#Those flowers in the video could either be a good thing or a REALLY FRICKIN BAD THING

[royalarchivist]

Fit will be streaming his QSMP finale on Thursday, May 23 at 2pm EDT / 11am PST!

[nullawesome]

Living the Dream

When I was a kid, I frickin' loved Super Mario Bros. I loved it so much, I immediately came up with ways to improve it. I decided that one day, I was gonna create a Mario game with, like, all the stuff I wanted to see in a Mario game. Super Mario Bros. was just a computer program, after all, and I had burgeoning programming skills in BASIC and assembly. How hard could it be?! I began making drawings of the things I planned to include -- new power-ups, enemies, and characters. Some of them -- like a new power-up that would turn Mario into "'Lectric Mario", who can shoot sparks that are limited in flight distance compared to fireballs, but travel in a straight line and through solid obstacles -- I still think are cool. Others... not so much. For example there was going to be an enemy called "Mr. Dobalina". Yes, I named him after the title character from that Del Tha Funkee Homosapien song[0]. He was going to be a middle-aged man in a tacky beige suit[1], and he would chase Mario down attempting to sell him insurance. I think he would have worked a bit like the Super Mario World enemy Chargin' Chuck -- quick, aggressive pursuit pattern, takes a few stomps to defeat. Some of them were attempts to address what I felt were shortcomings with the original game. For example, one thing I really hated in Super Mario Bros. was pits, so I was going to give Mario the option to equip items, one of which was a grappling hook, so that if Mario fell into a pit he could perform a "last minute save" by deploying the hook, grappling onto the nearest ledge, and climbing the rope as he would a vine.

It's a dream I never entirely let go of. High school, then college, then life happened, and my Mario game took the shape of one thing or another all the while. Back-burnered but not really abandoned. During this time, I also grew up. I never lost my love for games and gaming, but I got different things out of a game as I grew older. One thing I realized was that a good game is not just a bag of mechanics and challenges. The very best games carefully choose these things and match them to one another. The pits in Super Mario Bros. are an integral part of the experience. Removing them, or even bestowing an optional easy out for them like the grappling hook, changes the game significantly. Changing anything about that game, no matter how small, changes the whole game -- for example, Super Mario Bros. puts the player in a unique relationship with power-ups that its successors never really replicated, wherein the fire flower is a reward for platforming skill that allows you to cheese through some of the more annoying obstacles like Hammer Bros. and even Bowser. But in order to keep it you had to remain unscathed for as long as you kept playing, else you would either die or become small and have to find the flower again. Bros. 3 and World, by contrast, almost always let you start a level with the power-up you needed to hand, either through the item menu or by visiting a previous level, topping up on power-ups, and exiting early. So simply by changing the available power-ups and how they are accessible, successors to Super Mario Bros. become fundamentally, substantively different in character.

The cool thing about all of them is not necessarily the power-ups, the levels, or the enemies. Those things are cool, but they're not the essential thing that makes these games awesome. The essence of Mario is in the adventure Mario embarks on, and the precision platforming necessary to succeed in that adventure -- negotiating obstacles and enemies quickly and almost pixel-accurately, with a simple but deep moveset.

In thinking about this I realized that the Mario game I dreamed of writing as a kid is coming to fruition now -- but it's not a Mario game at all. (That would create copyright problems, something 12-year-old me couldn't appreciate.) It's called NullAwesome and it stars a little rad green dude named Lorn Zender. But the way Lorn jumps -- that's a Mario jump. It even has jump aftertouch that feels about right. The way he moves, the level layout (such as it is so far) and how the elevators move -- those are all Mario-influenced elements. There are other inspirations as well, most notably Dangerous Dave -- written by a man who also just wanted to make a Mario game, John Romero[2] -- and OddWorld, and of course Watch_Dogs for the concept.

But yeah, this is basically the realization of a childhood dream for me, albeit taking a form I could never have anticipated. I'm pretty excited nevertheless. I just hope I can do kid-me proud.

I'm currently in the process of linking "things" together, so that hack targets can propagate state changes to objects they're linked to. This allows you to manipulate elevators and other moving obstacles by hacking their linked nodes. I'll check it in once it's in a working state. Stay tuned.

[0] And Del himself got the name from the late Peter Tork on the Monkees track "Zilch", in which all four Monkees rhythmically repeat random spoken phrases they heard somewhere before. Somewhere, the real Mr. Bob Dobalina, perhaps long dead by now, might've lamented his dubious immortalization.

[1] I thought it hilarious that in an era where video game enemies were mainly soldiers, thugs, mutants, or monsters, Bowser would recruit an ordinary, lame guy in a suit to go after Mario. My sense of humor at age 12 was... weird.

[2] John Romero and John Carmack actually did successfully begin a port of Super Mario Bros. 3 for the PC -- only to be turned down by Nintendo. They used the engine for the unfinished game to create the critically acclaimed Commander Keen series and bootstrapped Id Software in the process.

[courage-a-word-of-justice]

Sacred Beasts 2 | Astra 2 - 3 | Given 1 - 2 | DanMachi II 1 | Demon Slayer 15 - 16 | Dr Stone 2 | Fruits Basket 14 | Cop Craft 2 - 3

Rolling out the tags soon.

Sacred Beasts 2

“Sissy” always pissed me off as a nickname for your sister. It’s clearly meant as a term of endearment in some cases, but it also is the equivalent of “wuss”, y’know???

I’ve seen mushroom soup out of a tin…that don’t look like mushroom soup in that case.

Uh, random question…she has th same surname as Will, but is Schaal herself adopted???

Y’should’ve followed Hank, Nancy…(is her name Nancy or Schaal? Schaal is her middle name, yet she seems more commonly referred to as Schaal…hmm.)

*sees synopsis* - No one mentioned Nancy’s hometown was called Livletwood Village…

I pause my shows a lot to get down these notes…then Crunchyroll or my internet (or both!) cursed me with regular buffering (that can sometimes play video and subs through it, but generally sets down a few seconds after unpausing and lasts for a minute) and made it a pain in the butt to make these notes. But you do realise I basically have notes for almost every show I’ve ever watched under this system? These notes are special to me, which is why I put up with the buffering. It also means impactful scenes lose their impact, meaning well-paced shows get favoured in my picking process on CR these days.

Astra 2

Yup, the 2nd time we talk about how to scavenge for food this season – gotta remember this…in case I ever get into a situation like that. You never know! (creates “The More You Know” star with hands)

I-awwwwwww…I never thought I’d see the day where the Luca Javelin would get animated, much less Astra as a series. Dang, is this a dream???

Eyyyyy. Nothing like endangering your little sister to really understand why you love her…much less understand that you love her in the first place. (partially sarcastic)

Given 1

This is my second rodeo with BL anime (I’ve only read one BL manga and it was pretty darn mediocre, but the one BL game I tried was okay)…hopefully it’s good.

Was there the ticking of a clock in the background???

…and cut to OP. Yay! I can predict when the OP happens now…(It only took me years of training…okay, I’m kidding.)

I think this OP is like a music video…and I think that’s the point.

Kaji??? Is this Eva (LOL)?

I’m no band person – I was merely a solo pianist in my time with music, although notably I did have to sing for one of the musical pieces – but “Thom Yorke” and “Keith Richards” sound familiar. Why???...Okay, so it seems Thom Yorke is part of Radiohead and Keith Richards is part of the Rolling Stones. I’m familiar with those bands by name, at least.

Lemme guess…this guy (Ritsuka) sucks at improv.

I had to go back and find out what Yayoi said a few lines ago…and  love her already because she’s like “You suck”…she’s just like me, to be honest.

Early husbando predictions say Haruki is my dude of the season.

Seeing manly dudes act like blushing schoolgirls is great…!

Yushiro-who???...Okay, Yushiro Ishihara is apparently that’s a singer that’s already passed away, but has a bit of a rep behind him.

Is it just me, or is Ritsuka basically a lesser Bakugo…?

Come to think of it, it would be hard for me to teach someone piano now that I haven’t properly played since the end of 2014…almost 5 years. Geesh, that’s a long time.

Welp, that was…actually pretty good. The only thing that sucks is that this ED isn’t rock, to go with the rest of the show.

DanMachi II 1

Another counterintuitive name for a sequel anime season…this is my last premiere before I wrap them up, or at least until Machikado Mazoku (or whatever) land on CR.

…and of course, it’s back to Big Boobies (aka Hestia). She’s probably the worst part of the show for me.

Why does Bell need an advisor anyway…? I never thought about it when watching s1.

Who’s this Naza-sama, anyway…?...Okay, it seems she’s a doctor from the Miach Familia. I don’t remember her from s1, really.

I’ve forgotten who Asfi is as well…Oh yeah, that blue-haired woman from the Hermes Famlia. Hermes seems like a bit of a loose cannon – the sort who wouldn’t have a Familia if given the chance – though.

I think we saw Freya in s1…just scheming behind the scenes…

Hermes looks like a sleazebag half the time he’s on screen…

I forgot how much I loved Miach’s character design in s1...and to a lesser extent, Takemikazuchi.

Demon Slayer 15

…Zenitsu is annoying again.

I didn’t think Tanjiro was scared of anything…excpt maybe losing Nezuko again.

Oh! I just realised Natagumo has a hint in its name…The “gumo” can be read “kumo”…as in cloud or spider, but it’s given with the kanji for spider so it can only be a spider-related problem on Mt Natagumo.

I’d hate to have Smellovision on this show…(What’s Smellovision, you ask??? Here, read up on it…at least, I was thinking of the Google variant, so read up on the Google version.)

Ukogi appears to be a type of plant known as eleutherococcus and ukogi rice is rice with ukogi leaves.

Dr Stone 2

Episode 3’s title is like “Weapons…of SCIENCE! *cue Bill Nye the Science Guy theme song*”

Ooh, nice angle! (on Senku and petrified!Yuzuriha being protected by Taiju…and not just because Yuzuriha’s butt is showing…)

“You can eat lion?” – No duh, Taiju!

“I want to give thanks to the circle of life…” – Sorry, but can I interrupt with a meme here? *cue ululations that ae meant to imitate the iconic song from The Lion King, y’know, the one that goes “Ahhhhhhh zee bun yah… (etc.)”*

Tsukasa’s frickin’ tall, man! Look at him tower over Taiju and Senku…

Having read the manga before, I just realised Tsukasa is mighty suspicious when he says Senku could be able to rebuild civilisation from scratch. That was harder to recognise in manga format though, I think.

I also didn’t realise, but the shell tale is talking about Tsukasa! Hmm…interesting.

Dr Stone’s ED…never in my life did I think it was going to be a rap song. Unless, of course, it’s a science rap…(There’s hydrogen and helium and lithium, berrylium…uh, I don’t remember the words after that…)

Oh, that next-ep font takes me back…it reminds me of the 90s, where terrible WordArt font like that was everywhere and I had to get by on Lucida Calligraphy.

Fruits Basket 14

Oh, crab meat…these CGI cars look absolutely terrible…

Pay attention to the relationship between Kyo and Kyoko…you people who don’t know about manga!Furuba are in for a real revelation on that front.

Wow, the effects on the flowers are really pretty for the ED…

Cop Craft 2

That OP is just so good…*swoon*

Well…they spelt “Unknown” wrong…on Kei’s phone.

Hmm…I think the insert song was in English.

Astra 3

Oh…something didn’t make sense. It turns out the word the subber is using is “attitude” when it should actually be altitude…

Given 2

Ooh, Haruki does coffee in the OP! I didn’t notice that, since I had to skip it…there’s some kinda suckish buffering on CR, which is why I have to skip as much as I can.

Welp, I’m a pianist. I’m as clueless as any other non-guitar player when it comes to guitars, so I don’t mind the lesson but also don’t need it.

Given this is a BL/yaoi (no pun intended), I think Akihiko and Haruki should pair up…but maybe I’m just going nuts with the shipper glasses here.

“You’re going to have to do something about that soon.”

Aye…I relate, Mafuyu. When you’re younger, you can beg your parents for money, but equipment, books etc. really costs some hard cash. I remember having to go to Hong Kong to find a pearl pink metronome on the cheap…the poor thing isn’t getting much use now. (But still, I think the more I watch and see Haruki in action, the more I like him. Not necessarily as a husbando, but more in the sense of that one cool dude you gravitate towards.)

It randomly cut to Salon Harusame…don’t tell me this is how Haruki gets his money???

I think the comment that said “lolol” actually had 超 in front of it, so that would be “super lololol” or, in my personal way of saying it, “major lololol”.

Oh, so that’s what was in the OP!

I swear Uesama (LOL) should just get a job as a guitar tutor to little kids…well, that would work if he were in college/uni, maybe.

Hey, a girl! Didn’t expect one in a BL work…(LOL, my standards are so low for BL/yaoi, eh?)

Hmm…I get the feeling amateurs get their hands on acoustic models instead. I know a guitar player, y’know (although again, that doesn’t mean I know the first thing about playing a guitar).

I love how the show turned green all of a sudden. The colours match the mood, basically.

Demon Slayer 16  

This episode’s titlecard only has a wave pattern…I probably know what the pattern is called, but I’ve…probably forgotten that name.

Hey, a Demon Slayer girl! (My standards seem to have been lowered in regards to seeing gals in leading or even supporting roles…It’s more acceptable for Demon Slayer, given its historical setting, but still, how sad it is to not see many girls…)

(TW: abuse) Why…for some reason, this feels like an abusive household, specifically where the father does evil things to the mother…but this time, the son’s part of the problem.

I find it funny Zenitsu just calls Inosuke “Wild Boar”. To be fair though, I don’t think Inosuke introduced himself to Zenitsu, way back when they were meant to.

This scene where Zenitsu is crying and has his back turned to the “camera”…they clearly used a CGI model for him.

It’s a BODY! Holy s(BLEEP)!

“Chu-Chu chuuuuun!” Oh my glob, Ukogi is so adorable~!

Hey…where was Ukogi hiding before he chose to come out again?

Another CGI model when Zenitsu walks away from the camera. It’s so dark, nobody can see Ukogi…I don’t think he has a CGI model and that’s good.

I had a weird thought, but…I think Tanjiro would be a good breakdancer, if he were living in 2019.

Inosuke, you did it! But I wonder if those stats are correct and Inosuke’s going to call his name properly at climactic moments…?

Cop Craft 3

Brother Kenny…you’re just lewd.

“…O or V or A.” – Aside from OVAs, hmm…O would be (CENSORED), V I don’t know about and A…I don’t know either, but I guess it’s (CENSORED).

Kei Manoba (sic).

Doreany seems to be humanity…Did they already introduce that? I forget.

This show looks pretty bad, but the story makes the stay worth it.