#sonic route 99

[barsikscorner]

Sonictober Day 3: Badnik Belle has found a new friend :D

[beevean]

What are your favourite opening stages/zones in the series? :]

Mhhhhhhhh good question :D

Green Hill: listen. There is a reason this zone has become memetically popular. All jokes about its overuse aside, it is a ingeniously designed zone that teaches you how S1's momentum-based gameplay works with its multiple routes and nifty secrets reachable by jumping at the right moment. Easy to beat, hard to master: one of Sonic's core principles, from the very beginning.

Angel Island: how to do environmental storytelling right and establish your villain as a threat 👍 also great subversion of the "green lush level" already, and already a bigger level than its predecessors on the Genesis.

Mushroom Hill: this zone is just fun. Fast, cute gimmick with the many mushrooms, nice environmental change in Act 2, extremely underrated IMO.

Emerald Coast: as a kid I refused to believe you can beat this level in 2 minutes. But you can! And it's testament of how well designed SA1's levels are, how you can bend them to find all sorts of shortcuts and conquer them. I also love the transition from "hotel beach" to "wild beach".

Seaside Hill: pretty <3 it can get a bit long compared to other first levels (the Extra mission for Team Sonic is 5 minutes), but never boring. It's fun to keep the flow as you switch teams, and the level design is more fleshed out than people give it credit for.

Windmill Isle: HERE WE GO!! WHOO!!! After Act 1 acts as a simple tutorial, Act 2 is just pure adrenaline, satisfying to replay, and simply stunning. Ngl it makes me a little nostalgic lol.

[soniclocationsmackdown]

THE SONIC LOCATION TOURNAMENT ROUND 1 MATCH 2

[spinningbuster98]

Here we finally are people!

Dante's portion of the game!

...and here start the issues...

Jeez where do I even begin with this...?

Ok so this is gonna be a long one, strap in.

So let's start with Dante himself!

From a pure gameplay standpoint Dante is....actually fantastic!

In fact DMC4 Dante, for the longest time, had sorta garnered a reputation as the most complex action game character ever due to the complexity and depth of his move pool, hell some experts still believe this to be the case and that he still beats DMC5 Dante!

So most of the gameplay features from DMC3 return here but with a couple of important additions!

The most important is the ability to switch to any of his styles on the fly without the need to go to a Divinity Statue. Words cannon describe just how massive this is for combos and variety, especially in the hands of experts.

Dante has 3 melee weapons and 3 guns

We have Rebellion, returning from DMC3 with much of the same moveset but with a couple of tweaks that make it even deadlier

We have Gilgamesh, this game's version of the gauntlets and boots. These are...ok, they're pretty much a mash up of the Ifrit and Beowulf gauntlets from DMC1 and 3 respectively

Then there's Lucifer which....yeah I'll talk about that one later

As for guns we have the usual: Ebony & Ivory alongside the Coyote-A shotgun but now we also have Pandora: a demonic briefcase capable of transforming into other weapons depending on your inputs, like a missile launcher, a laser gun or an airborne machine gun

Pandora's main gimmick is that for every successful hit with it you build up its disaster meter: when you use Pandora's moves in Gunslinger style that meter dictates how much damage they'll do, and these include turning into a flying missile station, an oversized bayblade boomerang and a screen nuke with a long windup animation

So as you can see Dante's arsenal is certainly more...minimal when compared to his DMC3 loadout, but it's still good stuff overall, with a couple of neat new features that plenty of die hard fans adore to this day!

.........

..............

......................

So when does the other shoe drop?

So......remember when I said that this game was very rushed?

Yeah about that......

Dante....doesn't have levels of his own....

or bosses (except one)

In fact the game itself...doesn't really have a second half per se....

Dante's levels are literally Nero's levels....in reverse and with annoying gimmicks tacked on in a flimsy effort to differentiate them

And these gimmicks are not only often really fucking annoying but they also contribute to one of the biggest issues with this game's second half

Remember when I said that this game was interested in wanting to be more beginner friendly? What with Nero's simpler style and starting with a literal tutorial?

Do you remember?

Because the game sure doesn't

The game throws you Dante, a remarkably more complex character gameplay wise, and tells you to git gud fucking immediately with his play style because he has the hardest levels in the whole goddamn game with annoying asf gimmicks to boot!

When you switch over to him the game even transfers all of the Proud Souls (this game's currency for moves) that you invested in Nero's moves to Dante so that you can already buy lots of moves right off the bat: the game WANTS you to already buy a good portion of Dante's moveset before you even start playing as him because it knows you'll have to give your A game immediately which only gives you MORE stuff to confuse you with.

And then there's the levels themselves!

You know how Sonic Advance 3 is sometimes criticised for how its level design doesn't really lend itself very well to teaching the ropes to the player? Especially with stuff like Route 99?

Well DMC4's Dante portion puts the entirety of Advance 3 to shame.

Dante's first level starts with two (2) rooms with regular enemies to get accustomed to his playstyle...

...and then immediately starts a goddamn countdown of 10 minutes or else it's game over!! And it starts throwing you tough enemies (granted I'm on DMD but even on normal it's not too different)

It's the FIRST level for Dante!

Then the second one has you going through a teleporter labyrinth which will have you focus way more on navigation and getting lost rather than on trying to grow accustomed to Dante's combat!

And it only gets worse from here!

And the worst part?

You can clearly tell that this game was NOT designed for Dante

This is Nero's game

What I mean by this is that every enemy and boss was pretty obviously designed to be taken down with his moveset

I've commented some times that Nero is pretty OP because almost everything can be taken out with liberal use of his charge shot and buster grab

Dante however has the opposite problem: because he doesn't have those moves he has a fuckton more of an awkward time dealing with even basic enemies than Nero does because it's clear that they were designed with the latter's moveset in mind!

For example: look at those ice lizards: Nero can just use his fully charged shot to destroy a good chunk of their ice armor. Dante doesn't have such an easy option and has to essentially chip away at their armor the old fashioned way

Or look at those knights with shields: Nero's gun can pierce shields when charged up and once you get behind them you can immediately and easily deal heavy damage by grabbing them

Dante's guns don't pierce shields, and his most damaging moves have long wind up animations that require you to use them when you know you won't be interrupted, which is how it worked in DMC3 but....

And look at that first boss! (Which was Nero's third boss but you fight her first as Dante due to how the game is set up which only further highlight just how the game wants to do everything in its power to prevent you from learning Dante), with Nero I had next to no trouble because I could mostly keep my distance, charging my shots as I dodged her long range attacks and then grabbing her when she got stunned. No can do with Dante!

It feels like what takes Nero just 1 simple step it takes Dante 4 or 5, it feels like you have to work around enemy design that was not meant for this character and you have to put in the extra effort which is not only bullshit in and of itself but also so fucking backwards!

Dante is supposed to be the stronger character between him and Nero! It's stated multiple times in this very game! The cutscenes all portray him as being way more competent and OP than Nero and yet he's the one who feels super clunky to use and master!

And look: I know that if you get good enough with him you can steamroll the game. There are plenty of experts out there who can do crazy things with Dante in this game: as I said before lots of top players adore him

And that's not even getting into all the exploits, like Distortion or momentum and other crazy stuff that players have had plenty of time to figure out in over 10 years

But here's the thing: I'm no expert, so maybe I'm just plain wrong about this, but I believe that there's a difference between mastering a game because it's hard and mastering a game because you need to work around its faulty design

I've rarely had this issue in DMC3. Sure there are a couple of enemies and bosses there that feel ill designed but for thye most part the challenges you face feel designed for Dante and his moveset. The game is hard as balls but feels fair in that regard

Here however you can easily tell that this game was designed for Nero and his gameplay style, with Dante being thrown in there comparatively at the last second without the time to properly balance things around him....or you know give him levels and bosses of his own

His Lucifer weapon is, in a way, emblematic: it generates energy thorns that stick to enemies but deal very little damage. However you can then detonate them: the more you stick in an enemy the more damage they'll do upon detonation. Moreover you can set them in the air as traps of sorts and even move them around the arena with specific commands.

99% of players never bother with this weapon because you basically need to have throughly mastered them to get any kind of use out of them.

There's this weird chasm of opinion about DMC4 between Mega Experts and more normal players

The Super Experts love the complexity and all the fun little exploits and are not bothered by the issues of enemy and boss design with Dante because they've gotten good enough at the game to trivialise them

While most other players tend to view DMC4 as an excellent combat system stuck inside a badly designed game

Now I have my share of fun with Nero's portion of the game. Not as much as DMC3, but pretty fun nonethell. But this is the point where the game starts dropping the ball big time for me.

And honestly? Wanting to master a game should come from a place of not only interest but also fun: I want to master a game BECAUSE I already have fun with it at a basic level

But needing to master a game JUST to have fun?

I can take a game being hard and requiring me to git gug: I love DMC3 and I've completed that game on DMD

But as I've already said: it's not that DMC4's Dante portion is hard, it's just plainly not designed for him

[l0gitex]

15, 20, 24 for the asks! :>

tis a long one and also from a while ago

15. Biggest artist pet peeve?

LIKE.. IN OTHER ARTISTS? OR AS AN ARTIST? yknow what let me just answer both since i don't know in other artists.. gijinkas tbh sorry i really don't like them outside of few & far between rare cases.. i think it takes out all the wonder and imagination of a nonhuman character and particularly their design to go the most boring route ever and just maek them human IAIU#"/ though also ppl complaining about & being arrogant about not flipping their own canvases like why lol. it helps you. it supports improvement. its just annoying it isnt the boast they act it issss for myself ummmm.. i cant really think of anything so lets just say when my fcking computer freezes & i have to force restart it while im in the middle of drawing

20. What works have you drawn fanart of?

oh my god so fucking many dude fanart is my lifeblood being obsessed with media is 99% of my drive to make anything. i do make art otherwise but nothing activates my drawingbrain the way getting crazy about a new Thing does. sometimes unfortunate and something i feel kinda cringe for but whatevs here's some off the top of my head(...and top of my folder): futurama, sam and max, pinky and the brain, green eggs and ham, osomatsu-san, [REDACTED], yakuza, dan vs, undertale/deltarune, community, trolls, freakazoid, bill and ted, half life but the ai is self aware, regular show, mob psycho 100, count duckula, sonic, time squad, fallout new vegas, also a few obscurer movies or such. & of course some im embarrassed to mention bc they suck bad in some way or another ooor i regret ever liking. plus all the stray bits ive drawn for other people or just because of things im not actually into..

24. How do you deal with artblock?

either byyy just NOT drawing for a while, or messing around trying new / random / weird stuff. sometimes even just going to another medium entirely ie (physical) collage. idk if i fully believe in art block really being a thing but i also dont remember whatever stance i had in much detail so shrug. but like yeah generally if i am struggling with getting myself to make anything or amke anything i'm remotely satisfied with i either take a break or i push through it in whatever way. actually wait one more thing i do like to do is redraws of my own old art or like screencap studies & things like that. it kind of boosts your confidence seeing how you've improved especially when you are not feeling confident in your abilities, and i just find imitating references or others' drawings easier than doing anything from scratch in times like those

> Artist Asks &lt;-

[allsonicgames]

Sonic Frontiers

Original Platform: Xbox Series, PS5, Switch

Original release: 8th November 2022

Version Played: Xbox Series S

Available to buy: Yes

While the focus on Sonic Frontiers is on the open world – or open zone as Sega call it – I think it’s worth taking a look at the more traditional levels first. The disappointing thing about these are the themes, they take a few level themes from older games (including the much repeated Green Hill Zone and Chemical Plant Zone) as a basis for the levels, I would have much preferred if they just used the theme of the current island instead. At the very least, each individual level has its own unique (and really solid) music. 

That said, the levels are still fun to play. They are a bit simple with only a few branching paths and don’t reach the height of Sonic Generations or Colours, but they’re still a ton of fun to play. Some levels focus on specific gimmicks while others are a bit more traditional. With these levels alone, Sonic Frontiers would be a pretty good game.

But, the main bulk of the game is the open zone islands, something that sounded like it could easily go very wrong, especially if they don’t get Sonic’s movement’s right. Luckily, they did a great job. Sonic went where I wanted him to go, and turning was incredibly easy. Running around enemies is extremely easy, which ties into Sonic’s new power where he can draw a shape to hurt enemies or activate objects inside. I do wish that Sonic’s starting speed was much faster. Towards the end of the game (with my speed levelled up to around 25 out of 99), it felt amazing, but this really needed to be the starting point. 

Each island consists of collectables, challenges, levels, story missions and fishing.

The collectibles are “memory tokens”, used to progress the story and unlock little side cutscenes. Most of these are found by completing mini levels on floating platforms (although some are nicely integrated into the world itself). There are a lot more than you need to unlock everything, so they’re more of something to find on the way between everything else and not something you have to painfully track down one by one. The floating platforms that these are made from do have major pop-in issues – although it does seem to be managed in a smart way where parts you need to work out a route to an object are visible. I feel like they could have added a “cyber” animation to these objects to make them seem like they’re being generated by cyberspace instead of just popping in,

Challenges help unlock the map, some are little puzzles, some are timing challenges, some are time trials (which are like mini levels integrated into the world) and some make use of specific powers. They’re fun to discover and do. One kind I did find odd is one where you have to parry objects, as to parry you just need to hold down the button, there’s no timing, but these challenges were definitely designed with timing in mind, so I think they changed the parry system fairly late on in development.

Story missions are…quite bad. They’re a bunch of mini games that involve herding, pinball and a hacking minigame which is a very simple Ikaruga-inspired 2D space shooter. These could have been missing and nobody would care. Fishing is an optional extra and is nice and relaxing, although it seems like way too much effort has gone into the rather detailed fish models – and there are a lot of different fish.

Combat is a lot of fun. With the cyloop opening up enemies for attack and a lot of special moves to perform. There’s also an option to perform these automatically (at the cost of slightly reduced damage) if you prefer to button mash instead. Each enemy also has specific ways to deal with them and their design is a clue as to how to defeat them. In the open zone there are also “guardians” to fight – large bosses which feel like full on bosses from other Sonic games. These are an absolute delight and it’s very surprising that they work well in the open world as they feel like full on set pieces. The final boss of each island is also spectacular – although the final boss is downright awful, nothing more than a quick time event.

There are some parts of the open world that feel like a mini level, parts like long underground tunnels or other small sections. These parts are brilliant, and I really hope the next game focuses more on this – having levels built into the open world itself is a great way to go about expanding on the formula. I really hope Sega builds upon Sonic Frontiers instead of their usual method of ditching something and trying something new.

Overall, I absolutely loved Sonic Frontiers, and while the standard levels aren’t quite Sonic Generations, I do rate this as Sonic’s best 3D game. 

[bookgeekgrrl]

My media this week (24-30 Jul 2022)

📚 STUFF I READ 📚

😍 If They Haven't Learned Your Name (silentwalrus) - Bucky Barnes Gets His Groove Back & Other International Incidents #2 - it had been about 18 months since my last reread, it was well past time.

🥰 Sad Cypress (Hercule Poirot #22) (Agatha Christie, author; David Suchet, narrator)

🥰 Rhapsody on a Theme (Bittersweet_in_Boston, author; Astaraiche, artist) - symphony AU, silver fox steve

😊 Zen and the Art of Steve Rogers (Gfawkes, author) - no powers AU, motorcycle roadtrip

😊 (Not A) One Night Romance (Oh_i_swear, author; Girl_Back_There, artist) - silver fox steve + omegaverse! Family drama! -

🥰 Babies and Junk series (BarlowGirl) - sterek kidfic (and i am *picky* about my kidfic) - proof that you should def subscribe to authors/series you love bc you never know when an author will add a whole new fic SIX YEARS LATER

💖💖 +197K of shorter fic so shout out to these I really loved 💖💖

Anywhere, Anytime (AidaRonan) - Stranger Things: Steddie, 10K - - Eddie doesn't die but he does have nightmares, he flirts outrageously with a largely oblivious Steve. I absolutely love it when a fantastic and beloved writer just yanks you onboard a new ship. I don't even go here! But I love them. My blorbos-in-law.

📺 STUFF I WATCHED 📺

The Brokenwood Mysteries - s8, e5

Only Murders In The Building - s2, e6

What We Do In The Shadows - s4, e4

🎧 PODCASTS 🎧

You're Dead To Me - The Harlem Renaissance

The Jump with Shirley Manson - Laura Jane Grace "I Was A Teenage Anarchist"

Desert Island Discs - Bono, singer and songwriter

Hit Parade - One and Done

Teach Me A Lesson with Greg James and Bella Mackie - Where's The Most Painful Place To Get A Tattoo?

Ologies with Alie Ward - Testudinology (TORTOISES) with Amanda Hipps [Encore]

The Atlas Obscura Podcast - Buck Atom on Route 66

Sidedoor - Culture in Crisis

99% Invisible #501- 99% Vernacular: Volume 2

The Atlas Obscura Podcast - Plain of Jars

The Atlas Obscura Podcast - The Smallest Mollusk Museum

Shedunnit Book Club - The Nobodies

The Atlas Obscura Podcast - Maillardet’s Automaton

Lingthusiasm - Bonus 14: The Poetry of Memes - whomst shooketh the bred in the icebox

Song Exploder - Sudan Archives "Selfish Soul"

Twenty Thousand Hertz+ - Handbook for Sonic Happiness

Switched on Pop - Elvis, Big Mama Thornton, Doja Cat, and the Long Legacy of “Hound Dog”+

The Jump with Shirley Manson - Alanis Morissette "You Oughta Know"

This is Good for You - TIGFY Is Going On Pause - while i'll miss it, i'm genuinely glad NP is stopping before it became a burden

You're Dead To Me - Julius Caesar’s Rise To Power

Hit Parade - Point of No Return

🎶 MUSIC 🎶

Liz Phair

Presenting Against Me!

My Mix #1

Special [Lizzo]

Diva House Anthems

Presenting Rihanna

Tami Neilson

The Biggest Beats

The Donnas

The Linda Lindas

Women In Rock

Sudan Archives

Presenting Alanis Morissette

Funhouse 4am: 80s Freestyle

[fyeahsonicthehedgehog]

[thankskenpenders]

I haven’t read the plot synopsis, but I hope Sonic 2 sees Sonic a little more mature than in the first film. I know his characterization worked in that movie because of his status as a lonely kid who’s a fish out of water, but now that he’ll have had experience using his powers and spent more time with people I hope he’s a bit closer to the hedgehog we’re used to seeing.

I'm really interested to see how his dynamic with Tails plays out since the two characters are so different from how they were introduced in the games. Sonic is less the confident drifter who goes where the wind takes him and more a goober 15-year-old who longs for companionship. I think that worked for the movie, especially given the premise they went with, but it felt less like it was born out of a desire to present a new spin on Sonic and more like it was the product of like... typical Hollywood screenwriters writing within their comfort zone, based on the limitations of the film?

He's 15, so they wrote him like a young teen. He needs an emotional arc and he's the only CGI animal character for 99% of the movie, so he's looking for his place in the world. They could only shoot in so many locations, so instead of roaming the world he's settled down in one town (and they named it after Green Hill Zone to throw fans a bone). They need a safe Hollywood star to balance out Sonic's antics for the parents, so he ends up bonding with a human father figure--which, again, pushes Sonic to act more his age. Again, I thought Sonic was fun in the film, but it's kind of obvious why they made a lot of the decisions they did. But since the first movie is very much an origin story, this approach could give him a lot of room to grow into the hero we know, if they have any desire to do so

And then you've got Tails, who was only in the first movie for one brief scene, but by comparison he already came off as the more confident boy genius inventor the character grew into over time. He already comes off as an adventurer in his own right. Like that might as well just be modern Sega Tails in the stinger. He even has the voice! His origin story as a shy little kid who bumped into Sonic and started taking after him is impossible in a story where Sonic spent the last ten years growing up on Earth alone, and it kind of seems like they've skipped that to just get to modern Tails

So I'm really curious how they're gonna handle it in the sequel. Will Tails turn out to be more shy and unsure of himself, like his earlier incarnations? Will the combination of his win against Robotnik, settling into his new life, and having Tails around push Sonic to be more mature in comparison? After the warm reception of the game elements added late in production to the first movie, will the desire to steer closer to the games affect the characterization as well? Or will they throw us a curveball and go a different route? Only time will tell

[dizzydennis]

It’s your wedding day, you and your beautiful spouse-to-be are waiting for the marriage officiant to arrive, but he’s come down with explosive diarrhea. The entire venue is in a panic until you start hearing the Route 99 song from Sonic Advance 3 playing faintly in the distance. It gets louder and louder until suddenly-- Sonic the Hedgehog bursts through the door to solemnize your marriage!

[soclonely]

Why would you brag about Oklahoma? Its nothing but a conservative hotbed of a state.

While I agree and it totally sucks that part sometimes, the younger generation of Okies in my area are pretty openly liberal. Things are slowly changing all over the place and I will always have hope for the future generation of my home. And with that...

The Clones As Things I Love About My Homestate

Rex- Nothing beats watching the sunrise and sunset on the plains. Theres something peaceful about the sound of the wind in the grass, the smell, the views Echo- Bricktown, OKC! Bricktown was the main warehouse district for the area and once it was sort of done with, the area was abandoned and run down for a few years. That changed when they started updating the abandoned buildings and now its a booming entertainment district with amazing restaurants, shops, and a little canal. Fives- Hockey scenen is actually pretty tight! OKC has the Blazers, and Tulsa has an ECHL team, the oilers! The youth hockey and figure skating is also growing nicely.  Jesse- Route 66. The classic american roadtrip. I have ridden the entire thing and let me tell you it really can be amazing. Every little small town is warm and welcoming and will immediately dive into the history of route 66 in their town if you ask.  Kix- Some of the coolest local shops and products in almost every town.  Tup- Softball BAYBEEEEE. OKC is home to the International Softball Complex and the softball hall of fame Dogma-Oklahoma has 11,611 miles of shoreline, more than the combined non-tidal coasts of the Atlantic and the Gulf of Mexico. Hardcase- SOME OF THE BEST DAMN FOOD YOU COULD ASK FOR. Sonic, Braums, Jimmy’s egg, Hideaway Pizza ( @ct7567329 confirmed) Coric- OKLAHOMA! The musical.  Bly- Turner Falls is a popular place to go swim and explore.  99-The Native American culture you can experience in all areas of the state. Seriously guys. I am a member of the Chickasaw Nation (bio mom being a seminole/chickasaw ) And I am always amazed going to the centers of tribes and embracing the history and culture with so many others. Its a great way to support tribes by donating, learning about the history, spreading awareness, and buying local products from Native owned stores and shops. We may not be able to change history but we sure as hell can redirect the future to a brighter one. Cody- The Honey Bee is our state insect. PROTECT THE BEES! Waxer/Boil- We got some pretty cute critters around, and some not cute ones. But Oklahoma’s wildlife is so diverse! Wolffe- During tornado season, it doesn’t matter who you are, what your beliefs are, or what you follow we all look out for one another. Storms have a way of devastating lives, My family lost not one but TWO houses in major tornados and the warmth and love I remember from neighbors and strangers alike when we were rebuilding our community together will always hold a special place in my heart. Tornado Alley crowd bands together and we watch one another. Boost/Sinker- We are the ONLY state with an official state meal:  Fried okra, squash, cornbread, barbecue pork, biscuits, sausage and gravy, grits, corn, strawberries, chicken-fried steak, pecan pie, and black-eyed peas and its all Delicious! Hunter- Watching Bison as you drive through one of the wildlife preserves. They are free range and get so close to your car sometimes, its surreal.  Wrecker- BOOMER SOONER. Proud OU football fan, but the band is really the coolest(Sorry to THE Ohio State University band) Tech- Gordon Matthews, born in Tulsa, was the inventor of an electronic communication system to store audio messages patented in 1982. We know it as voicemail. Thanks to an Okie, you don’t have to answer your phone when people call and can just leave a message! Crosshair- 4 mountain ranges have sections in Oklahoma, Ouachitas, Arbuckles, Wichitas and the Ozarks. I love hiking in them all! 

[beevean]

The Lovely Couple in Route 99 Act 1

This level is literally made for the Unbreakable Bond... but that’s not enough to stop Amy from being her usual OP self :P

[virtuacrusader]

Finally finished this- my oc Victor in a city, I tried a bit more with the background (and based the colors on Sonic Advance 3's Route 99) and I think it came out really good :D

[crusherthedoctor]

Sonic Advance 3's levels would be amazing in 3D. Route 99, Sunset Hill, Toy Kingdom, Cyber Track...

Good thing Cosmic City happens to take a few notes from Route 99's aesthetic, eh?

And while it doesn't look like Cyber Track (appearance-wise, it has more in common with Techno Base and Digital Circuit), there is an area in BtS with a cyberspace motif.

*whistles innocently*

[keyofjetwolf]

Pitch Me your thing!

HELLO HELLO MY SUNBEAMS. For most every category, there was an impressive turn-out for pitches, so I thought we’d utilize the weirdness of this year’s GIFTENING to give something new a try. The popular vote winner for each category will happen on the first day, but on the second, the winner will be chosen from YOUR PITCHES. Mostly those pitches will be to me. The exception is in Miscellaneous, where you’ll be pitching to my family, because what I want to do and what is most entertaining isn’t necessarily the same thing.

So! How will we do this thing? GLAD YOU ASKED. I’ll link you to a form in a minute with space for one pitch. Once you fill it out, you’ll be asked if you want to do another. There’s no limit to the number of pitches you can send in! But remember that if you submit multiple entries for the same category, you’ll basically be competing against yourself.

NOW WE’VE GOT SOME RULES FOR DOING THIS (which I mostly stole from Holligay, because I have no creativity this year). Please read them carefully! I’ll toss pitches that break any of these, and I’d rather your hard work not go to waste.

Pitch Me is open for your submissions from RIGHT NOW (22 December) through the very last day of this hellyear (31 December) at 11:59pm MT.

The thing you pitch must have come from what was nominated for THE GIFTENING 2020. (Full list of those nominations in every category below the cut on this post.)

Entries must be unsigned! I’m looking to chose based on the pitch alone, regardless of who submitted it.

The pitch itself must be 100 words or less. HAVE PITY ON ME I CAN ONLY CONSUME SO MUCH.

If you’d like to get some help, ideas, feedback, all that good stuff, the Discord is a FANTASTIC resource I encourage you to use.

HERE IS YOUR PITCH SUBMISSION LINK

And, as promised, below the cut you’ll find the list of all the nominees in every category you guys sent in this year. IT’S A LONG LIST HAVE FUN WITH THAT

Anime

A Place Further Than The Universe/Sora Yori mo Toi Basho Ace Attorney (Gyakuten Saiban) Action Heroine Cheer Fruits Aggretsuko Aho Girl Air Master Akuma No Riddle Alien Nine Angel Beats! Angelic Layer Appare-Ranman Aria Aria the Animation Arrietty/ The Secret World of Arrietty (Ghibli film) Ascendance of a Bookworm Azumamga Daioh Baccano! Beastars Black Cat Blood + (the series) Bloom Into You Blue Drop/Tenshitachino Gikyoku Bodacious Space Pirates (starting right where you left off) BOFURI: I Don't Want to Get Hurt, so I'll Max Out My Defense Boku no hero academia Bubblegum Crisis Card Captor Sakura: Clear Card Cardcaptor Sakura Castlevania the Animated Series Cells at Work Chaos; Head Chihayafuru Code Geass cowboy Bebop Cyborg 009 Death Note Death Parade Deca-Dence Demon Girl Next Door Demon Slayer (Kimetsu no Yaiba) Diebuster: Aim For the Top 2 Dog Days dorohedoro Dot Hack//SIGN Dr. Stone Elfen Lied Erased (Boku Dake Ga Inai Machi) Escaflowne Excel Saga Fantastic Children Fate/Zero Flip Flappers Fresh Precure Fruits Basket 2019 Full Metal Alchemist Brotherhood Ga rei Zero GaoGaiGar gekkan shoujo nozaki-kun Ghost in the Shell: Standalone Complex Ghost Stories (dubbed) Girls' Last Tour Great Pretender Hoseki no Kuni/ Land of the Lustrous House of Five Leaves/ Saraiya Goyou Inari konkon koi iroha Interviews with Monster Girls Inuyasha Isekai Izakaya "Nobu" Jellyfish Princess/ Kuragehime JoJo's Bizarre Adventure Part 4: Diamond is Unbreakable Kaguya-sama Love Is War Kaleido Star Kannazuki no Miko Keep Your Hands Off Eizouken! Kemono Friends Kiki's Delivery Service Kimi ni Todoke: From Me To You Kino's Journey/Kino no Tabi (2003) Land of the Lustrous (Houseki no Kuni) Little Witch Academia Lord El-Melloi II's Case Files EP0 {"A Grave Keeper") Love is Hard for an Otaku Love Live! Sunshine!! lupin the 3rd part 4 Madoka: The Rebellion Movie Magic knight rayearth Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha March Comes in Like a Lion Mardock Scramble Master of Martial Hearts Mawaru Penguindrum Megalobox Miss Kobayashi's Dragon Maid Mob Psycho 100 Mobile Suit Gundam (1979) Monster Mushishi My Bride is a Mermaid (Seto No Hanayome) My Love Story!!! My Neighbor Totoro My Next Life As A Villainess: All Routes Lead to Doom My Roommate is a Cat NANA Naruto Natsume’s Book of Friends Neon Genesis Evangelion (hateblog) New Cutey Honey Nichijou Ōban Star-Racers One Piece Ouran High school Host club Outlaw Star Paranoia Agent Perfect Blue Please Save My Earth Pop Team Epic Pretty Cure Fresh Princess Jellyfish/ Kuragehime Princess Mononoke Princess Principal Princess Tutu Project A-Ko promised neverland (/yakusoku no neverland) Psycho-Pass Ranma 1/2 Re: Cutie Honey Re:Creators Read or Die (OAV) Red Garden relife Revolutionalry Girl Utena Rose of Versailles Ruroni Kenshin Sailor Moon Sailor Moon (viz dub) Samurai Champloo (english dub) Sarazanmai School Days School-Live! Scum's Wish Senki Zesshou Symphogear (listed as just "Symphogear" on Crunchyroll.) Serei no Moribito (Guardian of the Spirit) Shin Sekai Yori (From The New World) Shirobako Shoujo Kageki Revue Starlight Showa Genroku Rakugo Shinju Sleepy Princess in the Demon Castle Smile Pretty Cure (Japanese original)/ Glitter Force (english adaptation) Snow White with the Red Hair Sound Euphonium Strawberry Panic (yuri) Sweetness and Lightning The Devil is a Part-timer The Devil Lady The disasterous life of saiki k (saiki kusuo no Sai Nan) The End of Evangelion (movie) the Promised Neverland The Twelve Kingdoms Tiger & Bunny Tokimeki Tonight ToraDora Tsubasa Chronicle Umineko When They Cry Valkyrie Drive: Mermaid Vinland Saga Violet Evergarden Whispered Words (Sasameki Koto) With a Dog AND a Cat, Every Day is Fun Yona of the Dawn Yu Yu Hakusho Yugioh Duel Monster Yuki Yuna is a Hero Yuri Kuma Arashi Yuri On Ice!!! Zoids: Chaotic Century Zombie Land Saga

Non-Anime Animated

Adventure Time Amphibia Animainiacs (Original) Animaniacs (Reboot) Archie's Weird Mysteries As Told By Ginger Barbie Life in The Dreamhouse Batman the Animated Series Big Guy and Rusty the Boy Robot Big Mouth Bob's Burgers Bojack Horseman Bravest Warriors Captain N: the Game Master Carmen Sandiego (1994) Carmen Sandiego (2019) Castlevania (Netflix) Cats Don't Dance Coco Courage the Cowardly Dog Craig of the Creek Cyber Six Daria Darkwing Duck Dragon Booster Dragons: Riders of Berk DuckTales (2017) Exo-Squad Fern Gully Fillmore! Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends Futurama Gargoyles Glitch Techs Godzilla: The Animated Series Green Lantern the Animated Series Hedgehog in the Fog (Ёжик в тумане) Hey Arnold Hilda Infinity Train Iron Giant JEM Kim Possible Kipo and the Age of the Wonderbeasts Legend of Zelda animated series (1989) Legion of Super-Heroes Liberty Kids Magical Girl Friendship Squad Mao Mao: Heroes of Pure Heart The Legend of Korra Moominvalley Motorcity My Little Pony (Classic, NOT FiM) My Little Pony: Equestria Girls: Rainbow Rocks Onyx Equinox Over the Garden Wall Over the Moon (2020 film) Owl House Primal Rapunzel's Tangled Adventure Redwall Rise of the TMNT Roco's Modern Life Rugrats RWBY Samurai Jack Seis Manos She-Ra (1985) She-Ra and the Princesses of Power (2018) Sonic Boom Spartakus and the Sun Beneath the Sea Spiderman: Into the Spiderverse Star vs. the Forces of Evil Strange Magic Super Mario Brothers Super Show Superman: The Animated Series Teen Titans The 13 Ghosts of Scooby Doo The Animals of Farthing Wood The Dragon Prince The Hollow The Legend of Tarzan (TV series) The Magic School Bus (1994) The Mysterious Cities of Gold The Pirate Fairy (Disney Fairies) The Powerpuff Girls (1998) The Real Ghostbusters Thundercats (1985) Thundercats (2011) Transformers: Prime Tuca and Bertie Twelve Forever Undone Venture Bros Wakko's Wish Wakfu Wander Over Yonder We Bare Bears (TV) Winx Club Wreck-It Ralph (2012) X-Men Evolution X-Men: The Animated Series Xiaolin Showdown

Live Action

20,000 Leagues Under the Sea 28 Days Later 3rd Rock from the Sun A Series of Unfortunate Events American Horror Story: Asylum Babysitter's Club (2020) Batman (the old Adam West version) Better Call Saul Black Mirror Blackbeard's Ghost (Peter Ustinov) Boston Legal Boy Meets World Boys Over Flowers Bromance (Taiwanese tv series) Brooklyn 99 Buffy the Vampire Slayer Cadfael Cagney and Lacey Charmed (2018) Chopped Cleopatra 2525 Cloak and Dagger Clue (1985) Community Crazy Ex-Girlfriend Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance Dead Like Me Dead To Me Deadwood Death Note (Netflix) Derry Girls Dimension 20 - The Unsleeping City Doctor Who (New) Doom Patrol Dracula's Daughter (1936) Escape to the Chateau Farscape Fingersmith Galavant Godzilla (2014) Gokushufudo (2020 Japanese TV drama) Golden Girls Good Omens H20: Just Add Water (somewhere in seasons 1-2) Happy New Year Harley Quinn movie Hateblog a REALLY STRAIGHT soap opera. Haunting of Bly Manor His Dark Materials (HBO series) Holes Hot Fuzz House Inception Inside No. 9 Iron Chef America Joan of Arcadia Julie and the Phantoms Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle Kamen Rider Build Kamen Rider Ex-Aid Kamen Rider Fourze Killing Eve Knives Out Letterkenny Leverage Little Women (2019) Lucifer Matlock Majisuka Gakuen MASH Merlin Mission Impossible Ghost Protocol Money Talks (1997 film) Motherland: Fort Salem Murder She Wrote Mythbusters Nailed It! Never Have I Ever Once Upon a Time Orphan Black Pen 15 PGSM Pi (1998) Picnic at Hanging Rock (2018) Pride and Prejudice: A New Musical Puppy Bowl Pushing Daisies Rome (hateblog) Russian Doll Sabrina Sense8 Sera Myu: Un Nouveau Voyage Shameless Sierra Burgess Smallville So Weird Star Trek: TOS (or their films) Star Trek: The Next Generation Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Star Trek: Voyager Stargate Atlantis Suckerpunch Supernatural (out of context speedrun the last three episodes) Sweetheart Switched at Birth Tall Girl Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles The Addams Family (1964) The Big Flower Fight The Booth at the End The Bride With White Hair The Crown The Fresh Prince of Bel Air The Good Place The Kissing Booth The L Word The Librarians The Magicians The Muppet Show The Pregnancy Pact The Room The Steve Harvey Show The Stranded The Untamed The Witcher The Wolfman (1941) Torchwood Twilight Zone (original) Twin Peaks Ultraman Nexus Umbrella Academy Van Helsing Warehouse 13 Warrior Nun What We Do In The Shadows (tv show) Will & Grace Wynonna Earp X-Men 2: X-Men United Xena: Warrior Princess

Miscellaneous

Alpha Flight #41-62 Anime music dance party, the logistics of which are to be determined! Ask Hot Pocket and/or Mina-pup AskSharknado: Giftening Edition Attempt to make French macaroons Commentary on old Goggles Critical Role Crowdsourced: A Black Mirror-style day where Jetty has to ask what her choices are of the audience for everything! I give you a menu, you decide what she has for dinner? What does she wear? Does she walk on the track or do the eliptical? Does she go to a movie with Doc or play a video game with Mike? Can be done alongside other stuff. Doodle Day Dramatic readings of fan fiction! Drunk History (or whatever your favorite subject would be) with Jet Wolf! Drunk Sailor Moon Exorcising Closet Ghost Fic Prompts Day Figuarts Day! (Not specifically freeing anyone, just various fun poses and such) Guess the plot of a show based on its opening Her Shim-Cheong (manhwa) House of X/Powers of X Hubby's Choice IDW Jem comics liveblog Intros Only (watch show openings, give commentary, guess what show is about, etc.) Jackbox Games Jet Wolf paints along with Bob Ross Jet and Doc go to Heaven/Hell, respectively: Jet gets to write reams of words about the awesomeness of Rei Hino and Doc has to read all of them and say ONLY NICE THINGS. Jet does Tiktok dances Jet Liveblogs Holligay: A Nature Documentary Jet Ranks Sailor Moon Image Songs Jet Reads Goosebumps Jet Reads Legion of Super-Heroes Jet redesigns the Wolf and Gay offices! Jet shows off her knitting Jet Wolf attempts to recreate scenes from Sailor Moon with Mina and Hot Pocket and/or whatever is in the house Jet Wolf reacts to Sailor Moon tiktoks (in blog form) Jet Wolf reads Love and Rockets. Jet Wolf reads the Jem comics by IDW Jet Wolf reviews her old top 100 Sailor Moon moments list Jet Wolf talks about Archie Comics Jet Wolf talks about each cel she owns and why they are so awesome. Jet Wolf writes Poetry Jet Wolf's Top 5's Jet, Hubby and/or family play board games Jetty Rants and Raves Jet Wolf tries to crack the Gravity Falls Codes Kiwi Blitz on Hiveworks Let's Play on Webtoon Liveblog: Favorite X-Men comic book arcs Livestream Pathfinder one-shot LOONA (Collection of music videos with an ongoing story/universe about GIRLS who are FRIENDS and SAVE THE UNIVERSE) Lore Olympus on Webtoon Mike regales us with "the story of your love" while you get increasingly embarrassed Mina and Hot Pocket day - liveblog like a nature documentary Mister Tsukino Does His Taxes and the Household Budget (Sailor Moon fan comic by Shadowjack) Nancy Drew: Ghost Dogs of Moon Lake Not So Shoujo Love Story on Webtoon Pitch Mishaps for Untitled Senshi Game (it is a lovely day in Juuban, and you are a Horrible Minako.) Pitching hubby's favorite media at (readers/holligay/jill/momigay) Playing with dolls (because how could 3 women not have any dolls between them) Re-Take By Studio Kimigabuchi (All Ages Version) Real or Fake Anime (people submit descriptions of anime you guess if it is an anime that actually exists or not) Reviewing succulents Scavenger hunt! Not entirely sure how it would work, maybe folks could send in asks for you to show things like your favorite Rei Hino object, or the thing that's been with you the longest, etc. sewing/knitting/baking tutorial Share or rant about a Roman history topic Sleepless Domain on Hiveworks Talking to Docholligay 2: Doc Harder (basically you talking to Doc's future womb evictee while still in there and telling them stuff like say the greatness of Rei Hino) The Monster Duchess and Contract Princess (manhwa) The Polar Bear Plunge--I take Jetty to our finest Lake Elmo in January, and she jumps in! Note: THIS IS NOT DANGEROUS, WORRYWARTS. I'll bring a life preserver, I've done it before, and I would do it with her if I weren't pregnant. The Senshi Helpline--The Senshi, taking your advice questions, here and now! The World of Moral Reversal Virtual knitting/crafting circle! Let us craft and chat with you! What-If #24 Gwen Stacy Lived Worm the web serial Write an explanation for a drawing we send you! Yuri Hell's Kitchen