#rare made some of the best games of that entire decade but it sadly still couldn't save them from being painfully british game devs

[taffywabbit]

i've been playing through the leaked N64 prototype build of Dinosaur Planet (that rareware game that got turned into Starfox Adventures on the gamecube later) over the past couple nights and i gotta say... i think people gave the gibberish alien voice acting in Adventure a bit more hate than it deserved? like don't get me wrong, it WAS hilariously awkward and impossible to take seriously, but i'd take that shit ANY day over having to listen to... a handful of british people doing the most inscrutable attempts at racist accents i've maybe EVER heard in a video game??? like holy FUCK it's bad y'all. in fact the entire chunk of the game in Swapstone Circle is pretty much fully unsalvageable. the music, the iconography, the way the NPCs talk and are dressed, the literal most basic tropes of the storyline itself in that area... good grief, it's no wonder that entire chunk of the game was cut from the final product. absolutely wild that anyone at Rare thought that shit was okay to include, even 20+ years ago

[trainsinanime]

Let’s talk about railway electrification systems; not so much because any of you care but because I want to talk about it (and because I talked with some people about it on Twitter recently and had a lot of fun with that).

There are four main voltages that overhead lines for european railroads can have (and most of this translates to other countries as well):

1500 V DC

3000 V DC

15000 V AC at 16.7 Hz frequency

25000 V AC at 50 Hz (aka normal) frequency

These are generally divided along country lines; every country has one (or somtimes two) of these that it uses, usually chosen without any regard for what their neighbours used. Why?

Well, because back at the start of the 20th century, everyone had different ideas and different trade-offs and different decisions, and those choices made sense to them at the time. Many of these factors have changed since; for example, after World War 1, France explicitly decided on 1500 V DC so that german locomotives (running on 15 kV AC) could not run into the country. It made sense then, it’s a pain in the butt now.

But why those values in particular, and what were the tradeoffs?

The Motor

The key for that is the “Universal Motor” (for my german-speaking followers: Einphasen-Reihenschlussmotor), a type of electric motor that was the standard for electric railways and many other applications from the first electric locomotives until 1980.

I’m not going to go into details; the important part is that this motor is essentially a DC motor, but due to its wiring, it can also run on AC. There’s a bit of an issue, though: Powerful universal motors don’t really run well at industrial frequencies (50-60 Hz); they prefer lower ones. Other than that, the motor is bulletproof and powerful and easily the best thing that doesn’t require computer control.

Your standard railway spec motor, small enough to fit comfortably into the running gears of a train, will take somewhere between 600 V and 750 V (with quite a wide margin at either end). To this day, most streetcar systems, subways, and some odd commuter rail lines (in particular most of the south of England) use just those 600-750 V directly, as DC current, because the motor runs better that way.

More Power

But low voltage means low power. Power is voltage times current, and more current means generating more heat in the overhead power lines. For a given level of power, having more volts means needing less current, which is better for the power lines. And any design of power line will have a hard limit of how many amps of current you can send through it before it’ll melt. You can build lines for more current, but that’s expensive.

The low power does not only mean that each individual train gets a low amount of power, but also that the number of trains in a given section has to be low. So you need a lot of power supply stations (substations).

So the first idea was to connect two universal motors in series. That takes 1500 V, and you get either twice the power at the same current, or need half the current for the same power. That is what is used for example in the Netherlands, France and Japan.

1500 V is still fairly low, though, so why not double that? For 3000 V DC, you connect all four motors in your typical four-axle train car in series. Again, more power, less current. That system is used in Belgium, Spain, Italy, Poland, Czech Republic, Slovakia, former Soviet Union and a couple of others.

You can’t really go beyond that, though, at least with 1920s tech. Your modern USB charger is actually an incredible feat of engineering; it took decades to reach that level. At the time, if the DC voltage you got out of the power station didn’t match your needs, then there was no easy solution.

Transformation Sequence

This was not true for AC power, where you can use a transformer, an incredibly simple piece of technology. With AC, you can essentially use as high a voltage as you want. The limit here is insulation: The higher the voltage, the more space you need to have between the roof of the locomotive and the wires, and between wires and bridges and so on. The European countries that went that route settled on 15000 Volts as a good compromise.

The problem with that is that the universal motor doesn’t like 50 Hz (or 60 Hz) frequency that you get from the normal grid. The solution is to run the whole thing with less frequency. That’s why the frequency in the line is 16.7 Hz (originally 16 2/3rds Hz). This system, 15000 V AC at 16.7 Hz, is used in Germany, Switzerland, Austria, Norway and Sweden (but notably not Denmark), and it has stood the test of time well. For the Americans reading this, the 12 kV at 25 Hz used in the north-east by the Pennsylvania and Reading railroads is essentially the same thing, just slightly different values.

The problem with this thing is that you absolutely need that transformer. And, for reasons that I don’t quite understand, the lower your frequency, the larger your transformer has to be. 16.7 Hz is fairly low, so you need a very heavy transformer. Compared to a low-voltage DC system, you need fewer substations and a less expensive overhead line, but you need more expensive and heavier locomotives. That is a very real trade-off: Many of the DC countries have a long history of small, quick EMUs, while it took much longer for AC systems to develop those; they required heavy locomotives or much heavier EMUs.

Trade-offs

In the 1920s and 1930s, when the foundations of modern electric networks were laid, these were the systems and considerations available, and given the train performances at the time, it’s hard to argue that anyone really choose wrongly. I keep saying that 1500 V means low power, but the french reached a world record for high speed trains at 331 km/h (a bit over 200 mph) in 1955 with that system.

High Frequency

In the 1930s, hungarian engineer Kálmán Kandó, already an incredibly important figure in the development of modern electric trains, developed phase converters for railway use, which changed the game completely. These things were at the time heavy mechanical devices that combined a motor and a generator, and could transform any sort of electricity into any other. This means you can use the normal 50 or 60 Hz power that comes from the national grid, and then transform them into something else in the locomotive, instead of using some weird 16.7 Hz thing. This means cheaper lineside equipment and smaller transformers. You need the converter, but that pays off almost immediately.

(I'm over-simplifying here; there is a number of technologies and types of motors that allow using 50 Hz; the phase converter was the first, but is far from the only.)

Railways at the time were very interested in that, but then there was a whole second world war, which put everything on hold for a while. After the war, engineers in various countries perfected it, and along bumped up the voltage to 25000 V for more power with not that much more insulation required (the one exception to this is Japan, which went for 20000 V instead). This 25 kV at 50 Hz (or 60 Hz where applicable) is nowadays generally considered the best system if you can choose freely.

All countries that have 1500 V or 3000 V also have more or less extensive networks with 25 kV 50 Hz; sometimes just for high-speed lines, often for about half the country. A number of countries that started electrification comparatively late only have 25 kV 50 Hz. The countries that already have 15 kV 16.7 Hz have stuck with it, though; 25 kV 50 Hz is better, but not so much better that it justified all the expense of adding a new system.

(Exceptions exist but are very rare; feel free to ask me about the Rübelandbahn.)

Modern Locomotives

On the locomotive side, things have drastically changed starting in the late 1970s. Thanks to modern microelectronics and modern power electronics (sadly nobody calls them macroelectronics), phase and voltage converters have become small, lightweight and incredibly versatile; they’ll convert anything to anything else and back if you design them properly. That makes it relatively simple to build a locomotive or EMU that can use all of these different voltages, something that used to be quite a major engineering feat.

The default approach as of right now is that you have a big transformer (no way around that, for now) for AC voltages, with different output settings for 15 and 25 kV (this was always easy). It has to be the 16.7 Hz size, sadly. The output voltage in the 1500-3000 V range gets turned to DC. If you’re running under DC, you just use that DC directly. No matter how you got that DC, you’re now putting it into another converter (typically one per wheel set or one per bogie), which turns it into three-phase AC, at a frequency that corresponds to the speed you want to go. This sounds complicated, but works well in practice, to the point that all new locomotives nowadays support either both 1500 V DC and 3000 V DC, or both 15 kV AC and 25 kV AC, or all four. You can’t get a new e.g. 15 kV AC locomotive anymore. Even ones that are designed just for one country and advertised as doing only 15 kV will actually be able to run with 25 kV, just because nobody thought it worth the effort to design a 15 kV only transformer.

(This is not true for EMUs, since those are designed to run mostly locally instead of through the entire continent. You can get them in multiple voltage, but most are designed for just one.)

Where do we go from here?

The current system is a mess that is interesting to me, but a bit of a problem for railroads. In the olden days, you’d just change the locomotive at the border anyway, so it didn’t matter much; but nowadays you want to run your freight train from Rotterdam to Genua non-stop if you can. While multi-system locomotives have become a lot cheaper than they used to be, the whole thing is still very annoying for cross-border traffic. It's not the only annoying thing about european cross-border rail traffic, but it's a factor.

Also, train sizes, speeds and power requirements have increased drastically (air conditioning in passenger trains is actually a big deal in terms of power use). AC systems have been able to cope; DC systems less so. Both Belgium and the Netherlands have quite a lot of diesel locomotives pulling freight trains on electric lines, because they can simply produce more power. One manufacturer offers electric locomotives (the Stadler Euro9000) that have a diesel motor to boost the power under DC (and for shunting on tracks that have no overhead lines). Clearly, the old DC system needs to go.

But that’s easier said than done. Converting a line to 25 kV is quite expensive. You need new insulators at every single overhead line mast, but even more importantly, you need to check for safety clearance at every bridge over the railway, and, if necessary, raise bridges or lower tracks accordingly. Tunnels get even more fun. And, of course, all line side power equipment needs to be swapped out. This isn't impossible, but it is very expensive, and while it has happened in some places, it hasn’t happened a lot.

The Netherlands, for example, are currently running on 1.5 kV DC and did consider switching to 25 kV AC. All modern equipment there actually has a bit of empty space where you can fit a transformer. But the cost of upgrading the lines was judged too high. Right now ProRail, the company in charge of the network, is proposing upgrading from 1.5 kV to… 3 kV DC, of all things. It seems like a minor deal, but it still allows doubling the power output, for much less cost. Will it happen? No clue.

Meanwhile, in France, there is research going to make use of the new electronics. Researchers there figure that 9 kV DC is something you can do very well; modern electronics should allow stepping that down even more efficiently than a big 50 Hz transformer could. This seems to be mainly because the government does not want to pay to change the 1500 Volt lines there to 25 kV.

On the other end of the spectrum, the topic of 50 kV AC keeps popping up every now and then. A few lines like that already exist, most notably a large one in South Africa. In the US, the Black Mesa and Lake Powell railway used this system and ran coal trains from a mine to a power station; it's closed since 2019, because the power plant closed, because shale gas and renewables are just plain cheaper than coal. It's an interesting bit of railway history lost, but definitely a net win for the planet.

From a technical point of view, there's nothing particularly difficult about this. The Black Mesa and Lake Powell actually used a number of locomotives built for 25 kV and just changed the windings in the main transformer. The big problem is safety distances, which are much bigger than for 25 kV. There is no mainstream push for 50 kV at the moment, but it keeps coming up in discussions about "should US railroads electrify their lines" as a possibility.

Finally, in the 15 kV countries, there is some thought about 15 kV at 50 Hz. In Germany, the idea is to use this for short recharging sections for electric trains with batteries. Using 50 Hz saves the expense of a frequency converter. Personally, I don't see why those sections couldn't be 25 kV, but I guess it makes things a bit cheaper (EMUs, unlike locomotives, still come in 15 kV only versions).

In the US, this is actually already a thing; some lines in the North-East (I think primarily for New Jersey Transit) were changed from 12 kV 25 Hz to 12.5 kV 60 Hz when the 1920s era line-side equipment needed replacing. For the newer trains there, this requires at most a software update.

So… that’s the current situation. It’s not likely to get better any time soon, and if the french 9kV DC plans go through, it may actually get a bit worse, but modern locomotive technology has evolved to cope. There’s no point to this post, I just think it’s fun.

[stewblog]

BLACK WIDOW

It shouldn’t have taken this long to happen, but now that it’s finally arrived Black Widow was (almost) everything it needed to be. 

Admittedly, it’s a little difficult not to harbor at least a small amount of animosity toward Marvel Studios regarding the first (and almost certainly only) solo outing for Natasha Romanoff (Scarlett Johansson). Black Widow should have, at minimum, replaced the release of Captain Marvel in 2019, if not arrived years earlier. One of the founding members of the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s version of The Avengers deserved a more prominent placement in the canon thus far. But, none of that is really the fault of this particular film or the people directly responsible for making it, but I felt it necessary to specify that upfront. 

Given that Natasha has already (spoilers for a three-year-old film, I guess) died, it made me wonder what the point of giving her a solo film would even be at this juncture of the MCU. Making it a prequel, though technically necessary, sounded even less interesting. That said, once this thing hits home video you can quite easily slip it in right after Captain America: Civil War where it belongs and nearly all of the release timing issues will simply melt away. 

So how does it fare when you’re watching it right now in the theater (or on Disney+ Premiere Access)? I was honestly a bit surprised at how much I enjoyed it and at how well it holds itself up as a standalone adventure, albeit with some notable flaws. 

After a brief prologue in 1990s Ohio where it shows Natasha and her little sister Yelena were raised by a pair of Russian sleeper agents, we pick things up right after the events of Captain America: Civil War. Natasha is on the run having betrayed her commitment to the Sokovia Accords (the pact which outlaws all superhero activity not explicitly sanctioned by the United Nations). She heads out into the middle of nowhere and does her best to lay low (she’s a big fan of the James Bond movie Moonraker, it turns out). But it’s not long before trouble comes calling. 

Natasha wasn’t the only child groomed to be part of the Widow program. Yelena (Florence Pugh) grew up to become quite the adept secret agent as well, only she’s discovered the hard way that her generation of Widows have all been genetically brainwashed after being unexpectedly dosed with a vaccine that reverses the mental locks put into place. Now on the run herself, Yelena attempts to reunite with Natasha in an attempt to free their Widow sisters and take down the so-called Red Room program. 

The ensuing film moves at an appropriate breakneck pace with all the motorcycles, car chases, fist fights, shootouts,derring do and clandestine political intrigue that one would expect to find in any given movie starring the likes of Jason Bourne. And like Jason Bourne’s escapades, this becomes a very personal mission for Natasha and Yelena as they seek to enact vengeance upon the organization and people who so callously disregard the humanity of the women they reprogram and exploit. 

There’s a pleasing physicality at play throughout the action and mayhem of Black Widow. Granted, that’s almost by necessity given that all but one major character lacks anything resembling traditional super powers, so the action takes on a more grounded feel than what we typically get from a Marvel movie where robotic suits of armor, demigods and mystical arts have become de rigueur, bordering on passe’. It doesn’t (or perhaps can’t) measure up to the type of action and stunts offered up by the likes of, say, the recent Mission: Impossible films but it’s still satisfying and engaging on its own terms. 

That said, what makes this more than just The Bourne Imitation, though, is the focus and attention on the ersatz family that ends up being the heart of the film. Natasha and Yelena are initially abandoned by Alexei (David Harbour) and Milena (Rachel Weisz), only to once again be thrust together decades later. This culminates in a wonderful scene at a dinner table where everyone slips back into their domestic roles both knowingly and not. There is both conflict and affection flowing back and forth, and not always equally. But the chemistry and writing at play turns this scene and, as a group, these characters and this scene into something that rarely rears its head within the Marvel Cinematic Universe. 

Harbour has sort of cemented his career playing lovable schlubs and that’s played to maximum effect (and affect) here as he charismatically lumbers his way through each scene as the Soviety Union’s own Communism-loving Captain America knock-off The Red Guardian. Alexei’s blowhard nature is quite often played up for comedic effect (even during fight scenes) but Harbour still manages to allow an endearing sincerity to shine through, especially when he’s interacting with his “daughters.” 

Weisz, sadly, is given very little to do though she makes the most of it. It’s Pugh and Johansson who, rightly, carry the weight of the entire proceeding. Their interactions feel human, fully informed and realized thanks to years of resentment, hardship and all that comes with being a hyper-trained super spy. Pugh and Johansson carry it naturally and with ease. Johansson deserved to have this film much sooner, but I will at least admit that having it this late in the game does at least allow for Johansson to draw from a deeper slate of the character’s history and experience, lending additional weight to the proceedings. Pugh also is a superb actor in her own right and at the risk of spoilers, let’s just say that I can’t wait to see where she takes Yelena further down the road. 

If there’s a significant flaw to Black Widow it’s that the story’s central villain leaves a lot to be desired, and not just by the fairly high standards Marvel Studios has set with its canon of villains. I realize that not every film can have a Loki or Killmonger or Hela-caliber villain, and certainly more than a few MCU films have faltered when it comes to the bad guy in charge. But so much of Black Widow’s thematic weight comes from watching these women reclaim their lives from the men who stole them. Natasha has an engaging encounter with Dreykov (Ray Winstone), the man behind the Red Room, but there’s too little meat there, too little actualized history for it to mean much. It doesn’t help that Winstone’s performance is wildly, distractingly uneven as he wavers constantly between a cartoonish persona and delivering actual menace. To say nothing of his hilariously inconsistent accent. 

Despite this, Black Widow largely succeeds at providing a proper sendoff both for the character and for Johansson via an exciting outing that’s got heart and laughs to spare. 

[aion-rsa]

15 Best SNES Platformers Ever

https://ift.tt/2UzmXAm

Platformers have long been an entry point for new gamers. Video games may have greatly expanded in scope over the years and now offer so many different genres and experiences that it’s nearly impossible to keep track of them, but that’s actually a big part of the reason why it’s still so much fun to look back at these timeless games where the main objective was often to simply jump from one place to the next.

There is no console that celebrated the brilliance of the platformer better than the Super Nintendo Entertainment System. The SNES may be best known for expanding the adventure and RPG genres, as well as raising a generation’s expectations for video game graphics, but few consoles have come close to rivaling the Super Nintendo’s library of classic platforming titles.

It’s hard to narrow this list down to just 15 games, but from action-based platformers to pure platforming classics, these are the best examples of this timeless genre that the SNES gifted the gaming world. 

15. Jelly Boy 

Putting you in control of a jelly baby (a candy that is popular in the U.K. and surrounding areas), Jelly Boy was only released in Europe when it debuted in 1994. The game has a colorful aesthetic and some unique platforming elements built around the main character’s ability to transform into a myriad of vehicles, tools, and other objects. Those metamorphoses will be familiar to anyone who has played a Wario Land title or Kirby’s Epic Yarn. 

Admittedly, Jelly Boy‘s mechanics can be a little clunky and the controls are deficient compared to some of the later games on this list. Still, you will be hard-pressed to find a more original platformer on the console that isn’t made by Nintendo themselves. You can even play it now via the Nintendo Switch Online service.

14. Demon’s Crest

Released by Capcom in 1994 as the third game featuring the character Firebrand (who debuted in the Ghosts ‘n Goblins series), Demon’s Crest is a forgotten gem in the SNES catalog. It adds some variety to the traditional action-platformer by giving the playable protagonist the ability to fly and shoot fireballs as well as access other upgradeable attacks and maneuvers as their quest rolls along. That feature adds a little Zelda-like adventuring to the mix, and you’ll certainly need those late-game power-ups because this platformer means business.

There are many difficult platformers on this list, but few boast the plethora of boss battles seen in this one. It’s actually similar to Mega Man in terms of its fighting style and jumping requirements, so if you are looking for an alternative to the Blue Bomber that keeps the basics of the genre intact, you’ll have a hard time doing better than Demon’s Crest.  

13. Joe & Mac

Joe & Mac is honestly a fairly basic platformer for its era. What gets it onto this list of the best games in that genre, though, is the creativity and execution of its setting.

The game sees you control two different cavemen who rely on basic prehistoric items such as fire, bats, bones, etc. The bosses are pretty cool (dinosaurs are fun for all ages) and the controls hold up well enough that you won’t ever feel like you have to force the avatar into doing something that the interface simply won’t allow for. The game spawned a sequel that was also released on SNES, but the original is unique enough to get the nod here. 

12. Super Ghouls ‘n Ghosts

Despite what the title may suggest, Super Ghouls ‘n Ghosts is actually the third game in the Ghosts ‘n Goblins series. Like the previous games, this classic sees you battle various monsters and bosses that fit the setting nicely. Although the game is maybe a little too action-heavy to get the nod over the SNES’ best platformers, it uses its platforming elements to elevate the entire experience. 

The difficulty is insanely high and the sheer amount of sprites on screen at once can lead to some lag that only adds to the frustrations of this arduous journey, but the game has a way of keeping things light and humorous when the frustration sets in. How many other games see the protagonist stripped of their armor, quite literally, when he takes too many hits?

11. Donkey Kong Country 3: Dixie Kong’s Double Trouble!

The third installment in the beloved Donkey Kong Country trilogy certainly isn’t hated by many, but it is usually viewed as a step down from the first two games. Whether that has to do with a change in composer for the soundtrack, the inability to play as Donkey or Diddy, or the fact it was released after the Nintendo 64 was on the market, the title’s sometimes mixed reputation often prevents it from being appreciated as a divine platforming experience. 

The environments and storytelling in this game are well-executed. If you’re observant, you may even notice that the developers were trying to say something about the sad state of ape habitats and pollution in the wild. Even if you didn’t dive too deep into that surprising bit of social commentary, you’ll likely find that the platforming in this one remains top-notch and that the overall experience remains severely underrated. 

10. DoReMi Fantasy: Milon’s DokiDoki Adventure 

As the only game on this list that wasn’t initially released outside of Japan, many gamers may not know that DoReMi Fantasy is a whimsical experience that features some of the key elements of Mario and Kirby’s best adventures in terms of gameplay and graphics. Starring a young child whose objective is to reclaim music for the forest, DoReMi utilizes some clever puzzles that may not be unusual for the platformer genre but certainly add to the fun.

The game got a Virtual Console release in North America in 2008, but that’s sadly the best chance many gamers have had in recent years to take a chance on this title. It’s a great example of how people should be more open to experiencing games that weren’t localized the first time around.

9. Donkey Kong Country

Perhaps the most famous game starring Nintendo’s lovable ape, the original Donkey Kong Country was Rare’s first big title for the SNES and practically started their decade-plus long relationship as a second-party developer with the Big N. Tasked with showing off off the console’s pre-rendered graphics system, the crew from Britain proved to be up to the task. Honestly, this game still looks halfway decent in 2021. 

While the actual platforming is not as good as the Super Mario games on the SNES, it offered a different flavor of jumping that is still very much appreciated. The “weight” of Donkey Kong and Diddy means that the platforming is less flighty than in Super Mario games, and the rideable animal buddies you encounter along the way add a little flair to the experience. 

8. ActRaiser

As a game that serves as both an action-platformer and a God simulator, this underrated and forgotten gem from Enix and developer Quintet showed off the visual and audio capabilities of the SNES in the early days of the console. You play as the “Master” who is tasked with building towns around the world and fending off the evils that threaten them. It’s hard to juggle two completely different genres like that, but ActRaiser finds a great balance. 

The game was re-released for the Wii Virtual Console in 2007 but has otherwise been paid little attention in the years since its release. That’s unfortunate because there aren’t many games from 30 years ago that provide this much depth and versatility. Both parts of the experience are extremely solid in their own right, and together add up to become something truly special. 

Read more

Games

15 Hardest Nintendo GameCube Games of All-Time

By Matthew Byrd

Games

25 Best Nintendo 64 Games Ever Made

By Matthew Byrd

7. Kirby Super Star

Even the most ardent Kirby fans would probably agree that the franchise can get a little stale at times. There are only so many ways Kirby can suck an enemy up, transform his powers to match theirs, and ultimately defeat King Dedede. That’s why Kirby Super Star is still arguably the best game that the pink cutie pie has ever starred in.

Featuring eight different games within the game, the genre-mixing in this one is really off the charts. There are racing elements, adventure tones, and shooting sequences amongst the different sections of the playthrough. The experience was so beloved that it was eventually remade for the Nintendo DS as Kirby Super Star Deluxe. There is something for everyone in this package, and it shows the best parts of Kirby’s history.

6. Mega Man X

The original run of NES Mega Man titles are arguably still more famous than all of the others, but Mega Man X just has more of what makes those games great. It retains the eight bosses and weapon upgrades that can be completed/acquired in whatever order the player chooses, and it even has that same incredible soundtrack that the Blue Bomber’s adventures are always famous for.

Mega Man X‘s graphical upgrades admittedly take some of that eight-bit nostalgia out of the experience, but the game ultimately makes up for it by offering new gameplay experiences. Jumping on walls and acquiring upgrades to defensive maneuvers gives Mega Man an even more badass skillset, and the game generally does an excellent job of emphasizing the “platforming” parts of its action-platformer mix.

5. Super Castlevania 4

Super Castlevania 4 is actually a kind of soft remake of the original game, and the developers at Konami did a great job of making that game more digestible for newcomers while keeping all of the iconic elements from the classic NES title.

The Castlevania basics are all here (you still control Simon Belmont, equipped with his famous whip and ax, and battle through the game’s 11 stages before reaching Dracula), but an ideal mix of combat and platforming makes this one of the most irreplaceable platformers in the SNES catalog. It’s still an airtight action-platformer experience in 2021. 

4. Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy’s Kong Quest

The second game in the DKC trilogy took all of the best parts of the first title and refined them to create a truly unique platforming game that was a lot more than fancy graphics (a reputation the original game has had a hard time shaking). Diddy’s Kong Quest expanded upon the game design that fans loved while keeping the jungle hijinx, masterful soundtrack, and weighted platforming intact. 

That last part is what truly separates the middle installment of this franchise from the other two. Many people have said that these games were sometimes more style than substance, but after playing through the myriad of environments on display in DKC 2, it becomes clear that this title has endured over the years because its tight mechanics are executed at a high level.  

3. Super Metroid

If this list were just a ranking of 2D games or if it encapsulated the entire SNES library regardless of genre, Super Metroid would most likely take the top spot. Alas, this icon of game design settles in the third spot because it isn’t the best example of a “pure platformer.” It’s more of an action/adventure affair, though the game’s platforming elements are still as satisfying now as they were in the 1990s.

What separates this game from so many that have tried to emulate it in the nearly three decades since release is that every ability upgrade and every part of the map fits together with nearly flawless foresight and execution. It’s never a hassle to re-explore a section that you’ve already seen. The game has a masterful flow that is incredibly modern and perhaps even more popular today because of the prominence of this design style on the indie game scene. 

2. Super Mario World

With its flawless controls, colorful sprites, cheerful soundtrack, and ageless platforming, Super Mario World is the title that all other 2D games in the genre are still compared to. The extra graphical power of the SNES gave Nintendo the opportunity to expand upon Super Mario Bros. 3‘s best ideas while exploring new concepts that simply weren’t possible before.

That is why this game remains so playable. Super Mario World combines the most enjoyable elements of the NES Super Mario classics and then elevates them to fully realize the world that Miyamoto imagined when this basic concept was created. It still doesn’t make sense to have a plumber jumping on top of turtles and occasionally getting lost inside of a house full of ghosts (those damn Boo mansions still haunt me), but when you combine this much creativity into one package, you have no choice but to admit how special it all is.

1. Super Mario World 2: Yoshi’s Island

Shigeru Miyamoto and his team knew that it was futile to try and surpass Super Mario World simply by emulating it. So when developing the sequel, they made the decision to craft an entirely different type of platformer in which Mario isn’t even the main protagonist. The concept was bold, but the execution needed to be flawless if the game was ever going to be more than another disappointing follow-up. 

cnx.cmd.push(function() { cnx({ playerId: "106e33c0-3911-473c-b599-b1426db57530", }).render("0270c398a82f44f49c23c16122516796"); });

It’s safe to say Yoshi’s Island exceeded all expectations. Putting Yoshi at the forefront of a platformer that included mini-games, evasion, puzzle-solving, item collection, and the most timeless color palette in gaming history was brilliance personified. Yoshi’s Island is not as famous as its older sibling, but its daring creativity and irreplaceable charm have inspired many to argue that it is the better game in retrospect. Whatever your opinion is, the fun and escapism of the green dinosaur’s finest hour (as well as the horrors of Baby Mario’s screams) will be remembered until the end of gaming.

The post 15 Best SNES Platformers Ever appeared first on Den of Geek.

from Den of Geek https://ift.tt/3AZvFaF

[anotheruserwithnoname]

Happy 45th anniversary, Bionic Woman!

January 14 marked the 45th anniversary of the first broadcast of The Bionic Woman, the Emmy-winning spin-off of The Six Million Dollar Man and the first-ever US prime time series featuring a female superhero (Joanna Cameron’s Secrets of Isis, the actual first-ever for US TV, was a Saturday morning show, and Lynda Carter’s Wonder Woman didn’t debut as a proper series until April 1976).

Lindsay Wagner become the first lead performer in a sci-fi series to win a lead acting Emmy for her work as Jaime Sommers, a former tennis pro and onetime fiancee to Six Million Dollar Man Steve Austin who becomes a secret agent for the deceptively named Office of Scientific Information (OSI) when a parachuting trip goes horribly wrong and she loses an arm, both legs and an ear. Using nuclear-powered life-like prosthetics called bionics she was given the ability to flip cars one-handed, jump 30 feet into the air, hear a pin drop from half a mile away, and run more than 100 miles per hour. (That last isn’t an exaggeration - in an early episode, she actually outpaces a race car pursuing her and they take pains to show its speedometer).

Using the slow-motion photography techniques developed for capturing the power of NFL players in action, we got to see Jaime in action for three seasons, two on ABC and then the series moved to NBC. Her co-stars, Richard Anderson as her boss, Oscar Goldman (who the later actor later confirmed was secretly in love with Jaime) and Martin E. Brooks as Dr. Rudy Wells, the inventor of bionics, became the first actors in history to appear on two shows airing simultaneously on two networks as they also kept their roles in The Six Million Dollar Man (though the frequent crossovers with Steve Austin, such as the epic 3-part “Kill Oscar” arc, came to an end).

Sometimes called a “more human” counterpart to Six Mil, the Bionic Woman tended to focus more on personal stories than “save the world” ones - though the two-part “Doomsday is Tomorrow”, which put her on the clock from stopping a doomsday device from eliminating all life on earth, remains one of the most amazing storylines of its day:

And Jaime tended to use her charm to try and defuse situations before she had to start throwing people around. Or firing off a tennis ball like a missile (a trick I’m surprised she didn’t try on the bad guys):

I loved this show growing up and, yes, I had a crush on Lindsay like so many others did. (As I write this I am greatly enjoying seeing CGI-de-aged Lindsay, resembling her Bionic Woman years, in the video game Death Stranding that I got for Christmas.) Yes, there were silly episodes that haven’t aged well (one where she infiltrates a beauty pageant more than a decade before Sandra Bullock’s Miss Congeniality; another where she pretends to be a WWE-style wrestler), and some early episodes were straight remakes of Six Mil episodes because of the very short notice the producers got to create a series after Jaime was introduced on Six Mil, immediately killed off, and then the hue and cry from viewers was so great the entire opening of Six Mil’s next season had to be reworked with mere weeks’ notice to a) revive Jaime somehow (with shades of Doctor Who’s Twelfth Doctor and Clara Oswald, it involved her forgetting about her relationship with Steve) and b) set her up for a new series to debut a few months later. For a while, reportedly, Lindsay wasn’t sure she wanted to put her growing film career on hold to do a TV series, so the show almost didn’t happen.

One of BW’s strengths is its heroine was not just a “punch-clock hero” who did what she was told. There were episodes where she openly disagreed with having to take on missions and the show’s finale (minor spoiler) was actually reminiscent of Patrick McGoohan’s classic The Prisoner as she tries to leave the OSI, only to find herself (befitting the episode’s title) “on the run”. In 1978 it was still rare for TV series, especially shows in the sci-fi/action genre, to have finale episodes, but BW got one. Years later, Jaime and Steve reunited for three TV movies that gave closure to both characters’ story arcs.

The magic of the Bionic Woman has proven difficult to recapture. A remake series in 2007 starring later Doctor Who one-off companion actress Michelle Ryan failed in part because they took too many liberties with the characters (including taking elements from Martin Caidin’s original novel, Cyborg, upon which Six Mil was based - Jaime herself was the creation of Kenneth Johnson, later the creator of “V” and producer of Bill Bixby/Lou Ferrigno’s “The Incredible Hulk” and the “Day One” Fox network series “Alien Nation”), plus many felt Ryan was miscast (I disagree) and the show never really had a chance due to a writer’s strike that forced it to end production after only about a half dozen episodes. There were also rumours of a remake starring Jennifer Aniston at one point, and another that reportedly was going to feature a non-superpowered lead with “bionic woman” being a “metaphor for the human condition” or something like that.

Glad that last one didn’t happen. Jaime Summers was (and, let’s be honest, remains) part of an elite group of female superheroes with their own TV shows. And I still think it’s one of the best. In fact, the one-two combination of Jaime Summers and the soon-to-debut Wonder Woman (plus the watered-down-for-kids-but-still-intriguing Isis on Saturday mornings) made 1976 something of a golden year for female superheroes. Nothing beats Jaime taking on Bigfoot or her recurring version of the Daleks, the Fembots. Sadly, a crossover between Jaime and WW never happened, even though they were on the same network at the time; it wasn’t until a couple years ago that DC Comics and Dynamite Comics (who have been doing BW comics for a few years) made that finally happen. 

Ultimately, though, full credit for the success of the original Bionic Woman goes to Lindsay Wagner. Some years ago the Bionic Blonde Youtube channel posted what has become a classic fan video tribute to Jaime. Titled “Bionic Kashmir” it’s just a snapshot of her in action (bookended by scenes from a 1980s reunion movie), but it’s fun. The series is available on DVD and streaming, and I recommend it if you’re interested in some retro fun and experiencing an iconic character again or for the first time.

[philosophorsfosterhome]

Something about Noodles and Love

Show: Tales of Arcadia Characters: Celeste Millway(OC), Hisirdoux Casperan Word Count: 2332 Summary: Hisirdoux is confronted with the fact he may have a problem with noodles.

Okay so, this one is legit just me distracting myself from a slight trigger i put on myself the other day, and it’s absolutely nothing but pure fluff. Please bear with me, i just needed to feel good inside

   “I'm home!” Douxie called out as he entered the house. A kinda small house, but the perfect size still. He heard laughter from the living room, the sound got closer and Celeste stood in the doorway to the entrance.

   “You've been gone, for fifteen minutes Douxie” she laughed and leaned against the door frame.

   “Aw come on, indulge me” he said with a smile and walked over to her, putting his hands on her shoulder. “I'm home~” he said softly and kissed her forehead.

   “Welcome home love” she chuckled and kissed his cheek. “Did you get the snacks?” she grabbed the grocery bag and looked inside it.

   “I tried to remember everything, but I also got-”

   “Some fucking cup noodles oh my god Hisirdoux I thought you were trying to stop” she laughed and took the noodles out. “these aren't even the good expensive ones! Douxie these are literally just air!”

   “Aw come on! I've kept myself clean for a whole two days! Not a single noodle have I eaten” he grabbed his girlfriend and swung her around. She squealed and tried to keep him from getting the noodles from her hands. A little difficult seeing as how all of his limbs had a distinct advantage of being significantly longer.

   “We have, a whole fridge full of food! Leftovers even! You just have to chuck them in the microwave!” Celeste got out of his grip and managed to snatch the noodles back. “you promised you'd try to stay away from Noodles for a week! At this point it's like you're actually addicted”

   “Two days is almost a week!”

   “It's like under a third of a week!” Celeste ran through the house with the noodles in her arms. “I'm locking these up before you can eat them!”

   “Oh no you don't!” Hisirdoux took off after her, long limbs almost getting tangled up and making him fall over himself. He could hear her squealing with delight as he chased her. He couldn't for long though, somehow it seemed he ran out of gas too fast.

   “That's what you get for existing on nothing but instant noodles!” Douxie had lost sight of her but he knew exactly where she was once he had the thump of a shutting safe door.

   “Aw come on!” he made it to their bedroom and saw her proudly standing by the small magical safe she had on her desk. “how many noodles do you have in there by now?” he walked over and tried opening the door. He knew the code, sadly he had no idea what infernal spell she'd managed to put on it that kept him from actually opening it.

   “Enough to feed all of Asia at this point” Hisirdoux felt a little better when he realized she was out of breath as well.

   “It's not that bad” he scratched the back of his head. He couldn't be that addicted to noodles, could he?

   “Not that bad? Douxie, Douxie” she laughed and patted the safe. “there's practically nothing but noodles in this! I've had to empty it to make room for more noodles”

   “Wait did you just throw them out?” Douxie was somewhat offended. Both that his girlfriend would toy with his noodles like that, and that she'd just waste food in such a way.

   “Of course not” Celeste rolled her eyes. “I gave them to Jim, and it was just the cheap generic ones, Malai eats those like chips”

   “Oh so when your sister wants to eat crunched noodles like it's cereal it's Okay, but when I wanna do it I 'have a problem' and 'need to cut down on my sodium intake'” he put up his fingers for air quotes and put on a thick sarcastic tone. Although he couldn't keep a straight face. Both him and Celeste laughed, he even saw her wipe her eyes a bit.

   “The difference, my dear boyfriend, is that Malai... actually eats a varied diet alongside the noodles” she faked a gasp and put her hand in front of her mouth. Douxie just rolled his eyes and pulled her close. “Not to mention that uh, Jim, is the one cooking for her usually? You know, the best fucking cook in Arcadia”

   “Don't let Mr. Benoit hear you say that, he might fire me for it” he chuckled. Celeste just rolled her eyes dramatically. “but like, seriously, how many noodles have you given away?”

   “Oh my god” she snorted and pushed at his chest. “Relax, I check the thing weekly for expired or expiring noodles and I give those away, I'm not that cruel”

   “I think I'd beg to differ, you are keeping me away from my drug of choice”

   “Oh so you admit you have a problem?”

   “... Alright, you got me there, i'll give you that one” he let go of her and held his hands up in defeat. “Maybe, just maybe, I do need to cut down on the noodles, in my defense it's the only thing I've known how to cook for, let's say a good few decades” he looked at the safe again. He knew there were some noodles in there he really wanted to eat. He heard Celeste sigh. She seemed to have noticed his longing stare at the safe.

   “Listen” he instantly whipped his head to look at her. This was the sort of tone that told him he was about to be given a rare gift, a gift from the goddess herself.   Mercy.

   “One fucking pack” Celeste held up one finger. “One pack today, maybe another tomorrow, but only one pack a day, maximum, and no that's not accumulative, i'm not gonna let you fast for a week and then overdose every Sunday”

   “Sou say that like I do that all the time”

   “Hey, guess what, you would, I know you Casperan” She opened up the safe door and stuck her whole arm in there. The safe itself wasn't that big. Honestly it couldn't be, as it was situated on top of a standard wooden desk. He knew she'd enchanted it to hold a lot more than it should be able to, like the weird safe Merlin had in his study at Camelot way back when.   Although this one had a different lock system, one Hisirdoux had yet to crack. And when he did, then yeah maybe he was gonna overdose on noodles, he wasn't sure.

   “But, I'm gonna throw you a bone” he was taken back to the real world when he heard the crinkle of a noodle pack emerge from the depths of the safe. “I'll even, let you have one of the good ones”

   And out she pulled, a spicy shrimp package, a really fancy expensive one with actual bits of dried shrimp for topping.   Douxie knew, that he had not bought that one. He had never seen that one anywhere but his dreams. And a few websites he'd browsed to see what kinds of noodles were out there.   But there it was, right in front of him, it was real and Celeste was gonna let him eat it. But that only brought up one question in his mind.

      “where'd that come from?” he took it and looked it over. It didn't feel like a reseal, he could feel the packets and noodles inside, there was a reasonable amount of crushed noodles inside.   As he thought all that, it did dawn on him that maybe he was a little too intimately familiar with the contents and feeling of a standard, non tampered with noodle package.   Which also brought to light that Celeste had tampered with enough to make him familiar with that as well. And lastly, that Celeste was definitely right, he had a problem.

   “I think, amazon?” Celeste shrugged. “I don't remember exactly, but like, it was on your wishlist, why, do you not like it?” she cocked her head. He could hear in her voice that she was very certain he did indeed like it.

   “Okay but why did Amazo- wait you bought this, and I assume more, for me?” he was now even more confused. Why would Celeste, who so vehemently tried to get him to stop consuming so many noodle packs, voluntarily bring more into the house, and especially ones of this price range.

   “Well” she walked over and stood on tippy toes to kiss his cheek. “Sometimes I gotta spoil ya, or you'll just leave me” she walked out of the bedroom and Douxie just stood there.

   “If you're implying that my love for you, is measured in how many noodles you let me eat... you're not entirely wrong but also that's a bit offensive” he walked after her and read the cooking instructions on the back. They were in japanese, but he did have a translation spell easily on hand.

   “I was joking” they split up as Douxie continued to the kitchen and Celeste slouched down on the couch again. “Although that does make me worry, but also if you leave you won't get the rest of your noodles”

   “I'll find a way to crack that safe!” he put the water over to boil, he was gonna tempt fate this time and actually use a pot, the noodles were of such quality that they deserved it. He decided to look through the fridge while the water came to a boil. Celeste hadn't been joking about the status of the fridge, it was indeed full. He did honestly feel a little bad, but he good to honest could not cook anything without something going wrong.   He'd tried, many times. Always failed, one time he's managed to explode an egg while boiling it.

   “Are you two arguing about noodles again?” Douxie heard Archie say from somewhere, then he heard two soft thumps from the office room and the shapeshifter came walking in. he was currently a cat, while he could easily just walk around like a dragon, he'd found it was easier to navigate the house as a cat, a standard house pet.

   “What gave you that idea?” Douxie asked and put the flavouring in the pot.

   “The screaming and running through the house mostly” Archie stretched and Douxie could hear him step into the living room, his soft paws tip tapping on the ground. “It can't be, Douxie finally won a game of Noodle Chase?”

   “Nah, I won, but I decided to be merciful and give him some noodles, poor man has suffered for a whole two days after all!” Celeste laughed and Douxie could hear Archie start purring.

   “You won't be laughing when I crack that safe of yours!”

   “Oh please! You'd have to navigate it! Given the problems you have finding the keys in my purse I have no worries”

   “I have always been curious, how come it takes you so long to find the keys in her purse? I thought it had a bright neon blue attachment on it?” Archie asked.

   “Listen Arch, you cannot comment on that until you've tried yourself” Douxie put the noodles in the pot, now he just had to pray that nothing would set on fire and he'd be golden. “One of the greatest mysteries in this world, is the ability that women seem to have when packing their purses'' he walked to the kitchen door and looked out at them.   “Same thing with Zoe, I once tried to find a box of matches in her purse, don't ask why, I couldn't find the bloody things and she just looked into it and pulled the suckers right out! I dont think i've ever seen a more clear look of 'you're as blind as a bat' as I did in her eyes that day”

   “You wanna know how? Women do this thing called, organizing, in our purses”

   “Ha ha, very funny love” Douxie walked back to his noodles and poked them. They were still too hard to pull off the heat. He was getting impatient and hungry. Although he wasn't sure if the noodles would actually satiate his hunger for long. That was another thing he could never say out loud, he knew noodles weren't the best, but damn if those suckers weren't satisfying still.

   “You done soon? Movie's about to begin!” Celeste called from the couch. Douxie froze up for a second, he had absolutely no idea what she was talking about. He tried remembering as hard as he could, and it did hit him.   

   He'd gone out for snacks because a movie was coming up they were gonna watch. An old horror movie that Celeste had been excited about.

   “Yer fecking forgot about the Moovie didn't ye?” Douxie cringed a little at the Scottish accent creeping into Celeste's voice. Although it didn't last long, she began laughing. “oh relax, I can practically hear your muscles contract from here, just get your ass in the seat”

   “Don't scare me like that” the noodles were finally soft and he poured them into a bowl. He hurried inside and sat on the couch next to Celeste. Archie was in her lap, well half in her lap and half on the couch, she had one free hand stuck in a bowl of popcorn.

   “Did you forget to turn the stove off?” She asked, eyes glued to the screen. Douxie quickly snapped his fingers and the stove clicked a few times from the kitchen. “one day, you're gonna burn down the house, I can feel it”

   “Nonsense, I'll just fireproof the house like Merlin did the bookstore!” he took a slurp of the noodles. The movie began and Douxie looked to his side.   As he looked at his girlfriend, and arguably the closest he'd ever had to a brother sitting in her lap, his heart swelled in a way he hadn't felt before. He was pretty sure, it was pure untainted happiness.

   “I love you” he said and kissed Celeste's cheek. She turned away from the screen, smiling at him before pecking his lips.

   “I love you too, yer fecking noodle maniac”

[samrosemodblog]

Looking back at my art from the 2010s. I went through and picked 1 piece I drew/wrote from each year that I felt either showed off my best art, my most iconic art, my best improvement, or was simply a personal favorite of mine.

There were a lot of possible choices and it was kind of difficult to narrow it down to 1 per year, since each piece tends to encapsulate so much more than just a single moment per year. Especially with stuff like Motherly Scootaloo or Aria’s Archives encapsulating so much history in a single picture. But under the Read More are my choices at the end of the decade:

     1.) My Old Drawn Blog # 53

Man, the years before MLP existed were really weird for me. I knew I liked drawing and telling stories, but I had no consistent direction on what I wanted to do with my art. I was still jumping between different comics and ideas, and in 2010 I was going through some of the worst depression I’d ever felt in my entire life. I hadn’t even had the experience of being kicked out of the first place I tried to move out of home to yet. It was wild.

As for the ‘joke’ that seems ‘so obvious’ in this post, I had a running gag back then of the face the Flower makes, known as the ‘screaming window’ face. I drew it whenever I needed to draw something screaming in pain or fear for maximum comedic effect. Maybe I’ll bring it back some day lol

     2.) Silent Ponyville

I couldn’t NOT put Silent Ponyville on this list. I was gonna have both 1 and 2 as different spots, but I wrote them both in the same year. That seems insane to me now?? Like WOW, I just WROTE those fics and then they became fandom-wide phenomenons. To the point where even in 2019 I’m still getting people drawing fanart of it, or people telling me “Yeah, I got into Fanfiction because I read Silent Ponyville”.

I don’t know if I’ll ever make a creative piece as universally known in a fandom as Silent Ponyville again, but I sure would love to make an original piece of art that is as beloved as Silent Ponyville one day, if not more so. It’s a testament to the fact that if I put my mind to it, I can create a really amazing horror experience, and I know I do plan to do so again some day.

     3.) Pirate Dash x Dead Rainbow Dash

Who doesn’t love shipping wars that get large numbers of people involved? This is probably the second most involved in the ‘community’ I got, though it was certainly the better experience of the two. And it was all just for silly fun at the end of the day.

And funnily enough I never ACTUALLY shipped these two, I just thought the reactions from the creators seeing them be shipped was hilarious, so it just kind of grew from there. It was all fun and games at the end of the day, and made for a good memory, and a pretty dang ambitiously drawn pic for the time!

     4.) If Twilight Wasn’t a Princess

2013 was surprisingly sparse as far as ambitious projects or art pieces go. I was in full swing with Motherly Scootaloo, and nothing really ‘amazing’ happened in 2013 for the blog. Which was surprising. But Season 4 of MLP DID happen! And it started with the Princesses going missing, and authority over Equestria being transferred to Twilight as the next closest Princess around. And with Cadance ruling the Crystal Empire, I thought, who did that leave to rule if Twilight HADN’T been able to temporarily take the role?

And judging by the length of the comments section on DA, a lot of people found the idea hilarious as well lol. Blue Blood NEVER showed up again for the entire run of the show, and it’s a shame because there was a lot of hilarious joke potential they could’ve done with him. But ya know, the show is what it is is, and this joke still makes me laugh.

     5.) My Time

My first original music video, with a song I had commissioned and everything! While it wasn’t my first video involving music and MLP, it was the first time everything was mine in one way or another. I wish I could write music, but the ambitiously talented AllLevelsAtOnce and Queen Mickey the Sass Master made this project well worth the time and effort put into making it!

And of course, it encapsulates the kind of futures I wish the CMC had acquired, with Sweetie Belle finally achieving her foreshadowed talent of singing. Apple Bloom built the stage, and Scootaloo likely would’ve ended up the choreographer if not for her baby. Sadly we shall only ever have fanon for that.

     6.) Demonloo

Love or hate the wedding arc of Motherly Scootaloo, this will always be one of, if not my top, favorite panel from the entire arc. Scootaloo looks just so appropriately menacing, and the effects placed on her are glorious. And then of course, I love the little twist of “That’s not just an audience visual effect, she actually looked that way in the comic” rofl

Motherly Scootaloo was a trip that got weird with my inclusion of magic and magical beings from the show, so much so to the point that if I were to ever remake the whole thing one day, a LOT of that would be toned down. Probably to the point Chronus wouldn’t exist. But hey, things are the way they are, but I will forever love the art of this arc.

     7.) A Motherly Scootaloo Christmas

If there ever was a picture that basically summarized the entirety of Motherly Scootaloo, it was this picture. Pretty much ever major character of the stories over the years was in the picture (minus Starlight) and showing their relations to everyone pretty much. I remember this picture basically killing me when I was drawing it, but was really proud at the time of how it came out. Of course, I could see how to improve it now, but I’m not gonna lol

It’s still crazy to me how many years Motherly went on for, and how much time and effort was put into it. But I’m still glad I did all of it over those years. It taught me so much about art, and about myself, and in the end, taught me the skills I needed to make art a true career for myself. And I’ll always love it for that. And introducing me to the best friends I’ve ever had, of course.

     8.) Twilight-Midnight is PISSED

Look. I recognize the Aero crossover had some convoluted issues with it, but god DAMN if I didn’t enjoy drawing that fight scene! I GENUINELY loved every panel of it! I can only hope that in the future the fight scenes I draw will be just as fun to draw as these were. And as visually impressive!

That’s ultimately why this won my pic over say, the time-glitch arc with her Mom. The explosions, the action lines, the visual foreshortening, I’ve never seen such visual improvements in a single update from me quite like I have these entire scenes. When I push myself to be amazing, I can pull off some fantastic art, and I need to do it more!

     9.) A StarTrix Christmas

2018 had a LOT of really good choices. Like. Too many choices. So many art pieces I was super proud of, so many pieces that showed growth as an artist, was a personal favorite, that people loved... So in the end, I went with the piece from the end of the year that is still a piece I hold up as truly a cultivation of how much effort I can put in to a picture.

Also it’s Christmas related. I LOVE Christmas. Never enough Christmas.

And as much as I hate FriendLight Glimmer, I still ADORE StarTrix content. It’s the good food for me, one of the rare things that the later era of G4 got right for me. And since I can make them be however I want in fanon, making them a GOOD loving couple was top priority for me, and I just adore them together. I truly do. And this picture is beautiful because of the love I put into it.

     10.) Fate of the Lost Princess

I couldn’t NOT put Fate of the Lost Princess on this list. It’s too important to me, means too much to me, and shows my growth as an artist the most. And of the pages of Fate of the Lost Princess I have done so far, the piece of Tina and Noah on a bus stands out the most for me because, I ACTUALLY managed to make it look and feel like they were on a bus! I was so worried about this page and I spent so long working on making it look right, and in the end, I succeeded in a way I never thought I could!

It feels good to end the decade on my original webcomic, showing just how much I’ve grown as an artist. Going from a successful fanartist, to a successful original artist, that still does fanart on the side, but I’ve grown into my own person now.

I’ve lost track of how many times I tried to start an original comic, only to stop working on it and let it fade into obscurity. Fate of the Lost Princess is the most effort and work I’ve put into an original comic before, and I’m so proud of myself for not only getting as far as I have, but proud of how much effort I plan to put into it in the future, and how much effort I’ll put into the comics beyond Fate of the Lost Princess.

It represents everything that is me from the last 10 years, and I hope it’ll be the fantastic start of the 2010s I want it to be. And I couldn’t have picked something to be more proud of to wrap this decade up with.

[redorblue]

Future Home of the Living God by Louise Erdrich

I was going to keep this blog Corona-free, but I read a book that I want to talk about and that touches on the current situation, so I decided to make an exception. The book is called Future home of the Living God by Louise Erdrich, and before I start gushing I might add that in the light of current events, the atmosphere especially in the first part can be a bit upsetting. I’m still not quite sure why I decided to pick up a book about the end of the world in the first place. But I’m glad that I did, because it’s just so good.

The story is about Cedar Hawk Songmaker, a young Ojibwe woman who was adopted and raised by a white couple. At the beginning of the book, she is about four months pregnant, which she sees as an opportunity to reconnect with her biological mother and assorted family members. That first meeting is a work of art on its own: it perfectly encompasses the entire spectrum of emotions that such a meeting might provoke, from instant connection and familiarity over awkwardness and stiffness to a feeling of complete alienation because of the stark difference in social class, and the scene jumps wildly between all of them. These dynamics alone would make the story work, but it’s also set in a not-very-distant future that quickly devolves into a dystopia. There are references to climate change, but the event that triggers societal collapse is the stop, or rather the reversal, of evolution, meaning that humans give birth to homo erectus babies, dinosaur-like beings hatch from regular birds’ eggs, dragonflies suddenly have a wingspan of a meter again, and even plant species change beyond recognition. It’s never explained why this happens because in the book nobody knows either, but it causes the collapse of the US as a unified state and the appearance of some of the staples of dystopian fiction: widespread violence, deeply immoral governments, desperate or simply malicious people doing bad things, but also people coming together on a local level and trying to save as much and as many as possible.

So far, so omnipresent. What makes this book such a rare find for me was that it consistently focused on the perspective and the life of this one ordinary person who is not caught up in some high-level political/military game with the powers of evil, who is not even a member of the resistance, but simply tries her hardest to bring her child into the world (and get to keep it afterward). I say this with love, but she’s quite possibly the most unremarkable character in the main cast: she doesn’t smuggle people out or helps to hide anyone; she doesn’t work to form a self-subsistent, safe entity out of the reservation where her mother lives; she doesn’t take the initiative to escape once she’s captured; and most of the time, she’s the least informed person in the room.

But that’s exactly why it works, and why it’s different from other stories out there (more on that later). The dystopia is the setting, and don’t get me wrong, it works - sometimes frighteningly so because it feels so similar to our current situation: most people feel something is coming/here, but since they have little information and no idea what to do about it, they just keep on living while things around them deteriorate. But the dystopia is only the setting, not the story.

The story is about motherhood, both with regard to Cedar’s navigating the now two mothers in her life and with regard to Cedar’s own approaching motherhood. It is told in the form of a diary, narrated by Cedar and addressing her unborn child, which makes it feel very intimate. This intimacy is contrasted ever more by the way that the new powers that be (some sort of Christian fundamentalist church-government) try to turn reproduction into a matter of state control and public interest. In the end, the story is about Cedar fighting to be the one in charge of this supposedly very personal experience: mostly against the new regime, yes, but also against the baby’s father and even her adoptive mother. This focus on the personal over the political means that we spend a lot of time in Cedar’s head listening to her philosophical/religious musings (she’s a Catholic) and that we don’t get explanations for a lot of things that happen to her. As someone who loves the intricacies of good worldbuilding, I understand if this is frustrating to some people. But there’s a lot of stuff with expansive worldbuilding and lots of action out there already, and the fact that this isn’t like that is precisely what made this one stick out to me. In addition to that, there’s probably also a lot to be said about the religious symbolism in this book, especially around female saints, which gave it a philosophical tinge that I liked a lot, but half of that probably flew right over my head, so I’m going to leave that for now.

On Goodreads I saw a lot of people comparing this to The Handmaid’s Tale, with some even going as far as saying that they’re basically the same thing and that Louise Erdrich just ripped off what Margaret Atwood did better thirty years before. I don’t think that’s true though. Sure, they share some basic tenets, like a decline in fertility bringing about societal collapse, women being forcibly recruited to have as many babies as possible, or Christian fundamentalists taking charge. But there’s nothing entirely new under the sun, and I think they took some similar ideas and made them into different things. First off, the writing is very different: The Handmaid’s Tale makes you experience the soul-crushing boredom that the protagonist suffers, while Future Home is switches between a meditative tone and more action-y scenes, and the effect of being addressed directly as a reader (remember, it’s diary entries addressed to “you”) changes the reading experience.

Second, it has different themes. While The Handmaid’s Tale depicts isolation and the effects it has on the psyche, Future Home focuses on connections (especially between women) - positive connections, for the most part, but it doesn’t simplify them to a mere “we’re all best friends now”-level. They’re still complex and sometimes complicated, especially when it comes to Cedar’s sister and mothers. Future Home also presents a more balanced view on religion, simply because Cedar herself is a Catholic (one who is even knowledgeable about theology, but has a liberal mindset), while Atwood’s protagonist isn’t very religious. Another thing that sets Future Home apart from The Handmaid’s Tale is it’s inclusion of Native (Ojibwe) elements like reservation politics, history, the importance of a Native female saint (Kateri) to people’s spiritual lives, or Cedar’s anxieties about being Native by blood, but not by socialization. I love The Handmaid’s Tale as much as the next person, but it really is very white, and Future Home isn’t.

However, what this book actually reminded me of was a short story by Ted Chiang that I read recently named “72 Letters”. It builds on the concept of the golem, a figure made out of clay and animated by a piece of parchment with a special word/name on it that was supposedly built by rabbis to defend their communities against antisemitic pogroms. In this story, the technique is adapted to animate all sorts of automatons and get them to perform menial tasks - if you manage to find the right name for the creature, something that comprises its essence and capabilities in 72 letters. The society-shattering crisis in this story is still a few generations away, it sets in when a handful of scientists find out that in a few decades, all men will turn infertile, but it already brings out the worst in some of those in the know. The idea is to use the golem-animating technique to sort of artificially inseminate women, but mainly those of the middle and upper classes because God beware people decide on their own how many children they have and the unwashed masses take over. It’s not a very long short story, sadly, but it shares a few themes with Future Home like state control over reproduction, the ethical limits of science, God’s role in evolution and reproduction, and the struggle between different groups of people - social classes for 72 Letters, species of humans for Future Home. 72 Letters tackles the issue of significant changes to reproductive abilities from a Marxist perspective, while Future Home’s approach is more feminist, but they’re both interesting perspectives. What they definitely do show is that it’s not an intrinsically religious problem to want to take control over who procreates and who doesn’t, but that the same drive can be found in secular and even supposedly “progressive” people/ideologies/institutions, and that’s a lesson worth listening to.

[loretranscripts]

Lore Episode 31: Lost and Found (Transcript) - 4th April 2016

tw: murder, gore, blood, human remains, cannibalism

Disclaimer: This transcript is entirely non-profit and fan-made. All credit for this content goes to Aaron Mahnke, creator of Lore podcast. It is by a fan, for fans, and meant to make the content of the podcast more accessible to all. Also, there may be mistakes, despite rigorous re-reading on my part. Feel free to point them out, but please be nice!

Teenagers have a tendency to get up to mischief when they’re bored, that’s as true today as it ever has been. So, when four teenage boys found themselves with a spring afternoon on their hands, they did what any English lad might have done in 1943 – they went poaching. They were only hunting birds’ nests, really. It was April and spring meant nests full of eggs, so they went exploring in their area of Stourbridge, there in the midlands of England. Over the course of that afternoon, their search brought them to a private park known as Hegley Woods, and that’s where they saw the tree. It was a massive elm with an overgrown trunk that looked more like a hedgehog than a plant, with thin, whispy branches that stuck out toward the sky. Locals called it the “Wych Elm”. It was strong, it was climbable, and most importantly it was perfect for nesting, so one of the boys scaled up the side. When he reached the top and began to look for nests, he found something entirely different – a skull was staring up at him from the hollow centre of the tree. The boy assumed it was from an animal and plucked it free from the branches. That’s when he noticed how large it was, and the patches of hair that were still attached to it – human hair. The grisly discovery kicked off one of the biggest unsolved mysteries in modern England. Beneath the skull, lodged in the hollow centre of the tree, was a complete skeleton. It belonged to a young woman of unknown origin and unknown identity. No one stepped forward to claim the body, no killer was ever found, but the public fell in love, and named her, and to this day people still wonder: who put Bella in the wych tree? Humans, you see, are fascinated by dead bodies. They’re the centrepiece of countless mystery stories and a vivid reminder of our own mortality. We can see that fascination in both the innocent wonder of films like Stand by Me and the gruesome realism of CSI. Real life, though, is more complex, it’s more dark than we’d care to admit, and while the odds are good that most people won’t ever stumble upon a dead body, it’s a lot more common than you’d expect. Corpses should be hard to come by, but unfortunately that couldn’t be further from the truth. I’m Aaron Mahnke and this is Lore.

In February of 2013, a number of guests at the Cecil Hotel in Los Angeles called down to the front desk to complain about the water in their rooms. Some described how their shower would run black before clearing up, others complained of the odd taste and odour, and that age-old compaint that we all know and love, poor water pressure, popped up time and time again. So, the maintenance crew was sent up to the roof where the hotel kept water tanks used to supply the rooms, and it’s one of the tanks that they discovered a body. A human body, no less, and it had been there for weeks. It turned out to be a missing woman named Elisa Lam. Her parents had reported her missing in early February, but she had been seen last there in the hotel on the 31st of January, and it had been her decomposing body that had been altering the hotel’s water supply. Finding bodies in unusual places isn’t a new thing, though, and it’s not uncommon, either. In January of 1984, three students from Columbia University were walking home to their dorm when they passed an old carpet, rolled up and discarded on the side of the street. Now, like a lot of you, I’ve been to college, so I think we can all agree that curbside discoveries are frequently wonderful. A random desk, or that ugly couch that’s way too comfortable to be ignored. So, it’s hard to blame these three students for bringing the rug home. When they unrolled it, though, they found a body inside. The man, roughly 20 years old, had been shot to death, as was evident from the bullet holes in his forehead. Needless to say, they didn’t keep the rug and the police were brought in to do a full investigation. In December of 1982, staff were called to a room in a hotel in New Burgen, New Jersey. Occupants complained of a powerful odour in the room, and they weren’t the first. For a number of days leading up to the call, each guest had complained of the same thing, and it seemed to be getting worse. The motel staff finally discovered why: it was the body of Gary Smith, who had been killed by his autotheft partners and stuffed beneath the bed in the room. They had poisoned his hamburger then strangled him when waiting got too hard, and finally hid the evidence beneath the mattress.

In 2011, Abbeville National Bank in Louisiana began renovations to their second floor, an area they had used for storage for decades. Running between the storage area and the active bank facilities was a chimney, and it was just inside the first floor fireplace where workers discovered a few small bones. Climbing inside the fireplace and looking up, they found the source. A body, now little more than a skeleton, had been lodged in the flue. Dental records connected the skeleton to a man reported missing 27 years earlier, in 1984. The man had a criminal record and had been in trouble with the law shortly before his disappearance. Police can’t prove why he was in the chimney, but given the proximity to the bank I feel its safe to guess that he’d been trying to rob it, Santa Claus style. In November of 2011, Russian police raided the home of a historian named Anatoly Moskvin. Inside, they found 29 life-sized dolls, all women, all dressed in fancy clothing. But they weren’t dolls at all. Moskvin, it turns out, was a graverobber with a fetish. For years, the historian had been visiting cemeteries all over western Russia, as many as 750 by some counts, and occasionally brought home corpses that “interested” him. All were females between the ages of 15 and 30, and all had been dead for a very long time. It seems, if we’re to believe the newspapers and media outlets, that stumbling upon a corpse isn’t as rare a thing as we might expect. Maybe it’s a product of the times – with more and more people on the planet, I suppose the odds keep going up that we’ll eventually open a wall or dig a garden bed and find a body. But some bodies are intentionally harder to find. Some killers go to great lengths to hide the evidence of their dirty deeds, and that’s really the core of these stories, isn’t it? Because hiding a body is about more than just making an object disappear. It’s about concealing a crime and escaping the consequences. The trouble is, when those hidden bodies are found, their stories often reveal the greatest horrors of all.

She wasn’t always known as Kate Webster. Sure, when she gave birth to her son in 1874, that was the surname she passed on to him. She claimed to have married a sailor named Webster, but he had died. A decade earlier, though, she had been someone else entirely. Kate Webster had been born Katherine Lawler to a poor family in a small, Irish village in 1849. While most children might have helped out at home or perhaps played with toys, Katherine grew up fast. She spent her childhood learning to pickpocket, and judging by the way the rest of her life played out, it’s a skill she’d been born with. At the age of 15 she was caught and imprisoned for a short time, but by 17, she managed to steal enough money to secure herself passage on a boat to England. But she didn’t use her journey as a chance to make a fresh start. No, Katherine Lawler just kept upping her game. Within a year of arriving in Liverpool, she was caught stealing and sentenced to four years in prison. Once released, she found work cleaning houses in London, as well as working as a prostitute – and then she became pregnant. The father, according to Kate, was a man she called “Mr. Strong”. He’d been her friend, her lover, and her partner in crime for many months, but when he learnt of the pregnancy he abandoned her. Her son, John Webster, was born in April of 1874, and those who knew her couldn’t help but wonder: would this help Kate change her ways? The answer, it turns out, was a clear and obvious no.

Rather than seek reform, Kate simply evolved. She would rent a room in a boarding house and once there, she would begin to sell off the furnishings in her room. When everything was gone, she’d move on and repeat the crime elsewhere. Another thing she repeated, sadly, was prison time. In 1875, while her son John was only a year old, Kate began serving an 18 month term in Wandsworth Prison there in London. It was one of the many stints in police custody, even though she moved around a lot and used various aliases to disguise herself. And all the while, her friend, Sarah Crease, helped by watching and caring for young John. Some think Sarah was an enabler, that she gave Kate the freedom to live her life of crime without the burden of parenthood, but others view Sarah as a hopeful friend. She saw a young boy who needed looking after and she did her best to help out. She also tried to get Kate a real, honest job, something that had the potential to turn the woman’s life around.

In 1879, Sarah’s employer asked if there was someone who could do some house cleaning for a friend of hers, a woman named Julia Martha Thomas. Mrs. Thomas lived in the Richmond area of London, she was a widow in her mid-50s, and had a reputation for being a little strict and prone to anger. But it was a job, and Sarah immidiately suggested Kate Webster. The relationship between Webster and Mrs. Thomas began cordially enough, but quickly devolved into daily arguments. Webster claimed that Mrs. Thomas would follow her around and criticise her work, while Mrs. Thomas claimed Webster came to work drunk most of the time. Needless to say, it wasn’t a match made in heaven, but the two women tried hard to make it work. After a little over a month, Julia Thomas decided it was time to cut Webster loose. Kate, to her credit, tried to change. She begged for just a few more days of employment and, for some unknown reason, Thomas agreed to the terms, but the relationship was eating at her like an ulser, and she couldn’t stop thinking about it. She thought that Kate was stealing from her, but she didn’t have proof yet, and she feared for her life. On March 2nd of 1879, Mrs. Thomas showed up at church clearly upset. She’d just had another argument with Webster, and it had shaken her deeply. Her friends claimed that Thomas seemed distracted and agitated, and she left early to go attend to matters at home. But Kate was waiting for her there, and this time, they would trade more than angry words.

Julia Thomas thought the house was empty, but went searching for Kate Webster anyway. They had unfinished business, and it was time Kate found some place else to work. It was settled – as far as she was concerned, at least. While Thomas was upstairs in the hallway, Webster stepped out of a dark room and attacked her employer. The two women struggled for a moment, and then Kate gave the older woman a shove. Thomas stumbled down the staircase where she slammed into the floor below. Her skull now fractured and bloody, she began to scream where she lay. Kate was immidiately concerned that the neighbours might hear. There was a busy pub right next door, and if someone happened to hear the shouting, Kate was sure to be discovered and arrested. Launching herself down the stairs, she sat upon the injured woman’s chest and began to squeeze her throat with both hands. She wanted the screaming to stop. She needed it to stop, and after a few tense moments, it did. Julia Thomas lay dead on the floor of her own home, and Kate Webster had graduated from theft to murder in the course of just a few heartbeats. But Kate was stronger than her fears, and she knew she had to act fast. She grabbed a razor, a meat saw and a carving knife and set about cutting Thomas’ body into pieces. Later  Webster would admit that, while she believed she had always had a strong stomach, this work in particular tested her limits. There had just been so much blood, she later told the police. Webster put the pieces into a large copper kettle and then boiled them in an attempt to reduce them to a more managable state. It was essentially rendering, a process where meat is cooked until the fat and protein separate. Witnesses would later come forward and talk of the stench coming from the home, but no one complained at the time. This was London in the late 19th century, perhaps people were just a little more forgiving of odd odours back then.

When the boiling was complete, Webster fished out each part from the remaining lard and placed them all into a box she found in the home – most of it, that is. She couldn’t seem to fit the head and one of the feet, so she had to get creative. She tossed the foot into a local trash heap, but the head was more problematic. In the end, she found a Gladstone bag, something like an old physician’s handbag, and stashed the head inside there. And then she cleaned the house, removing as much of the evidence as she could that something horrible had taken place there. It took her two full days to do it, but when she was finished, she put on a dress from her employer’s wardrobe and went to the pub next door to meet a friend for drinks. This friend, a Mrs. Porter, later told police that Webster arrived at the pub carrying a large, black bag. She kept it with her almost the entire evening, as if it contained something very valuable to her. Oddly, though, Webster excused herself from the table at one point, and when she returned a short while later, the bag was gone. Webster’s next order of business was to get rid of the box that contained what remained of Mrs. Thomas, so she enlisted the help of Mrs. Porter’s son to carry it out of the house and to nearby Barns Bridge. He carried the heavy box all the way to the bridge, and then she sent him home, claiming that a friend was on the way to meet her there. This boy would later tell police that, as he was walking away, he heard a large splash. It was as if something heavy had been tossed into the river. Webster had disposed of the body, and I can’t help but wonder if she perhaps sighed with relief when the box finally dipped beneath the surface of the Thames and vanished from sight. The following day, though, things got more complicated. Unware that the box containing Mrs. Thomas had actually floated to the surface and drifted to shore over night, Kate Webster dug in deeper. She took on the identity of her former employer while beginning to sell off all the items in the house. Old habits die hard, apparently. And it was about this time, according to a later witness, that Webster stepped outside and spoke to a pair of neighbourhood boys. She had two bowls in her hand, and they were steaming hot. She told them it was lard – from a pig, she added – and they were welcome to have it for free, if they wanted it. The boys ate two bowls each.

While the police were investigating the discovery of the box full of body parts, they had no clues that might point them to the killer responsible. It even took them a bit of time to figure out that the parts were actually human rather than butcher cast-offs, but even then, all they could be sure of was that the victim had been a middle-aged woman. Kate Webster, meanwhile, was making money hand over fist. She sold off the smaller items first – the jewellery, the knick-knacks, even her victim’s gold teeth – and then began to spread word that the furniture was for sale as well. And that lead to an agreement with a local man, who arrived on March 9th with a small group of men to help him carry the items out of the house. A neighbour woman saw the activity and approached one of the remaining men. “Who ordered the removal of these items?” she asked him. The man simply turned and pointed to Kate Webster, who stood on the front steps of the house. “She did,” he replied, “Mrs. Thomas.” When the police finally arrived, they entered the house and immidiately found signs of something tragic: a charred finger bone in the fireplace, bloodstains on the floor, splatters of grease – or lard – around the copper kettle. But the one thing they wanted to find, a killer, was nowhere to be seen. Kate Webster had skipped town. In the end, the authorities tracked her down in Ireland. She’d taken her son and made her way back to her hometown as fast as she could. When she arrived, she did so while still wearing clothing and jewellery taken from Mrs. Thomas. But her stay there was short-lived – the local police chief, the man who 15 years earlier had put her in jail for the first time, recognised her in the bulletin from Scotland Yard and quickly took her into custody. Everything after that moved quickly. Webster was transported back to England, and at every train stop between Liverpool and London, crowds gathered to jeer and shout at her. By March 30th, she had been formally charged with murder.

Of course, she tried to lie her way out of it. This was the woman who had changed her name dozens of times to outsmart the police, who had moved into room after room and sold off the possessions inside. She was a thief and a liar, so it was only natural for her to try and talk her away out of this too. First, she blamed the murder on Henry Porter, the husband of her friend from the pub, but when his alibi held up she shifted the blame to the man who had come to buy the furniture from the Thomas house. He too was easily dismissed. When it appeared that she wouldn’t be able to squirm out from under the charge of murder, she took credit for the crime, but claimed that she only did it because others told her to. In the end, none of it worked. The formal trial began on July 2nd of 1879, and just six days later, the jury declared her guilty. The judge, a man named Justice Denman, sentenced her to be executed. Yes, Judge Justice – I can’t make these things up. When asked if there was any reason why she should not be executed, Webster told the judge yes, insisting that she was in fact pregnant. A new jury of women were gathered together along with a physician, and after examining Webster they declared that the pregnancy, like everything else the woman had said, was also a lie. She returned to Wandsworth Prison, where she had served time before working for Mrs. Thomas, and it was there that she wrote her formal confession. She described all of the details of the murder, right down to how she burned the internal organs to get rid of them, how she chose her tools, and even how she removed the head. On July 29th, Kate Webster stepped onto the platform inside the prison’s execution chamber, a building that was ironically nicknamed “The Cold Meatshed”. A governer announced the time, a priest administered last rights, and then she was guided onto the trapdoors with a sack over her head. Afterward, she was buried in an unmarked grave, right there at the prison. The records of Wandsworth Prison contain the names of 134 people who were executed over the span of 110 years. Kate Webster was the only woman on that list.

It’s hard to nail down the real reason behind our fascination with death, but it’s safe to at least make a guess. Death puts our mortality on display. No matter how hard we try to avoid it as a topic, to ignore its slow, steady approach from the distance, we can’t seem to get away from it. Whether we want it or not, death will come for us all one day, and the dead body stands as that singular, visceral reminder of our death. In the horror movies, it’s the clue that’s dropped into our laps early on in the film. It highlights the danger our heroes find themselves in, it represents what’s at stake, what could happen if they fail and the true power of the killer. When the London police pulled the box containing the remains of a women from the cold waters of the Thames, they didn’t know a lot, but they did know one thing. There was a killer in London, and whoever it was needed to be stopped. Thankfully, they managed to do just that, but in a wild twist of irony, the body of Julia Thomas has been lost. It might have been a result of the way evidence was handled in the late 19th century, or the state of decay when the remains were found. Whatever the reason, there’s no grave for Julia Thomas, no tombstone with her name etched into the surface. Her body was lost, and then found, and then finally lost again. Well, most of it. As luck would have it, the neighbourhood where her house once stood has gone through some renevation. In October of 2010, a wealthy London homeowner was having an addition built in his backyard, when the work crew unearthed something small and white. It was a skull. The teeth were missing, but there was a fracture at the back of the head, and after doing a bit more research, investigators determined that the structure that once stood in the homeowner’s backyard was a stable – a stable behind the pub that stood next door to Julia Thomas. Her body might be lost forever into the pages of history, but the head that Kate Webster had tried so hard to get rid of has finally been recovered. Oh, and the wealthy homeowner who stumbled upon the skull? None other than English naturalist, Sir David Attenborough.

[Closing statements]

[enfpurplekitti]

Coming up with The Fairy Game Mother

I'd like to tell you about how I came up with my new original series, The Fairy Game Mother. Fully conceptualized in November 2018, its roots go back over a decade when I wanted to write and illustrate a manga series about four video game players who are inadvertently trapped inside a collection of video games after using a faulty game cheating device. I set it aside for other pursuits because, at the time, I recognized that I was not yet ready to work on that series. I knew that my skills in drawing, writing, and other areas needed a lot more development.

Over the past two years or so, I was knocked down by severe depression caused by a series of life events, which both paralleled and resulted in worsening health, together which caused a painful cycle of one feeding the other and back again. Through this period, my ability to work on anything creative became harder and harder until I reached a point where I felt like all of my creative ability had been turned completely OFF. However, there were a few rare moments where I was able to create, and in those "upward" moments, I watched as my art skills advanced greatly, as well as a better understanding of theme and structure in writing. I dabbled in various ideas here and there, but could find nothing I was able to commit to, being unable to bring anything COMPLETELY to life. There were ideas, but most were without much substance and I couldn't create anything usable.

Over my life time I have written and illustrated more than 20 manga - mostly original stories, but a couple of fan fics were included. I started many more manga series and one-shots, few of which survived the initial stages of ideas, partial storyboards, etc. There were two problems which plagued me the entire time, and that was my internal conflict caused by having great ideas, a tremendous ability to create compelling characters and story concepts, but also recognizing the many areas which I lacked significant understanding or skills. I could rattle off a long list of my artistic strengths, balanced by an equally long list of my artistic weaknesses and struggles. Though I received a lot of encouragement for my art talent, few people understood how VERY seriously I took my craft, nor the fact that I cannot simply write and draw manga and just post or sell it as-is and expect to be taken seriously.

I did a good bit of research on the comics and manga industry, and one of the top complaints of publishers about North American manga crafters was the lack of understanding of their own craft, often caused by a lack of EDUCATION in their craft. Assumptions are made that manga is somehow either inherently "inferior" or inherently "easier" than the comics that Americans are used to seeing cranked out by Marvel and DC, but these assumptions are complete myths. Worse than that, it seems the primary basis of education for American manga artists and writers come from the likes of Christopher Hart (don't get me started on him) and other how-to-draw-manga books, which are - even in complete collections - woefully lacking in any education of real substance. I have quite a stack of those books, and while I am able to glean a certain amount of wisdom or ideas from them, they almost all say the same thing, and teach the same "things" about drawing (here's how to draw eyes, here's how to draw mouths with different expressions) over and over again. They also basically fly through a decade or so of learning and craft crammed into 160 or so pages, which, after removing all the redundant lessons I mentioned above, reduces their "learnable" content to what I estimate to be about 15 or so pages. And just to kick you while you're already down, these books are NOT suitable for beginner artists, regardless of the fact that that is how they are marketed. There are so many things you need to learn about drawing before picking up one of those books to be effective. And after learning whatever they present in their "chapter 1", there is a lot to learn between that and their next chapter. So much information is missing, and it's no wonder so many aspiring American manga artists are unable to fulfill the basic requirements for publication!

Anyway, as I touched on before, I knew - I readily accepted - even long before I began my research on the industry that I had a lot of work ahead of me in terms of learning and development before I was ready to publicly release and monetize my manga. Somewhere around summer to autumn of last year, after my depression had made a great improvement, I was reviewing where I began and where I currently stood in terms of my skills and abilities, and it dawned on me that I was READY. I can DO this. There are, indeed, many more things I still need to learn about, but I am ready to put something out for public consumption now.

From October to November of 2018, I thought carefully about the most promising stories I had prepared, from character development to setting and genre to plot to theme. That old idea about the game cheating device floated up into my mind, and initially I rejected it. It wasn't developed enough, I didn't have a good villain, I didn't really even have well developed protagonists. But it didn't like being ignored, I guess, and it continued to pester me until suddenly I had a villain. I was impressed, but a villain wasn't enough - I still needed, well, everything else. But my mind was already at work on this, and after considering the traits my villain had, her background, her desires, one by one came the traits that my group of protagonists would require in order to counter her. Jasper came first, whom I initially labeled as "Overly Extroverted Gamer". He's a collection of many gamers I have known in my life (myself included), as well as ones I've seen on YouTube. He's loud, he's jumpy, he's impulsive, he's impatient - and he's bossy. He has many other characteristics as well, which will be revealed throughout the series. I'm also proud of the work I've put into the other three players, Lita ("Highly Empathic Gamer"), Margaret ("Super-Attractive Grrl Gamer"), and Wade ("Troll Gamer"). With this team, I found a very promising, workable manga series. I set the due date of the first chapter, World 1-1: Please Select a Player, to be March 1, 2019, in time for Agamacon, as an independent, self-published work. I had plans to print out some copies, as well as to print a few pinups to sell at a table, but unfortunately I won't be able to able to attend Agamacon this year. :( Though I have fallen behind schedule, I'm still keeping the (tentative) date of March 1 as its completion date.

I already have a collection of drawings of my characters, a few of which I have uploaded on Tumblr, Facebook, and DeviantArt in the past week. I'm finished with all the pre-production work, including script, I just have to draw the actual pages. It's going to take a lot of concentrated effort to get them all done in time, and... yes, sadly, I do anticipate missing my deadline if my body chooses to conk out and betray me again. T_T But I'm going to give it my best.

Wish me luck, you guys, and keep your eyes open for further updates - most of which will occur on my Facebook page - https://www.facebook.com/PurpleKittiArt/ - because it is the easiest for me to access on my phone on a fairly pitiful wi-fi signal. @_@

[kmp78]

FINLAND 1 - 0 - 0 🇫🇮

A QUICK COMPILATION OF ALL YOU NEED TO KNOW - AND WISH YOU NEVER DID.

1. You may call us Finland and Finns, but we call ourselves Suomi and suomalaiset.

2. Altho if you don´t mind, we would rather you did not call us anything ever. Actually if we could both pretend each other doesn´t even exist, that would be just great!

3. Yes we are a notoriously shy and reserved nation with a gigantic inferiority complex - especially when compared to our neighbor Sweden.

4. Who incidentally we loooooove beating in hockey.

5. Saimaannorppa aka Saimaa ringed seal can only be found in Finland and is highly endangered.

According to a count done in 2015, there are only about 320 individuals left, and therefore quite understandably whenever one is found dead in a fisherman´s net or by the hands of a poacher etc., it causes headlines and outrages.

6. 70% of Finland is made up of forests - that´s roughly the size of the entire area of the United Kingdom.

7. Finland was awarded the Summer Olympics for 1940, but then things got all sorts of fucked up thanks to Adolf & co., so those plans were scrapped even tho we had a brand-spanking new Olympic stadium and everything! Dammit!

Oh well, we were compensated in 1952 when we finally got the honor of hosting our only (so far) Olympic games.

8. Those 1952 Olympics were the first time Coca Cola was introduced to Finns.

9. No, we do not have polar bears.

10. We also don´t have KFC, Wendy´s or Dunkin´ Donuts.

11. Yes I am very upset about all those things mentioned above but especially about KFC.

12. Finland was the first country in Europe which gave women the right to vote (1906).

13. The Finnish language does not separate words such as “she” or “he”. We just use a gender-neutral “hän”, which means “that person”.

14. The national bird of Finland is the whooper swan.

15. Helsinki has the world´s most Northern metro system.

16. Savonlinna hosts their annual Opera Festival in a Medieval castle.

17. We are vindictive and petty as HELL. Just ask Silvio Berlusconi.

http://kmp78.tumblr.com/post/155861218049/finland-chronicles-part-14

18. A Finnish person will drink approximately 129 litres of milk a year.

19. Some years ago, the word for mother (”äiti”) was voted the most beautiful word in the Finnish language.

20. Moomins are, as some of you MAY REMEMBER FROM A SPECIFIC DEBACLE FROM EARLIER THIS YEAR, from Finland and were created by OUR Miss Tove Jansson.

21. Unlike many other countries which after gaining independence tore down all statues and other remnants of their history under foreign rule, in Finland we chose to keep ours up as reminders of our past.

For example, on our main square aka the Senate Square you will find Czar Alexander II standing proudly.

22. And speaking of statues, one of the landmarks of Helsinki is Havis Amanda.

It depicts a mermaid who decides to leave the sea and walk on... well, not water.

Each year on April 30th, she is “crowned” with a cap, to represent all those who have graduated from secondary school and earned their caps.

23. As of 2010, internet access has been a legal right in Finland.

24. Do you have one of those cupboard things over your kitchen sink, the kind where you place your dishes to dry?

That was invented by a Finnish woman called Maiju Gebhard in 1945.

25. The longest word in the Finnish language is “epäjärjestelmällistyttämä­ttömyydelläänsäkäänköhän”, which loosely translates to “not even by her lack of organization, do you suppose”.

26. Angry Birds are from here.

27. Finland is also the birth place of the most successful ski jump champions of all time, Matti Nykänen.

28. After his sports career came to an end, Matti has been a permanent fixture in the tabloids with his... issues... involving alcohol abuse, domestic abuse (he even served time in prison for attempting to kill one of his many ex-wives) and an assortment of careers including stripping and now singing. 

He is also responsible for one of our most beloved and useful quotes of all time: back in the 80s when he was still jumping from towers and competing in Canada, he got into some “situations” and was sent back home as punishment. When he arrived at the airport, a journo asked him “Matti, did you drink alcohol?”, to which Matti replied “Maybe I did drink, maybe I didn´t drink”.

All bases covered then!

The man is a fucking genius.

29. There are absolutely ZERO public payphones anywhere in Finland.

30. For a very short period of time back in, Finland had a female president AND a  female Prime Minister. 

Sadly that arrangement came to an abrupt end when the Prime Minister was forced to resign over a scandal involving some sort of Iraq documents which I´m still, a decade later, completely baffled by.

31. As those who come on this blog surely know by now, Yours Truly is a passionate berry picker - and being a berry nut in Finland is easy indeed since a) we have one of the cleanest natures in the world and b) all living things you find in nature, you can keep - within reason, of course.

Usually a good principle is to keep about 100 meters distance from the nearest house. Other than that, you´re good to go!

32. People in in Northern Finland aka Lapland area have a very specific unit of measurement called the “poronkusema” which could be loosely translated to “Reindeer´s piss”. Roughly it means the distance a reindeer can walk before needing to urinate. It´s quite a long distance...

33. Our current President Sauli Niinistö is a survivor of the tragic tsunami which took place in South-East Asia on Dec 26, 2004. Over 200 000 people (including almost 200 Finnish tourists) died in one of the worst natural disasters of our time - Mr. Niinistö and his sons saved their own lives by climbing up a telephone pole and staying there for several hours.

34. In Finland October 13th is National Failure Day which aims to encourage people to share their failures and learn from them rather than hide their heads in shame and pretend all is well.

35. The REAL Santa Claus lives up in Rovaniemi and you can visit his village all year long.

36. Sheldon gave us a good laugh and an ego boost.

37. We like eating Rudolf with lingonberries and mash.

38. On some years we get A LOT of snow, but on others we get practically none. Back in 1997, in Lapland the snow reached up to 190 cm.

Incidentally I am 155 cm.

39. In the Finnish language there is an alphabet called Å which isn´t actually a part of a single Finnish word in the entire Finnish language - it is simply a remnant from our many centuries spent under Swedish rule.

40. Unesco has reported that Finland´s tap water is the cleanest in the world.

41. A handy Finnish saying: “Early bird catches the worm, but the second mouse gets the cheese”.

42. For some God forsaken reason, Finland and Estonia have the same national anthem.

43. Sadly accurate these days.

44. Sadly accurate these days.

45. Rosina Heikel (1842 - 1929) was Finland´s and in fact the Nordic countries 1st female doctor.

46. When something is a failure/a dud, the common term in the English language is “a lemon”. Over here, it´s “susi”. Susi also means wolf.

47. And susi should not be confused with sisu! 

48. In Lapland you can spend your vacation in an igloo.

49. Fines for speeding are determined by the offender´s income. Basically if you earn more, you have to pay more. The highest fines have been over 100 000 €. Stay poor, kids!

50. Pamela Anderson´s grandparents were from Finland.

51. Yes we like getting our drinks on, and most of us go abroad to Tallinn to get our drinks on for a lot less €s.

52. In Lapland, the Sun never rises from November to January.

53. In reverse, the Sun never sets from June to July. We call it “The Nightless night”.

54. Finland has exactly 1 Eurovision victory under its belt.

55. In 2018 Saara Aalto will be repping us.

Please vote for us. Please?

56. Nokia became famous for their mobile phones, but originally they manufactured rubber boots.

57. We don´t dub movies or TV shows.

58. We do however sometimes give them ridiculous and extremely SPOILER ALERT-y names. For example, “The Shawshank Redemption” was translated to “Rita Hayworth - Key to escape”.

I mean... C´MOOOOON!

59. Sometimes that´s all you can do.

60. Simo Häyhä aka “White Death” was one of the deadliest snipers of all time. During a 3 month stretch of the Winter War, he shot roughly 200 Russian soldiers before getting shot in the face himself. He survived and lived to be 96.

61. We don´t use the 1 and 2 cent coins. You CAN try paying with them as they of course are legal currency, but there are no guarantees you´ll get very far.

62. Feb 14th may be a day for lovers for the rest of the world, but we know it as “Friend´s Day”.

63. Tipping is not (thankfully) a part of the Finnish culture.

64. The guy longing for Sven in Titanic (the coat dude) was portrayed as a Swede, but was actually a Finn called Jari Kinnunen.

65. Karelian pies with egg butter are the best thing ever.

66. Märket island which is situated between Finland and Sweden had to have the border lines twisted a bit because the Finns who built that lighthouse, accidentally built it on the wrong side...

67. While often named as one of the 5 Scandinavian countries, Finland isn´t technically even a part of Scandinavia: we ARE however a part of the Nordic countries.

68. If you are invited to a Finnish sauna, you are expected to go nude.

69. Finnish armed forces are mandatory for men but voluntary for women.

70. Moomin mugs are peculiarly popular especially among Asian tourists. They can sometimes pay even thousands for rare ones.

71. We never had vikings, but there is one viking tale about a princess called Skjalv, daughter of the Finnish King Froste (those aren´t even Finnish names...), who was stolen as war loot to Sweden but ended up strangling her captor with a gold chain. 

72. Our 4th president was Kyösti Kallio, who was forced to resign from office after the Winter War on December 19th 1940. On that same day he was about to step onto a train to take him back home for retirement, when during his final official ceremony at Helsinki Railway Station, in front of his soldiers and while the orchestra played, he suffered a fatal heart attack and died right there in front of everyone. Legend says he collapsed into the arms of our greatest war hero and later president himself, Marshall C.G.E. Mannerheim (seen in the white hat next to President Kallio).

73. Marshall Mannerheim is the only person in Finnish history who has been rewarded that particular military honor. In fact, he is and forever will remain the only person who has the title “Finland´s Marshall”, an honor bestowed upon him for his services to his home country during Finland´s tumultuous early years of independence.

A few years ago he was voted by the Finns themselves as the most important Finnish person of all time.

74. In June 1942, Adolf Hitler came to Finland to pay his respects to Marshall Mannerheim on his 75th birthday. As a little “souvenir” for future generations, the sneaky Finns recorded a snippet of his and Mannerheim´s private conversation.

It is the only known recording of Hitler speaking with a calm, normal voice, as he was very particular about only being filmed while screaming and ranting his ideologies.

75. Roughly 3 million tourists visit Finland each year and I think at least 2 500 000 of them are always going exactly where I´m going too.

76. We like to make things hard for foreigners.

77. We don´t have any mountains.

78. But we have lakes. We have a shit ton of lakes. 187 888 lakes to be precise.

79. FYI

80. All our days end with -tai (Monday = maanantai, Tuesday = tiistai etc.), except for Wednesday. Wednesday is called keskiviikko.

81. We have a lot of free time.

82. J. R. R. Tolkien used the Finnish national epoch the Kalevala as inspiration for the languages in the Lord of the Rings saga.

83. The St. Louis Arch was designed by a Finn called Eero Saarinen.

84. Every summer we arrange what is called Kaljakellunta aka “Beer float” which pretty much just consists of taking a floatie and a case of beer and... well, that´s about it.

85. If you want to enhance your sauna experience, you can use a birch whisk.

86. The bubble chair was designed by a Finnish man called Eero Aarnio.

87. Thursdays are the “official” pea soup and pancakes day all over Finland.

88. Finns love queuing.

89. Life expectancy for men is 78 years and for women 84 years.

90. In Tornio you can play golf in two countries:

http://kmp78.tumblr.com/post/155901150914/finland-chronicles-part-15

91. Finns invented the so-called Molotov´s cocktail.

92. All people in Finland must pay a TV tax even if they do not they own a TV.

93.  We celebrate Christmas on the 24th of December.

94. Finns love salmiakki aka salty licorice.

I don´t, btw.

95. Finland is one of the few countries in Europe which has not banned sex with animals - and some actually take advantage of that loophole...

http://kmp78.tumblr.com/post/156161829244/finland-chronicles-part-21

http://kmp78.tumblr.com/post/156257574544/finland-chronicles-part-23

96. Armi Kuusela won the 1st ever Miss Universe pageant in 1952.

97. In 2006, Conan O´Brian did a sketch about looking like our then-president Tarja Halonen and it ballooned into a huge movement.

98. Weeeeell...

99. On every Independence day, the current president hosts a party at his residence for about 2 000 dignitaries, celebs, politicians etc. We riff raffers sit at home in our sweatpants and watch it on TV with some nachos and snarky comments.

100. MONTY PYTHON KNOWS. 

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, SUOMI, AND THANK YOU FOR EVERYTHING. 

Despite you reeeeally getting on my nerves SO MUCH and SO OFTEN, I still love you. 💙 💙 💙

[mariocki]

RIP John Stride (11.7.1936 - 20.4.2018)

John Stride - who has sadly died, at 81 - was that rare thing in classic British TV; the star of a successful and long running cult classic who didn’t have to work his way up from guest spots and jobbing work in genre shows. Unlike, say, Alfred Burke, Edward Woodward or George Sewell (all playing leads whilst The Main Chance was on air, all with a clutch of guest appearances to their names), Stride seemed almost to come from nowhere and cement himself as a star overnight.

He hadn’t, of course. Born in London, 1931, to Margaret and Alfred, the working-class Stride had worked hard from childhood, winning scholarships to grammar schools and eventually RADA. The theatre was probably his natural home - fellow students included Peter O'Toole and Alan Bates, and Stride had a notable early role in one of Peter Shaffer’s early plays.

In 1960 he joined the Old Vic and became part of an iconic movement in 20th century drama. He played Romeo opposite Judi Dench’s Juliet in Franco Zeffirelli’s revolutionary production of Shakespeare’s tragedy, and followed the company to New York as Malcolm in Macbeth. Then it was over to The National, starring opposite Olivier and Maggie Smith in Othello, followed by the lead in Brecht’s Edward II.

Still greater was to come. In 1967, the 36 year old Stride became a part of theatre history, originating the role of Rosencrantz in Tom Stoppard’s incomparable, incredible Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead. This was a new type of theatre, a move from the socially conscious, issue-heavy work of the Angry Young Men toward something that was simultaneously more irreverent and more universally urgent. It’s testament to Stride’s talents as an actor that his performance in the role is still written about.

There were some film appearances - an uncredited part in Sink The Bismarck! (1960) and a bigger part in Bitter Harvest (1963) - as well as spots in the more respectable type of evening television (Armchair Theatre, BBC Play of the Month). The lure of TV stardom was, however, now calling.

The Main Chance (1969 - 1975) - much like it’s near contemporaries Public Eye and The Power Game - belongs to a subset of classic TV that was hugely popular at the time and almost instantly forgotten once it had finished. All three are cult successes, of course, but considering their (comparative) lengthy and successful runs, none have remained in the public consciousness like, say, The Avengers, The Champions, Z Cars etc. Perhaps its no coincidence that all three are much more rooted in realism and the everyday - it’s difficult, too, to imagine any of the three being made today. Regardless, TMC was a notable success for Yorkshire Television, running for four series over six years and filming extensively on location - including trips abroad for the third series, to the Alps and Amsterdam (a pretty rare thing for 70’s TV).

The brain child of Edmund Ward, a key contributer to The Power Game, and solicitor John Batt (credited as John Malcolm and also, apparently, the composer of the frantic theme tune), the show charts the career of ambitious young David Main. Main is a solicitor, and a good one, who decides to branch out from his London practice by partnering with the more experienced - and more respectable - Leeds office of Henry Castleton. David is a fully developed, three dimensional character - often arrogant, but often right; sometimes ruthless but usually professional; repeatedly unfeeling and hard but never cruel. It’s a wonderful part for an actor, a complex, difficult, frustrating, compelling lead. The casting of Stride was a perfect choice.

The first series establishes an enviable ensemble of stalwart character actors - John Wentworth as the elder Henry, Margaret Ashcroft as his daughter and legal partner Margaret, Kate O'Mara as Main’s dissatisfied wife Julia, Anna Palk as secretary and confidante Sarah Courtney - but its Stride who dominates. He immerses himself fully in David Main, fills the screen, burning with intensity and passion. Over the four series he sees great success and utter failure, loses everything, wins it back and loses again. He is stoic and defeated, then furious and then vulnerable. It’s a bravura performance. The show isn’t perfect - I wrote, when I was watching it, how disappointed I was in the third series (which features entirely atypical sexism and casual racism). But elsewhere it is perfect. It deals with big themes - bigotry, racism, homophobia, ablism, abuse - and almost always in a way that feels surprisingly, shockingly even, considering the era, sensitive and thoughtful. Those issues never feel forced or like token references. There is a notable episode in the final series, after a traumatic turn of events, in which Main simply breaks down and weeps. It didn’t strike me until after I’d watched it just how rare that is - even now, but especially then - to see a ‘hero’ male lead simply breaking their heart crying in a popular TV show. It’s a genuinely moving moment.

The show, as I said, has some low points - but they are never Stride’s, who is mesmerising throughout. Main grows and changes with the series, adapts and tries and fails and wins. I should add, this isn’t at the expense of the other characters either (Margaret gets one of the best, most subtle arcs of a female character in all of classic tv, as she quietly matures and develops into a very different, but equally as talented solicitor as David). Like all the best shows, by the end they feel like a substitute family. You genuinely care about David, and his terrible decisions, and his regrettable actions, and his near manic obsession with The Law.

It couldn’t last forever, of course, and in 1975 the series ended. Stride used his new visibility to secure roles in some bigger, flashier films - notable supporting roles in Juggernaut, Brannigan (1975) and A Bridge Too Far (1977), as well as a brief appearance in The Omen (1976) - but his screen career would never again reach the millions of viewers who followed The Main Chance. There was one more leading role on television - Wilde Alliance (1978) with Julia Foster, as a husband and wife detective team - as well as starring in the last of the Ghost Story For Christmas’s, The Ice House (also 1978), but for much of the rest of his career John would concentrate on the area of his first successes; the stage.

In 1982 he won good reviews for his performance as Aleister Crowley in Snoo Wilson’s The Number Of The Beast, and three years later John finally worked with the RSC, as Claudius in Hamlet. By the end of the decade he was holding his own against Paul Scofield, in Jeffrey Archer’s Exclusive. Latterly, his career was very quiet and by the turn of the millennium he seems to have retired from acting.

Although his credits are comparatively few and his name may not have the recognition of some of his contemporaries, John Stride leaves a legacy of thoughtful and captivating performances. He was married twice, first to the actor Virginia Thomas (better known by her married name, Virginia Stride), and from 1972 to the actor April Wilding. April passed away in 2003; his friends suggest that John never fully recovered from her loss. He is survived by three daughters.

[aion-rsa]

15 Underrated Game Boy Advance Games

https://ift.tt/3vFzwrI

When the Game Boy Advance hit shelves in Japan on March 21, 2001, Nintendo was still riding the incredible success of the original Game Boy. After more than a decade of the Game Boy’s handheld dominance, though, gamers eagerly awaited the next evolution in portable gaming. The GBA delivered that evolution.

In fact, many features we now take for granted in portables like the Switch can be traced back to the GBA. The addition of shoulder buttons, full 32-bit color graphics, and eventually even built-in backlighting with the 2003 release of the Game Boy Advance SP were all lauded as welcome innovations and improvements. Sadly, the GBA’s time in the sun was remarkably short. Pressured by the upcoming release of the Sony PSP, Nintendo released the GBA’s successor, the Nintendo DS, less than four years after the launch of the GBA.

Yet, GBA games continued to be released all the way into 2008. The GBA is still fondly remembered for its excellent ports of games like Super Mario World and The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past, and for helping launch new franchises like Mega Man Zero and Golden Sun, but its library was much more than just those major titles. Dig a little deeper into it and you’ll find that the GBA was also home to some truly excellent hidden gems that are still worth checking out 20 years later.

15. Urban Yeti!

2002 | Cave Barn Studios

Keep in mind that in the early 2000s, developing games for the GBA was much cheaper than making a console game. Steam wasn’t a thing yet, and cell phones could barely run Snake. So, if you were an ambitious young developer with a goofy idea and a dream, your best bet for making it happen was to put it on Nintendo’s handheld. 

Urban Yeti! is the type of weird, charming experience that typically only finds a cult audience on PCs nowadays. You play from a top-down perspective as the titular Yeti who is looking for his mate in a small city. Most of the time, the game plays like the first two Grand Theft Auto games with even more chances to punch random pedestrians. More importantly, finding a boombox starts a dancing freak out that clears the screen of enemies, and “missions” take the form of minigames inspired by titles like Toobin’ and Root Beer Tapper.

It’s weird and short, but always hilarious, and it’s unfortunately become increasingly obscure since its release.

14. Lady Sia 

2001 | RFX Interactive

Most of the platformers on the GBA were either fantastic SNES ports or dreadful licensed fare, but a few original titles do stand out. The first thing you’ll probably notice about Lady Sia is that it looks great. Its big, bright graphics were a perfect fit for the GBA’s small screen. The gameplay is also surprisingly deep and utilizes combos, magic attacks, and even the ability to shape shift into a sasquatch during boss fights. Yes, this is the second game on the list to feature a playable Bigfoot, but we promise it’s the last.

Lady Sia was fairly well received at the time of its release, and a sequel was even planned in 2003. Sadly, it was canceled due to a lack of funding. 

13. V-Rally 3

2002 | Velez & Dubail

The GBA was released at a time when the vast majority of console games were going full 3D. The GBA, however, was obviously built with 2D pixel games in mind. Those perceived limitations didn’t stop some developers from pushing the limits of what the handheld was capable of, though, as evidenced by the V-Rally 3 team managing to cram fully polygonal cars into the GBA.

Graphically, V-Rally 3 is undoubtedly the best-looking game on the system. Its surprisingly detailed outdoor tracks could easily be mistaken for an N64 game. You can even play the entire career mode in first-person. Thanks to some surprisingly smooth handling, though, V-Rally 3 proves to be much more than just great visuals. It may not look like much compared to modern racers, but it’s still the undisputed pinnacle of racing on the GBA.

12. Car Battler Joe

2002 | Ancient

Car Battler Joe is a decent RPG mixed with awesome car battling sections that elevate it above most of the GBA’s library. The story isn’t great (your father is missing and you have to find him), but the hook is that in this world, cars are a rarity. As such, you have to build your own Mad Max-style vehicle from spare parts found around the world and eventually battle other vehicles as you work to finish your quest.

That concept alone is begging for a sequel or spiritual successor. Sadly, most people have long forgotten about Joe, and even its re-release on the Wii U eShop in 2015 didn’t garner much attention.

11. Kuru Kuru Kururin

2001 | Eighting

Kuru Kuru Kururin is one of those puzzle games that sounds so simple in theory but ends up being surprisingly complex and a lot of fun. You play as a rotating stick (or “helicopter” in the North American version) that must make it to the goal at the end of a series of mazes. You control how quickly the stick rotates, and you’ll need to master that mechanic as the difficulty ramps up significantly in the later levels. This game remains a remarkably addictive experience until the end.

Though Kuru Kuru Kururin‘s core concept boasts nearly universal appeal, the game was only released on the GBA in Japan and Europe. A localized version finally made its way to North America in 2016 through the Wii U eShop, but Nintendo of America seems oddly stubborn about acknowledging the series. Neither of its two sequels ever made it out of Japan. 

10. Sabre Wulf

2004 | Rare

Most gamers say that Rare peaked during the N64 era with a string of successful platformers and shooters, but old-school Rare still managed to squeeze out a handful of classic games for the GBA after the company was sold to Microsoft in 2002. Everything gamers love about classic Rare games is on full display in Sabre Wulf: the cutting-edge graphics, tight controls, and the trademark offbeat British sense of humor.

Unfortunately, Sabre Wulf didn’t find much of an audience. Prior to the release of this title, the Sabreman character hadn’t starred in a game in almost 20 years. The updated gameplay apparently didn’t appeal to older fans, and wasn’t innovative enough to attract younger gamers. It’s aged better than many other GBA games, though, and it’s certainly well worth a playthrough now.

9. Zone of the Enders: The Fist of Mars

2002 | Konami

While it was never as successful as Hideo Kojima’s other games, the Zone of the Enders series is still fondly remembered for some of the better action games of the PS2 era. Their unique mecha combat and Kojima’s flair for cinematic storytelling helped those games stand out from a competitive pack.

Unlike its console brethren, The Fist of Mars is a turn-based strategy game. That means it’s not nearly as fast-paced as the other Zone of the Enders games, but there is an aiming reticle for targeting enemies, so this is more action-oriented than the typical strategy game.

While Kojima wasn’t directly involved in the development of The Fist of Mars, the writing is surprisingly strong, hitting all the right dramatic and philosophical notes that mecha fans have come to expect from the genre.

8. The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King

2003 | Griptonite Games

EA released a couple of solid beat ‘em ups for consoles to coincide with the release of Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings trilogy, but the GBA versions are actually even better than those largely beloved adaptations. Like The Two Towers tie-in released a year prior, The Return of the King is basically Diablo in Middle Earth.

There are a whopping eight different playable characters pulled from the movie. Despite the technical constraints of the GBA, each of those characters plays completely differently. Aragorn is the classic warrior, Legolas is the able-bodied archer, and Gandalf uses magic to fell waves of orcs. They’re even all completely customizable with their own weapons and equipment.

Read more

Games

25 Best Game Boy Advance Games

By Chris Freiberg

Games

Castlevania: Why the Game Boy Advance Games Are Worth Revisiting

By Chris Freiberg

The GBA version of Return of the King still stands out as one of the best Lord of the Rings games ever made, and future games inspired by Tolkien’s books would do well take a few cues from it. 

7. Summon Night: Swordcraft Story

2006 | Flight-Plan

Thanks to lower development costs, the GBA featured many experiments that led to unusual combinations of genres. For instance, whereas many dungeon crawlers are typically slow, plodding affairs, Summon Night: Swordcraft Story sped things up through fast-paced, real-time battles inspired by the Tales of series. Battles in Swordcraft Story story are an absolute joy since you’re doing more than just scrolling through menus.

The sequel, released just a few months later on the GBA, is also worth checking out. Sadly, while the Summon Night main series is still chugging along, the Swordcraft Story subseries looks to be abandoned at this point. 

6. Klonoa: Empire of Dreams

2001 | Namco

For a brief period in the early 2000s, the Klonoa series felt like it was on the verge of becoming a household name. All of the games were praised for their tight, diverse platforming, and the series’ word of mouth was generally strong, but the games just never seemed to reach a large audience.

Empire of Dreams is a side-story set between the events of the two console Klonoa games. It features the same use of the “wind bullet” to capture enemies and the same creative level design as its console big brothers. While it can’t pull off the 3D effects featured in those games, impressive multiplane backgrounds and advanced rotation effects do help it stand out among the GBA’s crowded library of platformers. 

5. Rebelstar: Tactical Command

2005 | Codo Technologies

Don’t be fooled by the Rebelstar name: this is actually an X-Com game through and through. While there’s no base building or resource management in this GBA title, that classic tactical combat against an alien threat that defines the X-Com series can be found here in all its glory. Then again, what else would you expect? Rebelstar was created by the same guy behind X-Com, Julian Gollop.

Of course, this being a GBA game, Rebelstar’s visuals aren’t quite up to par with an X-Com title. In fact, some may find its more cartoony style jarring when paired with this style of gameplay, but Rebelstar certainly makes for a unique experience compared to the other tactics games out there.

4. Yggdra Union

2006 | Sting Entertainment

The final days of any gaming platform are a dark time typically defined by sporadic releases and shovelware. Yet, every now and then, a bright spot appears for those gamers who haven’t yet moved on to the next generation. As a deep mix of tactical RPG mechanics and card battles bolstered by some of the best 2D graphics on the portable, Yggdra Union is one of the better games released in the GBA’s post-DS era.

While the game’s story isn’t great, the regular banter between party members is charming, and there is a lot of content to keep you busy if the gameplay manages to hook you. A Switch port was even released in Japan last year, so keep your fingers crossed that it makes its way stateside. 

3. Drill Dozer

2006 | Game Freak

Game Freak will always be known for the massively successful Pokemon franchise, but the developer has occasionally dabbled in other genres. The best of those experiments has to be Drill Dozer: a game about drilling. Need to go forward? Try drilling. Backward? Also drilling. What about jumping? Yeah, that actually involves drilling, too. It sounds repetitive, but there are so many different ways use to Jill’s Drill Dozer that the mechanic actually never wears out its welcome.

It might be tempting to check out Drill Dozer via emulation, but it’s actually worth tracking down the original cartridge for this one since it’s one of only two GBA games to feature a rumble back in the cart. It adds quite a lot to the experience.

2. Astro Boy: Omega Factor

2004 | Treasure

A handheld game based on an anime that hasn’t been popular in the United States since the ‘60s sounds like a recipe for disaster, but legendary Japanese developer Treasure could do no wrong in the ‘90s and early 2000s. Like most of the games in the Treasure catalog, Astro Boy: Omega Factor features fast arcade gameplay, massive screen-filling special attacks, and some of the most beautiful sprites the GBA could produce.

Though Treasure was once a prolific developer, responsible for classics like Ikaruga and Sin & Punishment, the company has gone quiet in recent years. The studio hasn’t even released a game stateside in the last decade. However, a re-release of this gem could mark a great comeback for the legendary developer if the licensing could be worked out.

1. Ninja Five-O

2003 | Hudson Soft

Ninja Five-O should have been a system seller for the GBA. The game feels like a lost classic from the 16-bit era. It’s a beautiful combination of Ninja Gaiden and Bionic Commando bolstered by tight controls and an over-the-top story about a magic-wielding ninja who is also a cop. Anyone who has managed to track down a copy swears up and down that it’s one of the very best experiences on the handheld.

cnx.cmd.push(function() { cnx({ playerId: "106e33c0-3911-473c-b599-b1426db57530", }).render("0270c398a82f44f49c23c16122516796"); });

Yet, Ninja Five-O was set up to fail from the start. It’s unknown how many copies were made, but it was nearly impossible to find one at the time of its release. Even though the game was developed in Japan, it was never even released there. Media outlets also barely covered it. Yet, the legend of Joe Osugi has only grown over the years, with complete copies of this game regularly selling on eBay for around $1,000. Even an authentic standalone cartridge will set you back several hundred dollars. You know what, though? It’s actually one of the few rare games that may be worth the price. It really is as good as you’ve heard.

The post 15 Underrated Game Boy Advance Games appeared first on Den of Geek.

from Den of Geek https://ift.tt/3vHGg8f

[vcg73]

Witch!Kurt #29: Conspiracy Theory

Sorry this jumps around a little. There was so much build up to Kurt’s first original production that it seemed like a cheat not to show it.

~*~*~*~*~*~

Kurt peeked out from behind the curtain, stifling a squeak of excitement when he saw how many people were filling the Shapiro Auditorium. Dress rehearsal had gone well on Monday, but not so perfectly as to make him fear for the fate of his final, graded performance. There had been enough nerves and bickering ahead of Monday’s show to ironically reassure him that his cast would be in the right frame of mind for the big night. He had felt good about tonight, but with memories of Pamela Lansbury’s sadly ignored debut performance in mind, he had not been willing to hope that more than a couple dozen people would come to watch his original musical.

 In spite of his pessimism, the advertising had clearly done its work. There had been posters up all over school on Monday advertising the first of this year’s Junior Finals productions, an original musical written and directed by Kurt Hummel. Staging a show during the typically boring lull between Winter Showcase and Spring Musical rehearsals seemed to have drawn a great deal of interest among Kurt’s peers. It looked like half the school was out there!

 Craning his neck farther toward stage-left, Kurt was pleased to see a large turnout in the area reserved for Lexington House residents and family. The elderly theater-goers had adorably dressed up for the occasion, wearing pressed suits and nice dresses, paying respects to their friends by treating this humble college production as if it were a Broadway show.

 Kurt’s own supporters filled the front rows. His coven was here, minus Elliott who had gotten his wish to be on stage as Constance Atworthy’s lap cat. The few Apples not involved in the show were happily fidgeting right next to them. Kurt could also see many of his friends from Stage Combat, a couple of friends from work and, much to his surprise, Cassandra July. The show didn’t feature much dancing, so he had not expected her, but the sarcastic Dance professor had taken a surprise liking to him this past year and Kurt was pleased by her support.

 Sitting to either side of Adam, flanking him with physical reassurance to help him past any nervousness he might feel, were Henry and June, who had sent a text message this morning asking if he had room for two more, then literally popped in for breakfast. Next to them, front and center and beaming with pride, was Kurt’s dad. Carole had opted to stay home with Sam tonight, but he did not mind. She had sent her love and best wishes and also, much to Kurt’s surprise, her Familiar. The young man was sitting in the front row next to Burt, looking around and frowning, but at least polite enough not to anticipate the show with his ‘bored with this provincial amusement’ face.

 At least two-thirds of the other seats, enough to fill Kurt’s stomach with butterflies, were people who had come for no other reason than the hope of being entertained.  

 Kurt shook his head and let the curtain fall back. He needed to get his head in the game if he didn’t want to bomb in front of everyone, most particularly the panel of NYADA professors who would be grading him on tonight’s production. . Kurt had drawn a tough panel; Professor Schulman from Writing for Screen and Script, Professor Utley from Dramatics, and Professor Ford from Advanced Stage Direction; and his subject matter was likely not the most sophisticated thing they would see this year, but this was a good show and he was proud to have created it.  

 Just the same, he was relieved that Dean Tibideaux would not be among those assessing him today. He knew that she was in attendance. He had spotted a rose silk turban bobbing near the back of the auditorium as she arrived and headed for her customary seat. Carmen rarely took on the task of critiquing student plays but she always attended them, liking to stay abreast of their overall progress and just possibly enjoying their entertainment for its own sake.

 “The sets and lighting are good to go and the cast is ready for you Mister Director!”

 Kurt turned to see Maggie Banks. The plump, white-haired actress was smiling expectantly, her dark eyes dancing with excitement. A true thespian, there was nothing Maggie found more energizing than a chance to perform for a live audience. As Kurt’s mentor on this project, she had been acting as Assistant Director, offering help and suggestions while the show came together, but knowing enough to back off and let him take the reins to show his instructors what he had learned. Tonight, Kurt would rise or fall based on his own merits and Maggie was just one of the team, ready to go out and give her best for the crowd and for him.

 “Thanks, Maggie. For everything. I owe you.”

 She stepped up and gave him a warm hug, careful not to smudge either of their makeup.  “Happy to help, and you don’t owe anybody anything, Pillsbury. Casting us old farts in your first show and giving us a chance to be on a real stage again more than wipes the slate clean. Now let’s quit dallying and get this show on the road before your professors all give you an Incomplete!”

 After a quick show-circle to get everyone pumped up, “The Real Housewives of Albany” began and Kurt soon forgot about his nerves, the judges, and everything else but the show.

 The main roles from NYADA were played by Tonya as Victoria Atworthy’s granddaughter, Clarke and LaRonda as Andy “Ted Miller” Collins’ two grandchildren, Luis as Constance’s son, and Kurt himself as Eugenia’s man-servant and companion, with the other young actors filling in smaller roles throughout the show. Tonya and LaRonda played best friends who had discovered a set of old love letters in the attic of the old family manor that led them to the realization that their grandparents had once been in love.

 The old couple had parted over hurt feelings and miscommunications after a love letter from Ted had ended up being sent to the wrong sister, Constance, who had also been in love with Ted. What followed was a broken relationship and a decades-long rift. Victoria and Constance had each gone on to unhappily marry other men and have families of their own, but they had eventually come back to their ancestral home after the dissolution of those relationships. Now they shared a house but barely spoke to one another, much to the exasperation of Eugenia who had moved away many years earlier but still remained caught in the middle of her sisters’ drama.  All of these characters had been brought back together by the circumstance of Eugenia’s widowhood.

 Eugenia, needing something new to occupy her time and deciding that forcing her sisters to communicate would be an excellent project, overheard the grandchildren talking and joined together with them to plead, cajole and finally trick her stubborn family into communicating like mature adults.  

 Lack of honest communication being a problem that Kurt was more than familiar with, he wrote the songs and dialogues concerning that particular plot point with considerable relish, pouring some of his own past frustrations into words that his characters could speak on his behalf in a way that he had never been able to do in real life.

 The overall show was a classic screw-ball comedy full of plot twists, misdirection, reconciliation and plenty of songs. Kurt had been a fan of old Hollywood musical comedies ever since he used to sit in his mother’s favorite chair watching movies with her. He had done his best to recreate the style on stage, but gave it a modern twist. Playing Eugenia’s comically deadpan helper who had moved with her to her sisters’ shared home in Albany, Kurt’s character was in an excellent position to realize that the two gleefully interfering granddaughters shared a more than a friendly interest in one another. As the servant also was an inveterate busy-body, he joined Eugenia in setting up the young couple for romance at the same time they worked on repairing the older generation’s.

 “The Real Housewives of Albany” flowed along more smoothly than Kurt had dreamed possible, and the student audience seemed to think it was hilarious. At the end of Act 1, Mary-Ellen’s slo-mo storm out received an even bigger laugh than he had dared hope for once they caught on to the romance brewing between Tonya and LaRonda, giggles and rumblings began to punctuate their interactions. By the time the two actors finally shared a love song and a kiss, their peers were fully invested in cheering on their happy ending.

 At the end, Constance, who upon spending time with Ted for the first time in 40 years had come to realize that he was far from the epitome of perfection she had built up in her mind, finally let the dream and the anger go, giving her blessing to his and Victoria’s renewed love. The audience sighed with pleasure to see everything work out right.

 By the end of the show, Ted and Victoria were once more a happy couple and their matchmaking granddaughters had declared their feelings as well. Constance and Eugenia made a pact to get out and enjoy what time they had left, realizing that their own lives were far from over. Upon hearing this, Kurt promptly whipped out a brochure for a Senior Singles cruise, on which he just happened to have been offered a job, making the audience laugh heartily as he had been frequently dropping hints that his own dream was to become a lounge singer.  (Why no! His stage-hogging, furniture-jumping, smarmy charm each time he felt compelled to ‘audition’ for some unwilling person throughout the show had not been inspired at all by anyone in real life; why would anyone think that?)

 As the closing number was sung, a group performance by the entire ensemble, all the characters were poised to live happily – if not quite harmoniously – ever after.

 Kurt had known that it wasn’t the most original way to wrap things up, but the hopeless romantic in him had been unable to resist letting love conquer all. In any case, the audience did not seem to object and his cast took their bows happily as they were given an enthusiastic ovation. Kurt blushed when he came forward to take another bow as the show’s creator and heard his dad bellow, “That’s my boy!” loudly enough to draw laughter. He could not quit smiling as he observed Adam and his family whistling and clapping for him. The coven also going wild with applause.  

 As the curtain closed, the cast whooped and hugged and chattered excitedly, nearly as pumped up as their director. Elliott the cat surreptitiously vanished. If anyone wondered about his tall black-haired ‘owner’ showing up a moment later to congratulate them all, they didn’t say anything.  

 “You did it!” he cheered, enveloping Kurt in one of his tight, back-thumping, all-encompassing hugs.

 Kurt laughed with delight and squeezed back as hard as he could. “We did it!”

 Elliott grinned, pulling back to place his  hands on Kurt’s shoulders, where they automatically began to knead. While an Animagus and primarily human, Elliott still had a few funny cat characteristics that came to the fore when he could find no other way to express himself. “Well, I suppose I did add a little extra flair to the production,” he joked, “but seriously this was your baby and you got it successfully delivered into the world. I’m really proud of you, man.”

 “I hope this doesn’t sound egotistical,” Kurt said with a half-embarrassed laugh, “but so am I.  Seriously, everyone was better than I’ve ever seen them tonight. It was exactly like watching the things I pictured in my head months ago come to life. That never happens!”

 “Don’t sell yourself short, Kurt.  You put a lot into this thing, in spite of a hell of a lot of distractions, and tonight it all paid off.”

 “Yeah!  And now it’s time to party!” Tonya yelled in Kurt’s ear as she heard the last bit of the comment and hug tackled him from behind, making him jump and squeak with surprise, then laugh at his own reaction. So much for keeping aware of his surroundings and watching his back, as Troy had been trying to instruct him. Then again, in this setting he knew he was among only friends so maybe letting his guard down for a little while was okay.

 Turning to smile at her, he said, “You deserve to go have some fun. You, Clarke, LaRonda, and everybody else were great tonight. I can’t thank you guys enough for doing this show with me. Maggie was telling me earlier that the Lexington House has arranged a little cast party for anyone who wants to come. Or if you’d rather wait until Friday, the gang and I are all planning to go out for drinks at Callbacks. Did Adam tell you? He was supposed to send an e-vite. With our wedding day coming up so soon, we decided to have a big combo celebration for this show, Adam’s new job, me getting through my Winter Critique, and our bachelor party.”

 Glancing over at the little clump of elderly thespians who had gone so out of their way to make this night special for their young friends, Tonya smiled. “He told us, though he made it sound more like a quiet dinner with friends, and we’re totally coming. In fact, I don’t see why we can’t do both. A little polite soiree with the old folks tonight, then a bash for the ages on the weekend.”

 Elliott laughed and said, “I wouldn’t count on cups of tea and a nap, if I were you. Something tells me Maggie and Andy know how to throw a party.”

 “Definitely. In fact, you may want to make sure you eat something and drink a lot of water first if you’re going to party with that crowd,” Kurt joked, fingers lifting to rub at his temple in remembrance of the pounding headache he’d had courtesy of the celebration that had followed their performance of “Peter Pan” and subsequent animal adoption event at the Spotlight Diner. The stage veterans had no apparent fear of mixing alcohol with their many medications. 

 Tonya cackled and raised both thumbs in the air. “I knew I liked those guys. I’ll spread the word.” Lowering her voice a little, she said, “By the way, are we sure Adam will be okay with the big Callbacks shindig?”

 The Apples had all been made aware of Adam’s difficulties following his ordeal in the Void and it warmed Kurt’s heart that even in her excitement, Adam’s friend still cared enough to insure his welfare before jumping in.

 “He’ll be fine. He’s doing much better and the gang has reserved that big private room in the back of the club for us,” Kurt said, shooting an affectionate smile at Elliott as he added, “It was practically the first thing El and Dani did after finding out we’d gotten engaged.”

 Tonya nodded approval to Elliott. “You guys rock. But Kurt, did I hear you right?  Aren’t you coming with us tonight?”

 “No, I can’t. I already gave my apologies to Maggie. My dad is in town from Ohio and he’s taking me out for a celebratory dinner. Just the two of us, which is something we haven’t done in . . . probably a year? Plus Adam’s dad and grandma came into town to spend a little time with him before things get crazy with the wedding, so we’re both just planning on doing family stuff tonight,” Kurt said. He frowned a little. “Though I wasn’t expecting Dad to bring anyone extra with him, so maybe our plans have changed.”

 Elliott grinned. “Don’t worry, they haven’t. I hope you won’t feel offended that seeing ‘Housewives’ wasn’t Seb’s primary motive for visiting, but it just so happens that I have a date tonight!”

 “Get it, boy!” Tonya teased, giving him a friendly punch to the shoulder. “Okay, well all of you guys have fun tonight. We’ll catch you later.”

 “Night,” they chorused, then Kurt grabbed his friend and practically dragged him to a more private location. “Why didn’t you tell me you and Sebastian had started dating? I thought that you thought that he wasn’t serious about the long distance thing.”

 Elliott laughed. “I didn’t and he wasn’t, but when I want to pick up your dad tonight, he was there and we started talking.” He paused, shrugged and said, “Okay, more like flirting, but whatever. There was a definite spark, so I asked if he wanted to see the show and go out for a bite afterward.”

 “And here he is!” Kurt said, smirking as he added, “Though by having a bite, do you mean food, or . . .?”

 Eyebrows hitching mischievously, Elliott said, “To be determined, but don’t be surprised if you and Adam end up having the loft to yourselves tonight.”

 Eyes twinkling, Kurt replied, “Well, us and my dad.”

 A dismayed look came over Elliott’s face. “Oh, shoot! I forgot I’m his ride home tonight.”

 Kurt waved his concern away. “Don’t worry about it. If you made the date right in front of him, it isn’t like Dad couldn’t read between the lines. Go do . . . whatever it is you’re planning to do, that I will expect full details about once everyone has gone back home.”

 He saluted playfully. “Yes, sir! In that case I’d better make sure we have lots of interesting things to report.”

 “It’s a sacrifice, but one I’m sure Sebastian will be willing to make,” he teased, giving his friend a nudge as he called goodbye to those remaining, thanked them again for a great show and led them both back out to the auditorium where most of the people had departed, but Adam, Henry, June, Burt and Sebastian remained waiting for them.

 Adam immediately swept Kurt into a loving embrace, giving him a hearty kiss. “Darling, you were brilliant tonight. Really, I knew exactly what the play entailed and I still found myself completely caught up in it. The songs worked out wonderfully and I’ve never seen you more radiant.”

 “Not bad, Hummel,” Sebastian allowed, a somewhat reluctant smile tugging at the corners of his mouth.

 “Damn funny show, son,” Burt agreed, his prosaic review accompanied by a firm hug that telegraphed his pride louder than any words. “If you don’t get a good grade for this, I’m coming back to chew those judges out personally.”

 Knowing from history that this was no idle threat, Kurt gave his dad’s arm a pat. “No need for that, though I appreciate the sentiment. Those teachers are all known for being tough but fair and I’m sure they’ll give me a well balanced critique.” Seeing Burt frown, he added, “That’s a good thing, Dad. The reason they make us do a big performance for Finals is so the professors can adequately assess how far we’ve come and what areas we still need help with. It isn’t just a pass or fail. I’m scheduled to meet with them on Friday after my Critique with Madame Tibideaux.”

 “Two performance reviews in one day,” June commented, giving Kurt a peck on the cheek as he leaned in to give her and Henry each a hug of greeting. “That’s not an easy prospect, especially with Carmen handling the first one.”

 “It’s nerve-wracking, but as long as I prepare my performances carefully and keep her previous comments in mind, I’m discovering that her assessments are actually really helpful,” Kurt told her with a smile. “By the third year, you learn to brace yourself and take whatever comes, because you know that she actually does care. She’s harsh at times, but Dean Tibideaux wants us to take her critiques and use them to better ourselves so we’ll be prepared for the real world.”

 Adam smiled, draping an arm around his shoulders and kissing Kurt on the side of his head. “You are so much wiser than I was in your place. Even as a senior, I found our dour Dean utterly terrifying. Either way, I do believe you’ll get high marks for your song on Friday.”

 “From your lips to Carmen’s ears.”

 “Isn’t that supposed to be God’s ears?” Sebastian said, joining the conversation.

 Kurt and Adam simultaneously said, “Same thing.”

 The families chuckled and Kurt said, “So, Sebastian. Elliott was just telling me you two have a date tonight. Anything special planned?”

 Sebastian looked his date up and down with an approving gleam in his sharp green eyes. “Oh, you know. A little of this, a little of that. Elliott is going to show me the local nightlife. We’ll do a little exploring, see the sights.”

 “Right,” Kurt said, wondering how such an innocent description still managed to sound so dirty. All in the tone of voice, he supposed. “Well, um . . . have fun.”

 “Counting on it,” he replied with a wink that made Elliott blush.

 The Crawfords politely pretended not to notice the by-play, but Burt rolled his eyes and said, “Just be sure you guys use protection and be back by noon tomorrow. Don’t forget you have a magic lesson scheduled with Carole during her lunch break.”  

 Henry snorted, clearly appreciating the other father’s bluntness. “Do you need a lift home tonight, Burt?  I can drop you off on my way.”

 Amused by his habit of referring to magical transportation like some sort of handy car service, Kurt said, “Or he can just stay the night. What do you think, Dad?”

 Burt grinned. “If you’re sure you don’t mind. I’ll have to give Carole a call to let her know.”

 “Sounds good. We’ll be off then,” Henry said, waiting just long enough for his son and Kurt to kiss goodbye and wish each other a good time, then he, Adam and June vanished from sight.

 Burt looked expectantly at the Familiar couple, waiting for them to do the same, but Sebastian said, “You mind if I have a few minutes with Kurt before we all head out?”

 Elliott just nodded. “Sure thing. C’mon, Burt. I’ll save you a phone call. You can tell Carole in person and grab your overnight bag.”

 “Sounds good,” he agreed. “Be back in a few minutes, Kurt.”

 Kurt waved a hand, pretending not to notice the way he dad took a deep breath and held it, bracing himself for the transportation magic that he still wasn’t entirely comfortable with. His bravery and willingness to do scary and unfamiliar things just to fit in with his son’s new life made Kurt’s heart swell with love and pride.

 “Your dad is pretty cool,” Sebastian commented when they were gone, as if he had read Kurt’s mind. “I thought he was too strict when we first met, and there are times when he’s painfully Standard, but Burt really cares about people. Even me and he doesn’t even like me all that much. He’s like a big guard dog with Sam.”

 Kurt was not surprised to hear that. His father had really liked Sam when the homeless teenager had spent a few months living under his roof during Kurt and Finn’s senior year at McKinley. Carole had tried to urge Sam to stay after they graduated, but he had felt awkward living off their charity without their sons being present as a buffer. Instead, he went home to see his parents for the summer, wanting to spend time with them before the family relocated to Nevada on the heels of a good job offer his dad had received, then came back in time for school. Burt and Carole had allowed him to continue using their address for mail, as a way to assure him that he could always come back if things got tough, worried that he’d end up on the streets again, but Sam had seemed quite happy floating among his “Bros” on the football team and in glee club for the final few months of his time in Lima.

 It had not been the steadiest existence and Kurt had also worried about his old classmate, but he had not really understood just how easily Sam adapted to life as a sofa cushion until he came to New York with Blaine and took over Kurt’s own couch for several months.

 “Dad feels like he failed Finn and then me after allowing Blaine to come between us, so having Sam come back hurt has raised his protective instincts.”

 “Makes sense,” Sebastian said. “Burt can’t even see the full damage, but it’s pretty hard to miss that Sam is like a pretty blowup doll with a hole punctured in it.”

 Shooting him a glare over his choice of simile, Kurt took a seat in one of the empty audience chairs and asked, “Is that what you wanted to talk to me about?”

 Sebastian plunked down in another chair a few seats over, draping both long legs over the arm rest and somehow looking as comfortable as if it were a velvet covered chaise lounge. “That and to deliver the progress report I promised on Blaine.”

 Kurt braced himself. “How bad is it?  Have you had a chance to assess how much damage he’s done to Dave Karofsky since they’ve been dating?”

 To Kurt’s annoyance, Sebastian's eyes lit up with wicked mirth as he said, “Oh my god, you should see them! They’d be hilarious if they weren’t so fucking pathetic. I’ll say one thing for you, Hummel. You know how to leave a lasting impression. You’ve got the Great Russian Baby Bear passing up a whole bar-full of willing Daddy Bears to date your bloated wood tick of an ex. And I can’t say for sure, but I gotta assume Blaine has been pouring on the influential charm to keep him, because I mean talk about dating beneath you. Literally!  Do you suppose Dave had to buy a booster seat for his pickup truck so that Blaine could see out the window?”

 “Sebastian,” Kurt said in a warning tone that was completely ignored as his former rival continued on in vindictively delighted fashion.

 “And then of course he’s following Dildo Davy all over town like a tiny argyle-sweatered shadow. Either Dave’s biceps ain’t the only oversized thing about him, or he’s not quite as easy to manipulate as you were and it’s driving Blainers even more bonkers than usual. Kind of ironic, your ex bully-turned-friend hooking up with your ex lover-turned-bully.”

 Kurt glared at him. “It’s not like that wasn’t intentional. I’m sure Blaine views it as poetic justice that after I dumped him, he found an opportunity to seduce the same guy who once terrorized me into going to Dalton and meeting him in the first place. Blaine also knows that any animosity on my part was abandoned years ago after Dave tried to kill himself. I couldn’t hate him anymore after I went to visit him at Lima General and found out that his schoolmates, his friends, and even his own mother had refused to support him once they found out he was gay. Blaine knows that too, and it absolutely infuriates me that he would go after David now that he’s finally made peace with himself and started to move forward.”

 Sebastian shifted, uncomfortable at the reminder of that time and his own part in it. “Okay, so maybe it isn’t so funny. Especially since I did confirm that Blaine is using Karofsky as a power dump the same way he did Sam. That poor guy is a mess, but so far Karofsky seems to be holding up okay under the strain. Might only be because they’re new, though. Blaine had a couple of years to work on Sam. Carole told Sam about us, by the way. She decided he’d have to know about witches if the two of us were going to be practicing magic right under his nose every day. He actually took it surprisingly well. Or maybe he just forgot five minutes after she told him. That seems to happen a lot. In any case, we had to turn around and pretty much exile him from the house every time we do magic anyway.”

 Confused, Kurt said, “Why?”

 The Familiar’s eyes flashed and his fingers constricted, allowing his nails to point and flex into claws and display the dismay he felt as he revealed, “After being a toxic waste bin for so long, he’s developed a high sensitivity to magic. It doesn’t seem to harm him if someone is using passive spells, like me wearing my human form, or Carole doing her Empathic Sensitivity exercises, but do any kind of active magic around him and the kid curls in on himself and clutches his head like his brain’s about to explode. Frankly, I don’t know what do about that. I’ve never seen anything like it before.”

 “Poor Sam,” Kurt said, his voice sad. “Before all this started, I never would have imagined someone could actually be poisoned by magic. What are we going to do about him? Even if we solved the Blaine problem tomorrow, I’m guessing that wouldn’t just snap Sam back to his old self. From what you say, it’s like his essence is slowly burning out.”

 Sebastian looked suddenly edgy and a little nervous, sitting up and rubbing his hands together. “Yeah, exactly. I sort of have an idea about how we might fan those sparks back into a flame again. It’s why I wanted to talk to you alone. See, I’m not sure it’s a good idea, and I’m absolutely convinced that you and Adam are both going to hate it, but I think it might be worth a try. It’s just that it will involve . . .”

 “What?” Kurt demanded, a feeling of dread draining away the last of his play-related high.

 He rubbed the back of his neck, looking more nervous than Kurt had ever seen the annoyingly confident Sebastian look before. “Uh, well . . . we’d need to hijack an hour or two of your wedding day so that you can go back to the In-Between for a look around.”

 “What?” Kurt repeated, this time the word filled with shock.

 “Repeatedly having stolen power pushed through his system like he was a magical drug mule has left Sam little more than an empty shell, right? He’s been conditioned to need the influence that Blaine was feeding him, but now it’s gone and he’s not getting it back, so he’s in massive withdrawal. Which wasn’t his fault, but two months of cold turkey doesn’t seem to have helped him at all, so I’m thinking that maybe we toss him a life raft in the form of another soul to share all that empty space with. Preferably a soul that’s equally in need of a body. Get it?”

 Confused, Kurt said, “Not . . . really.  Are you saying that you, what . . . want me to see if there are any other souls like Adam’s in the Void?  But Sebastian, that’s so random!  What makes you think there’s anybody out there?  And even if there is, why should they want to follow me back home and put them in a stranger’s body? Assuming Sam would even want someone sharing his body, because that sounds even worse than what Blaine was doing!  And further assuming that the rest of us have some way of getting this hypothetical lost soul into an already occupied body. I only found Adam because we had shared a deep personal connection. I loved him and he loved me, so I was able to spell-sing a kind of homing beacon for him. Nobody else, assuming there even is anybody else, would be able to respond to my call the same way.”

 Sebastian’s previous jocularity had faded entirely. Looking Kurt straight in the eyes, he said, “Your brother might.”

 For a moment, Kurt felt like the world had tilted upside down. A rushing sound filled his ears and his vision became blurry. “Finn?” he said in a whisper. “You mean, you think he’s . . . out there? But he isn’t . . . I mean, he just had a heart attack. Right?”

 “Look, I’m not sure okay?” Sebastian admitted. “That’s why I want you to do the search on your wedding day. You’ll have your full coven present, plus me and your family and all the inherent power in a High Magic Day. Plus the kicker of the coven ceremony. Your magic is never likely to be as pure and strong any other day. You’ve already been to the Void, as you call it, and with a little boost from the presence of a triad of Familiars, I don’t think you’ll have any problem getting back into it. You and the big guy shared a pretty significant bond of your own, I think, so if anyone can fetch Finn’s soul back, it’s you.”

 Still feeling a little faint, Kurt said, “But . . . Sebastian, what makes you think Finn’s spirit or soul or whatever, is out there waiting to be found?”

 His lips pursed with disapproval. “You remember what I told you about how Blaine thought he’d killed Adam with his magic?”

 Kurt nodded, holding his breath against the sudden pain squeezing his heart.

 “Well what if it was because he’d already had a little practice? He never actually admitted anything to me, but it was right after Finn died that Blaine started getting really paranoid about following your every move. And you also know that Finn disapproved of Blaine ambushing you into an engagement.  And that he died from that very sudden and unexplained heart attack just a week or two after that happened.”

 He paused, waiting for Kurt to put the pieces together. And he did, but he shied away from a conclusion that was too horrible to consider. “No,” he said hollowly. “You can’t mean that Finn . . . that Blaine . . .  It can’t be, Sebastian!  Not even Blaine would have sunk so low as to . . . to murder my brother. Just for protesting our engagement? That’s insane!”

 “Yes,” he agreed, no trace of humor left in his face. “It is, though it’s equally possible that he just panicked and took a shot at Finn that he had no way to defend. I think I told you before that there are pocket dimensions in the In-Between. Places cats use to slip in and out of Space/Time without being seen and power confluences that older covens use to draw power from.  Adam got trapped in one of those pockets, so it’s possible that Finn did too. Carole says that the last time she spoke with her son, he was planning to ask Blaine to break off the engagement and leave you alone. From what little I remember of the guy, he was probably mad enough, and frankly stupid enough, to lose his temper and try to start a fight.”

 “Finn had a bad habit of throwing furniture and occasional fists when he was angry,” Kurt agreed quietly. “He became our school’s star quarterback when he was only a sophomore. That also involves throwing things really hard.  If Carole’s theory about magical powers manifesting in the direction of our personalities is accurate, then I’m guessing Finn’s major Talent was probably Telekinesis.”

 “Right. So, imagine that Finn is feeling righteously angry and protective, possibly not even realizing that he had magic. He confronts Blaine, loses his cool and suddenly inanimate objects start to shake, rattle and roll.  He gets scared and the magic gets even stronger. What does Blaine do in that scenario?” 

Kurt gulped. “He freaks out, pulls up whatever stolen magic he’s stored and flings it at Finn. Just like he later did to Adam, only Finn can’t transform or shield, so he takes the full impact and,” he swallowed hard, “gets literally scared to death. Killed instantly.”

Displaying an unusual empathy, Sebastian reached over and squeezed Kurt’s clenched hands, correcting, “His body is killed instantly. And Blaine takes advantage of everyone’s assumption that Finn had a heart defect that caused it to give out at only nineteen years old. Or who knows, maybe he convinced himself that that’s what really happened, at least until it happened again with Adam. I’m not sure any more if that was a complete accident like you all assumed, or if he goaded Adam because he subconsciously wanted to find out if he could get away with murder for a second time. Either way, there has to be some reason he was suddenly dying to spill his guts to me about thinking he’d murdered your boyfriend.”

“You told Tubbington when that happened, didn’t you?” Kurt suddenly realized. “That’s why he was suddenly so impatient for my power to manifest.”

“It wasn’t exactly my business, but I felt that if I didn’t say anything then I was basically making myself Blaine’s accomplice and I was not down for that shit,” Sebastian agreed with a grimace. “Besides, we’re talking murder by magic. Who else was going to believe me?  I had no idea Blaine might have offed another guy until I met Carole, then suddenly it all just seemed a little too coincidental.”

Kurt covered his eyes, needing a moment of privacy to absorb this new information. Exactly how many people had Blaine Anderson hurt, or worse, in his creepy obsession with controlling Kurt? It wasn’t actually his fault, but God did it feel like it was! This was so much worse than anything he had previously imagined during the endless ‘what if’s’ and questions about his brother’s sudden death.

“So with Finn, Blaine attends the funeral, displays what might have actually been genuine sorrow, then waits for somebody to question him about the last time he spoke with Finn. When that never happens, he just moves on with his life. Meanwhile, if we’re not imagining the world’s craziest conspiracy theory, Finn is adrift. Either trapped in a pocket of space-time, or essentially a ghost.”

“Right,” Sebastian agreed. 

 “Do you really think he’s out there somewhere? Just lost?” Kurt said, lowering his hand and looking at him with fearful eyes. 

 He nodded. “Carole has told me that she sensed his presence around her more than once, like at the airport when she saw Blaine and suddenly felt a mixture of terror and rage. Burt has said he felt Finn’s presence around the house. They both just assume it was a sentimental feeling, based on how much they miss him, but what if it wasn’t?”

 Kurt licked his lips, fighting against a small swelling of hope. “I’ve experienced that too. Like, I’ll be watching a show on TV and suddenly I can almost hear Finn making commentary on what I’m watching. And Rachel used to swear that she could feel him watching over her sometimes. But . . . doesn’t everyone do that when they’re grieving?”

 “Well, maybe,” he admitted. “That’s not really my field of expertise, but either way, isn’t it worth finding out? If Finn is a sort of ghost, maybe you can give him another chance and help Sam out at the same time. They were pretty close friends, right? Had a lot of the same interests?”

 “Tons,” Kurt agreed, remembering his two friends babbling over football games, cheerleaders, video games, rock music, action movies, and a host of other things that Kurt himself had had little interest in. If Sebastian was right, putting the two lost souls together just might give both young men an anchor to hold them in place while they healed from the horrific damage Blaine had caused. Then Kurt shook his head, “But, supposing for a minute that you’re actually right about all this, how the hell am I supposed to plant a soul inside a body?”

 “No idea, but I’m sure you’ll figure something out by the time you need to do it,” he said, waving away the trivial consideration of how such a miracle might be accomplished. Clearly he felt that by presenting his theory and placing the problem in Kurt’s capable hands, his work here was done.

 Any argument Kurt might have offered was cut off by the sudden return of his dad and Elliott. Burt looked a little green around the gills from the abrupt change of locations from his home, to Kurt’s loft, and back to the auditorium and he took a heavy seat next to his son, clutching the unmoving armrest gratefully.

 “Hell of a way to travel, but I don’t think I’ll ever get used to it,” he grunted. Glancing at the two young men and noting the tension between them, he frowned, “You two get whatever you needed to straightened out?” he asked, eyes darting between Kurt’s tight features and Sebastian’s relaxed ones with suspicion.

 Certain that Sebastian had not dropped his bombshell on Burt or Carole, Kurt took a steadying breath and manufactured a smile. “All done. You ready for our one on one dinner?”

 Burt shot his half-feline tenant one last warning glare before allowing himself to be distracted by the pleasant reminder. “All set. You got anyplace in mind? On me, wherever you want.”

 Although Kurt felt sure that he would not be getting a wink of sleep tonight, between mentally rehashing the play for flaws and discussing Sebastian’s disturbing theory with Adam, Kurt forced himself to put his churning thoughts away for the moment. While part of him wanted to rush out and try to verify Finn’s presence and rescue him right this moment, he knew Sebastian was right. It would be a difficult task and one that would require as much power and careful planning as he could give it. 

For tonight, he would just enjoy the rare company of his father. It would be hard to keep his mind off of Finn and Sam, but he was not willing to share his recent conversation until he’d had a chance to think it all over. The stress it might cause Burt’s heart to be told that his stepson could, in theory, be living in a phantom state and basically haunting them all was not worth the risk. Nor was potentially having Carole find out and build up her hopes, only to have the barely healed mother’s heart broken again for no reason.

 Unless and until he had a way to verify the theory and do something about it if it was indeed true, Kurt would do what he did best and hold this secret close.

 As he lightly discussed a few options for dinner with his father, Kurt’s blue eyes flicked to meet Sebastian’s green ones. A flash of understanding passed between them and the other young man gave him a slight nod. Sebastian would not say anything either.

 Not quite as oblivious as Burt, Elliott raised an eyebrow as he caught the exchange. Kurt subtly shook his head in reply and Elliott nodded, but looked at Sebastian and took a casual step closer to Kurt.

 Kurt smiled, recognizing that his best friend had sent a message about whose side he would choose if trouble was brewing between the two of them. To his surprise, rather than seeming put out by this, Sebastian actually looked like the silent declaration had given him a new respect for Elliott.

 “All this talk about dinner reminds me that we never set a location for our own,” Sebastian said, standing and moving a bit closer to his date. “I know a great little sushi joint just a few blocks from your apartment.”

 “How do you know where his apartment is?” Kurt said, distracted by the comment.

 “He told me. Besides, this is hardly my first time in New York. Seriously, do you really think I never left the confines of Dullsville, Ohio? Give me a little credit.” Sebastian rolled his eyes.

 Laughing a little, Kurt held up his hands in peace. “No offense intended. You two go have your raw fish, while my dad and I go find some char-broiled meat.” He held up a warning finger toward his suddenly beaming father. “But only small ones and we will be having a pair of nice green salads to go with them. Too much cholesterol and saturated fat still isn’t healthy for you. And we’ll walk to the restaurant.”

 Burt just smirked, not about to look a gift horse in the mouth. “Whatever you say, son. I don’t mind taking a walk, especially since that big snow is all gone. Let’s just get out of here before you change your mind.”

 Calming his over-protective instinct, raised by the unexpected reminder of the brother he had not been able to protect, Kurt smiled and hooked his elbow through Burt’s. “I won’t. I was too nervous to eat much earlier and now I’m hungry as a bear.”

 As the Familiars said goodnight and winked out of sight, the two Hummels headed toward the back of the auditorium. Kurt had a lot to occupy his thoughts but he paused when they reached the door, taking one last long look back at the empty stage where his very first show had just been successfully performed, allowing himself to recapture that thrill for a moment.

 Seeming to understand, Burt hugged him around the shoulders. “Have I told you yet how proud I am of you? Cause I am. To think that all that up there tonight was created by my little boy.” He shook his head. “You’ve come a hell of a long way from the kid who used to put on the coat and clip-on from my wedding suit and perform Disney songs for your mom and me.”

 Kurt laughed, remembering those living room productions for an indulgent captive audience. “Thanks for still being in the front row for this one.”

 “Wouldn’t have missed it for the world, kid,” Burt said sincerely. “Wouldn’t have missed it for the world.”

 THE END

[freechaosgames]

Oakwood Review

As almost anyone who has played video games regularly will attest to, games based off of movies are rarely very good. Usually, this is because developers are limited in what they’re allowed or able to accomplish due to restrictions placed on them by the owners of whatever IP they’re working on. Frequently, a studio will release a game alongside their movie to cash in on the excitement, as well as confused, but well meaning, parents who are aware their child likes both video games and A Bee Movie.

Sadly, some movies never get the games they truly deserve. For decades, games made about the Alien franchise were action packed and focused largely on combat, practically ignoring the entire first film. It wasn’t until 2014 when Sega published Alien Isolation that the same feeling of tense hopelessness from the original film was captured in a game. By attempting to mimic the aesthetic and atmosphere of the first film while creating mechanics that make you feel like a helpless astronaut, Alien Isolation became not only the best Alien game, but one of the best horror games of all time.

Oakwood was not produced by some big budget studio. In fact, Breaking Dimensions, the studio behind Oakwood, consists of only two people and, while the game is not officially based off of any movies, the inspiration it draws from the original Jurassic Park are very obvious, beyond just the inclusion of dinosaurs. This, combined with tense, Amnesia-like gameplay make Oakwood a must-play if you’re interested in survival horror, especially at the very reasonable price of $4.99 on Steam.

Gameplay

Oakwood follows Madi as she arrives at a remote campground to meet her friends for a week of outdoor fun. Things take a turn when you find an abandoned campsite left behind by your group. Much of the game involves exploring the different environments, digging up notes and clues as to what happened to your friends, and to the campground at large.

While certain aspects of Oakwood are reminiscent of Slender: The Arrival, such as the scattered notes, the flashlight, and the graphics, it is actually more similar to Amnesia: The Dark Descent in terms of gameplay. Unlike Slender, all encounters in Oakwood are scripted so you never have to worry about turning around and unexpectedly finding a raptor behind you. Overall, the enemies make plenty of noise, always indicating when the player is actually in danger. While some may argue this decreases the overall tension of the game, it gets the player to lower their guard making the scenes of intense danger more exciting and frightening. 

Story

While simple, the story of Oakwood gets the player to ask a few interesting questions. What happened to your friends? Where did these dinosaurs come from? Who is responsible for this? Unfortunately, few of these questions are answered by the end of the game leaving me pretty dissatisfied. 

That isn’t to say Oakwood is not entertaining. As previously mentioned, the inspiration taken from Jurassic Park becomes extremely obvious in certain scenes. At one point, your character must sneak through a dark and maze-like kitchen while avoiding raptors and at another point you must stay completely still to avoid the gaze of a T-rex. 

For some reason, however, the game never refers to the enemies as dinosaurs, similar to how nobody on the Walking Dead calls walkers “zombies”. This broke my sense of immersion specifically when your friend calls the T-rex a “giant thing” over the radio. I can buy that a normal person might not know what a dilophosaurus is and maybe they wouldn’t know what a velociraptor was if they had never been into dinosaurs as a kid, but do you seriously expect me to believe that an adult human of the 21st century wouldn’t recognize a Tyrannosaurus Rex? 

FInal Thoughts

Oakwood is extremely short with my playtime being a little under an hour, but that hour is packed with interesting locations, creepy atmosphere, and tense gameplay. For only $4.99 on Steam, Oakwood is well worth the price and should be a part of any survival horror, or Jurassic Park, fan.

Purchase Oakwood from Steam here: https://store.steampowered.com/app/890970/Oakwood/

[sage-nebula]

i was worried about big ol' lizardon, to be quite honest back when you had that one fic about alan meeting a random trainer. also about ash's charizard, so the fact that he's still around (and that ash runs a team of dergs while alan has lizardon and gabby) warms the cockles of my heart. I'm curious about Lapras, actually, since it also has dragon blood? Do the duo run into its pod every once in a while?

Ahh, yes! This one! For the sake of others reading this, I’ll post that little snippet, since it’s small enough to easily fit here:

The dragon was massive—easily ten feet tall, give or take, though Amy supposed she wasn’t always the best at gauging height. Its scales were bright orange, and though the flame atop its tail blazed with enough intensity so that she felt the wash of its heat even from where she stood, the blue eyes it looked at her with seemed gentle.

“Is that … that’s a pokémon, right?” she asked. The boy—the dragon’s trainer, Amy thought, if their matching pendants were anything to go by—nodded. “What is it?”

The boy’s gaze was no less blue, but was somehow more scrutinizing. He looked at her for what felt like a long second before he turned back to his dragon, who turned to meet his eyes.

“He’s a charizard,” the boy said.

“A charizard?” Amy repeated, and heat from the dragon’s—the charizard’s—tail flame was nothing compared to the shock she felt vibrate through her now. “You mean a—the final evolutionary stage of … charmander, right?” The boy nodded, and as he did Amy exclaimed, “I thought they were all extinct!”

The boy glanced at her, something inscrutible in his expression, as the charizard beside him made a sound that, to Amy’s ears, sounded almost … sad, or at least unhappy. Upon hearing the sound, the boy turned away from Amy again, and looked back at his charizard instead. The great dragon ducked his head as the boy raised both hands, and stroked the charizard beneath his jaw.

“Not all of them,” the boy said quietly.

But yeah, Lizardon is just fine. He’s just as immortal as Alan himself is, it just took a little longer for Xerneas’ power / that Infinity Energy to stop his growing completely, thanks to his species. Unfortunately, though, Ash’s charizard is not; he’s still going to live an extremely long time thanks to the fact that he’s a dragon himself (and Charizard, to me, always seemed pretty exceptional even for his species, so I could see him living to be a thousand or more), but he will eventually succumb to old age, since he wasn’t caught up in that blast. (He could have been, had the writers allowed Ash to have Charizard in Kalos, but alas …) Of course, thinking about it, it’s possible that Ash could always ask Xerneas to bless Charizard the way he did the rest of them, but I imagine that might require him to actually do something for Xerneas, and there might not be very much opportunity for that. Additionally, I feel like Ash would have a hard time asking for just Charizard, and not all of his other pokémon as well, which would just cause the favors to pile on and on. It might not be entirely convenient. (Plus, there’s no telling that Xerneas would even want to do that. Does Xerneas want to make other pokémon and humans immortal? Hmm.) 

Anyway, you can ask me questions about Immortality AU at any time! I would have been happy to answer about Lizardon if you’d asked back then, and about Charizard as well, haha. I don’t do very much with it on the regular, but I really do love this AU, and I like thinking about it a lot, too. ♥

As far as Lapras is concerned, that’s an interesting question! To be honest, I never thought of lapras as dragons by species; they’re based on the Loch Ness Monster, and I always considered the Loch Ness Monster to be more of a dinosaur, like a plesiosaur. And I know some people think that dinosaurs are dragons, but for the most part I’ve always disagreed with that. Some of them might toe the line, such as pterodactyls (which is why Lance has an aerodactyl on his team as early as Gen I), but I never thought of dragons when I looked at plesiosaurs, and as such I never really thought of lapras as dragons by species.

But that said, even if lapras aren’t dragons, the fact that the Loch Ness Monster is still alive (I want to believe, okay) tells us that they’re very long-lived, anyway! Lapras are extremely rare even in the modern day thanks to poachers hunting them to near extinction (this is canon as of the Gen I Pokédex entries), so sadly, lapras might have the same fate as charizard a century or two later, back when a lot of the Immortality AU stories take place. They might be more legend than actual ‘mon by this point, a pokémon that people have read stories about, but think don’t actually exist anymore. =( But that said, the idea of something happening to Ash’s lapras is too sad for me to bear, because that precious baby never deserved any of what happened to her in the canon, she was a sweet cinnamon roll too pure for this sinful earth, and the idea of poachers killing her is just … no. No. I refuse to accept that.

So I imagine that what could happen is, perhaps most (or all) of her pod dies or is killed off through some means or another. Maybe at one point there’s an epidemic that spreads throughout the sea and makes different members of her pod sick, and maybe this was even intentionally done by poachers to make lapras easier to snap up. Particularly since lapras, as a species, tend to be very gentle and trusting, it would probably be easy for poachers to “befriend” them, only to actually betray them later and capture them, heal them so that they’re good enough to sell, and then sell them off. (Or maybe even kill them for delicacies … god, that’s dark, but in real life poachers are just that disgusting, so they probably are in the PokéWorld as well.) Lapras managed to escape this. Either her mother (who might have still been alive at the time) urged her to go, or she just recognized when there was nothing that even she could do for her pod and left, but she managed to escape. (Maybe she even was temporarily captured, but fought back and escaped from there. She wasn’t with Ash very long, but though he was of course always gentle with her, he taught her to be a fighter and a survivor. She remembers that even decades later.) 

So she escaped, and then much like the lapras in the Gen II games, she finds a deep cave to live in—a cave where no humans really tread. She’s grieving the loss of her pod, and she has renewed trauma re: humans, so this deep, underground lake is just what she needs right now. There are some other pokémon there, and she does befriend them. She befriends the other aquatic pokémon that live in her massive lake with her, as well as the other cave dwellers that she sees when she surfaces. And she does surface, at least once a week (because I really enjoyed how the Union Cave lapras in Gen II routinely emerged on Fridays). She knows she has to keep pressing on, that she can live underwater most of the time, but that at least once a week she should take some time to enjoy the surface. Her cave is safe. No humans ever come down here.

… Until two humans do.

To be honest, they were just exploring. They were bored. Ash saw the cave, and he suggested they go take a look inside, because why not? Alan figured it might be good—there could be some good training opportunities in there. Ash thought maybe they could find some fossil pokémon. There was no reason not to go in the cave, and a lot of reasons to go into the cave, so into the cave they went. And they ventured through it, eventually coming down to that huge lake on the lowest level. And this just so happened to be the day (because of course it was) that Lapras was spending some time on the surface of her lake, but when all of her land-dwelling friends scattered, she felt true fear and alarm rush through her as well. No humans ever came down to this lake, but those—those were human voices. She was caught frozen, unsure of what to do. Should she plunge back down beneath the surface? Should she fend them off with Ice Beam? If she did, and she failed, she might be captured or worse. If she didn’t, all the other pokémon in the cave might be captured or worse. But—

Her indecision cost her precious time. The two human boys made it to the lake, and the shorter one was the one who saw her first. “Hey,” he said brightly, “a lapras!”

Once again, Lapras felt frozen. She knew that voice.

“A lapras?” the taller boy said. Lapras didn’t know that voice. That boy was a stranger. But the shorter boy—her boy, the one human boy who was there for her when no one else was—always had good taste in friends. His friends were always safe. So— “I can’t believe it. I never thought I’d see one again.” He was smiling, too. This boy, the taller one—he had to be good, too.

And Lapras knew that her Ash was definitely good.

So she called out to him. She swam as quickly as she could over to the shore. And as she did, Ash’s eyes widened. Recognition lit in them. And he said, “Lapras? Lapras! It’s really you!” before he threw himself off the shore and wrapped his arms around her neck, laughing joyfully as she crooned and butted her head against his (so tiny head, he was so small—was he always this small?).

And that was how Ash got Lapras back. He had no idea she was still alive, hadn’t seen her in so long—but when they reunited, he took her with him, because he still had open space on his team, both he and Pikachu were delighted to see her, she was delighted to see him, and Alan was pretty warm to the idea of having her along as well. (Bonus, they also can now comfortably travel across seas. They could always fly, and Ash does have milotic, but lapras are easier to Surf on than milotic, and sometimes their charizard need rest.) 

Anyway, I think that both Ash and Alan would focus their teams on dinosaurs and dragons (and Pikachu), simply for the sake of, well, these particular pokémon are very long-lived, they’re not going to age out and die any time soon, so it’s much easier to bond with them than it might be others. Ghosts could fit this, too, come to think of it; it’s not like a ghost can exactly die of old age. (And I don’t think we’ve ever been told if ghost pokémon can die or not. I’d think they couldn’t, because I mean … they’re not dead, per se, but they kind of are? Some are literally the spirits of dead children, so like …) So with that in mind, teams I imagine for both of them in this AU are:

Ash:

Pikachu (obvs)

Charizard

Garchomp

Noivern

Lapras

Milotic (nicknamed Mystearica, further nicknamed Myst)

Alan:

Lizardon (obvs)

Garchomp (Gabby)

Tyranitar (Bangiras)

Salamence (Bohmander)

Aerodactyl (Ptera)

Mimikyu (Kyuu)

I considered also giving Alan Fulbert’s altaria, since altaria are also dragons, Fulbert was like his grizzly uncle, and so it might make sense for Alan to look after Cumulonimbus as well. But in actuality, altaria are based on mythical birds from Chinese folklore, so I’m not sure if they count as a dragon by species … maybe, maybe not, but it’s also possible that he does take care of Cumulonimbus for a while, but eventually Cumulonimbus passes on. Or maybe Fulbert released Cumulonimbus as he got up there in age and was about to die, who knows. Either way, whether Alan has Cumulonimbus or not, one thing I like about Alan’s team in Immortality AU is that every single ‘mon can mega evolve, with the exception of his mimikyu. Since Alan had a real focus on mega evolution and wanted to become a mega evolution master, the fact that all of the pokémon in his possession can mega evolve is fitting, I think, even if only ever really mega evolves Lizardon.

For the record, that tyranitar is his tyranitar, the very same one he has in canon. I know that tyranitar are sort of based off a type of lizard, but they also kind of always reminded me of Godzilla, which is kind of like a dinosaur. Thus, perhaps Bangiras can live for a long time, too. (And if not, maybe swap out Bangiras for Cumulonimbus?) His salamence was perhaps captured (in its first stage, of course) as a tribute to Zinnia (because I have not let go of my Delta Episode adaptation wherein they become friends; I don’t know how they would meet in a prime timeline scenario, but let me dream), and I think it’d be funny as all hell if his aerodactyl was the very same aerodactyl that had once tried to eat Ash. Maybe they encountered it again, and it once again tried to eat Ash, but Alan decided to solve the problem by capturing it. Taming Ptera takes some work (Ptera has held a grudge), but it’s probably worth it. And I’ve always liked to imagine him getting a timid little mimikyu at some point (such as in my Alola AU), and on top of that, I think the idea that Ash and Alan have teams of dragons and dinosaurs save one (for each of them) is kind of funny. So Alan has his mimikyu, which—as a fairy/ghost—is sort of immortal in its own way.

And while some might think that Alan’s team must not like water very much, type advantage isn’t everything, and Lizardon is about ten feet tall. I really don’t think a little water is going to bother him much, especially when he’s mega evolved and it’s no longer super effective. :P

But anyway, that’s enough ramble from me, haha. Thanks again for asking!!