#powerup's attempts at drawing

[duckapus]

Oops, all Phineas and Ferb Quotes

Mario: *walks into Meggy's apartment while looking at his phone* Hey Meggy, have you seen that video with the Inkling girl that went viral all of a sudden? It's hilarious! *notices that the apartment's completely dark despite it being the middle of the day, with lights off and curtains drawn* Uh...Meggy?

Meggy: *sitting at her desk with her head in her hands, staring blankly at the monitor, which is the only source of light in the room* Did you ever have an old box of junk that's been sitting in the attic forever, and you think, "I bet I could just get rid of this whole box, and my life would go on completely unaffected by the loss of whatever would be inside?"

Meggy: Like, for instance, an old forgotten video tape, made in high school on a dare?

Meggy: *finally turns to look at him, eyes haunted* Look in the box, Mario. Always. Look. In. The box.

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

(during yet another attempt to use the Showgrounds as...well...a showgrounds)

Bob, standing in front of the entrance to a small tent: Step right up, ladies and gentlemen! Step right up! It's only a dollar to see...the mysteeeerious Penguin-man. Is he Man? Is he Penguin?

Bob: Or perhaps some logic-defying amalgamation of Man and Penguin! A Manguin, if you will.

*cut to SMG3 with a Penguin Suit powerup, sitting in an animal pen inside the tent and scowling*

SMG3: ...I used to have goals.

SMG3: They were evil goals, but they were goals.

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Kaizo: *sitting in a small crater, covered in leaves, rope and scorch marks* Well, it's not the worst date I've ever had. There was the one that kept stabbing me with a fork.

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(context: the kids are trying to help Lily and Root with their first actual formal date, and Franky's somehow ended up in charge of the whole operation, and it's going...well, it's going. also Sage was the last one to get involved and due to some slight miscommunication initially thought Franky was finally asking her out)

Franky: Man, do I know romance or what?

Sage: What.

Franky: I said, do I know romance or-

Sage: I heard you.

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SMG4: *trying to come up with a new merch idea* What we need is a toy so stupidly simple...so basically bland...so idiotically uncomplicated...that it can do absolutely anything.

Elanore: *quietly building a full-size replica of Jub Jub with posable limbs out of wood and felt in the background while he talks*

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SMG3: *chasing after Eggpup, who's chasing Meggy's cat* No, Eggpup! Chasing after a cat is so cliché! You're better than that!

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Morton: You got tossed out too, huh?

Desmond: Yeah, for yelling.

Morton: You yelled in a museum? That is hard core!

Desmond: Why did you get thrown out?

Morton: Stole a pterodactyl. *gestures to the pterodactyl skeleton next to him* But it's not like I yelled.

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

(Tulip's trying to come up with ideas for something to do for Dale's birthday and asked the rest of the Teen Squad for advice)

Ash: Well, do you have cherished memories with him that you could draw inspiration from?

Tulip: ...You know I think I might have just the thing. *rummages through her favorite toolbox and pulls out a whole photo album*

Pikachu: She keeps her cherished memories in a toolbox...

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Elanore: Dad, we don't build stuff to compete. We do it for fun.

Barney: And for the ladies... *rrrawr*

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Arle: Look at this! It's a doorway with ancient runes telling us how to open it! *pulls out a thick journal, presumably with notes on rune decoding*

Laharl: Forget that! Step aside. *punches the door in two*

Arle: Or we could do that.

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Bowser Jr: I don't get all the stress about naughty vs nice. We Koopas have a system, see? You act any way you want all year long, but then right before Christmas, you do one big selfless act of kindness and Santa will wipe your slate clean. Works like a charm.

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

(back during halloween)

Franky: Nice fairy princess costume! Where'd you get it?

Sage: Actually, I'm not wearing a costume.

Franky, not getting the hint: Oh, okay.

Sage: ...Orbot makes character reskin mods in his spare time.

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

Saiko: Tell me again, why do you have a life-sized plastic mold of Luigi?

Bob: I have life-sized molds of all my friends.

Tari: I am not sure how to feel about that.

[ropeydopeyiwillchokethee]

Trying to learn how to color manga

So, my first attempt was recoloring Frankstein’s scarf (mainly because that’s the first suitable image I found in my camera roll). Then, I had to try an actual manga panel- while I love The Glass Scientists, it’s also already in color. Although, I guess it might be fun to try to recolor a panel from memory.

Okay, white hair is hard. I want it to look like I did something, but I also don’t want it to look not white anymore. Plus there’s no background since I haven’s figured that bit out yet. I tried to add some shading, but still pretty iffy. Other than that, I think it looks pretty good for a first try. Could it use some cleaning? Definitely! Am I disappointed? No.

I bit off more than I can chew with this one. For one, it has the exact opposite problem as the Uzuki image, with a very complicated background including a whole extra character in the back. I picked it because it is one of my favorite panels in the series, but might have to come back with some more practice. And maybe an actual drawing pencil. I couldn’t find mine, so I just used my fingers for all of this. Third Problem-

Maybe it’s the Dragon Ball Z fan in me, but cool powerups should come with cool hair. I already went with yellow for the eyes, mainly because Lu got this power up from chugging straight Ethanol, but I thought it might be cool to have something extra. I couldn’t decide what though, so I ended up with two extra versions. I probably would have been okay with just the regular pink hair though.

So this Dandadan page is actually the reason I wanted to learn how to color manga in the first place, however I couldn’t find the image in my camera roll and at the time I didn’t feel like trying to find the chapter it came from.

I can already see some difficult points. Lots of dark/black space, special effects, multiple characters, etc. However, I can hopefully figure out how to do it.

I have a few other panels I’d like to color, and I can probably sweep through for other panels in different manga. As of now, I’m keeping up with Sakamoto Days, Wild Strawberry, Dandadan, Ultimate Exorcist Kiyoshi, Astro Baby, Jojo’s Bizarre Adventures, and probably a few others I’m going to regret leaving out later. Not to mention not-currently running Manga like Psyren. So there’s no shortage of material here.

New Hobby Unlocked!

Also, I’m not sure about how much this will spread, but if anyone knows if coloring is appropriate to tag for “my art” do tell me.

Edit/Update:

Tried making the hair very light blue after seeing a Gojo fan coloring do the same thing.

[doggirldick]

i was writing tags on that last post and had a childhood nostalgia moment so here's a little storytime about my childhood and early games i played. ehem

imagine you are a little child. you have a ps2 that your dad left behind when he fucked off. your exposure to video games is shitty ps2 movie tie-in games.

your primary school is in a tiny village out in the english countryside.

they had an afterschool 'club' that was really just 2 mothers of kids at the school babysitting kids whose parents couldn't pick them up immediately. image you are there every single school day bc school finishes at 3pm and you are growing up with a working class single mum whose always working long hours to keep a roof over your head because your shitty father doesn't pay child support.

the club's in the school assembly hall so there's a lot of room to run round. they have a table with paper and pencils and felt tips so kids can sit and draw. they have a table with a box full of a mix of lego and mega blocks. there is one empty table just for whatever. in one corner, there is a little crt with a built-in vcr on the floor with some shitty old kids movies on vhs next to it, there are a few beanbags borrowed from the school library (a tiny room that can hardly be called a library but whatever) in front of the tv.

you're an undiagnosed autistic 5 year old that just moved to this school so you just sit in silence playing with lego by yourself and pissing yourself cause you're too autistic to ask to go to the bathroom.

one day. they get an old ps1 for the tv. 3 whole games and no memory card yippeeeee.

the games?

Action Man: Destruction X (anyone remember action man? i had this one doll that came with a snowmobile he could ride that fired giant snowballs out the sides and he had a hole in the back of his head so you could see through the visor on his helmet, it was the COOLEST toy when i got it).

Tweenies: Game Time (if you were a british kid in the early 2000s too poor for cable or whatever, chances are you grew up watching cbeebies and cbbc, maybe citv. my memory is vague but back before the digital switchover and the reign of freeview, when all we had was like 5 analogue channels, when i was young enough to watch cbeebies, i'm pretty sure they had like a cbeebies block and a cbbc block on bbc two in the morning before school)

RAYMAN. finally. a game that wasn't a tie-in, and not only that but it offered passwords in addition to saving so even though we didn't have a memory card, we could write a password down.

rayman was magical. beautifully drawn and animated. to my little child eyes it was just like a cartoon. it was also hard as balls so even with our passwords, we never got very far at all but i was obsessed. whiling away the hours after school fumbling around the first few levels every day. one time an older kid who was actually good at video games was at the club and made some actual progress while i watched mesmerised, had my mind blown when he got the helicopter hair powerup thing.

i later got a ds lite and the first game i got was rayman ds which was a ds port of rayman 2. fucking awesome. got stuck for a while until someone told me that if you let the walking shell chase you in a circle, it gets tired and you can ride it. COOLEST SHIT EVER. got stuck again cause i always got lost in the fire temple place and then on time i got jumpscared by one of those fucking scary bastards popping out from behind a rock and i didn't want finish it until years later when i got an action replay lol.

i stopped playing rayman bc someone let me play new super mario bros on their ds and then i got obsessed with mario until pokemon entered my life and platinum released here may 22nd 2009, the day before my 10th birthday and guess what my dad got me in one of his many attempts to make me not grow up hating him.

there. i'm done. i did make friends with other regulars at the club eventually, that's how i got into pokemon. we'd pretend to be pokemon and i had a sonic oc in like 2007 i would pretend to be sometimes. my exposure to sonic was sonic gems collection for ps2 but in 2007 my dad got me a psp and sonic rivals. sonic gems collection had a museum with unlockable art and sonic rivals had unlockable cards with art so i learned about other sonic games through these images until i got internet and watched the cutscenes on youtube lmao.

[dimalink]

Undercover Break - videogame with Vhs feel

Eighties – whole age. Videocassettes, first home computers, new age in entertainment history, appearance of musical television, hard to believe super projects of Soviet Union, Buran project.

Intro for the game is made in style to remind 80s style, and it is made based on 8 bit computers style. And, it is not correct. It is some stylization. Some kind of MSX2 can do this. Who know this, today. So here we have a stylization effect.

Let’s make a setup for a road. A long road. Road with blue colored silhouette is going forward. And everything is dark around. Picture of a police signal. Just like it is also a intro for some action movie about car. Road theme. And, also theme of videocassettes. Videocassettes are appeared in 80s.

It is the right time to remember your favorite action movies, movies about policeman, about cars. Lethal enforcement, Knight Rider, Mad Max. Do you ever dream to seat in the KITT from Knight Rider? It is science fiction car with super powerful electronic helper. All of these smart buttons. Or at least to seat in some legendary muscle car, just the same style that mad max has. To set at the top a police signal and ride forward. To feel yourself as a road wolf. You have also a gun, using it you can shoot, just while you are riding. It is something like a technological pistol or revolver or shotgun. Maybe old-school or with technological powerups. Interceptor, from Mad Max, it is a car.

Also, 80s – it is a decade of 8 bit computers. Just like Zx Spectrum, MSX, MS DOS. All of these computers has some unique characteristics. Some cool features. I can remember, that some monitors has 1 color. Just like red colored of green colored. Have you ever seen MSX? These game computers were unique. They have different visual forms from different manufacturers. And also in Soviet Union there were lots of 8 bit computers. It is lots of soviet variations of Spectrum compatible computers – for example, Delta C, Leningrad, Sintez 2. And there were more interesting computers. Attempt to create its own variation of MSX – PC Sura. There were Hobbit PC, Master, Corvet, Agat. Whole park of computers.

What purpose am I writing these? Just because of it is a retro game. Game about nostalgia moment about 80s. Videocassettes, 8 bit computers. But it is made a modern way. All of these are made under impressions from 8 bit systems, 16 bit systems, MS DOS applications. Something with memories about 386SX2, 486DX2.

Game has pack of settings for your comfort. You can play in a window. With the first run game runs in a window. This is retro. 800 x 600. Or you can set from settings a fullscreen. There is language select – Russian or English. You can play with sound or without. With music or without. And also you can setup a volume for music and sound. So these are a scale of settings.

A special settings are scanlines. They are made with the most simple way. And you can setup them. You can select vertical or horizontal. And also a frequency of lines.

So, game is made like retro format. Modern retro game. About a car with shooting. Action racing. But made in retro theme. Just like for MSX2+, or PC MS DOS. But modern. By the way, all time I was a fan of Highway Star for nes. I was looking at this side.

So, you are a policeman. And you are at patrol ride. Before every race – you have a text screen with story. It is made with retro theme. White font, blue background. You can skip it. But it has a story.

By the way if you are tired of music and sound than you can turn off them or adjust volume.

At last, you are at the road. In your police car, that is equipped with computer electronics. It gives you indications. It is game interface. And it helps while you are shooting. It draws red rectangle zone of possible shot. Shooting is not fast. It is like revolver or shotgun. After a shot – it is goes auto reload.

Before taking a patrol mission you receive a task. Who to catch and how many to catch. Don’t hesitate. To catch – means to destroy. You also can run to ram them. But in this case, you will loose some life points. You have 300 life points.

This is race with shooting. So, you need to ride and shoot. It is also a patrol game type. You need to ride from point A to point B. And you are patrolling road. As a rule, there is a road traffic. Traffic from a citizens cars. For ram or shooting in civilian cars you will get score penalty. So just avoid them.

What is this life is about? It is a road! Many people can say this. Artists, truckers. And you too can say this. While you are playing this title. Everything that is existed here – it is the road. And you need to move forward. You are checking the road for criminal cases. And they are exists. You have two types of those, who above the law – bandits with jeeps and street racers, with bright colors of lowered sport cars. You need to catch them all! So, this means to shoot them all! And destroy them all! Or if you wish -go for ram. It is a choice of your taste.

Road, road. It can be so different. It is 13 missions. So, we have here a road in a city landscape. Cities are different – big and small. It is also a ride levels with country landscape through forest. So long road through the forest. Pretty realism. Missions are different from each other also with a distance you need to ride. So, it is a racing game in it is base. So, you need to complete a track from start to finish and make a task. To catch somebody. It is also a desert and a pyramids. Exotic. Sun.

From point of interest, to the end it will goes special effects. In form of snow and rain. Also, it will be a night ride. Snow and rain makes visibility less. So, one level you get in a snow in winter. So, this kind of ride gives you again some fresh new impressions. There are a tunnels, you can enter. Arks. So, there is some diversity. So, even there is 1 track about a racing circle. You need to catch several street racers, which are gone wild.

Ride a road – it is a main theme for a game. You are on wheels. And with a weapon. You are a patrol policeman. Drive carefully. Like a sheriff. There are some places on the road, when you want to go faster. Turn on a turbine. It will charge you up to maximum 280! Maximum speed is 280. So, this way you can to pass a boring place faster or reach street racer. Street racers are very fast at the very first time. And they appear with some distance between you and them. Use nearest street racer scale. For orientation.

When you will complete 13 levels that you will go for a vacation! Policeman will go to vacation! So, game has a joy final. Such summer. Sunny.

And for the last thing, scheme of control.

Undercover Break - games page at authors website - http://www.dimalink.tv-games.ru/games/undercoverbreak/index_eng.html

[clickbliss]

Gunhead Review

by Amr (@siegarettes)

Gunhead

Developers - Alien Trap

Publisher - Alien Trap

PC, PS5

Armed to the teeth with a shotgun, chaingun, mortar launcher and pile bunker--one weapon for each of my mech’s four arms--and with a cloak in reserve, I was equipped with the perfect loadout for big hit and run damage. The job in front of me was simple: plenty of locked doors on this ship, but with easy access to its door system it would be a non-issue, giving me a straight shot to the shield system and just enough time to splatter the brains of the craft and shut it down. The only major obstacle was the nuke system, which would set off a short range nuclear explosion when a system went down. Dismantle that and the rest was easy. 

I slipped in through an airlock, took out the drones still active in the area, then shutdown the nuke system--only to be caught off guard by a slowly radiating explosion that took off several chunks of armor before driving me to retreat into a corner. In my arrogance I'd overlooked the redundancy system, which took over the nuke system the instant it shut down. The time I'd lost from my retreat gave the shuffle system enough time to activate, moving every system to a new room, and ruining my entire plan. 

Gunhead is a great generator for stories like this. Every stage is a miniature heist in a claustrophobic space station, taking down system after system to work your way to the squishy brains of the craft. And like a great heist story, there’s plenty of pleasure in seeing a plan come together, but the real stories are the ones where something goes wrong--where a small overlooked detail causes a chain of disasters, or your own arrogance puts you in a situation you should have never been in. 

The 3D follow up to Alien Trap’s action roguelite Cryptark, Gunhead follows your small crew as you do jobs for The Corporation, pouring over blueprints, making plans and attempting to salvage what you can out of abandoned space stations.  Play cautious and careful and you generally get out with a few scrapes and a decent haul of new weapons and items. So of course The Corporation offers big bonuses to make sure you do anything but that, and makes sure to berate you when you fail to achieve them. 

To breach these ships you’ll hop into one of a few mechs, each with their own armaments and traversal abilities. The default has a decent blaster and a jetpack that recharges quickly, while others might exchange some armor for unlimited jetpack use, a grappling hook or load up on the armor and forget the jetpack entirely, opting for a few double jumps instead. Universal to all are the four armed weapon system, allowing you to quickly rain fire on a target when fully equipped. One of my favorite combinations was an explosive and projectile weapon on the main arms, with a grappling hook and pile bunker, allowing me to inflict big damage with hit and run tactics. 

Unless you have big cash reserves, you’ll rarely be going in with your ideal loadout. Operations are subject to the luck of the draw, and while you can purchase certain weapons ahead of time, it’s not feasible to do for every run, meaning you’ll be improvising with whatever weapons and powerups you can find on the ship. 

The loop of planning and improvisation is the central joy of Gunhead. Satisfying weaponry and traversal are plenty common in roguelites, but the time spent on the map screen adds back a bit of the cerebral elements often cut from action roguelikes, and introduces a more immediate sense of short and long term planning to the mix. It plays well with the narrative framework, giving each level the sense that it’s another day on the job, but also a tense situation that can possibly lose thousands of dollars in assets that your team needs to keep themselves afloat. Progress IS inevitable, but success isn’t--at least not for anyone but The Corporation. 

The narrative isn’t a strong presence in the game, but it is surprisingly good flavor. I often find myself quickly exhausted with quippy crew members in other games, but Gunhead’s writing and voice performances are just enough to keep the crew endearing, and not annoying. The Corporation continually watches and evaluates your every move, and the contrast between their dialogue and the crew fills in enough to suggest a greater world. 

The snappy pace of Gunhead, and the ability to save between stages kept me constantly revisiting it. It became a great companion for short breaks, with plenty of natural stopping points to keep the intense bouts of action from becoming fatiguing. It understands the strengths of the roguelite format, plays to them, and pairs them with action that is satisfying and dynamic, doled out at a great pace with slowly rising tension. It’s a confident game about getting in, getting out, and leaving a hell of mess for someone else to clean up. 

[powerup-the-revolution]

[beesbeesbees]

On scope

So in my last post I mentioned scope, which is a gamedev term to mean how big your game is and, more specifically, keeping it from getting out of control. Not putting too much work on your plate, basically.

This is especially important for an amateur developer who is just starting to get into game development. Like me!

I’ve heard this a lot, but this video I watched recently helps sum it up really well. In that video they mention the concept of a “minimum viable product”. Basically, if you cut away everything that isn’t necessary, what does that look like? And is it fun?

Another video I watched related it to drawing. When you’re drawing, you do a sketch to give you an idea of the final picture, work out anatomy issues, etc. The minimum viable product is the “sketch” of your game.

So what does my sketch look like?

Here’s my “Core Features” list, or what I believe is the simplest form of this game in a “complete state”. This is a little more indepth than the video’s proposed “minimum viable product” - the example given was Mario jumping on a map with pits. No enemies, no powerups. This is more like Mario jumping on a map with pits and enemies and the occasional platform or mushroom.

To simplify it further would probably be “you have a daughter, and you can raise or lower her stats through picking between three jobs, and you can reduce her stress by resting.”

What I found really helpful was to add questions to every item. What would these actually look like? This got me thinking about the actual implementation.

(To be very clear about point 4, this was written when I was envisioning it more as making homunculi, where you could potentially create bespoke assistants for the needs of folks in town. You can’t sell kids in my game.)

Anything that did NOT feel essential was moved to a separate list. Things like missions, randomization, talking to the girls, a New Game+ system, that sort of thing. Nice to have, but ultimately unnecessary.

That said, I also created this:

This is “Core QOL”. QOL stands for “quality of life”, meaning optional features that make a game smoother and easier to play - think of an autosave system, being able to auto-sort items in an inventory, etc. Features that, while technically unnecessary, I consider to be a priority.

For example, you don’t NEED to be able to give your daughters custom names. I could just make it so that your daughters’ names are randomized. Technically speaking, it’s an optional feature!

But there’s something really special about custom names, I think. Sentimentality is what separates these games from being just a series of bars you watch go up and down. You’re forming an emotional bond with a character that you’re taking a parental role over, and it helps you feel more invested in the gameplay.

It might seem a little silly, but here’s an example of that sentimentality in action: I always name my Pokemon. I feel a lot more connected to what’s going on when I’m rooting for “WIDE LOAD” instead of “Parasect”. Suddenly, it’s not just a soulless collection of pixels that attacks when I pick the option - it’s my baby boy, WIDE LOAD, who I risked life and limb to catch even if he was 20 levels above me at the time.

And I love him so, so much.

Getting back to my list, you can see there’s a lot of “you can view the stats whenever”. Let me give some examples.

In Princess Maker 2, doing an activity will increase some stats and decrease others (e.g. working on a farm, working in a kitchen). It will not tell you which ones beforehand - you have to try them out and see. Sometimes it’s easy to guess (Farming increases strength and constitution), sometimes it’s not (Cooking decreases combat skill??). It’s trial and error.

This means that you have to write down or memorize what does what, which can be frustrating. I don’t mind the first attempt at something not giving you the info, but it should “unlock” the info so that subsequent attempts tell you exactly what stats an activity raises and lowers.

Games like Cute Bite improve upon this by telling you what stats will be increased by a job or study activity, but they don’t tell you what stat is decreased by a given job. The omission seems to be intentional, probably to make the gameplay more interesting, but I still dislike it.

Perhaps the “oops I forgot that decreases Etiquette, oh no!” is compelling gameplay for your typical gamer, but as someone with memory issues and ADHD, it just means I have to take notes. It would be cool if the game did that for me instead of having to have Notepad open while I play it.

It’s not like I want the game to play itself, and you’ll have to write down certain things anyway, like “having x stat be 100 and y stat be 150 seems to be the requirement for this character to appear” - but these are such basic things you interact with so routinely that I don’t believe automating them is bad.

To bring it back to Pokemon, recent Pokemon games tell you if an attack is super effective or not very effective. I’ve been playing these games for over 20 years, but this made them a lot more accessible and fun to me. Some folks complained about this “dumbing the games down” - as if they aren’t made for children - but I personally don’t find “ugh, right, I forgot Steel resists Psychic for some reason” to enrich my experience.

Back to raising games. So not only do you have to keep in mind what stats are increased by what, you have to remember what stats your character has and what stats you were trying to improve. Cute Bite helpfully puts the stats page next to your activity list, but Princess Maker 2 requires you to back out of your calendar entirely to look at them.

So I very often end up in a spiral of “what was I improving again?”, backing out, looking at the stats, saying “oh right”, going to the jobs, trying to remember what I was doing, et cetera. The video game equivalent of “walking into a kitchen and trying to remember what the fuck you were there to do”.

This is why I list these things as Core QOL. Backing out to look at a separate menu should be something that happens as little as possible. You should be able to, ideally, look at all the information you need on one page, or with a click or two.

Bullet point #5 (a memory album of daughters gone by) is by far the least essential one, but comes back to sentimentality. Being able to look back at the first daughter you ever made, to see her face again and what her ending was. It also does have a practical purpose - if daughter #1 was a “failure” at achieving a certain goal you were looking for, being able to look at her stats would give you some idea of what to try for with daughter #2.

All of these have the potential to be cut, but that one is the most likely. That said, all of them would be ideal to have.

There’s still the list of various features I’d like to have but don’t consider essential, but, well, this post is long enough already. But I feel pretty good about having nailed down the things I’m most invested in developing, and I feel like by working outward from there, the most necessary features should become more obvious.

[hey-hamlet]

BNHA AU Ideas: Songbird, Part 2

Also on AO3! 

Link to Part 1 

TL;DR: 

Izuku has a powerful quirk: he can give powers to the people around him based on the different songs he sings. Unfortunately, everyone else really wants that quirk and are willing to kidnap him to get it. 

Songbirds sing even when the music stops.

Hello I’m redefining Izuku’s quirk for the sake of more dramatic powers: Most songs are general power-ups (everyone in auditory range), others are personal power-ups (only the person singing). Both only affect those who hear them, unless the effect is 100% intrinsic. Izuku uses a lot of general power-ups because he’s helpful like that. Each song can only be used once per day.

Examples: A song that creates a forcefield will only be a barrier to those who hear it, but a strength increase is a strength increase no matter which way you slice it.

anyway! day 1 of class is ok bc izuku and bakugo head to school together, and its honestly a miracle he didn't get kidnapped again

anyway, he meets iida and is fucking floored when he apologises for yelling at him. uraraka calls him the "boy with the singing quirk" and hes pretty happy. bakugo is grudgingly pleased izuku has friends and sits down, izuku following suit. shinsou is half asleep at his desk and seems to have been there the whole time

aizawa does his little spiel, quirk assessment happens yadda-yadda. izuku looks so chill on the outside but the kid is freaking the fuck out internally

he's coming second in the test, aizawa still erases his quirk, more of an example to the class because he assumed izuku wouldnt lose his shit. he didn't - at least externally

from this we also find out izuku has a kind of internal metronome because he suddenly has no internal 'beat' when his quirk is erased. his hearing gets substantially worse too.

which serves to freak him the fuck out because he feels off balance and like hes had cotton stuffed in his ears

anyway, yeets the ball, all is good, bakugo glares fucking daggers at aizawa for singling out izuku and izuku tries not to dissociate

battle trial is nothing special, but bakugo just fucking,,, turns his hearing aids off so izukus quirk doesnt work on him

its a blessing and a curse because it leaves izuku free to use most personal powerups, but honestly bakugo wants a nice fight more than he wants to win so thats fine with him

izuku wins, but only just, izuku gives uraraka a speed up through the comm link, iida who was Not ready for that, loses

USJ

Bakugo and Izuku sing Stronger than You and kick ass for a solid while before the song runs out and the nomu hits them into the lake. Izuku, with a broken leg and the beginnings of a concussion, has to drag a semi-conscious Bakugo to shore and let me tell you they both almost drown like 8 times. Izuku helps All Might by singing Anything (Hedly), which functions honestly like a big Ol’ Plus Ultra to anyone believing in what they are doing. (It starts working on Shigiraki after the Stain arc, but before then he was acting without purpose)

Sports festival!

All Might and Izuku are basically dad and son in this universe too, so, despite the dissimilar quirks, Todoroki still calls out Izuku to fight. Because Todoroki is the son of Endeavour and privy to a little more heroics insider info than he really should be, he also knows how often Izuku deals with villains. In an attempt to piss off the eternally nice and collected boy enough to give him a fight he can piss off Endeavour with, he calls him a damsel in distress.

Izuku is fuming and Bakugo has to basically hold onto his forearm to stop him from clocking Todoroki right in the jaw, but lord is Bakugo also pissed. Todoroki, for a second, realises he may have fucked up.

Todoroki wins the first event, Izuku is pretty middling. Like he's top 10? But he didn’t make a major impact. But the guy sees Monoma and gets an Idea

“HI SO – I know you hate class 1A, and really there is something to be said for the way our school is trying to pit 2 classes of children against each other like a bitter blood feud - BUT I have an idea that could be 100% ridiculous and if you want 1B to make an impact, please work with me. I need to shove something in Todoroki’s face.”

“… I’m listening.”

The general idea is Izuku’s songs have a different effect when sung in a duet, some are only practical in duet form: IE, stronger than you is a dodge boost alone, but in a duet is a massive power boost to the two singing it. So what if two people with Izuku’s quirk sung a duet? Chaos, probably.

Monoma agrees because one of the only things he likes more than 1 upping 1A is quirk based tomfoolery. The team ends up consisting of Izuku, Monoma, Kendo and Uraraka. Kendo and Uraraka, with the use of Uraraka’s quirk, carry both Izuku and Monoma – the better you sing, the better the quirk works.

Its lucky Monoma knows most of the songs Izuku brings up as ideas, and adds some suggestions of his own. If the other two know the song it's not a bad idea to join in, but its not the end of the world if they don’t.

The list of songs they have on standby and their effect when sung by two people with the Songbird Quirk

Two Player Game - Be More Chill: It forms both a connection between the people singing it, allowing them to anticipate the other's movements and creates a semi-translucent double of each singer that mimics their movements with a half second delay, aka: each punch you throw hits twice.

Family – Mother Mother: Creates a kinda forcefield that hovers just above the body. The stronger the bond between the singers, the stronger the shield – good thing Uraraka and Kendo know that one.

Hurry Hurry – Airtraffic Controllers: Slows down your perception of time, giving the appearance of superhuman reflexes. With the addition of a partner, it also grants superspeed.

We don’t get tired, we get even – Pat the Bunny: The more energy you��ve used up, the more energy you get back when singing this song + a proportional increase in general ability.

Doubt Comes In – Hadestown: Anyone who hears it quickly loses the ability to fight other people, including the singers.

The Greatest Show – The Greatest Showman: In addition to the normal effect of drawing attention to the point you can’t look away, singers get a ‘moon jump’ ability.

Turn the Lights Off – Tally Hall: Makes the area pitch black and gives the singers monstrous forms with plenty of claws and eyes.

How they use these is up to your imagination, but they end having taken the 10’000’000 point band from Todoroki. Bakugo, the only person with a decent understanding of Izuku’s quirk, just turned off his hearing aids and told his team to block their ears when weird shit started to happen. They came second, Todoroki third and Shinsou’s team fourth.

Uraraka gets to the second round bc Bakugo fights Monoma in the first round and jesus that fight is hilarious because its just Monoma – while using Bakugo’s quirk too – insisting that Izuku has abandoned class 1A for class 1B and Bakugo getting progressively more done with this boy’s shit.

Izuku and Bakugo + Todoroki and Iida are the semi finalists. Izuku and Bakugo are mostly just like “Thank fuck I’ve been talking to so many god damn weirdos today please can we just have a normal fight”. Izuku wins, j u u s t. (Izuku and Bakugo have a pretty 50/50 win loss ratio going on in this AU)

Todoroki vs Izuku is the final round of the whole thing, Todoroki told him about Endeavour, Izuku is pissed that no one looks at him and sees him, they only see his quirk (other than like, 6 people at this point). So he gets where Todoroki is coming from but holy shit hes doing literally just that. The main song Izuku uses for that round is Escapism – Steven Universe which makes him intangible (other than like his feet so he doesn’t go through the floor like Mirio). He’s trying to get the vibe across to Todoroki that he is free of his blood. He stops singing just to scream that at him, which is really what loses him the round. He's not intangible anymore, so he has no way to dodge the fire that comes at him. But he's pretty happy anyway.

Stain Arc!

Izuku’s hero name is Lyre!

Izuku doesn’t intern with Gran, but he does visit the guy with him. All Might hasn’t given his quirk to anyone else because the only suitable person he can see is Izuku, but Izuku basically can’t say no to him so he’s having a crisis. Izuku just thinks he’s there to visit All Mights old mentor and shoot the shit, which is really what they do.

Gran basically just ends up telling him “Kid aint a wallflower, he’ll tell you to fuck off if he doesn’t want it. All Might decides to ask Izuku about it after everything is over.

Izuku ends up interning with Endeavour, along with Todoroki. He never ended up yelling at endeavour, even though he hates the guy. Shouto encouraged him to take the offer bc, 1, Endeavour literally never gives out internship offers and 2, it’d be more fun because that way he doesn’t need to deal with his dad’s bullshit alone.

Endeavour is like “Oh it’s the kidnap kid, your quirk is neat.” And izuku is smiling through gritted teeth like “Th Anks SiRr”

So, starts pretty normal, then the winged Nomu steals Izuku right off the ground. Izuku just says “I’ll be fine! Just keep doing what you're doing, I’ll get myself down.” Endeavour just shrugs like “Ok, I give you permission to defend yourself.” While Todoroki is screaming internally because his new friend is literally being flown away

So the Nomu that was once a really good friend of Izuku’s (not that izuku is aware of that) literally just dumps him somewhere else and leaves. Izuku is confused, really confused, so he starts walking his way back to where he was before he hears a familiar voice.

Guess who it’s Iida, with a serial killer standing right over him. Izuku panics and goes straight into Turn the Lights Off. Without Monoma it only makes it dark, but it’ll have to do.

Thing is: he has a key problem. By virtue of the fact he’s singing, Stain can always hear him. Izuku’s only advantage is that he can see Stain but stain can’t see him, and the darkness means Stain moves more cautiously.

Anyway, in the artificial darkness, he can send a longer text anyway.

Midoriya [7:31PM] stain – [Location Pin Dropped]

So a lot of people, All Might and Aizawa included, f r e a k o u t. Todoroki goes running, Endeavour sends sidekicks with him because he saw his son, normally deadpan, almost chocking on panic as he mutters “Midoriya found Stain.”

Endeavour very much wants to also get Stain but the Nomu are Very Pressing Right Now, so there isn’t much he can do other than try and hurry the fuck up. Torino is kicking around because he could mostly, trying to get a glimpse of All Might’s kid in action, ends up having to kick villain ass. He's not that concerned until he remembers “OH SHIT TOSHI’S BOY”. When he finds Endeavour the man, a little panicked for Endeavour’s standards, yells at him to go to the address bc his son and intern are fighting the fucking hero killer.

Gran Doesn’t think he’s moved so fast since he kicked All for One in the face with Nana 25 odd years ago.

So Stain is kinda pissed bc suddenly he can’t see and someone is singing. He goes to stab Iida but,,, he ain't there anymore, and the singing is fading away. He figures “oh well, lemme get native” the singing changes to a different song. Very quickly he can see, but the singing boy, still singing is rocketing towards him and rapidly changing form.

Monster – dodie: Literally shifts Izuku into a monster. Stain suddenly realises that this is Songbird, talk of the underground, most wanted quirk by villains and quirk traffickers everywhere. This kid, target of villains everywhere, has put himself in their sights just to try and help people.

He thinks maybe Songbird might be one of the good ones.

Oh, an aside? People calling him Songbird sets off hella panic attacks because the only people who do that are people actively trying to kidnap him. And that’s what stain is calling him.

His monster form wavers and he tries to sing through tears and hitching breaths and Stain smiles because he's still curled around Native with his claws out.

Todoroki gets there first and helps defend Iida, Izuku is fighting to keep stain away from Native. The pros are on the way, Izuku is fading fast. Endeavour has been training them hard so he's exhausted and freaking the fuck out, while someone waves swords in his face.

Stain gets him, he loses the monster form. This doesn’t help Izuku’s panic, because now he can’t move and he’s felt this before along with grabbing hands, and dark vans and ropes around his wrists praying someone knew where he was going so someone might know to come for him when he doesn’t get home.

Todoroki sees that and he doesn’t know what to do. Izuku is panicking – the boy who seemed so put together and on top of things s falling apart at the seams. Iida feels horrible. He just wants to go to his friend he's never seen that distraught before.

Todoroki does the only thing he can think of. He sings.

He was never into music before, be after the sports festival he learnt Escapism -the song Izuku sang to him – and singing it back to him is the only thing he can think of doing.

It helps. It really helps, because if there was one thing that never happened when Izuku was taken – it was singing. He calms down just enough to breathe, which is all he needs to do.

The quirk wears off and Izuku throws himself at Stain, the words to Thunder by Imagine Dragons already pouring from his lips and electricity pouring from himself. If Stain touches him, he's toast, even if its via a sword. Izuku just has to avoid thrown weapons.

Izuku gets a hit, the quirk wears off Iida, who rushes in to stop Izuku from taking a throwing knife to the arm. The three of them knock out Stain just as the heroes skid into the alley. Izuku lets out a sob and crumples to the ground, Iida and Todoroki rushing over to him. They both honestly look like they’d bite anyone who got too close. Gran calls All Might who starts hightailing his way over there – Aizawa is also breaking a few traffic laws to reach his pack of injured kids.

They don’t get there in time. Shirigaki, furious that the hero killer went against him, orders Kurogiri to get Izuku. They take Iida and Todoroki for good measure. The heroes watch in horror as the children they were meant to protect vanish under their noses.

Headlines the next day: “UA sports festival finalists defeat Hero Killer – only to be taken by Villains seconds later.”

[fly-sky-high-bug-games]

*breathe hard*I need air, oh this is beautiful! I would like to know more, the Noble AU is like a fire!

*slaps lap in excitement*

OKAY! Have a brief update on what has happened so far~

Yonna was brought in to train with Damascus to become a knight and the mantis really grew found of her but she’s hiding it in the most tsundere way. She doesn’t want to appear motherly but like a harsh mentor. I think Yonna figures she’s lowkey caring but keeps up the act of serious knight in training. So far, she thought her some nail art and way of the mantis fight, Yonna packed a bit of muscle in mean time.

So after Misren’s terrible action and assault over Sylva, everyone is acting like nothing happened even tho Misren is hecking dead and gone and Mugo is missing an eye and Sylva has a bit of trauma still creeping on her. Alyssum ordered the ritual of the binding, which started before the whole situation, to be done as quickly as possible, even if Chiffon who is doing the ritual was still in a bad mood. They got really upset over Misren’s death but no one is sure why, Chiffon has been in a terrible mood since. Still, they finished the third act of the ritual and Sylva now has the bindings of the Dew, magic that draws and stores soul from water.

Amalma has become rather chatty with Yonna and Sylva and they had some fun shenanigans on their topics. Friend and I agreed that it’s cannon that she doesn’t like standing in the open space and it gives her anxiety and panic so I’ll with this probably for both verses! XD Anyway, she’s a fun bush girl now~

Sylva, after the whole ordeal, also speaking with Mugo after losing an eye, as well as finding out that the business involves a lot of dirty jobs like killing and manipulation, BUT ALSO that Alyss was already looking for someone new to for her to marry, kind of peaked and said “let’s get out of here” to Yonna. So, while they devised a plan, Mugo helped summon Ignyad to teach Yonna how to ride a mechanical steed (I should sketch how it looks like, they run on the crystal) and fly with it. She’s an amazing pilot so that’s gonna come in handy later... Meanwhile, Alyssum finally allowed for Sylva to learn how to fly with her own two wings so she’s been having fun flight lessons with Mugo. It helped her realize how much she missed him for the past 10ish years.

Alyssum brings in a family of Monarchs that lead a traveling theatre and introduces their son Cypress to Sylva. He was acting odd and eventually had a private chat with Sylva (with Yonna close by as her guardian of course), telling her he wants to get married to help his friends become the best traveling acting and musicians there are, since they don’t have financial income for it. Sylva buys the story but Yonna does not and later warns Sylva about being too naive and kindhearted and that she should not lose her goal to escape the life of a business tool.

Some time later, Yonna becomes super skilled with steed flight and Sylva learns few spells focusing on healing and temperature shift in water. Then, they decide to escape one evening but not before Sylva privately spoke to Mugo to say goodbye, since it will be impossible for them to come back and visit without HARSH consequences... She never did and he told her not to anyways. OVERALL IT WAS SAD. He gave her a map and said to go hide away in the dead kingdom of Hallownest...

Anyway, the evening falls and Sylva leaves her symbols of the family, the mask and the clothes behind and sneaks out with Yonna to get to the now prepped and travel fit steed. However, Chiffon intercepts them and gets super angry for the fact that Sylva is leaving them after everything for some nobody like Yonna. They were about to go full soul powerup and murder Yonna but Vincent injects them with his tail and knocks Chiffon out by making them fall asleep. The two were shocked and knew he will probably get executed for this because Chiffon saw he did it but he just told the girls to hurry up and leave because Sunny warn Alyssum and the guards... the girls get on the steed and take off, shooting for the upper shaft at the top of the kingdom that leads to the lake by the tree that holds the kingdom.

So... powered by soul and sheer rage, Alyssum goes after the two, flying up to intercept them. She managed for a bit, facing the two from the front, she shoots her petals and strikes Yonna’s chest. Her armor luckily protects her but just enough to save her life. Yonna’s riding manages to throw Alyss off enough for them to shoot up and enter the shaft again. Alyss gives chase and in attempts to protect Yonna, Sylva opens her wings, knowing her mother isn’t allowed to harm her. Sylva gets away with it with only slightly torn wing tips. Through the shaft, Yonna uses her trusty nail and strikes the side of the passage to make it crumble while Sylva absorbs soul from the waterfalls that passed through. She freezes the passage right after the two shoot outside of the shaft, Alyss unable to follow up. The two flew above the moonlit lake and picked up the vast world around them... And then Yonna begun to faint. Sylva had to take control over steed in panic, steering it to the shore towards the small town there and have a rough landing against the shore...

Yonna was very injured and the steed crashed so Sylva wasn’t sure what to do in panic of the moment. Then... Lolo finds them! They were in luck, she saw them after staying at their grandma’s old mansion by the lake. Pim and Trail were with her so they helped take the girls and flying steed inside for the rest. Sylva was able to explain everything and beg Lolo not to tell anyone about their whereabouts. Lolo, the kind soul that she is, understood the situation and promised to keep them in secretly. Trail wasn’t too happy about it, thinking they will bring trouble and that Lolo would have to justify to the Queen. Still, she couldn’t say no to Lolo...

Lolo accepted to help only until Yonna recovers and then they would have to leave. This was acceptable as Sylva was tense and wanted to leave but Yonna had to recover. With doctors help and her spells, she is making progress. Sylva made friends with Lolo and Pim but Trail is keeping distance.

MEANWHILE, and “off screen”, it’s absolute chaos at the White Magnolia residence. Vincent is taken in, to Damas’ shock, as they were close friends and now she is torn about everything that happened... Chiffon is still out cold and Alyssum is absolutely furious. She comes back to put the whole blame on Mugo for bring Yonna there in the first place, as well as starting the whole flight lessons but...

He turns the tables on her. For the first time in 20 years, Mugo screams out his displeasure at Alyssum’s actions and teachings around Sylva. He blames her for keeping so many things a secret from her, from keeping her only focused on teachings that don’t shape her as a person but as a tool, for keeping her caged in within the mansion, for choosing love instead of her... he lists many things the outburst to the point that Alyssum is genially submissive and taken aback. While this was suppose to be his act to cover up his tracks for helping the girls escape, he was able to present the arguments to the point as he was truly angry about them for YEARS. On top of it, he learns that Yonna who was the rider was hurt by Alyss and he adds one more salt to the wound, saying that they probably crashed in the lake and drowned because she took out the rider. With no arguments to lead against angered Mugo, she only retorts for a bit, adding that he better do ALL he can to track, find and bring Sylva back if alive... and he, of course, accepts~ :)

[precuredaily]

Precure Daily Halloween Special 2019

Episodes: SPC 37, HaCha 37, GPP Movie, MPC 38-39, KKPC 37, HUG 38, STPC 37 Dates watched: 30-31 October 2019 Original air dates: Sunday in October 1-2 weeks before Halloween, 2011 & 2016-2018, and the Saturday of Halloween, 2015

Is that little girl in the witch hat dressed as Akko from Little Witch Academia in a nod to her seiyuu, Han Megumi, playing Hime or is this just a coincidence? These are the questions that keep me up at night.

You may remember the PCD Christmas Special I did last year, where I watched every Precure Christmas episode and compared them to each other, charting the common elements and evolution in how they handle the subject. Well, I really love Halloween, but for a while, Japan didn’t celebrate it. It only started to catch on in the late 2000s and into the 2010s, and so despite several episodes of Precure airing on or near Halloween night over the years, the first time it was brought up in the franchise wasn’t until 2011′s Suite Precure. You can read more about how it became acceptable to celebrate and the ways in which the Japanese people enjoy themselves in this article, but the important takeaways are that Halloween events are more about food and festivities, and trick-or-treating is a highly organized activity, no going door-to-door.

At this point in the shows, all extra heroines have been introduced and the team is usually on the cusp of acquiring a new powerup. The villains have suffered significant losses and are preparing to pull out some form of trump card (this will facilitate the team getting their new attack). Typically, the monster of the week will be made from a Jack O’Lantern or some other Halloween decoration. In more recent years there’s been a tendency to explain what Halloween is about, but they don’t always do this. The biggest draw of a Halloween episode, though, in my opinion, is getting to see the characters in costumes. I’m going to briefly run down each Halloween episode (or movie) and then compare common elements at the end.

Note: At the time of writing, I am about 6 episodes behind in Star Twinkle Precure, did not wish to skip ahead for the purposes of this article, and didn’t have the time to catch up. I will add my thoughts on STPC 38 at a later date, and I will announce when I have done this via a reblog to @pcd-status​. Thank you for your patience and understanding.

Star Twinkle section added 12 Nov. 2019

Suite Precure 37 - “Wakuwaku! Everyone Transforms for Halloween!” Original air date: 30 October 2011

With Mephisto freed of his brainwashing, Falsetto takes charge of Trio the Minor and leads an attack on the girls. Ako has decided to stay in the human world, and the older girls take her to a Halloween celebration to brighten her spirits. Ako isn’t really enjoying herself, but some younger kids rope her into playing with them and that brightens her up. When Trio the Minor turn a pumpkin into a Negatone, they try to perform a new attack with Crescendo Tone: Precure Suite Session Ensemble Crescendo, but it falls apart, so Ako uses her invidual attacks while the older trio uses their group finisher. At the end, Falsetto sings an incomplete Melody of Sorrow to speed up Noise’s revival.

Costumes and references: Hibiki is dressed as a pirate, but specifically she resembles a genderbent Captain Marvelous, the red ranger from the contemporary Sentai series Gokaiger. Kanade is dressed as a pumpkin witch. Ellen is dressed as a black cat, an allusion to her true form, and Ako is a dressed as a princess, which she is. (not digging very deep for this)

HappinessCharge Precure 37 - “Big Bang, Defeated! An Unbelievably Strong Enemy Appears!” Original air date: 19 October 2014

Oresky, Namakelder, and Hosshiwa are all feeling weakened after taking the Happiness Big Bang attack, so Queen Mirage concludes they may not be useful to her anymore and prepares her next agent. Meanwhile in Pikarigaoka, Megumi encourages Blue to join them at the town’s Halloween festival, and he agrees. They all begin to share pumpkin cakes with each other, a local tradition. Seiji shares his with Megumi, Megumi eagerly shares hers with Blue, and the other girls look on from a distance as they recognize the love triangle unfolding in front of them. Oresky appears, trying to ruin the Halloween festival that makes people happy and attempting to prove his worth. He really wants to be the number one general in the Phantom Empire, as he feels that if he’s not first, he’s worthless and he doesn’t want to be replaced. The girls transform, and begin to persuade him that there’s enjoyment to be had in fun things, and it’s okay if you’re not first. They hit him with Happiness Big Bang and it begins to purify him, when suddenly an attack interrupts it. As the smoke clears, their new opponent is revealed to be a corrupted Cure Tender, Iona’s missing older sister.

Costumes and references: Megumi is wearing a Halloween-themed dress, orange with jack-o-lanterns on it. Hime is dressed as a princess, which much like with Ako, seems kind of low-effort since she’s an actual princess. Yuuko is dressed as a witch, and Iona is a fortune teller. Also, Blue is dressed as a vampire.

Go! Princess Precure: Go! Go!! Gorgeous Triple Feature Original release date: 31 October 2015

The Princess movie was experimental, being made of three shorter films: a chibi short with no dialog, a 50-minute traditional feature, and a 20-minute all CG adventure. The film leaned hard on its Halloween theming, with Pumpkins and Halloween being prominent motifs in all three parts. I’ll break them down individually.

Cure Flora and the Mysterious Mirror

This is a cute sketch where Cure Flora finds a fancy crown, puts it on, and accidentally startles some mischievous sprites on the other side of what she thinks is a mirror. They have the ability to transform, so they take on her appearance and mirror her, but they forget to duplicate the crown and eventually they begin to compete with the real Flora, doing tricks. She accidentally breaks the crown, so the sprites decide to transform into a special pumpkin outfit for her, just as the other girls come in. The 5-minute short uses a super deformed art style with all CG animation and has no dialog.

Costumes and references: Cure Flora’s pumpkin dress and hat.

The Pumpkin Kingdom’s Treasure

Haruka, Minami, Kirara, and Towa are transported to the wondrous Pumpkin Kingdom, where the royal chancellor Warp is hosting a Princess Contest to find a princess for the kingdom. Towa, being well-versed in evil schemes, smells a rat and is on edge. Haruka finds the true princess of the kingdom, Pumpururu, who is locked away, and learns that the Pumpkin King and Queen are under Warp’s control. Minami, Kirara, and Towa each win their rounds in the contest, but the former two are captured while Towa is able to avoid capture. Haruka participates, even managing to snap the monarchs out of the control. She transforms, frees the others from their capture, and Warp transforms to a giant monster. Pumpururu, the sprites, and the Precures’ strong feelings summon Halloween Dress Up Keys that the girls use to defeat Warp and save the Pumpkin Kingdom.

Costumes and references: The girls get special outfits to wear for the Princess Contest (not halloween themed), as well as Mode Elegant Halloween dresses that feature pumpkin flowers on them.

Precure and Leffy’s Wonder Night!

This is an episode-length feature using the CG animation style from the dance endings. Haruka discovers a doll on her desk, when she’s suddenly transported to the Pumpkingdom, already transformed, and the doll is now a girl named Leffy. Leffy tells the cures they need to defeat Night Pumpkin, who has taken over Pumpkingdom and stolen the daylight from them, making it always night. What follows is essentially an ongoing chase through the city to the top, where they fight and defeat Night Pumpkin and restore daylight to Pumpkingdom. Haruka is then transported back to her room, and the Leffy doll is gone. It’s worth noting that Leffy appeared as Pumpururu’s doll in the previous portion. The connection to this section of the film is unclear. Also, Minami, Kirara, and Towa do not appear in their civilian forms at all.

Costumes and references: Leffy isn’t overtly pumpkin themed, and nobody else gets any special forms in this one. However, there is a glorious moment where Flora accidentally bonks Night Pumpkin on the head.

a proud Precure tradition

Maho Girls Precure 38 - “Is it Sweet or Not? The Magic Pumpkin Festival!” Original air date: 23 October 2016

This isn’t explicitly a Halloween episode, because the Magic World doesn’t celebrate Halloween, but they have fall traditions that involve pumpkins and sweets so it counts. Their tradition is to chase a Pumpkin Bird that appears every year. It shoots candy from its mouth, and if it hits someone, they turn into a giant piece of candy. If you capture it, you get a special prize. One of the villains brings up the actually valid point that the creature may not like being chased and that’s why it runs, but Mofurun talks to it and finds out it just has a cavity. The girls transform into Topaz Style to fight Shakince in a creatively silly battle. When they beat him, Mofurun gets the credit for “capturing” the Pumpkin Bird and so she gets presented with its prize, which turns out to be a seed that grows into a tree which sprouts toothbrushes. I am not making that up.

Costumes and references: Mofurun gets a special orange and yellow dress to wear when she receives the prize but it’s never shown in closeup from the front. Also, there is a cameo appearance by Watanabe Mayu, who sings the insert song for the Maho Girls Movie that was in theaters around this time, and also served as the ending theme for episodes 38 and 39 (only on the TV version, on home release they use “Magic a la Domo”). She makes a special appearance as herself. Even better, in a flashback, she’s seen beside giant statues of Mipple and Mepple.

Maho Girls Precure 39 - “This is Halloween! Everyone, Smile!” Original air date: 30 October 2016

The girls from magic school come to visit the non-magic world and learn about Halloween! But Jun, Kay, and Emily have to be reminded, even when things seem bad, to not use magic to help out. The students of the non-magic world are running a crepe stand and the magic world students decide to chip in, and after being scolded for using their powers, they learn how to do things the old-fashioned way and appreciate the value of hard work. In the middle of all of this, Ha-chan changes costumes almost every scene. Benigyo is extremely confused by all the Halloween festivities and doesn’t understand what the girls want when they tell her to stop ruining it. They never do give her a proper explanation, but she summons a Donyokubaaru that blows air and the girls have to transform to Sapphire form to fight it off. There’s a small plot point about Mirai’s grandmother recognizing the magic school Headmaster from her own youth. At the end of the episode, it’s implied that Liko’s father has made a big breakthrough about relations between the magic and non-magic worlds, and more ancient powers. Kind of a disjointed episode.

Costumes and references: Mirai is dressed as Mofurun, Liko is dressed as a cat in an orange and purple dress, Mofurun is dressed as Cure Miracle, Chikurun is dressed as a bunny, and Ha-chan is dressed as:

an alicorn

a sarcophagus

a mummy

a sphinx

a UFO

and a thunder god (Raijin)

And just a cool thing I noticed, the final stage for the ending dance was updated with a Halloween theme. I’m really curious why, since they replaced the ending with “The Right Way to Use Magic” in the initial television broadcast of this episode, and I don’t think the Halloween version was seen in any previous or subsequent episodes.

Kirakira Precure a la Mode 37 - “Salut! Ciel is Going Back to France!?” Original air date: 22 October 2017

Ciel’s old boss, Madame Solaine, finds her and tries to get her to come back to Paris and work for her there, feeling that Ciel’s talent is wasted in this small town. Not wanting to admit that she initially came searching for her brother, and that she’s got responsibilities as a Precure, she tries to demonstrate what she likes about Ichigozaoka. Everybody is worried that Ciel is going to leave, and even lowkey encouraging her to do what’s best for her career, but she wants to stay. Ultimately she wins Madame Solaine over with a dish inspired by Ichika’s cooking style. Elisio is the antagonist of this episode but I honestly found the battle to be completely irrelevant. The most notable point for the villains is that Grave makes some kind of discovery at the end of the episode.

Costumes and references: Their costumes here are modifications to their patisserie uniforms. Ichika is a jack o’lantern, Himari is an angel, Aoi is a devil, Yukari is a cat (of course), Akira is a vampire, and Ciel is a witch.

HUGtto! Precure 38 - “Charged with Happiness! Happy Halloween!” Original air date: 28 October 2018

Hagukumi town is going to be hosting a Halloween Party, with Papple’s business providing food and entertainment. Daigan is tasked with food prep, but he gets frustrated with a very delicate task, and a visit from Bishin has him questioning his loyalties. The girls are ready to hit the town, and have even prepared costumes for Harry and Hugtan. They made a lot of costumes for Hugtan, in fact, but Ruru detects that she doesn’t really like any of them, so they ask her what she wants to be, and she responds “Pwecyua!” They set to work making her a Precure costume in short order, but an Oshimaida attack secretly requested by Daigan threatens the party. The girls transform and make a show of it to keep people’s spirits high, finishing the monster off with Cheerful Attack. Papple knows that Daigan was responsible and chides him for defecting, even momentarily, and informs him that everybody loved his food. Up at Beauty Harry, the girls finish Hugtan’s costume and show her to Harry, who briefly has a flash of Cure Tomorrow.

Costumes and references: Hana is a witch, Saaya is a lolita devil, Homare is a cowgirl, Emiru and Ruru are pirates, Harry is a werewolf (because he’s.... hairy, IDK if that was the joke), and Hugtan is dressed as Cure Yell. Foreshadowing ahoy!

Star☆Twinkle Precure 37 - “Cryptids Will Win! The Halloween Costume Contest” Original air date: 21 October 2019

Mihoshi Town is having a Halloween costume contest with prizes for best group, so everybody brings their A-game. Except Yuni, she takes the chance to walk around in her true Rainbownian form. Everybody is having fun and the girls get to explain Halloween to Yuni and Lala. Unfortunately, Kappard is hanging around, reminiscing about what happened to his planet, and he doesn’t like the festivities. Everyone thinks he’s just dressed as a sexy kappa and they want pictures with him, which annoys him even more, so he steals one arguing couple’s imagination and goes on the attack. In an effort to guide him away from all the people and hide their identities, when the girls transform, they claim to be the Mihoshi Stars and do a full Sentai roll call, finally settling the debate over Milky and Cosmo’s color designations. (I was probably one of the last people to maintain that Milky was blue by this point, tbh) They lead him away from the festivities and then try to talk him down, but all he can say is he doesn’t believe different species can live in harmony, that Lala and Yuni are living a lie by celebrating Earth customs, and he doesn’t understand this holiday at all, so they defeat him and return to the festival. Elena wins prizes as part of two different groups, but Kappard is declared the overall winner. Too bad he’s MIA. This episode doesn’t do much for the plot, but it does give a little backstory to Kappard, as we see that his planet got destroyed by a non-native species monopolizing all of their natural resources. Considering what we see of Eyewan and Tenjou in the next few episodes, it’s possible we’re aiming to redeem the villains. Hard to tell with an ongoing show.

Costumes and references: Hikaru is a yeti, Lala is a tsuchinoko, Madoka is a cat, Elena is a flower (with her family) and a cat (with Madoka and Yuni), Yuni is herself, Fuwa is a sheep I guess, and Prunce is the Michelin Man (TELL ME I’M WRONG).

Analysis

Halloween episodes, unlike Christmas episodes, don’t have as much of a running theme. Halloween is more of a dressing than an opportunity to explore feelings. The placement of these episodes in the series means that things are usually starting to ramp up, but none of them features a major conflict. In a few episodes, the fight with the villains felt downright inconsequential, while it was more meaningful in others. There was a trend in more recent years to explain the origins of Halloween, as a gathering of spirits, but otherwise there aren’t as many identifiable patterns or shifts in patterns as there were in the Christmas episodes, it’s mostly been “this is Halloween, have fun.” The Go Princess movie had the opportunity to make the most of their halloween theme, but instead they just focused on pumpkins, pumpkins, and more pumpkins without really diving into what makes Halloween as a holiday special or significant. It’s an alright movie but it’s a sour note on an excellent series that knew what it was doing. HappinessCharge probably utilized Halloween the best as a setting, using some Halloween traditions to create romantic tension, and I appreciated Maho Girls’s attempt to create a Halloween-ish fall holiday for a fictional culture, and then also bringing those people in to explore our Halloween. Since it’s a newer holiday for Precure to work with, only getting regular exposure since 2014, we might see them figure out more ways to spin Halloween in the future. Honestly I hope so, and I’ll be here to write about it for you.

Happy Halloween, everybody, and look forward to more Yes 5 coming soon. Hopefully I’ll finish that by the end of the year. Hopefully. (yeah not likely)

[itsclydebitches]

This is a bit of a random thought, but while some of us are having the “Is Team RWBY making stupid decisions and how should the show handle that?” conversation, I’m catching up on Dragon Ball Super and it occurred to me that the DBZ universe handles this difficulty rather well. 

For those who may not know, our protagonist Goku has arguably done things more objectively horrible than stealing an airship. Most prominently, Goku has at times prioritized his love of fighting to the extent that it threatens the whole Earth--if not the whole universe. Drawing out or starting fights when he doesn’t have to, saving villains because he hopes to fight them again someday, risking lives to induce powerups, etc. I think of Goku less as a hero in the conventional sense and more as a chaotic good: his primary goal (the desire to fight people) conveniently lines up with good deeds (bad guys are trying to conquer the Earth and are threatening my friends--I can fight them!). And that convenience is a-okay because it’s at the very heart of the story. It’s what everything else is built around. Alongside that: 

Goku is an excellent combination of good heart meets (at times) stupid brain. We’re shown again and again that Goku genuinely cares about those around him, but just as often we see how the allure of a fight can overwhelm that care or his common sense. That’s an integral part of his characterization, as opposed to smart characters suddenly acting stupid, unexpectedly. Goku’s a naive and largely simple person. He likes his family, food, and fighting. We don’t expect much more from him and thus aren’t surprised when this is all we get. This becomes enough. 

Goku’s obsession is also built into his very DNA. The show emphasizes that Saiyans have a drive to fight that colors every aspect of their life. You fall in love? It’s instinctually going to be with someone powerful (Bulma and Chi Chi). You nearly die? If you survive you’ll come back even stronger, prepared to fight again. Want to hold down an ordinary job? Good luck with that. Your need to train will quickly distract you. Only half-Saiyans like Gohan stand a chance at prioritizing something other than fighting in their lives. Thus, when characters make stupid choices in the name of a fight, we know that this obsession is largely biological. The story excuses Goku’s actions on multiple levels. 

Nevertheless, the narrative also makes it crystal clear when Goku’s decisions are bad ones. Whether it’s his friends freaking out over him giving Cell a senzu bean or the Kais begging him not to spar with Beerus because a battle like that would literally threaten everyone in the universe, we know when he’s being stupid... and then the show reminds us that fighting will always take precedent. Because that’s what the story is: a collection of fun, epic battles. We know what the story’s priorities are and we change our expectations accordingly. 

The potential consequences of those bad decisions also don’t have much weight, especially nowadays. Your fight gets someone killed? Okay. I mean people might be upset for half an episode but you have magic dragon balls that can bring them back to life--and you can now collect them very easily. Can’t wish someone back for some reason? We’ve established the afterlife as a fun place filled with other beloved characters. Is death really that bad? You doomed the whole planet somehow? At this point you’re friends with a bunch of gods, a few of which create life and planets. Even that’s not much of a threat anymore. We ultimately only care when characters make bad decisions because we assume there’s a potential consequence attached to them: stealing an airship could increase tensions between kingdoms, taking a headshot might have actually resulted in a murder, etc. The DBZ universe has mostly removed those consequences (even if during fights it wants us to forget that), thereby providing more leeway for characters to pull stupid stunts without audience backlash. 

Finally, the story has always twisted its own logic to prioritize a fight. That’s our norm. Though DB/DBZ/DBS can have a surprising amount of depth to them, we’re not at all surprised when Goku lets a threat live so they can fight again someday, or Frieza is conveniently resurrected with new state-of-the-art rejuvenation tech, or fighters manage to keep finding more and more strength to keep going even when their power supposedly ran out three episodes ago. That characterization and those tropes all serve the purpose of keeping the story on its main focus--cool fights--and we’ve established that since day one. It’s what we expect and ultimately why the story works in the way it’s meant to. 

RWBY I have very different (and in some respects higher) standards for. This volume I see them attempting to use a lot of the same writing tropes and conventions found in DBZ, even though RWBY was never meant to be that kind of story--one where logic and ethics are thoroughly de-emphasized just to get a cool battle going. As should be clear, that setup isn’t necessarily bad, not at all. It’s just not what I’ve come to expect of this specific show. 

But as said, this is a random thought. I’m just loving DBS and wanted to talk a little about why that show’s ridiculousness is fun  ^_^

[terminusest13]

I apologize for the dummy question but I only followed you recently (I believe RPS did a showcase on one of your DOOM mods which I wanna get around to playing), but related to another ask someone sent: what's F6 and who is Booster? I like kickass lady robots and there was mention of Mega Man, so I'm intrigued

It’s fine to ask, it’d be silly to expect people to keep track of absolutely everything I’ve done! Thank you for the follow, hopefully you’ll find the other stuff I do fun as well.

The short of the matter is that I’m not an artist, but that doesn’t keep me from trying to improve myself. So every now and then I like to draw different character designs as practice, coming up with ideas and costumes and etc that I might use or might not use in the future.F6/Faulte 6 was the result of one of these practice sessions. I like her design a lot, but will I actually do anything with her? Who knows. Creativity is like any other muscle, you have to practice it regularly.

As for Booster, at the moment all I really have is that she’s an extremely fast combat robot designed after cars, with a chaingun arm and an affinity for fire-type weapons. I’ve not had a lot of opportunities to flesh out her history or personality just yet. How she came about, however, is a little bit of an interesting story.One of the earlier practice sessions was to make a fast robot girl (and then redo it a bit down the line), partially inspired by one of my failed older mods (Cyberrunner) and partially inspired by Megaman-style robots. I’m rather a fan of Megaman. Not as much as Metroid, since I’ve not really kept up with all of his games, but I really quite enjoyed the X franchise and MM7. I didn’t really have a name for her, so I just named her Booster. I’m still not 100% on the name now, but it’s rather stuck so I might as well go with it!

What followed next was a wide series of timely coincidences.I’d long expressed an interest in a Doom mod about total freedom of movement, going fast and with different powerups to make you go even faster, which Cyberrunner was originally intended to be about. A couple people have asked me if I plan on rebooting the mod with less breakage.Around the same time, I picked up a mod called Megaman 8-Bit Deathmatch (which has gotten quite a lot of rehauls lately) and so I decided to make a small mod where the protagonist was Booster, letting me get through the singleplayer with more mobility and a hitscan weapon.Shortly after, a friend bought me 20XX, which reignited my love for the X series and how fun they were to play. Shortly after that, Megaman 11 was announced, further cementing my recent Megaman mood.There’s also that, lately, I’ve gotten so burnt out on mapping. I’ve been (attempting) mapping for a friend’s project, trying to do a mapset on my off time, and my current main project On Cosmic Tides has currently been wrestling with me attempting to map for almost a year at this point–and all with no notable improvement on my end. I don’t like mapping. And at this point I not only don’t want to map anymore, I want to do anything other than mapping.

So this ultimately culminated at the end of one stream where I played through Megaman 8-Bit Deathmatch as Booster, and with only a bit of prodding afterwards I gave her a ran through a rocketjumping mapset and had a lot of fun.And now, on-stream for the past month, I’ve been working on developing her and turning her into a full-fledged Doom mod. With this, I’m doing something a little bit different, going improv and making things up as I go along, using the votes and suggestions of the audience to guide me rather than starting with a design document and ideas of what to do already.

I wonder where this’ll go? I’d like it to be a fun and interesting place. I’ll be bumbling a lot down the road while I try to figure things out, but hopefully you guys enjoy it!

[artyrogue]

Blind Date Gaming: Choplifter III

I know there's some adage where ladies like a man in uniform. Typically, this is said about some member of the military, as their dress uniforms or whatever somehow increase their level of attractiveness I guess? Regardless of how ladies perceive crew cuts and camo, G.I. Joe set the de facto standard of soldiers for kid's media, of which Game Boy games fall into. So, let's take a wonder trip down the rough and rugged world of Choplifter III!

So you can basically tell what you're in for with the realistic helicopter that chops upward to our title. YEAH! Warzones! Brothers in arms! Bulletholes, helmets, and those sandbag barriers that look like a royal pain to move around! This feeling gets reinforced with the level splash screens, which are more pixelated photo war-type scenes that don't actually reflect the kind of hell that real wars are. Forget corpses and destroyed livelihoods; we're heroes here! With helicopters!

Guy looks like he's waiting for his takeout to arrive

So in this game, you're a helicopter pilot who must fly into warzones and rescue hostages. Hostages can easily be seen meandering around on the ground, waving their arms and stuff. Not sure what the strategy is for my adversaries, giving hostages free roaming rights. Whatever, I’ll take it! Luckily your weapons don't phase them at all or I would probably have murdered an entire platoon by accident.

Hey guys! Catch!

The enemy forces will stop at nothing to shoot you down, using turrets, planes, submarines, and more to pump your little copter fulla lead. Luckily, things aren't as realistic as in real life and you have a health bar to allow you to sustain more than one hit, though most hardware thrown at you will do like 70% of your HP. You can lose HP by running into walls and stuff too. There are health powerups, though, so it's pretty fair.

Good thing that bomb apparently has the explosion range of about how far a toddler can kick a ball

You have many tools at your disposal to fight these forces. You start with a missile-like 'G' weapon. You can unlock other alphabet letters to give you more options, but really, I never used most of them. Part of this was because I had no idea what most did since they were all just a single letter. Like, you have a 16-pixel sprite to work with, just draw a picture of what the weapon might be or something! A couple were essential to use, though. One was a flamethrower that apparently has unlimited ammo until you hit a tree with it. While it makes for a neat progression gate on a level, I can only imagine the canonical reason why this happens. Maybe the tree somehow tosses some sap up in the flame nozzle during the inferno, gunking it up to the point of uselessness? You're probably not supposed to think too hard about that, though. Sort of like real soldiers getting orders!

The war between Veteran’s Day and Arbor Day ends in a dramatic fashion here

Anyway, the default weapon is surprisingly versatile and a lot of fun to control. By default, it has a very slight downward arc, but you can make it fire a bit higher and lower by firing while moving; backwards raises the front of the helicopter, making it fire upwards and forwards lowers the front, doing the opposite. This helps a lot when attempting to annihilate the local fauna.

THERE CAN ONLY BE ONE RULER OF THE SKIES, AVIAN DIRTBAG!

You can also turn sideways, allowing you to drop shots straight down or at a downward arc while moving left or right. The enemy placement is actually very well done, requiring switching up between all of these maneuvers. It takes a bit to get used to the trajectories, but you’ll reach a point where it’s all second nature. Good job, programmers!

Take that! I'm bombing your WiFi next, you war-mongering jerkwads!

Anyway, you fly around 5 different-themed areas, including a naval battle, jungle, and typical warzones. The variety is nice and the enemies vary from area to area, so it stirs thing up. You even get tiny little guerilla guys throwing junk into the air at you! The weirdest sight is the final area, which is some odd attempt at making an isometric city. It kind of doesn't make sense visually, as you'll see tanks and cars in what seems like it should be air. Am I actually in the air? Yeah? Then why does every building that looks far away still hurt me when I fly into it? It's just confusin'.

Ugh, I hate fighting in M.C. Escher World

Anyway, after beating 15 levels and rescuing all of your indestructible squadmates, you beat the game! I mean, I guess the war ended or something? I dunno, maybe you just need to do these last jobs before you can retire and collect that sweet military pension. The ending screen certainly makes your pilot look like he needs a break. Maybe just some meds to stop the demons wreaking havoc in his chopper-filled noggin.

Good job, USA! Now please stop backing the military industrial complex and let this guy get some rest!

In the end, you get to put your name into a high-score list for whatever reason. I love when games with clear completion goals still have scores, like you're playing the game only for points or something. Plus, I'm sure this is like Tetris where the game pak doesn't even save the scores. By the way, note the replacement of all vowels on the name input screen with numbers. This is not something I've seen elsewhere and I have no idea why it was done. The default names on the high score list all have vowels, so like...why?

B1d d2c3s34ns w2r2 m1d2.

That about wraps this game up. I got through the whole thing, so I really don't need a second date, but man, I would go on another date later anyway. It was just a joy to play! Maybe there's truth to that attraction of a man in uniform after all. I'd love to see how Choplifters I and II pan out! Although all of these titles might want to be a little more subtle, as I've seen in multiple places that Choplifters get prosecuted to the full extent of the law. No way I want to get tangled up in that jazz. I only like empty extents of the law. You could probably insert some political dig here on rich vs. poor folks, but instead I'm gonna subtly slide this Sprite of Passage to you both as a distraction and as a final token of getting through this date with me. Enjoy it heartily and throw it in a shadowbox with your other war medals and stuff!

Not sure if this guy is happy to be rescued or if he was immediately thrown into PT to do some jumpin' jacks

[clickbliss]

Space Invaders Invincible Collection Review

by Amr (@siegarettes)

Space Invaders Invincible Collection

Developer: Taito

Publisher: ININ Games

Switch, PS4

When Space Invaders Forever released here, I lamented the fact that we were getting a cut down version of an already lacking collection. Apparently, the sentiment was heard, because almost a year later, Space Invaders Invincible Collection, the previously Japan-only Switch collection, is finally here. Invincible Collection is an improvement on the previous bare bones collection, but as the basis for Forever, it shares plenty of the same strange problems and has plenty of shortcomings of its own. 

Invincible Collection boasts the inclusion of “11 masterpieces”, but on closer inspection the claim immediately breaks down. Two slots are taken up by the original Space Invaders and its color version--which has no other major differences. Notably, both games are also included as part of Space Invaders DX, which goes one further and includes an emulation of the cellophane variant. Majestic Twelve and Space Invaders ‘91 are also slightly different regional releases of the same game.

So already that’s really 9 games, with slight variation. As for Gigamax and Arkanoid vs. Space Invaders, they’re both sub par experiences, as discussed in my previous review for Space Invaders Forever. Gigamax just doesn’t work outside its original gallery format, and Arkanoid vs. Space Invaders has the same problem of being a standalone download with no concessions to the console format, only playable in limited, specific ways. So what about the remaining 7 games? Are they worth the full retail price?

Lunar Rescue and Space Cyclone are mostly historical curiosities. Lunar Rescue is, well Lunar Lander mashed up with Space Invaders. You’re still gunning down aliens, but this time with a greater range of movement, and the added wrinkle of fuel management. Space Cyclone is another early Space Invaders remix, but with much more elaborate enemy designs and movement patterns. Both lack the simple appeal of the original game, and neither made a lasting impression, but I appreciated them as archival works, especially since Space Cyclone had not been previously ported. 

That leaves Space Invaders DX, ‘91, and Extreme to cover.��

Like previously mentioned, Space Invaders DX is an enhanced version of the original. In addition to the 3 variants of the original, it also includes a 2-player versus game, as well as a new parody mode. The parody mode is basically the same gameplay-wise, but mixes it up visually by replacing the classic designs with sprites referencing other Taito games. And the 2-player mode allows two players to compete to see who can destroy and survive more waves of enemies. It basically does what it says on the tin, and is enjoyable, if not remarkable. 

What it does unfortunately do well, is draw attention to the exclusion of Space Invaders ‘95: Invasion of the Lunar Loonies, a Parodius style reinvention of Space Invaders that takes the parody mode concept much further. Lunar Loonies not only has cute and silly new aesthetics, but brand new mechanics, playable characters, and stage layouts. It’s one of the highlights of the entire series, and its exclusion is bewildering, especially considering it was previously packaged as part of other Taito collections. 

Space Invaders ‘91, or Majestic Twelve, fares a little better than DX then. While it originally gives off the vibe of a slightly enhanced port of the original, it quickly branches out, with new mechanics, enemy behaviors, weapons, and a bizarre bonus stage that involves cow abduction. Majestic Twelve is more in the mold of Galaga ‘88, or other Galaga arrangements, and has a lot of atmosphere, and its own unique soundtrack. It works well as a standalone game, and easily earns its place in the collection. 

Space Invaders Extreme is still the excellent game included in Space Invaders Forever, and previously available on other systems. A fantastic modern revival of the series, it’s got a feverish club aesthetic, and adds tons of new scoring mechanics, branching paths, and a combo system that earns you powerups, allowing you to constantly optimize your route through the game on each playthrough. It’s once again the centerpiece of the collection. 

Of course, Extreme’s inclusion does make me wonder why Extreme 2 didn’t see a port, especially given how popular tate mode shooters have become on Switch. Likewise, Space Invaders Infinity Gene is a conspicuous absence, given its place as another well liked modern take on the formula, one that’s explicitly built around the evolution of the series. 

Alongside the absence of Space Invaders ‘95, the lack of Extreme 2 and Infinity Gene leave serious holes in the Invincible Collection. It doesn’t work as a survey of gameplay styles across the series, it’s not complete enough or given enough care to work as a historical archive, and it certainly doesn’t feel celebratory either. Space Invaders Invincible Collection is anything but--it’s full of holes and barely holding apart. It’s a worse collection than previous budget Tatito releases, and it doesn’t even attempt the exhaustive detail of the Darius collections. 

It’s just this lackluster budget set of games that hopes its presentation can make it feel more premium, but without any serious attention lavished on that presentation. There’s undoubtedly some great titles here, but two or three barebones ports of excellent games can’t exactly hold the rest of it together. If Invincible Collection is all we got, then I guess we’ll wait on whatever the next attempt at a collection is. 

[powerup-the-revolution]

Keep your hands off the NetSaviors!

[vendily-blog]

This is gonna be a long one about the Mario Timeline...

Spoilers for a large number of the games in the series, mostly for the ones that I’ve played.

So to start, I need to establish two things. First, the Paper universe is separate from the rest of the games (Mario & Luigi: Paper Jam), and I’ve only played the first one. (I really need to beat it...). Second, it get’s really hard to accurately place the timing of the Super Mario series, as well as their relation of the other RPG Mario series, so there are a few headcanons, clearly marked as such, and a lot of is is by release date, which is fun.

I realize I get more sarcastic as I get along, I wasn’t expecting the list to get this long, because kept on adding more games.

Okay with that settled let’s get to the games.

Baby Luigi is kidnapped and the stork is captured by Kamek and his cronies. Baby Mario and the Yoshi’s rescue them both and beat up Baby Bowser (Super Mario World 2: Yoshi’s Island)

The Stork delivers the bros to the wrong house, and while fixing that mistake, Baby Luigi is kidnapped and the stork is captured by Kamek and his cronies. Baby Mario and the Yoshi’s rescue them both and beat up Baby Bowser, fucking Bowser comes back in time to fuck with shit, and the Adult Mario also comes back in time to help by giving you that powerup that is literally just a “you suck at this level, don’t ya”, while disguised as a pipe. (Yoshi’s New Island, which is fun. I beat the whole thing in one sitting the day I got it)

Future Kamek and his cronies kidnap all the babies so Bowser can get the star babies. Magic powers or something. Baby Mario and Baby Peach are rescued by the stork and the Yoshi’s rescue everyone, yay! (Yoshi’s Island DS, my first Yoshi’s Island game.)

The shroobs take over Mushroom Kingdom. Time is fucked because Peach wanted to ride in Professor E.Gadd’s Time Machine. The Adult Bros team up with their now toddler selves, and proceed to nearly ruin the Mushroom Kingdom. Nearly. Also E.Gadd stopped studying Thwomps after his lab is destroyed, and moves to Boo Woods in Evershade Valley to study ghosts. (Mario & Luigi: Partners in Time, Luigi’s Mansion: Dark Moon)

The adult Mario and Luigi move to the Metro Kingdom and do construction work (Wreaking Crew. Also Super Mario Odyssey. It’s a headcanon)

Pauline is kidnapped by Donkey Kong Sr., who latter ages poorly and goes by Cranky Kong nowadays. Mario rescues her but she loses her purse. (Donkey Kong, Super Mario Odyssey)

Mario and Pauline date, but it doesn’t work out and they have an amicable break up and stay friends (Mostly headcanon, Super Mario Odyssey)

Mario and Luigi do plumbing instead. While working, they get attacked by various creatures, including Koopas and Spinys. (Mario Bros., as well as headcanon, though Mariowiki lists an interview confirming that this game takes place in New York, so also Super Mario Odyssey)

Mario and Luigi move back to the Mushroom Kingdom. (No game here, but not really a head canon either.)

Princess Peach as well as a few Toads are kidnapped by Bowser, and the rest have been magically transformed into Question Mark blocks. Mario and Luigi go and rescue them all. A number of Toads are inspired by their bravery and proceed to do as much as they can to help them in the future, including one group becoming the Toad Brigade, led by Captain Toad.(Super Mario Bros, Super Mario Galaxy. Headcanon includes Toad Houses in all of the games that have them)

Bowser, not undeterred by his earlier defeat at the hands of the plumbers, kidnaps Peach again and puts more challenges in their way. They beat him anyway. (Super Mario Bros 2 JPN)

Mario has a trippy dream. (Super Mario Bros 2 USA)

Goddamn it, Bowser. This time not only does he kidnap Peach, he enlists the Koopalings to steal the magic wands from the smaller states within the Mushroom Kingdom and transform their rulers into various creatures. He ends up effectively defeating himself, because building a death pit covered by blocks you can destroy is a smart idea (Super Mario Bros 3, my favorite)

Princess Peach hears news that the ruler of the neighbouring kingdom, Sarasaland, Princess Daisy, was kidnapped by space monster Tatanga. Mario goes on his merry way to rescue her. (Super Mario Land)

Wario takes over a castle that Mario had, for some reason, while he was rescuing Daisy. Do I really have to include this game, it doesn’t fit any more, even if it is fun. (Super Mario Land 2: 6 Golden Coins)

Bowser, who had laid low on Dinosaur Island in the Cascade Kingdom, traps the Yoshis in eggs and kidnaps Peach again, putting the Koopalings in charge of keeping Mario away. We all know what happens. (Super Mario World, headcanon on the location of Dinosaur Island based on Super Mario Odyssey. You can’t tell me that the skeleton in Fossil Falls isn’t a giant Reznor)

Bowser and the Koopalings open  hotels and kidnap Peach (Hotel Mario)

Bowser kidnaps Peach, but gets thwarted, not by Mario (though he did give a good trouncing), but a giant sword. I didn’t beat this game, but robots happen apparently. (Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars)

Bowser kidnaps Peach in 3-D!!!!! Mario defeats Bowser after building speed for 12 5 hours and many parallel universes. (Super Mario 64, I love Pannenkoek’s videos. Did you know there’s are a number of faster routes now for the A Button Challenge?)

Paper Bowser has stolen the Star Rod, and seals the Star Spirits into cards, then, you guessed it, kidnaps Peach. Paper Mario fixes everything, but he’s overprotective, so he doesn’t let Paper Luigi help him. (Paper Mario 64)

E.Gadd at this point had captured a large portion of the Boos and Ghosts in the Gloomy Mansion, including Boolossus, a very loyal servant to King Boo. King Boo, in revenge, attack and frees all of the captured ghosts and Boos, and decides to trap all of his enemies, including the Mario Bros., who are on his hit list for some reason, into paintings. (Luigi’s Mansion, Luigi’s Mansion: Dark Moon)

Luigi finds the letter saying he won a mansion in the mail. Ecstatic, he tells Mario to meet him there. They don’t meet. Mario is trapped into a painting, and Luigi almost is himself if E.Gadd hadn’t come to the rescue. Luigi saves Mario, everyone’s happy. (Luigi’s Mansion)

Mario accompanies Princess Peach on her vacation to Isle Delfino. Luigi stays home because the mansion was enough excitement for now. Bowser Jr fucks shit up and kidnaps Peach, to impress Bowser. Mario saves the day in the end. (Super Mario Sunshine, which emulates poorly)

Prince Peasley from the neighboring Beanbean Kingdom warns Princess Peach that Cackletta was after her voice. Cackletta and Fawful steal a Birdo disguised as Peach’s voice, though Peach ends up getting kidnapped. Then not kidnapped through a stunt that people love to draw, Luigi crossdressing (and a fine one too). Stuff happens, Bowser get’s possessed. (Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga)

A toy company using Mario’s image creates a new line of Mini Mario’s. Donkey Kong really wants them, but they have sold out, so he robs a store. Mario was in the area and stops him, though it turns out Donkey Kong had dropped all of the toys. Enraged, Donkey Kong grabs the toads running the store and climbs to the top of the building. Mario rescues them, and in the process, knock Donkey Kong off the building onto a truck delivering the next shipment. He tries to steal those, but fails miserably. Donkey Kong is sad that he failed, but Mario gives him a free Mini Mario to cheer him up. (Mario vs Donkey Kong, which I sadly can not find a copy of.)

Paper Mario goes on an adventure. Paper Peach is kidnapped by an evil oganization trying to summon a shadow demon, and Paper Bowser just... messes around I guess. (Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door)

Bowser kidnaps Peach again, sending a letter of invitation in her name to the Mario Bros and Wario for some cake. They also get captured. Yoshi rescues Mario, who rescues Luigi, who rescues Wario. They do stuff, and Mario beats Bowser, because Bowser asked nicely to fight him. (Super Mario 64 DS)

Bowser, irritated with all of his losses at the hands of the Mario bros gets his hands on the Vibe Scepter, which can manipulate the emotions of everyone in it’s vicinity. He kidnaps just about everyone but Peach. Peach, armed with Perry the umbrella that used to be a human or something and really abusable mood swings, fight Bowser. (Super Princess Peach)

E.Gadd reveals the Time Machine he’s been working on. Princess Peach travels back in time and accidentally messed a lot of things up.

Peach gets kidnapped by Bowser Jr while on a walk with Mario. She gets rescued, and Bowser temporarily becomes Dry Bowser. (New Super Mario Bros.)

Mario and Luigi Go to collect coins. Princess Peach is kidnapped by the Koopalings. Rinse and repeat. (New Super Mario Bros. 2)

A Mini Mario amusement park is opened in New Donk City, and both Mayor Pauline and Mario have come to see the opening. Donkey Kong attempts to woo Pauline with a Mini Donkey Kong at the same time that Mario offers her a Mini Mario. Pauline takes the Mini Mario and the heartbroken Donkey Kong grabs her and rides the elevator to the top of the building, taking presents along the way. Mario saves the day using the Mini Marios and everybody is happy. (Mario vs. Donkey Kong 2: March of the Minis, headcanon involving Super Mario Odyssey)

Paper Mario and the rest of the crew go on an adventure in Parallel dimensions to stop the multiverse from getting fucked. (Super Paper Mario)

Bowser hasn’t done much in a while, so he fucking kidnaps Peach during the Star Festival by lifting her castle into fucking space. Mario also get’s launched into space. The Toad Brigade give Luigi a lift as they travel through space to help Mario, though Luigi get’s lost somehow and the Brigade get stranded on Honeyhive Galaxy. Anyway, an adventure happens, a Luma throws itself into a Blackhole the Bowser had created in his new galaxy, and everybody is happy. (Super Mario Galaxy)

The Mushroom Kingdom gets two Star Festivals as Rosalina had passed close by a second time during the events of the first game. Bowser, nor to be out done by a double festival, proceeds to double kidnap Peach. Yeah... (Super Mario Galaxy 2, also personal headcanon, because there’s no way this game is 100 years after the previous one.)

Archivist Toadette finds pieces of the Dark Moon in Evershade Valley and gives them to E.Gadd to study. He later finds the rest of the pieces and the restored Dark Moon pacifies the ghosts. (This is 100% headcanon.)

Bowser ends up inhaling everyone in Peach’s Castle as well as a bunch of stuff found around the Mushroom Kingdom because of a Vacuumshroom given to him by Fawful. Some random stuff happens, including Bowser turning into a giant whenever he is basically almost dead, and a ball of Dark matter being the final villain. (Mario & Luigi: Bowser’s Inside Story. Also, because of Tumblr, I can’t play this game any more without thinking of fucking fetishes. Good Job.)

The Koopalings and Bowser Jr kidnap Peach at her birthday party. Mario and Luigi go to rescue her after the initial shock of the incident wears off, though not before two very brave Toads ask to join them. The rest proceeds fairly normally, and Princess Peach is rescued. (New Super Mario Bros. Wii)

E.Gadd sells the King Boo Portrait at a garage sale. (Luigi’s Mansion: Dark Moon)

Bowser kidnaps Peach and knocks all of the leaves off the famous Tanooki Leaf Tree that looks like it has a tail. Mario saves the day and every gets a tail. (Super Mario 3D Land. You can find that same tree in Odyssey.)

Paper Bowser becomes really powerful because he gets a sticker stuck on him. Using this power, he beats Paper Mario, kidnaps Paper Peach, and sticks a bunch of toads to the wall for the hell of it. Paper Bowser plays with tape, and we all know how this ends. (Paper Mario: Sticker Star)

Captain Toad goes on an adventure to collect Green Stars and rescue Archivist Toadette. After rescuing her, he sees a green star fall into the clear pipe to the Sprixie Kingdom.

Mario, Luigi, Peach, and a Toad are enjoying a festival until they find a clear pipe. After repairing it, a Sprixie Princess exits, telling of Bowser capturing the other princesses before being captured herself. The crew follow, and everybody gets a cat suit. (Super Mario 3D World)

King Boo puts his plan into place, shattering the Dark Moon and hiding the pieces. Fortunately, Luigi is summoned by E.Gadd and with the help of the Polterguist 5000, collects pieces of the Dark Moon. Turns out Mario was turned into a painting, as well as the Toads that aid E.Gadd in his research. Luigi defeats King Boo again, Mario is saved and the Dark Moon is restored. (Luigi’s Mansion: Dark Moon)

Luigi has narcolepsy. Bowser and Antasma team up to steal the Dream stone and grant their wishes. A much needed ego boost is given to Luigi. (Mario & Luigi: Dream Team, which is fun.)

DK kidnaps Pauline for literally no reason. Mario uses toys to save her. (Mario vs. Donkey Kong: Tipping Stars)

Luigi drops a book and unleashes the Paper universe. Paper Bowser and Bowser team up and kidnap both Paper Peach and Peach. Mario, Luigi, and Paper Mario also team up and save the day. While they were gone, Shy guys drink paint or something. (Mario & Luigi: Paper Jam, Paper Mario: Color Splash)

Paper Mario paints stuff that the Shy Guys drank, I guess. (Paper Mario: Color Splash)

Bowser kidnaps Peach so he can marry her, and steals stuff for his wedding. Mario and Cappy get stylish. And this damn game is beautiful. (Super Mario Odyssey)

That’s the whole series, not really including the Wario games, or the Yoshi games, as well as the various spinoffs like Mario Party and the like. But other than that, if it has Mario in it, it was included.