided...is worse - why would you subject your friend to that?

Tales of Vesperia: Definitive Edition

(Platform(s): PS4, Xbox One, Switch, PC | Release Date: Jan 11th)

I saw someone call the ‘Tale of’ series the McDonalds of JRPGS - I don’t think that’s an accurate metaphor but hey it’s an interesting way to open up a paragraph, no? Tales games tend to be a bit ‘same-y’ but it’s a bloody excellent formula and the fact they’ve released so many of these over the years just goes to show the formula works. Don’t like the characters, story & setting of one Tales game? Play the next one - gameplay remains the same, fundamentally. I won’t dive into the gameplay deep here but let's just say the ‘action’ is pretty decent in this ‘action-RPG’. Personally, you can’t go wrong with any Tales after Tales of the Abyss (Symphonia didn’t click with me, my bad). Apparently, Vesperia is one of the best in the series, so if it’s half as good as Abyss, and what I’ve seen of Xillia, then this is definitely worth a buy - especially on Switch, so you can take this bad boy on the go. Don’t worry, high-frame lovers: it was 60fps on the 360 in 2008, it’ll a good time, trust me. And this is one also has a dog with an eye patch in it...and a pirate midget. The definitive edition also adds all the extra goodies from the japan exclusive PS3 port, which is all the more reason to pick up a copy now. LIKE RIGHT NOW.

New Super Mario Brothers U Deluxe

(Platform: Switch | Out now!)

Eh, I’m not super excited about this game in particular but moreso the idea of the game itself. Shocking fact: New Super Mario Bros. games have been decent this entire time. The games have no spunk, in terms of story and presentation, but boy is the level design tight & fun. If you’re looking for a good 2D platformer on Switch, get Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze, or hey even Shantae ½ Genie Hero. The other big 4-player party-style offerings however, have been kinda meagre offerings. Super Mario Party looks boring and soulless, Kirby: Star Allies is patronisingly easy to a point of being ‘unfun’ (and that’s for a Kirby game), and I forgot how to casually play Smash without crushing people’s dreams. Super Mario Bros. U is a great platformer and even greater with a few buddies but I’m not clamouring to get it at full price. I still strongly recommend it though if you’re just looking for some 4-player platform ‘em up fun. Comes with Luigi U too, that’s nice - surprised they didn’t charge us for it, all over again. That’d be almost as bad as charging a full 80 Australian dollars for it...oh wait.

Resident Evil 2 [2019 remake]

(Platform(s): PS4, Xbox One, PC | Release Date: 25th Jan)

Legitimately thought, I don’t need to sell you this one. You saw the trailer, you’re probably already hyped that Resi is ‘returning to its roots’; whatever that means. Personally, I haven’t touched Resident Evil up until recently, as I am a big baby when it comes to jump-scares. I know their coming but I still go through the physical shock of getting scared by set jumps. The titles I have been delving into (and loving) of late, have been Resi 4, 5 & 6...all at once - and I wonder why I can’t tame the backlog? Anywho, that’s why I am excited for the Resi 2 remake. Why should YOU be excited? The Resi 2 remake takes from all the best components of the series, and smooshs them together to create something extraordinarily beautiful -  the actual horror elements and sense of claustrophobia through environmental design from the first three classic games, the tight gameplay formula from the modern Resi formula (4, 5, 6) and the beautiful new engine from Resi 7. Resident Evil 2 (2019_ is like a best hits album of everything the series has achieved so far. Play it, yeah - you owe it to yourself.

Kingdom Hearts freaking III

(Platform(s): PS4, Xbox One | Release Date: 29th Jan)

At this point, you are either on the Kingdom Hearts hype train, or you live in beautiful bliss of the Kingdom Hearts hype train. I got in an abusive relationship where whenever I thought about Kingdom Hearts 3, I would angrily playthrough the entirety of Kingdom Hearts II: Final Mix again. I’m better now - I spend my days now complaining about Dream Drop Distance like a good boy now. That being said: I’m a fan like everyone, I’m getting this Day 1, and I payed an extra 20 Australian dollars, on top of full price, for the deluxe edition. If you’re wondering why you should buy Kingdom Hearts 3, all I’m going to say is it’s going to be epic. It’ll have a rippling behemoth impact on anyone who’s touched a game from the Eastern shores, like Final Fantasy XV did, at its release. If you’re a newcomer, obviously start with Kingdom Hearts 1 & 2, as they are the finest action-RPGs I’ve ever played, in my short time on this earth. But if you’re even remotely invested in the series, you’re already drooling - that fabled release of KH3 is so close I can practically taste it. It tastes so good. I SWEAR TO GOD THOUGH IF I SEE ‘FLOATY COMBAT’, I DON’T KNOW WHAT I’ll DO. I’ll see you at the end of it all...

Senran Kagura Burst Re:Newal

(Platform(s): PS4, PC | Release Date: 18th Jan)

Woah, that last one got a little emotional there. Anyways, this one’s an easy sell: BOOBS, BUTTS, ANIME BABES, & BODACIOUS BLADES. Senran Kagura Estival Versus was a interesting musou that showcased some promising gameplay elements; I actually had to activate more than two brain cells at once, during my playthrough. Shocking, I know. Senran Kagura Burst Re:Newal is a remake of a 3DS game (Senran Kagura Burst), which consists of gameplay more akin to a 3D-Beat-’em-up. It simply looks like a bit of a meatier Estival Versus so I’m keen to check it out & see how deep the game mechanics well is. If you’re looking for a fun light action romp too, you should as well. The presentation, which I won’t delve into here, is often what is a bit of a turn off for newcomers - I personally have never been swayed by it either way it. Sure, it’s a bit saucy but it doesn’t detract from the fact that whatever the Senran Kagura series tries its hand at, is often a pretty fun & polished experience, albeit a slightly shallow one. This one isn’t necessarily a ‘must get’ but they’re not charging full price so it is definitely worth an investigative playthrough, if you can get past the ‘fan-service-y’ presentation.

Well, that’s it for the first volume of ‘What the hey, AJ?’ Next time, I hope to adapt this into video form & hopefully spin in a few funnies, as well as just tighten up the structure. Next time, probably won’t be all new releases either - I’ll probably end up doing another just if I find that everything I’m playing, at any given time, is amazing. I have, and always will be, MetaVanAJ - stay cool, fools. Actually, that was mean calling my audience fools. Stay cool, individuals.

[davidegbert]

Asus VivoBook Max X541UA Review

With the new school and college year under way, it’s time to focus on the new ‘back-to-school’ offerings in the laptop market. The mid-range and mainstream laptop segments these days offer a good mix of features and performance and you can find various form factors as well to suit your working style.

Today, we’ll be testing Asus’ newly launched VivoBook Max X541UA, which is a mainstream laptop targeted at students or anyone looking to buy a budget laptop for general work. With a large display and a full-sized keyboard at hand, let’s see if the new VivoBook Max makes for a worthy contender.

 Asus VivoBook Max X541UA design and build quality

Given its mainstream target, the body of the X541UA is mostly plastic. The fit and finish are decent, but the quality could have been better. Take the lid for example, which flexes very easily and isn’t very thick. Despite this, we didn’t see any major warping when we applied pressure on the lid, but we did notice a slight ripple at the left edge of the display when we opened and tilted the lid, which isn't a very good sign. 

The lid of the Asus VivoBook Max X541UA has a textured pattern that doesn’t attract fingerprints. We have more plastic on the lower half of the laptop, but it feels more durable. The palm rest area is spacious and has a similar texture as the back of the lid. You get a full-sized keyboard but the cutouts for the chiclet keys feel a bit crude as there’s visible excess plastic. The keys themselves are well spaced and are pretty comfortable for typing. Despite the 2.3mm travel distance, they don’t feel floaty or spongy.

All the ports are placed on the left. We have one USB Type-C (USB 3.1, Gen1) port, two standard USB ports (1x USB 3.0, 1x USB 2.0), 10/100 Ethernet, VGA, HDMI and a headphone/ microphone combo socket. The SD card reader is placed on the front, just below the power and battery status LEDs, and there is a DVD writer on the right. While a Type-C port is a nice addition, there are only two full-sized USB ports, which, in our opinion, are a lot more useful for most people. The bottom is completely sealed off and the battery is not removable. There are intake vents underneath while the hot air is vented out from the vents on the left.

The Asus VivoBook Max X541UA comes with a full-HD resolution screen, which we appreciate, as more often than not we have to settle with a 1366x768 display at this price point. With a 15.6-inch screen size, text and icons are a lot less jagged, which makes reading a lot better. However, colours and viewing angles range from average to quite poor. This anti-glare panel produces slightly pale colours and there’s visible banding across gradients, even with high-resolution 4K video files. Vertical and horizontal viewing angles are also very narrow, so if you’re not sitting dead centre with the lid tilted to the optimal position, you’re going to see distorted colours. Even with the Asus Splendid screen tuning software, we couldn’t improve this. It’s also important to note that the display only supports 45 percent of the NTSC colour gamut so this is not the best tool for photo editing or any other colour-sensitive work.

Physically, the VivoBook Max X541UA is like any other mainstream laptop. The nearly-all-plastic construction doesn’t give you any sense of premiumness. Like most 15.6-inch laptops, it is a bit on the heavier side at 1.9kg and a thick too at 27.6mm. We also would have liked better spacing between the USB ports as you could run into an issue with thicker devices or dongles.

Asus VivoBook Max X541UA specifications and features

The VivoBook Max is powered by Intel’s Core i3-7100U CPU, which is based on the Kaby Lake architecture. This is a dual-core CPU with a maximum frequency of 2.4GHz and HyperThreading. Along with this, we have a single 4GB stick of DDR4 RAM and a 1TB 2.5-inch mechanical hard drive. Graphics duties are handled by the CPU’s onboard HD Graphics 620 capabilities. Since this is a low-end CPU, we didn’t encounter any overheating and the exhaust fan ran silently. However, the vibration of the hard drive can be felt across the palm rest area and the keyboard, which is quite distracting when you’re trying to type. The hard drive in our unit also made an annoying intermittent ‘ticking’ sound, which was faintly audible even when the drive was idle.

The rest of the specifications include a VGA webcam, Wi-Fi 802.11b/g/n, Bluetooth 4.0, stereo speakers and a 3-cell, 36Whr battery. Asus ships the X541UA with Windows 10 Home 64-bit and like always, there are a bunch of programs pre-installed with it. There’s a limited-time subscription to McAfee LiveSafe, a trial version of Office 365, and a suite of applications from Asus including Spendid, ICEpower for audio, USB Charger+, Live Update, and Giftbox, which shows a curated list of apps that you can download.

Asus VivoBook Max X541UA performance and battery life

As a general-purpose laptop, the VivoBook Max is good for those who need to type a lot. The well-spaced-out keys and good tactile feedback make this a very comfortable experience. We used the laptop for a few hours over the course of our regular work day and didn’t have any fatigue issues. The high-resolution screen also helps here as text and smaller images don’t have the usual jaggedness that you typically find in HD displays around this price point. We also like the fact that you can use the VivoBook Max comfortably on your lap even when it is charging as it doesn’t get too hot.

Having said this, Windows performance is quite sluggish, which could be down to having just 4GB of RAM. On average, we found roughly 900MB of free RAM available, that too with only a few browser tabs open and small apps such as Paint running in the background. According to Asus, the laptop supports a maximum of 12GB of RAM so an upgrade should help smoothen things out.

Performance in synthetic benchmarks is just about average. We got scores of 2600, 2284, and 2500 in PCMark 8's Home, Creative, and Work test suites. In Cinebench R15, we got a CPU score of 235 and OpenGL score of 30fps. While this laptop isn’t suited for gaming, less intense titles from the Windows Store do work. The trackpad works well with Windows 10 gestures too. We found the quality of the VGA webcam to be quite poor as the footage was noisy even in a well lit room.

The laptop boasts of stereo 3W speakers and Bang & Olufsen ICEpower audio enhancement. The AudioWizard app lets you cycle between equaliser presets. Audio quality is actually pretty good, especially for movies. Vocals are distinct and loud, and sound isn’t all that tinny. Since the speakers sit above the keyboard, audio is always clear no matter where you place this laptop.

In our Battery Eater Pro test, we managed to get around 2 hours and 17 minutes of runtime, which is not great. PCMark’s battery test, which cycles through a bunch of media and browser related tasks, ran for 3 hours and 39 minutes. With actual usage, we managed to get a little more than 4 hours. This is still below average and won’t get you through a full workday.

Verdict

Asus’s new VivoBook Max X541UA is one of the least expensive laptops available with a full-HD screen and 7th gen Core i3 CPU. It’s is currently available at retail chains such as Croma as well as smaller local shops, but you might not have much luck finding it online.

Its closest competition is the Dell Inspiron 15 5567, which is priced slightly higher. The VivoBook Max scores well for its comfortable keyboard and decently loud speakers. The full-HD display also delivers relatively sharp text and images. However, performance is a bit sluggish overall in apps and in the Windows UI, which is to be expected with just 4GB of RAM. The quality of the display is also not that great and we expected much better battery life. The fit and finish could use some finesse too. If budget is your primary concern, this is a choice you can consider. 

Price (MRP): Rs. 37,990

Pros

Comfortable keyboard

Good speakers

Full-HD display

Cons

Screen colour banding, narrow viewing angles

Hard drive vibration is distracting

Build quality and finish could be better

Weak battery life

Ratings (Out of 5)

Design: 3

Display: 3

Performance: 3

Software: 3.5

Value for Money: 3.5

Overall: 3

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