Tokyo Mirage Sessions #FE Encore: I swear some of these concerts are using Black Magic.

And no, I don't mean the Blackmagic AV products (yes those are a thing).

Before getting started, I do have to make a quick announcement. Due to the state of the world right now, I've revived a Patreon account to try and ease the blow that is basically the world shutting down due to the Coronavirus. It has affected me pretty hard, due to my main work being Events Operations, so if you do enjoy the work that I do (which should be coming out more consistently due to all the extra free time I have), and you are in a position where you can help, please support me on Patreon (https://www.patreon.com/mediaholics), and hopefully, the state of the world isn't like this for too long. If you start seeing an influx of older toys, older shows, movies, games, etc in the coming months from both sites, this is the reason why. Anyway...

Before the development of Fire Emblem Awakening, there have supposedly been talks over at Intelligent Systems on a potential Fire Emblem Game set in the modern world. Bringing the traditional combat system, but replacing swords, bows, and horses with more modern weapons and forms of combat. While some may argue that's what Advanced Wars is for, it turns out modern-day Fire Emblem would end up happening... by turning Fire Emblem into a Persona game. Not the most out-there crossover idea I've heard, as the combat systems between the two games, are similar enough to synergise well, but while this was originally pitched to the world as a crossover between Fire Emblem and Shin Megami Tensei (of which Persona is a spin-off of), by the time people finally got to see the game, what we ended up seeing was... Persona 4 Lite guest staring Edgelord Chrom... The WiiU version of the game is something I purchased but didn't get much of a chance to play it as it was one of the few WiiU games that actually needed both the TV and the Gamepad screens, something that I found hard to explain to people who were used to me playing the WiiU by plugging in a set of headphones to the Gamepad and playing it like a giant Gameboy Advance. So when talk of a Switch port started circulating, I was interested, especially now that my knowledge and experience of Atlus games have grown to be more than just "What's a Persona?". Now that I can actually play it at my own pace, is it any good?

Poochy and Yoshi's Woolly World: For when you really don't like knitting

Yoshi's had a weird history when it comes to games, hasn't he? Born into this world as a glorified power-up for Mario in Super Mario World, while he's had his own games, they tend to get lumped in with the Mario Spin-Offs in the eyes of the masses, myself included for a period of time when I was first getting into Nintendo games back in 2007-2008 (I grew up with a PS1 and PS2). What doesn't help either is that his games did have a sporadic release for a long time. I genuinely can't think of a Yoshi game for the Wii, or even the GameCube, the DS game was kind of a remake of the original Yoshi's Island, then there was the "Not a remake" on the 3DS in the form of Yoshi's New Island. It's why Yoshi's Woolly World came out of nowhere originally and felt like an odd next project for the team that worked on Kirby's Epic Yarn (to me at least), but after several delays, the game was released for the WiiU, and eventually got a 3DS port too in the form of Poochy and Yoshi's Woolly World, which is the main version I focused on for this review.

Super Mario 3D Land and 3D World: When Mario plays it safe

The 3DS and WiiU were a weird console pair, weren't they? Bad launches, the WiiU can only be described as a financial disaster thanks to its strong but badly paced out library, and some of the company's biggest IP's either didn't show up as any form of single console exclusive (No joke, there is no Zelda title that is exclusive to the WiiU), or kind of showed up feeling a little "half assed" by Nintendo's standards. Animal Crossing: Amiibo Festival comes to mind as one of those, and some people said that about Super Mario 3D World thanks to the 3DS title, Super Mario 3D Land. Well, as someone who's played both, I have to both agree, and disagree. Why? Well, read on to find out.

Zelda Week: The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess

Download the original .mp3 here: http://adf.ly/1YiFcY
Welcome to a land in Twilight, a world where one must be the bridge between the light and the dark, the man, and the beast. Doth thou don your sword and shield again for this late Gamecube, early Wii and recently re released WiiU game?

The final image was made by Enigmarez
You can find it here: http://www.deviantart.com/art/Link-Midna-Wallpaper-503019504

Zelda Week: Hyrule Warriors: "Strength in numbers MEANS NOTHING TO ME!"

How do you like to relax? For me, it is something I can enjoy without needing to think too much about something. Whether that be a familiar book, movie or show, a video game franchise that I've been playing for so long that I don't need to think about the mechanics, or in this case, taking out red dots on my map by killing anything that moves, which is where Hyrule Warriors comes in. Because sometimes, it helps to have a relaxing game. And if you think that's cruel, do bare in mind, Pokemon and Kirby are also stress relieving games for me. So shall we build up that ko count?

Freedom Planet: "What's this? AN INDIE GAME REVIEW?!"

Yes, it's true, contrary to what I've reviewed, I do play other games, and I play indie games. Granted not as much as I'd like for indies, but I am working on it. I was first introduced to this game via an event called SAGE, the Sonic Armature Games Expo back in 2012, where this game was first shown off, and I had a blast playing it. It was a great demo and is one of the kickstarter projects I wish I had the money at the time to endorse. However, it was released to the world recently, and even got a WiiU Port (Which is the version I used for this review, however I do have experience with the PC version, and will be getting said PC version to let's play soon).

Super Mario Maker: "We give up, make your own"

So to celebrate the 30th anniversary of Super Mario Brothers on the NES, we got what can be described as a dev kit. Actually it was a dev kit until the team decided to merge it with the plans for a sequel to Mario Paint. To be fair, to those who hate it, it could be worse. There could be no mention of an anniversary, let alone a game, and trust me when I say that there are a lot of games that get that treatment. So now that the game has been out for a while, let's see what the community can do.

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.

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.

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: 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.

Four people talking about E3 2015

EDIT: Version 2.0 of the video because for some reason I didn't catch the bad audio sync.
So what did we think of E3 2015?
Special thanks to CJ, Jeremy and Marissa for joining me on this.

Side note: Really excited for the new Need for Speed as I loved messing around in Need for Speed Underground 2 as a kid. My inner child is excited for Transformers Devastation, even though its not the Unicron Trillogy. And the other inner child in me wants a Yu-gi-oh game for the Holo Lense (or Magic the Gathering if it has a yu-gi-oh theme to it).

Nintendo E3 2015

• I don't care what people say, the muppet intro is hilarious
• Starfox Zero: It looks like a lot of fun, with the transforming vehicles
• Skylanders Superchargers: It's skylanders, but amiibo fans have two more to get
• Fire Emblem Fates: It's IF
• Shin Megami Tensai X Fire Emblem: Still looks great
• Xenoblade Chronicles X: Something that I'm becoming more and more interested in everytime I see it in action, it looks really good
• Animal Crossing Happy Home Designer: It looks charming, but nothing else aside from that
• Animal Crossing amiibo Festival: Animal Crossing Mario Party?
• Yoshi's Woolly World: It's so adorable
• Yo-Kai Watch: Nothing has caught my attention with it yet
• Mario and Luigi Paper Jam: Its a mash up of the two Mario RPG formulas that has a giant Mario Tank made of paper fighting giant paper Goomba tanks. Enough said
• Mario Tennis Ultra Smash: Its Mario Tennis
• Super Mario Maker amiibo support: Because why not have wii fit trainer go through Mario levels?

Super Mario Galaxy & Super Mario Galaxy 2: From a castle, to an island, to space?

 He wasn't kidding when he said "Once in a lifetime"...

Mario Jumpman Mario. Appearing (in some form) in over 265 games at time of writing (including ports, remakes, compilations, but not virtual console and cameos), its hard to imagine a console generation without a Mario game, as Colonel Roy Campbell also spoke of: he's an icon that barely anyone in this world wouldn't recognize. 17 on that list were for the Wii, but there are two that people still talk about, still praise. Super Mario Galaxy and its direct sequel: Super Mario Galaxy 2. Regarded as two of the best games for the Nintendo Wii by many, but for me, its time to analyze, to critique them. This is my review of Super Mario Galaxy and Super Mario Galaxy 2.

Pikmin Shorts: A day in the life of something smaller then an ant

There are a lot of franchises made by Nintendo that don't get a lot of the spotlight. F-Zero, Kid Icarus, Metroid, and one of the more recent franchises: Pikmin (though not as bad as some of the above). Three games have been made for the series... and at time of writing I have not played any of them. I'm curious about the series and I intend to play the newest one, Pikmin 3. Recently however, three short films have been posted to the WiiU and 3DS eshops. So, for the last post before the start of the marathon, time to take a look at the life of the Pikmin.

The Hype Train for Smash 4

For a newcomer to this kind of hype train, this was incredible to see. This isn't a review, impressions or anything like that. This is just a reflection on what has been.

E3 2013: This was a weird time to be a Nintendo fan. The Wii U was barely selling and had no system sellers, the 3DS was doing better but still not great and for the first time ever, a first party games company decided not to do a live press conference at E3, instead opting for a Nintendo Direct. The Direct itself, while it had some good titles on it, there wasn't anything we didn't expect. "Oh look a new Mario game" "Oh look a new Zelda", there wasn't anything to really care about... until the finale...

Mario Karts 7 and 8: Time to burn rubber again... and again...

With every new Nintendo console, we are guaranteed a new Mario Kart at some point. From its debut on the SNES, Mario Kart is one of Nintendo's safe console sellers with every iteration managing to push units. While I said I was going to do just Mario Kart 8 (even though I still lack a Wii U, thank you to EB games Swanston Street for having the full version available to play), if you're familiar with the Mario Kart iterations, you'll see why I'm grouping Mario Kart 7 for the 3DS in this review as well. Time to hit the track.

First Impressions: Mario Party 10

Before I get into the impression, call this irony but considering the reason for it... At the time of writing this, Hellfire comms, in association with other Youtubers, is currently hosting a marathon of Sonic games with all the money generated going to Child's Play. If you have a spare couple of hours, watch the streams (or the recordings if you're like me and am sleeping when they're on) and donate. The commentators are a joy to watch and the games are fun to see. Hell, it might even give you enough of a excuse to play Sonic games. The website for the "Sonic-a-thon" is here (http://hfc-marathons.co.uk/) or you can view the stream directly on Twitch. I do believe the streams are being recorded and going onto Youtube so there is that option as well. With that said, onward with Mario Party 10.

Do you hate your friendship with someone? Then Mario Party has you covered because, chances are, your friendship won't be the same after you play it, if it exists afterwards. Don't let your eyes deceive you, this game will test your patience with its randomness. So why is it still being made? The only answer I can give is money. So how does this new installment look in comparison to the last 9 console games and the 3 games on Nintendo's portable consoles?

So what did the Nintendo Treehouse show off... Not much actually. Most of the presentation was focused on the new mode for the game "Bowser Party", another way to punish your friends for being your friends. Its another 4v1 game, 4 players are in a car... train... thing to get through a game board (like in Mario Party 9) with the 5th player (who uses the Game Pad), who controls Bowser, chasing the kart. If Bowser catches up with said kart, the players in the kart have to survive a "Bowser Mini game". In the mini game, Bowser uses the game pad in some form to try and cut the health of the other 4 players. If a player runs out of health in the mini game, then that player is out and it goes back to board. Players can receive more health in the game board and Bowser can get more dice to roll (default of 4) to increase his chances of catching up to the kart. If all the players in the kart run out of health, Bowser wins, if the kart gets to the end of the stage, the other 4 players win. Half of the game board wasn't allowed to be shown so I can't talk about the game board, but it looks like the board that was shown was a "World 1" from the New Super Mario Bros series esque design.

Rides were also shown off, but not how you actually play them in the boards. they're just mini games to get more mini stars from Mario Party 9 so there isn't that much to talk about. There's also supposed to be a traditional Mario Party mode where its 4 players moving around the board individually,with the standards including Bowser spaces, chance time ect. This moment wasn't shown off so I can't talk about it.

For a 20 minute presentation, not much was shown off so I'm going to stop it there, the game is going to have a 2015 release so its expected to have a lack of information. As I said at the start, give the Sonic-a-thon a look and donate if you can, its going to a good cause. The final impression: Lego Batman 3: Beyond Gotham.

First Impressions: Yoshi's Woolly World

The art's and crafts art style seems to be relatively popular at the moment, at least for platformers. With the "success" of Kirby's Epic Yarn, it's only fitting that Nintendo would try the formula again for another of their mascots. So how does Yoshi's Woolly World (once known as either Yarn Yoshi or Yoshi's Epic Yarn because of how long fans have know about the project) take the fundamentals of Epic Yarn and update them (based on the trailer).

Well, on the subject of the aesthetics, "thanks to the amazing powers of the WiiU's technology, Yarn Yoshi (as he will now be called throughout the duration of this impression) can be rendered in 3D and is actually a solid mass, not a hollow 2D shell like Yarn Kirby and all the characters in Kirby's Epic Yarn". Yes, Yoshi is solid in this and he still has access to his power of converting enemies into egg projectiles, but the way its done now is actually kinda interesting. As with Epic Yarn, the world uses the wool motif to create hidden unlockable locations. Yoshi can throw his "eggs" at the shells of platforms and fill them in to create something to stand on. Yoshi can use the eggs to hinder some enemies ability to attack (like wrapping the mouth shut on a Piranha Plant) and the eggs can be thrown to clear away what looks like cotton. Some portions of the world can also be converted into eggs to unlock hidden paths and collectables. I've included the trailer at the bottom of the post so feel free to see these move in action along with others.

Aesthetics wise, like Kirby's Epic Yarn, the game looks adorable. I love this kind of aesthetic as you can do whatever you want with it, as shown by the Little Big Planet series. The Yoshi games have always had a sense of cute when it comes to visuals and this is no exception. One of my personal favorite enemies in this is the fire dog at then end of the trailer (which I think is a boss) for that reason, it's adorable... even though it wants to kill me...

I'm not sure if Yoshi's Woolly World is going to keep the "you can't die, you only loose beads" idea that Epic Yarn had, but if it does, I wouldn't mind. I don't care about difficulty in some games, hell I've never had a hard time with a Kirby game so it didn't bother me. The Yoshi games also haven't been a challenge to me so I wouldn't care if the system was brought back. The game still looks like a joy to play so I will be giving it a shot when I can. Because I only have 4 more impressions left to do, every day this week will have a new impression so tomorrow will be Code name S.T.E.A.M. Also, because this post will probably push it over, Blaster's Reviews will have reached the 1000 page view milestone, thank you for reading what I've been posting up here. The reviews will be coming soon, I have a few things planned so enjoy.

First Impressions: Sonic Boom

I openly admit that I'm behind the times, this song did come out in 1993 an was the theme for Sonic CD in the US and is one of the most well known Sonic vocal songs of all time...

My apologies for that, I got my documents messed up...

Sonic Boom, the upcoming Sonic game for 2014 along with the new TV show based on the two games. And as usual for Sonic games, they get unneeded hate from the fan base. Why? I'll answer that at the end of this.

I'll start with the games. As with Sonic Lost World, a 3DS version and a WiiU version will be made, but unlike Lost World, the consoles will have a different version of the game with a different plot, playable characters ect. In Sonic Boom: Rise of Lyric, you can play as Sonic, Tails, Amy and Knuckles, the main 4 characters for the franchise.

 And as you can see from this, all four of them have had a redesign. For a better look...

Before I get to gameplay, I'll go through the "controversial redesigns".

• Sonic: There is barely anything is different with him. I like the little bit of detail in his spines, yes the exsessive use of sports tape is a bit of a let down but the same thing applies to all the characters except the "new" character so I'm going to ignore it. I love the addition of the scarf as it adds that little bit of detail to the character that updates him properly for the first time since the Dreamcast.
• Tails: The short and sharp version of my opinions on Tails is that he actually looks like a engineer now, which I like
• Amy: Ever since the designs were revealed, I haven't had any thing to say about Amy spesifically. I like this design more so then her main design as it seems to be more functional then the main design in the main series (at this point in time, this is a spin off of the series). I like the update to the hammer, even though it will probably be as ridiculous as ever in terms of physics (Amy is the reason why "Hammer space" exists).
• Knuckles: The controversy magnet for these redesigns... Where do I begin with Knuckles... How about the fact that he's not that bad. Even when I first saw him I didn't think he was that bad. Not great, I will admit that there are flaws but its not the end of teh world that people are making him out to be. I'm not a fan of his height, I do think he could be a bit shorter. I do like the fact that he has a lot more bulk to him now as he is supposed to be the muscle of the group, something that doesn't make sense in the current series. I will admit that the lack of a neck is more of a problem with Knuckles then it is for anyone else but I can learn to live with it.
• And finally, defiantly not Marine the Racoon, original creation do not steel... aka Sticks the badger: In terms of design, when its not screaming "I SHOULD HAVE BEEN MARINE", she looks ok. I'm skeptical about her character at this point in time i'm going to hold off on my thoughts about her, until I can see her in action.

If you want a look at some more characters, look here for the concept art: http://blogs.sega.com/2014/07/23/meet-characters-in-the-sonic-boom-universe/ don't ask for impressions on these characters.

As for Gameplay of the WiiU version, it looks fun. Simple, but fun. If you've played a Crash Bandicoot game, then you'll recognize the play styles of the characters. But seeing as the founders of Big Redd Button, the developers behind the games, came from Naughty Dog and worked on the first three Crash Bandicoot games (on top of the fact that Crash was based on Sonic) its no surprise. Each of the characters have a different play style and different paths they can travel to get to the end of the level. Sonic's is based on the 3D sonic games like Adventure, Heroes and Generations, Tails is mechanical and ranged based combat, Amy is the most athletic (has the highest jump ect) and uses acrobatic motions to platform with the help of her hammer, and Knuckes plays how you would expect him to.He can climb walls, tunnel underground, mow through enemies using his fists, the usual. As for Sticks... I have no idea. The gameplay is likely to be replicated in the 3DS version except the fact that it will be 2D based so for now, assume that what I said effects both versions.

Story wise: I'm going to directly quote the Sonic Wiki because news on the plot is scarce.

The Rise of Lyric (WiiU): "Sonic Boom: Rise of Lyric follows Sonic the Hedgehog, Miles "Tails" Prower, Knuckles the Echidna, Amy Rose and Sticks as they do battle against the evil Dr. Eggman. The group find themselves arriving on an island where they encounter an ancient tomb sealed deep within the island. There, they come across a powerful snake-like villain from a race called the Ancients, named Lyric, who plans to power his army of war mongering robots with the Chaos Crystals and destroy the world. To stop Lyric's evil plan, the group must put aside their differences and find the Chaos Crystals before Lyric. The stakes have never been higher, and the only chance to overcome Lyric is to band together and work as a team."

Shattered Crystal: "In Sonic Boom: Shattered Crystal, Amy discovers a secret ancient language and manuscript detailing the history and whereabouts of a Lost Crystal of Power. The evil and vile villain, Lyric, kidnaps Amy in his eagerness to get his claws on this long-forgotten power that has been hidden throughout the jungles and canyons of a mysterious new island. Sonic must team up with Tails, Knuckles and new friend Sticks to trace Amy’s footsteps and save her from the clutches of Lyric and his robot army. By trusting in their own abilities and working as a team, they will prove they are stronger together than they are apart."

Based on that, the plot for the WiiU version sounds interesting and I'm curious as to how it will be implemented. My only issue with the story is the 3DS version. Why is Amy being kidnapped? It doesn't make any sense based on her personality. The last time she was kidnapped was in Sonic Adventure and her kidnapper was the final boss in her part of the story so I hope something like this happens again.

Finally, the TV show. For the first time since Sonic X, we will be having another Sonic cartoon. from the two trailers we've seen, it looks like its going to have a comical side to it but I'm not sure how much humor is in the show. We've only had two trailers and they're being very vague as to what the show is about in my opinion. Only time will tell. The next impression will be Yoshi's Woolly world with Code Name S.T.E.A.M being the one after.