craftmanatee - Tumblr blog

[craftmanatee]

Hazbin Hotel S1 Review

I recommend the show as it is fun, but it is flawed in many places and the characters I loved the most were the ones the show focused least on and got right.

In episode 1, the very intro to the show. The mythos between Adam and Eve is changed to a point where it changes the very nature of Heaven and Hell and any philosophy behind it. Creating an enormous amounts of questions.

The intro declares Lucifer as giving Free Will to Lilith (Adams first wife) which is questionable although follows the biblical stories in a weird fashion. Kind of like cherry picking.

This is what consumed me in the first episode of Hazbin Hotel as I know the biblical stories, but I also know what they represent, and what they can explain.

But because this was a narration of the biblical mythos as a story passed down to Charlie from her mother (Lilith) and Father (Lucifer), I was eagerly waiting for a sad reveal that it was a lie.

The quintessential representation of manipulation, false beauty and evil. The right hand of GOD... . . . (Spoilers going forward)

was not revealed as that...

I would go as far as to say they doubled down on it, kind of. But it mostly feels like they are keeping us away from my suspicions until Season 2.

Hazbin Hotel Season 1 is about the Hotel, Charlie and their attempts at the goal for redemption and being let into heaven.

What I liked

There were lots of great moments throughout many episodes, and they only get better.

The show was also stylish, and the animation was progressively getting better each episode. Which is unusual, I often think the first episode is where they make their impression. But rather, they made things better as you went along.

Sir Pentious was the most fun character in the entire show. Straight up, and they did him so well. I am surprised by how the other characters were flawed, perhaps bad. But Sir Pentious? Ofcourse he didnt have as much screen time as the others. But by golly was he near perfect.

Some songs were awkward, and others real fun. But my favourite was "Loser, Baby". This is the best song, in my opinion also in its tune. But also in its lyrics. the very simple final meaning in it is like the most Christian thing in the entire show, its hilarious. I honestly do not know if the show creators know that.

As an Orthodox Christian, the philosophy between Heaven and Hell is a lot more ambiguous and as such many come into conversation saying Earth IS hell. With the humbling attitude of lowering yourself to others as equals, it sets a realistic perspective as to where you can start building yourself up. A lot like what Hazbin Hotel as a show tries to be, which is why I think this song is funny and amazing amidst so many confusing elements of the show.

Heaven was a big surprise, I was not expecting the show to get heaven right in anyway and they didnt. Botched it in my mind, but I still enjoyed their version of what heaven looks like compared to how hell looks like.

The Voice Acting was also very good, there were some really well directed scenes and the voice actors really managed to play in on those scenes. Specifically Angel Dust stood out to me even if many others were absolutely great, but he had scenes where he unexpectedly sounded convincing as all hell, especially in his focused episode.

What I did not Like

I have too many questions that blow holes in the world of Hazbin Hotel, and there were certain moments where rules exist that I didnt expect and it boggles my mind even more. The biggest contributor is Vaggie as she could have used her "Secret past" as a means to absolutely destroy almost every argument in the entire show. Her experience, and intentions are so righteous, its actually WEIRD that she didnt use it when she had the chance. Her character and her story was way too powerful for Hazbin Hotel, creating huge holes in the entire fabric of their own mythos.

But, what I hated the most is the representation of Lucifer, as mentioned it may be because it waits for Season 2. But my gripe with Lucifer is mostly because there is a character who represents the real Lucifer we know and thats Alastor. Alastor seems to embody most of the characteristics of actual Lucifer. This is fine, for now...

Because, I do think Lucifer (Hazbin hotel character) is good the way he is if, in Season 2 a truth about him is revealed. Alastor maybe smiling his whole way through, but Lucifer makes you believe he is all good in every way he can. But, this then has to wait.

There was a lot of moments that were too fast, or whiplashes the character building a bit too fast. Decisions that weren't realistic and were there just to "fix" certain aspects, be it a character thing or a story thing.

Some elements like vVv gang were kinda forgotten, and just did not feel like they had much to do with the story in the end anyway. A lot of characters were shown, and then dismissed. They were very interesting in design but obviously, couldn't see their underlying relevance, yet we still experienced them. It is weird.

Some if not lots of the dialogue really does feel unnecessary in its swearing. I thought people were exaggerating with their takes on it but what really sticks out is how the dialogue is clearly scripted. Characters have clear things they need to say but end up throwing swears and slurs in weird, awkward places. It is not really realistic. Ive been around people who talk like that, and as honest as they are, can also be hard to hear. But hazbin seems to think a dash of realism is by adding swears like this...

Criticisms

I think most of the shows flaws stem from the very beginning in the fantasy of creating heaven and hell as a modern society. With a modern outlook and modern philosophy while being fun in a sharp kinda 90s-00s cartoon look. It is then hard to look at a depiction of very old mythos (of which are still relevant today) as just simple things to toy with.

It is then incredibly easy but biased to criticise how Hazbin Hotel depicts heaven and hell with its modern outlook. Im not criticising my criticism of the show, rather im saying, you will reap what you sow.

Hazbin Hotel (for me) fails to create and establish the world of Hell and the world of Heaven. I know it is hard, but it didnt try much. This is why I think Hazbin Hotel has a lot of issues. There are about 3 or 4 major themes running at the same time and the show thinks it only has 1 or 2. An example is the "Circus" theme prevalent in a lot of Helluva Boss, and Hazbin Hotel, particularly Lucifer himself. Yet this circus theme is only an aesthetical backdrop, justifying the style and designs, personality of certain characters and things. Which then goes against the design in the other side, such as Heaven, or the symbolic duality of what the show is about.

Vox is represented well in hypnotizing his viewers as the television demon. Good, easy symbol for what is happening in the real world, and is (lets say) still happening in hell. This is good use of it all, until its over. They dont use it again. Not even as commentary, in symbol, anything. Vox himself seems glued to the screen as much as everyone else, which feels like it goes against his character.

It was LUCIFER who mentioned not watching screens as it "scrambles his brains" almost like the only character who is aware of what sins are and how it takes control of your life in the entire show, but only in this one mention.

My version of Hazbin Hotel

In my version of Hazbin Hotel, Charlie is naive at first like in this show and hopeful about getting sinners into heaven, but each episode is then dedicated to the gradual realization on how or what keeps them from achieving heaven.

Instead of Jabbing binary christian values like sex before marriage, lets focus on the actual sins, the actual materials that get people to loose control of their lives, or in other words... Sell their souls.

Charlie (or someone else) finds out about Angel Dusts drug problem. As such, she goes to figure out who distributes these drugs. She fails to thwart the drug problem, but as such, instead looks into Angel Dust, and how he can choose to reject them instead, figure out a life without them. This is where Husk steps in with his wisdom despite being a bit hypocritical, and Charlie learns through them where the real change starts.

In another, Vaggie notices Sir Pentious and his whimpy but prideful characteristics, and challenges him to finally take on his Rival, Cherry. Vaggie trains Sir Pentious several times to what seems like failed attempts, and every time Vaggie Defeats Sir Pentious, she tries again. Eventually, Pentious gives in and takes on Cherry early despite Vaggie disagreeing. Vaggie goes to stop Pentious, believing he will kill cherry. What happens instead, he defeats both Vaggie and Cherry in the way he knew best, but does not kill, and keeps his prideful tone to a minimum. Simply relishing a little on Cherries defeat, and asks that she gets even better. This is the start of Cherry and Sir Pentious relationship.

One more,

Charlie and her Father Lucifer in the show have an unexplained relationship. I do not know why they are the way they are to each other. Why is she so reluctant over her father?

Lets make Lucifer the Lucifer I wished him to be. A goody toe-shoes who never, even a little bit shows his true side (like what Alastor does). Much like Jar-Jar binks is a Sith theory, Lucifer is a good guy. Hell does not kinda look down on him like the show does, and instead everyone LOVES Lucifer in hell. He is the best guy. The only person to be reluctant and kinda sus about Lucifer is Charlie.

Yes, Charlie is the only person who has slight doubts about her Father. She is the TRUE good, while he is the FALSE good.

When Charlie tries to dismiss vaggies advice of inviting Lucifer over to the hotel for some help, she caves in and reluctantly asks for his help. Lucifer convincingly (to audience) makes conversation and finally accepts her invitation, even if HE knows she does not fully trust him. Lucifer takes all the "deserved" attention while Charlie gets pushed aside.

This is when Alastor steps in and makes his remarks that makes Lucifer dislike Alastor. And from here, the episode can go as it did because Lucifer DOES say a few damning things Im glad they did try. Despite all my criticisms. I do think, Hazbin Hotel is fun. Which is what it tries mostly to be with its musicals and style. I just wish it was meaningful.

[craftmanatee]

Twitter Disaster is funny!

Seeing people come here or back to wherever from Twitter is kinda funny. I want to call you all cowards or something.

[craftmanatee]

Dread X Collection 5 Review!!

Another Dread X Collection after a while! As always, it is me, and a friend playing through the games together. He picks a game and plays it, I spectate. Then I pick a game and play it, he spectates. I know that it means we never had the opportunity to spook ourselves all alone, but the games are a treat and are fun to experience with someone else. Read my review of each game, and the outpost 3000 hubworld! Anyways... This Dread X Collection is weirdly the weakest collection. Hear me out...

Me and my buddy ol pal were reminiscing of the previous collections.

1, 2, 3, hunt, coming up to this one and we concluded that DreadXCollection 5 is the weakest but for disappointing reasons. Mainly, the games. The general theme of this review is how we mostly disliked the games, or found them unremarkable. But there are glimmers of some really good games, and choices in general. Let us Start with...

Game X: The hub world

The hubworld of this game is a Chucky Cheese esque little playground restaurant with animatronics and all that jazz. Called "Outpost 3000" that has the theme of 'aliens' and typical extra terrestrial aesthetics.

This might be the best mechanical Hub world of the collections simply because it had some engaging gameplay and semi-forced us to play a game before continuing on with the hub world.

(Previously, on The Hunt, we did the entirety of the hubworld and then played the games. Outpost 3000 forces you the pacing that you deserve)

However, I still think the 2nd collections House is the best. The third collection wins in aesthetics, its progressive darkness was awesome. The Hunt was thematically fitting.

Speaking of themes... Outpost 3000 to me continues the illusive story of the dread x collections but fittingly in a thematic way, where the hubworld itself eludes to the otherworldly being corrupting the world to be an extraterrestrial itself. But that does not say much, you can see how much effort we put in figuring out the Dread X story ;)

One more thing, The theme of the games are also so much harder to pinpoint. Many of the games had similar warnings, like "Play with headphones, because audio is important here". So that might have been the mechanical prompt, but the story prompt could have been "Becoming a part of a horror entity" or "Aiding the horror entity". The story that is revealed within the comics is a good similarity to the many stories of the games. There are many similarities, although not all follow my theory exactly. Another one could have been collectibles, or easter eggs. But we never bothered to complete them in any game.

Still, I think im 90% close.

Game 1: Gallerie by Shakles

I was the player

Gallerie gets the overall rating of Pretty Good Gallerie was a pretty surrealistic game. Its funny, spooky, confusing. Its so many things like the raving colours it bombards you with. I encountered a few bugs but we worked around them. It had many mechanics, and then actually stringed them together in a good way. It is hard to summarize this one, but all I will say is that it was actually pretty good, and, somehow, the creator knows everything about it while I struggle to understand most of it.

The translating parts is the wackiest hectic interpretations ive been forced to do.

Game 2: Karao by Stroboskop (Sylvio)

Friend was the player

Karao gets the overall rating of Alright

Karao was this, plunge down the rabbit hole esque depressing insanity ride. It felt a lot like silent hill in some of the aesthetics. The game itself is mostly linear, you trying to find your way, and shoot some women with guns. I dont know what to say much about Karao. This is the first where me not being the player hindered me truly feeling and understanding it. It kinda got forgotten as we went down the list of games.

sorry.

Game 3: Vestige by Philisophic Games

I was the player

Vestige gets the overall rating of Ok

So... this game had many opportunities to be so much more than it did. In the end, it was... annoying, easy and annoying.

The start of the game, figuring out where the plants are, the rooms etc made me tense up simply because you only control with your mouse, point and clicking the environment to go to. This clunky control scheme made me think I will struggle, but the real gameplay is just...

Playing a game within a game, with a cheap random jumpscare that kills but is easy to avoid from time to time, while the game within the game also being annoying.

But its not... terrible. Its soo in the middle for me. It caught my attention then kinda... did whatever it could do... oh well.

Game 4: Spirit Guardian by Nikk F.

Friend was the player

Spirit Guardian gets the overall rating of Pretty Bad

Not outright bad, but... pretty bad. Spirit guardian feels so buggy and makes no sense. It has made the effort of some style, but it does not mount up to much. The puzzles, the mechanics, the story. So mediocre. It is so dark, yet there is literally limited amount of batteries for your flashlight. Its not that scary and kinda made us angry.

Game 5: Beyond The Curtain by Matt Reeves

I was the player

Beyond the Curtain gets the overall rating of Great!

Beyond the Curtain is very walky-simulatory, but then things actually get you to consider giving ATTENTION to it... ahem.

The look and feel, the atmosphere is what this one was mostly about. Yet it also had some actual gameplay considerations. This games sound design is the winner of sound in this collection. It was all appropriate and visceral and tense. Great ending too!

Game 6: Ludomalica by iwilliams

Friend was the player

Ludomalica gets the overall rating of Great!

Ludomalica, puts everything into place pretty well, you play this board game, walk around the house and entice the rules. Then it tries to scare you as it shuts off the lights or opens the door.

We really did not feel much for it until... well... I cant spoil it.

Lets just say that, it wasnt a real scare, it was a scary realisation. And it was so clever, it caught us off-gaurd. Maybe we should have seen it coming, but whatever. It was a really good horror trick.

The rest of the game kinda sucks, kinda. You kinda go and do the same things, but with increased difficulty.

Still, this was pretty simple yet iconic.

Game 7: Rotten Stigma by VisceralError

I was the player

Rotten Stigma gets the overall rating of Meh...

pppfffff.... this was... fine, but, didnt do much... It was run of the mill silent hill homage. shoot the monsters, spooky vibes (but not spooky enough for me), and some puzzles or whatever. I did not care much for this. Forgettable. Sorry.

Game 8: Resver by colorfiction

Friend was the player

Resver gets the overall rating of Pretty Cool

Resver is a linear walky simulatory game. Where it shines tho is in its experience. It has this very cool grungy style, making a lot of itself have a difficult time to be interpreted or defined. Which adds to the horrors when they happen. Nothing scary imo, just a nasty soft panic. Which is a unique feeling to tap into. It is pretty short, but good!

Game 9: The Book of Blood by Darkstone Digital

I was the player

The Book of Blood gets the overall rating of Good!

This game is a mish mash of many mechanics. Its closest comparison would be five nights at freddies but actually good. But also not good since there are a few mechanics that suck ass, or arent used.

Regardless, you think you are stuck in one place but then you have to go out into the darkness. I must say, the presentation in this game was really good.

Being caught never really threatened me as the QTE was easy, also maybe bugged out and didnt let me press on some of them, loosing me a life. And the "Peek out window" mechanic also never got prompted for usage, even if I peeked out to see if I would catch the intruder.

This was good. It wins in presentation, theres a lot of cool shit put togheter.

Game 10: Hunsvotti by Roope Tamminen

Friend was the Player

Hunsvotti gets the overall rating of Best game in Collection!

This is funny, confusing... The game invokes the feeling of being bullied. Its such a shitty feeling but the game kinda does it very well. Im surprised to the "horror" of this game being the feeling of getting bullied. What the fuck, lol.

Regardless, it is great. It has some oddly surprising mechanics (Namely, when you are at 1 hit away from dying) It has a satisfying conclusion, and we even set out to loose on purpose to see what would happen. We werent disappointed.

Game 11: We Never Left by FYRE games

I was the player

We Never Left gets the overall rating of Could have been the best.

We never left is this investigative game where you look through the life of a supposed serial killer by reading papers, listening to tapes and... playing his game.

A lot of awesome buildup and reveals. I must say, this game was great, I loved it. Especially when sound got put into play.

Its biggest, and I would say absolutely horrid drawback, which might have been our fault, is the FPS when all lights are on. It has such a horrid FPS, I was looking at the floor or ceiling when moving around.

The optimization of the game was terrible. The worst

But I still feel like I got what the game wanted to give me, and it was a nice little video they made at the end as well!

Game 12: INTERIM by Phantom Sloth Games

Friend was the player

INTERIM gets the overall rating of Bad

Short, controls mostly suck, story didnt do anything... just bad. It felt so buggy, terrible jumping, yet was a platformer at one point... Gosh, just... not good. Im sorry.

Like, we are forced to run up vertically away from a monster, by jumping and walking over planks you have to set down, and then in a cutscene fall into the monster anyway...

gah, thats just... not good.

The only thing that it got going for it, is some of its style, thats it. It wasnt funny, maybe it tried to be tongue and cheek, but we didnt feel it.

Conclusion

So as you can see, not all games were horrible, but not all games were awesome or amazing. This collection had the most middle of the road set of games, and was not memorable.

Sure we had some moments, but then it dies out.

It wasnt the POGGERS from The Hunt or the Stapling of Squirrels The 3 Skelle bros or Seeing a ghost at the edges of the screen The Crazy Moon austronaut The "What the fuck" of Rotgut or the uh oh of Summer Night Nothing really stood out from this collection like before.

[craftmanatee]

Dread X Collection: The Hunt Review

Me and my friend binged another Dread X Collection, this time is a 7 game "The Hunt" spin off!

I will be quickly reviewing each game from worst to best. The "review" is mostly kind of like an impression and hopefully will not spoil much even if you choose to play it, but I hope this will be a fun read.

Game X: The Hub (Alright)

Before starting the list... lets chat about the Hub.

An isolated snowy base is kind of underutilized as a setting for horror and being lonely. In DreadX hunt, this new "The Thing" inspired Hub area is kind of good, kind of meh and pretty new. In previous Dread X hubs, it is either a puzzler (Second collection) or a Point and click with too much story (Third collection). This one is an inbetween the two, which is nice and has some proper gameplay.

We recommend after each game that you put in the codes rather than all at the same time. Play a game, put the code in. There is a nicer pacing to it that way.

Anyways, this Hub is both good and ok. Lots of negative space to explore, but the actual gameplay that it insists is pretty cool for a Hub World.

Seraphixial By Vidas Games (Come on...)

What a pain.

I was not the player for this one.

Seraphixial is a pretty bad shooter, it was pretty nonsensical and there was a lot of unnecessary crap. The irritating noises, the re-used gimmick scares from their previous game. The shooting. It had some neat design ideas, but not really... At least it is not just a jumpscare fest, but it is definitely awfully annoying and looked pretty easy.

Not much else to say that this sucked, im sorry...

Black Relic By TorpleDook (Boring)

Im sorry, but it was boring, maybe not entirely.

I was the player for this one.

The black relic is a bit campy, gothic cult slaying action. But it does not really make anything threatening for there to be "action". It does have some world building and the campy nature does come off as funny. The enemies who are never a threat, made themselves to be entertaining by being so bad. Aesthetically is also nice from their game in the second collection, since now, they opted for a pixelated filter which hides the cheap polygonal look. I think this one is... barely passable.

Rose of Meat By Mr. Pink (Neat)

Nothing great, but it was a neat experience.

I was the player for this one.

Rose of meat is this surreal game about... I dont really know. Theres stuff here you can interpret but I didnt make the attempt to go so far. I did really like the behaviour of everything, and the dynamic of multi-use weapons. I feel as if Mr. Pink tapped into a bit of gameplay that a lot of shooters is missing.

Anyway, the game looks like a trip and is pretty hard to understand. It is also a bit funny and I think it was pretty alright.

Axis Mundi By Philip Hesselbäck (Alright!)

I was the player for this one.

Cool fatal-frame like "shooter". That even teaches you something. The game generally is not scary, but you can get caught by surprise here or there. I also especially liked the picture book puzzles, kind of reminded me of pokemon snap in a way.

There is not much to the game other than running around and defeating ghosts, each with their own level. But it was not bad and was diversive. I am certain that there is a final puzzle to the book that we could unlock, but it required going out of the museum hub to capture the picture. We never figured out how we would do that so we left it at that.

The House of Unrest By Dan McGrath (Nice!)

I was not the player for this one

A funny, point and click-ish action game about a priest taking down a demon that haunts a house. I loved the style, its quips were funny, the puzzles were a bit hard to figure out. Not so much FIGURING OUT, but rather Finding stuff. Not really scary, but pretty entertaining.

Quality wise, I wouldnt put this above Axis Mundi, but the fun in House of Unrest and its themes is what put this as third best game in the collection.

Uktena 64 By KIRA (Poggers!)

I was the player for this one

This is the most complete feeling game in the list.

I love the attitude for this game, it has some scary moments, ngl. The silence kinda makes it. But it is mostly a very arcady like hunting game. The style, the attitude and even the buildup in levels is great. The gameplay is fine. It has a bunch of secrets and references, and I cant believe they put that all together so fast.

There is a lot of secrets too, I wish I could revisit this game to see if there is more.

It was quite the journey (On heroic difficulty) and is rivaling the Top Spot with the next game.

The Fruit By Christopher Yabsley (GREAT!!!)

I was not the player for this one.

The only reason why I put this game over Uktena 64 is because it has unique horror themes and does them well, has great ideas for a Survival Horror game and ends great.

The rifle mechanic, exploration and spell book is all great, they also combined it with some good immersion with light and physics (Even if its not that particularly amazing). Simply seeing a patrol lit up in the dark approach your building has this tenseness to it (be it ready for action, or an oh shit moment). The story is also nice and has a good journey building up to the ending. It is not as "perfect" as Uktena 64, but it is absolutely refreshing and new.

You see, the best Dread X Collection games to me are the ones that try something new. In style, in mechanics, or in horror. This is why I put the Fruit up there as it did them together mostly well and felt like a proper game should take notes from it.

In conclusion

Dread X Collection: The hunt was... not as diverse as the others. It had a general FPS theme to it and only 7 games with more time to make them. I kinda like the Quantity over quality as some of the developers just nail it with something unique.

What was odd is that, many of these games had a Plant-based theme to them. I dont know exactly what it is but, thats what it had. It was definitely the weirdest running theme amongst the games because The second one had a "Fear of God" or "Lovecraftian" theme, while the third one had a theme surrounding Death despite being cutesy in aesthetic.

This one has themes surrounding roses, and plants and stuff. I cant quite wrap my head around why that is. Nature? Is the theme Nature?!

Oh well. This Dread X Collection imo is not as strong as the Third collection, so far the Second Collection is holding itself up as the best one despite having extreme bads and extreme goods.

[craftmanatee]

Dread X Collection 3 Games Review

Once again, my friend and I have played through a new Dread X collection and I would like to make a short concise review for each game including the Hub area. We each played 1 game resulting in 6 each. The order of games reviewed is not the recommended order to play as we went on a very simple roundabout on the graveyard, and the games have a strong sense of quality unlike Dread X Collection 2 which had many great quality games and many low quality games.

Lets go!

Game X: The Castle (A bit unremarkable)

Scare Type: Cute

Player: My friend

The castle in some way is a step back from the awesomeness of the house. As it proceeds with forced dialogue cutscenes with your character and a ghost character that possesses in you. The puzzles and areas are also larger and more spread out and easier than the house. The Dialogue cutscene itself even give the idea to not compare the two, which is understandable. But let me tell YOU that I enjoyed the house more than I did the Castle (Even if it was not I who was doing the Castle Bit), so even if they are different, one was in my opinion better than the other.

The forced Dialogue cutscenes weren't to bad. The Voice Acting was not bad. Its rather the script and subjecting the player to sit through it. Its not the most fun to sit through and could have been handled better. In the house, a dialogue still happened but you were still free to move around while listening to the pre-recorded message. The ghost possessing you could have done the same with you, but instead this YOU is a character that must go into a dialogue and stop your gameplay.

The STYLE of the castle is where I think it wins the best. The very cute spooky aesthetic is great, and hold a lot of details we noticed near the end of the game. Like the paintings being famous paintings, replacing the characters of the paintings to goofy ghosts. Time passing between each game is also a great detail, making the castle ever so slightly different all the way to night time. I love the castle for this.

We quickly figured out that the theme for this Dread X collection was not just Cute and spooky, but also the inevitability of death.

Nate Berens – SATO WONDERLAND (Ok)

Scare Type: Surprising!

Player: My Buddy

This game was alright, nothing too amazing as pulling different topics to make a new dialogue box appear was tedious and a bit annoying. But the story itself was pretty cool, resulting in a surprise ending. Each game have different endings which we did not try to explore, but for this I think we managed to get the best ending. Not much to say about this one.

Blood Machine – Soul Waste (Eh...)

Scare Type: ...None?

Player: Me

Soul Waste is a 3D action platformer about this... post apocalyptical world, and you happen to be the “Saviour”. We got Ending C for this as we felt the tedium of the collectables and we weren't going to sit around collecting them all in this weird to navigate map. The enemies did not make much of a challenge making the game bit boring. The end boss was the only thing that gave me some ounce of real fun. There was a lot to explore, but my patience wore thin due to not being that interesting of a platformer. Although it did look good for what it did. There is some to explore which we did not, but I simply noticed that there was some things here and there that we did miss. We just did not feel the need to go back.

Bryce Bucher – Disparity of the Dead (Great!)

Scare Type: Horror that sticks around even after the game.

Player: My pal

This game I think pulls off the themes of Dread X Collection 3 very, very well! Perhaps the best thematic one? Nevertheless, this is a 3D platformer that lets you talk to fun characters collecting collectables and piece together a mystery. The topics that which the game introduces to you are all very good and sad in many ways. It also had a lingering effect on me personally. This lingering horror reminded me of SOMA by Frictional Games. Anyways, the game in general is not horrifying until you get to a certain point. Then when the actual ending plays, it all gets sad. We do not know if there are different endings, but the ending we did get was a sad one in my opinion and was great.

Amon Twentysix – Bete Grise (Cool!)

Scare Type: Uneasy, then relief!

Player: Me

I really liked the aesthetics of this game, reminded me a lot of some obscure old-school games. The gameplay is mostly of you going floor to floor doing cleaning and... repairing? Anyways, there are a few hints here and there that foreshadow the great revelation at the end. I saw some of them and felt very uneasy when going through the process as it all felt like a facade. But once the revelation hit, the game turned into something more funny, stylish and well, just felt good. Its rare for a horror game to kinda blue ball you into satisfaction.

DIRIGO GAMES – REACTOR (Disappointing)

Scare Type: Betrayal

Player: My Homie

This is a game I spoiled myself with, which is why I had my friend play it instead. The game is mostly a walking simulator in which it feels like you shouldnt be there in the bad/useless way as there is a robot buddy who keeps you company and doing everything for you. When the time comes, you are then obviously, chased to the ending of the game. Its not scary, sad. Its just a simple experience. The aesthetics of the game is great, by being a gradient of blacks and whites as well as minimal uses of colour. Other than that, this is disappointing.

Moya Horror/Amos – Nice Screams at Funfair (humorously frustrating)

Scare Type: Dont fail

Player: Me

This is a very short game that was short enough for us to also explore a different ending. There is no real inherent horror here. Its mostly thematic to being like Halloween. The game has you serving icecream to people, the challenge is to serve them the ice cream that they want, and take the money into your tip jar or cash register. The real challenge is the controls, as throwing ice cream into the ice cream cones often fails for no reason, and clicking on to activate anything just sometimes did not work. Resulting in funny scenarious. We got 2 different endings for this, one that made sense, and another that we didnt understand. The game looked great, the intro did not have to be as long as it did but it was a fun little ride.

Basalt Tower – Matter OVER Mind (Woah!)

Scare Type: Loosing progress...

Player: My Amigo

Matter over mind absolutely felt like an old-school platformer, it was also unique, colourful and funny/cute! Crawling around as a little parasitical monster and possessing scientists in order to escape the labs just looked great. Like many of these games, it had a collectible that meant... NOTHING. And if you died collecting them, you will loose them all. Prompting you to reset the entire game. Nevertheless, it was an impressive game that felt great.

Corpsepile – Submission (Fuck yeah!)

Scare Type: Scary, but also funny

Player: Me

This game had so many unique and cool twists and ideas. Maybe one of the best games in this collection. It was absolutely creative, funny... everything! It was also scary at times, referencing P.T. Its puzzles were great and fun, so much good about this one! The gameplay switches often, the horror amps up... Man... Submission was super good! Cant really say much other than that.

Torple Dook – Chip’s Tips (Funny!)

Scare Type: Friendly?

Player: My guy

Super creative point and click adventure game, hamming it up to 101%. It is also so patronizingly friendly that it becomes funny. Probably the most unique game on this list. And you can pet the dog in this game. I absolutely love the aesthetics of the unhinged masked textures, as well characters being flat cutouts. What is sad is this game feels like the end to Torple Dook’s streak of being in Dread X Collection games as it references his previous 2 games as well as more.

Breogan Hackett – Bubbo: Adventure on Geralds Island (Woah! x2)

Scare Type: JUMP

Player: Me

A very well done 3D platformer, with some challenge. The game is not scary, although it does come to a point. The platforming was very good albeit a tiny bit weird when turning in a specific way. It also features hidden collectibles that we unfortunately did not find all and left it at that. It sounded and felt good, looked good and was fun to get to the end with. There are different endings, we (me) only got to see 1. I jumped at the right time and made my way out!

Modus Interactive – EDEN: Garden of the Faultless (Chaos?)

Scare type: None, just weird.

Player: My hombre

This is literally a game akin to raising your Chaos in Sonic Adventure games. Just that you raise your little Evangelion. This game I think, has the best Ps1 look than the other games. It has a very weird control scheme, as well as being weird in its own right. And it nails the aesthetics very well. Too bad the game is finicky or boring, sporting long paths and lots of waiting. I guess you could have some fun minmaxing your wittle angel. I guess you always need at least one super unorthodox entry in a collection.

Adam Pype & Viktor Kraus – SPOOKWARE @ The Video Store (Quintessential)

Scare Type: brief moments of panic

Player: Both of us

This game... is actually really fun. Spookware is literally Wario ware but with horror movie themed events. The style, game and everything is perfect. Although very short, I would honestly buy a game like this if it was fully complete. I also think this is the most fitting game for the theme of the collection. Although, not much is done about the “inevitability of death” theme here, but everything else about it carries the collection thematicly. Such a fun and quirky little game.

-------------

Conclusions

And so, the best games in the collection In my opinion were...

#1 Submission AND Spookware

#2 Chips Tips

#3 Disparity of the Dead

The collection was not at all as scary as the first or the second collection. Although, that is understandable as it had a more Fun and goofy vibe to it. I love seeing these collections and it introduces me to people ive never heard of before. Like Viktor Kraus who made the music, like in the trailer for the collection. Thats a great one. I wish to keep seing them make these and I hope that it is profitable for them in the end as well.

[craftmanatee]

DreadXCollection 2 Games Review

Me and my friend played through DreadXCollection 2, we each played a game resulting in 6 for him, and 6 for me. Although, there is a 13th game which is the hub that goes between the games. Despite playing separate games like this, we both experienced it together and I feel confident in making a short review for each game in the collection and a conclusive one for the collection that is DreadX.

Il be reviewing each game in the Order I think You should Play if you are going to.

Game X: The House (Ingeniously done!)

Scare Type: Spooky

I would advise you to figure out and play trough the house, you will be forced to play through one game from the collection before the house opens up to be fully explored. When that is the case, give it your pace by doing the house little by little or all at once so that there are no barriers to the games.

The House itself is such a nostalgic trip for me when I think about it, it reminds me a bit on Mario 64 or Banjoo Kazooie where there is a hub and you have to figure out how to get to the next level. But the next level is a game in this case. Some of the puzzles can actually trip you up, but I fully believe you to try and figure them out on your own. There are always other puzzles to do if you are stuck on one. For us, they were not in any way difficult.

When you do unlock a game, make sure to read the terrible comic. Me and my friend did not... GET it, and it felt awful due to the terrible voice-over.

Solipsis by Daniel Mullins (alright!)

Scare Type: Surreal

This is the first recommended game to play. A fairly short one that puts you in the right mood for the rest of the House and the game. Solipsis is artistically very very very good. It gives a sense of dread, and plays with a certain mechanic wonderfully to the character. Its a bit of a Walking simulator, but it is worth experiencing, especially as a first before doing the house! My friend was the player of this one.

Then do the house, The next game on the list then is!

Arcadletra by Vidas Games (Not that good)

Scare Type: Jump Scares

This is a very short linear experience, the quality is not bad or anything. But artistically it does very little to satisfy a tense horror session. It felt very run of the mill, and just got me (Who was the player) to just walk forward into what the game wanted me to walk forward into. No real game, just a jumpy experience.

To The End Of Days by Scythe Dev Team (Meh)

Scare Type: Action packed!

Here is a fun one, and one I think is good to rub the last game off with. To The End Of Days is an 80s style action movie where you blast through enemies with your shotgun. Some enemies make a return from their previous DreadX collection game, those are probably the only spook worthy enemies in the game. It is pretty forgettable but a nice change of pace. My friend was the player of this one.

The Toy Shop by Mahelyk (Oof... pretty bad)

Scare Type: Copy-pasted enemies coming from the Darkness???

I get that these games are having fun with their ideas and are being unique, there are some unique ideas in this game but it just falls flat and you want it to be over. This game becomes several different games in different areas, you arent really sure what kind of horror this game is trying to bring. Although, I did like some of the aesthetics here and there, again it has its ideas but it was not enjoyable. Knock this one out. My friend was the player of this one.

Another Late Night by Secret Cow Level (What?)

Scare Type: Suspense

Playing this, I was mostly waiting for the big reveal or the grand horror, but I was mostly confused. Did we miss out on certain scares? Were there scares at all? I will give it that there is suspense. The horror here is of an entity speaking to you through the computer. That is... about it. Im sorry! I dont have much to say about this one!

Undiscovered by Torple Dook (Just fine)

Scare Type: Hopelessness

It is a pretty campy and simple Silent Hill esque game with a horror Indiana Jones adventure. Its not all that fun to PLAY, but kind of funny poking fun at the campy quality. As you go deeper, the game does get more interesting. Nothing to write much about, but is a nice treat.

From here on out, the upcoming games will be both better and scarier! If you are following this list, know that it all now becomes absolutely worth it!

The Diving Bell by Bathysfear Labs (Pretty cool)

Scare Type: Lonesome/Paranoia

The Diving Bell was a bit too forgiving with its difficulty, but it did have interesting ideas and design. It did get spooky and was also often moody. It was a bit glitchy, enough for us to find an easter egg by accident. Most of the spookiness might be randomised. Regardless, this was a nice spooky experience I personally wish I could see in a more fleshed out game. My friend was the player of this one.

Touched by an Outer God by Wither Studios (Fun!)

Scare Type: Gross

A rouge-like esque arena shooter akin to Doom. Its fun to upgrade yourself and blast through enemies, this game however, desperately needs music to accompany the campiness of the game. You will want to upgrade for killing efficiency before anything else, you will get overpowered, dont worry. However, the constant attention for a bit of skill-full clicking did make things a bit tiresome.

Squirrel Stapler by David Szymanski (Godlike!)

Scare Type: Huge Build-Up, suspense.

I would rate this as the second best game on the collection. It does take a bit of frustration and time, but that is all just a build up. And when the time comes, learn to strafe and let them charge past you. Youl know what I mean. In any case, this was to me the most memorable as it had a lot of anticipation and build up as well as a cursed nature to it. It struck me exactly the way I wanted it to.

THE THING IN THE LAKE by Panstasz (Great!)

Scare Type: Panic

A neat little game with a cool aesthetic. I personally find it disappointing, but I also recognise it for being solid and designed well. Tip: If you hear a rumble, maybe you should wait. I wish there was more to this game as it was enjoyable learning the layout and getting the secret ending.

SUCKER FOR LOVE by Akabaka (Awesome!)

Scare Type: Twists and turns!

A cute point and click “Date”-ing simulator (Not really a dating simulator at all) that turns dark. Its funny, ngl it does get tense, and is well made! Most dating simulators or point and click games dont reach this quality. My friend was the player of this one.

Charlotte’s Exile by John Szymanski (The best!)

Scare Type: Anxiety

Save the best for last, as this one will make an impression! This is such a well rounded puzzle game. Great art, great puzzles, great everything! Its 100% the best in this list, and is probably the most gratifying to end on. My friend was the player of this one.

Conclusion to the Entire Collection

Despite some games being pretty bad, it did make the variety pack feel like a good variety of small games. Top 3 for me goes to Sucker for love, Squirrel Stapler and then Charlotte’s Exile. The house that bring them together is also great, each tape comes with an uneventful comic which ties to the house in some way. The ending to the entire collection was fine, could have had a bit more fanfare or an objective but it was fine.

As a game/collection, this is legitimately a breath of fresh air. It feels nostalgic to experience a variety pack of games, and bundled together in an interesting way. I have my friend to thank for making it possible as it was he who hosted the evenings.

[craftmanatee]

Sotana (Not Sonata) character from the announcement trailer of Bomb Rush Cyberfunk! Its been a while, gotta wrangle myself back into this.

[craftmanatee]

A small piece of animation I did for a New channel. Lets begin my Journey with it!

[craftmanatee]

My wizard Character in a Dnd campaign we are playing.

Kinda like and hate his pose, but whatever.

[craftmanatee]

Sort of a Good point, but I feel like you are neglecting everything else that Dark souls offered in challenge. The difficulty was not just in bosses first time around, it was the enviornment and your resources. While Sekiro is much more forgiving in those areas than dark souls all except Combat system and bosses. Like the different points I made with the ability to use everything and pause the game.

Once you beat Sekiro you are much more familiar with the game than Dark souls. Thats my point. Heck, dark souls games even features Online that is sure to get you killed, giving it another layer of difficulty.

Sekiro is easier than Dark souls

Its funny, but both games have different philosophies that make them hard. 

In short: Dark souls is about answering challenges the best way you can, and is evenly distributed across the environment, enemies and bosses but for the most part your character is unique and may struggle in different areas from other characters. In the end, its about enduring and pulling through with your best tools than it is beating it with pure skill.

Sekiro forces you to get better by learning and reacting faster than you thought you could. So a big part of Sekiro is simply getting used to the game.

Ok, so you are the best player in your area in this one Fighting game. The game is complex but pretty playable. In your area, nobody has beaten you, until someone from a different country comes to play against you. He wins with seemingly even more skill. He did things you never thought you could. He basically rose the skill ceiling of the game for you and is now demanding that you climb that new height.

This is what Sekiro does as a singleplayer game.

Once you beat your 1st playtrough, 2nd playtrough is much more fun and engaging as you have learned everything that it can throw at you. Heck, maybe you have gotten so good that you will have new and better answers against bosses and enemies you have played.

But Dark souls is different in this manner. You may choose to play a different character all together and re-struggle in areas you have played. You MUST answer with things you can only answer with, especially towards the end game.

Keep reading

[craftmanatee]

Sekiro is easier than Dark souls

Its funny, but both games have different philosophies that make them hard. 

In short: Dark souls is about answering challenges the best way you can, and is evenly distributed across the environment, enemies and bosses but for the most part your character is unique and may struggle in different areas from other characters. In the end, its about enduring and pulling through with your best tools than it is beating it with pure skill.

Sekiro forces you to get better by learning and reacting faster than you thought you could. So a big part of Sekiro is simply getting used to the game.

Ok, so you are the best player in your area in this one Fighting game. The game is complex but pretty playable. In your area, nobody has beaten you, until someone from a different country comes to play against you. He wins with seemingly even more skill. He did things you never thought you could. He basically rose the skill ceiling of the game for you and is now demanding that you climb that new height.

This is what Sekiro does as a singleplayer game.

Once you beat your 1st playtrough, 2nd playtrough is much more fun and engaging as you have learned everything that it can throw at you. Heck, maybe you have gotten so good that you will have new and better answers against bosses and enemies you have played.

But Dark souls is different in this manner. You may choose to play a different character all together and re-struggle in areas you have played. You MUST answer with things you can only answer with, especially towards the end game.

Sekiro is a pretty different game from dark souls and in many ways is also a lot more polished. But that is because of an inherit design that separates the difficulty in the two games.

Exhibit 1: Character diversity or strength

Dark souls has a character creator and lots of different weapons and tools and spells that make your character unique. Which means your playtrough will be different, and harder or easier in certain areas. Dark souls games also has a leveling mechanic where your character for the most part will be stronger at whatever he is doing best. This also goes for upgrading your weapons. My first playtrough of Dark Souls (1) where i discovered the usefulness of upgrading weapons meant a huge difference.

Sekiro however, you play as a single character and the only difference that makes you different from other people is your strategy and what prosthetic you choose to use. You can even pause the game to use all prosthetics in a single fight, some of which instant kills tougher enemies or disables bosses. This does not make Sekiro easier though, as not all players will discover the most optimal strategy, but you have most of the advantage and the resources, and are free to experiment.

Exhibit 2: Enemies and Environment.

Dark souls features more enemies than Sekiro, it also features better enemy placement with their environment (Particularly Dark soul 2 does this best). This also makes the new areas more interesting and makes it easier or harder for certain characters. The best example is DS2′s Shrine of Amana or Scholar of First sin edition. It mixes and mashes enemies and environment to be harder or more interesting. And again, this can be more or less difficult depending on your character and strategy.

Sekiro also has this, but not as much. It is mostly watered down because of Sekiros unique stealth mechanic that allows you to farm or kill enemies instantly if you catch them without being seen. This makes your path to progression/next boss much faster and less likely to put you in a difficult to pull trough area. Combine it with tools and tricks from Exhibit 1, you can trivialize these areas. Sekiros mobility also helps the game be easier as you can escape the area and “Reset it” in a way. Much like how Dark souls in some or many cases has these zones that enemies do not traverse over.

Exhibit 3: Death Mechanic

In dark souls, your only saving grace is coming back to the place that you died and reclaiming all that you have lost (Souls only). In some Dark souls games, you also loose maximum health, until you humanize yourself.

Sekiro on the other hand lets you die 1 or two more times before truly dying. And you loose half of your money and half of skill point EXP when truly dead. But, your money can always be spent on the Idols before loosing them, and you only loose EXP, not the skillpoint itself. This to me, compared to dark souls is a lot more forgiving because when it is your first time. In dark souls games, you can happen to burn all your humanity resources quicker and or happen to have died in a boss room, which is more difficult to get out of (only escapable with your souls if you have homeward bone, also a resource).

But Lastly,

Game difficulty, and how Sekiro demands 1-upping yourself

The things mentioned do add up to make a point of how Sekiro is trying to be more forgiving than dark souls. Dark souls has a much more general design to fit the online aspect. But there is still one thing unique to Sekiro that makes Sekiro so difficult.

With your character, resources and gameplay in dark souls, you will most likely be stuck with that set of tools across your entire game. All bosses and enemies are killed in the same way that you endured and pulled through. This is the difficulty of dark souls.

Simply pulling through the difficult challenge, and responding to it accordingly as it is presented.

Sekiro on the other hand, forces you to play better. Most of its difficulty comes from getting used to things, such as getting used to deflecting, and learning the parameters of how exactly or when it lets you deflect and countering the Unblockables. As well as learning enemies/bosses methods of fighting so you can better abuse them with tools or sword gameplay.

Once you ARE better, the game turns into Normal mode. or Easy mode. There are obscured difficulty settings to make the game stupidly harder.

But, fuck demon of hatred though... That is a terrible and hard boss. Who invited Dark souls bosses into Sekiro? It doesnt work!

[craftmanatee]

I did not like Avengers: Endgame

It was not a bad movie, but it was not good either. Its a typical flick that I watched and wont watch ever again. Its just that, a supehero film done to death. Infinity war was good! But this one regressed.

And here is how I thought the movie would play out. (spoilers)

When Thanos did the snippity snap and vanished half of all living creatures, it would be an amazing twist if he himself after porting out was also chosen as one of the half who vanishes. Oh no!

“But that does not happen due to the ending of Infinity war, with thanos looking over the sunset”

What if I tell you that is the ending to Endgame?! Right after glaring at the sunset, Thanos is met by the avengers on their Guardians of Galaxy ship, bamboozling Thanos! And they explain “You are under arrest Thanos. Also, you were one of the half of people who got vanished”.

Now that would have been an amazing ending to the conflict. This means that the Engame played out, and resurrected Thanos. Heck, this could also be a midpoint. Whatever the case is, it is a lot better than simple time traveling and an epic war. Here we are maneuvering around the aspect of vanishment rather than adding in new gimmicks to fix an old gimmick. Thanos even destroys the infinity stones in the movie off screen! And later it is explained that without them, terrible crap can happen.

I dont understand the cannon that this movie takes! If I can destroy the infinity stones, then I can also duplicate and create new ones, right?

A lot of the narrative and plot of this movie felt like childhood play-pretend. “I shoot you with my laser” “Nu-Uh! I have laser shield!” - “We need to get infinity stones to undo this” “Nu-Uh! I destwoyed dem!”.

Also! How can i spoil Endgame without ruining the movie? Whats this “Dont spoil endgame” crap that was happening. Infinity war was coherent and was spoilerific, but endgame is not.

Heck, you know how the movie is going to end based on the start of the film.

[craftmanatee]

Thanks for the attention YinYin, it made me feel all warm inside.

Player Profile: Crafekster

Norwegian artist, Lethal League veteran and in the top 5 of the Jawbreakers Stunfest Qualifier

Where do your name and its variations come from?

Long time ago, around 2006, a boy named himself… “Im gonna be Craft2299! hyuk!” out of inspiration of Crafting in World of warCRAFT. (Not minecraft). As he progressed and matured, this name changed: Craft-Crafter-Crafxter-Crafekster. The meaning has been lost and as such, he is now known as Crafek. Most mispronounce it with “Kraifek”, and that is just funny.

How do you feel about your performance in this tournament?

Im very happy about it. All fights made me make audible loud sounds of laughter, but especially my last one versus Cherry. I couldnt be happier. It sounds corny but I really do love a good fight.

What was your strategy preparing for and competing in the tournament?

This may sound odd, but I was not that much prepared. I dont spend as much practice time as some other people do. I participated on the tournament a day prior, to warm up to a tournament day. I also worked a bit on my “Kill Moves” with nitro, its something you see me do often. But generally I try to be in a comfortable place in life and have a good mood. I feel that I play the best that way.

During the tournament I heard kirbbbb had been training your Nitro, any truth to that?

As of now/being asked this, there has been very little training. But he did exchange a trick that I did use once or twice during the tournament to my success. However, he has adopted me only recently so the training has just begun. But he did give lots of cheer during this small time so Im going to have to come back and repay him.

Which was your hardest match of the tournament?

Cherry was a very hard match that brought out an even better version of me for the “almost” comeback. But Daio was the one who brought me down to Loosers bracket almost effortlesly. (Pretty much effortlesly).

What surprised you most about the tournament?

Personally, the support and Cheer that I got from people! It is totally undeserved but I am grateful. But across the tournament, is how many doomboxes there was. Fighting doombox is pretty different than fighting other characters, seeing him often kind of normalises this difference a bit I feel.

Is there anyone you didn’t face that you wish you did?

I was ready for Neer. I do admire and am inspired by his playstyle and I feel like I have some kind of grasp against it despite him being better than me, but didnt get to perform against him.

Do you remember where you first saw Lethal League and what hooked you?

Totalbiscuit made a video on it for LL1, which was close to the games release. I bought it almost instantly due to how interresting and fun it looked and had the halmarks of a fighting game (A genre I love).

What’s your current Lethal League experience?

Semi casual, 400hr in LL1, 100hr in LLB

Who are your main/side/counter character picks?

Nitro and dice are my mains. I try to main Nitro, hes got flow with his super.

What are your favourite character outfits?

Raptors Ex outfit

What are your stage preferences?

Any long stage (For nitro), avoiding short stages against characters who do well on short stages.

What input method do you use?

Controller

You’ve made a lot of visual modifications for Lethal League. Have you ever looked at modding Lethal League Blaze or would you like to?

Yes! But I cannot tell you to expect anything soon. Blaze is different, and if im going to mod the visuals in anyway, it has to be drastic. The game is 3D, which poses layers of problems that I actually havent touched on yet. Im looking forward to figuring those out when I find the time.

Lethal League modification

What are some other games you play?

Soul calibur, Tekken, Street Fighter, Sea of Thieves etc

Will you come to Stunfest?

Sadly no, for monetary reasons, its been a while since ive been to a tournament personally. And I do wish I could join a big one like stunfest.

Is there anything else you’d like to say to the community?

Thanks for the cheers everyone! You will see more of me and I hope that I can give any sense of joy back to you guys!

[craftmanatee]

Gordon Freeman for Smash Ultimate

Okay here me out!

He barely uses guns, his head is covered with the HEV suit Helm and his sounds are of his suits boops and blips and few status voice lines from his suit.

He is basically a combination of Snake, Isabelle and Samus.

Lets get over his move list that have big potential

Firstly, one unique movement method he has is a pretty reliable crouch walk.

Any neutral attack will be with the use of his Crowbar. Most of his neutrals are pretty standard for his tilts and Air attacks except for his jab and Air neutral.

His jab is similar to Isabelle’s toy hammer but packs a more flinching punch. This is also the case for his NAir. These should give combo potential.

His grabs are very plain, they have to do with using the gravity gun in a simple fashion. Launches them accordingly with it. Down Throw slams the opponent into the ground.

Smash attacks are unique. His forward smash cycles between 2 different weapons, the Shotgun with a wide cone of hit and good damage, and his Revolver that does massive shield damage and good launching power and longer reach.

Down Smash has him Squeeze a Pheropod to summon Antlion feet/mouth from around him. They only reach out of the ground with Gordon in a calm standing pose squeezing the Pheropod.

Up smash is a Unique one. He throws a grenade upwards high and explodes after, but not on him. Holding down the smash attack will have it explode earlier. The blast radius should be pretty large but any near misses are not kill potential.

Now for his Specials

Neutral Special has him throw forward Lamarr (A headcrab). Lamarr is similar to Diddy Kong’s banana in which it only has the opponent trip when struck. But, Lamarr cannot be grabbed, instead it acts as a brief assist trophy in which it actively targets the nearest opponent and makes at least 2 leaps after landing from being thrown. After that, it burrows into the ground unless lamarr himself gets attacked and then burrows. Gordon cannot throw another headcrab until the last one has burrowed.

UpSpecial has him briefly Vanish and Teleport back in (Similar to pokemon switching) but re-appears with a Crate underneath him. This crate is similar to the hazardous crate item combined with Pacmans fire hydrant but without extra effects except for one. On the ground and In midair, Gordon is effectively standing on it and effectively replenishes his double jump. The crate itself works as an item that can be destroyed or thrown by anyone. UpSpecial again will teleport the crate out of existence. This second upspecial is seamless and fast but in midair puts Gordon to a Free fall.

DownSpecial plants a Hopper which can be Destroyed (Must be grounded), it triggers and hops towards nearest opponent if opponent is near. It also works as an item or projectile that cannot be grabbed. When it explodes, it explodes with a highly damaging launching power. Pretty much his trap and kill move.

Side Special is the bread and butter here. Gordon whips out his Gravity gun, if the button is held he holds it. On release he releases a jolt. If pressed again straight after he keeps the gravity gun held. While hes holding it, he can move and jump facing his activated direction similar to Snake and his grenades.

Holding the button will suck in any ONE item (Not projectiles) that is near in front. Once the item is grabbed, gordon still can move with that item. He can release to Jolt and launch the item straight or angled upwards in a very fast speed. He can also choose to simply release it dropping it down by shielding/dodging.

These items include his Neutral, Up and Down Specials. (Yes, even Lamarr). And any throw-able item.

With no items present, Jolting will only do a 5% damage light push. However, it can reflect other projectiles if timed right.

His Final Smash is a Supercharged gravity gun that launches and kills at 50+%. Very similar to Zelda, he sucks everyone in, but a brief respite is given to opponents in keeping away is when the Final Smash has for the brief moment grabbed someone and is being launched. Gordon continues this for 6 seconds. Basically forcing opponents to play a small minigame of “Dont get sucked in”.

The gameplay Potential is that of a projectile character with many threatening options he must be creative with. His Gravity gun Shenanigans can be amazing, such as after launching someone off-stage, gordon UpSpecials to spawn a crate, SideSpecials it to threaten to shoot it or drop it on the opponent. Simply having these items he can spawn can give a difficult time for his opponent, but he himself can always just push these items against the opponent.

He plays a game of chaos and threat with his items and smash attacks. His creativity is his limits on what he does with the gravity gun. Pretty much giving both Melee and projectile characters a very hard time. But has a hard time himself off-stage.

Victory poses are of him posing with the crowbar and a fitting Suit Voiceline.

Him picking up, turning around and blasting off a crate.

Lamarr getting grabbed and put on Gordons head/helm.

The character borderlines between Serious and Comical. His theme is pretty serious but suit Voicelines are jarring from the male posture as well as how his gameplay makes for potential accidents.

[craftmanatee]

And for my Final Write-up

No wait hold on... two of my posts got hidden for adult content

And it is of the things that dont have adult content! HohohoooHahahaha!!!

[craftmanatee]

Spirit of Rock and Roll, spirit of Creation.

This is a continuation of Fantasy, good, bad and ugly.

DISCLAIMER: Most of what I am writing here is for myself and not much consideration will take place. This is just a write up of all the things ive experienced and researched on put together as concisely as possible. A practice essay of sorts.

Following a more applicable sense for Fantasy which is “Fantasy is an imagination derived from the Real World in order to better understand it” can have a huge list of consequences (Good and difficult), especially when creating a story. Some authors and story tellers have this in them naturally (Just look at George R. R. Martins Game of Thrones). But I am here to talk about a consequence that is (Or may) be happening that spawn bad fantasies due to unstoppable events.

Origins of Punk-Rock is the philosophy.

Music is one of the many topics of controversy that sprouts between the young generation and the older generation. When rock and roll became a thing, many of the songs were deemed too rowdy, noisy or maybe satanic. But I am talking about 1940′s, 50′s and 60′s. Rock and roll songs from that era are as innocent as a child compared to the music we have today, yet it still got criticized like that. The same way rough metal songs are criticized today. And these comments always seem to come from the older generation of people, perhaps another generation in Culture. Many of these bands and songs from those times actually thrived in these controversies and made them what they were as bands. This image that was rebellions for its time gave them that appeal and aesthetics.

But something happened, very slowly. Music got better, more people started to accept them. Rock and Roll no longer was the same, and as such the music either got worse or went into experimental directions.

One of which directions was directly tied to this change, and that is Punk-Rock. This new musical trend wanted to appeal with what made Rock and Roll controversial. That criticism that rock and roll gets is what Punk-Rock wants, the style of music, its attitude and eventually spreading across towards fashion and politics always aimed to create the bad side of Rock and Roll. The hilarious good Irony is that the criticism rock and roll gets is now pointed at Punk-Rock, which it wants, and as such makes Rock and Roll seem more innocent than it ever was before. Suddenly, people could tell apart from Good and Evil. Without Evil, you would not know what is Good. Without Punk-Rock, Rock and roll would not be anything different.

The best part of all this, how Punk-Rock bathed in the old and Assumed spirit of Rock and Roll, is that Punk-Rock was then untouchable. It was exactly what music, but mostly what society needed, eventually inspiring other genres going forwards in time. Punk-Rocks Rival, Hard Rock or Heavy Metal(A bit after Punk-Rock) was more about the music specifically. Punk-Rock was a trend that knew that Music was also part of society, it gave a little bit of a counter balance to the political scheme of things in more than just music. Because it had the attitude to challenge some kind of perception(This can be anything, music or political) with that old assumed spirit from Rock and Roll.

But I dont really Like to listen to punk-rock, but I understand it at least.

So how does this fit with Punk-Fantasy? Well, if you did read everything Ive written from my previous post, you should know that my narrative is pointing at speculating at fantasy and how perhaps it is getting softer, or less like fantasy and more just escapism. And I do mean to stretch Fantasy across most or all fiction such was Sci fi or alternate histories and more (Go read previous post if you havent). Fantasy in General is eroding, mostly due to new ways of presenting it. Things have gotten even newer in only 20-30 years.

Cinema, luxury of tools and arts are becoming less meaningful.

And I do not mean this in a poetic sense of “Meaningful”, I am talking about the product, the art itself is having less of a footprint upon existence than before. I could go on to create a list of the many things that changed in movies and perhaps games.

To paint you a picture of what I mean, think of the many trends between 80′s movies to today's movies:

Special effects looked more real in the 80′s

Stories were a lot less dated in the 80′s (Less dated as in their story subjects were more isolated or respected than how pandering or obviously politically biased many films of today).

How they were more genre specific than what is watered down of today.

Now these may sound like opinion, in some cases they are. But I am basically pointing at 80s movies in General versus movies of Today in general. Specifically the 80s and not further back because this is when things started to change noticeably. Much like music, the Movie industry were innovating and experimenting with new tools that they did not have before. People were either working harder or easier with the advent of computer special effects, movies have become a lot more normal with easier ways to collect and watch them as how they become even more normalized. Specifically the normalization part is the concern here as films such as Willow is now the subject of the moment when fantasy started to go down-hill.

In my theory, this all was made possible because of movies becoming normal. This is actually happening with games as well, if you are well versed in gaming and looking at its time-line of games and how they changed, that is the kind of relaxed change that is taking over story-telling. From what was purely just a Fun experience, is now an epic en devour all about telling the epic tale of Bratos, the god of Boar.

So, movies are visually looking better, and games are playing better and have the space to take hours of your life. This is actually a good thing, all things considered. But, the spirit that gets a creator to stumble and figure out how to create something beautiful and amazing is less likely to happen. A movie will have an infinite budget and have the best of the best working behind it only to end up mediocre at best once it comes out. It is why many independent games are loved as these creations are creations made by people who stumbled and figured out how to create something.

Ian McKellen is a good living evidence to this with how he almost wanted to quit acting because of the green screen technique they were using for The Hobbit(2013). Reprising his role from Lord of the rings(2003).

Only 10 years apart, technology has eliminated much of the spirit that goes into making a movie. Sincere talent or happy accidents is less likely to happen in mainstream fictional creations today. Creating insincere manufactured creations. This spreads into the genres or ways of telling stories they use. This can create a misinterpreted assumption for younger generations. The future creators of tomorrow may learn from bad fiction.

I have to thank my mother for sharing with me movies beyond my time of birth when i was  a kid, as I would have easily been influenced by present media of the 90′s. I am still influenced but at-least I can separate what is good and bad that I liked or still like. One of the many things a lot of schools will teach is to go back in time to find old gems and learn from them. So far back as the silent movies, this same philosophy applies to most or everything. This is not in an attempt to copy the stories from the past, but rather see what the creators had to do, and what it came to create something at all.

An example is the difference of Animation from 1930′s versus Today. We can all be thankful for the advent of technology, but the spirit of creation, the spirit of careful planning, great demand for talent etc was all required and dependent on.

So, what my narrative wants to finally get to is...

to accept that this change going into the future will always happen. Even beyond death, something new can come up and change genres, feelings etc as we know it. The way video games has you do, from how a movie has you watch is an undeniable difference.

What we have to look at is HOW it is being told. I mentioned how Fantasy is Vague even as a genre. I propose a philosophy, equally vague but tries to attune to a great effort/Spirit of creating despite technology spoiling us. Stories are now too easy to tell, so lets give some counter-balance with my(not really mine) prospect that is Punk-Fantasy.

(Continued in a future write up)

(Damnit, looks like this is going to become 3 parts)

[craftmanatee]

Fantasy, is good, bad and ugly.

DISCLAIMER: Most of what I am writing here is for myself and not much consideration will take place. This is just a write up of all the things ive experienced and researched on put together as concisely as possible. A practice essay of sorts.

I do find myself to have finally separated what makes Fantasy what it is from Escapism or just Entertainment and how it works, especially for us today. Fantasy is used incredibly vaguely, going between its natural definition (Something akin to Imagining or daydreaming)  to a specific genre in storytelling or visual or description of something. These are just methods of using the word that change based on how it is used, but it has been used often and vaguely to the point that it looses its original intent. A lot of what you use the Word on can already be better replaced with other words such as escapism, daydreaming or imagining, surrealistic etc.

Here is my addition to the definition of Fantasy: “Fantasy is an imagination derived from the Real World in order to better understand it.” Or “An explanation of the Real world”

This means that Fantasy can be negative, or positive. The imagination, or simplification or replacing of the things you dont know with things you do know. It is what we use to explain many things to children and people alike, especially if the specifics of the explanation will not suffice to the target person.

As soon as you put together this intent in which to understand the Real World through Fantasy, you can better identify what makes good fantasy, bad fantasy and Ugly fantasy.

To put Ugly Fantasy away real quick (As it is an entirely different subject). Ugly fantasy in the case of this writing is fantasies that abuse the uneducated, gullible or any person prone to fall for some kind of falsehood that flips their belief of the real world into something bad. So ideologies, fanaticism or any kind of prospect that changes how you perceive anything, into something that is not even remotely fundamentally real of that said thing.

Good Fantasy is fantasy that manages to convince, persuade or anything to you of the subject that they are trying to convey, but in a way that affects you. An example is simple folk tales told to Children such as “Hansel and Gretel”. Stories like these are meant to scare or teach kids of things to avoid, not do, etc. In a way, the same way how a Slasher Horror movie shows us what is stupid, or dangerous, such as splitting up.

Bad Fantasy is simply just fantasy that dont follow real world implications and as such could be misinterpreted. An example is Pornography. Therefor, for anything that is identified as “Bad fantasy”, its good to learn to not take in any implied effects, be it emotional or educational as true. But rather for entertainment purposes mainly. A better name for this would be “Simple” fantasy or “plain” fantasy to better describe it into the current definitions of Fantasy.

But for now, it should be Called Bad Fantasy as it is often used and is what people think Fantasy is in aspects of media today that I will point out.

Fantasy today is not Fantasy. It is escapism. You pick something up, it could be a book, movie or a game and you know how it is fiction and thus escape into it. Depending on your preferences, some things are suited to have you escape more into it than others simply because of either familiarity, or a deeper understanding of the subject. Movies as an example combine many aspects between visuals, story and music to have you have certain senses put your guard down and fall for whatever fantasy the movie has in place. There are many people who adore movies and have seen so many to the point where these cinematic tricks no longer work on them and they then happen to see how flawed the fantasy is. But that does not mean that it cannot be enjoyed.

This is where we separate Escapism and Fantasy from each other. I hate how (ex:)Toy Story 3 or a majority of animated films play out, but I do enjoy watching them. I know what comes next, but just maybe, I will still find something to like about it. This is me just liking a piece of Fiction for my own reasons, this does not apply to everyone.

But I can still identify how in Toy Story in general, has an amazing fantasy about better taking care of your belongings, or in this case, Toys. (I just think that the Fantasy can be enhanced if it did not fall slave into typical cinematic story beats)

But what we have majority of the time is fantasies that play an exaggeration to something. Such as power fantasies. Or fantasies that is exactly what you want. These are “Bad” fantasies that dont really add to any understanding, it is simply for entertainment purposes and feeds whatever “Sin”(Lust, greed whatever, lol) that you have in an innocent light. But I will claim that these fantasies are eroding Fantasy in general by the chance that these “Bad” fantasies can be misinterpreted and be wished upon. The reason why there is so much bad fantasies is because of misinterpretation of prior fantasies.

Here are some examples as to what is good Fantasy and what is Bad fantasy and what is Escapism, and how they surmount to themselves.

Lord of the rings is a story told and derived from the real world that puts conflicts into some kind of characterization. The fantasy tells of something very deep to the point of some kind of spirituality, religious or subjects of fate in general. But the Escapism is how the world is dressed up in these characterizations such as the different races and creatures. It is easier to buy in on a story of grand fate if it has appealing subjects. But, simply having elves should not be enough, there needs to be rules set in place and functions. Because of this, you then also buy into the characterizations. Basically, LotR didnt have what it had without reason. I do believe Tolkien did this in reverse however. He first had a Fantasy, but dressed it up later to better escape into. It is how Elves are Elves, and not just a different tribe of humans.

UnderTale is a good modern fantasy example and leads into a different subject such as modern intelligence! People today are a lot more educated than before, and thus when they want to escape into something, the fantasy needs to be really good in order for people to buy into it. Folk tales have been updated time and time again because of innovations such as writing, books etc that demanded more explanation in these stories. People asked more questions as stories get re-told which finally revealed cracks in these old stories. Undertale, however is a different kind of medium. Undertale tells of a pretty typical fantastical story of hope, but, it is the method that it tells it that gets people to buy into the story. As a Videogame, Undertale directly addresses the player for its actions. It also subverts videogame expectations in order to have you truly appreciate the message that undertale generally gives out. Even when the player disobeys this message, undertale still plays in on its fantasy that it is a Videogame. And as such, Undertale very well uses modern intelligence and expectations to the point of players realizing into listening and understanding what it has to offer.

The Marvel Cinematic universe is nothing but colourful escapism. It takes a simple fantasy of becoming truly special, and stretches it out far and wide. The best quote from a superhero film is probably “With great power comes great responsibility.” Just as a quote, this is the fantasy that Superhero fiction plays with even without the knowledge of this quote. Fundamentally and purely, this is what superheroes end up doing. Their power also becomes a responsibility. But, despite this. The movies, comics, etc mostly play with  “ With great power..” portion of the quote. When a supehero character finally reaches a paragon status and finally realizes the full quote within its character, there wouldnt be any more stories to tell with that superhero. This is why we keep seeing reboots and rehashes. They keep starting over, witnessing the journey that it takes to fully realize that one quote again and again. And therefor, they are mostly being retold again for the fantasy of having super powers, or great power.

Fantasy is incredibly vague today, and I do feel like my added definition has you better deconstruct a fantasy from anything. Fantasy has started getting wishy washy near the 80s and onwards, and is why there is so many “Bad” fantasies today. With the advent of video games and new generations of people, it will become more clear and easier to seperate Good fantasy from Bad fantasy and Ugly Fantasy. Even movies, shows and games have a little Ugly fantasy that needs to be made aware of. Such as how Overwatch, a game that pandered to the LGBT community, making it all feel insincere, a complete opposite effect of fantasy.

After so long, I have read and researched on certain genres and going into deep analysis on them has made me discover a philosophy, or a new genre I will try to develop on. It is called Punk-Fantasy and that is a Write up I will make continuing this one. (And after that write up, actual proper content will be uploaded...)