The 2015 summary and what's to come in 2016

As I write this on the last Monday of 2015, a nice breeze and a warm sun entering my room, I have to say, there's not a lot to talk about with this in terms of this year, unlike last year, there wasn't a lot that wasn't addressed earlier on. But at the same time, still a lot of exciting things to say. So gather round, as we cast of 2015, and talk about what's in store for 2016.

In terms of content, it was pretty solid. The Digimon Marathon had to be cut short, and the review of Batman Arkham Origins is still far away as I still don't have a copy, but I do believe enough has come out to supliment that, for the time being. We got all the episodes of Digimon up to the start of Digimon Fusion Season 2, a series I've honestly stopped following due to time. The review of almost the entire Marvel Cinematic Universe took up all of May, that was fun to work on until Twitter trolls started to latch their claws into what little free time I had post Melbourne International Comedy Festival. The funny thing is that they're still trying that pathetic "gag", I'm not even angry any more, I find the idea of them still trying is hilarious seven months after. The rest of the year was more smaller things like the week of opening impressions more because of burn out, and preparation for what's coming up. Not only has this site broken 200 posts with the release of the Undertale review, but recently the site has broken 25,000, with the Pokemon Zeta and Onicron (Omnicron is still a cooler name) and Digimon Adventure 02 breaking over 1,000 views on their own. Considering the site isn't even two years old, and yes to many those may not seem great, but to me that's amazing, and it's what keeps driving me to write more content, especially when this time last year we just broke 4,000. So to all who have been following this site in some form, from the bottom of my heart, thank you. That's probably going to become a reoccurring line as more milestones break, but it'll continue to be true.

If there's something specific you want to know about what has come out, ask me in either my Ask.fm, Twitter, Facebook, Retrospring (Which is something I really need to remember to check because I don't get email notifications on it) or any other way to get in contact with me, all the sites linked to this are on the side in the same place. I know this year wasn't very interesting in terms of back story, but there wasn't anything like last year that I didn't address in other posts. Before going into the planned reviews and impressions next year, a few changes are coming to the site itself and how it's managed.

• A name change will be happening shortly after this post goes live, including a change to the web address. With Marissa now writing for the site, I personally don't feel comfortable keeping the name as it feels like I'm writing her content, which some people may think if they don't notice the "keybug55's reviews:" or the fact that she tags her posts with "keybug55" and "marissa", which I'll be going through my posts and adding "blaster" and "liam" to mine when I get some free time, and you'll see why. The new name is Mediaholics.
• More of a focus will be put on my Patreon. I do want to start doing this with more of a focus but that requires the site having a budget. Sadly the world doesn't work for free. Now while I'm not going to be barring core content behind a unbroken paywall. What I will be doing is giving Patreon supporters access to my video content a week early when applicable (this doesn't really work for E3 and similar topics, but will be used for Let's Plays and other videos), will get to decide what gets to be covered every now and then, akin to the strawpolls for the Comic arc reviews, but not as limiting and will get to see my notes and other behind the scenes documentation. I'm also going to be doing other Patreon supporters exclusive content when I have the resources to do it.
• The site is going to become a more general content site, with videos from mine and maybe keybug's channels (depending on how things go), including lets plays along with the reviews site and the projects site to be merged.
• More video content is on the way. For the time being I will be putting Earthbound on more of a hiatus just due to time, but Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of the Sky will be returning very soon.
• First Impressions are going to become videos when possible. E3 conference summaries will probably stay as text, but Pre and Post E3 will return as videos, and impressions of trailers will be videos as well.
• No more comic arc polls for a while, as most of them didn't get a lot of votes, which defeats the purpose of a poll. However this does mean that arcs like Civil War and the Phoenix Saga will be covered in 2016.

Wakko's Wish: How much is a half penny worth anyway?

Tis the season to be merry, to sit around the fire and tell christmas stories... Unless you live where I do where fires have a strong chance of becoming bushfires, it is summer after all. But, on this christmas eve, let us return to 1999, travel to ACME Falls, for Wakko's Wish.

Undertale

keybug55's reviews:

Undertale

Take the bullet hell shoot 'em up games, mix them with some charming RPG elements, and make it so every character is lovable in some way or another. You get a game known as Undertale. I'll try my best to explain the game without giving too much spoilers.

The game's background is basically there's two races, humans and monsters. Monsters got sealed away into the underground, and you are a human child that fell down there. You explore the Underground meeting various interesting monsters with their own distinct personalities.

Every action you make can change the ending in one way or another, and I do mean EVERY action. Even if you restart without saving, the game will remember, and it will be sure to let you know it does. There is every possible outcome for almost every possible option. What I mainly love about this game is that everything is very well thought out. There are plenty of secrets and easter eggs to go back to, making this game highly replayable. Some secrets you have to find by closing and reopening the game.

If I had any complaint about this game, I would say that the beginning is a bit slow, but it's enough to get you immersed in the game. The first character you meet is Toreil that gives you the rundown of the game. You can say, she'll give you a...TuTORIEL?! Yeah this whole game is filled with lame puns.

One main thing I also love about this game are the characters. Each character no matter how nice, mean, annoying, or sadistic they are have a lot of charm and heart put into them. Mind you, if you play through genocide you'll have to eventually kill these characters. Especially if you do pacifist first, it might break your heart to see these characters die, but I think that just adds to the experience.

The battle system is pretty creative too. Basically you're a heart that has to dodge the attacks of various monsters, like a bullet hell game.  Sometimes it's simple, most times it's pretty crazy. Although I would say the difficulty overall is pretty fair. There are two options that change the game very drastically. You have a choice of killing an enemy, or sparing it. The more enemies you kill, you gain EXP and gain levels, this path is called Genocide. To reach the True Pacifist ending, you'll have to spare every enemy and boss. Arguably, it's easier to get though the game killing everything, though I would not recommend starting with it. You will have a bad time later on, and it will alter True Pacifist's ending even when you reset.

Overall this game is very well thought out, extremely charming, and a joy to go through even at the tough parts. It's not too long either, for this game only has seven areas. If you're a fan of RPGs like Earthbound, I'd recommend you try this game. Even if you aren't, it's a nice game to start with.

-Marissa (keybug55)

Writers talking about December gaming news

Meet the new writer for the site, who will be uploading their first review very soon.

Mario And Sonic at the Olympic Games: Wasted potential

Mario and Sonic, Nintendo and SEGA, the figure heads of the first major Console War. Bare in mind kids, this was in the time when there was actually a difference between hardware and devices weren't trying to see who could be the first outdated "not a PC". With such a legacy, to say that it was a big deal when it was confirmed that, for the first time ever, they were going to be in the same game is an understatement. People joke when they say that the day Sonic was confirmed for Super Smash Brothers Brawl was "the day the internet almost died", but it wouldn't be too far off... However that wasn't the first game. That title goes to... a Wii and DS collection of sport themed party games... oh joy... Mario and Sonic at the Olympic Games...

Super Smash brothers for WiiU: It's time to "Settle it in Smash"... again...

So last year I did Super Smash Brothers for 3DS, and I get the feeling people were wondering why I didn't review Super Smash Brothers for WiiU at the same time. Well, there are two reasons for that decision (technically three). The first being that I didn't have Super Smash Brothers for WiiU at the time, as I only just got my WiiU at the time it was launched, combined with the fact that I like to give games a bit more time then a week. The other, more important reason is because I wanted to review Project M as they had announced that a PAL version was coming. The reason that's important is because if I were to review mods, which I want to, but I want to apply a rule of "It has to be simple to install with as little hard or soft modifications as possible. If I have to disable region lock, its a no go. Recently Project M was ceasing development, and with no PAL version for 3.6, take a guess at what's become a bit of a pipe dream... so with that out of the way, let's take a follow up look at Super Smash Brothers 4, now on the Nintendo WiiU.

Avengers: Age of Ultron: There aren't any strings on me either, what's your point?

Well, this film got a reputation didn't it? While the first film was praised all around, Age of Ultron got panned for a lot of things that were praised in the first film, has the reputation of it giving a selection of, rather loud, people an excuse to chase the film's director off Twitter, and... that's all that was really talked about the film. From what I saw, if the film being similar to The Avengers wasn't what people were talking about, it was the aftermath and how Joss Whedon was treated that was. I'm already dreading talking about why it happened, so let's just get this out of the way. Avengers: Age of Ultron

Batman: Arkham City: Because clearly the villains need a city and not an island

So what to do with two prisons ruined because of the Joker? You build a wall around a portion of the city and shove all the criminals into there. I can't imagine how much of a brilliant plan that is. Well, let's see how badly Batman comes to wreck this "ingenious plan" with Batman Arkham City.

Batman: Arkham Asylum: I swear there will be no bat gadget jokes in this

This was a long time coming. I was actually planning on doing this during my absence for the Comedy Festival, where I'd also cover Arkham Origins... that never happened. I wanted to do it before Arkham Knight, didn't happen. Then I tried to fit it in before the PC version re release... that didn't happen. So now consider this as the lead up for when WB Games get the PC version up to an actual standard deserving of its price tag. It's time for us to put on the cape and cowl and enter the Madhouse. Welcome, to Arkham Asylum.

Ignition & Battle of Karda Nui: Race against time. Race for Life

The Kanohi Ignika, the Mask of Life. Most who touch it are eternally cursed in some way, those who are destined to wear it... well... aren't much better off. We have 15 small comics from DC (yeah, how many people here knew that DC did the BIONICLE comics?), so let's not waste time, because the characters don't have a lot of time. Ignition, and the Battle of Karda Nui.

First Impressions: Five Nights at Freddy's World: ALREADY?!

I have three theories, concerning the FNAF series franchise. The first: Scott Cawthorn is actually a code name for 13+ people, the second, that he is a robot. The reason I say these is because I thought we wouldn't be seeing this trailer until next year, not a few hours ago. I will say though that the third theory is that this is a very, VERY early build of the game, but based on prior games I'm not buying a 2016 release until January 2nd comes (factoring in timezones, of course). But, we do have a trailer, so its time to look at FNAF World...

So not only have we ditched the Point and click gameplay (I hope as I don't want to direct a RPG party with a mouse), but we've ditched the horror gameplay entirely, "now... they're CUTE." See:

We have a traditional, old school RPG, which on the surface looks fun to play. The mechanics don't look too complicated, but my guess is that its because of the trailer, and hopefully it does have some depth. One problem I'm seeing at the moment, based on what little we know of it, the party members could be very "samey" if that makes sense. When you stop to look at it, there really aren't a lot of Animatronic characters in the series, just different interpretations of them, which could be the biggest problem with the game, "why should I pick Phantom Foxy over regular Foxy?" as an example. It looks like it may not be a problem for the Nightmare forms, but it might with some others.

Visuals wise, it looks nice, but some of the characters look scarier here then they did in the horror games, mainly The Puppet. As I said in my review of the four games last week, I don't find the animatronics scary, but here, there is an Uncanny Vally esque design to these. I can't really describe it based on just this picture, I need to see the characters in action, something I could say about the entire game itself. This is something I need more info on before I can form an opinion. I'll probably play it as I do like old school RPG's, but I will say. Scott, FOR THE LOVE OF PRIMUS, SLOW DOWN! I've seen RPG's rushed and they suffer for it, I'd rather not see this one suffer the same fate. I'll see you all for the Ignition and Battle for Karda Nui arcs tomorrow.

Ghostbusters: Anyone for Marshmallows?

When I started this site, it was because I was looking for an excuse to see, read, listen and play new things while looking at things I loved as a child. Sometimes its turned out great, others... not so much. Until recently, or to be more precise about half an hour at time of writing, I'd never seen Ghostbusters, I honestly had no interest in seeing it. But with this, I think the time is right, so, let's bust some ghosts.

It's the best I could find

Four games at Freddy's: I solomly swear that there will be no jump scares in this post. Besides, have you tried typing Jump scares?

Five Nights at Freddy's, chances are you've herd of these game if you've spent any time on Youtube this past year, that's what happens when one person puts out four well received horror games in under a year, which bugs me even of itself, as I feel that the quality of the games is diminished as a result. But, I did promise last year that I'd review the first game, and I'm doing one, I may as well do all four. So, here's my review of the four Five Nights at Freddy's games. As a forewarn, I'm reviewing the PC versions of all of these games, but iOS and android versions do exist.

Steven Universes: Time for that follow up I promised

Back in July I did a mini marathon of Opening Impressions, tackling some of the pioneers of a new form of Children's TV show, and Log Horizon. Those being Adventure Time, Star vs. The Forces of Evil, Gravity Falls and Steven Universe. As stated prior, my opening impressions take the first 5 episodes, give or take as it depends on the franchise and how many episodes I have to work with at the time, and Steven Universe's first five episodes... sucked, they were awful. Well, both Falsely Profound and Keybug55 are big fans of Steven Universe and both wanted me to keep going with the show, they kept telling me that it gets better. Well, I caved and kept going, so this is my follow up review on Steven Universe. Now while I will say that a lot of my points from the Opening Impression do carry over, I will provide updates when needed. A link to the original post can be found here: http://blasterreviews.blogspot.com.au/2015/07/opening-impressions-steven-universe-ill.html for those curious.

Equestria Girls: Friendship Games: Saturday Morning sport turned into a movie?

I have had people try to say I'm a brony because of how much coverage I give the series. And while I maintain that I still come back to this series because I get requests, my counter argument includes all the Transformers coverage, Digimon Marathon and May 2015, also known as the Marvel Movie Marathon. Now giving Hasbro the lion's share of coverage, yes I am guilty of that (however that does mean you have to really convince me to consider looking at the Jem movie, seeing as the only other I.P of Hasbro's I have any knowledge of is G.I Joe thanks to those live action movies). So while I listen to Transformers Prime's soundtrack as I can't make a Transformers joke without pushing the source material for this one, sadly, let's tackle High School Musi... I mean Equestria Girls: Friendship Games...

Megatron's Origins and Autocracy: Because you can't have one without the other

Throughout all of the generations I've seen of Transformers, is it sad to say that I only recall a single dedicated origin story for Megatron? Not to mention, how many Transformers fans who read this can tell me, without looking up a wiki who Orion Pax is? Yeah, you'd think that the two main characters of the series would get dedicated origin stories often, if at all. Well, we have 12 comics that give dedicated origin stories for the two, along with the Autobots and the Decepticons. They won the poll, so its time to look at the two IDW Transformers arcs: Megatron's Origins and Autocracy.

Disclaimer: I have not seen and/or read every single iteration of Transformers. The only time I recall seeing a origin story for Megatron was Transformers Prime and the only two times outside of this series of comics I've seen Optimus Prime referred to as Orion Pax was an episode of Generation 1 and late season 1-early season 2 of Transformers Prime.

October Update: Good news, Bad news, but a whole lot of news.

While I would say this is a quick update, but I'm writing this without prep work. However I do need to share some info to you all.

In terms of upcoming content for the reviews site, not only will Megatron's Origins and Autocracy be coming out, but the review of Equestria Girls: Friendship Games will be coming out on the 14th of October and there are also plans to get a discussion going on the Smash Ballot and the latest Smash 4 patch and I'll be revisiting Steven Universe. I also have something big planned for Halloween week and, going back to Pax Aus, I'm going to try and organize a video camera to record some footage of the event which should go live early November.

However, I do have some bad news. For the next few weeks, I'm going to be pausing the Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of the Sky and Earthbound Let's plays. The reason for that is because of both the Halloween project and also the fact that I'm graduating soon. At time of writing, I'm starting my last five weeks of my course. I have assessments that need to be done and what free time I have I want to invest into the Halloween Project. Explorers of the Sky still has several parts to it, but Earthbound is going to be out of parts by Tuesday next week. However, once I finish the course, I'll have a lot more free time on my hands to put out some larger projects, like the Star Wars Marathon in January.

The two sites are also due for some maintenance soon. And in that time, I'm going to be merging the Projects site and the Reviews site, and shutting down the Projects site in the process. This site will also get a name change. I'm also looking into ways of autoposting onto here from Youtube, so that anyone who reads this and who hasn't subscribed to my Youtube channel (or doesn't see my Twitter feed on the right hand column) can see it show up here.

One final bit of news, I am in the process of designing replacements for the Content Trailer and Montage. The Montage will just be an update, adding in everything that has been done and will be done by the end of this year, whereas the trailer will be rebuilt from the ground up as its own individual entity and not a condensed version of the montage, which the current one is.

But yeah, that basically sums up this. I'll see you all for the next Comic review on Wednesday. And before people ask why I'm still posting these and going to be putting the Let's Plays on hold, it's because I can knock a text post over in a few hours, a batch of Let's play parts is 2-3 days of work.

Avatar: The Legend of Korra: New Tech, same powers, and a very PC questionable post

With the success of The Last Airbender show, a sequel was bound to show up eventually. And with a sequel comes another chance to delve into the world of Avatar. But how has the world changed, as this is set 70 years after the fall of the Fire Lord. Time to investigate The Legend of Korra.

Sadly this intro only plays once

Avatar: The Last Airbender: With inner peace comes the ability to USE THE PLANET TO BEAT EVERYONE...

No, this is not the movie.
To me, its rare to see something like this. A show that's 10 years old now, that many people has said it's aged well for its time, praise from everyone, viewers and critics alike, successful attempts at other mediums and a movie... that was awful, ok so it hasn't all been perfect. This is a show that has interested me more as I've grown up rather then at the time of its original air, as when I first saw it on live TV, it suffered from "Australian TV syndrome" and that it was nothing but out of order reruns, which to this day pisses me off, though that's more of the fact that people still insist watching them even though its a rerun they saw recently.... Moving on, let's see how this series is. Avatar: The Last Airbender.

Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of the Sky: Now with 70% less random tangents

Sooner then I expected, but here is the review of Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of the Sky.

Thanks to keybug for joining me, you can subscribe to her channel here: https://www.youtube.com/user/Keybug55/featured
Thanks to Falsely Profound for doing the thumbnail, link to the image can be found here: http://blaster5426.deviantart.com/art/From-Rescuers-to-Explorers-by-Falsely-Profound-559709586
Link to her Deviantart here: achyfi.deviantart.com

Splatoon: Set all weapons to ink and open fire

What do you do to unwind? For some, its a book, others a beloved film. For me, its going through some of my favorite games, weather it be a simple platformer like Kirby or Mario, a adventure in a Pokemon game. For some, its covering every single spec of land you can see in ink. And this is where today's review comes in, for now we must travel to a post apocalyptic world, where man kind is long extinct and a new species has risen, we must partake in wars to decide what colour the floor should be, decided by a fat talking cat, restore our power network and prey to the all mighty fax machine to determine what the factions will be called... Kinda stupid when you say it out loud, but welcome, to Splatoon.

First Impressions: Akame Ga Kill: I hope you don't have a weak stomach

The material this review is based on and the review itself is designed for a more mature audience.

So this one was a request to cover, however as the name suggests, I hope you don't have a weak stomach, otherwise you may not like this. This isn't for the kids, but for everyone else, let's see what Akame Ga Kill has in store.

First Impressions: Nintendo NX

Thanks to Marissa for joining me on this, you can find her accounts and content here: https://twitter.com/keybug55 and https://www.youtube.com/user/Keybug55/featured

Star Wars: Clone Wars: Oh this is going to get confusing fast.

So, Star Wars is coming back, a new movie, inclusion in Disney Infinity, and merchandise to spare (though I will admit that new RC Droid is cool). So with Force Friday gone (because my timing sucks sometimes, and I didn't even know it was a thing), let's look at the version of Star Wars fans love to forget exists.

No not that one

Not that one either

Overshot it

That's not even out yet.

Close

What the frag? I told you the last one was close!

I think everyone would rather forget that one. 

There we go... Is it sad that I had to cut this sketch short? And yes, we are delving into the world of Flash Animation...

First Impressions: Ace Attorney 6

Thanks to Falsely Profound for joining me on this Impression on the game, the franchise and Tokyo Game show (Yeah, we got a little sidetracked...)

You can find her Tumblr here: http://rancorousnerd.tumblr.com/

Nightmare Rarity arc: Would this be considered a downgrade for them?

The first villain introduced in the current generation of My Little Pony was a enemy called Nightmare Moon, a "hero turned villain because of having to live in the shadows of [insert character connection here]", in this case, it was Luna living in the (not so subtle) shadows of her sister, Celestia. I'm not going to retell the plot of the pilot, if you're curious, look it up for yourself. The reason I mention this is because this arc asks "What if "Nightmare Moon" survived?", let's see how this way to tie in a animation change to the plot works, Nightmare Rarity, and remember, you voted for this: http://strawpoll.me/5105730/r

Big Hero 6: Because I haven't done enough superhero movies this year

Breaking news, Disney has done a superhero movie that not only isn't attached to the Marvel Cinematic Universe, but isn't attached to Marvel at all.

So with the success of Wreck it Ralph and Frozen, where too from there? A superhero movie... Ok then... You're not going to go for the animated Superhero movie everyone wants to see? No? Well then, let's see what we have. Big Hero 6.

Thunderbirds: "Who want's to save these Thunderbirds?"

Gather round boys and girls, for a quick history lesson about a series of puppets, and the world of children's entertainment. While the original Thunderbirds was first aired in the 1960's, during the 1990's and still to this day, the original series continues to be shown and at one point got a dramatic rise in popularity, leading to the creation of a lot of new merchandise. It was because of this that I myself was exposed to the Thunderbirds, and I still regard it as one of my favorite childhood shows, and why I love how the newest generation, Thunderbirds are Go, is keeping to the original feel using new technology. However, this was a time when anything popular enough would receive the cinema treatment, and anything for children wasn't really given that much care in terms of plot. And sure enough, 2004 comes along, and Thunderbirds was released to cinemas. I recall going to see it with my father in Sydney, though there was another movie I wanted to see, which I'll get to another time. But for now, "Who's going to rescue the rescuers?"

First Impressions: Deadpool

You see, I would add in some sort of subtitle, but for a character like this, and a movie like this... How? What would it be?

So anyway, the Deadpool trailer came out, so its about high time to look at it.

Blackest Night arc: "What's this, something to do with zombies that's... ORIGINAL?"

This took longer then what I was expecting, and for that I apologize. This was intended to go up early April, right after the Digimon Marathon, however as you can see, that didn't happen. But, I do keep my word, so here we are, the Blackest Night arc, the first ever Comic book review on this site.

For those who either don't remember, or haven't seen the post covering it, let me explain how these reviews are going to work, at least, how I'll handle them (which has been updated anyway, so...). Due to many comic book stories and characters lasting many decades, it would be almost impossible for me to review entire comic series and still keep a weekly content schedule, especially when you deal with characters that have been around since World War II and before. As such, this will be handled in arcs, arcs that you get to decide. At the end of almost every review, with the exception being this opening period, I'll be putting up a strawpoll that has (at time of writing) 4 arcs, one from Detective Comic (DC), one from Marvel Comics, one from Archie Comics, and one from IDW publishing. These arcs will be picked from any arc that you send me as a request or, if necessary due to how rarely I get requests, are added in by me in order to fill polls. Anyone is able to send me arc requests, even from other publishers (the only reason why its four is because those are the four I know of). Each poll will last until the next Comic review, which I'm hoping to make a monthly occurrence.

With all that out of the way, time to look at Blackest Night.

Opening Impressions: Adventure Time: Time to get ready for round 2 of this

On Twitter, I mentioned that this post wouldn't be ready because of the fact that I didn't have the time to complete it this week, and that's partially true, however there's more to it. The other main reason is that, a lot of the problems I have with this go back to Steven Universe's problems, in by that just the lack of any world building. However, there are some unique things to this, so time to conclude this mini marathon with Adventure Time.

PSA: Forced site change

If you don't live in an area that connects to a European server to connect to this site, feel free to ignore the following

So I just got a notification from Google and Blogger concerning law changes. Due to the fact that I'm not connecting via a European network, I cannot check to see if the notification is showing up, altering European users that this site does indeed use cookies. Both Blaster's Projects and Blaster's Reviews use, to my knowledge, two types of tracking cookies, one for analytics, so that I can see what pages are being viewed, where and what operating system and browser are being used. The other is concerning the Ads that are displayed on the reviews site. There are potentially more that I am not aware of though.

For those who don't know what they are, Tracking cookies, normally just called cookies, a small trackers that many sites use to gather data. Some use them to gather more... inappropriate data then others. To give an easy example most will know, if you're familiar with the "100 in the "x" area want to talk to you" popups, its those tracking cookies they use to find out the suburb you live in, not magic or lucky guesses. Cookies should easily be detected by your anti virus and clearing your browser history should delete any that the Anti virus doesn't get.

This is basically going up on both sites so that, should anything happen, I can use this to inform people of what's actually being used. If there are any more cookies used on this that anyone should know about that directly affects them pop up, I'll add them into this. The only other one I know about is one that only affects me, it just makes sure that my own viewing of the sites don't tamper with the analytics.

On a side not, by only one vote (at time of writing), it looks like I will be covering Ben Drowned tomorrow, that could still change though.

The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask: "This wasn't what I meant by 'when the moon goes down'"

With the sucsess of Ocarina of Time, its no surprise that Nintendo wanted a second game on the N64, now to use the expansion pack accessory for the system. With the use of Ocarina of Time's engine, what many regard to be one of the creepiest games ever made came to be. Time to look at the game that makes children scared of faces on the moon, The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask. Like with Ocarina of Time, while I will be taking screenshots from both games, I've used the recent 3DS remake as the base of this review. Also, this WILL contain spoilers for Ocarina of Time as well as Majora's Mask.

First Impressions: Spectre: Back to the bar for this one

What do you think of when you hear "London Spy", I'm sure most of you think of "Bond, James Bond" (don't judge me, of course I was going to word that in). With a film series that has existed since 1962 and a book series since 1953, there's a reason why he's an iconic character. This film though took me off guard, as I had no idea this was happening. But, it is, so time to delve into Bond's latest outing: Spectre.

Opening Impressions: Star vs. The Forces of Evil: I hope the magic you believe in isn't this magic...

Its not often I'm lost for words with content... but this... this... I can't...


Star vs. The Forces of Evil.

The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time: How doth thou stand the test of time?

The 32/64 bit era was a time of dramatic change in the industry. It was the push from 2D to 3D, it was the rise of Sony with the PlayStation. New genres were made, new characters created, and it was a time where games would become legends thanks to what they bring to the table. Often regarded as one of, if not the greatest game of all time. A legend in its own right, introducing mechanics that wouldn't only be used in later installments of the Zelda series, but also games of other genre's to this day. But before I start, I must ask you. For right now, A Dark time is approaching. Willst thou run? Or Fly? Wilst thou sink? Or Swim? Willst thou finish? Or Die trying?" "Willst thou soar? Or willst thou suck?" "Willst thou flee? Or Fight? And in the end Willst thou get the girl? Or play like one?" Sexist quote from a 90's commercial out of the way (I'm not kidding, child friendly Nintendo green lit that for their commercials of this game), time to look at "the game that became a legend": The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the... I mean Ocarina of Time.

I know its not the cover, but I'd rather do one shared between both, not a version exclusive

Hatfall: Why? Because I'm bored right now.

Sometimes when I'm bored, I'll look around, maybe play a browser game, or what I probably should be doing, catching up on sleep. However in this case, I went for the first option because "Live while you're alive, sleep while you're dead" and another reason you may or may not know of in the future... So Hatfall...

I'll start with the plot, as I could clear it in one sentence. To paraphrase a paraphrase in the game itself. Hats are falling, you need a hat.What else were you expecting? It's a browser game also in smart phones.

Gameplay wise, you do just that, you get hats. You use the left and right arrows to position yourself under an object and hope its a hat, the more hats you get, the more of a chance you have to get unlockable costumes and items, to which, by the looks of it, they're all purely cosmetic. Levels get harder by adding in more dumb AI walls and more chances of objects not being hats, like polls, fridges and more.

Aesthetic wise, if you're used to Zero Punctuation's art style, then you know what this is going to be, its the style used in his review, just more fluently animated thanks to the fact that this is a video game. Music's alright, nothing spectacular that hasn't been used in the reviews before.

Overall? If you're looking for a time waster, then this is alright. It doesn't do anything stupid like put in micro transactions, though you can choose to see an ad every now and then for a few extra hats, which is the currency in the game. Am I basically wasting your time with this? Yes, but I needed something to do, and now this has beaten the Kirby's Adventure record at 15 minutes to do... yay...
I'll see you for Ocarina of Time.

Opening Impressions: Gravity Falls: "Where's my phone? I need to call them"

I swear this wasn't intentional, considering as a 3DS game has been announced for this series recently.

Round 2 of the Adventure Time art style marathon, and today we travel to Disney. With the amount of stuff they've done, I don't think there's a person alive who hasn't seen a Disney show or movie in some form. So let's see what child friendly Disney does in this style, as we travel to Gravity Falls.

First Impressions: Shantae 1/2 Genie Hero: *Insert obvious music refference here

Last post of this marathon. Remind me not to write these one after the other.

This is a series I've only recently herd of, even though it dates back to the Gameboy Colour. With my interest in Metroidvania's growing as I go on (still yet to actually finish a Castlevania, though my Metroid counter is at... one... again, new interest), new games have been appearing more and more in my feeds, one of them being this series, and with a new game being successfully kickstarted, thought I might as well throw this in while we were at it today, so: Shantae Half Genie Hero.

First Impressions: Need for Speed: Welcome back old friend

I know I harp on EA often, and not without good reason mind you. However, there was a time I loved their games... well, two in particular. Burnout 3: Takedown, which I still maintain to be one of the best party games I've ever played (yeah, you herd me Mario Party). And the Need for Speed series, especially Need for Speed Underground 2. One of the best gaming memories I have from when I was a child was when me and my father would boot up Underground 2 on the PS2, spend the afternoon building a car up from scratch and once we were done, sending them to the "City loop" track (I can't remember the name), and racing them to see who was the better driver... let's just say there's a reason why Burnout 3 was a fairer challenge, though I did get better. However, I haven't really followed the Need for Speed series as close as my father has, and even then he doesn't play it that much now. I loved watching him play Most Wanted and Undercover, but that was about it. I was going to do the same with this one... and then I saw E3...

One thing you should know about Need for Speed, no one cares about the plot. The plot's there to give you missions and races. Which is pretty much all you're doing in this game: Going from point A to point B, doing races, outrunning cops, and getting better cars to do the same thing. Its a mix of arcade racing and realistic racing games. Now I don't know how that will hold in this day and age, however it'll still have its audience.

One of the things I enjoyed about Underground 2 was the overworld. I completed races to unlock more areas to drive to more so then anything else, and I'm glad to see that back here. Basically this Need for Speed is a fusion of three others. The car customization from Underground 1 and 2, the pursuit from Most Wanted (and maybe Undercover, I don't know if you can drive Police cars as well) and the overworld of Carbon, one I have no experience playing, but I have seen in action and it looks like it was well designed... at least according to memory. Those alone have sold me on this, if the entire world is unlocked at the start, then I'm sold...

Unless this ends up suffering from some of the problems I have with the industry at the moment, and with it being EA, I wouldn't be surprised if it did. I hope not, but I know there's a chance of it happening. I'll see you all soon for another game: Shantae 1/2 genie hero.

Yes, today is literally an experiment, I hope you like the flood of content, but don't expect this to be often, I'm not that crazy.

First Impressions: Transformers Devastation: I'm getting him ready now

Probably about time I covered the games I said I'd cover in the post E3 vid, isn't it? So yeah we got the announcement of a new Transformers game, and it has nothing to do with Bayformers. In fact, not only is it based on Generation 1 for all you Gen 1ers, but its also a prequel for the current line in the toys and IDW comics (something I really need to start reading soon, I'm actually ashamed that I haven't yet), being the Combiner Wars. And with Platnium games as the main Development team... let's just say I have a few words... so what are my thoughts on Devastation? Well, unlike a lot of other people doing posts like this, I don't have nostalgia goggles for Generation 1, as I said during the Transformers Marathon last year. However, that doesn't mean I'm not excited to play this.

First Impressions: Five Nights at Freddy's 4: "I CALLED IT, I F$(#*@! CALLED IT!!!"

If you don't want a jump scare, don't watch the trailer. 

People who know me personally know that I don't gloat very often, I'm a smart ass, but I'm not a very smug person. Even when I was dealing with the trolls months ago, while my words could be taken many ways, my intention was never to gloat. There will be times where I am, but that's few and far between more often then not. This is one of those times where I am and I'll relish in it. A bit of back story, I have a schedule of what I intend to review and when, updating it throughout the year with any changes due to timing, opportunities or adding in content that isn't a review, like all these impressions. After doing the Red and Blue Rescue Team review, I sent a schedule out to some of my friends, including Marissa, letting them know what I had planned and if they want to join me for anything. One of those is the Five Nights at Freddy's series, as a Halloween review. Now this game was first teased at the time so some of them said "don't do it yet because this game is coming out then". My response at the time was "I'm going to go ahead with it, lumping that in if I think that my views on the series also affect it", even though it would have been released that day. However, and this was reflected on my Twitter in a conversation I had with Marissa, I knew this game wouldn't be an October release. And who was right? Anyway, Five Nights at Freddy's 4.

First Impressions: Suicide Squad: "What joke?"

I can see your attempts at covering this up Wanner Brothers, but did you seriously think you could control this?

"Am I freaking you out yet?"

First Impressions: Batman vs Superman, Dawn of Justice: "So these red capes you talk about..."

As with what I did a few months ago for Age of Ultron, I intend to do a DC marathon to cover, not just the subject of this, but the other "DCCU" film, and what's coming out in a few hours on here, Suicide Squad (First impressions, not review. Do you think that someone who sucks at timely reviews overall, and is a nobody in comparison to others would get something like that this early?). But for now, the start of the flood of content for today, because I'm insane. Part one of six in today's marathon of content, because I'm insane (I'll check myself into Arkham later): Batman vs Superman.

Kirby's Adventure: Please understand: one of the rare time the bad guy isn't the bad guy

While Dawn of Justice is still coming out on Wednesday, I think this takes priority, with what has happened. I'm not going to repeat it here, I'm sure other social network sites will do just as good of a job without me. Instead, I want to do what I did for Robbin Williams last year again, but with something that, while I have a lot of experience with the series, not so much its opening titles, something that is actually quite common for me. One of Iwata's early games (in terms of producing), Kirby's Adventure for the NES.

Now, like a lot of NES games, you're not going to find the plot in the game itself, this was due to size limitations and back then, even still to this day, gameplay takes priority over plot. I'm quoting this from a wiki so this may not be the exact lines from the instruction manual (remember those?). "In the beginning of the game Kirby awakes to find that all of the citizens of Dream Land have lost the ability to dream. Before this event occurred, dreams were composed through the Dream Spring and through the Star Rod. Kirby visited the location and found the antagonistic King Dedede swimming in the spring's waters. Kirby eventually found that the Star Rod had been broken by King Dedede, and that he had handed it over to all of his equally evil friends. So, it was Kirby's obligation to seek the lost pieces of the Star Rod by fighting Dedede's evil friends." Short hand though: Dedede broke this, go and fix it. However you'll later find out that there's a reason why. While I would complain that the plot is badly executed in the game itself... I'm willing to cut it some slack as this is a late NES game. The plot's just there to give you an excuse to "be the hero".

Gameplay wise, its interesting to see how the Kirby series started, however at the same time, this hasn't aged well when you consider the later games... well most of them... You see, while Kirby still has access to his powers, a mechanic introduced in this game, you only have access to one move per power, something which will become a problem when you're use to using side abilities of some powers like I am. There's no charge up for some of the powers, the dash attack for Fire is its own power and many others. While its not a complaint against the game, it makes it feel unnatural if you're used to games where the powers have their own sub moves (like Triple Deluxe, the last Kirby game I reviewed, as an example). I would raise it as a problem for more recent Kirby games, however I can't complain too much as it is the first game to have the Copy Powers.

The aesthetics are great for the NES, not as great as some other games in its library, but still up there as some of the best. I love the music in this game specifically, one of the best soundtracks I've herd on the NES, the sprites though... eh. They're ok for the NES, with praise going to the background and animation, its more the design of them, and the fact that some of them are randomly different colours for, what I can tell, no good reason. That's literally my only problem with the sprites.

My one major problem with Kirby's Adventure is, while it may not be the first game, it still suffers from First Game Syndrome, where the end product is fine, its just that later games do the job so much better. If you want to play this though, asside from it being on the eShop, there's also a Game Boy Advance remake called Nightmare in Dreamland so if you are curious, I'd pick them up, just keep in mind this is still an NES game. The game is still fun to play, something that I think gets ignored more often then not when talking about games, I myself maybe guilty of it as well, I don't recall every review I've written word for word.

The review is over, with Dawn of Justice coming tomorrow, and I'll go back to more images for Gravity Falls and onwards. However there are somethings I want to add. This first part I'm quoting from Marissa, which is something she brought up as I was writing this:

"If I were to say anything about Iwata, I remember playing Animal Crossing (GC) and I picked up one of the NES games you could get in the game. It was the only way I could play NES games at the time. My favorite one that I always go back to was Balloon Fight. Little did I know was that Satoru Iwata heavily influenced both of those games. RIP Satoru Iwata, your influence will never be forgotten."

I don't have that kind of memory, I became a Nintendo fan more recently, I have gone on record (if memory serves me correctly) saying that my early gaming experiences were with the PS1 and PS2 more so then Nintendo. I actually learned of him thanks to a magazine I read, the Official Nintendo Magazine for Australia and New Zealand. And its actually thanks to that magazine, which printed its final issue the month before I started the two sites, its because of that magazine that I am where I am today in terms of content production. However, I can thank him for some of my all time favorite franchises from Nintendo, Kirby, Pokemon and Super Smash Brothers, with many more games under his name. Though one thing I find very honorable, even if it was a persona, which I honestly doubt, is the way he was to the public. All the jokes, the smile always on his face, it was a joy to see. Its also, indirectly thanks to him, that I always look for fun in games, in many ways. To me, fun and joy are this mediums greatest factors, what makes the medium an artistic tool. There are very few people in the world like Satoru Iwata, and to me, the world is poorer every-time men like him die. My sincerest condolences go to his close friends and family.

Before I close, there's two thing I want to quote, which is something that I find rather inspiring, and it fits him so well.  

"On my business card, I am a corporate president. In my mind, I am a game developer. But in my heart, I am a gamer."

"Like any other entertainment medium, we must create an emotional response in order to succeed. Laughter, fear, joy, affection, surprise, and - most of all - accomplishment. In the end, triggering these feelings from our players is the true judgment of our work."

Rest in peace Mr Iwata, I hope your legacy continues to bring joy even after your death, and I hope you enjoy peace, maybe even in the Bubbly Clouds. While I don't know if these are his actual words:

Opening Impressions: Log Horizon: "I can show you the world"... well, a digital world... another digital world...

An anime type (does it count as a sub genre yet?) that has appeared recently is, what I'm dubbing, the MMO world. Basically, the main characters get sucked into some sort of MMO and have to survive in that world, using their knowledge of the game. In this, we have the world of Elder Scrolls... I mean Elder Tale and the world of Log Horizon.