#this game and robobot mean so much to me :)

[paintpanic]

Happy Birthday, TDX!!!

[icedragonlizard]

I might get torn apart for posting this, but imo it must be said.

To make it crystal clear, I don't excuse Susie's actions in Planet Robobot. But I don't excuse Taranza's actions in Triple Deluxe either.

I think people in the Kirby fandom infantilize Taranza way too much.

I am not joking when I say that I've seen people go as far as to say that he was "never a villain in the first place". That he's "innocent".

I'm sorry, but that's just flat out wrong. He was objectively the villain during Triple Deluxe. "He was just following orders!" is not proof of innocence when he was following the orders of a dictator. Taranza was a dictator-enabler. A dictator's right-hand man. That's not innocent. He lowkey kidnapped people in the name of this dictator.

Who knows what he could've done off-screen during the game while dragging Dedede around with him... probably could've tormented a lot of unshown Floralians while Kirby was trying to stop the takeover.

I also believe that Taranza loved playing the villain. He looks incredibly smug while dragging Dedede around and provoking bosses into fighting Kirby. Not to mention the very things that he says in his monologue right before he uses Dedede like a puppet to fight Kirby.

.... So much for the claims of "never a villain in the first place".

I very much believe he's reformed (Susie too, tbh) but I wish people would stop totally erasing his actions and pretending he did no bad.

This is not meant to demonize Taranza in any way. It's just... I absolutely hate that people treat him like a poor little innocent baby while simultaneously treating Susie like an irredeemable, unforgivable monster. They committed very similar crimes, but somehow get treated like they're opposite ends of the spectrum morality-wise.

Now, when comparing them, Susie is indeed the worse of the two overall, because her actions were done on multiple planets vs. one country. But that doesn't change the fact that it's still hypocritical to treat one of them like they're innocent while demonizing the other.

Regardless of the different scales of their crimes, they're both ultimately just second-in-commands to corrupt higher-ups that then helped give Kirby something to fight the final boss when it mattered.

I like to think that Taranza and Susie are both rather morally grey people with good and bad qualities. To me, they're friends with Kirby now, but they still have flaws despite not being as bad as they were before. I'd put Magolor on the same boat alongside with them too.

Taranza can both have grief and still have flaws. And I think Susie 100% has had grief for her dad too, even if she's less open about it.

One of the reasons why Susie discourse is so aggravating is because people simultaneously downplay and infantilize other villains, especially Taranza. People are hypocrites. I bet people wouldn't give a crap if Taranza or Magolor were to turn Meta Knight into a robot.

I get why the colonization and capitalism themes for both Susie and Planet Robobot as a whole can strike a nerve to some people and elicit discomfort, but I don't really think that warrants a massive and unfair discrepancy to how she gets treated compared to the others.

While I can get why those themes can make some people not like her as much as others, I don't think it makes it fair to treat her like an unforgivable demon because her villainy happens to be more real.

Just because the others are less real doesn't mean they're innocent.

The double standards suck.

[desultory-novice]

I recently found out that “weekend Susie” is a mistranslation and it’s actually called “susie on vacation” in jpn. I’m pretty sure she’s supposed to be Susie in the future like Manager Magolor..any ideas on why shes missing her hairclip and the “Secretary” title she always has in jpn? Susie is so hard to figure out..like how she only smiles three times in the entirety of robobot (once when she takes the program controller and twice when singing the noble haltmann but ONLY when saying the words father in jpn) so I’m curious on what your thoughts are on her (and unfortunately has the worst localization ever…i had to look at the robobot translations from @/kaialone on tumblr) sorry for rambling but shes so interesting to me and it’s a bit sad seeing how a lot of the details she has in characterization never get talked about

Anon...Did you somehow know I've been replaying Robobot in Japanese?! And it's basically strengthened my confirmation that some people - though less than before - are a bit too harsh and/or restrictive in their takes on both Susie and her father. 

That said, I do I try to give people room to "safely hate" these fictional characters as, for a lot of people, it may be one of their only ways of processing a gross problem that affects the real world/so much of history that they can't do much about.

But I love the silly/tragic Haltmann family. I'm sympathetic and even semi-defensive towards 'em. Which is why I'm happy to answer any good faith Haltmann asks.

Ahem! Also, before I get into it, I wanted to say that technically "Weekend Susie" vs "Susie on Vacation" is not a mistranslation per se.

What it IS is a localization.

休日 can mean "vacation," yes. When you break down the kanji, literally it is made up of the words "rest day." So it can also be just about any day when you're not working/not at school/not busy.

For most of western civilization (not me because I'm a contractor XD ) the weekends are people's "rest days." To read 休日 as "weekend" might not even be that much of a stretch/localization!

Probably explains the lack of "secretary" title. She's literally not on the clock! As for the hairclip, who can say...? Similar reasons? I know in Susie's case, it's sentimental, though hairpins in Japan often have this association with studiousness/"time to get serious" so removing it is an easy indicator "She's allowing herself time to be silly!"

I do like to imagine that this is a post-canon Susie though. That girl deserves something nice after her trauma...

Anyway, reminder that post-FL, the localizers have been working more closely with the Japanese team to create a more accurate translation for us. I know the wounds from PR's rough translation (and SA's fast-and-loose in weird places one) still hurt, oof, but the Kirby series is getting better about its translations!!

Actually... you know... there's not THAT many cutscenes...

Maybe I will make my own "If they'd hired Dess to translate Planet Robobot" translation of the game? I've already threatened several times to do a full translation of "The Noble Haltmann" with all references/metaphors intact...

But yes! Speaking of how Susie uses her emotions, I was so moved by something in her first meeting with Kirby, I actually wrote about it! And I'm going to share it here, because you might find it interesting~

-

So, I had my eyes peeled for any interesting bits of characterization left behind on the cutting room floor. Immediately, I was amused by how politely Susie talks to Kirby in the beginning. She doesn't really "talk down to him" or insult his intelligence in the slightest. (One could argue that it's a false business politeness, of course. Although she only breaks that in like, the second to last cutscene) Any dismissal of him feels very "company-mandated." (And the company is run by a murderous computer but leaving that aside...)

She gently praises how beautiful the water and the air on this planet is and that's when something... starts to change in her...

Susie gets impossibly sad. And her attitude changes COMPLETELY.

I stopped for a second reading this. "Hold on. What? Why does she lose her cool HERE? Is this some indication that the place she and her dad used to live on was a really poor planet without clean air and drinking water?" And heck, maybe that is the case!

But something else struck me about her line:

"...You don't even know the value of what you have..."

It's not the snooty we-know-better-than-you "misappropriation of resources" that is triggering her. It is having something precious right next to you and you don't even recognize it.

It's about her dad. Right from the beginning.

She can't NOT talk about it. It affects all her actions. Maybe another reason while I feel like it's better to judge Susie on a whole than any one individual action she takes, because (like Magolor, oops oops oops) she is masking her intentions alllll the time.

Also, omg, I know some people are still sensitive about the Mechaknight thing but that is PEAK grim humor in Japanese! It is treated way too cold and business-like in English, imo.

In Japanese, she starts to describe him exactly like she's telling her bestie that she just met the man of her dreams and then the WHAM line: "So, I gave him a full-body modification!"

Yes, it's unhinged. But it's also wonderful. (She's so Eggman-core.)

[jojo-schmo]

Hey, just wanted to ask for some pointers on creating a Kirby Swap AU, since you seem to have it down.

If the swaps affect the universe as a whole, do I start the story at the beginning, or can I write the first part as based on a later game? And am I allowed to keep some things the same? (For example, if I swapped Meta Knight and Susie Haltmann, could I keep President Haltmann as Susie’s father?) And do you have any tips in general for stuff like this?

Hello there! What a great question!

First, a disclaimer: I am by no means a professional storyteller. In fact, I think my creative process and thought organization methods would probably cause a professional to take psychic damage, haha! But I'll give you some of my thought process behind my swap-making decisions and try to be as helpful as possible!

Answer under the cut!! :D

I think my biggest piece of advice would be this! It's your AU, so YOU get to make up all the rules!! You can follow canon as closely as you want, or you can just run wild! The only restrictions are the ones you put on yourself! Make sure to have fun exploring the different possibilities of the universe you're swapping in! :)

You also don't have to set anything in stone. Initially, I only swapped Dedede and Bandee and left the rest of the canon story alone because I just wanted to make a Bandee boss fight. But about a month after my first drawing of swapped Bandee, I started thinking about the fun chaos of swapping more and making the canon story my own! So remember that your story is allowed to evolve over time!

I'm a pretty visual thinker. When I was deciding who to swap, I remember I actually drew out the characters in a sort of graph so it was easier to think about what swapping the role would affect in the universe.

It's all in the name: ROLEswap! To keep it less overwhelming, boil the characters down to their basic role in the story. Then it's easier to think about it.

Let's take the Protector role in Forgotten Land for example. This is the character that stays behind from the main adventure of Players 1 and 2, but does a lot in the background. Protecting the town from Beasts, presumably helping the Dees, running a tournament, etc.

In canon Meta Knight protects the town with constant vigilance because he's a steadfast and disciplined knight. He's so devoted to his job, he doesn't even interact with anyone on ground level! He runs the tournament to help train Kirby and keep his own blade sharp.

But if Kirby were to do it, I imagine he might simply immerse himself into the town's culture and daily activities, especially if there's food involved! The tournament he'd host would be for entertainment- to boost the morale of the town's population (and to eat delicious stadium snacks)! He would still do well at defending the town because of his enormous power level, but he would do it differently than Meta and the others.

I should also mention that my Roleswap AU is strictly about the effects of swapping roles in the Forgotten Land plot. In this universe, Kirby's Adventure, Superstar, Dreamland etc. all occurred the same as in canon.

I guess you could say..... My AU is about how much a Butterfly Effect would change the entire plot with one simple action that snowballs into an entirely different outcome.

...I didn't pick that choice of words purposefully at all. >:3

But yes! Regarding your specific ask, you can start the story wherever you want! If you wanna explore swapping Susie and Meta Knight from the very beginning of the series, or just from Planet Robobot, do it! There are no rules except yours! :D

If it were me, I would boil down Meta's role as a Knight and Defender, and Susie as the businessperson and invader- then ask myself what each character would do in these roles. How much of their personality would remain intact from canon, and how much would they change? Would you want Haltmann to remain Susie's father? Or would you give Meta Knight an antagonistic father figure?

That is entirely up to you. And that's the best part!! If you want to totally ignore me, that's within your right! You get to interpret whatever you want to write the exact story you want to tell!! <3

Oops, I ended up writing a lot haha. I hope this was at least a little bit helpful! Have so much fun!! :)

[startistdoodles]

Who is the best villain in kirby game

Hmmm well the thing is that Kirby villains have only gotten more complex and given really interesting backstories as time goes on so it's hard for me to pick just one :') I will list a few of my favorites though.

(this got long so putting this under the cut)

Return to Dreamland's villain (refusing to say since the remake is coming out soon and some people might not wanna be spoiled but if you know you know) is really good, I love how they're written and they're also quite funny and very memorable for obvious reasons.

Yin-Yarn like I said before is hysterical, everything he does and says is ridiculous-- from trying to ambush Kirby only to be mostly ignored as his tomato (that he was wearing on his head for some inexplicable reason) gets eaten by Kirby, to wanting to conquer Dreamland despite not knowing what he wants to do with it...the man is hilarious. While he's certainly not the most complex villain by ANY means, he is memorable to me for how much of a goof he is.

Then there's President Haltmann who may just be the saddest Kirby villain yet. What he's been through and what ends up happening to him is so incredibly tragic. I won't go too much into it mainly because Robobot is such a good game and I want people to play it and see for themselves but I also wanna talk about Star Dream and how much of a terrifying threat it is.

Star Dream is a rogue AI bent on destroying all organic life. Unlike many other villains in this modern era of Kirby games that at we can see glimmers of goodness in or want to purify, Star Dream is the exception. It is incapable of being good because it was programmed to destroy. You can't change it's mind or save it somehow. You can't even save its master, whose conscious it absorbed and is now crying for help. It's so terrifying and tragic and I love it for that despite how dark it is.

Anyways sorry for the long-winded ramble, I could go on and on about the complexities of modern Kirby villains but I just decided to pick a few favorites of mine. My most favorite out of all of them though mightttt be Star Dream just because of how fun the boss fight is and how tragic and scary Robobot's entire story is.

[blazingstaro]

I love Magolor's Mechanical Madness (nice alliteration)

This is seems like a what if scenario where Magalor tried to save dreamland in planet robobot prior to Star allies.

I love the addition of the cute contractor waddle dees, Fumu and Bun grown up, and the comments made for each post, specifically the halberd getting destroyed on a Tuesday.

I adore that Magolor can wield Galaxia, as he can wield a giant ultra sword from his epilogue.

I hope kirby, DeDeDe, Bandana are involved so that the heroes of dreamland return once more.

I also hope Captain Vul is saved, despite his immoral actions in Super Star (Ultra).

I also hope that their are soundtracks from the kirby games and the halberd in kirby's mouthful mode!

Nice story!

This is such a huge compliment! Thank you!!! 💜💜💜 I love alliteration, so I take what chances I can get with titles. This one was too perfect, because as an acronym no less, it's so hilarious to read!

Indeed, it's a somewhat scenario! It's more of a "what da Magolor doin" during the events of Planet Robobot. Following his perspective during the main plot, and what sort of contributions he made (at least in my AU) to make things move forward

Sort of answering various questions throughout the game, such as:

"Why did all the major security doors open for Kirby when he was a main threat to the facility" ; "How come they didn't send Mecha Knight after Kirby earlier, and frequently" ; and many more!

Little things that made me in particular ask, "Why is that so" in the face of a multi-billion dollar, highly advanced tech company with nearly god-like machines at their fingertips

I'm glad you enjoy my witty commentary, heheee!! It's one of my favorite parts of posting pages! So fun!! I'm glad you enjoyed my additions as well! After all, this mostly takes place in parts of Popstar/Access Ark that we don't see in Kirby's perspective of the game, so I have tons of room for creative liberty and so forth!

Mmm yes the bit with Magolor and Galaxia. You see, I mix both anime and game story/plot into my AU, so if you're familiar with Galaxia's lore from the anime, then you may know as to why that is. 👀

King Dedede will be taking a back seat in DotS:MMM just as he did in the game, but we will be seeing Bandana Dee alongside Kirby!! There are a few instances where they cross paths with Magolor!

As for Vul, we shall see what fate has in store for the old bird 👀👀👀

Not sure what ya mean by soundtracks, but OST is a banger and I love it! Love Access Ark's first major theme with that dubstup, just MMMMMM— even my dad loves it!

Also! I will not be drawing the accursed Halberd in full for this comic omg— I did once before for an entire battle scene and don't want to go through that again LOL Those pages were FIRE, but oh my god nope, never again, my soul will surely whither away into dust

Again, thank you so much for this lovely ask!!

[purplekoop]

For genuinely no reason I'm gonna be doing a couple lists of things I'm into. Was gonna be one single post but the list for even just games was getting pretty long so I'm splitting it in two: this one for just games, and another for just shows. Those are basically the two categories of things I really like so uh... yeah let's do those now.

Kirby: In terms of "has things I like versus things I dislike", Kirby has just about the perfect record, all happy feelings with no strings attached. It's a series that sparks thorough delight in just about every aspect, with incredible atmosphere, an extremely lovable cast, gameplay that scratches the perfect balance of "hard to lose but fun to master", GODLY soundtracks, fun background story to dig into, and probably one of the most naturally pleasant fanbases I've had the pleasure of being in contact with. Personal favorite is Return to Dreamland, which still ranks as one of my all-time favorite games ever, though Robobot, Forgotten Land, and Super Star rank pretty highly too. Favorite characters are Susie and Dedede, favorite abilities are Hammer, Ninja, Jet, and Beetle.

Sonic the Hedgehog: Not even gonna dignify the joyless losers who thoughtlessly make fun of the series with a disclaimer, this is the ultimate in "this is cool, shut up". I really don't know how to describe it besides "cool factor", the stylish character designs and inarguably banger music keep me invested in this series by themselves. Admittedly I'm not super hardcore when it comes to playing the games, still working my way through most of the series, but like. who cares, the Sonic Fandom IRS? Leaving a note on my doorstep that reads "fake fan lmao"? Not afraid of those guys. I'll spit in their lunch. And they'll like it. Favorite characters are Rouge, Omega, Vector, Metal Sonic and Eggman.

Pikmin: A series I have WAY too much extremely specific petty fandom history with that I have ultimately decided to ignore to accept that I still adore these games. Gorgeous atmosphere, delightful whimsical speculative evolution designs, and Iiiiiiiiiiiiiiincredibly satisfying real time management gameplay. I like 1 and 2 after playing/replaying both of them recently just about as equally, 3's still my favorite and I'm excited to at LONG last play 4 once I get my Switch's battery fixed.

Mario: It feels weird specifying I'm a Mario fan, it's not a series I'm that passionate about overall but with how much of the series I've played it feels weird not to mention, especially when it's technically the inspiration behind my username. No game opinions. Rosalina best girl but all the girls are great. Bowser is great too.

Zelda: Another one where it feels odd to specify but. yeah I like these too. hard not to. The one game in the series I'm exceptionally (though I do mean EXCEPTIONALLY) passionate about is Skyward Sword, another one of my favorite games of all time worthy of its own mega post eventually. I also love the BotW trilogy (yes, all three of them) and Link Between Worlds. Ravio gets a special Silly Little Guy Award.

Pokemon: Genuinely forgot to put this one because this is genuinely one of the most exhausting series in the most neutral way possible. Burnout from the newer releases aside (not even necessarily for quality they just keep HAPPENING) it's hard to say I'm not a fan anyways. It's a hard formula to truly make joyless despite PLA's best efforts to massacre the battle system. Even the worst main series games have the fun of planning out a team of little guys you wouldn't give the light of day if they didn't just happen to fit into your team plans (Hopsune Mikeru my beloved Seismitoad). Plus there's the fun of shiny hunting and challenge runs, my personal pick for the latter being monotype bug. Bug is my favorite type, and makes up most of my top ten favorites like Scizor, Vikavolt, and Heracross, but my all time favorite is Meowth for. More reasons than you might think.

Splatoon: Kind of like Sonic where I have that vague "fake fan" mindset just because I've never been that into the multiplayer and mostly just enjoy the aesthetic and narrative aspects. Difference though is that I have played the entire series in terms of single player content, which I do in fact love a pretty good bit. Thankfully just finished Side Order right as I noticed my Switch was looking kinda funny, because uh! yeah gay fish! My god these bitches gay! Good for them! I haven't interacted much with the wider Splatoon fandom yet, but this is the one game series in over half a decade I've made OCs for, and I think they're pretty fun even if they have a total disregard for the canon art style and bend the lore to whatever I think would be neat if it existed. So uh. yeah I hope they get looked at soon.

Overwatch: The reason I never really felt the need to play Splatoon multiplayer and that's all I'm going to say about it now.

Plants vs. Zombies and Insaniquarium: In my heart PvZ is a series of two games and one of them is about fish. Might try the shooter spinoffs at some point, no ill will to fans of those, I just haven't given them a try yet. These two are kind of the surviving remnants of that golden childhood purity of simple flash-like games, which have such a simple charm, and genuinely satisfying gameplay loop. Obviously PvZ is the overall better game that's stood the tests of time, but Insaniquarium Deluxe has an even more primal nostalgia embedded in my brain. Of all the obscure fish tank games I saw my dad play on his old computer (as some of my rare happy memories of the man) this is the only one that I ever reunited with. They're both fantastic and also collectively like 3 bucks on Steam during a sale, please play them.

Endless Ocean: Can't bring up the fish autism without mentioning this one too. Specifically referring to the second one with a different name depending on where you are, never played the first one and not necessarily in a hurry to remedy that. Very chill but also secretly insane diving game that profoundly itched the underwater-loving corners of my brain first tended to by Finding Nemo. The fish have Lore. Insanely excited for the third game, genuinely did NOT expect that happening.

Subnautica: The third and final horseman of the fish autism apocalypse, which is allegedly a horror game that I choose to play as a farming simulator because it didn't stop me. Gorgeous, insanely brilliant creature designs with intricate biological thought put behind them, fun exploration and base building, it's just great. Have only played up to the endgame myself but have seen the ending (thanks Mark, only got into this game thanks to you) and still haven't played Below Zero but I'm excited to get to it in spite of it apparently not being as good.

Spore: This one's like. Fish autism adjacent. Even if they CUT THE AQUATIC STAGE THOSE HEARTLESS BAST- anyways yeah this game's great. Not as like. A video game. That you're supposed to actually play. Going through the actual gameplay stages as intended, the only one that comes close to being interesting is Creature and that's entertaining for like an hour before you run out of stuff to do and are shoved into moving on. No, this is beloved to me because of it having the single most addictive character creator of all time. It's genuinely endlessly entertaining just making creatures of all shapes and sizes, pushing the creation tools to their limits. Even if the core gameplay was good I don't think my playtime would be that different. If there's any games that have similar creation mechanics then please tell me, I'd love to at least check them out.

Minecraft: it's uh. It's Minecraft. When my laptop works I stream it every saturday with friends. do I uh. have to say more.

Epic Mickey: Another nostalgic Wii classic, and the most excited I think just about anyone my age gets over the mouse. It's an incredible love letter to Disney history with such a unique art style and story that all work together to create something special and not just something tacky and aimlessly edgy. I'm honestly shocked there aren't more games that use a run down theme park as a setting, especially with how popular and neat urban exploring stuff like the Disney parks is, but I feel like it'd be easy to take that too far into grimdark, which EM neared as close as it could without going overboard by virtue of being a real Disney product. Oswald also gets the premium golden Silly Little Guy award, I love him dearly please let him do more things now. Also if you wanna get into the game without waiting on and/or paying for Rebrushed then I highly recommend the incredibly well-researched and very entertaining Let's Play of it by youtube user "theenglishman", it's so good for such a small channel I gotta shout him out where I can.

Shovel Knight: The NES throwback game that's so good you forget that was its marketing gimmick back in the early 2010s when people cared about that sort of thing. Obviously the gameplay is just more palatable with modern polish and... actually good game design, but even just the game being fun (and also an INCREDIBLE deal now if you bought in early and got the whole package of essentially 5 games for the price of the original release, and even if you only buy it now it's still worth it) doesn't cover all of why it's stuck with me. Again stop me if I've said this before, but fantastic visuals, incredible music, and great character designs that have a delightful style all their own rather than feeling limited to just what'd be accurate to the NES era. Genuinely great, got some underrated blorbos there. King Knight is my favorite of the treasure trove's collection to play but also Plague Knight is another Silly Little Guy honorable mention.

Undertale/Deltarune: you uh. gonna be surprised the tumblr user likes these games. I really don't need to say what's been said a thousand times about these games being so special, but I can say I have a weird angle on the series as a relative newcomer, only getting onboard with Deltarune chapter one when it came out at a VERY weird time in my life, and then going back to Undertale so much later it was shortly after Chapter 2 came out. But ever since falling in (no pun intended) it's been hard to get out of the theory brainrot, it's truly special when a game does things like that to your mind. also something something Mad Mew Mew.

Chrono Trigger: Adjacent to the last one and I SWEAR that's crucial guys. Feels weird mentioning this because I've only personally played through to the end of the first dungeon but I've seen a very comprehensive Let's Play of it by a uh... recently retroactively unfortunate source I don't wanna dwell on. But that can't taint this entire game, it's too good for that. Very much a classic for a reason, with its incredible story, great soundtrack, some of the most gorgeous sights on the SNES, and a phenomenal cast of characters. Excited to finish playing through it myself, maybe starting from the top to do a let's play of my own.

Fighting Games Lightning Round: Lumping these together because. Yeah.

Smash: Yes Ultimate's the best one. Unless you care that much about that one Subspace cutscene with the ships flying and the main theme kicking in. Which case I respect that. Mains: Ridley, Dedede, and Bowser. God I wish I could do things as Rosalina.

Rivals of Aether: Going in I was expecting Melee pandering but no it's genuinely the best platform fighter aside from Smash, even entirely ignoring the custom content. I'm EXTREMELY excited for 2 it looks so good oh my GOD it can't happen fast enough. In the meantime I uh... guess I can try and beat Dungeons? I guess? Mains: Kragg and Olympia. Almost certainly gonna do my best with Loxodont and Fleet when 2 happens.

Street Fighter: My first foray into traditional fighters and hey, SF2 is as good a place as any to start. Very fun series to learn the history of, and serves as a good basis to learn other fighting games. Only really played 2, Alpha, and 3 with my sibling. Played like an hour of 4 and am looking to get 6 at some point. Mains: (not as attached to these as my mains for other games) Sagat, Cammy, Makoto, Elena. I feel like I have a hunch who I'd main from 6.

Skullgirls: Unfortunately has the second most "baggage" out of any games mentioned here (not elaborating, go research and form your own opinions), but past that this game is goooooooooooooood. Gorgeous art style and soundtrack, and gameplay that takes a minute to get into (god the tutorial can take a minute) but feels great even if you just barely know the basics. So far my favorite traditional fighter even if I'm scared to fight anybody who's actually decent at it. Mains: Big Band, Eliza, Robo Fortune, Valentine.

Darkstalkers: Only played this one really briefly and casually but god it's worth a mention. Literally the evolutionary midpoint between the past two, and it's fun getting to see where certain ideas from the latter got their inspiration from. Plus it's also just incredibly fun and stylish in its own right, gotta love a good ol' monster mash...ing each others face in. Please let this series come back as more than just waifu statues and crossover appearances. Main: Huitzil/Phobos.

Aaaaaaand that's it! All the major games and game series that currently come to mind as things I'm super passionate about. Obviously not a comprehensive list of every game I like ever, but these are the most special to me or interesting to talk about. Will probably do the followup post about shows... later. Not sure exactly when.

[dededaio]

I didn’t realize robobot had a high status among people? I’m genuinely curious what flaws you’re referring too, gameplay stuff or story things? I’m aware the translation for that game was bad at times but I get the sense you’re referring to things other than that. I’m curious if it’s the same stuff I noticed on my playthroughs

I mean I don't even know how it is nowadays because I don't like interacting with larger Kirby fandom. But as far as I know it's still considered to be the best or one of the best games in the series, like top 1-3 material game. And it's fine! Everyone has different preferences and tastes and opinions, ppl can love the game if they want to!

But I increasingly saw the opinion that Robobot is too much of a peak 2D Kirby and they can't do anything better than that. Star Allies certain shortcomings seemingly reaffirmed this position for people. But I don't really agree with that.

There are many issues that kind of build up like a snowball of many different problems. I feel kind of tired to single out all of them so I'll just touch upon each major area briefly:

1) Despite improved presentation, story is very lackluster and doesn't live up to potential of it's premise

2) A lot of aspects about the game, from bosses to plot points, feel recycled from previous Kirby games, which robs the game of it's own identity

3) Utilisation of the cast except Susie is very poor, including new original characters like President Haltmann and Star Dream

Game is at it's best when you just play it's levels, it's excellent on the front of level design and utilisation of it's main gimmick and it's totally valid to love the game on these grounds alone bur it's not enough for me, especially with how other modern Kirbies did this stuff too and then some.

[7grandmel]

Todays rip: 24/06/2023

Battle! The Trainer Inside Your Head!

Season 2 Featured on: Rips of Christmas Past (Exclusive!)

Ripped by Nape Mango

Boy doesn't that look a bit different? Yep, we're doing an album-exclusive track this time, meaning there's no YouTube link to embed to. That might also mean that this is a rip that has flown under the radar for a lot of you!

I've already talked about just how cool I think Nape Mango is as a contributor in a prior post, and I believe it was this rip in particular that solidified that for me. He doesn't show up much, most often being part of collabs or helping out other projects, but almost all of his solo rips have this aura of being perfectly thought through - either something that was blindingly obvious before, or something that FEELS blindingly obvious after having heard the rip.

Though I might be biased having grown up with Pokémon Gen 5 in particular, that kind of retrospective obviousness hits hard as ever with this track. It adapts one of the game's most triumphant battle themes, the battle theme for the Pokémon World Tournament grand finals, into close to a dozen jokes all pertaining specifically to SiIva's own lore. With the album this rip debuted in releasing at the very end of Season 2, after several episodes of the Christmas Comeback Crisis storyline had gotten me woefully invested in it? This rip felt like an unofficial anthem for the channel, hidden only to those turbo-nerds like myself who listen to these albums in their entirety. There's something about how the rip escalates that's always struck a sort of poetic chord with me, as if its a musical retelling of the actual story so far in the CCC. Beginning with the simple Flintstones riff as an intro, leading into a building melody of Kirby: Planet Robobot Music setting up the actual scene of the CCC alongside the repeating Nutshack progression - remember, dear readers, The Nutshack was in a way intrinsically tied to the original Season 1 channel ending. Transitioning from that theme, one almost coded in a sort of doom in the context of the channel, into Snow Halation - a theme of hope and prosperity, it really feels like a narrative is being told with this rip!

I'm almost certainly looking too much into this rip, but its context and release paired with its Nape Mango seal of quality did really do something for me. Its become my personal anthem for the Christmas Comeback Crisis, and I've genuinely thought about storyboarding some sort of CCC music video using it as backing several times. Lets hope more of the Youtube-only audience get to hear it soon.

[lorekeeper-backset]

You know what, here, have my "Why I love ORAS" essay I wrote for Playwriting class. Presenting:

How Pokemon Rotted my Brain (In a Good Way)

I’ve always been a fan of video games. Ever  since I was really little and watching my dad play games I was too young to play on his Playstation 2 or XBox 360, and then later when I was playing games like Lego Star Wars and Lego Batman on those same systems and later ones like the Playstation 3. But there’s one system, and one game, that have stuck with me to this very day. Not just in a metaphorical sense, in a literal sense.

To call the Nintendo 2DS a toy would be inaccurate. Such a complex device of computational power, all that fun and joy packed into that little tiny system. No, it was much, much more than a toy. It was, and still is, my most prized possession. 

I don’t remember when I received it. I remember that before I got it I would play 3DS games on my Dad’s 3DS and that when I got it, I used my own money to pay for it and that I got it instead of the 3DS because it was 30 dollars cheaper and they played the same games (for reference, a 2DS is the same system as the 3DS without the 3D function).

There are many games I played on that 2DS, almost all of them near and dear to me. Kirby Triple Deluxe, Kirby Planet Robobot (a personal favorite of mine), Pokemon Y, Kid Icarus Uprising, and many others. But one particular game has endured with me to this day. A game I’ve replayed time and time again, Pokemon Alpha Sapphire, released in 2014.

While my introduction to the Pokemon franchise was Pokemon Y, the game that made me love it was Alpha Sapphire. Along with its counterpart, Pokemon Omega Ruby, Pokemon Alpha Sapphire served as a remake of the Generation 3 games Pokemon Ruby and Sapphire (released in 2003 in Japan and 2004 in US). Pokemon Alpha Sapphire took me on an incredible Journey through the Tropical Hoenn Region, collecting Gym Badges and putting a stop to the evil machinations of Team Aqua. 

Particularly close to my heart, is the story. I’m sure a lot of you are quietly scoffing at the idea of a Pokemon Game having an engaging story. Especially a remake of Ruby and Sapphire whose main antagonists’ goals are famously “Expand the Land” and “Expand the Ocean” respectively. And if you’re one of those people who’s scoffing all I have to say is, go play Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire (or any Pokemon game post Gen 3, really) or, if you’ve already played them, replay them and pay close attention.

If you do, you’ll get to experience the tale of a man whose given up on humanity to the point where he’s determined the only way to fix things is to start over. The story of a man whose dedication to humanity’s progress means he is willing to endanger the world to provide more land to live on and try to fix overpopulation. The woes of a man who had power and riches but is crushed beneath the burden of responsibility which he refuses to share or pass off to another, attempting to carry it all alone, even when he would rather be pursuing his true passion for geology. The tragic tale of a woman who was raised for one purpose, one sole reason to exist, but whose destiny ultimately passed her by. And many more.

When I first played it I didn’t quite absorb all this, being 10 years old, but now, many years later, the story and characters of this game impact me deeply. They influence the stories I tell, and the characters I write. I even write my own stories about them, continuing their character arcs or retelling their stories in my own way. So, yeah, Pokemon Alpha Sapphire, the best Pokemon game, I’m not taking criticism.

[c7thetumbler]

Quick Game reviews: 2023 (Part 2!)

Continuing on! These were ones I played closer to the end of the year, but also as I remember them throughout. Other than that, order doesn't matter

Let's keep this ball rollin!

Kirby's Dreamland 2 (Switch online)

The only Kirby's dreamland I never played! I enjoyed it quite a lot, though of course it's a pretty easy Kirby game. Back in the day this would've been a lot of fun, and still is as a quickly little romp through a classic Kirby game. Nowadays it doesn't really hold up vs SuperStar DX and Planet Robobot, so not an essential playthrough by any means

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This next section's going to be about playing and 100% every Super Mario Advance game! How incredibly pointless interesting!

To put an age on myself, GBA was my late kid/early teen years and I have a long history with these games. Since they all got added as part of NSO+ or whatever I'm mooching off of Keewy's subscription (love you so much bud), I figured it'd be fun to go back and 100% all of them. Mixed results, but let's get into it.

Super Mario Advance (Switch Online, GBA)

This one was the original Mario Advanced, and more first into into SMB2 (Doki Doki Panic). Since it was fresh to me I didn't realize at the time that it was just a remaster, and thought it was difficult but a lot of fun. The addition of the findable Yoshi eggs adds some replay-ability, but mostly in the form of a tedious hide and seek.

Additionally, the playground rumor was if you got ALL of the Yoshi eggs, you can play as him! This is an outright lie. Ryan. You get nothing for finding them all other than the satisfaction of knowing you did it. As far as an experience goes, this is definitely one of the better ways to play SMB2 as long as you can get back the crunchy but frequent voice lines

Super Mario Advance 2: Super Mario World (Switch Online, GBA)

This one was one I spent COUNTLESS hours playing on my old GBA, and continued playing after the DS came out on my Micro. Easily my favorite 2D Mario game, no contest. This is the best way you can experience SMW officially, and I'd highly recommend it since it made some of the more high-score aspects like dragon coins collectibles instead.

Unlike The previous game, this game actually rewards you with some fun screens and congratulations when you finish everything too!

Super Mario Advance 3: Yoshi's Island (Switch Online, GBA)

Another incredibly solid title! Same as the original but with some minor tweaks and additional levels. This is the definitive version of the original Yoshi's Island, which if you haven't played, you absolutely should.

I Don't remember a reward past the "All Clear" congratulations you get, but still that's enough of an accomplishment because these levels can get tough.

Super Mario Advance 4: Super Mario Bros. 3 e+ (Switch Online, GBA

This one and I have a funny history. I got on e-reader at the tail end of it's incredibly short lifespan in the states. While I have fond memories of scanning cards for NES games, Animal Crossing, and this game, I unfortunately was not able to find the packs to play all these e-reader levels. Now that this is re-released, I can finally play all them and see what the reward is for getting all the cards and collectibles in the levels (which involves playing each one at least twice!).

You get nothing! And the card levels vvary in quality, definitely with a very proto Mario Maker vibe to them. They were fun at the time, but honestly they should've just done a bonus world with all the levels already available after beating the game. Playing all this once-lost level content is interesting, but as far as this game goes it can get pretty grindy and overstay its welcome, especially in comparison to things done nowadays in 2D mario with Wonder and Mario Maker

Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga (Switch Online, GBA)

A classic masterpiece. Offers a big, beautiful, wacky world to explore without overstaying it's welcome with unique ways of traversing and interacting with the environment and an incredible battle system. Honestly? I'd suggest playing this over its 3DS remake; what that adds isn't worth missing out on this iconic art that defined a small generation of sprite-artists, and the QoL stuff added doesn't really do that much for this game since it was already incredible.

Will always recommend SuperStar Saga

... And that's all the Mario advanced games! Basically, play Superstar Saga, the rest is up to you but SMW is great as well.

BurgerTime Deluxe (Switch Online, GB)

Me and Burgertime Arcade go waaaaay back to the dentist office where they had a cabinet that I would play when I finished my cleanings but had to wait for half an hour afterwards. I had no idea this game existed!

Similar to Annalynn in the last post, this is a classic Arcade experience that in order to get really good at and beat without failure, you need to deeply understand how all its simple mechanics work. Since it's on NSO, I cheated a bit near the end. Still, This is a great portable expansion on Burgertime the arcade game, similar to how Donkey Kong GB blows the original DK arcade game out of the water! Would recommend you give it a try if only to get that classic arcade feeling.

Vampire Survivors (Steam)

I have a hard time recommending games like this. On the one hand, I did enjoy my time with it and it was pretty fun to slowly get better and find all the things, as well as learn different really cool combos for some crazy shenanigans. On the other hand, there's not really much gameplay here other than wandering in the right direction and a skinner box. It's kinda like cookie clicker to me; not something that I like the idea of fondly, but still some good fun for a little bit. The kind of thing I could easily hyperfixate on without actually enjoying myself, if I'm not careful.

Pikmin 1 (Switch)

So this surprised me. Was not expecting a Switch re-release, but it did make sense. As far as things go, this is a good way to experience the game (legally), and it does fix a number of issues with Wii Play Control versions, but at the end of the day I would've preferred a bit more; either some online high score comparison features or an actual HD remaster. Pikmin's a great time, but this entry shows it's age a bit; I'd recommend Pikmin 4 first.

Pikmin 3 also perfected the challenge mode, so going back to this version's classic mode with no changes or comparisons was just a little bleh.

Pikmin 2 (Switch)

I feel like I can recommend this one a bit more, however it falls into the same pitfalls that rereleasing 1 does. Pikmin 2 is a phenomenal game, but loses all of the stakes of a time limit in exchange for being much larger (and hilariously unfair at times). It's challenge mode is also certainly more engaging than 1, but again it fails in comparison to 3, and I would've liked to see a remaster instead. Especially since Pikmin 3's DLC and later Pikmin 4 confirmed that they had all the HD assets for it. Again, I love pikmin, but Pikmin 4 perfectly captured the Pikmin experience for me, so I'd recommend checking that out first.

Castle on the Coast (Steam)

A fun, easy, short 3D platformer whose mascot is based off of the mascot of a Children's Hospital! How cute.

It's a good time to just play through casually; the movement is a little strange but I was able to get used to it and it was a great time. Another game that feels of perfect length for what it's doing. It's pretty cheap on sale, I'd give this a god if you're aching for a classic 3D platformer game.

Grounded (Steam)

This one's hard to recommend; I had a lot of fun playing it with my good pally pals June and Keewy, but it definitely seemed like it was more fine-tuned as a single-player experience since the scaling for additional people made everything WAY harder. Admittedly I wasn'ty playing my best and I'd still like to try and beat it, but I found myself frustrated a lot. I've not delved to much into the crafting survival genre past Minecraft, and while this one has good visuals and a fun 90s story, I have trouble giving it a thumbs-up

Pikmin 4 (Switch)

After so many years...

It's fucking amazing, best entry in the series. The definitive Pikmin experience, if you've never played Pikmin start here and work backwards if you fall in love. Instant masterpiece, tons of content, but still found myself wanting more

The Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Ages (Switch Online, GBA)

Finally got around to finishing one of these! It's a very fun 2D Zelda, but is in drastic need of some QoL and modernization. Constantly using the start button to swap items and check the map is as tedious as expected, but in terms of gameplay it's a lot of fun! I didn't play Seasons yet, which feels like it's mandatory for getting the full expeience, and there were a few moments where I found myself lost and frustrated, but past that a solid 2D Zelda entry.

Animal Crossing New Horizons: Happy Home Paradise (Switch DLC)

I had been playing AC to catch up and finally complete the museum, and was astonished by how little content there was in this DLC.

Then I learned that it doesn't Download automatically if you get it for free via NSO+ subscription. Oops.

It goes a long way in adding to New Horizon's experience, which after so many hours playing it can feel strippedof its charm as you repeat the same tasks with a limited number of personalities is refreshing. Is it worth $30? ehhh.

I've designed ~80 homes in it so far, and while it is fun to decorate around their guidelines and play with villagers you may have fond memories of from previous entries, it's very much a make your own goals kind of thing. You'll find yourself very easily bored of it if you don't engage with it seriously and only do the bare minimum to "progress", but it definitely allows AC's home designing experience to really shine.

Sonic Frontiers: The Final Horizon (Steam)

Wow, this was not good! Incredibly hard platforming levels and bosses scattered all around the world that only Sonic could deal with, with some incredibly janky mechanics for all 3 the new playable characters that don't really work well enough to design levels around (which is good, because they didn't). Boss fights and new challenges are super difficult and annoying as well. The only Positive is the endin g is better, but you can watch that on Youtube. Honestly, the best experience you can have withg a farily good game like this is to play with all DLC downloaded but not going through the portal to this content. It's got 3D Sonic jank, but in a way that's incredibly frustrating and not fun to navigate around.

F-Zero 99 (Switch Online)

I miss Super Mario Bros 35.

... This game's fine, and a fun re-imagining of classic F-Zero experience, but I was never really a fan of F-Zero and thought that the 2D ones were a bit too tough for me so I didn't play it much. If you like F-Zero though, you'll love this

Super Mario Wonder (Switch)

Another hit, highly recommend this one for it's charm alone! It's 2D Mario, you know if you want it or not.

I will say my experience with it is from the perspective of someone who has religiously played every Mario game, and I did actually very much enjoy the game so the rest of this review will be from that perspective.

Game length felt a bit... short to me. There are just as many levels and worlds as you would expect in a 2D Mario game, as well asa lot of things to collect and a bonus world with it's own secrets of course. But I still managed to beat in 100% in about a day, whcih is kinda surprising to me given how much time I spent on other games. 3D World comes to mind as one with just about the same amount of levels, but one I spent way more time playing and had more enjoyment with just because of the way 100% is done. I would've liked to see a bit more is all I'm saying, but it's defnitely a full game.

The online ghost helper features is a welcome addition to the game. It allows you to help or be helped by other players and having that extra bit of interactivity and silent community without getting in the way of playtime. Visually it's also a stunning style, and I hope in future they continue to stylize Mario Games and move away from the Gamecube era models and NSMB styling and get something with much more character like this.

Gameplay wise it's also very fun, though you can feel the traditional 2D Mario formula in every level which is something I wish I could un-know. Badges are neat, but can be a mixed bag. There's one really good badge and then some okay badges and then others you would never touch, which doesn't really encourage the variations in gameplay as much as they would've hoped it does, I think. Additionally while I understand the idea of all characters playing the same (sans Yoshi + Nabbit), I think I still would've preferred unique movement for each character over the badge system.

All in all, it's great, but I want more.

Knytt Underground (Steam)

So for those unfamiliar with Knytt, it was an atmospheric, simple, 2D indie platformer that allowed you to make your own levels and games and let other people play them. It was very popular amoung a certain group of early let's players that overlapped strongly with SMW Rom hacks. This is essentially a sequel/remaster of that style.

This game is just okay. It's very simple, involves a lot of backtracking and the story and characters aren't terribly engaging. It's not a bad time, but feels very much of its time so I can't really recommend this one.

Super Mario RPG (Switch)

A fantastic remake of a trend-setting classic! I had forgotten how short the original was, but this adds a number of features and improvements that make it worth it. I love that they kept the very strange character designs that we never got to see again, as well as how faithful they were to the original's quirks while also fixing the localization issues. $60 is still a lot, imo, to ask for a game that already existed, but like that's a pretty good game and remake so I'd say go for it.

Lethal Company (Steam)

This one I was unsure if I would like or not because I'm a big baby when it comes to horror games. Playing this with friends though changes everything, and I had a wonderful time with it. It's definitely one of those games where the less you know about the enemies the better, as once you start getting "good" at it it feels like a different experience than wandering into the unknown, but I'm looking forward to future updates. I'd give this one a try if you have some friends to play it with!

Paper Mario (Switch Online, N64)

After finishing Super Mario RPG I had a terrible Mario RPG itch that I needed to scratch, and with TTYD remake announced and coming next year this seemed like a good move. I'm glad I did since I only played it once and didn't remember much of it. It's a fun, simple RPG, but the lack of depth to its mechanics and at this point pretty standard Mario story made it age less well than it's predecessor and sequel. I'm glad they're remaking TTYD and not this. It's by no means a bad time, but not one of the essential Mario RPGs over TTYD, Superstar Saga, and SMRPG.

Disney Dreamlight Valley: Eternity Isle Expansion (Switch)

This is one that I mostly watched my Sister play over Christmas but then had to pick up so she could get the rewards for a limited quest she unlocked. This adds an interesting area, a much more thought-out storyline and world, and is overall an improvement. However, the basic flaws are still there, including random crashes and softlocking, stuttering framerate, some very low-poly resources, and just all around tediousness and grindy nature of it. I'd recommend this if you're a huge disney/ Animal Crossing fan, and even then on PC instead. It still feels like an early access game and has some pretty intense monetization, so for the cost of the base game plus expansion I cannot ethically recommend it due to its quality and bad internal practices

... But like, it's not a bad game. It just needs a lot more work.

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BEST GAME I PLAYED THIS YEAR

Golly, lot of suspense in this one right? I raved about Tears of the Kingdom, but like a LOT of good stuff came out this year and I even enjoyed several incredible indies there.

I mean, you know what the answer is already, but I can pretend for a split second I wasn't going to say Pikmin 4 right?

It was Pikmin 4. Pikmin 4 is the best game I played this year, and nothing anyone says will convince me otherwise.

It was such a long wait and having come out as such a fun and packed experience, basically containing Pikmin 1 and 2 as sub games within it made it easily come out ahead. I just love it so much.

Tears of the Kingdom is 2nd place, and I didn't play Baldur's Gate so that's just not here.

...

Anywho, that's it! Hope everyone enjoyed gaming as much as I did this year, despite, well, you know. Motions vaguely towards entire planet

See ya!

[captorcorp]

✨ 💎 for the hyper fixation asks?

✨ what draws you towards your hyperfixation? what is interesting about it?

omg so much... for one i love the general aesthetics of it! kirby is already just cute in general but i love star motifs, clouds, etc stuff they use to make a fun little world... and character designs, enemies like waddle doo or drawcia or galactic nova are the absolute character design of all time (i love it when there's weird little guys with big eyeball/floaty hands/big cloak/etc)

also the characters are all really cool, first of all we've got the iconic main quartet with kirby bringing everyone together with the power of friendship - even a lot of the characters that try to kill him and destroy the world are not immune to his pure :D energy

and then ofc the villains, i have an obvious magolor bias (i mean i love wizards and villains and characters that go 'heeheehee' this was inevitable tbh) but also like taranza and susie and daroach and etc are all really silly little guys with interesting stories and personalities (... actually idk what daroach's story is i'm still mid-squeak squad hjkdf still he's also cool) (marx is also cool but he really just shows up for 5 seconds, dropkicks kirby, and gets blown up hjkdfs i prefer the others a little more ^^;)

the lore in general is also really fun, the contrast between kirby just living his simple little life with friends and food and fun and dealing with intergalactic threats, also all the worldbuilding stuff like the different dimensions, artifacts from the ancients (lor starcutter my beloved 💖), whatever tf is going on with dark matter i haven't gotten to those games yet ^^;;

(also the gameplay is p fun i guess hkjdfs all this rambling and nothing about the actual game itself ^^; i do like it but it's not the main thing drawing me to the series yknow)

the music is also a+++ but i'll wait to talk about that if i get the music question for this ask game :P

it's just a silly little series that appeals to the kinda vibes i like with lots of characters/lore to rotate in your mind ^^

💎 are there any fun facts or trivia that you would like to share?

these are mostly magolor/lor centric bc they're my faves but hjkdf

magolor is canonically referred to as a 'crafty egg', makes the fried egg food item when cooked in star allies, and gets cafe merch related to eggs bc of his egg shape...

in the games, the lor starcutter (magolor's ancient ship) is heavily implied to be sentient and in the light novels, it even talks to bandana waddle dee through sending his brain information about sphere doomers and good vibes ^^

last magolor fact but. in the true arena final boss music you can hear him crying 'kirby... tasukete!' in the bg ;-; (ex: around 1:14 but a bunch of times throughout)

there's a light novel and merchandise line where a bunch of the characters get steampunk designs and it's very cute

in kirby planet robobot you can put stickers on your robot suit!!! my favorites are the stickers kirby hand-draws of his friends

kirby is round and he is my friend

[icedragonlizard]

I really genuinely feel like Susie has gotten way too much vitriol for the whole ordeal of Meta Knight being turned into Mecha Knight.

Truthfully, I don't think the Mecha Knight situation was really quite as bad as some people make it out to be. After you beat him the second time, he breaks out of the armor and quickly flies off. You don't even see scars on his face right before he flies off. He effortlessly flies off.

Some people say that Susie "destroyed" Meta Knight's body and just ruined his life. If that was really the case... then after you beat him the second time and the armor falls off of him, don't you think he would've just sat there crippled and helpless? And that his face would look ripped apart? Neither of those were the case. He quickly flies off, gets the Halberd up and going, and generally has no issue helping Kirby battle Star Dream. He then continues to get the Halberd flying around Popstar at the ending cutscene of the game before the credits.

Meta Knight is literally fine at the end of Planet Robobot! He seems to have walked off the mechanization pretty damn quickly. Immediately after breaking free of the armor, he performed a bunch of exercise without any trouble doing so. He seems to be living life just fine after the incident. I don't buy into the headcanon of him having tons of medical trauma as a result from being Mecha Knight... because otherwise, don't you think his design would've been permanently altered post-Robobot? His design has not been changed at all from it. He was not totally destroyed and ruined by being Mecha Knight.

Now, I understand people in the fandom adore angst (as do I!) and that the Mecha Knight situation does pump out some good angst for fanon content, such as fanfictions. But canonically speaking, the whole ordeal is greatly exaggerated by the fandom. Some people seem to act like it's the worst and most messed up thing that ever happened in the franchise. If I'm being honest, I don't think the Mecha Knight situation was any worse than when Hyness sucked the life force out of the mage sisters, used their bodies as weapons and then sacrificed them (and himself) in order to summon Void Termina.

I mean, to be fair, what Susie did to Meta Knight was pretty messed up... but I think people blow it out of proportion. Like said above, Meta Knight came out of it just fine. And really, there's a lot of pretty messed up shit that happens in the series. I think what Dark Matter did to King Dedede was pretty messed up... it formed a giant eyeball in his stomach, and then turned his stomach into a set of jaws. And this happened in two different games! Also, Francisca literally has a collection of frozen dead people stored in ice cubes... you can't tell me in a straight face that's not messed up. Because it absolutely is!

The level of how much Susie gets demonized by the fandom is just absolutely ridiculous. And some of the worst demonization I've seen of her is purely for Mecha Knight. I have literally seen people say that Kirby should've killed Susie for turning Meta Knight into a robot... bruh, Kirby literally rushed over to Susie to see if she was okay after she got blasted by Star Dream when she seized the machine's controller. You think he would've done that if he had any intention of harming her for Mecha Knight? Kirby doesn't want to hurt people if he doesn't have to! You will never, ever see anyone saying that Kirby should've killed Taranza for kidnapping and possessing King Dedede.

I'm not calling for people to say that, by the way. I do not at all wish to demonize Taranza, but it's just kind of sickening to see the absolute double standard that the fandom has for Taranza and Susie. People literally pretend that Taranza did nothing wrong while screaming about how much of a horrible monster Susie is. In reality, these two characters are very much on the same boat in a lot of ways. They were both minions of corrupt higher-ups and they both committed atrocities in the name of the corrupt higher-ups that they were trying to save. Their atrocities were very similar. Now, Susie's are technically worse because hers were on a bigger scale compared to Taranza's, but it's still incredibly hypocritical to justify one and demonize the other.

I suppose I should also bring up the Star Allies skit of Susie chasing Meta Knight, since people love to use that skit to try to say that he's still 'canonically' scared and/or traumatized by her. I'm pretty sure these skits are not meant to be taken seriously. And if you're insistent in acting like this skit is truth, then how about we do the same for all the other skits? In fact, there's literally another skit where Kirby, Meta Knight and Susie all pose together to basically showcase the 'Planet Robobot team', and Meta Knight doesn't appear to be bothered at all by Susie being right by him in that particular skit.

Now, to be fair, I myself have the headcanon where Meta Knight gets angry at Susie for turning him into a robot and initially hates her for it, but it's not permanent. In my interpretation, his disdain for her slowly chips away and there becomes a point where he's... okay with her. If anything, I feel like he was just really humiliated for being kidnapped and turned into a slave, and while I imagine he did technically feel some hurt for being turned into a robot, I certainly don't imagine it "ruined his life" or permanently messed up his body, or that he'd forever hold a colossal grudge against Susie over it. In my headcanons, he at least lets Kirby pursue a friendship with Susie.

Overall, I feel like people exaggerate Mecha Knight, and that the amount of negativity that Susie has received for it is unfair. Now... let me make myself clear here... it's fine if you don't like Susie. If she unnerves you because of the whole capitalism, colonization and greed themes of Planet Robobot, then that's perfectly understandable. I get that. That's fair. But I really, truly, think that many of her criticisms aren't so valid. I could go on about how I think people make wrong claims about her, like they claim that she's still just as evil as she was in Robobot and that she doesn't care that her father is dead, because I do not believe either of those things being true, but that's for another time. I think the Mecha Knight situation is the most absurd part of her discourse entirely. I've seen people demonize her just because of Mecha Knight, and say she's unforgivable literally just because of that. Dunno about you, but I find that to be ludicrous.

I think how the Kirby fandom treats Susie is as tragic as her backstory.

[desultory-novice]

What’s the implication of the Marx soul mask does that mean. Marx soul canonically existed?? Did magolor meet marx soul??????? I’m going insane (this is like the fourth thing rtdl dx made canon what the hell)

So, when I first booted up RtDL DX and got the "Merry Magoland" intro, I remember being a little confused.

Another place? Another time?

I started a new game in Japanese and while the text is BASICALLY the same (no mistranslations or anything) the implication here was much more like "at some point in the future Magolor built a theme park for his friends."

Which basically sets Merry Magoland as post-Star Allies/post-Forgotten Land. I mean, we'll need to wait for the inevitable Nintendo Dream interview to see if I'm right, but...

When I first joined the fandom, I didn't realize this was as hot a take as it turns out to be but, <HOT TAKE WARNING> I've never subscribed to the "all post-game modes aren't canon" thing. I play along with it because a lot of the fandom does, and "maybe Galactca Knight will finally be canon" is a funny joke, but I think people have taken the commentary from Planet Robobot too far, using as evidence that nothing post game is "canon." I don't buy it. I think you're just hurting your own Kirby experience by taking that too seriously. Maybe it doesn't happen in a linear fashion, maybe it's an AU or an alternate story, but are these games showing us things that happened, in one form or another? Yes, I say! (And I'll have more to say about that when I talk about...other things...)

--

(Merry Magoland mask spoilers below. Nothing but vague spoilers regarding the game itself. ....I think...)

But if you really want your brain broken in regards to Merry Magoland masks and questionable canonicity, there's also a mask of Dark Matter Blade's HWC-manufactured CLONE in Magoland, and that boss ONLY showed up in PR's "non-canon" mode. So, yeah!

Long story short, Marx Soul has always been canon to me. I'd say, either Magolor heard some of these stories from the characters, or (more likely?) he happened to witness some of these events himself during his (implied) many extra-dimensional travels.

Maybe every time you see the Lor passing by in the background as an easter egg, OUR Magolor is in fact on that ship, watching!

The thing you said at the end! I think that's probably one of the biggest points in favor of the Marx Soul encounter BEING canon in some reality or another space and time we don't see.

But yes, basically that! Without Marx (Soul) absorbing Nova's parts to survive/be energized enough to move again, we really don't know how else he would have survived or how he gotten back.

And now that the epilogue's existence means we know people can (canonically ^^; ) "...go Soul" and survive, we have all the context necessary to suggest that Marx was seriously roughed up after the explosion, survived via Nova, went Soul, fought Kirby, and then, upon being cleaved in two, either had his own journey through another dimension/purgatory or he was found by Magolor immediately afterwards and returned to Pop Star after getting better!

Or he just...responded back on Pop Star after being cleaved in two! Because I still believe that most life in the Kirby verse doesn't "die" the way we humans think of death. I think "going Soul" is in fact dangerous, and maybe Nova being some kind of perpetual motion machine fused with Marx IS why he's still around, but mainly, I hold that there are very extenuating circumstances as to why the seemingly "perma-MiA" characters like Blade (spawn of a hive mind who had yet to develop full individuality/was reabsorbed back into the hivemind) Zero (died twice, may still be out there somewhere), Sectonia (still "alive" because fused with the dreamstalk), and Haltmann (literally had his soul data erased) have yet to revive.

Oh! And speaking of the being cleaved in two thing and Marx Soul, fufufu, I just want to shout and point randomly at my Marx is a Nightmare Wizard!possessed Noddy essay because I learned only recently that, unrelated to RtDL, Masked Dedede's "mask" absolutely has its origins in DARK MIND'S power?!

And if that's "word of god" canon, then there's no way you're going to convince me that Marx Soul's necklace didn't come from Nightmare Wizard in SOME form. (Sad that wasn't part of the mask render, btw. Since the sprite makes it so vague...)

[fayesdiary]

Top 5 video games (any variety, not just Fire Emblem)!

Honorable mentions include The Binding of Isaac: Rebirth, Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days (or the KH series in general, really), Portal 2, Kirby Planet Robobot, Dark Souls 1 & 3.

5) The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask

I played both Ocarina of Time and Majora's Mask last year on my 3DS (with a QoL mod for Majora installed), and while I kinda liked Ocarina and mainly respect it for its legacy, I absolutely adored Majora.

I couldn't put the game down, I 100%'d it, I adore the three days mechanic, I fucking love Termina and its atmosphere and just the whole creepy-melanchonic-odd tones the whole game has. Especially with the masks.

Not to mention facing quite literally impossible odds while everything is working against you over, and over, and over trying to stop the moon from destroying the world, with Link never getting any recognition for his deeds. It just hits a lot harder than the usual fated battle against Ganon because if anything, this game is a desperate struggle against Termina's fate.

Also I just found the game a lot of fun and is currently my favorite 3D Zelda game.

4) Fire Emblem Echoes: Shadows of Valentia

Well, of course Echoes is here!

It's my favorite FE and the direction I'd love for the series to go, it's simple yet so fun and Valentia and its characters are wonderful. Definitely the game in the series that's most dear to my heart.

3) CrossCode

I only played it a few months ago, but CrossCode quickly became one of my favorite games and my absolute favorite of the games I played in 2022 and I am begging everyone to go play it

It's an incredibly polished Action RPG with Zelda-like dungeons set in a futuristic MMO (although the game itself is single-player), the gameplay is incredibly fun and the story is even better, it kept me absolutely hooked for months and the characters are wonderful, especially the protagonist Lea, who's both canonically mute and arguably the best character of the entire game. Also she's my newest blorbo.

Also the themes almost seem tailor-made for me to obsess over and just AAAAGH GO PLAY CROSSCODE ALREADY

2) Undertale

...I mean. Does this game need any introductions? I feel everything that could be said about Undertale has already been said.

I played this game in 2016/2017 and it stuck with me hard, and after these many years the attachment has only gotten higher thanks to Deltarune, obsessing over theories and details with my UTDR mutuals and etching some of my favorite tropes (like symbiotic posession) into my heart. I even made some new friends because of it!

I have a huge feeling Deltarune is gonna dethrone it once the full game comes out if Ch2 is any indication, but Undertale will always be special to me. 1) Mother 3

Ah, Mother 3.

This game is very much in a Majora's Mask situation where its predecessor is more popular and beloved but while I respect the legacy it left behind I loved the sequel far more.

Gameplay-wise the game fixes almost every issue I had play Earthbound and makes it a lot more fast-paced and fun, but the story is very much what makes Mother 3 the masterpiece it is.

Beside the themes sadly becoming more and more relevant by the day, Mother 3 has often been described as one of the most heartwrenching videogames of all time and for good reason.

I almost never cry but the ending left me about to sob, and that was with me getting spoiled.

I can't recommend this game enough. Sure, it's not been localized, but grab a ROM and the unofficial translation patch and you're good to go. Just play Earthbound first.

[owlixx]

Kirby Spinoff/Demo Wrap Up

So, I am done with all the mainline pre-switch Kirby games! But after Robobot, I poked my head into some of the later spinoff games and played the demos of the switch games and wanted to share my thoughts on those.

Rainbow Curse

Great art style hampered by playing on gamepad

weird multiplayer that trivializes the core gameplay

I just popped in and bopped Wispy Woods

It's not...bad, but I don't have the itch to play more

Blowout Blast

I tried a level each from the sub-game and the standalone release

Pretty cute and fun, if a bit plain

Standalone game is definitely worth the upgrade with its actual levels and much longer length

The combo system and grading does stress me out a little

I wouldn't mind beating each of these sometime

Battle Royale

Booting this up with no prior knowledge is a baffling experience

I thought this game was 9 different genres before figuring it out

Seems like Blowout Blast with combat at first

Then it seems like top down Smash Bros

Only for it to end up being...a poor man's Mario Party?

Seems like this game should have either leaned into being more of a fighting game with light MOBA elements (like the tutorial also kind of made it seem with highlighted friends/enemies, revives, a mix of small and big enemies)

...or it should have leaned into being a party game and focused on variety and having game boards

I could see myself doing the story mode out of morbid curiosity but I don't think I would immensely enjoy it based on my reaction to the stupid apple collecting minigame

Star Allies

I had played this demo before multiple times, both single player and multi player

This time, what occurred to me was the absurdity of porting Return to Dream Land to Switch FIVE YEARS after releasing a near-identical game on Switch, where the biggest issue is how similar the two games are.

And both games are still 60 dollars! They are literally both games right now as part of Nintendo's special "voucher deal" where you can get two full priced games at a marginally reduced price. FIVE YEARS LATER

For context, 2018 also had such beloved games as Red Dead Redemption 2, Assassin's Creed Odyssey, Spider-Man, and God of War, all of which drop to 10-20 dollars regularly now. Hell, God of War got ported to PC starting at 50 dollars since it was SO OLD and that was over a year ago

30 fps :( Triple Deluxe really spoiled me (I am the first person to ever say that, from what I've seen)

Anyways, its just Return to Dream Land but with the friend system of Super Star (roughly) and ability mixing inspired by Squeak Squad's upgraded sword (rouhgly)

Having 4 helpers makes things too easy, maybe I'd try the story solo if I ever got this

Everyone dunks on Star Allies online so I was expecting to see what they see, and I do, but the game is still a fun Kirby game

After some research however, I am extremely tempted to purchase the game for all the extra modes

Especially Guest Star: the idea of letting you replay an entire Kirby game locked into one power, allowing for 20 something unique playthroughs each with their own best-time is so tempting and I wish every game had it

Plus, it is so cool to see DLC friends from every mainline Kirby now that I get all those references!

This game goes on sale a bit sometimes, so it is now an actual contender to purchase

Super Kirby Clash

I mean, it's not great, but it is cute enough and a decent splitscreen timekiller

I kind of wish that now they'd just patch the game to be a bit less money-grubbing

More free to play games should have flawless splitscreen

Fighters 2

Let me just say: WOW

The gameplay is not super sophisticated, but the polish and sheen are off the charts

Literally Star Allies engine but in 60 fps!

Two player roguelike story mode????

Exclusive copy abilitity?

Unique helper characters???

This game is clearly so much more than a sequel to the sub-game

Hilariously blows Fighters Deluxe out of the water in terms of...everything

Might get this if it ends up being fun splitscreen in the demo

Forgotten Land

Pretty fun demo

Only did the first level on "wild style", waiting to do the whole demo coop

30 fps :(((

Mario Odyssey was 60 fps SIX YEARS AGO

And speaking of, this game I think was expected to be "Kirby Odyssey" or "Kirby Breath of the Wild"

But it doesn't even feel like "Kirby's Mario 64" or "Kirby Ocarina of Time"

It feels more like "Kirby 3D Land"

It seems almost offensive that Kirby is a series with its identity rooted in novelty and unique gimmicks, yet the only 3D games before were a racing game, a minigame (with no copy abliities!), and a minigame collection kind of

Seems like a promising start, but I am not sure I want to drop 60 bucks just for a few more hours of this

Don't get me wrong, its cute and fun and wonderful, but it seems like "A fun Kirby game" and not "the Kirby game to end all Kirby games"

Might be tempted though if the local coop is really good

Dream Buffet

No demo for this one but I've got my eye on it