#zelda games for xbox 360

[bryastar]

Word Salad #3

Whee desktop keyboard instead of iPad this time! Gosh this feels much more comfortable to type on aa.

So today we went to check out a local gaming shop to browse around. I was primarily looking for a DualShock2 controller and a VMU for the Dreamcast, but sadly there wasn't any. Though I still love looking around for anything new that drops by...and mildly cry inside at how expensive everything has been getting.

We also had a spare TV just hanging out in storage, but it didn't have its legs as it was wallmounted previously. I stumbled on this kit that essentially adds new legs to a TV while at work. plus it still has traditional RCA (Component) ports as well as 3 HDMI ports so plenty of room to hook up everything.

Currently the old 360, PS2, and Wii are connected with Component cables, and the new 360 and PS4 are hooked via HDMI, and the N64 has a Rad2X HDMI adapter (which that is a whole story behind that aa). The main goal with this setup is I wanna have a nice cozy retro gaming area, along with being able to watch DVDs and BluRay movies. I definitely wanna get a nice speaker system setup someday too, but hey, baby steps.

Tho even while this whole setup looks neat, there is a bit of a flaw. This particular TV seems to have trouble with interlaced video and the PS1 mode on the PS2 unless I fiddle around with the connections and the settings, which is extra hard because we have no clue where the remote for this TV is (planning on getting a universal remote aa). Even then, another solution I'm looking into a RetroTINK 2x-Pro which should not only upscale everything but also adds scanlines for that retro look. However it's currently $140 USD so I'll have to tackle that much later.

Last part of this I wanna add, last night I found Paw being...Paw and quickly made a doodle. Note for myself, learn how to fur.

And that'll wrap things up for now. Tomorrow I have work for the next 4 days which practically takes up my entire day. Still unsure how I wanna handle those days but I guess I'll know for sure tomorrow aa

so...yeah

fishcakes

meow

[g4zdtechtv]

THE PILE PRESENTS: X-Play - A Total Subspace Case | 3/10/08

Passing the savings onto you!

[the-bus-called-graveyard-8]

Madagascar in Nickelodeon Magazine (part 4 of 4)

This last part is some miscellaneous Madagascar content that has appeared in various issues of Nick Mag. I used to keep all my Nick Magazines in big binders so I could reread them, but some years ago I decided to finally get rid of them. I only kept a select few (the Madagascar ones, of course) but before I tossed the rest I flipped through five years' worth of issues looking for any scraps of Madagascar. I don't know which issues any of these bits and bobs are from, but here they are nonetheless!

First we have a prank DVD cover for an absurd mashup of several 2000s animated movies called "Flushed Through the Hedge in a Happy Car". One of the characters parodied is Alex the lion, and several aspects of Madagascar appear in film's description. Full transcript under the read more.

Front cover:

"Flushed Through the Hedge in a Happy Car"

A penguin, a taxi, one wild ride...

Starring Will Smith, Tom Hanks, Ellen DeGeneres, Wanda Sykes, and Luke Wilson

From the creators of "Charlotte's Open Barnyard"

Back cover:

A break-dancing New York City Penguin named Happy (Wanda Sykes) is accidentally shipped to a zoo in Mexico City. The homesick bird escapes and meets a hilariously sassy taxi named Turbo McCab (Will Smith), who offers to drive her home. Along the way, they get stuck in the woods during hunting season, freeze solid during an ice age, and visit an underground rodent city, where they pick up a tuxedo-wearing mouse named Wobbly (Tom Hanks). Just outside of New York City, Turbo gets a flat. A nerdy raccoon named AJ (Ellen DeGeneres) offers to take Happy over the hedge to find a spare.

Once in human territory, Happy becomes obsessed with Dancing in the Suburbs. Will Happy find happiness as a reality show star? Will her lion dance partner (Luke Wilson) ever learn his moves? Will Turbo ever get to race in the Madagascar 5000? Can penguins really talk? And who is paying for all of Turbo's parking tickets?

2-Disc DVD Collector's Edition

Bonus features include:

A step-by-step look at the 350-day process of creating convincing CGI fuzzy dice.

Deleted scenes that were cut because they stink real bad.

Voice talent farting into the microphone during recording.

Trailers for other penguin movies.

Director's commentary.

Director's dog's commentary

Rated P for Penguin

Digitally mastered for superior penguin cuteness

Next we have three ads I snipped out of different issues.

Top left: Madagascar video games

"Madagascar and the all new Madagascar: Operation Penguin

Go from the zoo to a place that's totally new

Rule the city and the jungle in two hit games based on the hit movie. In Madagascar, play as Alex, Marty, Gloria, and Melman in a wild adventure. Available on all video game consoles. In Madagascar: Operation Penguin, play as Private Penguin in madcap missions, available only on GameBoy Advance."

Bottom left: Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa video game

"Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa

For PS2, PS3, Xbox 360, Wii, PC, and DS

Play as all the main characters—including the penguins—through the story of the Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa movie.

Tip: In the soccer match in the In Madagascar level in single-player mode, Mort the lemur can be a tough goalie. Raise the Power Meter to the 75 percent mark and you can kick the ball over Mort's head and score nearly every time.

Zelda the roving reporter: Do you have a license to drive that?"

Right: TPoM world premiere

"What's New on Nick

Penguins of Madagascar

The penguins are back, and this time, it's for their very own show! Catch the premiere immediately after the Kids' Choice Awards on Saturday, March 28. And check out the first-ever Penguins of Madagascar online game at nick.com."

Lastly, we have this crossover comic of the Penguins with Aang from Avatar: The Last Airbender. I don't have the cutout of this, but I distinctly remember seeing it in the Gag Station of one issue's Comic Book section. I was able to find it online but unfortunately I don't know the artist.

And that's every time Madagascar was featured in Nickelodeon Magazine!

[6ad6ro]

top 5 games from every console -nes- -game boy- -pc engine- 1. ninja gaiden 1. castlevania ii 1. castlevania rb 2. river city ransom 2. zelda la 2. ys book 1 and 2 3. akumajou densetsu 3. wario land 3. lords of thunder 4. mario 3 4. pokemon red 4. r-type 5. zelda 2 5. kirby's dreamland 2 5. galaga '90

-genesis- -snes- -neo geo- 1. streets of rage 2 1. earthbound 1. garou mow 2. castlevania bl 2. zelda lttp 2. windjammers 3. sonic 3ak 3. chrono trigger 3. king of fighters 99 4. contra hard corps 4. super mario world 4. metal slug 5. sonic 2 5. super metroid 5. king of fighters 2001 -sega cd- -ps1- -saturn- 1. snatcher 1. final fantasy vii 1. vampire savior 2. sonic cd 2. castlevania sotn 2. street fighter alpha 3 3. final fight cd 3. resident evil 3 3. virtua fighter 2 4. lunar 4. rival schools 4. virtua cop 2 5. monkey island 5. final fantasy ix 5. castlevania sotn (really) -n64- -dreamcast- -ps2- 1. mario 64 1. jet grind radio 1. silent hill 2 2. mystical ninja 2. shenmue 2. gta vice city 3. zelda oot 3. thps 2 3. smt nocturne 4. banjo kazooie 4. crazy taxi 4. we love katamari 5. mario kart 64 5. ecoo dotf 5. dragon quest viii

-gamecube- -xbox- -gba- 1. resident evil rm 1. jet set radio future 1. castlevania aos 2. f-zero gx 2. shenmue 2 2. castlevania hod 3. zelda tp 3. morrowind 3. metroid fusion 4. killer7 4. fable 4. river city ransom ex 5. mario sunshine 5. guilty gear xx #ac 5. metroid zm -nds- -psp- -xbox 360- 1. castlevania ooe 1. castlevania dxc 1. dead rising 2. castlevania dos 2. gta vcs 2. deadly premonition 3. castlevania por 3. ffvii cc 3. half-life 2 4. tingle's balloon trip of love 4. persona 3p 4. skyrim 5. phoenix wright 5. power stone 5. gta iv -ps3- -wii- -wii u- 1. dead rising 2 1. mario galaxy 1. zelda ww hd 2. sfiii 3s oe 2. no more heroes 2. mario kart 8 3. yakuza 5 3. okami 3. tekken tag 2 4. gta v 4. wii sports 4. zelda botw 5. 3d dot game heroes 5. castlevania rb 5. nintendo land -3ds- -vita- -ps4- 1. smt iv 1. persona 4 golden 1. ff vii rm 2. zelda oot 3d 2. undertale 2. elden ring 3. zelda mm 3d 3. jet set radio hd 3. persona 5 4. star fox 64 3d 4. hotline miami 2 4. resident evil 2 rm 5. river city rs 5. spelunky 5. dragon quest xi -switch- -steam deck/pc- -virtual boy (forgot)- 1. mario odyssey 1. half-life 1. vb wario land 2. sonic mania 2. unreal tournament 2. mario's tennis 3. smash ultimate 3. dead cells castlevania 3. galactic pinball 4. metroid dread 4. lba2 twinsen's odyssey 4. teleroboxer 5. mario wonder 5. bomb rush cyberfunk 5. jack bros

[ask-zaukodar]

For those who don't particularly follow gaming, there's currently a hot new game out in the field called "Helldivers 2" and it is making hype train waves like very few games have before. There is also a lot of discourse about why it's doing the kinds of numbers and having the popular support that it currently has, and while I know this may not reach a lot of people I still want to drop my thoughts on things.

Just to recap briefly: "Helldivers 2" is the sequel to the titular PC/PS4 game "Helldivers" where you play satirical Starship Troopers waging a war of aggression pre-emptive strike on alien powers who were content to be left alone dangerous enemies of humanity and democracy in the name of subjugating these powers to steal their resources and technology liberty, freedom, and defending our way of life. It was developed by Arrowhead games, who in addition to the original Helldivers previously made Magicka (not Magicka 2) and Gauntlet (2014), and the devs very clearly knew what they wanted to make in regards to all three games and hyperfocused on making those elements work to make the game the best possible experience.

Yes, there are live services aspects such as a rotating armor shop and a "seasonal pass" in the form of something called a War Bond, but the game has gone to impressive lengths to ensure that you aren't pressured into buying stuff through old tactics like FOMO and the like. And yes, the dev team has been in crisis mode addressing the server issues and fixing bugs and (hopefully) addressing the cheater problems, but they have a clear vision and have been working hard to make sure everyone can enjoy it. But it isn't the no-pressure live service, or the on-the-up-and-up dev team in and of itself, or even the chaotic and satirical nature of the game itself I spotted after playing as long as I have.

Helldivers 2 is a perfect (and perfectly-timed) B-game.

For anyone who never owned a console before the seventh generation (Playstation 3, Wii, and XBox 360) I'll explain briefly: every console had its "big title" (later known as AAA) games: Mario, Zelda, Final Fantasy, Battlefield, Call of Duty, Metal Gear, and all of the other ones an elder millennial can name off the top of their heads. But there also used to be games that very explicitly weren't that big-named that were still amazing games in their own right, like the Legacy of Kain series or Jak & Daxter series or Wild Arms or Guitar Hero or Pikmin or Overlord or Saints Row, there's lots of examples of "great games that didn't have mega-bux budgets". These games were the backbone of any console you owned, ever, and some of the best times you had with friends. They were not priced or marketed like AAA games were, but were the kind of game that kept you going back to any video game store of your choice.

For reasons I still don't fully comprehend these types of titles started drying up in the seventh generation, I don't know if it's because of the always-online culture that started appearing in gaming or if it had to do with the emergence of "indie games" or if it was manufacturers wanting bigger slices of the pie or whatever, but for whatever reason these games eventually fell into obscurity, and everything started to fall into "indie dev" or "AAA studio" with little exception. The few games of this category from this time period that were saved in PC ports are old and clunky and not as enjoyable to play, so people don't appreciate just how satisfying these games could be.

The thing about B-games is that they were incredibly solid. Yeah they might have reminded you of other games that were more mainstream or older games that you played on lesser graphics, but even if you didn't always enjoy the game you couldn't deny that it was decently made and it was the kind of game the devs wanted to make so you could play it. They weren't always the flashiest, highest-poly-count, or biggest marketing budget titles ever, but it still left an impression on you that could make you think back to it even now.

Flashing forward back to the Year of Our Lord Two Thousand and Twenty-Four and the landscape has changed so radically that the concept of a mid-level game that sets out to do something it wants to do is almost alien. But this is what Arrowhead started doing back in the 2010's when they made a dopey magic game where spells were based on your controller input that could friendly-fire (or outright troll) your friends. They used to be indie, but now they've grown enough to be a legitimate mid-level developer making the kind of games they know they want to make.

And because the gaming community is starved for something remotely original or fun they piled on it like sharks on bloody meat and they are eating it up wholesale. Which is great for the devs! And hopefully great for the gaming community at large, because maybe we'll get a return of some of these "not quite AAA games but still very solid and definitely not basement-developed" games.

[turtlemagnum]

i feel like the switch 2 would make sense to be about on par with a ps4/xb1 in terms of specs. that tier of tech is over a decade old at this point, they could probably make that for at least the price of the switch currently is. i highly doubt it'd be on par with current gen shit purely because nintendo hasn't been going for the latest and greatest specs ever since the gamecube flopped, the switch is in the ballpark of an xbox 360/ps3 except infinitely more usable because it was designed around games and not bullshit media features. honestly my main hope is an improved battery life. with how shit's been going for the past while, i doubt it, but god dammit do i miss the kinda battery life that you got before the 3DS. i think that given how graphics have probably gotten about as good as they're gonna get from the PS4 generation onwards, the most effort should be put into power efficiency and price. nintendo still definitely needs to go for better specs since i would argue there's still an appreciable improvement to be made from the switch, but personally i'd hard focus on just getting the best battery life and power efficiency possible. sadly i don't think hardware manufacturers are of a mind with me on this one, but eh. honestly i just hope the specs are good enough for the next open world zelda to have much more detailed/lived in cities. i think it'd add a lot for them to make places that are believably lived in, as much as i do love the settlements of botw/totk

[jet-the-hedgehog]

what games did you grow up with?

I'll mention one for each series I can think of

Mario: New Super Mario Bros. Wii

Mariokart: WIIIIIIIIIII

Pokemon: I didn't play ANY until I was introduced to the series at 13, I started with Red (And, sadly I lost it.)

Sonic the Hedgehog: Sonic Generations (Xbox 360)

Kirby: Super Kirby Clash Deluxe (3DS)

Zelda: Link's Awakening (Gameboy) and Link's Crossbow training (Wii)

Also, why have almost all of my asks been anonymous?? Am I intimidating or something?? It's okay to not be anonymous, I'm not popular enough to be over most peoples' For You

[liugeaux]

The Best Games of 2005 | Is This Art?

Here is my second best-of list. For further explanation check out the 2004 list I posted a few weeks ago. 2005 was the first year I can remember where the question "Are Video Games Art?" really started to mean something. It was also the first year of the Seventh Generation of consoles as the Xbox 360 hit stores in November. Remember, this is written as if it were published at the end of 2005. There will be no cutesy future predicting and all comments should be taken at face value. Let's get started.

#10 - Ultimate Spider-man

Saying this is just Spider-Man 2 with a better art style is a bit reductive, but ultimately (pun intended) is kind of accurate. The swinging mechanic is still the core appeal of it, and that appeal is still super strong. It's flashy, consistent, and an easy lock for No. 10.

#9 - Mario Kart DS

It's technically not the first portable Mario Kart game, but it's definitely the first portable Mario Kart game that demands you take it seriously. Nintendo has successfully translated the look and feel of console games over to the DS. The icing on the cake here is the online play, At least until you discover players "snaking," but that's a conversation for a different day.

#8 - The Legend of Zelda: The Minish Cap

Technically released in the US in January, The Minish Cap barely made the cut-off for my list. Unlike Capcom's 2 previous portable Zelda efforts, The Minish Cap has seemingly endless charm. Link's talking hat, a compelling story, and a solid dungeon structure have The Minish Cap feeling a lot like A Link to the Past, one of the greatest games ever made.

#7 - Guitar Hero

We're all losers. We stand in our living rooms, clickity clackity-ing on fake plastic guitars trying to get 5 stars, while the world passes us by. I think I'm fine with that. Guitar Hero is as inventive as it is addictive. From the cheeky aesthetic to the 5-star soundtrack, this game sits in a category all by itself. It's easy to pick up and naturally walks you through learning and ramping up your skills. I don't know if I had more fun with a game this year.

#6 - Call of Duty 2

At this point WWII games are passé. We've already met our quota for WWII games this decade, but as the only Xbox 360 game on this list, Call of Duty 2 proves there is still plenty of blood left in that stone. Forgoing reality and leaning on survival elements that make for exciting gameplay, the game makes you feel like you're on the frontlines fighting for your life. It's beautiful and really shows what this new console generation is capable of.

#5 - Psychonauts

One of the main "Games are Art" titles of this year is Psychonauts. A genuinely funny take on mental health and psychiatry, it finds a way to poke fun, but while subtly raising awareness of important Psychiatric concepts. Psychonauts plays with your emotions as it has your heart laughing. Memorable characters, unique platforming and some of the best writing any game has ever had, makes this one easy to recommend. Like movie directors, Tim Schafer has proven he's one of the field's first auteurs.

#4 - Resident Evil 4

Who knew that all the Resident Evil series needed to get my attention was a perspective change? REs 1-3 all suffered from being too frustrating to control for me to have any fun with. The novel over-the-shoulder 3rd person controls puts the player in a position similar to first-person, but with the mobility and awareness of a 3rd person game. Resident Evil 4 is a frightening romp through inspired new ground all while improving the survival horror genre in meaningful ways.

#3 - Lumines

Yeah, I've got a puzzle game at number 3, fight me! Not since Tetris has a puzzle game grabbed me as firmly as Lumines did this year. Could it be the sleek and futuristic presentation? Maybe. Could it be that Lumines is the perfect game for Sony's new curious little handheld? Probably. Have I spent countless hours deep in high-score chasing? Absolutely! Lumines might be lighting in a bottle, but that lightning burned super hot this year.

#2 - God of War

Nothing is more aggro than being forced to wear the ashes of your dead family on your skin. Kratos is justifiably angry and being able to take his anger and tear through a pantheon of Gods is quite cathartic. It helps that God of War's gameplay is fluid, frantic and addictive. It takes tropes from previous generations of beat-em-ups and layers brand-new ways to combo up and destroy. It's also another entry in the "Is this art" sweepstakes. The cinematic nature of the entire experience rivals much of the drivel coming out of Hollywood, and being a game makes it even more engaging.

#1 - Shadow of the Colossus

Truly an unparalleled experience, Shadow of the Colossus is a masterpiece that shines by engineering vivid emotions through the art of digital animation. Each Colossus is a world unto itself and even though you, as the protagonist, are tasked with slaying each beast, the pain and helplessness of imminent death expressed from them as they fall will etch itself in your bones. Shadow successfully takes the technical limitations of the PS2 and bends a low frame rate and limited draw distance, into a part of the expression of the art. It's not a perfect game, but it's a step in an unprecedented direction for the art form as a whole.

Notable Omissions:

Sid Meier's Civilization IV - Civ 4 is a fine game and is definitely a major improvement over Civ 3, but my patience for strategy games in this style is thin.

Battlefield 2 - I didn't play it. I'm not even sure if there's a competent way to play it with a controller and I'm definitely not gonna try it with a mouse and keyboard.

Forza Motorsport - With very few exceptions, I'm not a racing game guy, and racing sims are completely off my radar.

Next time we move to 2006, the launch year of both the Wii and PS3. See you there!

Cheers.

[arkus-rhapsode]

Why do so many people love the GameCube?

So in my opinion, the best time for gaming was the sixth generation. While it didn't have the console war narratives of the fourth and seventh gens, it was an era that I don't think we'll ever see again. You had four console platforms, one of which would die this gen in the Dreamcast and another being a new hat thrown in the ring with Xbox. You had a roughly equal technological strength across each platform with some exceptions here and there. And finally you had a plethora first party games that many people still talk about to this day.

But despite all that, this gen is mostly marked by being the groundwork of what would come next. With Xbox pioneering online play and expanding it with the 360, the Playstation 2's success leading to botched launch and eventual recovery of the Playstation 3, and Nintendo choosing to no longer compete in terms of power and instead focusing on experiences you could get with their hardware with the Wii. And speaking of Nintendo, that leads me to something I've been thinking about for the past few days. Despite it being the lowest selling Nintendo console pre the Wii U and there being some jawdroppingly amazing games on the switch, there's still a reverence people have for the purple lunchbox. And even a bit of a desire to return to it.

So I ask myself why?

Well the short and most easy answer is quite simple: the kids who grew up playing games on the gamecube and have their tastes shaped by those games are now the ones participating in games media discussion through things like YouTube and IGN. As opposed to the people who grew up with the SNES who were mostly contributing to games discourse at the time. So naturally those influenced by the gamecube then are going to hold a reverence for it now and platform it as that.

But I didn't really think that covered everything. It felt a bit too easy of an answer. And I personally believe that the hand wave nature of "its nostalgia" doesn't really answer anything. Now I want the preface this, I am not a gaming historian. I am not here to impart some grand social analysis on what the gaming landscape of 2004 was like. This is more me as an individual looking into what I think of the generation that I was apart of (yes my first REAL home consoles were the Xbox and GameCube) and how its still so relevant in our current era.

After racking my brain about this for the last few days I think I've come to somewhat of an answer.

The most important thing is the games themselves. Which I think can be broken down into three core aspects.

First, there's something to be said with how these first and second party Nintendo games related to the ones being released on the GBA. Because the GBA is a whole different beast, but to summarize during that type you can see a somewhat clear distinction between the games that were coming out on the GBA by Nintendo vs the games that were coming out on the GameCube by Nintendo. If you were interested in a more traditional Mario (Super Mario Bros Advanced) or Kirby (Nightmare in Dreamland) or Metroid (Metroid Fusion) or Zelda (Oracle of Ages and Seasons) you could find all of those on a GBA. Meanwhile on the GameCube, you got something like Mario Sunshine, the second ever 3D Mario game that took Mario out of the mushroom kingdom and strapped a brand new water contraption to his back. Kirby was doing a driving game mixed with combat In Kirby's Air Ride. Metroid Prime reinvented the way Metroid could be played with an emphasis on exploring and uncovering secrets in a first person POV. And Zelda gave us another 3D Zelda after Ocarina of Time which has an art style that was brand new for the series and involved this massive sea to go out an explore.

You also had spin offs like Pokemon Colosseum, probably the first pokemon game on console with an in-depth story that is basically nothing like what we had on the handheld mainline titles. Pokemon always felt like this "place that could really exist in the real world but with fantastical creatures." Meanwhile Colosseum is JRPG AF. You're first location is a diner made out of an abandoned training the desert then you proceed to a pristine oasis city while you're dressed like a cyberpunk protagonist. Like yeah sure Orre Region is supposed to be based on Arizona, but I sure don't remember it ever looking like this the last time I visited. Then, there was something like Battalion Wars, which took the turn based strategy and sorta anime sorta western cartoony Advanced Wars and instead made an almost G.I. Joe-esque real-time strategy and third person shooter game. Some the GBA could definitely not handle. What about Double Dash? Mario Kart has basically never returned to the "two person, one kart" formula.

I know it probably sounds pretty mundane now that we live in a world with like the switch and sequels to these games, but you have to remember that at the time there really wasn't anything like it. Its probably why things like Wind Waker and Sunshine cause a bit of a love it or hate it divide. They were both a departure and yet so unique. In fact, with the switch now, we don't really get that identity distinction of handheld title vs console title anymore.

As much as the Switch is an absolute juggernaut of a seller with some incredible games. I can't very much say there has been anything really released on it that seems overtly strange or non traditional. Like, we aren't using bongos to play a Donkey Kong game with none of the country games. Switch is practically one of the most orthodox systems there is in terms of the type of franchise entries we got with Mario Odyssey and Breath of the Wild. And please note, that doesn't mean I'm saying these are bad or boring games, they're amazing. Its just that they certainly are what you'd expect out of these types of titles with some innovations.

The second big thing worth noting is also the amount of games that got people introduced to a particular Nintendo franchise of on this system. GameCube is one of those consoles that practically every franchise of Nintendo's got a new entry on. Fire Emblem Path of Radiance was the first Fire Emblem on home console outside of Japan. Along with Custom Robo. Games from the N64 like Wave Rave and 1080 got sequels. And it was the beginning of franchises that are now Nintendo staples like Pikmin and Animal Crossing (Yes I know Animal crossing is technically originally an N64 game and the gamecube is an enhanced version of that). And of course the big one that was Smash Bros Melee. While Smash 64 was by no means unsuccessful, it really is Melee that people think of when they thing of smash. Some of the most iconic stages come from here, it has one of the best opening sequences, and it expanded the roster of fighters that for some (for better or worse) people perceive as Nintendo royalty. Even going as far to make characters like Marth and Roy recognizable despite their games never being brought over.

That's also not including things like Star Fox and F-Zero which had things like story modes with full cutscenes and, in the case of Star Fox, actually taking them out of their vehicle and introducing people to the world who may just not be into that sort of vehicle only gameplay. And characters like Luigi and Wario who basically icons in their own rights, were pushed into staring roles in their own 3D games. And while I know I've focused on first and second party Nintendo games the most in this post, I do want to acknowledge that the GameCube's history third party saw Sega titles on a Nintendo platform for the first time like Sonic and Crazy Taxi. Or Metal Gear which had made its new home on Playstation had their own original entry on gamecube.

Lots of Nintendo discourse these days can be boiled down to a few key points, but biggest one of them all in my opinion is how Nintendo does make a new entry of *insert game here*. Now there are of course multiple factors for this, and the Switch does indeed have entries of some more obscure Nintendo IP, they are still sorta drowned out by this absence of certain franchises many perceive as inseparable to the brand. With many of those going MIA around the gamecube in terms of home releases.

Finally there's number three, the GameCube just had bizarre and new IP that never got a sequel. Like as much as it sounds like I'm looking at the GameCube with rose tinted glasses, its worth remembering that this was a low point for Nintendo in terms of profitability. This pushed them to do things unconviental in the first place. Like investing in a western studio to make Metroid Prime, but it also got them to work with others to make new IP. Chibi Robo was developed by skip and had practically the same Miyamoto-like charm of Mario and Pikmin. Nintendo also published two M-Rated games that they'd own, Eternal Darkness and Geist. Something that we really don't and probably will ever see.

Sure Nintendo has exclusivity to Bayonetta, but that's still mostly a Platinum thing and isn't their IP. And each console has basically introduced a new staple franchise like Wii giving us Xenoblade and the Wii U giving us Splatoon. Not to sound like I am poopooing the switch or anything, but when I think of big brand new Nintendo IP's that were released on Switch, the ones that the most notable is Arms, Snipper Clips, and Astral Chain. I understand now Nintendo is willing to let its IP to second parties so we could get something like Cadence of Hyrule or Fire Emblem Warriors, but we really haven't seen much new Nintendo IP in the seven years its been alive as opposed to the gamecube's. Not helped by the fact there's a bunch of these single entry gamecube IP still stuck on that system.

Stepping away from the software, I wanted to talk about the hardware next. Like I said at the beginning, this generation every system was roughly equal in graphical power. And while gamecube had its limits especially in terms of being able to play DVDs and its proprietary discs, you were more likely than not going to get an equal performance out of most third party games. As opposed to now where I'm pretty sure your Switch would try and fry itself it tried to play something like Elden Ring. Now Im not saying graphics are everything, Nintendo has basically made their thing good games with limited hardware and often avoid the hyper detailed immersion of Sony and Microsoft, but there was a time where you could confidently expect something third party to come to Nintendo and expect it to run as well as the others. Now if something third party comes to a Nintendo system with a version for Xbox and Playstation, its practically a dice role to see if it turns out like another Mortal Kombat 1. At this point in time I almost exclusively own two consoles of any generation, a playstation or xbox to play third party games as well as their own first party offerings, and a Nintendo for their first parties and maybe the occasionally indie title. For the most part if you only had a GameCube as a kid you were only really missing out on the competitions first parties.

And look, I think people's obsession with graphics is kinda nuts. Afterwhile, it doesn't really matter if your horse has realistic testicle physics. But its no secret that Switch being underpowered has limited the potential is games can run at. And while Im not saying it needs to compete with a PS5 in terms of power, having seven years of a system that's only really as strong as a PS3, I can see why people are very much clamoring for an upgrade.

Also on a more minor side, but this is something hardware related I do think there is a bit of a uniqueness in the controller. While the D-pad was stiff and the c stick not really utilized, outside of the wii, this has one of the most unique layouts for the face buttons. with the l and R triggers having a satisfying squeeze. when you hold them down. While the Wii blended motion controls with the nunchuck, its worth noting that it was made with someone more casual in mind. Made to play games by people usually not into games. I think we struck gold with the joy cons as a concept, which can be individual controllers are just combined for a standard controller layout and having the IR pointer built in, with the switch, but it is hard to forget what a gamecube controller feels like compared to its contemporaries. This is one I definitely chalk up to nostalgia.

But yeah, that's kinda what I thought overall. While the Switch is a great system with some stellar games, its pretty hard to deny why the GameCube is so memorable. Everything on it feels different from any other point in Nintendo history. There wasn't even a really unifying mechanic of the wii and its motion controls. Every entry feels like something familiar but also a different. I don't think we'll ever have a moment where Nintendo reinvents a franchise like with Metroid Prime. I don't think we'll ever see Nintendo release a hard M rated game with Eternal Darkness. And we might not even see new entries for some series like custom robo or chibi robo period. Now handheld franchises are basically blended together with the home console, so you'll almost always see mainline pokemon on the TV screen rather than a pokemon game made expressly for handheld and one made expressly home console. I truly is an era that if you grew up with it and even if you didn't, you'll probably never see one like it again, and man what a time was it to be a gamer.

A/N: Hi guys, Arkus here, just wanted to say thanks for reading. I know I usually don't do broad video game or console talk on this blog, but its been an idea rattling around in my head for a while that I wanted to talk about it. While I don't personally consider myself a die hard gamer, know I have other interests outside of gaming, its certainly been something I've been thinking more about since 2022. And I'd be open to doing more essay-like posts like this, after all, I said GameCube was one half of my first real home console experience. I got plenty to say about the OG Xbox as well. So if you liked it please like and have a good day.

[crescentblossom66]

A Corruption in Time

TRIGGER WARNING FOR: BLOOD AND GORE AND MAJOR CHARACTER DEATH, WHICH IS DESCRIBED IN DETAIL

This is a creepypasta inspired story. For those that don't know, a creepypasta was a scary story about either lost episodes of tv shows or a glitched game, of course they were all made up. The most notable example of a creepypasta was 'Ben drowned' a stroy detailing the horrible things that happened in an allegedly haunted copy of 'The legend of Zelda Majora's Mask'. So I decided to present you with this, have fun reading

I should preface this by saying that I didn't tinker with the game in any way, heck I don't even know how to code or access game files. This all happened with the regular downloadable copy of the game on steam, no mods were installed, as I wanted to experience the game as it was intended, so I have no idea how the game ended up the way it did. I also didn't have any of the DLCs, I wanted to buy them, but the Nyakuza Metro DLC didn't even exist at the time of the events, and I completely forgot about the seal-the-deal DLC.

Alright, now that that's out of the way let me begin to explain the strange things that happened when I decided to download A Hat in Time again after 4 years had passed between me playing it initially.

I was finally setting up my new PC and got Steam back on it to play my favorite games again, when the box art of A Hat in Time caught my attention. I remembered how much fun I had playing this game and decided to redownload it immediately. When it finished downloading, I got a notification that the steam cloud files got corrupted, and that due to this, all my save data was gone for good. Well, I wanted to play the game again from the start anyway, so that wasn't too big a deal. I booted the game and everything went normal at first.

Made in Unreal engine logo, created by Gears for Breakfast, all normal. Hat Kid's ship came and flew by, and the starting menu appeared. I pushed A (I was playing with an Xbox 360 controller, don't think it mattered, but thought that I should mention it regardless.), and I was greeted by...nothing. Normally Hat Kid is supposed to be striking a pose on this screen while you select your save file. I didn't think anything of it, as I hadn't started a completely new file in ages. After selecting File 1, everything played out more or less like it should, aside from the fact that Hat Kid's hat was not on the nightstand and also didn't land on her head like it normally did after she faceplants on the ground. Hat Kid just got up, yawn and went on with the day, unlike me who tried to remember if she got her hat later or something.

Now that I could control Hat Kid, I exited the bedroom and went to the main room of her spaceship. I should mention here that she controlled like normal, aside from the fact that I couldn't use her hat ability, which was kinda bad, as you can probably imagine. I just went up to the screen that showed how far away she was from her home planet, she activated it and then it started to knock on the glass. Without hesitation, I made Hat Kid walk over to the Mafia Goon and the cutscene played. Strangely enough the little “How rude!” Didn't play after she closed the window to stop the Mafia, but the rest played like it should. We lost the time pieces and plummeted down to Mafia Town.

That's when the first real strange thing happen, the title card from the level showed up, it depicts Hat Kid running away from little crows, one Mafia Goon points at her, while another rolls a meat on a bone in her direction, meanwhile Hat Kid turns around afraid, while running away. Now Hat Kid was just...missing, it appeared like they were chasing nothing. This became a theme with all the title cards, Hat Kid was just missing in them.

Nevertheless, I, along with the Mafia Goon, landed in the back alley, Hat Kid struck her normal landing pose and on I was to explore Mafia Town, still hatless. That's when I found out that there were no yarns, no matter where I looked, even places that I KNEW should have one, were completely empty.

I was a little freaked out by that, but thought that it would be a nice challenge to try to play through the game without hat abilities.

One strange thing I noticed was that none of the Mafia Goons would talk to me, not even the ones that played a game with you only to punch you in the face weren't interacting with Hat Kid. Speaking of not interacting, they wouldn't even look at her, Hat Kid looked at them, but they never looked at her, even when I placed Hat Kid right in front of their faces.

Due to me skipping the tutorial, I didn't get Mustache Girl to tell Hat Kid not to stalk her. I wondered if she would have reacted, because what happened at the fountain left me thinking that something was indeed very, very wrong with this game. The cutscene with Hat Kid and the Mafia Goon that had the umbrella played, however he didn't react to Hat Kid and the alien girl just waved her hands in front of his face, equally as confused as I was. He was supposed to push her away, which would have resulted in her snatching his umbrella and pointing it at him, while he freaked out.

First, I didn't remember Hat Kid just waving at the Mafia, even MY memory told me that was wrong. Second, now I was really contemplating just reinstalling the game and trying again, but my curiosity got the better of me. After beating up the distressed Mafia Goon, he dropped the time piece, at least all of that was still normal. I got back to the ship, and had Hat Kid switch on the energy for the kitchen and main room again, which caused the telescope to appear. I entered the kitchen and rotated the camera around to check if anything was wrong in the room, the only thing of note wasn't the surroundings, but Hat Kid herself, she looked a bit...dull in her color scheme later on I'd learn that it was far more serious than that. She also looked distressed like she does when Snatcher appears before her or when the bomb is tied to her.

To make it easier for me to gather my thoughts, and to make it easier to read, I'm going to explain level by level from here on.

Mafia Town Act 2: Barrel Battle

The level started out normal enough, Hat Kid landed near the market, Mustache Girl screamed for help, just as usual. I made Hat Kid move toward the stack of barrels, where the Mafia Goons captured the blonde girl. That was where it turned weird again, the Mafia didn't react to Hat Kid arriving and Hat Kid tapped her foot for a moment, as if she was waiting for something to happen before she just sighed and the cutscene ended. Confused, I simply tried to attack one of the big men, who yelped in pain and then turned as if to look who had attacked him.

I got a cutscene that I didn't even know was in the game, the Goon continued to look around and then spoke.

“Mafia trying to teach lesson, don't interfere...nobody is here, but Mafia got attacked. What's going on?” He looked visibly spooked. Without my button input, Hat Kid attacked the guy that held the red-hooded girl and she scampered off to safety. “Mafia is being attacked by g-g-ghost, AAAHH!” All four just started to run away, that was when I regained control, I chased down the fleeing Mafia Goons and reclaimed the time piece, by beating their leader, which concluded the level. The small scene with Mustache Girl at the end didn't play at all and I was simply brought back to the spaceship.

Now that level confirmed a theory I had from the interaction with the Mafia so far, they seemed to be unable to see Hat Kid. She could still interact with the world around her. Curiously, not much could harm her either, it became more and more clear that whatever it was, was only effecting Hat Kid and not the other characters in the game.

Mafia Town Act 3: She came from outerspace

This level made me question things even more, I thought that with Hat Kid being covered in mud, the Goofy Mafia would just run away form her, likely just seeing the dripping mud, however he didn't react, not even with the mud and the eerie glowing eyes was she able to get a reaction out of him.

Hat Kid seemingly had given up on trying to get the attention of the people around her and the cutscene just showed her looking up onto the platform where you'd get the time piece from the Mafia member. I just decided to go with it and climbed across the banners and platforms until I grabbed the time piece. When I came back to the ship, Mustache Girl didn't show up, not that I could have used her advice anyway, not being able to use hat abilities and all. Hat Kid didn't react to that sequence break at all, however she still had that concerned look on her face, like she knew or felt that something was very wrong.

Mafia Town Act 4: Down with the Mafia!

When I got to the the Mafia HQ, the Goons were still attacking Mustache Girl, without being prompted to do so, I proceeded to attack the Mafia. After I killed the first of them, the others once again panicked, spouting some nonsense about ghosts. Mustache Girl seemed to shiver for a moment before jumping down, “How did they...eh, doesn't matter, time to mess with the Mafia a little.” She walked right past Hat Kid, who only made some kind of pouting noise, while I moved her over to the switches that opened the entrance to the HQ.

Upon entering, I for once wasn't assaulted by the Mafia throwing cans at me for no reason. The cutscene with the Mafia carrying the time piece through the doors still played, so did the rest of the level pretty much. I got the key, opened the door to the freezer, went through the vent, and ended up in the hallway. No Goons were send my way, probably because no one could see Hat Kid approach in the first place. When I arrived I had to attack the Mafia Boss instead of him jumping out of his chair to attack me after giving me a speech about how glorious he was.

“What was that?! Some invisible intruder, wants to pick a fight with me? Alright, let's settle this Mafia style!” With that the fight went more or less the same, dodging his shock attack, jumping over the daggers, getting on top of the Mafia Ball to get a hit in, nothing new. The little interaction between the boss and Mu played out a bit differently, he didn't say anything while Mustache Girl said something about him having lost his marbles for fighting something that wasn't even there. Where was a certain uncertainty in the way she spoke though, as if she was trying to convince herself. After the fight the scene was vastly different though, the Mafia ran away from the unknown entity that just beat their boss into goo, while Mustache Girl only looked at the time piece and...ran away. She didn't pick it up, she only looked at it, and bolted away with a terrified expression on her face. Hat Kid then picked the time-altering object up with a smile and I got brought back to the loading screen.

I wondered how the fifth chapter would play out, now that Mustache Girl didn't know about how the time pieces worked and seemingly started to avoid them entirely. Cooking Cat also didn't show up to talk about relics after I returned back to the ship, but I still remembered that they triggered the purple time rifts.

On that note I will tell you that those and the blue ones hadn't change, so I won't have to go over them.

Mafia Town Act 5: Cheating the race

A level that would normally be all but almost impossible without the time-stop hat, but due to the Mafia not even seeing Hat Kid, I could just snatch it away and didn't have to even play the level. A bit boring if I'm being honest, but I never liked that level that much anyway.

Mafia Town Act 7: The Golden Vault

Another level that played more or less the same, the interesting thing was, that I had tried to select Act 6 before, but somehow I was unable to select it for whatever reason. Instead, I just decided to do Act 7, thinking that maybe I would be able to select it after. Another weird thing that I didn't remember happening in the game was that the alert for a new time rift showed up right after Hat Kid returned to the spaceship. The strangest thing about that rift was that it was neither purple nor blue, it was red.

Still confused, I checked where to find that rift, hoping that I didn't get too vague a picture...looking at you blue alpine skyline rift. It appeared to be on the clock tower, where Mustache Girl normally waits for you to find a way up to her in the tutorial. Easy enough to find I thought, and went there to check out what those red rifts had in store for me.

Now this is probably where you'd think something bad was gonna happen, but those red rifts were actually quite interesting, but something about them was indeed disturbing.

Mafia Town: Red Rift

Hat Kid landed in same out of place zone as with the blue rifts, just some white platforms with water effect, just that the secondary color on the platforms was red instead of blue and so was the background. Next to Hat Kid were a Mafia Goon, the Mafia Boss, Mustache Girl and Cooking Cat. Thinking that maybe I could talk to them and they'd have some interesting dialogue, maybe wondering where they were or something, That wasn't the case, however...I could pick them up. Considering that at the time I didn't even have the DLC that was a bit odd.

Just like in the first DLC, I could make a stack with the characters and it appeared that that was what I had to do for this level. Another thing that I noticed was that all of them were slightly transparent, I wondered why that was at the time, I got my answer later...much later.

So, with my mission now clear to me, I made Hat Kid walk from one platform to the other. It was pretty straight forward until I heard a strange noise and stood still for a second.

That was when I saw something following me. It was about the same size as Hat Kid, and moved similar to her, however it was a bit taller and undefined, and looked more like a jumbled mass of red pixels. It did exactly what I did when I was in the position it was in, if I jumped over a gap, so would it. For simplicity's sake I will refer to this...pixel mess as Red Kid.

Hat Kid gasped when I made her stop to get a better look at the thing, she seemed to outright panic, shaking and motioning for me to get moving, by pointing forward with her free hand. So I did, the level itself wasn't very difficult, just some long leaps that could be cleared without the help of the sprint cap, which I was thankful for, otherwise my play-through would have ended right there. The only thing that made things hard was the teetering either to the left or to the right, due to the stack of people the young girl was carrying.

At the end was no time piece, but a portal that Hat Kid proceeded to throw the characters into without my input. Red Kid stopped only briefly and jumped down at the end of the platform, which completed the rift. Back on the ship, I checked if now I would be able to play Act 6 and found that I could. I wasn't ready for what awaited me.

Mafia Town Act 6: Heating up Mafia Town

Again the level started out just like normal, the Mafia asked Hat Kid to switch off the faucets that the lava comes out off. I realized something was very, very off however, when I tried to attack the faucets to turn them off. To put it simply, nothing happened. I tried and tried again to switch off the endless stream of lava, I even went to another faucet, just in case I had to switch them off in a distinct order or something, but nothing happened.

When I stopped to contemplate what to do, I noticed that the lava was slowly rising, the rather comical bouncing of the Mafia after they got burned by the lava was also replaced by them getting slowly engulfed instead, I watched in shock and turned the camera away after a few seconds, unable to watch the goofy crooks die so horribly. I knew this game could get dark at times, however, this was clearly NEVER in the game!

I tried to find out what my objective was now, most of the faucets were completely submerged in lava by now, even Hat Kid reacted by panting and wiping her forehead when idle, adding to the tension I was feeling. I needed to find away to stop the lava from rising, but I couldn't do anything!

That was when I spotted Mustache Girl in the clock tower, sitting there with her legs pulled to her chest, staring into the boiling lava below with tears in her eyes.

“H-How? H-How could this h-happen? I j-just wanted to get rid of the Mafia-” Mustache Girl wiped her face with her sleeve, “-Now EVERYONE will....All of us will.....” She buried her head in her hands, crying louder. Unlike me who pitied the girl, Hat Kid's expression showed anger mixed with disappointment. Making me think that she knew that the red-hooded girl was the one who doomed the island.

With nothing to do but to climb higher to escape the red, burning liquid, I moved Hat Kid to the cannon and jumped to the HQ, hoping that it would not reach that high. Soon Mu followed and so did the remaining Mafia that had survived until now. Some looked like they were burned by the lava, their character models were charred in some places like the shoulder and a couple of big smoldering spots on their backs. I felt bad a little, even though they were just character models, I still kind of felt bad for the guys.

“What's going on?!” The Mafia Boss, now in the jar, I should mention that he wasn't in the red time rift, came outside, followed by Cooking Cat. Both looked distressed, Cooking Cat's ears were flat on her head and she had pulled down her hat and was kneading it with both hands, while the jar was completely motionless.

With sheer horror, I noticed that the lava kept rising and was now even starting to take over the plateau everyone thought they had found shelter on. I made Hat Kid climb onto the building using the awnings, only Mustache Girl followed her.

Writing out the next thing that happened still chills me, I know that the characters aren't real, but...those screams, those terrified screams of pain and terror, I'm not lying when I tell you that I can still hear them in my nightmares...

Hat Kid was apparently also unable to take all of this, the blue-eyed girl sat down and started to cry, no one able to hear her silent sobbing but me...I felt terrible for her, call me a crybaby, but I really felt for her. First no one can see her and now, all those people died around her.

The red-hooded girl continued to cry and quietly sat down on the roof next to Hat Kid, looking at the ground while the lava slowly crept toward her, threatening to end her, just like it had ended the lives of everyone else in Mafia Town,

“How could I be so stupid...All I wanted was for them to leave...and now, and now-” She trailed of and looked up briefly before looking back down,”I'm going to...” the poor girl was trembling horribly, while I watched on helplessly. I couldn't do anything to save them, I felt like I failed Hat Kid and the people in Mafia Town.

When the lava reached Hat Kid, she didn't react at all, the girl looked at herself confused. For a moment I was a bit relieved at that but was torn right out of my brief moment of respite by loud, terrified shrieking once more. I only caught a small glimpse of the red girl, before I forced myself to look away. It was too horrible to watch...Her clothes caught fire as the lava reached her ankles.

That scene went on for what felt like hours, but was only around a minute in real life...a minute I and Hat Kid spent in hell.

That was when she got teleported back to her ship. Physically she appeared to be alright, but most certainly not emotionally.

I was about to just close the game when a cutscene played, the screen that showed the progress toward Hat Kid's home planet, showed static and Hat Kid went to check it out, still wiping away tears. I felt so bad for the girl.

The static showed a gray, humanoid shape, it spoke in a distorted manner, very low-pitched and quite eerie. “ You can't save them!”

That was all it said. Hat Kid looked shocked and confused and a little frightened. What did he mean with 'You can't save them!'? Who were we trying to save? What was up with this game!? I only wanted to play a nice platformer that I hadn't played for a few years, and now this! No, I didn't sign up to play a disturbing horror game, where a kid is forced to watch people die! No way in hell!

When I went to close the game window, however, a pop up window appeared.

Do you really want to have them all die?

Hell Yeah! No, I have to save them!

I stared at the screen blankly for a moment. Did this game honestly think that I would fall for that! If I uninstall and reinstall the game, I can play normally again, and don't have to deal with this horror. I clicked on 'Hell Yeah' and another box popped up.

So you don't care what will become of the birds, Snatcher and the minions, and the nomads? You're fine with knowing that you killed them, even though you could have tried to save them?

Nothing would please me more! I was only joking!

I would love to say that I just closed the game regardless, like a sane and normal person, but...I felt bad. I wanted to at least try to prevent them from dying. I know it's a stupid reason, but I wanted to see it through.

Alpine Skyline Chapter 1-4

After I so naively decided to continue playing, I checked where I could go to next and found that strangely enough the only area I could go to was the Alpine Skyline. I didn't even have the 14 time pieces required to enter the area, but it wasn't like I could go anywhere else. The gates for Subcon and Dead Bird Studio weren't open.

Wait.....how was I even supposed to GET to the Skyline, never mind even getting to the telescope! I had no hook shot! The hook shot badge was in the second level of Subcon Forest! I tried and tried to make the jump from the room with the washing machines over to where the telescope for the alpines was, thinking that maybe something was in that room that could help me, but I just couldn't make the difficult jump. Was that finally where I couldn't proceed any further because the game became to broken to continue? I did what everyone does in such a situation; backtrack out of desperation. I went to the main room of the spaceship, but couldn't find anything there that could help me, I had a couple of rift tokens though, so I decided to give that a shot, maybe I could get hat flairs, or maybe something changed there.

I did get something out of it, believe it or not! It was a strange badge that looked like the first dweller mask you get, the one with the fox head and the green glowing eyes. Oh, I should mention here that the badge seller appeared to be the only person in the whole game I could interact with. So far I had the no-bonk badge and pon magnet. The scooter- or the fast hatter badge obviously wouldn't have helped me considering my non existent hat. I had all three slots for badges, hoping that maybe I'd find something that could help me. Before I left him he said something I don't remember from the game, “You've met with a terrible fate, haven't you?” To which he produced a strange green badge that did nothing once I equipped it, shrugging it off, I removed it and swapped it with a badge I could actually use.

Now the badge I got from the machine in the main room worked the same as the dweller mask, the green aura appeared and I assumed that I could enter the lab, now that I had the dweller mask and low and behold what do I find, the hook shot badge! At least I could proceed now, I equipped both, the dweller mask badge and the hook shot badge, and thus I could actually enter the Alpine Skyline chapters.

I walked up the long mountain path to the top and hit the weird spinny things. Then I made my way up through the clouds to the Skyline that, just like Mafia Town at first, looked pretty normal, No changes. That went through literally the whole Skyline though, so I can actually sum most of it up here.

The nomads couldn't see her, so I never received any directions form them, which wasn't too bad as the Alpines are quite big, but fairly easy to navigate through. The Birdhouse and the Lava Cake were quite easy and I only struggled a little in the Windmill, due to the lack of the sprint hat that can help you with some of the longer jumps there.

Before I went to the Twilight Bell, I noticed something again, I already said that Hat Kid looked...off a bit, now it was even worse, she was very visibly transparent now, and looked just...sickly. I figured that it had something to do with the whole nobody-can-see-Hat-Kid thing, but I had no idea what to make of it. She still controlled like normal, but appeared more pained, like something was hurting. I felt bad again for making her go through all of this, especially now that it seemed that whatever it was was causing her pain. Pushing my concerns aside, I pressed on, making my way to the Twilight Bell, that would have been all but impossible without my newly acquired dweller badge.

The real problems started when Act 5 rolled around, and the pollen were released. Before that though I got a pop up that another red time rift had appeared. It was strange, because normally you'd have to leave the Skyline to have any time rift appear, I had already cleared both of the blue ones and the purple one, and the pop ups for them came after I returned form the Windmill and the Twilight Bell and had assembled the relic for the alpines.

Alpine Skyline: Red Rift

The location of the rift was very easy to discern, it was on the knife of the Lava Cake. I found it strange that I could still explore normally, as Act 5 follows right after the last of the 4 levels was cleared. The red time rift looked the same appearance wise. The difference was that this time, I had to carry out lightly transparent versions of a nomad, a goat (I have no idea how she managed ot carry one of those. Well, she carried a walrus in the DLC sooo...), and a Lazy Paw Gang Cat.

Just like before, movement was a bit weird, due to the stack, but I managed alright. A couple of seconds in, I heard the weird noise again and when I turned the camera to look behind me, Red Kid was after me once again, this time I could actually make out something like a hat that they were wearing, but nothing else.

The stack teetering almost threw me off one of the platforms once, especially the fast spinning ones that rotate made it very difficult to jump on safely. I fell a couple of times, thanks to me being garbage at timing jumps right sometimes. All in all it was harder than the first, but still easily manageable. At the end I lost control of Hat Kid again, as she shoved the three characters she was carrying through the portal. Red Kid stopped again briefly, and this time they spoke: “You can't save all of them.”, with that taunt, they jumped off into the bottomless, red abyss, and thus the red rift ended.

Alpine Skyline Act 5: The Illness has Spread

This is where things took a turn for the worst again, go figure. I braced myself for the worst, and started the level. The title card displayed (Again without Hat Kid in it), and I had a bad feeling already. I hoped that it wouldn't be like Mafia Town where everyone died a cruel death that still shakes me to the core to this day when I think about it.

Tightening my hold on my controller, I made Hat Kid move through the dark despair that awaited us both, the three icons that displayed the location of the flowers showed up, and I made my way to the first one. I went with the one near the Birdhouse, avoiding the fire and the thunder of the lethal environment around me. When I got to the platform where it showed the huge plant, getting to it was exceedingly easy, thanks to it not realizing that Hat ´Kid was there to destroy it. Foolishly, I thought that this would be a piece of cake, that all I had to do now was break the flowers and I'd somehow find the time piece after.

My rude awakening out of that sunshine and rainbows daydream happened the moment I made Hat Kid attack the plant...only for it to do nothing, absolutely zero damage, not a scratch or any indication that I did anything. I tried again a couple of times and my hand started to sweat the more it became apparent that, once again, I couldn't do anything.

Hat Kid made a noise of confusion, before the big plant released another cloud of purple pollen. I didn't know what to do, so I just moved around aimlessly, trying to find a hint to something that I could do. When I got back to the small mountain where Hat Kid always starts out form, I could see the damage the pollen had done, houses had burned down all the way to the foundation, and fire and had spread to the point that I had to carefully jump around to not have Hat Kid lose health by stepping on it. Suddenly Hat Kid recoiled and did the animation she does than Queen Vanessa speaks for the first time, she crawled backwards and I had to turn the camera to see just what had scared her so much, due to the dense smoke. I wish I had just turned Hat Kid around and left, but I was too curios and as we all know; Curiosity kills the cat.

I saw the normally territorial, but otherwise harmless, goats chase after the nomads on a platform just below, the huge animal kicked on of the nomads to their doom down the huge mountain, his friend however met a worse end. The nomad seemed to plead for his live, bowing and folding his hands in prayer, but the huge herbivore showed no mercy. I was so glad that I for whatever reason turned Hat Kid around, so she didn't have to look at the horrible scene that unfolded. It still sickens me to this day and honestly I almost threw up when I saw the huge goat stomp on the small nomad, the loud crunch of his spine breaking echoed through my speakers and made my blood ran cold. Even thought blood is pink in this game, it still shocked me to the core to see the bloody mess that had once been a nomad. Hat Kid was crying and visibly distressed, and I couldn't blame her. I moved back, careful to not turn the young girl around. I have no idea if she was programmed to react to all of this or even if this whole scenario was coded and had been in the game before and I somehow accessed it or something, but whoever I have to 'thank' for this mess, I would like to send to a psychiatric ward. This was waaaay too messed up for a kids game.

The level ended when the whole area was full of pollen, so much so that I couldn't see Hat Kid anymore and just stood still in order to not fall off any cliffs. It just suddenly...ended. I wondered if any of the nomads escaped or if the goats killed all of them.

I got brought back to the ship and didn't move for a solid half an hour or so. First Mafia Town, now the Alpine Skyline. This cutsy platformer turned into a Silent Hill game faster than Sonic gets through Green Hill Zone. When I finally got the courage to grab the controller again and to move on, I noticed that Hat Kid was even more translucent, whatever was happening to her was getting worse it seemed.

I thought about just quitting then, but what Red Kid said at the end of the red rift, stuck with me. “You can't save all of them.” Were they referring to the characters Hat Kid tossed through the portal? Were they safe on the other side? It motivated me enough to see where I needed to go to next and I found that the gate to Subcon Forest was now open.

Subcon Forest Act 1: Contractual Obligations

I made my way over to Hat Kid's bed room, still reeling a bit from the horrifying events that continued to flash before my eyes. The first couple of acts for both Mafia Town and the Skyline were more or less tame, and Sucbon proved to be no exception to that rule.

I entered the creepy forest and started my way toward Subcon Village, where the fire spirits were. On the way, I half expected to actually still be captured by the net, but it didn't trigger at all, however I triggered a cutscene a bit further ahead near the bridge where you'd normally find an eyeball enemy that you needed to destroy to get a yarn, but as you know, no yarn for me. In place of the yarn, I got a cutscene that featured two minions talking to each other. The topic turned out to be one of the time pieces, apparently it fell into the bonfire that the fire spirits dance around. Hat Kid listened in, more like stood technically in plain sight, but the minions were also no exception to the No-one-can-see-Hat-Kid rule. I kind of hoped that, given the paranormal and occult themed forest, someone here would react to poor Hat Kid, whose appearance was more akin to a wraith than an actual alive kid.

I didn't waste any more time and moved Hat Kid over to the entrance of the village. I noted that she seemed to move a bit slower than normal, it could have just been my imagination, at least I thought that at that point in the game. When I arrived I obviously didn't get that scene where Snatcher makes sure that you're doing your chores, but it still zoomed in on the fire spirits and even showed the time piece that had fallen in the fire. I knew what I had to do, and was thankful that I at least could still pick things up, given that I had trouble attacking the plants, I had been worried about that. It didn't take me all that long to throw the paintings into the fire and extract the time piece. Before I could go and grab it, one of the fire walls disappeared and Snatcher appeared in the village and started to talk to a minion. I'm going to paraphrase here, sorry, I can't remember what he said exactly anymore.

“Did...did you managed to get rid of those annoying fires that stopped me from getting to parts of my forest?” He looked a bit confused, I'd be too if the thing that kept me trapped suddenly disappeared without cause.

“...Yeah?” The minion cowered in fear, probably hoping that telling his boss that he did it would be a good idea.

“Why didn't you do so earlier!? Well, it doesn't matter, get rid of the other ones too, now that you're at it.” Hat Kid appeared to pout after the Minion just blatantly took credit for something she did.

“...Thanks.” With that the, soul-stealing ghost vanished back in the ground, leaving me to finally claim the time piece.

Subon Forest Act 2: The Subcon Well

When I got back to the ship, I didn't realize that I missed something at the time. The levels in Subon usually needed to be unlocked by stepping into Snatcher's traps, with him now being unaware of Hat Kid strolling around in his forest, I could have easily gotten locked out of the rest of the levels. Thankfully, the corruption or whatever unlocked the rest of the levels aside from Vanessa's manor. That boded very ill.

After I entered the level and was brought back to the Snatcher's stump, I started by getting rid of the fire spirits in the swamp, which I could do earlier than normal, thanks to already being in possession of the hook shot badge. I got another cutscene where two minions talk about the well and that their boss wanted it to be cleaned. All in all not much of a big change here. I went inside the well, broke the ice that clogged it, and found the time piece. I decided that I would open up the other areas by getting rid of the fire spirits though. After all the death I'd already seen, I was far more uncomfortable than the first time I played the game, that I had to get rid of them.

Subcon Forest Act 3: Toilet of Doom

Yet another level mostly the same, it appeared that the outhouse got possessed differently this time, Hat Kid still had her soul after all. The fight went well enough, I got hit a couple of times, due to forgetting that the shock waves the toilet created, tripped you. The only other thing that change, was that a minion got praised for destroying the wretched bathroom appliance, to which Hat Kid shrugged again.

Subcon Forest Act 5: Mail Delivery Service

This one shared a fate with Mafia Town Act 5, due to Snatcher not being aware of Hat Kid, I could just grab the time piece without even needing to deliver the mail, not that I could have done so without the sprint hat.

Subcon Forest: Red Rift

The red rift showed right before I braced myself for the 4th act of Subcon, this time it was placed near the entrance to the manor just across the bridge where the destroyed tower or something is, it took me a while to realize where it wanted me to go. Awaiting another tougher platforming rift, I went over to the glowing orb and entered. Same deal as before, no explanation necessary, I think. I had to pick up a Minion, a Fire Spirit, a dweller, and of course Snatcher, strangely, no Queen Vanessa. I had only 2 health this time though, and due to the stack and Hat Kid's more sluggish movement that I mentioned earlier, I had quite a bit of trouble getting through the spinning platforms and the gear tower things. Red Kid's shape became even more defined, they looked like a boy with short hair and a coat that flowed sightly when he moved, which was the only way for me to tell what it was.

After some very tight jumps and lots of anxiety on my part, Hat Kid finally managed to get the people she had been holding through the portal at the end. Once again, Red Kid stopped.

“Why won't you just give up and disappear!? Just stop struggling already!” He exited by leaping away again. I got back to the space ship with Hat Kid looking confused. Was he the one who put me and Hat Kid through this traumatic nightmare? If so, why? What did he gain by doing that? With noting left to do, I tried to open act 4 again and this time I could access it. I took a deep breath and braced myself.

Subcon Forest Act 4: Queen Vanessa's Manor

Of course the scariest level in the normal game was also the trigger for an even scarier event in this weird corrupted, or glitched, or whatever you'd call it game. I had already been dreading this level, not only because of the strange and horrifying event that I already had to go through, but also because just like with Mafia Town's Act 6, it was kept for last without me being able to select it prior to completing the others.

I was honestly relieved and disappointed when nothing of real note happened at first, everything went normally. Some Minions once again opened the act by explaining that they saw one of the time pieces fall near the manor and emphasized that they would NOT go over there, under no circumstance, a sentiment that I kind of shared, but had to fight against.

Reluctantly, I made my way across the bridge and through the little ice puzzle to the wide nothingness that stretched out all around the manor of the ice queen. I avoided those nasty ice statues at the front because I remembered that you had to enter the manor from the basement. I sneaked around and the door to the cellar opened and I made Hat Kid jump right in.

Kind of random, but the title card for this act without Hat Kid in it was somehow very eerie, just and empty nothingness through the open door the blue-eyed child would have peeked through if this had been a regular version of the game.

This level had one of the biggest changes to the original, so far most of the levels played the same aside from the invisible Hat Kid thing, but now this invisibility caused something worse to happen, I already found it strange that the red rift appeared before I even had access to the final chapter, the reason was pretty weird.

I maneuvered my way through the house as usual, and almost got a heart attack when I opened the door to the hallway and found the shadowy figure of Queen Vanessa just walking toward the kitchen door. Hat Kid did her little skidding animation upon seeing her, while I almost dropped my controller. This may just be the only instance in the game where I appreciated a person not being able to interact with me, even Hat Kid looked relieved.

This relief didn't last long however, I needed to go to the kitchen to open the door on the left side of the hallway and the door that let to the room with the piano was locked, so I had but one option. I carefully moved Hat Kid past the queen and opened the door to the kitchen, which seemed to make the red-eyed apparition recoil.

“What?” She then followed me through the door and I opened the fridge foolishly, in hindsight I should have waited for her to turn around or leave, as that led to Vanessa being even more confused and upset, which further doomed the already pretty miserable citizens of Subcon. “What is happening?!”

Hat Kid was freaking out and so was I, due to the shadowy mass now trailing the purple-clothed child everywhere I made her go. She followed me up the stairs and into the bedroom, watching as I did what you regularly do in this level. I noticed that she started to shake more and more, I assumed it to be out of fear, but no....it was out of fury. “Stop playing tricks on me, my prince. I know you're here.”

I don't know what delusions she was conjuring up as I got the key and entered the attic. At the top I found and opened the treasure chest and that doomed Subcon.

Remembering all of this sends a chill down my spine as I'm typing this. But I'll promised myself that I'll see ti through. I just hope that I can get some answers to why my game ended up this way.

When Hat Kid opened the chest and claimed the time piece, something else fell out...a wilted, old bouquet, the flowers it was made out of preserved forever under a thick layer of ice. “You came back to me...just to get this back for her, didn't you?” Anguish and spite laced the words of the cold queen, before it switched to sadness and then anger. “I thought you came back to see me, but now I understand...-” Ice started to spread under her and toward Hat Kid, who I had no control over yet again, as she jumped onto the window sill, her eyes wide with fear as the ground started to shake.

“YOU'RE NOTHING BUT A FILTHY CHEATER!!!”

That was the line that made Hat Kid bolt, she jumped through the glass and started to run back in panic, the ice spreading behind her, as I gained control again once she landed on the ground outside. I panicked, I panicked as the view turned around and I could see the ice encase the whole manor, turning it into a huge ice crystal. The ice kept spreading at a rapid pace, and even though I had no sprint cap, Hat Kid still ran, she ran as fast as her little legs could carry her, as all I could see was the ice behind the space traveler.

Adrenalin kicked in and I tried to tilt the camera forward again, but I was forced to watch the ice spread as it covered the trees, the rocks. I almost dropped my controller entirely as an insane cackle echoed through the forest and almost made Hat Kid trip.

I only saw something dark and red run past Hat Kid as she entered the village, I hadn't even realized we had made it there already. The cold magic reached the blue-eyed kid, and once again, she wasn't affected.

Again I was powerless, again I couldn't do anything but watch.

That was when the view switched and I could see dwellers and minions slowly freeze to death, while they flailed around in a panic, and begged for it to stop, but to no avail. Hat Kid started shaking, the cruelty on display in front of her becoming too much to bear. My attention was drawn to the distance. Red and purple flashes lit up the horizon. I didn't want to go there, but I had no choice it seemed.

When Hat Kid arrived the ice was spreading up a shocked and terrified Snatcher, I turned Hat Kid around again as he slowly stopped moving and joined the ranks of the endlessly suffering ice statues. The evil cackle from the queen gave me goosebumps and I flinched when she simply shattered the ice sculpture of the tormented ghost. The insane laughter continued, while Hat Kid sat down and pulled her knees to her chest, before she started to cry. That was when it ended again and I simply got brought back to the ship.

It scares me how good the human is at adapting to things, as I was slowly getting used to these horrifying stuff that I had to bear witness to. I realized that I could see through Hat Kid now, even to me she was slowly turning invisible. Only one more chapter, only Battle of the Birds remained. I dreaded what the corruption would do to my favorite characters of the game, but I found out soon enough.

Battle of the Birds Act 1: Dead Bird Studio

Just like all those times before, I entered the first level of the Chapter. Neither the owls nor the penguins acknowledged Hat Kid, nothing new there, and both directors were to busy with the usual spiel of yelling at each other. The cutscene played and I sprinted up toward the vent, not even trying to talk to either of the directors' subordinates. The level proved no challenge, you know why by now. At the end, I simply found the time piece for the level, maybe because I couldn't interact with DJ Grooves and the Conductor.

Battle of the Birds Act 2: Murder on the Owl Express

The interesting stuff happen from this chapter onward. Murder on the Owl Express was there things got really strange. It started the same way, only that one of the owls was talking with the Conductor and the yellow bird told the express owl that he had to go to front of the train to get something. With nothing better to do, I followed the brown owl and witnessed him getting questioned by the crows. One asked him what his favorite sting of numbers and letters was to which he replied with ABC123.

Another question was about his pet's pet name, Pecko actually made me smile a little, which I appreciated after the ordeal in Subcon. It was a bit strange not being the main character in a game for once, given that all I could do was follow the owl to the front, there he picked up the detective costume and got a call about his uncle's sister, Owlina, visiting.

The owl that I had trailed for the past 2 minutes then went on his way to find the clues on who committed the murder, after he had quite the panic attack, due to the other owl lying in a pool of blood, it seems that my owl friend also couldn't tell that it was a mere set up. The important part was that he then just stopped after leaving the room with the blood and hid in the corner, shaking like a leaf.

Hat Kid just looked at the owl, a bit surprised, she hardly paid any attention to things around her anymore, if it was because of her getting more transparent, or due to the horrible things she had to see, I didn't know. I decided that it was best to just find the files and go form there, so I did. Thanking the game for still letting me pick things up at least, I grabbed the files and after I got the one that implicated the presumed dead owl from the cafeteria, the button that lowered the platform to reach the room where you'd find Hat Kid's file wasn't even there, so I simply walked back to the room the detective owl was in. Hat Kid threw the files toward the owl, which hit him in the head.

I wondered what would show up on the movie recordings for a moment, floating files that made their way through the whole train, more like a horror movie than a thriller. In the end the Conductor asked the owl, who the murderer was and the owl picked one of the suspects at random and just blurted out that the other Express Owls did it, which they then confirmed. That concluded this level, I had to look around for the time piece, and found it outside on the little balcony of the caboose.

Battle of the Birds Act 3: Picture Perfect

This time around Hat Kid landed on the big moon set, and we were following a moon penguin who was tasked with establishing a big fan club for himself. He did the endorsement scenes mostly on his own, I helped with pushing the dog cutout from the fountain, which was literally the only one of those that I could do. The others were just the penguin guessing incorrectly at the card game, and him answering with ranch when it came to the way he preferred his tuna sandwiches.

The best part about the level came from when I noticed that the penguins weren't taking pictures of their comrade, and I found one of their cameras near the area you land when the game starts. For a few minutes I actually forgot the pain and suffering the game had put me and Hat Kid through, and I had fun photographing the little moon penguin. It even showed the fedora-wearing bird in the photos that I took of him, the controls for the camera were the same as with the camera badge. All of this came to a sudden end though when I got the time piece as it popped out of the balloon, and the alert for a red rift appeared.

Battle of the Birds: Red Rift

I found the rift near the end of the Dead Bird Studio, right behind the big plastic award. I wondered how hard it would be this time and wasn't disappointed on the difficulty front, I had ONE health, if I screwed up here I wondered if I could even attempt the level again, or if I ended up killing the characters if I messed up. I really needed to concentrate this time. I made Hat Kid pick up the birds, which consisted of the two directors, an express owl, a moon penguin and a crow.

As you can imagine, moving around with a stack of five birds was really hard, fighting against the constant swaying while landing safely on the platforms was near impossible, given my horrible skills in this game. Red Kid, whose shape was now clear, was even more determined than ever to catch up to the little girl I controlled. I had never seen that character in the game before, at the time I was desperately trying to figure out who he was, not even Hat Kid seemed to remember him.

I was so happy once Hat Kid tossed the flock of birds through the rift, Red Kid stopped once again and only glared at the blue-eyed girl for a second before he left. I breathed a sigh of relief after that stressful rift, and I knew that the area I had to go to next would not be as pleasant as 'Picture Perfect' had been, after all following the red rift was only the untimely demise of the remaining cast, the other rifts before made that abundantly clear. I knew that 'Train Rush' and 'The big Parade' would not end well.

Battle of the Birds Act 4: Train Rush

Train Rush...oh where do I begin with Train Rush. This was by far together with the parade the most traumatizing act in the whole game...I honestly don't even want to open this can of worms, but by now you're probably just as interested to see what happened as I was during all this. This morbid curiosity that led me to continue through this whole ordeal...The human truly is a strange creature, that never seems to be able to know when to quit.

I landed on the balcony of the caboose, and entered after the Conductor told the owl that his next movie was gonna be the bomb in a good way...No Conductor...This bomb was bad on so many levels.

The owl pulled the trigger for the bomb, and immediately after the yellow bird stopped talking before telling him to get to the front to turn it off, he faltered, just like in the movie before. Hat Kid panicked and tried to get the hysterical owl to move, of course it did nothing. In my panic, I thought that maybe I could have Hat Kid switch it off, we could interact with objects so far, so where was at least a chance! I made my way through the exploding train carts, screaming and yelling followed Hat Kid as she ran.

I made it to the front, jumping and trying desperately to press down the switch, which didn't budge in the slightest. I yelled and cursed at the thing, while the clock kept ticking away the life seconds of all owls on board. 10...9...8...7...6...5...4...3...2...1 Good bye

“Good bye.” Right before the loud explosion destroyed the only train on the planet, a weak low whisper broke the silence in the room, what followed after I could only tell from the wind shield. The train tilted to the left after the explosion send the wagons in the back off the rail, which caused the others connected to them to get flung off as well. Hat Kid fell toward the left, due the control room digging itself further into the sand, as the wheels spun around to find the traction they had lost.

That was when the shock wave created by the explosion in the back reached the front. The owl, just like Hat Kid, ended up being tossed around by the violently shaking train. He hit the control panel rather hard, a sickening crackling noise barely leveled itself above the cacophony of other noises in the chaos, but I heard his bone snap before he crumbled to the floor. It felt like hours before everything came to a stand-still, it was almost completely silent after what felt like an eternity, broken cables swinging around and fire burning somewhere in the distance were the only things I could hear...that and a creaking noise...How I wished that Hat Kid was able to interact with people.

I gasped when I noticed that the old owl I had presumed to be dead slowly got up hissing in pain. Hat Kid moved over to him, trying to help the wounded bird. He yelped when he tried to move his right wing, and almost slumped back down. He survived! I couldn't believe it!...but of course this wasn't the end of this, this game was cruel and unmerciful. It only toyed with me, making me believe that one of my favorite characters could actually survive.

The same loud creak replaced the quiet hisses of the owl with gurgling noises as a pipe broke off and impaled him. Hat Kid shrieked and started to tremble once she realized what had happened. Blood poured out of the owl's beak and from the huge wound in his abdomen, at least he appeared to have died the moment it hit him, as he didn't struggle to free himself. I felt nauseous when his limp body sank further and further down, impaling the dead bird more and more due to gravity, that was when I finally got my act together and made Hat Kid leave.

The owls didn't have it any better. As I walked around the literal train wreak, I could see that most of them had perished in the explosion, some had been crushed by large objects or debris, while others were looked singed and burnt. One particular owl broke my heart, he tried desperately to drag himself through the hot sand, as he slowly bleed out from a large, gashing injury on his side. I lost control once Hat Kid fell to her knees and cried, once again broken by what happened around her. That was when we finally returned to the ship.

Battle of the Birds Act 5: The big Parade

When I came back to the spaceship after everything once again simply faded to black, I cried together with Hat Kid, I just couldn't help it this time, call me a cry baby, but seeing all of owls meet such a terrible end made me sick even if it is just a game, I really connected with these characters the first time I played the game, so seeing all of this just tore at my heart. The two quarreling bird directors were my favorite characters and now one of them died with Hat Kid and me just a few mere steps away form him, it made my hands shake and I still had one more level to go through, one more level of agony. I was determined to see it through to the end though, I had been through enough of this already, so I deserved some closure. With that in mind I entered Act 5, and prayed that it wouldn't end nearly as bad...You already know what I'm about to tell you though, of course it ended in huge calamity.

Just like with all the levels before it, the first few minutes nothing was wrong, the penguin put on the parade costume and started to roam around the set, while the band of owls followed him. The bad stuff started when the DJ interrupted the parade for a moment and sent the penguin to turn on the pyrotechnics, the floors stayed electrified longer than in the original version, which didn't effect Hat Kid, but made it hard for the other dancing penguins to not get electrocuted.

My unease solidified more and more as I watched them struggle, Hat Kid appeared like she wanted to help the penguins and tried to interact with them, to no avail. The DJ told the star of the show to switch on the fireworks...and that was when things went from bad to worse...far worse.

In the original I already hated those fireworks, that behaved more like homing missiles, but after this I swore to myself that I'd never launch another one of those at new years out of fear that it will trigger this dark memory.

The homing missiles didn't chase after Hat Kid, they instead targeted the penguins and objects closest to them. The very first rocket hit a building, making concrete rain down on the gathering below the stage. Screaming once again echoed through my speakers as penguins got hit and either were terribly injured or got electrocuted by the floors that now had an electric current run through them nonstop, due to one of the missiles hitting one of the buttons.

No matter where I looked, all I could see was pain and suffering, once again I couldn't save Hat Kid's psyche, she had to watch the penguins jolt and twitch as the electricity slowly killed them. One small explosion after another made my skin crawl and my eyes water yet again. Hat Kid screamed out loud as I unfortunately jumped right toward the little area where DJ Grooves stood during the parade, and two missiles were headed right his way. The kid seemed to want to warn the panicking DJ, trying to get his attention, trying everything in her power to stop him from meeting the same fate as his rival and countless others met before him. It was for naught.

The sparkling, highly explosive objects that were meant to spark joy to those that watch them combust in the night sky now only sparked sheer terror as the first one hit the turntables, sending boiling hot shrapnel at the tall penguin's face, he shrieked in pain, as his jacket caught fire from machine breaking around him. For better or for worse the second missile ended his suffering fairly quickly when it stuck him in the back and made him slump over. The missiles continued to wreak havoc, but both Hat Kid and I were paralyzed, unable to turn away form the smoking feathers and the still slightly burning red jacket. The always dancing and moving penguin now laid eerily still, his star-shaped shades were teetering at the end of his beak, threatening to fall to the now empty street below at any second.

We were only brought out of our stupor when the screen went black once again and we found ourselves back in the spaceship. I couldn't even process the events as the little girl suddenly screamed in pain. At first I thought that it was due to all the mental trauma. Damn that red boy! Speaking of the devil.

“You may have saved them, but you won't be able to save yourself!” With that threat, the screen went black once again and I landed in what appeared to be yet another red time rift.

???

This rift was more or less like the others, the first thing I noticed was poor Hat Kid, she was almost completely invisible to me now, I almost had to make my way through it, only knowing by the camera always being centered on her. The blue-eyed girl moved painfully slow now and did the little panting noises no matter if I was standing still or not. I got uneasy, not sure what I should do, but decided to just try and get through the rift. Red Kid spawned again, and this time it happened, this time Red Kid caught me, and Hat Kid did lost her last health and she fell to the ground.

“Finally! Now I can finally exist! Sorry, Hat Kid, but it had to be done.” Red Kid finally got his normal color, he had short black hair, a red jacket, a brown hat, and a white shirt with something printed on it. Some blue, tribal-looking tattoos were painted on his face and he had purple eyes. With strain in her voice, Hat Kid finally named the boy that I had labeled as Red Kid.

“T-Timmy?” He looked shocked for a moment but composed himself.

“So you do remember me! The sidekick you abandoned, and doomed to non-existence!” Hat Kid tried to move and get up, but only fell back down.

“Why? I wasn't the one who did this to you.”

“I just want to live, okay! I've been stuck in endless darkness for so long, while you had a nice, adventure and made lots of friends. I was jealous!-” The sound effect and the little poof, that happened when you switch hats played, and the brown hat, was replaced by Hat Kid's iconic top hat.

“All I had to do was steal the thing that linked you to this world, that made you the main character. Now that I have it, you'll fade away and end up in obscurity just like I was before. Now I can go on adventures and make friends. Don't worry, I won't forget you...but the others will.” With that he jumped away and left the girl on the floor.

This was it? This was how this gruesome game ended...with Hat Kid fading into nothingness? Again where was nothing I could do to help, I had to watch as she slowly faded completely. I opened the menu to find something, anything that could help. That was when the green badge the badge seller gave me caught my eye. I hurried to equip it and now it did something. Hat Kid seemingly faded back in a bit, she regained all 4 hit points and her movement was back to normal.

I ran through the parkour, determined to confront Timmy and get Hat Kid's hat back. Of course I felt a little bad for the poor boy, especially now that I know that he was scrapped in beta, maybe someone in the team put this story line in because they were upset that he was cut...what a sadistic asshole, making the player and Hat Kid go through that!

The rift ended on a huge round platform, that practically screamed 'Boss Battle', and I was right. As soon as I got there, Timmy opened a portal that showed the spaceship and the planet in the background. Timmy noticed Hat Kid approach and ran toward the portal, ready to jump in.

“You won't stop me!” He yelled, but the purple-clothed girl was having none of it, she send the hook shot and grabbed his jacket, pulling back. He growled and thus I had to battle the upset boy.

This battle was like fighting Hat Kid from the normal game, if she were an enemy. He could run very fast, due to the sprint hat, and he could slow down time with the time-stop hat. Thankfully the green badge gave me some health recovery every 30 seconds or so, which at least gave me a fighting chance, I still struggled to stay alive. I'm really bad at describing this battle, sorry, but everything just turned into a blur as I was so focused on the fight. I didn't want to lose and potentially kill Hat Kid, and have her drown in darkness forever.

I beat him after what felt like at least half an hour, and he skidded across the floor much like Mustache Girl does at the end of the battle in chapter 5. Hat Kid walked over and retrieved her top hat from the beaten Timmy, who started to fade, now that he had lost the hat.

Now I was back in control, two choices presented themselves, either leave Timmy here to fade into obscurity again, or take him through portal together with Hat Kid. As I said before, I felt sorry for him, he just wanted to exist, live and have fun, go on adventures and make friends. His actions were horrible and caused a lot of pain and trauma, but I felt bad, even though he was technically just a video game character that was scrapped.

I picked him up and just like the other characters I threw him through the portal, jumping in with Hat Kid right after. The screen faded to black and I ended up back at the title screen. I switched the game off right after, but not before selecting new game to see if it had returned to normal, which I think it has now...the only difference was the option the game gave me after I selected a file...

Start a new game as

Hat Kid Timmy

[post-punk-post-twink]

2, 20, 34 :)

2. Top five games?

五 - Super Mario Galaxy

四 - Final Fantasy XII Zodiac Age

三 - Zelda: Wind Waker

二 - Fire Emblem: Three Houses

一 - Final Fantasy IX

20. Game that made me cry?

I said something different in my last answer, but to mix things up, I’ll say the closest I’ve come to crying for sad/touched reasons in a game was probably Octopath Traveler because I fell hard for the Alfyn gaybaiting and wanted him to be with Zeph so bad

34. Embarrassing gaming story?

I don’t play a lot of multiplayer but the summer before high school I liked to play the multiplayer for Assassin’s Creed Brotherhood on my friend’s Xbox 360. I was introduced to one of my friend’s friends that he talked to while I had the controller. We ended up being at the same school, and I was remembered as the guy who sucked at Assassin’s Creed

Thanks! This was fun!

[weevilwizard]

whats your top 7 games of 1993

TOP 7 GAMES OF 1993

7; Disney’s Aladdin. apparently it’s a classic.

6; Mario’s Time Machine. i love mario. i love time travel. i love kid’s educational games. yippeeeee

5; Kirby’s Adventure. kirby……

4; Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening. i haven’t played this one but i’ve played other zeldas. i like zeldas a lot.

3; Doom. rip tear gun shooty pew pew kill death. yaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay

2; Splatterhouse 3. i once saw a Splatterhouse game for the xbox 360 at a flea market when i was 17 and my mom wouldn’t let me buy it. looks awesome.

1; MYST MYST MYST MYST. love myst.

[angelix133]

El mundo gamer

Durante bastante tiempo ha sido complicado señalar cual fue el primer videojuego, principalmente debido a las múltiples definiciones de este que se han ido estableciendo, pero se puede considerar como primer videojuego el Nought and crosses, también llamado OXO, desarrollado por Alexander S.Douglas en 1952

Los años 80 comenzaron con un fuerte crecimiento en el sector del videojuego alentado por la popularidad de los salones de máquinas recreativas y de las primeras videoconsolas aparecidas durante la década de los 70

En los 90s llegaron entregas como

Resident Evil

DOOM

Half-Life

Super Mario 64

Metal Gear Solid

The Secret of Monkey Island

The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask

Silent Hill

Siendo Tetris para la gameboy la mas vendida en su epoca

En el 2000 Sony lanzó la anticipada PlayStation 2 y Sega lanzó otra consola con las mismas características técnicas de la Dreamcast, nada más que venia con un monitor de 14 pulgadas, un teclado, altavoces y los mismos mandos llamados Dreamcast Drivers 2000 Series CX-1.

Microsoft entra en la industria de las consolas creando la Xbox en 2001.

Nintendo lanzó el sucesor de la Nintendo 64, la Gamecube, y la primera Game Boy completamente nueva desde la creación de la compañía, la Game Boy Advance. Sega viendo que no podría competir, especialmente con una nueva máquina como la de Sony, anunció que ya no produciría hardware, convirtiéndose sólo en desarrolladora de software en 2002

algunos eventos de los videojuegos a lo largo de los 2000 a 2009 fueron

04/02/2000- Los Sims salen a la venta

31/01/2001- SEGA abandona el desarrollo hardware

23/11/2004- Sale a la venta World of Warcraft

27/04/2005- Nintendogs consigue un 40/40 en la Famitsu

15/09/2005- Desvelado mando de la Wii

8/05/2006- Sony anuncia que PlayStation 3 valdrá 600 dólares

12/12/2006- Dragon Quest, anunciado para DS

10/07/2008- Apple lanza la App Store

14/07/2008- Final Fantasy XIII, también para la 360

25/03/2009- Los videojuegos, declarados bien cultural por el Congreso

en 2011 salieron Títulos como 'Killzone 3' (PS3), 'Crysis 2' (PS3, Xbox 360, PC), 'Conduit 2' (Wii), 'Rage' (PS3, Xbox 360, PC), 'Dead Island' (PS3, Xbox 360, PC), 'Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3' (PS3, Xbox 360, PC, Wii), 'Resistance 3' (PS3), 'Battlefield 3' (PS3, Xbox 360, PC), 'Gears of War 3' (Xbox 360) y 'Homefront' (PS3, Xbox)

Lanzamientos en 2011

Uncharted 3' (PS3), 'Batman: Arkham City' (PS3, Xbox 360, PC), 'inFamous 2' (PS3), 'Deus Ex: Human Revolution' (PS3, Xbox 360, PC), o 'Assassin's Creed: Revelations' (PS3, Xbox 360, PC)

y el lanzamiento del que hoy en dia es uno de los juegos mas queridos por la comunidad MINECRAFT

2012

ZombiU.

Spec Ops: The Line.

Journey.

Escape Plan.

Far Cry 3.

Mass Effect 3.

Halo 4.

Borderlands 2.

FNAF

2013

Grand Theft Auto V.

Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag.

Pokémon X/Y.

Gone Home.

Animal Crossing: New Leaf.

The Last of Us.

Pikmin 3.

Bioshock Infinite.

2014 lanzamiento del play4 y xbox one que debutaron por todo lo alto este año que termina. La primera siguiendo su tendencia de ser "la consola para jugadores", la segunda con una apuesta más arriesgada pero igual de atractiva unificando juegos con televisión digital y muchas opciones de multimedia

2015 donde call of duty black ops lll fue el juego mas famoso de ese

2017

1.) God of War (PS4, Sony Interactive Entertainment)

2.) Red Dead Redemption 2 (PS4 / Xbox One, Rockstar Games)4). Detroit: Become Human (PS4, Sony Interactive Entertainment)

5.) Marvel's Spider-Man (PS4, Sony Interactive Entertainment)

6.) Battlefield V (PS4 / Xbox One / Windows, Electronic Arts)

7.) Fortnite

2020

Animal Crossing: New Horizons. Plataforma: Nintendo Switch

Astro's Playroom

DOOM Eterna

Final Fantasy VII Remake

Microsoft Flight Simulator

Ori and the Will of the Wisps

The Last of Us Parte II

Valorant

acompañado del lanzamiento del play station 5 y el Xbox series X/S

2023

proximos a estrenarse

Marvel's Spider-Man 2 (PS5)

Super Mario Bros. Wonder (Switch) 

Cities: Skylines 2 (PC)

Metal Gear Solid: Master Collection - Volumen 1 (PC, PS5, Switch, Xbox Series X/S)

The Lord of the Rings: Return to Moria (PC, PS5)

Ghostrunner 2 (PC, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S)

Alan Wake 2 (PC, PS5, Xbox Series X/S)

EA Sports UFC 5 (PC, PS5, Xbox Series X/S)

Jusant (PC, PS5, Xbox Series X/S)

ARK: Survival Ascended (PC, PS5, Xbox Series X/S)

Phasmophobia (PS5, Xbox Series X/S)

[wickedjr89gaming]

I just realized I can make a pinned post.

Hello, welcome to my blog. It's basically Sims 2 at this point though I technically started it with the intention to post about whatever game I played... that just happens to be almost entirely Sims 2 lol. I do enjoy other games as well though and want to get more into them. I also love Sims 3.

Non-sim games I enjoy include (but are not limited to): Mortal Kombat, Pokemon, Racing games, Street fighter, Zelda, horror games and more. I recently got a PS5 and do also have other PC games and a switch as well as older consoles (xbox 360, N64, wii, PS2, 3DS).

For tags, Sims 2 always gets "TS2", Sims 3 "TS3" etc. Anything not about the sims gets "nonsims". I often randomly tag a lot of things, like names of the sims in the post/what hood they are in/etc, but those (TS2/TS3/nonsims) should always be consistent if you want to block anything in particular.

I've also started tagging "religion in sims" as my sims have (made up but still) religions and if you'd like to avoid those posts, block that tag.

Let me know if you want me to add any other tags to something. I'll add whatever game i'm talking about as well to the tags, like "mortal kombat" if I mention Mortal Kombat etc.

In Sims 2 I play rotationally (Mon - Thurs, Thurs - Mon). I don't play in a strict order, just making sure I get to everyone before starting the next round. I play a megahood with Strangetown, Pleasantview, Riverblossom Hills, Bluewater Village, Widespot, Downtown, Sim State University, La Fiesta Tech and Land Grant University.

In Sims 3 I play legacy style.

About me: My name is Tyler. I was born in February of 1989 and am an Aquarius sun, Aries moon, Libra rising and Venus Aquarius. Yes I am into astrology. I am Pagan. I am also a trans man and my pronouns are He/they.

I am also physically disabled, in multiple ways as I was born with VACtERL Association (yes it's capitalized like that for a reason as it's an acronym where you only need 3 of the letters at a minimum to qualify). I have chronic pain. I am also neurodivegent: Autistic, Adhd and Aphantasia. Triple AAA lol. I also have mental health issues like anxiety but not just anxiety.

I love to read, play sims, write. I love art. I read all kinds of different genres, and age ranges. My favorite genres horror and nonfiction but I read pretty much everything. Contemporary, Fantasy, Sci-Fi, Thriller, Historical fiction, Romance etc.

I also use cannabis medically, and recreationally, and am sometimes (not always lol) playing Sims while high.

Linktree link with my socials

[blazehedgehog]

Why is it that you considered nintendo trying to be the apple of gaming? I feel like, especially if taking sony into account, it's rather opposite of it in most of the case. Like a horizontal opposite of a horse shoe. Granted, as far as I know, the simliarity between nintendo and apple is extreme protectiveness over their IP and loathes the modification of their product. As a platform, based on recent development, they cant be more different. Nintendo product thrive on being weak but affordable console to most, and has since loosen control on third party content, while Playstation and apple thrive on being luxury powerful high end product on the market , and their policy for third party cobtent seem to have gotten more strict recently. I heard that sony forced Japanese developer make their game closer to western sensibility, even the one meant to be published in japan.

Nintendo thrive on being what people might wants, while apple thrive on being best in the market

That said, my knowledge on this is pretty limited and could be wrong, so I would like to know your perspective on this and feel free to correct me if I am wrong about anything.

It was because at the start of the Switch, Nintendo was overcharging the hell out of it. To some degree, they still are. When you consider the capabilities of the hardware, it's roughly (not directly, but roughly) equivalent to, like, an Xbox 360 or a Playstation 3. Hardware from 2005, in other words. Again, I know it's not a direct 1:1 comparison, because it's more about memory speeds and bus bandwidth. In some places the Switch is better than a 360, and in others it's worse. But still. Roughly equivalent.

For, like, $300? That's a lot of money. It leans really hard on that portability aspect. Being able to throw it in a carrying case and easily take it with you. Slot it in to any Switch dock and throw it up on a TV. I'm doing that right now, given I am writing this on the last couple days of pet sitting for my cousin. They have a Switch, but they take it with them on vacation, so I'm just using my Switch in their dock to play Tears of the Kingdom.

There was also rumors that Nintendo was going to roll out updated hardware more like a mobile phone; what I had heard was they wanted a marginal upgrade out every 2-3 years. And true enough, rumors of the so-called "Switch Pro" have persisted since at least 2018 or 2019. But since the Switch itself was selling so insanely well, supposedly Nintendo got cold feet and didn't want to mess up a good thing by rushing replacement hardware out. Now, they've stalled so long that they're leaving a lot of developers with Switch Pro dev kits out to dry.

Software is, and to some degree continues to be, very expensive. Ignoring the fact that Zelda's $70, even at launch, you had Capcom putting out a version of Street Fighter 2 HD for $60, when on Xbox Live Arcade, they charged $15 for more or less the same experience. A lot of early games were plagued by the so-called "Switch Tax."

But you're right insofar as Sony has totally stolen that crown with the Playstation 5, right down to the crushing ego and everything.

That is the number one reason I don't really want a Playstation 5. I mean, I've entered giveaways for one, I wouldn't say no if it dropped into my lap, but Sony is going after the "status symbol" market. It's very gross. I don't care how many PS4 games I have, how much of my library is tied up in PS+ freebies, I will drop the Playstation brand for another Xbox as soon as I can afford to.

[cyberpunkpizzaman]

Games I’ve been Playing - Elden Ring, Fallout 3, and Breath of the Wild

It's been a while since I put together my last post about what I've been playing, but I have definitely not been idle in the intervening months. Here's what I've been up to!

All links in this post are Humble Bundle affiliate links. That means I get a small portion of any purchase made after using them. If you'd like to learn more about the Humble Bundle affiliate program, click here.

Elden Ring

I beat Elden Ring a month or so back, brute-forcing my way through the game with heavy armor and a greatsword. It's a massive game, and I feel like I've only just scratched the surface even after the many many hours I put into that run. I restarted almost immediately, playing as a mage and experimenting with glintstone sorceries. But in all honesty, I'm a bit burnt out on the game. As many discovered after an initial burst of enjoyment, the game really starts to drag after the fight with Morgott and I, like many others, was struck by an overwhelming sense of "really, there's more?" right about the time Crumbling Farum Azula popped up.

All of that said, I really enjoyed my time with Elden Ring. It was a real challenge, but I'm happy I played it. The world and the characters have intriguing depths and the moment-to-moment gameplay is tense and exciting. I just think the open world (and especially the addition of your trusty steed Torrent) breaks the tight pacing that does so much for the earlier Souls games. When most enemy groups can simply be avoided, it's often hard to tell how the game wants the player to approach situations.

Fallout 3

Playing on the Steam Deck! I first experienced Fallout 3 at a friend's house, watching him explore DC's irradiated subways on an XBox 360. Playing the game on the Deck is a wholly different experience, and I'm enjoying it quite a bit. As a platform, the Deck promotes a certain kind of focus that I find incredibly compelling; multi-tasking isn't really possible, so the game takes center stage.

When I play games on PC, it's not unusual for me to have a podcast running in the background, or even a long YouTube video running on a second monitor. Playing on the Deck locks me in and focuses my attention.

I'm also having a good time with Fallout 3 itself! Much like my exploration of Oblivion last year, Fallout 3 feels like a clear first step toward the kind of multi-leveled, densely packed urban chaos we see in Fallout 4's Boston. The metro system's prominence feels more like a concession to technical limitations than anything else, with piles of rubble blocking progress along surface streets.

Tonally, the game's dialogue choices place the player at a remove from the game's world. You're encouraged to mess with the world and its characters, causing problems and drama wherever you go. You can, of course, avoid these options, but the game itself will essentially taunt you for being a good-two-shoes. It's a game that, despite the depth of its dialogue system and its world, wants you to engage with it as a game; to exert your will upon the world and its inhabitants in whatever way seems most entertaining.

Anyways, I'll likely have a longer write-up on Fallout 3 at some point in the future. I'm still fairly early in the game, and I've yet to tackle any of the DLC. More to come here.

Breath of the Wild

I have no screenshots for this one; I'll add some in the future if I can figure out how to get screenshots off the Switch

Breath of the Wild is my first Zelda game and I'm honestly not sure how I feel about it. I'm partly playing it for my wife, so she can see the story without needing to play the game herself. But I think I might have played too many open-world games. I can see the game's strength and the excellence of its execution in every mechanic; the game gives me so many tools I sometimes can't tell if a cheesed a puzzle or completed it as intended, and the world design itself is both nuanced and beautiful.

But I think I've climbed too many towers. I think I climbed too many towers by the time I beat Far Cry 3, and I'd definitely climbed too many towers by the time I beat Assassin's Creed 3. I've filled in more than my fair share of maps and I just don't know that I'm that into it these days. Skyrim's old promise of "if you see a mountain you can climb it" feels more like obligation than exploration. And knowing that each new heart means finding and completing four shrines makes me feel like I'm completing checklist items.

I think I might just not be cut out for these kinds of games right now. I'm going to beat the game and give it a fair shake, but I'm definitely flagging and I have been from the start.