#mario party 2 tier list

[tj99er]

Made a tier list of Mario Party 2 mini games cuz I just 100%ed it last night

[sweeteacrummble]

Ayo!

Ayo! It has been a while. I haven't posted any art for a while now (which I will get back to doing soon).

Where have I been

For the short answer:

I have been busy. College, Home, and being a Christian

Now for the long answer:

I am going to break it up into parts while I rant cause it gonna be a minute and there are a few things I need to let off of my chest.

College Update🏫🎓:

I normally don't like sharing how I am busy with other things than art, but now I am at the point where I have a voice and I need to use it for once. Yes, I go to College for a degree in Animation. So most of the time my hiatus is because of College, especially Finals. Yeaaaaaaaah! Overall I have been busy with work. I would love to post my progress but I feel as if it is not my best. Oh well.🫤 After, I will be able to have a break in the middle of May so their some good news there.

Youtube Update📽️📺:

For my YouTube Friends/Viewers out there and newcomers joining the party, breathes THANK YOU! THANK! YOU THANK YOU! SUPER! DUPER! OH SO MUCH FOR SUBSCRIBING TO MY CHANNEL!!! 🤗😍😄😆THANK YOU LORD AND THANK YOU ALL!!! YOU ALL ARE THE BEST! I started with 7 subs and I never thought I could get 50 subscribers. But now 641+ SUBSCRIBERS!!!!! I wanted to make a special video for when I got a 100 but the numbers quickly kept going higher and higher and I was happy and yet overwhelming. I am so grateful to have this opportunity to share goofy goobers stuff with you. 🤗😊👍. Now with the question. Am I still going to do YouTube you haven't really posted any new videos yet? Yeah, I know. But Yes! I am still going to do YouTube. I am working on 2 new videos, so I will have a poll ready for you guys to vote on which one you want to see first. I finished 1 video now I am about 60% done with the 2nd video. Until then you can Vote on which video you want to see first while I do some catch-up.

link to poll: https://www.youtube.com/post/UgkxdoxchkFP1fHQr6LfhVp_z21IbWmKqrBm

Social Media Art Update📲📳:

I will be posting art again BUT I will stop posting in some social media accounts. For those who want to be an artist, I definitely recommend doing 1 website and then expanding if you can. But not just that, if you are a beginner/new artist and you want to know what place to post your art, Firstly I recommend posting on sites where your favorite artists post. Most of the time They have some good pointers on where to go about posting art. Secondly and MOST IMPORTANT, post art in places where you can look it up AND it will show up on Google or Bing. For instance, If you look up Mario fanart on Google and click on images, (I know it's fanart but hear me out), The sites you will see are mostly Twitter, DeviantArt, Pinterest, Reddit and sometimes Tumblr will show up. Others like Artstation too. But not much of Instagram or Facebook. That's odd? The number 1 website for artists, from what people have recommended me, is NOT showing up on Google. Well, not a lot. Why is that? IDK. All I know is that should have been a warning sign that my art wouldn't be shown to the masses in the degree I was looking for. So when I post on Instagram, It does feel like I am posting to an endless void of nothingness. Your Artwork is valuable and should be treated as such so everyone can see it (unless you don't want to).

Here is my tier list of the Social Media I use daily for entertainment and posting as a creator on these platforms.

Update:: okie….. sooooo….. about the Mario fanart thingy. Apparently, Google has been overhearing me rant (literally) and rolling in Instagram and Facebook art on Google images which wasn’t the case before. But at least they are taking measures. But even though Google is allowing Instagram to be more recognized, I'm sorry but THE APP itself still has problems that Google can't fix. (Unless they bought it of course)

Besides YouTube, I can recommend Twitter, DeviantArt, Pinterest, Reddit, and Tumblr, just because you can post without feeling like you have to be a pro artist to be considered good, and you can grow and share with a community. And the best part is if you're an introvert (like me) You can post and worry less. I like to comment when someone comments back to help build confidence for myself but you don't have to if you feel shy. It takes small steps so don't rush yourself or your art. Another thing I would like to add is that if you love making GIF Art, you can do it on all the other platforms except…

Instagram. 😒😠😤

A literal sweat job with an inconsistent indiscriminate rate of changes left and right. Make reels, Make stories, Make post, all at once, every day, AND BOTS. Even watching reels about artists struggle just seems unhealthy to me, but Instagram loves this apparently. I mean, yes, we are struggling and there are plenty of underrated artists out there, I know it. But how are we helping them by promoting reels about art struggles and ways to get big on Instagram, instead of exploring new art techniques and trying new things when creating art. It also doesn't help that it is hard for me to refresh my feed from scratch. My bad Instagram for liking 1 Sonic fanart post, I just like 1 okay. I don't mean for you to give me all of them. Sheesh 😤There are just too many negatives of this platform I can't even begin with. Kinda like Twitter but at least Twitter hashtags work "sometimes". It is hard to trust a platform when you have bots swarming to your page and when you think that a live PERSON responded to your post BUT it is a bot recommending you to give them your art for the bot to share it. What kind of place is this? At the time I was trying to figure out where to post my art, I searched on Google, Reddit, and even YouTube, and most of the art videos I saw at that time all recommended Instagram. Well, I am here to say DON'T USE INSTAGRAM! This is a warning for someone who first uses this as their first art account. DO NOT USE IT PLEASE!

Man, this is the most negative thing I said but I'm just tired of thinking that this is okay and I need to put up with this and I don't.

In short, I will not post any future art I make on Instagram but the page will be open for those who want to see it. I may even come back to Instagram, but changes must be made for to make that move again. For now, I am happily posting on all the other platforms for now.

Being a Christian⛪✝️:

I am a Christian. I have been a Christian But I am a Sinner. I know I have done things wrong and I know I deserve hell, but I repent, repenting constantly for God to forgive me of my sins.🙏 I know I am sounding a bit Biblical but I am being serious. Heaven is real. Hell is real. And if both of those are really real then that must be God is real and the Bible is a history recorded for use to read and learn and hear from Him. No, I am not trying to convert you to Christianity, this is more for me than anyone I suppose. I have been dealing with doubts in my life and some things I just can't explain. But I know there has to be something beyond this life. There are just too many signs pointing in that direction and it is hard to keep quiet about. I know God saved my parents. I have seen it multiple times. But at the same time, I tend to forget and lose faith in Jesus at times which is sad. Is Jesus coming back again? If so then sign me up I will do my best to be closer to Him. It's just that I don't want to go to hell for all of eternity, so if I don't want to go there I need to believe in Jesus Christ. It is a lot easier said than done but I also want to share the good news with others that Jesus loves them but I don't want to offend anyone if that makes. But I guess I can tell you if you don't mind.

Jesus loves you! 💖💝

Yay, I said it! Oh I forgot to add that I don't want to rush anything that I do moving forward and take it easy. But don't worry I still draw fanart of my favorite video game characters is just that I am adding one more layer to what I post that's all.

Oh

You're still reading this?!?

...

uuh

I don't have anything else to say

I guess I can end it off like VeggieTales did

God made you special and He loves you very much

Buh bye👋😊

Happy Blessing

Sweeteacrummbles

[ggchamo]

The 29 Games I beat in 2023

This was a year of a ton of new amazing games, and even though I tried dozens, I missed many new awesome games this year, which will always be part of the fun of gaming.

I tried IGN's Playlist app, which buckets your list of games into different categories that sound helpful - Playing, Beat, Quit, Paused, Wishlist, Backlog.

Because I wanted a lot of games marked as "Beat" - I felt encouraged to play some of those shorter, faster plays - many of the games this year were on How Long To Beat dotcom under 10 hours and came highly recommended

One attitude for me this year was "well, I'm not having fun playing this game in the moment, but let's power through since i'm almost done." - This attitude really helped with the motivation to finish to be honest - getting it done meant it's off the backlog and I can move on to the next set of games in my very curated backlog.

Another theme in the games this year was nostalgia and exploring my childhood, so we had good representation of Pokemon and first-party Nintendo

Besides these games, I tried quite a number of games on Switch, PS5, Xbox Series S, and PC for at least a little session - if I don't hit credits it didn't make it on the list, although don't hold me to that

For ongoing games, I played many hours of Gran Turismo 7, some hours of Valorant (140 hours less than 2022 which was definitely lower than 2021...), and the occasional Overwatch/Fortnite/whatever session with people getting together. 2023 was not the same as 2020's peak of playing with friends on a daily basis, but this year I embraced curating things to my taste

I loved the three games I played with my fiance - Paper Mario, Hi-Fi Rush, and Sackboy. Anytime we share an experience it makes the payoff multiple times better.

God of War Ragnarok: Valhalla -

Fuck - I really wanted to beat this one, so it was satisfying to get this one ticked off my list. They wanted to design something hard and worth the challenge and time investment, and I think they did it. I consistently was making progress until the last thing was to beat the final boss, and once I watched a youtube video and tried a different strategy, it opened up. Experience was cool - God of War has a great set of combat features, one of the very best combat systems outside of the god-tier Dark Souls team.

Pokemon Black 2 -

Buying an Analogue Pocket triggered this exploration into my childhood, and part of that was getting into collecting the Pokemon games I missed and revisiting them. I found a copy of this game slightly discounted from it's $160 avg price on eBay and was worried about getting a fake but was relieved it was authentic. So how was this game, not just as a hype item but as an experience?

It was worth the effort. It had a ton of cool pokemon (although needed more water pokemon in my opinion) and it actually was tough to beat - I ended up losing once or twice and had some dicey gym battles earlier on, but I thought the game was an interesting chapter in the pokemon games. It was very story focused and wanted to build some lore and some characters, not just create a million new cool pokemon. Gen V was a big blin spot for me so it was cool to spend some time back in these games after beating Pokemon Black for the second time in the past few years in the pandemic era.

Rollerdrome -

I found the game very tough near the last three levels (it was just overtuned for a casual guy like me and got crazy) but I found it very unique and aesthetically very iconic. These devs took some of the muscle memory from Tony Hawk games and added that famous "bullet time" mechanic as another way to pace everything. It's a great combo - I can even imagine a game where the shooting has to go with the beat. I am happy they had assists so I could avoid hitting my head against the wall for 20 hours.

Super Mario Wonder -

Another GOTY quality game, in a year where we had a new Mario and Zelda come out in a sea of sequels and really well-done indies. I'm not done with this game yet. I hit credits, but there is more to play here in the future. This game is exactly my vibe - and we got to see the demo in person in Seattle which was fun!

Jusant -

Short and sweet with very fun unique climbing gameplay that I enjoyed playing through. It was straightforward and interesting, and I enjoyed that quality many Indies have where it had a huge imagination that transcends their budget and tech restrictions. I felt like that team did a great job and I kept thinking I want to see more games like Jusant, taking the concepts further.

Pokemon Crystal Version -

I was in the mood for classic pokemon with tons of moments of nostalgia and feeling memories from back during childhood - and Pokemon always delivers, I need Pokemon games in my life. I was proud to finish the game after transferring the file to a new 2DS XL and regretting my choice of Totodile as my starter 30 hours in. I had fun and this game is timeless - I will play it again and it will feel like the first time I played it again because that's what these games do. They always feel new because in the world of Pokemon, there is always more to learn.

Spider-Man 2 -

Consistently fun and with very rewarding platinum trophy that wasn't that hard to finish - I found the experience of playing this game rewarding, familiar and very polished, and the game did not overstay it's welcome with bad gameplay. Not too different from the first games besides some very cool new features and types of scenarios with the same core gameplay as Miles Morales and Spider-Man 1.

Forza Motorsport -

In a head-to-head comparison between this and GT7, GT7 has greater replay-ability and tricks the mind into feeling like you're in a simulation. But Motorsport is maybe the better designed game - since it took some driver activities and made them gaming features. But in execution, they don't make a material impact on the experience and don't add much immersion since the driver levels have no impact on gameplay. I enjoyed the larger assortment of cars and the tons of races to play - but I didn't see the same love in the courses, which are really the core gameplay "levels." So I feel like I'm saying that this very expensive and detailed gameplay was lacking levels, which seems like a weird place to be for a game. So lots of complex feelings after playing for over 40-50 hours - I definitely will play this again.

Super Mario World (GBA) -

Someone set me up with GBA online and this was the first game I played - very cool experience playing through my first game in one or two sittings on a big screen with my adult brain and skills without my child limitations.

The Last of Us Part 1 -

In the first few weeks of October, I was having a great time revisiting a game that I played a few years before the pandemic (may have just been 2018/2019....) and also was watching the HBO show at the same time. It still is an awesome experience and still touches those same great heights because the game has that iconic aggression and unique feeling that you feel from what it asks you to do and what it puts you through. No other game feels Last of Us games, and they're on a different league of their own.

Cocoon -

Weird game. The sound design and the visual aesthetic stuck out as iconic to this game, with the gameplay being just multi-faceted enough to encourage me to try to learn new things - I think there was almost one point where I had to look something up but I sat down and tried my best and was able to move forward. I felt very smart and impressed myself.

Venba -

Awesome game and only one or two sessions long - it told a story and it made me think. I liked how the recipes felt like puzzles which is what cooking feels like!

Lego 2K Drive -

In late September, needed something quick and fun to play before Super Mario Wonder/Forza Motorsport/Spiderman 2 slapped me in the face - this was very rewarding and was very satisfying to look at and play - deep enough that it was fun but still very easy to pick up and play with all the different type of cars. One or two kind of down moments definitely didn't weigh down my opinion of the experience as a whole, although it's nice that it's free for PS Plus people 2 months after I bought it for $70.

Paper Mario: The Origami King -

My fiance beat this before and agreed to watch me play and Sherpa me through the experience. It was pretty awesome, although the base gameplay is a bit of an acquired taste...not too long but still took some time investment to finish all of the worlds and once or twice lose a multi-turn boss fight due to some unfortunate misclicks.

Osu! 2 on DS -

Beating this was a spur of the moment and only took a few sessions, but I wanted to play through the "new" Osu game (although now the series over a decade old) for a long time and finally grabbed it off my brother. Iconic songs and I had a lot of fun - and I think I've gotten better mentally at rhythm games after more experience gaming and playing music in general. I was able to power through and beat it on normal without too much.

Kena: Bridge of Spirits -

Has been on my list for a while. I have no clue how. LOL like it may have been one of those rare PS4 games that got a nice PS5 upgrade in 2021 or maybe there was a good review that I saw. I think the game felt... unfair near the end. I ended up turning the difficulty down near the end and finalizing some of the later levels on my iPhone through remote play. Like I changed it to the story mode difficulty and just played through - not a great sign. It had amazing animation and just absolutely killer graphics, but maybe it was too much like God of War or Horizon Zero Dawn? I didn't come away like I gotta recommend this one to everyone, and looking back I liked that the game was short so I thought let's power through, which was a theme this year. I think I turned the difficulty down when I played on my phone just to give myself a better chance of pounding through the levels. Very beautiful though

Pikmin 4 -

dawg - my first Pikmin game. Absolutely fire, I enjoyed trying something new and I didn't find it frustrating or limiting at all, and I think I would play more of the post-game with the new planets and fill everything out in the future.

The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom -

Iconic and honestly this is the type of game that is on a different plane. Worth the 80-100 hours I put in to my first playthrough - an experience for the type of person that plays video games in the action adventure category, but it's good enough that it transcends genre and expectations. The game was as big as my imagination and I had some iconic moments in the game, like sequence skipping and also enjoying and exploring areas slowly and intentionally. It's worth playing again now that I think about it - just to do the depths again now with the experience of doing it the first time.

Pokemon X -

Set in a Pokemonized France and I played most of this game during breaks in my awesome French vacation this summer. Playing this game has connected me to my childhood, so I had a great time in my 30 hours. This would be worth multiple playthroughs - this was really the first game that I missed in the Pokemon series.

Playing this has been part of my recent 3DS exploration, where I am now trying to play the games I missed during high school and college times, because I was so busy to really play any games, especially not Pokemon. Finishing this game and seeing some of the subtle new changes they did after the Gen V era didn't fully register as these games were refined over decades, but I'm starting to make the connection between the recent games and the games from my childhood.

Pizza Tower -

this game was pure adrenaline. Holy crap. The polygon review got me onto this and I love 2D platformers, but the very unique and original presentation is what got me stuck to it. It was tough at times and also that fun type of creepy with the badly drawn kinda weird characters. I had fun, and I felt that was the game with

Sackboy: A Big Adventure -

Awesome game to finish with the fiance. It was a bit generic, not grounded on a specific character or point of view or set of values besides friendship and light vs. dark. but the multiplayer gameplay was what I was there for, and it delivered. It was a very fun experience playing the game with my partner and I always appreciate games that bring everyone in, not just a specific persona designed by capitalist-fueled marketing machines.

Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War -

Speaking of capitalist-fueled... I can't remember that many memorable moments but that is the point. the graphics looked amazing and I was happy to play game that didn't take a million hours to roll credits at. Another one that probably was padding for the list. LOL.

Tinykin -

this was another short one, and another one like Gears on Xbox. It was the first Pikim-type game I've played. Very original and once it got going it was fun to go through it. every now and then confusing but it was easy to knock out. I enjoyed the platforming and found it forgiving but not so easy it was boring. It felt tight.

Gears 5: Hivebusters -

Never found the Gears games rewarding enough to finish. Sometimes they felt too convoluted and I didn't feel comfortable. The reason we finished this one - it was short. LOL. it was enough though - felt like a proper experience and I actually enjoyed it. It's just not smooth enough for me to want to play another 60 hours, maybe one ady.

Stray -

a bit buggy, a bit sparse, but I was happy because it was short and sweet. Very creative and had great characters - but I couldn't tell you what their names were. I think it brought a unique experience with the cat features to very well trodden ground and the 3D platforming/exploration gameplay was refined but not as rock solid as the Nintendo types.

Hi-Fi Rush -

playing this game in January 2023 was a cool experience shared with my fiance and the game was incredibly unique and so so so cool. It was pure ecstasy when my girl beat the final boss after losing like 60 times. Hours of pain. When she finally beat it, it felt historic. What an icon!

Pokemon Violet -

yeah performance was ass but playing the new games, they are the best Pokemon games ever by definition. They always raise the bar and it's hard to appreciate until years later.

Metroid Prime Remastered -

I finally beat it like 10-13 years later, this was so action packed and familiar, guides really helped in moments.

Super Mario 3D World + Bowser's Fury -

Short extra mode was a good time - so it was cool to start with a mario game this year. I remember it being not incredibly difficult but have forgotten some details since January it seems.

[killerawesome]

mario party 7 is probably one of the games of all time. because im currently playing in a mario party league (yeah mom its a thing), here's some mario party 7 fun facts! fun fact number 1, the tier list. - not necessarily a fun fact but something that's always fun to bring up is the character orbs. these orbs are specific to each group of characters, i.e. peach/daisy both have the flower orb. typically, the best character orbs are the ones that give movement. this leaves 4 characters, Dry Bones, Boo, Toad, and Toadette. Dry Bones/Boo have the Magic Orb, which doubles your roll for two turns as well as bypassing any traps that are on the board. the downside is you're just as likely to roll low than to roll high. Toad/Toadette have the Triple Mushroom (not to be confused with the Golden Mushroom/Triple Dice) which give them three consecutive double dice rolls. upside is that luck wise, you're more likely to get a decent roll (8-12 range). downside is that traps will still affect you. all in all, both of these characters are a good pick since movement is almost always prioritized on boards.

fun fact number 2, the duels - mario party 7 duels suck! (laugh track here) okay here's kinda how the rewards system works. the amount at stake for any given player is dependent on how far the winner is from the lose is in duels. if playerA is in 1st and playerB is in 4th, 4th will have more to gain from winning. usually this adds stars to the pool of potential things to take. On the flipside, 1st will have less to gain, usually only giving up coins (or nothing because MP7 is wacky). the closer the gap between the players is, the more likely stars will be on the table for both players. TL;DR, always punch up in duels, and never punch down.

fun fact number 3, the part where i go over some minigames - fun run is a pretty alright minigame, but the part i see most people trip up on is the Part That Pushes You Off The Cliff. there's a strategy that changes the game up a lot with that however. by hugging the far right corner just enough to not fall off, you can completely bypass the Part That Pushes You Off The Cliff. - tile and error is a 2v2 minigame that focuses on you and your partner covering up an entire side of squares to your color. while there isn't a meta defining strategy, there is something you should hella note. wait for your opponents to be near the edge. if you see this at any point, kick them off the cliff like you just saw a bunch of "this is sparta" memes because you wanted to see it for some reason. this gives your team a huge advantage, and it has your opponents team scrambling to try and recover ground. also, your ground pound can cover two spaces at a time. - final one, another 2v2, hop-o-matic 4000. this game will always give you 4 buttons to work with, with the final button pressed being the one in that set that hasn't been chosen. i.e. ABXY, if ABX has already been chosen, then Y will for sure be the next button.

this has been a bunch of MP7 fun facts, tune in next time where i'll go over some MP2 fun facts

[lancerious]

Ok I made the Nintendo franchises tier list and am ready to see everyone protest

I'm not going to go over the franchises I've never heard of or know VEEEEEEEEERY little about. Therefore I'll only be talking about things in the "Absolutely love" tier down to the "Meh" tier, in that order. If I know a franchise and have experienced it, I'll mention that. If not, I'll just give my initial impression of it. Anyway, let'sa go!

Also I forgot to take screenshots of each individual tier and am too lazy to go back and actually add them, so if you get lost come back up here, k? K :).

Second little thing, I just went forward a color on the rainbow with each tier I cover. So PLEASE pay attention to what tier I'm actually on, and not so much the color.

Starting with the "Absolutely love" tier...

#1: Super Mario. Mario is, without a doubt, my favorite Nintendo franchise to ever exist. I've played a lot of Mario games and have legitimately beaten a couple of them (Super Mario Bros. 2 and Super Mario 3D Land--both for the 3DS--if you're curious). Otherwise I just cheat and die ten million times until I get that essentially-immortal powerup lol, or in the case of Super Mario Bros. Wii, Luigi SOMEHOW does the entire stage for me. But yeah, Mario is my absolute FAV, my entire childhood was Mario. Love this franchise from the bottom of my heart :).

#2: Animal Crossing. Ok so most of you will be shocked, but I've TECHNICALLY never played any Animal Crossing game. I know what you do, I know characters from the games, and I know how the games work, but I've never played one before. I even know that older games had more...COLORFUL villagers but less to do, and newer games have A LOT more to do but less interesting villagers. WITH this being said, I absolutely love Animal Crossing and am DYING to try the franchise at somepoint. Instant favorite even though I've never tried a game from the franchise before.

Now to the "Pretty good" tier :D.

#1: Mariokart. Mariokart rocks man. I've only played a couple of the games--Mario Kart 7 on the 3DS and the REGULAR Mario Kart 8 on the Wii U--but even then I still love them. I've played these two games so much I've essentially become a god at both of them. The maps and music often SLAP too.

#2: Zelda. I have technically played Zelda...barely. I don't remember what game it was, but I know it was on a DS or 3DS. Based on the TINY bit I remember about the graphics and environment, I think it was Ocarina of Time. I don't really remember anything--I made like 0 progress in the game lol--but I still think it's a good franchise! Majora's Mask especially peaks my interest.

#3: Luigi's Mansion. Similar to Animal Crossing, I've never actually played a Luigi's Mansion game. However, I HAVE seen a full playthrough of Luigi's Mansion: Dark Moon, so I think I have a decent grasp on what the franchise is about lol. A side series focusing on Luigi is always nice--poor guy always gets overshadowed by Mario--and the concept, as well as atmosphere, is really intriguing to me. I definitely want to give this franchise a try in the future as well.

Next up, the "Not Bad" tier :>.

#1: Mario Party. Mario Party's not too shabby! I did play one of these games at one point, but I completely forget which one it is. I THINK there were maybe 3 different maps? I know it was on the DS or 3DS too. Anyway, Mario Party's pretty fun, especially if you play with friends, hehe :>.

#2: Splatoon. I will admit I don't know a lot about Splatoon, but I really like the little I DO know about it. I know there's a minigame where you try to color the cap with ink--or is it a minigame?--and I know a few of the characters you can play as, but that's pretty much it. Still seems interesting though!

#3: Paper Mario. Mario but on paper! Also partly 2D? I think? I'm assuming the whole point of the games is that most of it is in 2D. I honestly have no idea :P. But yeah, the games seem fun! I think these games are known for having villains that aren't Bowser--which if so is genius--as well, but I could be wrong.

#4: Mario & Luigi. I BARELY know anything about this franchise, but it seems all right! I'm assuming you can swap between controlling Mario and controlling Luigi, and I think there's Baby Mario & Baby Luigi too in a couple games.

#5: Metroid. Samus is from here! At least I'm pretty sure Samus is from here :P. I don't know much about Metroid either, but I do know it's a shooter/platformer-type deal and is centered around sci-fi and aliens. At least I think it is lol.

#6: Pikmin: Ok so, to be completely honest, I know virtually nothing about Pikmin. I know it exists, I know some characters look like goofy little plants...and that's about it. The only reason Pikmin is this high is because I know it exists and like some of the designs lol. I know nothing else about it.

Finally, the "Meh" tier!

#1 Pokemon. Okay, in all honesty, I should've put Pokemon a little higher, but I already made the list and don't want to go back and correct it. I have some good memories from Pokemon, but I only really like the part where you wander around towns and talk to people. I'm not too keen on capturing Pokemon, leveling them up, battling Pokemon...you know, the entire plot of Pokemon. I've only played Pokemon on my cousin's DS--or was it 3DS?--when we hung out together at a family gathering and had nothing to do. I never even owned a Pokemon game. Boy the Pokemon fans are gonna hate me for this T-T.

#2: Dr. Mario. Um. You play as Mario, but a doctor. You...match things? Pills maybe? And kill viruses? I think that's the point? Idk man, that's literally all I know. Seems cool, but strays so far from the main Mario IP that it doesn't interest me all that much.

#3: Starfox. This one's ok. I like the concept of intergalactic travel and it kinda being the Nintendo version of Space Invaders, but meh...I never really wanted to play a game from this franchise all that much. The one thing I like about it is this really weird easter egg from one of the games that would be too long to explain here :P.

#4: Kirby. Ok this is gonna be embarrassing, but for so long I thought Kirby was a female. 'Course now I know Kirby's a male, but dang, past me was dumb and never thought to look it up on Google ;-;. But yeah, Kirby's also ok. Kinda seems a bit too similar to Mario in my eyes, though I guess Mario can't eat literally anything :P.

#5: Yoshi. I've never actually played a game with Yoshi as the protagonist. I always just encountered Yoshi in a regular Mario game. The games seem all right, Wooly World looks GORGEOUS though holy CRAP.

#6: Donkey Kong. Finally, another franchise I've actually played! Donkey Kong is...eh. Never really liked it. My parents bought a couple Donkey Kong games over the years, but I only played one, and that is Donkey Kong Country Returns. At least I think that's how it goes. There are a couple highlights I liked from the game, first is the stage with that minecart. THAT was fun, even if I sucked at it lol. The other highlight is those weird pillar things with faces that scream bloody murder. I like those things so much and I don't know why. But yeah, I didn't get far into the game, and Donkey Kong ultimately suffers the same problem as Kirby: it's too similar to Mario. I'd rather play a Mario game than both Kirby and Donkey Kong.

#& Wario Ware. Truth be told, I know nothing about this franchise, but I'm GUESSING it includes all the Wario titles, because what else would it involve :P. The franchise seems all right I guess, but still, I'd rather play Mario.

Well that's it, this actually went quicker than I thought it would lol, but that's partly because I know so few Nintendo franchises. And to think I thought I know most of 'em...NOPE :D. Guess I need to work on that. I'm ready for you all to say my opinions are horribly controversial now :P.

[troyfullbuster]

Who doesn’t love Mario Party? Well let’s get the tier list for MP2 as we wait for Mario Party Superstars!

[actualbird]

nobody asked but here is every unraveled episode (as of may 2020) as how they’d be as a lover | a 2.5k word long post written in the style of an unraveled about unraveled and also love

Ah. Unraveled. Polygon’s golden boy of a video series where Brian David Gilbert is beckoned into a suit, lured into a blackbox studio, and is only granted escape after he has explained to three cameras whatever batshit video game adjacent thesis he has been cursed with this time. Unraveled is a wonderful video series, and we all love it.

But what if it could love us?

If you’ve ever asked this question to yourself, boy, do I have some content for you, because for the past 2 days, I’ve been working on this post where, for entirely too long, I explain to you how each Unraveled episode would be as a lover. And more importantly, which ones would be the best lovers.

Before I fall deep into this unhinged hole and take you down with me, I need to explain some things.

First: I want to make it clear that I am not categorizing BDG as he portrays himself in each Unraveled. I am instead taking each Unraveled episode as a fully formed being, the story, performance, etc, and letting that shape a character of its own. This character is where I extrapolate details from to create an Unraveled episode’s qualities as a lover. What I’m basically doing is anthropomorphizing Polygon dot com video content. And then making you date them. If this doesn’t make sense, don’t worry, it will as you read along. And if it helps you to visualize the Unraveled Episode As A Lover, I invite you to just imagine whomever it is you are most attracted to---or for those who don’t experience attraction, whomever it is you find most aesthetically pleasing---and then just add in the wild personality traits I describe through the course of this post.

Second: I know what you’re thinking. “Avian, the characteristics of what makes a good lover is subjective!” And I wholeheartedly agree. I’ve been through college, and I’ve witnessed my friends whom I love so dearly enter relationships with some of the most wack ass motherfuckers I’ve ever met. I know that people are into different things. But do I judge them for it? Well, kinda, yeah! Yes, what we want in a lover is subjective, but I’ve consumed a metric fuckton of romance media over the course of my life and am also in a wonderful relationship with my own girlfriend, and thus have my own personal idealized ranking for what makes a good lover. Feel free to disagree with my rankings of Unraveled Lovers, but also, I’m writing this post. I say this with as much love as I possibly can, but if you disagree with me, make your own post. If you don’t wanna make your own post, you’re just going to have to trust me for 2.1k more words.

With that out of the way, let me take you on a journey through the 23 Unraveled Lovers, from worst to best.

BAD TIER: I would probably advise you to break up with these Unraveled Lovers as soon as you are emotionally capable of doing so.

Hoo boy, we’re starting at the bottom. The perfectionists, the nitpickers, the emotionally unavailables. These Unraveled Lovers would have good intentions, but just have aspects within their personality that will wear you and your relationship together down until both of you can no longer take it.

“Ranking all 200+ Megaman robots” is a lover obsessed with the concept of “is this worth it?” They would unknowingly but inevitably rank parts of your own personality on a scale of ‘worth the trouble in this relationship’ and ‘not worth the trouble’. Any lover who deals with you with this kind of dichotomy is somebody you should not be with. You should be accepted and loved for all your parts, the beautiful and the ugly.

“How to make the perfect E3 press conference” is a lover who spent years consuming romance media and has a list of what makes the perfect relationship. So not only do they have unrealistic expectations for what a relationship is, but they will be obsessed with reaching that unreachable perfection. That will definitely put a strain on your relationship until the veneer of desired perfection crumbles away, leaving you both tired and sad.

On a less deep note, “How to tell apart all 596 Fire Emblem characters” just won’t remember any of the names of your friends or family. Sure, they’ll try, but they’ll give up in like 15 minutes and you’ll never be able to take this Unraveled Lover to a family reunion or a party with your friends. Probably not a dealbreaker, but as the Spice Girls said “If you wanna be my lover, you gotta get with my friends.” This Unraveled Lover will not. Next.

“No one asked but I found Mortal Kombat’s best cuddler” and “I wasted 3 weeks of my life finding Castlevania’s hottest monster” are two Unraveled Lovers with a similar problem: they both won’t shut the fuck up about their exes. Mortal Kuddler constantly brings up all the other cuddles they’ve experienced and Castlevanias Hottest Monster will tell you you’re beautiful, but also bring up like 69 other monsters they think are also beautiful. This might not be a red flag, but personally, this would tire me out, always being thought of in comparison or contrast to others.

That ends the BAD TIER and brings us to the OKAY TIER where a large chunk of the Unraveled Lovers fall into, so much so that I had to create more specific sub tiers under the OKAY TIER.

So let’s get into the OKAY TIER: These Unraveleds Lovers are alright, you’ll just have a sublimely weird relationship.

These Unraveled Lovers will treat you right but they’re also just very peculiar. Nothing wrong with that at all, but I’m here to explain to you just in what ways these okayest lovers are bizarre. Let’s start with the first sub tier.

OKAY SUB TIER: College Students who are way too into their major

There are a lot of Unraveled Lovers under this subtier, and this shouldn’t surprise you, because Unraveleds are inherently nerdy. These are lovers that will be good to you but also just never fucking shut up about what it is they’re studying.

“I read all 337 books of Skyrim so that you don’t have to” and "Understanding Kingdom Hearts (and every other story" are Creative Writing majors obsessed with analyzing every single thing they read. As a Creative Writing major myself, I would advise you to never date a Creative Writing major unless you are a Creative Writing major yourself. I think that’s the only way the relationship can be ethical. Being sent essays from the New Yorker every day would be torture if you didn’t actively enjoy it.

“We made all 78 Breath of Wild recipes in one day” is a Culinary Arts major and, score, they’re gonna wanna cook for you! A lot! Beware though, because it’ll be a hit or miss on whether or not the food will be good, but you must admit, that there is nothing quite as attractive as your lover making you food (let’s just hope the food doesn’t harm you).

“Smash Bros. owes millions of dollars in OSHA violations” is going to law school and that should be a dealbreaker in itself, but I’ll be a bit lenient because they’re always working towards the safety of everybody. This Unraveled Lover will always remind you to put your seatbelt on and also tell you exactly what laws you are violating.

“Bowser’s military hierarchy” is a Political Science major, and Political Science majors scare me. So I’ll just say they’re okay, and leave it at that.

“Which Dark Souls Boss is the best manager?” is a rare non-evil Management major because they actually truly care for the welfare of employees. They just will always talk about it, even when you guys are on a date. I know worker’s rights are important, but it’s not exactly what I want to talk about in between kisses, yknow?

“I fixed Fallout’s music by creating a totally new genre” is a Music major who keeps accidentally making Ska love songs to you. You didn’t know Ska love songs could be a thing. This Unraveled Lover makes it a thing.

“Scientifically Calculating the Game of the Year” is a Math major so you will never have to worry about calculating bills because they can do it for you.

“Calculate your pet’s HP with my 100% legitimate formula” is a Veterinary Medicine major so if you’re an animal lover, this Unraveled is the one for you! Just beware, because this Unraveled Lover will also spend a lot of time observing you from afar to quantify your health points, but both of you will inexplicably find this activity strengthens your relationship.

And last but not least for this sub tier, “When can Mario retire?” is a disillusioned Accounting and Finance major who chose this line of study to get a job and, through the years, realized what a hellscape capitalism is. You may have to deal with a lot of zoning out and staring off into the distance, with this Unraveled Lover, but a lover who hates capitalism sure is a good egg.

That brings us to our next sub tier!

OKAY SUB TIER: Cultists or Conspiracy Theorists (AKA...College Students who are way too into their extracurriculars)

These Unraveled Lovers are alright! They’re just a little bit off the shits.

“Every Sonic game is blasphemous” will get really really worked up about things and probably try to start a cult. For most, that’s a definite dealbreaker, but what makes Sonic Bible an okay lover is that they eventually calm down from the cult outburst and apologize. So this Unraveled Lover will treat you well, you just have to be ready to ground them when they get a little bit bonkers.

“Solving the Zelda Timeline in 15 minutes” is very similar to Sonic Bible, except instead of starting a cult, every once in a while they’ll just sit you down on a chair and explain to you their latest obsession while slowly and intensely stripping. Which, hey, that could make for a fun night, if you’re into that kinda stuff! Definitely okay in my book.

That brings us to our last okay sub tier.

OKAY SUB TIER: Your Unraveled Lover might need to schedule some sessions with a therapist, and that’s Okay

Listen, we all have baggage. We all have problems. These are Unraveled Lovers who want to be the best for you, but at the same time have issues of their own, and you’re going to have to support them when they pop into their local psych clinic to make themselves better people.

“Waluigi” is an Unraveled Lover who is going through some identity issues. They want to be good for you, but they don’t even know who exactly they are. They may feel as if they are tricking you into being in this relationship, that they aren’t who you think they are, and while these fears are irrational, they wholeheartedly believe it and will never feel fully secure in this relationship until they have made peace with themselves. If you love this Unraveled Lover, you’re going to have to stick with them as they learn more about who they are.

“Kirby” is an Unraveled Lover who, for some reason, is obsessed with the constant quest to make things make sense. This need of theirs bleeds into every aspect of their life and can definitely affect your relationship. This Unraveled Lover may sometimes perhaps cite that they don’t deserve you because they can’t seem to figure out a logical and objective answer for why you are with them. This issue of treating everything like a puzzle to solve is an issue they will have to work out and recover from, and they will be receptive to this process of recovery because they cherish the relationship they have with you and understand that not everything has to be solved; some things can just be felt. If you choose to stay with this Unraveled Lover, you must be prepared to support them when they take a mysterious but needed soul searching journey in the woods. You must be prepared to sit with them along the shores of the beach and reassure them that life is about living, not about answers.

And that, dear readers, ends the OKAY TIERs. Now it’s time for the tier you have all been waiting for.

Drumroll, please!

GOOD TIER: Pop open the champagne, bring out the strawberries dipped in chocolate, and let Spotify play Careless Whisper, baby, because we’re in the Ideal Lover zone.

Welcome to the Ideal Lover Zone. Here, we have three Unraveled Lovers who are just extremely good fellas.

“I used the Sims to perfect my apartment” is an Unraveled Lover who will work their hardest to be the best for you, but unlike the BAD TIER perfectionists, it will naturally dawn to them that perfection is unattainable. After this realization, they will find comfort and happiness in your romantic relationship and the other healthy relationships they have with other people. This Unraveled Lover will be sincere with you when the time calls for it, but will also not be afraid to be goofy for it. Above all, this Unraveled Lover will ask for help when they need it. They may often be shy, at first, but they understand their limits and will openly communicate to you when situations call for it. Communication is the bedrock of any good relationship, and this Unraveled Lover will never keep you guessing.

“The Perfect Pokerap” is similar to the Sims, in the sense that they will at first strive for perfection in the honeymoon phase of your relationship but then understand that that isn’t possible and then set more reasonable and realistic goals. What sets this Unraveled Lover out from the crowd though is just how much they cherish you. How devoted they are to you. The love you will feel in this relationship will be transcendental, and, even if you do break up, this Unraveled Lover will never forget you.

And finally. Who---according to me, a mildly delirious 21 year old rando on the internet---is the most ideal Unraveled Lover?

It’s “Find your Kojima name with my simple 11 page form.” Why? Because this Unraveled Lover wants to know you. They want to know everything about you, the parts you like and the parts you don’t like. This is a lover who will not shy away from any aspect of yourself, but instead, embrace you for who you are as a full fledged person.

They’ll also give you a whack ass pet name, and boy, isn’t that romantic?

Well, there you have it. All (as of May, 2020) of the Unraveled Episodes as 23 Unraveled Lovers. What did I learn from this endeavor? That romantic love is complicated, but if you’re into it, it is definitely worth the trials and tribulations.

...As long as I’m not dating the Castlevania Unraveled. Seriously, when we’re making out, I don’t wanna hear about how sexy the Hyena With Gun is. Learn how to read the room, dude.

(Thanks for reading.)

[kinglarrykoopadx]

My top 10 all time favorite characters

10. Captain Basilisx (SMBZ)

One of the few redeeming factors of SMBZ, Captain Basilisx is one of Bowser’s more threatening forces. An incredible badass who’s better than Shadow the Hedgefart (fight me) that has Medusa’s gaze and is the only one out of Bowser’s army who canonically kills Mario in the og series (the Reboot does not count, it does not exist to me). And his theme song, like god damn, that remix of Show No Tears from DMC3 is a banger. The only reason he’s this low is cause Basilisx is a one time character. His debut episode, The Great Doomship Offensive, was his final episode because Carl Marx Haynes refused to put him in the reboot, so thanks a lot, Alvinlaskan Bullworm.

9. Rosalina (Mario series)

Is anyone surprised she made it to this list somehow? Rosalina first appeared in the masterpiece of a game, Mario Galaxy. She watches the Comet Observatory and was accompanied by thousands, scratch it, millions of Lumas. They did her dirty in Mario Galaxy 2 by reducing her appearance to a cameo in the base game, and 3D World made her a straight up playable character to wash off the disrespect. She’s pretty much the only Mario princess that I adore. Pauline’s not my type, I despise the hell outta Peach, and Daisy is too sassy for my liking. Why she is at number 9 is that I don’t like her as much as I used to. Don’t get me wrong, I still liked her, I just don’t like her as much. Still a decent Mario character though.

8. King K. Rool (DK series)

Another case of Basilisx, he’s basically if Goofy from Disney tried to be Bowser. He’s many things. A boxer, a king, a scientist, hell even a pirate captain. His goal varies throughout his appearances. In the first DKC game, he wants to hoard all the Kongs’ bananas. In the 2nd and 3rd, he plotted revenge against the Kongs. In 64 is where he’s most serious, cause he wants to BLOW UP DK ISLAND with his Blast-O-Matic. he’s a wacky one, but that’s what we all adore from him. The reason he’s this low is that he’s another case of Basilisx. He’s underused as hell, he and the Kongs haven’t batted eyes in years. And truth to be told, I really wish he’d stick around. The villains we got in the recent DKC games are just generic as hell. Tiki Tong is Knucklotec but before Odyssey happened, and of course the Walrus is the main villain of Tropical Freeze. How anti climactic.

7. Blaze (Sonic series)

While I stated before that my faith on Sonic sinks as deep as the Mariana Trench, she’s one of the better Sonic characters. She’s the anti Sonic where while Sonic is social, caring and all about action, Blaze is an introvert, has no friends, and plans ahead. Kinda like everyone in 2020 when you put it in perspective. She has incredible fire powers and is the guardian of the Sol Emeralds, the Sol Dimension’s Chaos Emeralds, which looked like the Royal Rubies/Savvy Sapphires/Equable Emeralds from Dragon Quest. At first, she was hostile towards everyone except Cream, but in the end of Sonic Rush, she had character development and grew fond of everyone. She’s one of the best Sonic characters, and Sega did her dirty by pulling a Basilisx. Seriously, Generations was her last appearance, not counting spinoffs.

6. Metal Sonic (Sonic series)

In the Sonic series, Metal Sonic was the chad to Sonic’s virgin. He was first introduced in Sonic CD, as Sonic’s faker, who strived to be better than Sonic. And can I just say that Metal Sonic is 99.9% better than regular Sonic, despite Sonic kicking his ass multiple times? Safe to say that the scrap brain has acheived his life’s purpose (hohoho-) . He has speed that outmatches Sonic, can overheat his circuitry to catch up with Sonic when he’s far behind, but the biggest highlight was when he turned to flying metal godzilla. And his theme songs never cease to disappoint. Stardust Speedway is a banger and What I’m Made Of. Dear god, WHAT. I’M. MADE. OF. If you never smiled hearing this, don’t even speak a single word, cause you’re an alien and I’m calling the FBI. The only problem with him is he’s another Blaze/Basilisx. His last official appearance was in Generations, not counting Forces cause he was a hallucination at the time, and Mania was made by Whitehead and not Sega so it doesn’t count. The only reason he’s higher than Blaze is because I prefer him over her.

5. Vivian (TTYD)

In this tumblr, I normally trash talk TTYD, but now, let’s talk a positive from the game. Someone get me the bucket, cause after this section, I’m gonna barf. Anyways, Vivian from TTYD is by far the most developed out of the TTYD roster. We get glimpses of her being abused by Beldam and eventually in Chapter 4, she has a change of heart and joins your party, practically defying her purpose in life. She also has a wide array of useful attacks. Shadow Fist being her neutral special, Veil which is basically Bow’s Outta Sight, Fiery Jinx which inflicts Burn, and Infatuate which confuses enemies with a kiss (might as well call this The Thousand Kisses Door). The reason she’s this low is cause she’s not exactly my favorite female character in paper Mario, she’s rather the 2nd best.

4. Koopalings (Mario series)

Maybe I watched too much Bowser’s Koopalings for this one, but shut up, this is my list.

3. Bowser Jr (Mario series)

Bowser’s spoiled son here takes the 3rd place for multiple reasons. One, look at him. He’s adorable. How could you hate him you soulless pricks. Two, he’s smart as hell. I mean it’s evident since his debut, he literally framed Mario and got away with it. And mind you, framing someone for a felony is not easy. Takes years of planning, lawyers, hiding of evidence, and did I mention lawyers? And it doesn’t stop there. Unlike Bowser who normally uses brute force, Jr here uses all sorts of tech to keep Mario at bay. Megahammer, Mecha Jr, Boomsday Machine, you get the idea. Third, his father son relationship with Bowser is adorable as hell, seriously, HOW DO YOU HATE THIS GUY.

2. Olivia/Bobby (Origami King)

It was hard ranking these two individually but then I decided to put them both in the same tier. First up, my favorite Paper Mario character, Olivia.  She’s basically a precious sunshine baby and if you dare lay a single scratch on her, I WILL BE FORCED TO TRAVEL THE WORLD AND BACK TO FIND YOU AND WHEN I DO, THEY HAVE TO MAKE ANOTHER COFFIN FOR YOUR FUNERAL. Yeah, her hints usually don’t help and I can see why there are people who hate her, but that’s what kids do, and I don’t even wanna see how an Olivia hater parents his kids. I just assume they donate them to an orphanage or something. I was kinda sad to see her go honestly, she was the only one travel companion out of the modern trilogy that I feel actually matters. And now, we have Bobby. He’s basically a Bob Omb who was a passenger of the Princess Peach (the narcissism, I know) until Olly took over and he eventually lost his fuse and memory. He doesn’t do much in battle, but his story arc is his spotlight. Eventually, he got his memories and the fuse he kept as a memory for his fallen bestie, which means it’s time to say goodbye. I know some TTYD fanbitch is gonna question his death because “aLl bOb oMbS sUrvIvE aN explOsiOn” but listen. Bobby isn’t a special case like say, Bombette or Bobbery. He’s just a regular factory made Bob Omb, which means he’s gonna die should he explode. And not gonna lie, that was one of the saddest videogame moments I experienced in my life. I almost cried, true story, and it takes a lot to make me cry. Olivia’s despair doesn’t help either. He was a valiant hero, a chad, and most importantly, he was a FRIEND. The reason they’re not on the top is because there’s one surpassing the two of them, and all who know me know who he freaking is.

1. Bowser (Mario series)

I mean, c’mon, who else would it be? He’s basically the supreme chad to Mario’s virgin. He’s one of gaming’s most iconic villains and he deserves that fucking role. He’s incredibly badass, like look at Giga Bowser and Fury Bowser and tell me he’s not the icon of awesome. If he’s not, don’t speak to me. Hell, even Pyrrhon from Kid Icarus Uprising acknowledges his badassery, if you’ve seen Hades’ Misguidance Season 2. He’s also crazy powerful, being able to conquer entire galaxies and punch out castles, TWICE. He even punched an entity of darkness to oblivion once. And did I mention he’s an incredible parent? He’s one of the most complex Mario characters, and that’s why we love him, is it not? For me, this is rather the case of rooting the villain more than the hero. And if I get judged for it, then so be it. I wish one day for a standalone Bowser game (Inside Story does not count) where Bowser beats the shit outta Mario. I salute you, King Koopa, you don’t need a crown to be my ruler, my throne’s already yours.

[purplesurveys]

965

What's your favorite type of survey to take? Random question surveys that don’t make me think too hard are my favorite, like this one. Surveys that bunch categories together are also fun. Bolding ones are fine but I prefer elaborating on my answers so that I don’t go through them quickly, because otherwise just bolding gets boring.

What was the last topic you read about? I recently watched a Good Mythical Morning episode where they talked about certain US presidents’ favorite snacks, and since I was only vaguely familiar with most of the mentioned presidents I took some time to read about them.

Have you ever made a diorama? I probably did in grade school but given that it’s such an artsy craftsy project kind of thing, I’m sure I did horribly and that my brain has kept it from being stored in my memories.

Do you prefer Windows or Mac? Maaaaaac. I spent enough time with Windows, but I would not go back.

What's the best amusement park ride you've ever been on? I was never an amusement park ride type of gal since I tend to get dizzy from anything fast, but I’ll give an exception to the octopus since that gave me a lot of fond memories from high school.

Where are you right now? Describe the room or place. In my bedroom. Four white walls, two windows, a variety of prints and paintings on the wall, a desk in one corner with my laptop and a journal, and a bunch of knickknacks stored in my drawer, a storage chest, and the bottom tier of my closet.

Have you ever participated in a fundraising campaign? I’ve shared tweets and posts to help raise awareness about certain fundraising campaigns that I support, but I never spearheaded or managed any of them myself. I’ve donated to a few.

Do you know how to knit? No. I didn’t care much for it when they taught it in grade school, but now I actually kinda want to check it out. I feel like it could be therapeutic for me this time around given how crappy my life is being at the moment.

What did you have for lunch today? I skip lunch all the time since I typically have late breakfast, but I might snack on the brookies that we have during my lunch break.

Name some of your favorite sitcoms. Friends, The Big Bang Theory but only up until season 6 or 7ish, and this 80s sitcom that my parents tried to introduced me to when I was 10 but I ended up really loving and watching all eight seasons of, Perfect Strangers.

Who is the 7th contact in your phone and how did you meet them? Blanch! My favorite vape break partner ha. I met her when I was applying in my college org. Part of my tasks as an applicant was to have a conversation with as many present members as I can talk to, and eventually I crossed paths with her. I remember calling her ‘Ate’ during our first few interactions, aw...until I realized she was actually a year younger than me haha. I miss her so much. She was such a laidback friend to be with and always had a healthy supply of dank memes.

Would you know how to read a house blueprint? Probably not right off the bat because I’ve never even seen one in real life. Give me a few minutes though and I think I’d be able to get the hang of it.

What shirt do you wear the most? I tend to repeat bottoms more often since I have fewer of those, but I don’t know if I wear a certain shirt more often than the others. I like making sure I wear them all an equal amount.

Do you keep notes on your phone? What sort of things do you write? A lot. I use the Notes app for almost everything, from writing about weird dreams I’ve had, baby names I like, my passwords, movies to watch, notes from school and work, and ideas about anything I’m working on just in case a random interesting thought pops up in my head.

Have you ever used Duolingo to learn another language? I’ve attempted to use it a few times including once during this lockdown to learn Spanish, but I always end up forgetting about it. I also tried to learn Korean but their audio exercises were so hard. I realized I learn Korean so much quicker and more effectively by reading the hangul that comes up often on Korean reality shows.

What was the last video game you played? It’s been a while since I touched a game console but I’m pretty sure it was Mario Kart 8 on the Switch.

Do you remember much from high school? Not a big bulk of it but just enough to be able to look back and share several stories if I have to. It helps that I was already on Twitter throughout high school though; whenever I’m stumped about a certain high school memory I can just look through my account and look at my old tweets and photos I posted.

What's your favorite fruit to snack on? None of them on their own, but I can handle fruits incorporated in other foods, like avocado cheesecake or mango bits in my sushi. I’m not that big of a hater, hahaha.

Has anyone ever come out to you? A few people. I’ve always been very supportive but I make sure I express it in a nonchalant way. I find that people who came out to me always appreciated it the most when my response makes it look like their orientation isn’t a big deal to me and that I love them all the same.

Have you ever been part of a bridal or groom's party? No. That doesn’t happen here.

Are there any rooms in your house that don't have windows? No, all do. The bathrooms have tiny windows that are all the way up to let light in.

What's your go-to order from KFC? ZINGERRRRRR. And a chocolate brownie. This question made me realize how much I miss getting KFC, holy shit.

What was the last album you listened to in full? I cannot remember the last time I did this...my best guess would be no song without you by HONNE.

Would you prefer cupcakes or a big cake for your birthday? Any other day I would prefer cupcakes simply because I think they’re better and generally have more variety. But cakes are a birthday thing, man. My birthday would feel incomplete without one; receiving even just a cake slice would do.

What emotion is strongest for you at the moment? Melancholy.

Do you have Disney+? No. I don’t know if we have that here already.

Have you ever sent a package or letter to a foreign country? I don’t think so.

How many jobs do you have on your resume? My resume lists down 6 but that includes extracurricular shit I did in college that mentions the work I did in organizations and publications. So far, I’ve had 0 full-time jobs and 2 internships.

Do you use pepper to season your food? Almost never. My parents already add it in while cooking.

When was the last time you had a headache? This evening. Work was too much this afternoon and the weather sucks, so my temples felt sore for a bit. I think it’s mostly gone now though.

[savepointco]

What to know before signing up for Nintendo Switch Online

A year and a half after the spectacular launch of the Switch, Nintendo is finally preparing to launch the system’s online service tomorrow. Originally intended to go live in 2017, the service was pushed back so that the company could get their "digital environment world class" before they were comfortable charging consumers for it. It’s no surprise Nintendo would want to take their time to get things right, after all, many feel the company has struggled to keep up with their contemporaries ever since Microsoft launched Xbox Live sixteen years ago. Whether or not the service will sit on even ground with the likes of Live and the PlayStation Network remains to be seen, but there are a few things you’ll want to know before you sign up. Let’s take a look.

Aside from the relatively robust set of features that every Switch owner will still be able to enjoy for free, Nintendo is touting five key features to set the paid service apart. Online Play, access to a library of NES games, the Save Data Cloud, the previously launched mobile app and what they call “Special Offers”. While that all sounds great, not everything is as you might expect.

Online play is of course one of the most important features of the service. Almost every game released these days includes an online multiplayer component, if it isn’t online only to begin with. While you’ll need to pay to enjoy first party titles like ARMS, Splatoon 2 and Mario Kart, its interesting to point out that some games will allow online multiplayer without the service. Notably, Epic’s free-to-play battle royale Fortnite will not require you to sign up for Nintendo Switch Online to continue enjoying the game. Presumably this would be because you are signing into your Epic account for the game, though we’ll have to wait and see what other games join this free tier. 

At launch, Nintendo says you’ll be able to play 20 classic NES games through the paid service with more scheduled to arrive in the months to come. Looking at the current schedule, it seems you can expect about three games per month. You’ll be able to access these games as part of the subscription, but unlike some other services, you won’t own the games. If you lapse on your membership, you won’t be able to enjoy these games until you renew. 

Speaking of letting your membership lapse, beware of letting that happen if you plan to rely on the Save Data Cloud. According to the company’s FAQs, "Save data stored via the Save Data Cloud backup is available for as long as you have an active Nintendo Switch Online Membership." Furthermore, game saves from the NES-Nintendo Switch Online collection are only stored locally on your physical console. That means if something happens to your system, your progress in these older titles is likely gone forever. If your membership laps, you’ll lose access to the collection as well as your saves. It’s unclear if cloud saves for newer games are maintained on Nintendo’s end if you decide to renew your membership later. 

One of the more annoying aspects of the Switch’s online play has been the need to use a mobile app to chat with friends and other players online. While this may be a way to keep children from being exposed to adult language, you’d be hard pressed to find a kid these days that has a Nintendo Switch, but not some sort of smart device. Beyond chat, you’ll be able to enjoy additional features through the app like Splatnet 2, Splatoon 2′s mobile extension where you can review and share your battle stats, order new gear for use in-game and other features depending on the game.

Finally, lets talk Special Offers and pricing. While Nintendo promises that new offers will be added regularly, there are two to start. One being the 2-pack of NES Switch controllers shown off in last week's Nintendo Direct. The two game pads feature the familiar 8-bit system's layout, and will likely only be usable for those games. The controllers will retail for $59.99 for the pair and are listed as an Exclusive Product Offer for members. Additionally, members with a 12-month family or individual membership will be able to get some exclusive Splatoon 2 in-game gear to enjoy: an online jersey and online Squidkid V shoes. As you can see above, Nintendo Switch Online memberships can be purchased in 1, 3, and 12 month blocks. The more you pay upfront, the more you save. For households with more than one and up to eight Nintendo Accounts, you can snag a 12 month Family Membership for just $34.99.

It’s still a hard sell to folks that have enjoyed Xbox Live and PSN for the past decade, but die hard Nintendo fans will likely have no reservations about throwing down the few dollars a month to enjoy these benefits. What do you think? Have you signed up yet? Nintendo Switch Online goes live tomorrow, September 18th.

[oneddashone]

Games of the Year 2021

Something like 90% of this was typed up in December, but I only thought to finish and post it now. Oops. Also I bought an Xbox Series S this year (hello Elden Ring!), but late enough that nothing from there really made it onto the list.

***RECENCY BIAS***

Shin Megami Tensei V

Death's Door

Loop Hero

Shovel Knight Pocket Dungeon

Forza Horizon 5

Sable

I got these all in the last few weeks, and so while it's too early to properly rank them in a category, I can already tell that they have a lot to offer and, with time, will likely be some of my favorites of the year. SMTV especially *very nearly* qualifies as "Essential," but I really should play it for a bit longer before making that distinction.

***SOME SHMUPS I BOUGHT THIS YEAR***

R-Type Final 2

Raiden IV x Mikado Remix

Mushihimesama

Darius Cozmic Revelation

Cotton Reboot

Espgaluda II

DoDonPachi Resurrection

Deathsmiles 1+2

I'm pretty sure R-Type Final 2 is the only properly "new" game on this list, but all of these shmups came out on Switch this year and I enjoyed my time with all of them. Special shoutout to the M2-helmed Cave ports, which feel perfect to me and are a total blast to play on my rotated monitor (with the 8BitDo arcade stick, of course—who even needs a candy cab these days?).

***RECOMMENDED***

Super Mario 3D World + Bowser's Fury

Ghosts 'n Goblins Resurrection

Bravely Default II

Umurangi Generation

Game Builder Garage

Doki Doki Literature Club Plus

Monster Hunter Stories 2

Super Monkey Ball Banana Mania

Big Brain Academy: Brain vs Brain

Now for the real list. Anything at this tier is absolutely worth your time, in my opinion, starting specifically with the Bowser's Fury expansion to Super Mario 3D World. It felt at the time like Mario's designers dipping their toes into a new-ish, Odyssey-inspired way to design a Mario game, and I hope there's more where that came from because it's tremendous. The new Ghosts 'n Goblins is arguably even more fiendishly difficult than the original, but it's beautiful and still feels modern in all the right places. I hope we see more revivals of dormant franchises of this caliber going into 2022 (looking at you, GetsuFumaDen). Special mention too to Umurangi Generation, a game I knew next to nothing about going into it, and one that continued to surprise me up until the very end.

***ESSENTIAL***

Mario Golf: Super Rush

Axiom Verge 2

Spelunky 2

WarioWare: Get It Together!

Castlevania Advance Collection

Metroid Dread

Disco Elysium: The Final Cut

Mario Party Superstars

A game in this tier is one of my absolute favorites of the year. Mario Golf might seem like a strange choice to some, but I found this game to be absolutely packed with stuff to do. I played through the campaign, played games online against friends, and loved the steady release of new characters and courses throughout the year.

I never quite finished the first game, but I played through and beat Axiom Verge 2 in about a week—which was great (more "short" games, please). I'm not totally sure, but I think the difference might have been the environments—most were way more open than the previous game's mostly tight, closed rooms. I've never quite followed the story in either of these games, but it didn't matter at all—if you like metroidvanias, you'll like this game.

I'm no good at Spelunky 2. Pretty miserable really, just like the first game. But this is perfection on an already nearly-perfect game, so I can't penalize it just because I'm too dumb to resist throwing a rock where I know I shouldn't. I played a lot of this game co-op with my daughter, which I didn't think would work but very much did (see also: WarioWare). Kudos to Derek Yu for sticking to his vision and iterating even further on a game that would probably have seemed "finished" to almost everyone else.

The original WarioWare is one of my favorite games of all time, and Get it Together is an intriguing update to the formula—one that I didn't think would work, at first blush, but one that I am happy to say I was very much wrong about. Another great game to play with a friend, and the unlockables and weekly challenges went a long way towards keeping me playing even after the final credit roll.

The Castlevania Advance Collection is something I've been asking for for a long time, and this package is just perfect. More like this, please.

Metroid Dread is great, but I think I loved it less than almost anyone else. I was really hyped before release and even replayed Super Metroid in anticipation, but then something happened. It started out incredibly engaging, but fairly early on I became acutely aware of just how dang linear this supposed metroidvania really was. "Wrong" paths secretly close, the supposedly inter-connected map is a lie, and everything's just been so damn designed to move you forward that the whole thing kinda loses it's "metroid-ness." I think the designers probably felt like they *had* to do this in 2021, to not waste anyone's time, but for me it ended up just kind of souring the experience. It's a beautiful looking game, the movement is fluid and graceful, and the boss fights are a spectical—but for me, the experience was a bit less than the sum of its parts.

I think my favorite thing about Disco Elysium is that it taught me about psychic damage and shame. The first time I essentially died of embarrassment was really pretty shocking, looking back on it. From then on, my choices became quite a bit more meaningful and I was completely absorbed in this game's incredibly dense and layered world. Turns out I also really really love dialogue trees and dice checks—who knew? I'm also glad I waited for this version, too, because the voice acting is top notch.

***RUNNER UP***

Dungeon Encounters

This is a tiny bit cheeky, but I'm giving Dungeon Encounters a slight nod over the games in the previous category because it just came out of nowhere and clubbed me over the head with its simplicity. This has got to be one of the most purely designed games I've ever played. Everything is so perfectly tight, so meticulously edited, that it doesn't feel like one pixel could possibly be out of place. This feels like the work of someone who had an uncompromising vision and carried it through every precarious step of the way, start to finish. This is addition-by-subtraction, no frills, Dieter Rams-level stuff.

Oh, and the character portraits all look like they were drawn by Mike Mignola. A+++ from me.

***GOTY***

Monster Hunter: Rise

I can't bring myself to understand the idea that some people apparently have that Monster Hunter Rise is somehow *lacking* content. I fired up the game the other day for the first time in 2-3 months, and had something like two dozen new Event Quests to check out, most with unique rewards (hello, Akuma costume). And that's after I put over one hundred hours into the story, and still haven't beaten the final boss that unlocks at HR100. Not to mention all the time spent with friends on their campaigns. AND my personal side quest of crafting as many different Long Swords as humanly possible. If this isn't enough "stuff," I really don't want to know what is.

But "stuff" only matters if it's good stuff, and yeesh there's a ton of good stuff in this game. Monster Hunter World was already an exercise in cutting some of the crust that had accumulated over the years, and Rise goes even further and better. Getting into the fights is now as frictionless as you want it to be, thanks to the new map and the addition of the dog. The wirebug is the coolest new mechanic the series has added, possibly ever. Not only is it great for traversal, but it opens up an entire tree of combat options. A lot of what I loved about Generations returns here too, especially in those wirebug attacks, albeit less over-stuffed than in that game.

The selection of monsters is generous and varied, the locations are memorable and well-designed, and the armor and weapons are more than up to the series' already sky-high expectations. I've picked Monster Hunter games as my GOTY before, but Rise is easily my favorite Monster Hunter game. And the fact that we're getting a giant expansion/DLC this summer just means I need to find a bit of time between now and then to craft just a few more Long Swords.

[365day2021]

Day 169

Woke up at like 11 I think again and showered and stuff and then went to the mall at like 2. Went to Vans to finally check out slip ons and I was debating between checkerboard and classic black and whites. After finally figuring it out with sizes and stuff I decided with checkerboard but Pac Sun has it for cheaper online so I’m just gonna order it there. But yeah, in the mall I stopped by Pac Sun, H&M and bought some $14 jeans and a quick pit stop in Cotton On before leaving. Went home and chilled for about an hour until Richard came to pick me up for beach. Our first time hanging out and talking in a long while so we were just catching up. We got to North’d End and we only stayed for an hour cause it was really windy. He “baked chicken” still and he showed me his vaporizer and we did that which was intense for me cause it was just new haha but it was super cool. But yeah we stayed until like 530 and he was high and I was getting there and we talked about Jade Villa and we decided to go there and get to go. I called ahead of time and yeah we got a good amount of stuff. I got beef and curry cause literally everything else is at guangdong besides that so yeah that along with some shumai and rice. Richard got calamari but they gave us 3 containers full??? So idk if I accidentally ordered 3 but the total for all of ours was about $91 so I guess that sounds right we ordered 3. Woops lol but Richard was cool with it and he even gave me one container so that was nice of him. But yeah he came to my place and I showed him around and then we left. Since then I ate and then streamed for about 2 and a half hours. Just pretty much played a little bit of singles with 2 of my viewers who i’ve played with before and they followed so that was cool. But yeah that plus a bit of dubs and then I stopped to watch mang0 go over luds. They were doing beer tier list + fudge lud fridays so yeah that was the rest of my night. It’s 232 and i’m still watching and they’re all playing mario party but I gotta sleep soon. Back to work finally tomorrow

[radramblog]

Retro Games WTB

So for reference, this and the last two posts were written on the same night. We went from serious discussion about sensitive and graphic material in media, to silliness about shooty mans, to this. The thing is, I’m going away on a weekend camping trip (Melbourne got delayed again but at least getting to go on this is a silver lining?), and when this post goes up (assuming I figure out how to schedule it right) is the one day where I’m just never at home. The Saturday of a weekend trip. I don’t know if the place is going to have cell signal, and I’m not letting that of all things get in the way of me posting more bullshit.

It’s been a long night.

I was originally going to do, like, a tierlist thing, but staring at the list of these was just depressing. Motherfuckers put Homestuck in the Video Games section multiple times, and I had to stare at the fact that someone went out of their way to make a FNAF shipping tier list. And lots of people played it. Fuck, man.

I don’t know if me talking about a bunch of games I want to buy is actually more interesting, but I’ll be damned if I can’t do that easily and for a lot of words. Plus, it’ll force me to actually come up with a complete list.

(editors note this is ridiculously absurdly long and it has no images it’s just 2.5K words of jack shit and me tiredly trying to make jokes about old games you probably haven’t heard of you’ve been waaaarned)

N64

The prospect of collecting all the N64 games I want is somewhat daunting, especially considering my region-based issues. But I’ve made some solid progress since that one time I talked about my collection (and I cannot be fucked dragging that post up at the moment). I’ve acquired Banjo-Kazooie and a Kirby 64 cart that I sure didn’t know was coming in fucking box.

Anyway. I’d like to pick up Smash 64 at some point, if only for the novelty of it. I’ve played it, like, once? And that was a very long time ago, the first time I ever played an N64 (possibly the only time I even touched a controller before I bought my own), and I wasn’t as mediocre to functional at Smash as I am now. 64 is kind of a whole different animal, though- no competitively viable maps by modern standards and the engine is fucky- every character combos so well that they run 5-stock matches instead of 3.

(From this point on, I’m literally looking at a Wikipedia list of games and picking ones to comment on, so it’s alphabetical)

Banjo-Tooie would be nice, I suppose, but I’ve barely played the first one- let’s maybe do that before I start thinking sequels. I didn’t realise until I actually picked up the game that Kazooie is like, a massive asshole? Extremely rude? Apparently that’s their character trait and I just didn’t know. Banjo seems like such a cool bloke, why does he hang out with them?

Even though I’d never be able to play it, the Australian version of Beetle Adventure Racing actually replaces the titular cars with Holdens, which is fucking hilarious and I need to see it.

I’ve heard a lot about Conker’s Bad Fur Day, that it’s basically Banjo/DK but M rated. I…don’t imagine it’s aged particularly well. Man, remember when he showed up for Project Spark, though? Yeah, me neither.

Donkey Kong 64 is another classic, and I’m sure it’s really good. I have managed to pick up an Expansion Pak, so there’s half the cost of it gone, too. I’ve never actually finished any of the Country games, but I’m pretty sure it doesn’t play like one, so. I also never watched the HBomberguy charity marathon, so I am pure and unspoiled as to the grisly details of this jungle bash.

On the one hand, Goldeneye is arguably one of the most iconic FPS games of all time. On the other, it’s not aged particularly well, and I don’t have a cadre of people to hang around being nostalgic for it, because we’re all either younger than this game or barely out-age it. I hope someone reading this feels old now. (sorry)

Even as a Pokemon fanatic, I’m not buying Hey You, Pikachu. That game barely worked with people in the USA, imagine that shitty microphone trying to decipher my accent on fucking N64 hardware. Also it’s pretty lame even if you can get it to work, so.

Majora’s Mask is currently my White Whale, because I want nothing more than to play that game. I’ve heard so much, it sounds and looks so fucking incredible, and as I said I have the Expansion Pak now so I can actually run it. One day, man, one day. Once again I should probably finish Ocarina of Time first, but like, I know I’m going to play this one, so.

I guess Mario Kart 64 would be worth picking up, apparently it’s one of the better ones. I reckon if people showed up to play fucking Beetle Adventure Racing before knowing the game was actually really good, they’ll show up for Mario Kart. I’d rather buy 64 than 8, frankly.

I could barely get any interest in my bootleg-ass copy of Mario Party 3, I’m not going to spend stupid money on the other ones.

Oh, apparently Mega Man Legends came out on the 64 as well? I thought that was just on the Playstation. I mean, people really seem to like that sub-series, but then people also liked Star Force, so I don’t know if I can trust the Mega Man fandom on anything. (MMBN legacy collection when, Capcom)

Yo so there was a Neon Genesis Evangelion game for the N64, and apparently it’s a fighting game? Japan-only, of course, but my console can run those anyway. And like, that sounds funny and cool, I’ll punch Sachiel to death, why the fuck not? Who needs a progressive knife. Congratulations joke.

God Paper Mario is so fucking expensive god damnit

Perfect Dark rounds out the trio of “hey I have the expansion pak now”, but I know substantially less about it. So, maybe?

The Pokemon games I’m missing (and care about) are Snap, Puzzle League, and Stadium 2. I’ll consider Snap if I can find a cheap copy, as I know it’s pretty limited (and the new one just came out), Puzzle League is probably meh, and Stadium 2 sounds fun but I’d need to then buy a GSC cart to get the most out of it and they aren’t cheap. Unless I get a Japanese one, but apparently, they’re only compatible with Japanese Stadium 2 (er, Stadium GS), so I’d have to double down on illegibility.

Oh fuck, right, Star Fox. Man I thought I was going to get away with just talking about Star Wars here (I’ve already got the good ones), but I forgot about fuckin Star Fox 64, aka The Good One. Shit I gotta get that don’t I? Fuck me. At least searching for one will be slightly easier because the PAL version has a different name.

Oh, and Yoshi’s Story looks like a trip and I don’t know if that’s a good thing. Like, this just looks worse than Yoshi’s Island if I’m being honest.

 GBA

I haven’t actually talked about by GBA collection on here have I? TL;DR- it’s a console I’m very nostalgic for, but my collection is lacking because all the carts in Malaysia were bootlegs.

Jesus there’s so many more GBA games than N64 ones. Like, in general, not just on this list.

Advance Wars is a solid maybe, because the carts are super fucking expensive, I’ve never played the series, and the remaster is coming soon. But apparently they’re good? Big shrug energy.

Wow, they made two whole Banjo games for the GBA. Both of these look like shit, though, so fuck it. No wonder I never hear anyone talk about them.

Boktai is an interesting series I’d like to maybe give a shot. It’s a JRPG made by fucking Hideo Kojima, where the cartridge had a light sensor in it to encourage you to play outside by buffing the main character. Which was an interesting choice on the notably not backlit GBA. It also has crossover stuff with something we’ll get into later.

I’ve played Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow to death, and as a result I’d love to pick up a copy of it’s GBA prequel, Aria of Sorrow- it’s apparently almost just as good. I’ve not heard much about the other two GBA Castlevanias, but they’re apparently similarly excellent- a stark comparison to the mediocre to bad N64 ones.

If someone buys me a cartridge of Crazy Frog Racer I will play it and that is a fucking promise.

There are like three whole Fire Emblem games on the GBA, though only two came out in English. I actually have a bootleg of one of them. It’s another one of those ones that are unreasonably expensive because it didn’t sell well and they didn’t make that many as a result, though. So probably not worth getting a real one unless I fall super head over heels for the series- I don’t see that happening soon.

Oh right, Golden Sun. Another JRPG franchise for the GBA. There were a lot of those, huh? Anyway there’s like no way this guy is getting into Smash, don’t get your hopes up.

Harvest Moon is basically Stardew Valley, but older. Two games of it came out on the GBA, and I’m probably not about to commit to buying one of those rather than Stardew. And that game has yet to successfully appeal to me, soooooooo

I have a bootleg of Kirby and the Amazing Mirror, and that’s one of the ones where it probably doesn’t matter at all that it’s a bootleg, so I’m satisfied with it. Don’t have Nightmare in Dream Land, which I’ve played before on emulator and wouldn’t mind retrying, so maybe. I’ve never been massive on remakes if the original is viable, but I don’t have an NES so I’m sure not buying Kirby’s Adventure.

There are two Zelda games on GBA- a port of A Link to the Past which I have, and Minish Cap which I don’t. Minish Cap is very expensive!!! Aah!!!

Yo they ported The Lost Vikings to GBA? Wack. I guess Blizzard gets a shoe in this console’s door, then.

Yeah okay so there are like a million Mario games here, huh. Superstar Saga was the first Mario and Luigi game, and the one of those I’ve played (Partners in Time) was good enough that I’d bite for the original. Or I’d just go buy Bowser’s Inside Story. Mario Kart and Golf on the GBA don’t appeal super hard, and I’ve played Mario Pinball Land (long before that Alpharad Deluxe series), to the point where I don’t feel the need to actually buy it.

Speaking of Alpharad, I played Mario Party Advance on one of my Malaysian Bootlegs long, long before he made that video reminding people it existed. That game actually kind of fucks, for what it’s worth, and since my copy can’t save, I’d consider buying a real one. Assuming that Alpha’s video didn’t lead to a mass buyout or price spike.

Okay, so Mega Man Battle Network is kind of the big one on this list- definitely the White Whale so far, since to my understanding the series had extremely limited release in Australia. I do have a Japanese copy of 4 (Blue Moon) that I picked up because it was like 5 bucks, but A. 4 is godawful relative to the others and B. it’s a JRPG and I can’t read Japanese. But I would Do Things to get copies of 2, 3, or 6. Not so much 1 (because it’s not great), or 5 because I’ve nearly 100%’d the DS version on my flashcart.

Seriously, I’ve considered writing multiple blog posts on this series, I think it’s a super underrated gem. It’s an eSport on GBA for fucks sake! It’s also the series that crossed over with Boktai from earlier- apparently Kojima’s kid was a huge fan, so he got in touch to get some cross-promo content going. Funny how that works.

It’s not like they’re ever going to release Mother 3 anyway. Y’all aren’t even going to let me pay for this game, so you can’t complain if I buy a Chinese bootleg with the fan translation on it. I paid five whole bucks, and if they released it in English for real, I’d easily drop more on it. It’s a 10/10 game.

Oh alright, there’s Pokemon. I’m actually 4/7 on the GBA Pokemon games, which is pretty good considering the price just keeps going up and up. I’ve actually considered making a Living Dex solely in Gen 3- however that would either require all the ones I don’t have (save Pinball) a Gamecube with Colosseum/XD (which I have thought about), or maybe both. A long-term project, for sure, but one I’d enjoy doing.

Apparently the Sonic GBA games are pretty good, save for the infamous remake of the first Sonic game- Sonic Genesis. That is, however, the only one of them I’ve actually played. And for a long time was the only Sonic game I’d ever played. Great first impression, huh? The Marble Zone OST unironically slaps, though.

Yeah okay so there’s like over a hundred games still on this list and I care about, like, none of them. Except maybe some of the Wario games and Yu-Gi-Oh games- and I know some of the latter are complete and utter garbage. Like, I’ve played The Sacred Cards, and that game is genuine shite. I’ve still only played one Yu-Gi-Oh game I’ve liked.

I guess I can close off this wall of text by saying I want to get a GBA flashcart so I can run romhacks on console, but there’s a bunch of different types and it doesn’t seem like anyone can agree on which one is the best, so I guess I’m in limbo a bit on that one. Still, it’s worth a look at some point- I’ve gotten so much mileage out of my DS one after all.

And that’s a full-ass list. Perhaps a little daunting, but something like this is a long-term project, and there’s plenty of time to adjust, or make trades rather than buy, et cetera. I don’t ever expect to like, complete a collection, but I’m happy getting things bit by bit.

Anyway it’s like 2AM now I need to be up in 5 hours oops if I’m late then sorry james lmao except you won’t possibly be able to read this until Saturday and it’ll be too late then ha HA

[thomcoldman-blog]

My 10 Favourite Games Of 2017

This list was originally posted on the forum Resetera, but I felt like putting it up here too, with a little more insight into why I liked these games so much, and so they don’t get lost in the muddle of forum posts. Enjoy!

10. Snake Pass (Sumo Digital; Nintendo Switch, PS4, Xbox One, PC)

Sumo Digital has been a developer I've admired for years, particularly for their work on the Nintendo-tier kart racer Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed. Snake Pass is their first independently-produced title, and it has a great hook - the player controls a snake in much the same manner as a real snake might move. There's no jump button, no Earthworm Jim spacesuit, just the power to raise one's head and the strength to grip tightly to any object you've coiled around. There's no timer or enemies; Snake Pass is content to let you explore its levels at your own pace, letting you getting used to its unique feeling and take in the calming David Wise soundtrack. It's a game that feels like learning to ride a bike again, and the progression in ability over time is such a pleasing sensation that it earns it its place on this list by itself. The good use of collectables and generous helping of levels is icing on the cake.

9. Wolfenstein 2: The New Colossus (MachineGames; PS4, Xbox One, PC)

B.J. Blazkowicz returns and he's lost all meaning of subtlety whilst he's been out of action. Wolfenstein 2 shoots all of its shots - the action is bloody, explosive carnage, and the subject matter isn't satisfied with just skewering Nazi idiocy and narcissism, taking time to shine a light on White America's love affair with sitting back and reaping the rewards of compliance under fascist rule. Whether it's exploring B.J.'s broken psyche, giving Wyatt a crash course on hallucinogenics or putting you under the spotlight in a terrifying audition, MachineGames refuse to pull their punches, each great moment coming swinging like B.J.'s Nazi-reprimanding fireaxe. The combat encounters are far from polished, with stealth being heavily nerfed from The New Order and the half-way shift in tone from borderline-satirical diatribe on mortality and American race relations to comic-book capers is incredibly stodgy, but Wolfenstein 2 leaves a hell of an impression all the same. Shame about that credits music.

8. Gorogoa (Jason Roberts; PC, iOS, Nintendo Switch)

A good puzzle game can make a really strong impression, guiding you subtly by the hand to make you feel like a member of MENSA just for pressing a few buttons or prodding at a screen. With Gorogoa, I can't even begin to describe how the puzzles actually work. Imagine a window segmented with 4 panes of glass, and now imagine you can drag elements out of those panes and into other panes, or over where there isn't a pane to create a new pane... See, it’s hard! In as simple terms as I can muster, it’s a game about taking the world apart and putting it back together again to create paths and progress for your anonymous young hero. It’s intensely abstract, yet the South Asian aesthetic feels like a living locale, an exploration of a boy's days-to-come. It's a short experience, but with each puzzle solved making me feeling smarter than Albert god damn Einstein, it's one that will stick with me for a long time.

7. Splatoon 2 (Nintendo EPD; Nintendo Switch)

Like pretty much everyone, I didn't own a Wii U, but the sting of that decision never really happened until the arrival of Splatoon - Nintendo's first proper new "core" universe since what felt like Pikmin. It instantly looked like sheer fun - and as a big fan of both Jet Set Radio and The World Ends With You, it was clear as day Nintendo's younger designers were picking up the Shibuya fashion torch those games dropped behind them. Put simply, it's totally my shit. Splatoon 2 confirms my suspicions and then some, being the first multiplayer title I've enjoyed online in forever. I can't get enough of the soundtrack, the sound effects, the amazingly catty banter between Pearl and Marina, and just the feeling of dropping into ink, strafing around a sucker and blasting them straight between the eyeballs with my N-ZAP '85. 20% of Switch owners in the US can't be wrong.

6. Yakuza 0 (SEGA; PS4)

The only games I've played previously by SEGA's Toshihiro Nagoshi are the brilliant arcade/Gamecube bangers F-Zero GX and Super Monkey Ball 2, plus his one-off PS3 sci-fi shooter Binary Domain. Loving those 3 wacky games, I always felt a little put-off by his regular gig nowadays being a series about Japan's most decorated crime organisation, and a bare-knuckle brawler at that. Yakuza 0, the 80s-set series prequel that serves as a perfect entry point for series newcomers, proved my suspicions ill-founded. It's a game which instantly casts the majority of the yakuza as control freaks and bullies, pits its protagonists Kiryu and Majima as their unfounded targets and pawns... and then lets you fight your way out of hell via brutal finishing moves, bizarrely complex business management sidequests and, if you're so inclined, a gun shaped like a giant fish. It's that kind of game that always keeps you guessing whether or not you should take it seriously, and so it wins you over with its best-in-class action choreography, astonishingly good direction and a never-ending deluge of sidequests, minigames and challenges. Don't sleep on Kamurocho.

5. Sonic Mania (SEGA/Christian Whitehead/Headcannon/PagodaWest Games; Nintendo Switch, PS4, Xbox One, PC)

If you’re reading this, you probably know I'm a Sonic apologist. I don't really stand by the 3D entries - bar Sonic Generations, which I genuinely love - but the narrative that "Sonic was never good" is some ridiculous meme that I can't stand. They were genuinely fun games, albeit far from perfect; every game can use some improvement. Sonic Mania is that improvement, spinning the level themes and gimmicks from the original Mega Drive (and Mega CD) games into vast new forms, with myraid routes, tons of secrets, an astonishing sense of speed from beginning to end and fairer, more agreeable, more exciting level design. Old locales, new levels - oh, and some new locales as well, one of which (Studiopolis Zone) is an instant classic. 16:9 presentation, all new animations and crazy levels of animation detail, and a mind-blowing soundtrack by Tee Lopes - Sonic Mania is the perfect Sonic game.

4. NieR: Automata (Square Enix/PlatinumGames; PS4, PC)

For my first foray into the sunken mind of Yoko Taro, he couldn't have left a better impression. NieR: Automata uses Platinum's engaging-at-worst, thrilling-at-best melee combat as the language to tell his new story of how pointless it is for anyone to even bother throwing themselves after ideals of society or humanity, and why it's worth trying all the same. Every inch of this game feels crusted in Taro’s sensibilities, with the no-bullshit 2B and her curious whiny partner 9S running into robots waving white flags, avenging fallen comrades, establishing monarchies, throwing themselves to their deaths, and coming to terms with their crumbling existence in apocalypse.  It's crushing, it's raw, it's often dull, but its uniquely bleak vision of AIs breaking free of their programming has a grip as powerful as a Terminator's. And when it’s ready to let you go, it has you send it off with the most memorable credits sequence in history. Glory to Yoko Taro, glory to PlatinumGames - glory to mankind.

3. The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild (Nintendo EPD; Nintendo Switch, Wii U)

Standing in the centre of a bridge connecting Hyrule’s broad, emerald green fields to the desert mountain approach, a bridge overlooking the still Lake Hylia, I fire an arrow into a lizard bastard’s head, or at least I try to. He dodges it and rushes me, forcing me to jump away and retaliate with my claymore. Out for the count, I resume looking for the lost Zora wife I’ve been asked to seek out, who apparently washed all the way downstream in a recent downpour. I can’t see any wife - my entire view is dominated by the giant green dragon snaking across the night sky above me. The wind picks up, but I am too awestruck by its presence to take note that I could glide up to it and shoot off a valuable scale. Instead, I just stand and stare, this utterly unexpected moment happening before my eyes. Friend or foe? A boss monster, perhaps? A vital story element later on? The answer ended up being none of the above: in The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, there be dragons, and that fact in and of itself speaks volumes about what this game is about. After 30 years, Hyrule finally feels alive.

2. Night in the Woods (Infinite Fall; PS4, Xbox One, PC, Mac, Linux, Android, iOS)

Very few games instil a genuine emotional response within me, but the story of Mae Borowski's no-fanfare return from college to suburban gloom resonates hard with me. It's an expert at the little touches - the needless-yet-fun triple jump, the not-so-starcrossed rooftop musicians, the impulsive reaction to poke a severed arm with a stick - and woefully precise with its big swings, like an upsetting cross-town party, a wave of violent frustration amongst the townspeople, and the inability to just lay it all on the table with friends and family when you need to most. In the cosmic dreams of shitty teens, Night in the Woods finds an ugly beauty in depression. 

1. Super Mario Odyssey (Nintendo EPD; Nintendo Switch)

It’s impossible to deny 2017 has been the year of Nintendo. There’s plenty of celebrate elsewhere, but the Switch’s rise to prominence as the machine to be playing ideally everything on, and the amount of absolute smash hits Nintendo has producing this year makes it hard for the narrative to focus elsewhere. The epitome of all this is their final killer game of 2017: Super Mario Odyssey, the grand return of a more open-ended style of Mario platformer. A true blue achievement in joyous freedom, it brings together everything from Mario's history of 3D platforming - 64's freedom, Sunshine's other-worldliness and sky-high skill ceiling, Galaxy's spectacle, 3D World's razor-sharp platforming challenge - and throws into one big pot, creating a Mario where both the journey and the destination are one and the same, and exciting to the very end. In a year of amazing games that hit upon horrid, upsetting themes with delicate, pinpoint accuracy for tremendous success, I’m not sure whether it’s a shame or an inevitability that such an unapologetically surprising, happy game made the biggest mark on me this year, but either way, I’m welcome to have Mario be truly Super once more.

[bangdreaming]

The results from October’s monthly poll about User Demographics are here! As these are mostly text based, I’ll be putting most of the info under the cut, as well as my dumb comments!

Thank you for participating, as always! The next poll will be up shortly.

Gender

Female - 164 votes!

(Mod Hina: Me too thanks)

Male - 59 votes!

Nonbinary - 21 votes!

Prefer not to say - 6 votes!

Age

18 to 24 - 142 votes!

(Mod Hina: again, me too thanks)

13 to 17 - 82 votes.

25 to 34 - 21 votes.

Under 13 - 4 votes.

35 to 44 - 1 vote.

(Mod Hina: Hello there!)

Location

North America - 136 votes.

Southeast Asia - 45 votes.

West Europe - 22 votes.

North Europe - 14 votes.

Australia - 8 votes.

South America - 6 votes.

East Asia - 5 votes.

East Europe - 5 votes.

South Europe - 2 votes.

Central America - 2 votes.

Central Europe - 2 votes.

New Zealand - 1 vote.

West Asia - 1 vote.

“Russia is something special” - 1 vote.

How did you find out about Bandori?

From a friend - 76 votes!

Twitter - 67 votes!

Other Social Media - 54 votes.

App / Play Store - 26 votes!

Tumblr - 22 votes!

Facebook - 12 votes!

Reddit - 11 votes.

YouTube - 11 votes.

Magazine / Web Article - 10 votes.

Commercial - 9 votes.

Anime - 9 votes.

Online Ad - 6 votes.

Music search - 3 votes.

Other game communities - 4 votes.

Twitch - 2 votes.

A forum - 1 vote.

Instagram - 1 vote.

QooApp - 1 vote.

Animelo - 1 vote.

Granblue previous producer - 1 vote.

Discord - 1 vote.

What Bandori content do you follow?

Game - 249 people.

Anime - 141 people.

Lives - 70 people!

Seiyuu activity - 65 people.

Livestreams - 53 people.

Manga - 32 people!

Radio shows - 29 people.

“I just started playing the game but i intend to watch the anime, learn the seiyuu, and watch their live shows” - 1 person

(Mod Hina: Go go!)

How often do you play (on a scale of 0 to 5)?

5 (”I live, breathe, and eat Bandori.���) - 10.8% / 27 people.

4 (”I play a ton.”) - 32.4% / 81 people.

3 (”I play pretty often.”) - 42% / 105 people.

2 (”I play sometimes.”) - 11.6% / 29 people.

1 (”I play rarely.”) - 1.6% / 4 people.

0 (”I don’t play Bandori.”) - 1.6% / 4 people.

Do you play on more than one server?

No - 217 people.

Yes - 29 people.

I don’t play. - 4 people.

How strong are your teams?

121k-150k - 24%

181k-210k - 19.6%

151k-180k - 16.4%

211k+ - 14.4%

91k-120k - 10.8%

70k-90k - 6.8%

Under 70k - 6.4%

I don’t play. - 1.6%

What do you play Bandori on?

Phone (Android) - 39.6%

Phone (iOS) - 38.4%

Tablet (iOS) - 12.4%

Tablet (Android) - 8%

I don’t play. - 1.6%

How do you play Bandori?

Thumbs - 59.2%

Fingers - 35.2%

Both - 3.6%

Stylus - 0.4% (Mod Hina: are you a god)

I don’t play. - 1.6%

Do you play other idol mobile games?

Note: Bandori isn’t idols (except PasuPare), but the genre/structure is similar enough, which is why I put it under a similar category. Likewise, Show By Rock is a similar category to Bandori, as in that it isn’t an idol game, but similar enough to idol mobile games that several people listed it here. Banyaro, Cocktail Prince, and A3! are also listed here due to their similarities.

Love Live! School Idol Festival - 208 people play!

CINDERELLA GIRLS STARLIGHT STAGE - 105 people play!

(Mod Hina: me too me too!)

Ensemble Stars - 50 people play.

(Mod Hina: same.)

Million Live!: Theater Days - 47 people play!

(Mod Hina: I recently became a mod for the /r/theaterdays Subreddit!)

Project Tokyo Dolls - 35 people play!

Tokyo 7th Sisters - 29 people play!

Uta no Prince-sama: Shining Live - 13 people play.

IDOLiSH7 - 12 people play!

CINDERELLA GIRLS (Original Mobage) - 11 people play!

Aikatsu! Photo on Stage - 10 people play!

iChu - 10 people play!

SideM: LIVE ON ST@GE! - 9 people play.

B-Project: Muteki*Dangerous - 7 people play.

Uta Macross: Smartphone Deculture - 7 people play.

Million Live! (Original Mobage) - 6 people play!

TsukiPara - 6 people play!

Girlfriend Note - 6 people play.

Show By Rock!! - 5 people play!

Banyaro - 3 people play.

A3! - 2 people play.

Aozora Under Girls! - 1 person plays.

BeatEVO YG - 1 person plays.

Ensemble Girls - 1 person plays.

Schoolgirl Strikers Twinkle Melodies - 1 person plays.

Pripuz - 1 person plays.

Kiranote - 1 person plays.

Cocktail Prince - 1 person plays.

Unreleased ones like Sukuta and Tokimeki - 1 person will be playing in the future!

(Mod Hina: I’m not sure what Sukuta is, but I’m interested in Tokimeki too! I have way too many idol games though..)

None - 13 people don’t play other idol mobage. (Mod Hina: a good life to life)

Do you play other, non-idol mobile games?

No, I don’t. - 74 people don’t play other ones! (Mod Hina: another good life to live)

Fire Emblem Heroes - 57 people play!

Other Non-Idol Rhythm Games (Deemo, Cytus, etc.) - 46 people play!

Neko Atsume - 44 people play!

(Mod Hina: Me too!)

Fate/Grand Order - 33 people play and sacrifice themselves to the gacha gods!

Pokemon Go - 33 people play!

Granblue Fantasy - 28 people play!

(Mod Hina: My crew is currently recruiting people for Tier B, hit me up if you’re interested in a consistent Tier B crew!)

Puzzle games - 26 people play!

Puzzles and Dragons - 8 people play!

Crash Fever - 7 people play!

(Mod Hina: I recently got back into this, as well~)

Battle Girl High School - 6 people play.

Mystic Messenger - 6 people play!

(Mod Hina: Saeran route when)

Magia Record - 4 people play.

SAO: MD - 3 people play.

Love Nikki - 3 people play.

Terra Battle - 3 people play.

Seven Knights - 3 people play.

Cookie Run - 3 people play.

(Mod Hina: I used to play this too! I love the cookies~)

Alternative Girls - 3 people play.

Age of Ishtaria - 2 people play.

Merc Storia - 2 people play.

Shadowverse - 2 people play.

Touken Ranbu - 2 people play.

Plague Inc - 2 people play.

The Arcana - 2 people play.

(Mod Hina: Is this the visual novel one? My best friend started playing it and gushes to me about it all the time!)

Clash Royale - 1 person plays.

StraStella - 1 person plays.

Divine Gate - 1 person plays.

Soccer Spirits - 1 person plays.

(Mod Hina: I used to play this a lot too.)

Valkyrie Connect - 1 person plays.

Monster Super League - 1 person plays.

Boku no Hero Tap Smash - 1 person plays!

(Mod Hina: I love BNHA!)

DBZ Dokkan Battles - 1 person plays.

Happy Ranch - 1 person plays.

Osomatsu-san: Hesokuri Wars - 1 person plays.

Osomatsu-san: Shimamatsu - 1 person plays.

A Girl Adrift - 1 person plays.

Casual games - 1 person plays.

Symphogear - 1 person plays.

One Piece Treasure Cruise - 1 person plays.

Tokyo Afterschool Summoners - 1 person plays.

Atelier Quest - 1 person plays.

Last Period - 1 person plays.

Bleach: Brave Souls - 1 person plays.

Mofa Jinshu Mulu - 1 person plays.

Panzer Waltz - 1 person plays.

Black Survival - 1 person plays.

Clicker games - 1 person plays.

Azurlane - 1 person plays.

(Mod Hina: I just... downloaded this on my phone a couple days ago...)

Mario Run - 1 person plays.

KHUX - 1 person plays.

(Mod Hina: I used to run the party “Snacks” in KHUX!)

SINoAlice - 1 person plays.

Kuroko no Basket Cross Colors - 1 person plays.

SWGOH - 1 person plays.

Battle Cats - 1 person plays.

War of Crown - 1 person plays.

Toram Online - 1 person plays.

Postknight - 1 person plays.

KleptoCats - 1 person plays.

King’s Raid - 1 person plays.

Grimoire - 1 person plays.

Unison League - 1 person plays.

Game of Dice - 1 person plays.

Hiragana Danshi - 1 person plays.

Moe Can Change! - 1 person plays.

Phantasy Star Online 2 es - 1 person plays.

Valkyrie Crusade - 1 person plays.

Final Fantasy Brave Exivus - 1 person plays.

Defense Witches - 1 person plays.

Tales of Asteria - 1 person plays.

Thanks for participating, once again! The last question killed my hands but it was worth it!

[gadgetsrevv]

Transfer news LIVE: Barcelona fury over Neymar, two Man Utd targets, Liverpool scouting | Football | Sport

Transfer news LIVE | Express Sport is on hand to bring you all the latest rumours and gossip

Wednesday, September 4

Barcelona stars are unhappy about the failure to sign Neymar this summer

Inter Milan are interested in prising Christian Eriksen away from Tottenham

Liverpool scouts are tracking Trabzonspor’s young goalkeeper Ugurcan Cakir

Manchester United are reportedly eyeing deals for Christian Eriksen and Jan Oblak

Top Man Utd target

Manchester United boss Ole Gunnar Solskjaer had no doubt who his first choice target was during the recent summer transfer window.

Forbes reckon the Norwegian was insistent he wanted Harry Maguire to be the man to come in and shore up his defence.

Solskjaer’s stance came after United chiefs had drawn up a short list of potential acquisitions to bolster their backline.

Solskjaer ultimately got his man as United paid Leicester a world-record fee of £80m to get Maguire on board.

Transfer news LIVE | Express Sport is on hand to bring you all the latest rumours and gossip (Image: GETTY)

Christian Eriksen to Inter Milan plot

Inter Milan are understood to have set their sights on Christian Eriksen as the Tottenham playmaker’s contract stand-off rumbles on.

Eriksen was angling for a a move this summer but it failed to materialise and he now has just 10 months to run on his Spurs deal.

Inter are keeping tabs on his situation ahead of the January transfer window and could launch a raid to prise him away if his future is not resolved.

Inter manager Antonio Conte is a big fan of Eriksen and would love to snatch the Dane from the grasp of Tottenham boss Mauricio Pochettino.

Transfer news LIVE | Express Sport is on hand to bring you all the latest rumours and gossip (Image: GETTY)

Chelsea star in demand

Chelsea winger Willian has made his way on to Juventus’ wish list as the Serie A giants look to repeat their record of making savvy signings.

The wideman has less than a year left to run on his Chelsea contract and will be free to speak to foreign clubs about a move in January.

Juventus have cast their eye towards Willian having previously snapped up Aaron Ramsey and Emre Can when their deals at Arsenal and Liverpool expired.

Frank Lampard is keen to keep Willian at Chelsea but talks over a prospective new two-year contract are yet to be opened.

Transfer news LIVE | Express Sport is on hand to bring you all the latest rumours and gossip (Image: GETTY)

Bruno Fernandes decision

Manchester United will reportedly not be moving for Sporting Lisbon star Bruno Fernandes when the transfer window reopens in January.

The Portugal international was heavily linked with a move to Old Trafford during the summer window but, ultimately, chose to stay in his home country.

And The Sun say United have no interest in moving for the 24-year-old this winter.

It is claimed that Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s side have ‘backed off’ because they feel Real may try to sign him instead.

Transfer news LIVE | Express Sport is on hand to bring you all the latest rumours and gossip (Image: GETTY)

Lucas Moura offered

Barcelona were offered the the chance to sign Tottenham forward Lucas Moura.

Spanish newspaper Mundo Deportivo claim the Brazilian could have made the switch on Monday’s European transfer deadline day.

But the two parties were unable to agree on a fee for the 27-year-old international, with Spurs asking for £45million.

Moura featured in the first three Premier League fixtures of the season – but was benched for Sunday’s 2-2 draw with Arsenal.

Transfer news LIVE | Express Sport is on hand to bring you all the latest rumours and gossip (Image: GETTY)

Christian Eriksen battle

Atletico Madrid are still interested in signing Tottenham star Christian Eriksen.

The Dane has entered the final year of his contract in north London and appears destined to leave Spurs either in January or at the end of the 2019/2020 campaign.

Manchester United, Inter Milan, Barcelona and Real Madrid have all been tipped to launch offers for the 27-year-old.

But Spanish publication AS claim Diego Simeone’s side want to join Kieran Trippier at the Wanda Metropolitano Stadium.

Transfer news LIVE | Express Sport is on hand to bring you all the latest rumours and gossip (Image: GETTY)

Double sale

Juventus duo Mario Mandzukic and Emre Can will be available in January.

Both Can and Mandzukic were sensationally left out of Maurizio Sarri’s 2019/2020 Champions League squad – with the former Liverpool man absolutely livid.

“It was very shocking for me because last week I was told and promised something else,” Can said. “Yesterday I got a call from the coach, in which he told me in less than a minute and without explanation that I was not in the squad. I can not explain it, nobody has given me a reason until now.

“Me and my agent had talks with other clubs, Paris [Saint-Germain] as well. After discussions with Juventus, we decided to stay with the club. A condition was to play in the Champions League, and that was what I was promised. Yesterday it was said – one day after the transfer period ended – that I’m not in. It just makes me angry how they’ve dealt with me.”

Transfer news LIVE | Express Sport is on hand to bring you all the latest rumours and gossip (Image: GETTY)

Players feel cheated

Barcelona players feel “cheated” after the club’s transfer dealings.

According to Spanish newspaper Sport, Barcelona’s talented dressing room were desperate to see Neymar back at the Nou Camp.

And it’s even claimed some of them made direct requests to president Josep Maria Bartomeu to get the deal sorted.

Sport say Ernesto Valverde’s side are upset that Neymar wasn’t signed from Paris Saint-Germain and think the club were never serious about his signature.

Transfer news LIVE | Express Sport is on hand to bring you all the latest rumours and gossip (Image: GETTY)

Tiemoue Bakayoko: It’s not a step back

Chelsea midfielder Tiemoue Bakayoko has defended his decision to return to Monaco.

The 25-year-old midfielder left the Ligue 1 side for Stamford Bridge for £40million in 2017 – but having struggled to adapt to Premier League life – he’s returned on loan for the remainder of the season.

“There was a good opportunity to come back here in a very good project,” Bakayoko said. “Lots of people will perhaps say that I am taking a step back by coming to Monaco but I see it differently.

“My two experiences abroad allowed me to play a lot, contrary to what a lot of people have said. My season in Milan brought me a lot in terms of new avenues of football and professionalism. I have taken a lot of positive things away from it.”

Transfer news LIVE | Express Sport is on hand to bring you all the latest rumours and gossip (Image: GETTY)

Late Leeds bid

Rangers winger Ryan Kent was close to joining Leeds, but their £4.5million bid for the player was rebuffed by the Reds close to the closure of the window last month.

As reported by the Liverpool Echo, Liverpool instead agreed to a £7.5million fee that has seen Kent swap Merseyside for Glasgow.

Leeds will have hoped that a possible transfer would have boosted their chances of promotion from the Championship.

But this was not to be, with Leeds settling on boosting their attacking ranks with Eddie Nketiah, Helder Costa, Jack Clarke – returning on loan from Tottenham – and Jack Harrison all on loan.

Transfer news LIVE | Express Sport is on hand to bring you all the latest rumours and gossip (Image: GETTY)

Pedri agreement

Barcelona could pay upwards of £22million for Las Palmas teenager Pedri.

The Catalan giants had a fairly quiet end to the transfer window but did manage to secure the arrival of highly-rated 16-year-old Pedri.

Pedri, who has started three fixtures this season, will remain with the Spanish second-tier side until July 2020.

Barcelona will pay an initial £5.8million at the end of the campaign but that figure could grow to £22.5m with future performance-related add-ons, claim Marca.

“The figure could go up to 25 million euros in the coming years,” Las Palmas president Miguel Angel Rodriguez explained. “The three big teams in Spain and a foreign club, who offered nine million euros.”

Las Palmas have retained a 15 per cent sell-on fee and Sport claim Pedri already has a £361m release clause in his contract.

Transfer news LIVE | Express Sport is on hand to bring you all the latest rumours and gossip (Image: GETTY)

Chris Smalling future

Chris Smalling could join Roma on a permanent basis.

The Manchester United centre-back joined the Serie A side on a season-long loan having fallen down the pecking order at Old Trafford.

And the agent who helped arrange the loan, Giulio Meozzi, suggested Roma could be his home for the foreseeable future.

Meozzi told Tuttomercato: “An important transfer There is a possibility of making a dry loan, with the option to keep for next year and that depends on his performances.”

Transfer news LIVE | Express Sport is on hand to bring you all the latest rumours and gossip (Image: GETTY)

No go Zinchenko

Juventus made a deadline day approach for Manchester City left-back Oleksandr Zinchenko.

The European transfer window closed on Monday and the Italian giants attempted to get a last-moment deal over the line, according to Italian website Calciomercato.

Zinchenko has been a mainstay under Pep Guardiola this campaign – starting all four of City’s Premier League fixtures.

And Pep reportedly blocked the approach for City’s 22-year-old talent.

Gunners should have signed…

Arsenal should have signed Manchester City midfielder Fabian Delph during the summer transfer window.

That’s according to Gunners legend Paul Merson, who believes the England international is better than Granit Xhaka, Mattéo Guendouzi and Lucas Torreira.

“I look at him and wonder why Arsenal didn’t sign him,” he told Sky Sports. “He is better than the midfield three that played against Tottenham.

“He could have played at left back instead of Kolasinac on Sunday. I am a big fan of Delph. He can play in certain positions and is an excellent signing for Everton.”

Transfer news LIVE | Express Sport is on hand to bring you all the latest rumours and gossip (Image: GETTY)

Neymar to Real Madrid

Real Madrid will sign Neymar in the next four months.

That’s according to Santos president Jose Carlos Peres, whose side could make an estimated £6million from their sell-on clause if PSG approve a £153m deal.

Barcelona were strong favourites to bring the Brazilian superstar back to the Nou Camp – two years after joining PSG for £200million.

However, Peres believes it’s Zinedine Zidane’s Galacticos who’ll snap up the 27-year-old.

“(The money) will still come! He will go to Real Madrid, if not now, it will be at the end of the year,” Peres told Brazilian outlet Globoesporte.

Transfer news LIVE | Express Sport is on hand to bring you all the latest rumours and gossip (Image: GETTY)

Liverpool scout Ugurcan Cakir

Liverpool are tracking Trabzonspor goalkeeper Ugurcan Cakir.

The Daily Mail claim Liverpool scouts were in attendance to watch the stopper during a 1-1 Super Lig draw against Fenerbahce on Sunday.

Cakir, 23, earned his debut for Turkey’s senior side back in May, in a friendly against Greece.

And it’s believed that Jurgen Klopp’s side will have to pay upwards of £14million to bring him to Anfield.

Transfer news LIVE | Express Sport is on hand to bring you all the latest rumours and gossip (Image: GETTY)

Man Utd double raid

Manchester United are reportedly eyeing deals for Christian Eriksen and Jan Oblak.

The Red Devils signed Aaron Wan-Bissaka, Harry Maguire and Daniel James for a combined £145million during the summer transfer window.

But various reports claim Ed Woodward and co are already planning future deals.

Spanish publication Diaro AS claim Atletico Madrid goalkeeper Oblak, who has an £108m release clause, is United’s primary candidate to replace David de Gea.

The Daily Mail also claim that Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s side have decided to bid for £70m-rated Tottenham playmaker Eriksen in January.

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