Pokémon Top 5: Favorite Fighting Types

Hello again my dear island guests, it is time for another top 5! Another Pokémon type! So let’s go super effective against our previous lists and pick the fighting type to discuss this week. A type that is very close to my heart, because for a long type it composed my favorite deck to run  in the pokémon TCG!

Rules And Honorable mentions

Like always the same rules apply!, In this case.. special forms do not count. Mega Lopunny, Mega Mewtwo and Meloetta all gain the fighting type and could be considered for this list. However I did not feel it was right to select pokémon like these for a list like these. Only one pokémon per evolution line.Also if I can not prevent evolution without an everstone an evolution that will make the pokémon less awesome will be held against its earlier form.  For example while I love Clobbopus, I do not like Grapploct nearly as much, and while I could still not learn it taunt.. I did not know the first time and the Pokémon was kind of ruined for me. So it just gets an honorable mention here.

Secondly and more vaguely the pokemon has to fit to my standards of fighting type. If I don’t believe it’s a fighting type and the typing has just been added to give it STAB boosts, it will not make the list. Noticeable examples for me are Marshadow , the adorable little ghost , which in my eyes should be pure ghost and Bewear. Whose typing I would not know.. I guess I’d give it Normal-Fairy. It’s strong sure.. but it likes hugs and just wants to do bear things. It’s based on a stuffed animal.. that doesn’t really scream fighting type to me.. so while it is in my heart it’s not on the list. What said..let’s start the match. 

Fighting Type Number 5: Lucario

Lucario is a bit the de facto favorite fighting type of people and it made many favorite lists and here it is yet again. So what exactly is so great about Lucario?! First of all it basically has Ultra Instinct.. or Tsuna’s  Hyper Intuition from Hitman Reborn. By sensing the fighting aura of it’s opponent it can read the movement of it’s opponents now that is cool! Designwise I’d put it in the top ten of best designed pokémon easily and this pokémon has gotten so much love in just about every bit of pokémon media that it is hard to miss or not find an incarnation you like. It was amazing and heartwarming in it’s own movie.. it made me cry, it’s a great character in Pokken, he is a pretty solid fighting in Smash. Lucario does it all.  His mega evolution nicely designed as well.

In battle Lucario is also a gambit, he has an great 110 base stat in both special as physical attack. While it’s physical moveset is more diverse getting access to all elemental punches, ghost, ground, dragon  fighting steel the covery is amazing. Yet Special Lucario gets access to calm mind to bolster his somewhat lackluster defences and has access to some of the most competitive moves like Focus Blast for stab, Shadow Ball for weakness covery and Dark Pulse for trying to get scummy flinches. Lucario is so diverse you can literally build your very own fighting badass. I like having options and few come more diverse than this fan favorite. I would dress up like him.. but I doubt I could pull it off!

For just 80 dollars this could be you!

Fighting Type Number 4: Breloom

Breloom is a bit of  a weird fighting pokémon. At first glance you might not say it is fighting.. yet to me this one is very deeply connected to the typing. Because back in the time I played Showdown Breloom was a pokémon that kept kicking my ass. A friend by the name of Olivia ran one in her team and it was insanely strong. With a base stat of 130 in physical attack it also has Lucario beat in a straight up conflict of strength.  While it lacks in the other stats, it’s access to priority moves and speed reduction can make it a hassle to get around. It’s ability technician makes these abilities double in base-power. While frail.. it hits like a truck which makes Breloom fun to use. I am very keen on glass cannons, Pokemon can be kinda easy and I care for my Pokémon I do not want them to faint so it makes things fun!  

What really sells me on this Pokémon is it’s design though. I am not sure why but it mesmerises me. It feels awkward yet speedy. It’s a mushroom chicken.. thing. While of course i could have put Blaziken on the list in its stead as the thought fighting chicken but Breloom has something I really  a personality quirk that I miss in Blaziken. While Blaziken is cool this is a pokémon I end up caring for. Blaziken just doesn’t do that for me. This little super fastly shadowboxing plant guy never got enough love and than I could finally use it on my squad.  I even got a secret ability one which is what makes it so good. A technician boosted Mach punch .. I could have named it Saitama! I named it Colonel though! Because of the military color scheme and the chickeny face vibe. I shall always remember Colonel!

Fighting Type Number 3: Falinks

Gen VIII had a few pokémon I absolutely fell in love with and this pure fighting type pokemon is one of them.Even if it never made my squad because it did not fit in with my Princess Tea Party theme it became endeared to me. I would have called mine.. The Bobs.. because  well it’s a bunch of little spartan ball like things that have the cutest marching animation. Not a lot of fighting pokémon can get away with looking cute and still feeling like a fighting tupe Point and case Stufful. Kirby that looks like he stole the powers of Leonidas followed by a bunch of his allies really works well for a fighting type. Their special move No Retreat is super cute as well and really shows the warrior atmosphere. Which is kind of a new take on the fighting type. Up until now fighting types usually were martial artists or wrestlers but this is a very interesting take that I am up for.

Falinks is a regular in Pokémon Showdown random matches as well. While it’s base stat total isn’t amazing nor are it’s stats, as its hidden ability it can learn Defiant and having acces to No Retreat which boosts all stats in return for being unable to switch out can make it  hard to deal with. With just one boost it’s defense and attack are up their with the bigger names already. While Close Combat will decimate it’s defenses it’s speed and attack will remain. So to best utilize this you might put it on a sticky web team with something something that uses sleep as well.  It is also useful in PvE  because it is one of the few creatures that can learn false swipes. A move that will always leave your opponent on 1 hp. So it is great to hunt shinies with! While you get it a bit to late in game to really be fully used on in game team you still should be able to take it along if you are prepared to struggle a bit against special attackers. It’s a great charming pokemon and one of the best things  Gen VIII gave us.

Fighting Type Number 2: Machamp

I considered Scrafty for this list because I really like the dragon dancing power set. Yet for the same reason as in the Dark Type list it did not make the cut. While  I in both cases considered it like a close too favorite.. it is just a single battleset I like. I REALLY like it.. but in the end I had to scrap it.. for Pokémon I love for several reasons. Take Machamp for example. He was a staple in my TCG deck.. in two renditions, a evolution card that boosted my mons attacks and a EX version that worked as a revenge wall. Bring up Pokémon Twilight wings again. Bea and her Machamp were quite heartwarming, though not as heartwarming as Wooloo. Machamp is THE  first trade evolution I ever got as well as the first self caught shiny I ever got. A  Pokken character as well, the first I played, Machamp has been there for me in so many ways.

Now Machamp was one of the first thoroughly broken pokemon as well. It learned No Guard as an ability and Fissure as a move. Which meant it could land 1 hit KO moves with 100% accurancy. While the set always was somewhat “Illegal’  and hard to obtain, it is THE most famous Machamp build for those know know the basic of battlesets. Now other than that.. Machamp can be a bit dull to run.. It punches.. so he gets all the punchy moves, including the elemental ones. It just gets about everything you expect from it so it works great.. both in PvE and in PvP as it is diverse enough to be viable yet it slightly misses that excitement. That being said this is an excellent Pokémon that is easy to use and easy to master for beginners.  It’s diverse moveset can really help you in learning to call your opponents plays. Knockoff, Ice Punch, Cross Shop , Bulk Up goes for miles and really can help you rip trough an opponents team. Given how OP fighting Dynamax moves can be, this really is special in it’s own slightly dull way.

Fighting Type Number 1: Medicham

The ace of my fighting pokémon deck.. the card that one me an anime con tournament and that is feared by my friends who ever faced the my double kicking medicham deck. This card is the reason this pokémon is here because I have such fond memories of it. It doesn’t hurt that it wears a pinkish kind of suit and the whole concept of Fighting Psychic really works for me. It’s such a cool typing and while Gallade is arguably the more stylish choice with the higher stats.. I really like this pokémon so much better. Medite it’s basic form, has become sort of a meme in my group of friends. A non Pokémon friend called it “smurf with a more stupid head”.. or sometimes “Diaper Smurf”  and the little tyke became endeared to us through this silly nickname.  While Lucario can read Aura’s of Pokémon trough battle skill Medicham learned to do this through starvation and meditation. It kind of reminds me of piccolo of dragon ball z but pinker! Pinkolo!

Definitely the weakest pokemon on this list, with a base stat of only 410 and a physical attack of 60! It has BAD stats. Very bad even. However when trained up with the ability Pure Power that attack stat gets doubled when it enters battle.Putting it at an attack of 120 which is fairly on par with most the monsters here. However in games where it has it’s mega evolution this beas’s base stat grows to 100 and thus a base attack power of 200 due to its ability! Now THAT is scary! It even always has the Pure Power ability when evolved so it also saves you a lot of breeding. So it can hit hard!  Yet that isn’t the only way you can run this. Medicham can be used as a screen setter as well. Screens are defensive buffs that offer significant damage reduction for either physical  or special attacks.. and both can be set up at the same time. It can set up the two major weather conditions of sun and rain. Which means you can always have your opponent guess on what type of set you use. In a game where a wrong guess or read can lead to absolute defeat..having something like Medicham  can be much scarier for an opponent than a high stat total.Just like in martial arts it doesn’t always matter who is physically the strongest but how well you read your opponent. Also did I mention it’s kinda pink?!

This list was so much harder to make the fighting type has a lot of good pokémon that really emobdy their type well and with Kubfu  coming out in the near future it hasnt become any easier to pick. So many fighting types are absolutely great! So which one is your favorite?! Leave a comment and see you next time!

I Dislike that I Like Likes

Gooooooood whatever daytime you are reading this my precious island guests. It is time for another mental health, mindset post thingy where I make a fast from my rocking chair and blame the internet! This time we will look at the negative effects of the Like-Culture.

<Disclaimer: I use Blogger’s names in this post to make it concrete, the actions I tie to them do not in actuality have to link to them, though in some cases I did indeed have similar thoughts but I use this format to get a point across what would mean less with blank names. A fear is made much more real when it seems more concrete> 

Nightmare on Like Street

Recently I have written the blog that has gotten the most genuine likes, as well as enter a period where I get a lot less likes in general. I guess that means I suck now?! I don’t think I have changed that much?! I just picked some topics that are closer to my heart!? So that means that is stuff you don’t care for?! So by proxy you do not care about me?! Or worse.. maybe you took the fact that I had little energy to actively visit your blog and be my old bubbly supportive self as me not caring about you and I have been blacklisted and now I can never make friends.

Rini-Senpai likes a lot less of my posts so I guess she must have been dissapointed in me. Megan from a Geeky Gal used to frequently drop a like and now she never does and even Fred from Au Natural has left less likes in the past couple of days. Did I piss them all off. Did they drop me?! Am I THAT bad? I’ve seem them like posts that clearly have less effort put into them.. so that means they hate me?! I might not have used likes enough! I might not have browsed around the block enough spreading enough likes! Perhaps I forgot to click on like because I was reading a phone and upset someone for not liking a really good post?! I am so sorry!

Like Induced Hallucinations

The preceding paragraph is not actually what I think… however at the same thoughts it all crossed my mind briefly. It is not a thought I want to have or that I actively chase.. but the mind races. The reason is that a like is a very poor instrument of measurement, yet because of the importance of being liked.. in our core as a human being something that really is hard to go without. Irina and Megan I take on as examples.. so them not LIKING me in essence would mean me failing my teachers. Fred is so kind and supportive.. so him not liking must mean I really screw things up. Why?

We related the virtual “like” to actual liking.. and they are two whole different kinds of things in actuality.  Being liked is important… yet getting likes is not. Yet it can be incredibly hard to separate the two because my brain.. processes.. a like as being liked…  how can we distinguish these things?  How can we put these into context?  I feel like this is a thing I struggle with.. and that there might be others that do it as well so here is a peek into my process. So let’s take a look at what I think is the hardest part about being a somewhat sociable blogger.

Never Assume, Ignorance is Bliss

The most important thing to do is not to think for other people. If Megan doesn’t like my post that doesn’t mean she dislikes it. Maybe she just never read it, maybe she did and got actually engaged in a piece of text and forgot to click the like button. Maybe she was on her phone with the app, in which liking can be more impractical and could not be stuffed going trough that whole thing. There are so much more reasons a person can not like your post other than disliking your post.

For example I see a trend that Rini is much less active in the weekends , which can mean she is doing stuff besides blogging than.. or she doesn’t care for the specific content I bring out near the weekend. While I can assume either of these to be true.. for all that I know she gets captured by aliens who block phone signals or her boyfriend forces her not to look at her phone all the time. 

I am not Irina, nor Megan or Scott or Lyn or anyone who interacts with this blog. Why they like.. how and if they read is all simply a guess or assumption, these hold ZERO factual values so any thought of negativity derived from it is based on assumptions. None of the bloggers I worry about that they stopped liking me have ever Boo’ed me in the comments. It is easy to let a mind fill in a blank with a negative perception of it. I think most here would agree. Yet idea of other people hating you, or not liking you as much as you want stems not from them but from you. In a way you create fake versions of the people you want to get response from that drain away your energy. You are making your own dementors at that point.

Don’t over-rationalise, Ignorance is Bliss

Rationalizing however is a double edge sword. Because of how easy it is for us to monitor stats. For example I know fairly well what my normal view to like ratios are (around 50 to 75%). My Star Trek post for example only got 10 likes which is well below my average, but it also got way less views. While my anime review got pretty much my normal rate of likes but way more views and the ratio is off.

This ALSO doesn’t mean anything. A person could come back to a long post to read it in bits, inflating your views while making your post have a less favorable like/views ratio. I can even more or less tell who is watching me (except if you are from America) based on times and nations. I can more or less see when Irina visits my blog and doesn’t like. I can see when someone likes a post without reading.

This means we end up with a weird situation where we can not think about likes from an emotional stance nor a logical stance because both hold no real value. We aren’t aware of each others thoughts nor are we capable of constantly minding all the factors in play. I read some amazing posts and clicked of without leaving a like.. simply because I had the same sensation I felt when reading a good book. My mind completely with the post and not the social aspect. Sometimes I read a post and I had a craving for a snack or google more info about a post. Wandering off without leaving a like. Sometimes I read a post in a few steps.. messing up someones ratio.. but that’s the way I enjoy reading it. Humans are not a hivemind, we are not in sync.. and for those who accidentally put to much worth into likes, we create a no win scenario, due to the sheer access to data.

Do not think a like is about affection

We need to find a way for likes to mean less to us, but that is hard. Simply because of the word chosen is a key need of basically anyone. Much akin to love, like is a term of affection and that is something we all want or desire. Especially since my take on this in part is to find people to interact with and find community like becomes something greater than it is supposed to be.  A dissociation. The online like is a much more sterile concept that is much less meaningful than someone actually telling you “I like that”. That is something we can probably all acknowledge, yet because the computer tells me “Scott likes this” opposed to “Scott Pressed the like Button” its much more difficult for my brain to interpret this correctly.

Let’s get to the elephant in the room here! I know I am not my content, it’s easy to brush worries away under that standard and to some extend that does work……..IF we keep our distance to our work. It’s just a blog, a bunch of text some ramblings. Yet here it is detrimental that we are hobbyists.
We do generally do not post because we need to. We do it because we want to. The stuff we write means something to us, if only for the joy of creating it. Especially when we write something that matters to us. It sucks if an insightful piece gets less likes than a Top 5. It stings when a blogger who just posted some fan art that is not even his or hers while you made a deep essay gets more up votes from mutual followers. It can feel like a betrayal.. but why is that?


The reason is not the others that fail to press a button but the value we have given to this word. Trough YouTube we are constantly reminded about the importance of likes, your tweets have to be hearted. Your Instagram is based on likes! And Arceus forbid if you still use Facebook the social pressure of likes there! We gave become so dependent on them, that they are like a drug. We need them as our high.. our validation and when starved of them we will feel like utter trash. That is because we have been brainwashed by social media to think it’s as important as actual likes.. Thusly we connect it to affection while we should not. Yet how can we not when each video we like nowadays asks for likes and everywhere we look this stuff becomes important. For us at least this is not helped by the absence of a dislike button. Because we can’t see dislike as the opposite to a like, not liking becomes the de facto opposite.

To prove this point, try imagining going to a random blogger you follow but do not particularly care about and tell them “I do not like you” how many of you think that is  neutral? I bet it is not a lot of you. Our brains are wired in that way..so  when my brain picks up.. oh Mallow did not like this post.. that voice in your head  makes that very same dialogue tangible. We were raised with fairy tale mannerisms in mind but our rule-set changed. We can’t all simply adapt and let go of what we knew. This causes a hyper importance on like because it has become a popular commodity one one hand and the lack off  likes is interpreted as the opposite.  In doing so it becomes a resource I absolutely hate..but one I can’t help but covet.

Highscores and perception shifts

In a way we have turned our own life into classic arcade video games. If you don’t have a highscore you do not matter… or at least that is the lie we tell ourselves. Which is kinda ironic.. we care so much for our highscore in real life.. in the form of getting praise and backpads.. but in video games we hardly ever care for the thing. Yet a like is as insignificant as video game high score when it comes down to it.. it’s a digital display on how well you did. Without it being detrimental or beneficial to the actual content.  It simply a very poorly chosen term that seems logical and makes sense but puts enormous social pressure on you once you start to see patterns.
So perhaps by embracing this analogy we can defuse it into just that… that high score.. sure it is neat to put your name on the board but it doesn’t take away from our actual joy of playing the game.

Another way to achieve some inner piece can be achieved to “rebranding” what the word of the virtual Like means to us. Instead of seeing the button as a token of affection thrown your way.. perhaps we can view it as having similarities.. being ALIKE. A simple press of the button wouldn’t be a digital stamp of approval that you need to collect a lot of.. it is a tool to measure if people can vibe with your brain. You can like my Star Trek post.. simply because you enjoy the show and remember it, or because you saw that first episode and had a mindset similar to mine when watching it.. or you can mentally put yourself in my place there.. at that moment we can understand each other and are alike. 

There is something fundamentally less painful about being misunderstood than about not being likable. In being yourself and people not being like you, you can attach positive words. I am unique, I am myself I am a pioneer. Heck in the core being creative is about doing something unique.. it would defuse the pressure of the “like” while keeping the general mindset of it intact. People resonating with it.  That same type of positivity is much harder to apply when it comes down to not getting affection. No one smiles and says “I am an einzelgänger” with pride. No one is really happy to say “I do not need other people”. So let’s make that shift! Find a way to make the like more harmless!

Do Not Dislike Not Liking

Now just to make this clear, this is not a rant for people not liking things. Because I totally get that, as I tried to make clear throughout the post. While I feel terrible for not liking a post, that again is self imposed social pressure. The larger your blog grows the lesser the chance is you will be there for everyone. The smaller your blog is the more you feel bad about not getting likes, the bigger your blog is the more bad you feel about not giving them. They are both part of the same problem. While monetized blogs or YouTube channels could get indications for if content works or not.. that as hobby bloggers should not be our concern it should be about the joy of content creation…which for the most I do.. just this is a boon waved in your eyes that is friggin hard to ignore.

So just beware that not getting as much likes as you want will always sting, yet they are so meaningless that if you use them as your guide in your blogging journey you WILL get lost.  A like is a high-score and the system on how to get them is glitched. At times you will get some for no reason at all, at other times even though you picked up that score item.. it didn’t add up. It happens to the best of games. We should see it more as people resonating with your thoughts .. as opposed to affection for the blogger, which while making perfect logical sense is easily is confused by the brain. At least I think in full sentences and speech and that sometimes my pink heart go owie!  The like is a complex little drug, that offers you much safer highs but much more lasting lows. Beware of the like! Let’s make a case for the ALIKE…..also please leave a like!

A BIT of Nostalgia: Super Mario Bros. 2

Now that I have cast the TALDIG aside and no longer try to teach people bad history trough mediocre video games, instead I will play some retro games I REALLY want to play. We start with one of the few main line mario games that I never finished. Today I take a look at Super Mario Bros. 2

Doki Doki We Know This

Now I assume most people know this but we need to go over this so you know what I am actually reviewing.  I played and completed the western Super Mario Bros 2.  The game that Japan knows as Super Mario U.S.A. Should there be someone out here reading who doesn’t know.  When Nintendo released their Super Mario 2, people thought it would be to difficult for your standard Western audience.. and having played it myself.. I can agree to a point. This would have polarised the american and european players. In order to still release a new Mario a game called Doki Doki Panic was given a bit of a Mario overhaul.  The original game had you pick from a quartet of arabian/middle eastern looking characters, which explains why you see so much desert levels and fly on a carpet so much.

It is also why this game does not feel like a Mario game. The mechanics in this game have never really been used after that anymore. You could attack by throwing vegetables  or throwing enemies after jumping onto them and picking them up. So one can make an argument that this is NOT a Mario game. However this game gave us so much of the super mario culture we know today. Shy-Guys, Pokey’s  and even Bob-ombs would not have existed without this game. Well .. at least not as Mario enemies and some of it’s most iconic music would also be missing. Most importantly.. without it most likely we would not have the Super Mario Brother Super Show.

It’s a me… kinda!

So for the first time I played the game and moved past the third world.Which was  where I left before. This game can be fairly difficult and cryptic at times. At least for younger gamers. Where Chibi-Pinkie  believed in being an absolute murder hobo when it comes to enemies Super Mario Bros. 2  requires you to use certain enemies as platforms or ride projectiles. There even are some minor puzzle elements on how to use bombs to blow up certain obstacles, factoring in distance you have to cross. It’s nothing special but it’s very different. Much like how Zelda 2 veered very much from its original as well. While Mario Bros and all subsequent games are pure sang platformers, this one is more of a puzzle platformer. One that is fairly stingy with its resources.

As a result this game is fairly, but never overly, challenging. The problem some puzzles are trial and error and on rare occasions this can softlock you into losing a life. This would not be that much of an issue if lifes were made more available. Super Mario 3 did that very well. Handing you 1-up mushrooms in the more trial and error like stages. This is a bit more relentless. I recommend playing the GBA version as it has a save function. I think the Super Mario All Stars one has one to,  but that is definitely welcome. You have two continues but given that most 1-ups are hidden behind RNG that still is harsh. There is nothing fun, nor was there ever about hitting a game over simply because you did not have enough lives to “learn” the game, being forced to start over. Luckily trough emulation.. and mini consoles we now have acces to save states which can help you deal with this gripe.. or you just play the superior ports.


Now don’t get me wrong this IS still a fun game to play but over time it has gotten some vastly superior versions.  Since the NES version is just a sprite swap in most senses of the word, it feels more “floaty” than other Mario games, Controls do not feel as tight. The Luigi Jump and Peach abilities do contribute to that.. and of course since she is pink I cleared the entire game with Peach. I have no trouble landing on a single block in any mario game, yet in this one I could rarely pull it off. As if there is a landing delay, which feels very un-mario. That being said the stages are mostly very well designed around this control scheme so it never killed the joy for me. Just in the core you can sense you are playing Doki Doki Panic.

It’s a Me REALLY!

Everything actually Mario, everything rebranded everything first party however feels great. The game oozes personality and much more than Mario Bros. feels part of the mario world. By now Mario had more personality he dons his actual red and blue colours rather than that brown jumpsuit. Peach, Luigi and Toad are actual characters here. I love the music and tossing an Ostrich is legitimately quite funny. I loved whenever I could do that and just waste my time respawning them and trying to kill as much things with a single ostrich thing as I can. I am even considering playing the GBA version to hunt for the red coins .. because I heard it could unlock Yoshi which seems like a fun addition. Also I really want to do a toad only run!

The reason for that would be the games ending, this game is infamous for being only in Mario’s dream.So I would really love for him to have a dream about Toad Pickup up ostriches going around beating up  pink transgender dinosaurs and beating the evil king to save a group of magical bees or something. This game introduced Birdo one of the first Transgender video game characters ever and we beat her up a lot during this game.

The game has seven worlds each with three levels. The first two levels of a world almost always face you off against Birdo in the end.  Even in some final levels she can sometimes be there as a mid boss.. or as a  means to use her eggs as platforms towards a new part of the stage. Still I wonder what would cause Mario to dream about a mushroom kid beating up the transgender Birdo and take down an evil toad (as in frog ..not mushroom.. confusingly enough)  to save some magical bees. But hey its my head canon now which is awesome so thank you Mario 2.
<Disclaimer.. I do not approve of violence against Transgender in any shape way or form, nor do I ship Toad X Mario.. I just really enjoy the fever dream fantasy. scenario.. thank you>

My least favorite Mario

While this is in fact my least favorite mainline Mario that is rather a testament to how incredible the series is rather than a strike against this game. The first half of this game is truely amazing and just a joy to play.  A bit like Mario Sunshine the second half can get a bit “stale” where the difficulty picks up to something that feels more tedious than challenging.  Each door for example is a checkpoints, some later levels just challenge you by having doors further apart  or let you collect an item on the far left which you then have to bring back to the far right. Instead of jumping to the next platform we have to use mushrooms to build our own way.  Which could be nice but across game over and continues and regular loss of life stacking the thing over and over again can feel more like labour than a challenge.

Again like Mario Sunshine (which is my second least favorite Mario by the way) that however gives  this game it’s uniqueness. I was much more inspired to try hard in this game than for example in Mario 1 or 3 where repeating stages feels less cumbersome. Where in Mario 1 I could turn of the game and say.. i’ll try again later this was the game I was really determined to beat. I wanted to conquer it and see all the worlds. Mario 2 is much more diverse compared to its predecessor at well, though there is some looping stuff after the fourth world. Out of the seven worlds only world six I sorta disliked while in Mario 3 there are two worlds I sorta dislike. So all in all this had a strong line up of levels and ‘puzzels’. It’s not bad yet overshadowed by greatness.

Strange Roots

This game is often called the black sheep in the Mario Line up and I do not think that is completely true. It’s more that annoying sheep that doesn’t really stay with the heard.. the one that always wanders aff and is the most mischievous doing some pretty weird things for a sheep. Yet for that very own reason you do always remember that sheep and tell your wife in bed about what that sheep did today. It’s a loveable odd piece of gaming memorabilia that has just so many good stories. For example the Koopa Shells in this game used to be Black-Faces you can toss as a power up. Controversy around those arose which may have led to the idea to make that particular game Mario. It already needed new sprites for the Western world anyway?! Could that be what made it ideal choice to be the new Mario? The other game was too .. controversial anyway.

Where would Mario be now without the Shy Guys and Pokeys, what if those masks  never inspired the sun in Super Mario 3. Without this game Pink would have never been able to hover with her dress and Luigi would not jump higher and floatier than Mario. Which proves just how powerful games can be. Mario Mario would not be the man he is today without this game.Luigi Mario might never have differentiate from his brother without this game and the mushroom kingdom these days is hard to imagine without bob-ombs or shy guys. I still hope that Wart makes his return to the realm one day as well because honestly he fits in quite nicely… not the bees though.. not the bees. We later got better bees , mostly in Super Mario Galaxy.

Like I mentioned this game heavily inspired the super mario cartoon which I hold fond memories of because of how campy it was..just a guilty pleasure and in a way this game is very much like that show. We all can tell it doesn’t feel exactly like Mario.. but still it is such a part of it’s history that we just can’t help but love it. I mean mario’s canonical voice comes from a mini game collection featuring go fish so why not embrace this part to the fullest as well. Yes it’s the least good part  of the series, but people treat it like that is a bad thing… yet there is always a worst part.

If there would be one Mario game.. that would also be the worst game. It doesn’t say anything. Well maybe one thing? If you actually enjoy this Mario, there is so much more out there for you to enjoy. I had a great time with this game. Frustrating sure.. I said some very unpink words.. but so did I when I played Shovel Knight or The Messenger (great games btw). This is not the game you play because you want to play a Mario game… this is a game you play because you love Mario and that is A-okay!


Weirdly Amazing or Amazingly Weird: Star Trek TNG Encounter at Farpoint

An interdimensional being of almost god like powers, alien jellyfish  disguised as cities and spaceships and one heck of a grumpy captain. Star Trek Next Generation first episode on paper had the ingredients to be one heck of a fail. Yet it surprisingly strung all these things together into a nice introductory tale in its first episode(s) Encounter at Farpoint”. 

Where No Pinkie has Gone Before

I never could get into Star Trek the original series but when I first saw Next Generation , I was sold on it quite fast. Jean-Luc Picard and his brave crew appealed to me , their adventures to boldly go where no man has gone before became something I’d try to catch whenever it was possible. Unfortunately they aired around dinner time here first. Back in a period while we still ate in the dining room. When that room died we moved into the living but by then this ship never left port anymore. So I never watched the series completely. I caught glimpses of it so now I decided to watch everything from start to finish, an epic journey of which you can be my crew. This being our maiden voyage.

Inter-dimensional Beings!
Why did it have to be Inter-Dimension Beings

We see Jean-Luc Piccard heading to the bridge of his new command, this new U.S.S. Enterprise. Still working with a semi-skeleton crew he has to pick up some members on a space station called Farpoint.  Well I say space station.. it is still build on a planet.. so I am not sure how that works.. perhaps it could lift off. On their way there a mysterious space curtain appears which is the work of the inter-dimensional being “Q”. Instead of giving Picard some cool gadgets he scolds the captain for humanities warmongering ways by shifting from a seafaring captain into a WWII captain. Leaving Picard scratching his head.. which is easy given how bald he is!

Q then switches to one of the UGLIEST costumes I have ever seen. Which resembles like a contemporary material version of the chainmail knight. I mean that outfit is FUGLY as Meg. Picard is much less sympathetic or curious than his predecessor and simply on the account of finding the all powerful creature judgmental and obnoxious he gives the being a strong talkng to showing how different of a captain he is, revealing some quite apparent character flaws. In his rant he inspires Q to hold a trial for them, accusing them of being barbarians who should not progress this far into space.

Q leaves the ship to prepare for this trial, which makes little sense because so far he seemed all powerful. He can freeze crew members in an instant, he can teleport without being detected, has knowledge of everything, so what does he has to set up? Is he just playing with his food? It doesn’t make sense to me. Enterprise than tries to escape the curtain of doom he conjured and get chased by a big fireball thing that is his ship.. or it’s the curtain.. I am not sure what is going on again, and that is the great weakness of this first episode(s) it’s TOO weird. Almost spun out of control, like a Star Trek based fever dream.

A Test of Worth

Enterprise can’t outrun the fireball thingy so Picard dumps his secondary crew.. which Worf is still a part off by taking off the saucer part of the Enterprise and shoving it off.. while going Maximum warp speed… given that the non saucer thing has the actual warp engines that does not seem like a good idea but darn it I am a blogger Jim, not an engineer.

Jean-Luc and his main team return to the creature and surrender and are put on trial. Which takes past in the manifested past without temporal displacement. The past just became real. The trial is super unfair because Q wants them to plead guilty so he can punish them. Which again feels inconsistent because..he is so powerful and all knowing that that it al feels moot. Somehow the crew manages to trick him into giving them a trial to test their worth, which is when the tone shifts from terrible to amazing.

When the ship reaches Farpoint, suddenly things begin to click as the crew begins to investigate the planet led by the Bahdi (I think that’s their species name) Zorn. In the first part we see the famous Number One , William Riker discover some oddities already. These include Dr Beverly Crusher and himself gaining acces to any items they desire as well as Geordie La Forge ..their visor-man with the power of analytic sight noticing some oddities.

Now with Picard here these things begin to click for Riker. Who got a very rude introduction to the captain as the latter can’t handle stress very well. Throughout the episode the show really points out the flaws in Jean Luke even letting him be candid about it to his number one.. setting up room for the main character to grow, which in hindsight is amazing, as a first encounter you might think poorly of this new captain. His first exchange with Riker is great though and really paints a road for both characters to grow upon.

What follows is a great investigation into the events at farpoint. It is so destined that everyone of the main crew is completely established as a character and everyone feels useful as we learn to know them trough their abilities. Geordi La Forge ‘s visor and his abilities play a keyrole into unraveling this mystery while the Betazoïde Deanna Troi employs her empathy powers to discover a mysterious source of deep emotions. Actual Android, unlike in Dragon Ball Z, Data’s logical mind provides some comic relief but also some much needed explanation here and there and a logical angle for their problems.

William T Riker  shares much more similarities with James T Kirk than Picard does and functions as the eager ambitions crewman who wants to do his ship right. Everyone of the main cast  is needed. With the exception of lieutenant Yar. The security officer. Given that I do not know her.. I do not think that bodes well for her in the long run. She is given a lot of backstory already though, spouting out where she grew up, telling us her back story, again a bad omen for her.. I’ll give her seven more episodes if I had to guess. It almost feels like a very good game of D&D where Q is the Dungeon Master.

To Boldy Go

In the end the group combines all their abilities to discover that Farpoint is based on some spaceship-esque life form that is actually like a weid Jellyfish creature.. able to create matter from geothermal and probably other forms of energy. Zorn captured one.. and when it Mate comes for vengeance everyone’s findings start to make sense. These creatures being somewhat similar to Q it even makes sense he understood what tthey are very well. Yet the conclusion also feels really zaney! Out there and can easily be dismissed as Star Trek Next Generation , ‘jumping the shark’ in their very first episode. In a way it does exactly that, yet in in a way this is very much in line with the spirit of Star Trek.

Much more than Kirk’s original exploits , Next Generation would be the blueprint other Star Trek series would be build on. So much can be seen in this first episode.. the bigger stakes, the moral dualism it is all in here. Picard has to figure out which side he is on, there is no clear cut answer. He could trust the Prime Directive.. but with Q overlooking his every action, that might also not be the right answer. While the scale is too large and non Trekkies are tossed in the deep end, this show certainly does go where it hasn’t gone before. It shows exactly how it will differ from it’s predecessor. This is not as much about taking down a Gorn with a rock.. this show is about acting when you have absolutely no idea what is going on. Unfamiliar with what you face.

We get that sense of ‘What the Frick is going on’ that annoyance of being left in the dark. Yet we see those exact moments reflected in the captain. We are MEANT to feel like this, we are meant to be confused, unable to comprehend as in these new territories in space things will be bigger and stranger. There are plenty of things I dislike about this episode from a narrative point of view but if we look at what the episode did it checks off all the boxes needed for a first episode off. We get a good feeling for the show, the character introductions are very well done, in just 90 minutes I know everyone’s abilities, quirks and flaws and care for them, it shows how it will be different and what it will add and it’s tone well made clear. It even sets up roads for several key character to progress on.

The show also doesn’t pander to nostalgia too much. We see Bones  (Dr Leonard McCoy) now as an admiral visiting the new Enterprise while they are in Orbit of the planet that houses the space station, but never does it get shouty about being Star Trek. This series would be it’s own thing in the same universe and trough Q we get the exposition we need to understand the world of Star Trek. By telling our past.. and taking it a few hundreds year beyond we see exactly how far this is into the future. Several hints are given to us to cobble it all together. Most Star Trek shows after this would take a route very similar to this series tonal wise.. but the choices they made for their first episodes were much safer. Yet I can not help to feel this episode was made with the actual mindset of Star Trek in mind.. to boldy go. It comes with some problems.. but at least I can have respect for them for trying.

All in all we get a very conflicting first episode. Compared to episodes I’ve seen in this series before this one isn’t all that great. I prefer a more tangible threat. We can not begin to imagine the consequences of failing Q because he could do anything. space-stations being actual alien jellyfish defiantly would be jumping the shark in any other show..though time traveling to save whales to communicate with a spaceship in the present time.. was kinda weird before. This isn’t a great first episode to win new souls.. yet it’s a great episode considering what first episodes need to do. It knocks it out of the park even. It feels as if an Android or Vulcan wrote this story as all components are there. There is plenty to condemn this episode on.. but to point that out given it’s boons would be….. Illogical.

Pinkie’s Saturday Anime Adventure (Week 2)

Hi island guests. Saturday has come and past again which means I ate some more ceareal and watched some anime. Thightly set on time I might add. No pausing allowed, commercial breaks in between.. recreating those good old Saturday morning cartoons and this week I had a blast with it yet again.

Pinkie’s TV Guide

My Schedule hasn’t changed yet since not of the series have finished yet. Until than the series remains as follows.


9:00  AM : BNA
9:30  AM: Yu-Gi-Oh Sevens
10:00 AM :Bofuri
10:30 AM: Bofuri
11:00 AM: Hikaru no Go

Like last time, I am not allowed to pause at the 11 minute mark anime will be interrupted for some Japanese Commercials on YouTube (and to take bathroom and other kinds of breaks). If I run late I have to skip to the point matching the air-date as if it was shown on tv. Unlike last week though this week I was fully prepared.

BNA Episode 2

The second episode of the studio trigger anime Brand New Animal, or BNA might have been my highlight of the morning. I really liked this second episode. We learn our Tanuki girl is actual a human woman named Michiru.. or at least she claims to be. Refusing to be registered as a beastman because she got “sick” and turned into one. With no one believing her the evidence is in her wallet and this episode focuses on her getting it back. The show this time around is less in your face about racism and much more focussed on the characters while still putting in plenty of world building. Tonally a huge improvement from the first episode.

 Instead of opting for a complex hierarchy system like in Kill la Kill, the rules in Animacity are easy. He who is the strongest wins. It makes sense in the context and it helps give our Michiru some rough edges. Her being a former human makes it hard to understand some aspects of beast society,opening us to a softer form of exposition. There is no need for “As you all know” type of dialogue because Michiru learns alongside us. Mistakes she makes are because of her human nature and as she learns how different this world is so does the viewer. Which really works out in this episode.

Following the monkey that stole her wallet in the last episode a hint given by Marie the Mink  puts her in the visors of a criminal woman named Gran Granma who commands an all woman gang in an area called Rabbit Town. The build up towards this felt nicely paced telling us what we need to know such as character names for one.The crying wolf from last episode is named Shirou and he has a pet bird named Kuro. I bet a lot of grey matter was put to work to come up with that one. Shirou gets an order from the mayor to investigate some criminal trafficing. Of course Michiru ends up in the middle of this.

Gran Granma asks Michiru to teach some young beastfolk to learn how to read and write. Leading to my favorite moment of the episode. Michiru’s class. It was cute and innocent. A facade for what Animacity is not but also a great desire to reflect what Michiru desires. The kids learning to read is so cute and you can see the tanuki liking helping others out way more than fighting. A man who likes like he is based on Wilson Fisk, the Kingpin from Marvel pressures Gran Granma into selling the kids to pay of her debts to him. Since she is there she also decides to sell Michiru. The way this all is emoted gives you some amazing character to the criminal lady.. there is more to this story.

The episode concludes in a dock. where Michiru displays some of her powers, some being different than that of a regular beast man. She manages to break free of her cage but is no match for the combat trained henchwomen. Shirou saves the day and while confroting Gran Granma about her horrible deeds the woman smiles faintly, probably actually caring about these kids handing Michiru her wallet back and it is confirmed that she was once human.

I’d rate this show a with a Taffy Pink! It’s super sweet. The weird power thing felt like Trigger to me again, the fast moving plot, the subtle character and the mystery build on several levels it all stuck with me, and I did not mind that it did at all. That Taffy stuck in my teeth can stay there so I can linger on the sweet tastes.

Yu-Gi-Oh Sevens Episode 2

Where BNA was the high of the show for me, this second episode of Sevens showed the most improvement to me.While first episode was poorly paced, kind of lazily written and flat out unfunny this episode actually had some proper pacing,an enjoyable narrative and even some good jokes. This episode basically begins  with my favorite moment.  We get some dramatic build up to the road to be Duel King now opening. Yuga says he is not that interested and says Tatsuhisa can take his place. He overly dramatically accepts and begins walking towards the gate of light that opened. Yuga recognised it as a hologram which is why he trolled the blue hair boy. I have to hand it to the makers that was a funny way to make this exposition tolerable. 

Now to become the Duel King people have to come and accept your way of dueling as the truth. Tatsuhisa beliefs this means they have to keep what they did a secret and Yuga agrees. The next day he however is telling everyone on what they did. This triggers a duel between the protagonist and the blue haired boy… but there is trouble.. recess doesn’t last that much longer, luckily a rush duel can  be held quickly. Romin the girl now works as the reason why rules are explained while Gakuto works as the one who explains, a synergy that works and doesn’t feel forced.What does feel forced though is the deuteragonist/rival using a dragon themed deck. Yeesz Yu-Gi-Oh we haven’t seen THAT before.

The Duel itself is mostly okay. Nice joke with Yuga using that yugioh protagonist power of awareness to explain some secrets of Tatsuhisa’s powers casually. It results helps keeping this series a bit grounded.  Props to the makers for having Yuga lose this fight. It gives him room for a journey as well.  He is not as overpowered as Playmaker was in the last part.  The loss felt fairly natural as well, though at the same time this rush duel felt kind of un-yu-gi-oh.  With at least 5 cards in his graveyard you would think he has an effect there to help him but no.. even the luck of the draw abandoned him. Great choice.. but with a simple combo like this it really felt off brand. The fact that Yuga used a drone to stream and promote his new game was nice and make him more unique as a protagonist. So even if it invalidated the duel..this series now begins to feel a bit “differently”

Still the lowest ranking of the shows I watched this episode was leagues better than his episode 1 counter part. I actually quite enjoyed this. Rating it Mexican Pink. The fishiness of the first episode is gone and the colour has deepend quite a bit. However it might be just a little bit foreign. I started to watch this show because I really like Yu-gi-Oh.. and I am not sure if this is that. They definatly spiced this up with some Jalepeno of cool but I have no real clue what I am going to get.. also that CEO.. looks way too weird.

Bofuri Episode 3

I really adore this little show, there is just so much cuteness in there.  This third episode however was my least liked so far.It’s adorable but has way to many little stories.  We get a brief glimpse of some characters that are in the intro arguing about if they should buy weapons with one of these twin girls going particularly murder hobo wanting to buy weapons above all. Obviously she will be Maple’s Hyper offensive counter part.  We see Maple and Sally shopping for new skills, learning about an event, taking up two dungeons/quests and going to two secret areas. It all feels a bit dense.

It does help create that cute sense of whimsy but in a way it feels like some of those five to ten minute anime where stringing two together is called an episode. I really wanted to see more of the scary area. Which was my favorite moment in the show, maybe one of my favorite moments in the series so far even. Sally quivering in fear with Maple being impressed by the colour of the ghosts. Because of Sally’s fear they have to hide in a house and a trap door is found, which leads to Sally learning a new skills and the quest resolving. This happens within a minute or four. After which a fireball teleports the pair to a beach where they find a ruby and splash water at each other.

World building falters for me a bit trough the fact that the girls can taste cake in virtualy reality.Given the concept of the show I can forgive it assuming the helmet can stimulate your brain so you can taste or feel pain…but also firing a fireball in a tree stump to get transported to a secret beach Sally nows off to get a useless item feels kinda odd. Sure that kind of stuff might be in some MMO’s but why not spend the extra time in that spooky wood! It could have been so much fun.

Maple is nerfed trough an update which makes the boss fight to reach level 2 where they can participate in the next event  a bit more interesting. The boss having special strats fits into the mmo concept and the battle does feel somewhat satisfying but the dungeon is glossed over again. In favor Sally transporting them to a restaurant in a starry sky where they can eat items that make their hair and eyes glow. It’s cute again.. but why insert 2 of these scenes in one episode it feels superfluous and give that we already had a scene with them eating cakes, and four self contained stories up to this point it kinda feels fragmented.

Time still flew by but I found this a bit lazy content wise. Instead of telling a full fledged story you tell a bunch of summaries of those seemingly not interesting enough for an entire episode. That is why I rate this episode China Pink. It works for me like many toys from china I once had. Yet there is something so streamlined to it that you can see the mass production of it all. It lacks the detail some of the finer products have.

Bofuri Episode 4

The fourth episode is MUCH MUCH better. We even get our first genuinely thrilling action scene and an amazing team fight. We also only get two main stories with a minor third one in the end which still is a logical follow up to what happened before. With some nice humor and the most adorable conclusion a girl like me could have wished for.. this is so far my second favorite episode after the first.

This episode resolvers around the first few days of the treasure hunt event , an ingame week long series where people can find medals but can also steal medals from other players.  Making Maple a target for ranking third in the first event. What begins a seeming pointles wander figureing out what to do.. I am pretty sure the writers at least have quite some MMo experience, all the things are in there and all the beats are hit.  Stumbeling upon a secret dungeon by accident the pair easily dispatches a jesterbos that was hyped up in the opening. Proving to me that the opening most likely is somewhat spoiler free and exaggerated retroactively making that same intro better.

We encounter some old familiars who interact with Maple in different ways, her broken build and her results have led her to gather some kind of fame.. which again.. makes sense since the game had to be balanced specifically for her. Most are friendly for not wanting to get into trouble but some might prey on her medal. A mysterious new dungeon pops up and Maple allows another group to go in first as a thank you for the help their leader gave at the beginning of the game. Within seconds the dungeons opens up again, saying it might be a reward collecting instance.. or a boss wiped them in mere seconds.

It turns out to be the later and we get a spectacular fight against an ice bird fight which really pushes Maple to play the best that she could. It is nice to see that there are bosses n this game that can give her a hard time. The teamwork between Sally and Maple really works well and feels very MMO like. Albeit much less balanced than the actual thing. The fight is thought and they barely make it out but they do getting rewarded with a hand full of models and two pet eggs that they subsequently try to hatch.

My favorite moment and my least favorite moment of this episode are interwoven with another in the conclusion of the episode. Maple and Sally are training their new pets. Maple gets a turtle which hilariously has a higher speed stat than hers and Sally gets a fox. When Maple names  turtle Syrup so they can be Maple Syrup together I like squeee by adorableness. The pair uses their pets like pokémon and they get an ability to be dispelled and resummoned, but there is something about the phrasing.. about them being “reborn” if it were that makes me think  next time we see them they might be bigger. I very much look forward to that. However about at the same time we see some evil bunnies talking about how they made that boss to be unbeatable.I am not sure why they talk so evilly but if they are the villians things might get a bit weird.

I’d rate this epiosde a solid pink. This episode pleased me on just about every level. I got my dose of world building, I got my dose of epicness and I sure as hell got some great action and some amazing cuteness and is just about everything one can look for in an episode of Bofuri.I

Hikaru no Go Episode 2

Hikaru doesn’t actually play go in this episode which makes this the most uneventful episode I saw this saturday.  Yet it taught me  a bit more about Go. Not a lot but something. Like how bigger “boxes” of one colour can make points of everything inside. There really is not that much to tell about this episode as basically nothing really happened. We  see him go to school and Akari is trying to get his attention. I am pretty sure Hikaru in real life would not really be chased by any girl though but I do like their thing they have going on. Akari seems like a nice character. Sai is introduced to the modern world which leads to some funny enough dialogue .. but nothing we haven’t seen before with a time displaced person.

Despite nothing actually happening I did find this episode a pleasant viewing experience. The slow pace of the episode came at a good time after that big fight in Bofuri and this felt wonderfully casual and mundane.  It doesn’t suddenly turn Go into something hype like Summer Wars did with Koi-Koi. It makes this series feel genuine and heartfelt so far. That being said the series does show a few plot coincidences  that feel rather forced. Like Akira being the son of the man who is closed to the Kami no Itte. The divine move Sai is after. Or the fact that a piece about him is on tv just at the moment Hikaru puts it on. I dislike when series do that.

I’d think there is no reason to connect them that way. Both Akira and Hikaru would want to play this champion for their own reasons so making it a family tie makes it feel.. easy.  Yet when Hikaru visits a youth tournament they actually do something a bit more creative with it. Rather than making Hikaru the instigator in their encounter they make the father Koyo someone interested in Hikaru instead. Yet there is something eating at me.. something the way the character is designed and framed that makes me thing he might not be as important as this episode leads me to believe he will. His introduction lacks gravitas, their first encounter was glanced over quickly so I feel he might just take a more mentorly role to Akira who may become a rival .. not persé in matches but in a race to master the Divine Move?

I am not sure. What I do know is that I am already analyzing this show which tells you I am at least invested. Since there basically really weren’t any moments no favorite or least favorite scene. I’d rate this episode Fandango Pink. While it seems nothing is going on I think the gears ot this series are just getting in motion. A complicated progress is starting up. Pieces are moved on a game board. It might seem boring and overly complex at first glance but if you look deeper you can see there is thought in these movements. Surely this will go somewhere and on it’s own the setup is kinda fascinating to see unfold in it’s nothingness.

Summary

Favorite Watch: BNA (Episode 2)
Favorite Moment: Syrup used bite! (Bofuri)

Least Favorite:  Yu-Gi-Oh Sevens (Episode 2)
Least Favorite Moment: Evil Programmer Bunnies (Bofuri)

Cereal: Crownfield Choco Rice
Bowls Consumed : One small one
Favorite Japanese Commercial: Totally Fabulous Sega Guy!

Pinkie’s “What If Raditz Turned Good” Chapter 1

It is no secret anymore that I am a huge Dragon Ball fan. I consume just about everything that is covered with those fish egg coloured wishing orbs. This includes the amazing Dragon Ball Z Abridged and the stories of that goku’s voice actor Masoko X. He made a great point telling us Goku’s brother Raditz was completely wasted in the show and wrote a story to keep him in the fold. It is an amazing story that has given me so much joy that I decided to give this scenario a retelling of my own.

The Power of Memories

The story of Dragon Ball Z would begin much like it would in the original. We would see the iconic farmer with the shotgun scene and Goku and Raditz first meeting at Kame house would also go exactly the same. Well… not exactly the same. There is one difference. In the recent Broly movie we see Raditz speaking about his little brother. While dismissive there is some sort of empathy there.. it’s not much.. a kindle at best but seeing the crying Gohan would briefly spark a memory in Raditz.. a memory of his crying brother with a power level of 2.

This memory on it’s own would not do much and Raditz doesn’t show this emotion towards the group but when he takes Gohan away and flies off into the distance he can be seen frowning. Remembering how his little brother was send off moments before his planet was  destroyed. He always had doubts about the meteor story since Bardock.. in the new cannon is shown to have his own doubts about Frieza. It is more than likely he would have shared these with his son. He can not prove it.. but he always felt there was more to this story. Seeing his race now live on in the form of this hybrids those doubts begin to gnaw at him once more. However since Frieza is such an insurmountable force, he quickly dismisses the thoughts as a figment of his imagination. Yet he is slightly less rough in the way he locks Gohan into his pod.

The Double Battle Against Raditz

Back at Kame House Goku and Piccolo unite to fight this high powered menace that has suddenly shown up. They would move forward towards his pods location and the fight would proceed as usual with Raditz dominating the fight. However everything would change when Gohan suddenly gets his rage boost.”Leave My Daddy alone” he would yell as his power skyrockets, headbutting Raditz and breaking his armor. In the original this would lead to Goku being able to grab his tail and Raditz into deceiving him.. this time the young boy has changed his mind.

“What was that” he asked cringing with his tale still held into a grapple”. Tricking Goku in the original by feigning compliance this time, this time Raditz actually calms down and grows cooperative. The power surge that just happend, could that perhaps solve his people’s bigger problems? Could this boy be the key to their freedom? Raditz never fully believed this story, in this timeline and we see actual proof in the main story. While Vegeta is shocked to learn the truth..he really deals with it within seconds.. as if somewhere he already knew. That alongside his hertigage makes me think such an action from Raditz has some merrit to it.

Lore and Legends

The older Saiyan would surrender to Goku, crushing his scouter before he begins to explain. That he and the other two and last remaining Saiyans work for a galactic tyrant named Frieza. While Piccolo is mistrusting of the man and wants to kill him he is stopped by Goku who takes interest in this tale. The idea of fighting someone that mighty.. that is stronger than anyone in this world facinates the man who’s motivations has always to be strong fighters. Raditz tells Piccolo that he could easily stop them with their power level.. if he wished. Saying his mistrust is foolish Namekian. We get some lore on the Saiyans and of the Namekians as well..but his story would mostly be about how terrible Frieza is how regardless of the outcome of this fight this man will eventually enslave everyone. Yet then he brings up.. a certain legend.

Raditz does believe that the Saiyans one day will take down Frieza, he spent a lot of time with Vegeta after all.. putting him in place as low class warrior. While initially Vegeta claims the legend of the Super Saiyan to be nothing but a legend, he is very familiar with i and connects it from basically nothing. Gohan displayed a surge of uncontrollable rage power right there. Having much more connection to the myth. As the son of Bardock.. a proud Saiyan who was very skilled at employing what is available to you and versed in Saiyan Lore.. Raditz should be able to connect the dots. This time he does. Explaining how the power of that young boy might be connected to Legendary Super Saiyan.

A plan for all Saiyans

Goku initially gets super excited about the idea of there being such strong fighters in the galaxy and how his son could be key to a new sort of power accesible to his “race” that he just discovered about. Piccolo snaps some sense into him telling Goku this man is asking Goku to put his son at a terrible risk. Goku gets scared and cries out “Chichi is gonna kill us”

Raditz frowns and asks “What is A Chichi, my scouter said you are the two highest power levels” Goku begins to explain and we see come cutaways how they met and got married. A small clipshow to make viewers aware there was a show before this. Raditz tells Goku he would blow anyone away who stands in the way of stopping Frieza. Goku simply says.. “no no.. we don’t do that around here… we might just need the Dragon Balls to convince her…. oh whoops”

Raditz learns about the Dragon Balls immediately recognizing their potential and has another request a wish that might be able to stop the Saiyans , who of course are still coming. His first plan is to show them Gohan’s potential.. or discover what technique he used to raise his power THAT much. iF they are not able to get strong enough these wishing orbs could proof that Frieza is behind the destruction of Planet Vegeta.. which could most likely convince Vegeta to fight against the tyrant. Who is about 10 times stronger than him. The Tyrant Frieza surpasses that guy by at least 50 times.

Convincing Chichi

Goku and his brother now have to convince Chichi to let Gohan train with them which goes about as well as expected. “What about his studies? Our boy should be a doctor, under no circumstances Gohan can go.. you are not putting our boy in danger”  While Goku gets all nervous at Chichi’s behaviour Raditz is much less intimidated. He is used to verbal abuse and people talking trash. He’ll have non of it.

He begins with telling her how Saiyans raise their kids.. explaining she can’t suppress his nature. She defends with how training is not something for a young boy to do. Raditz counters “My Brother just told me he met you while training, if you or he had not been fighters Gohan would not even haf existed’. This reminds Chichi of her “warrior” days and weakens her resolve.

Raditz tells about all the terrible things he has done in Frieza’s name.. not sparing any details. She can not let that happen to her Gohan. Raditz embalishes a bit.. saying that someone with as much potential as Gohan will never be save from a man like that.. if he doesn’t train this planet will most likely be destroyed. In truth .. he only suspects this to be remotely true but anything to further his cause. He also reluctantly tells her that the prince of their entire race would owe Gohan, giving it just enough prestige to make it more appealing to Chichi.

“He can train but only if you let him do his homework, he needs a proper job when he grows up’. “I bet Prince Vegeta will reward you so handsomely for your help you, your son or his son’s son would not have to worry about money ever again. Raditz smirks as he just screwed Vegeta over with such a propmiss. Somewhat reluctantly..but this time permanently Chichi accepts her sons heritage and grand future. While I get the over protective mother sentiment, the whole world of Dragon Ball resolves around fighting and she was raised into it to an extent. So it should be way easier to convince Chichi than Goku made it.. especially this early on. Raditz numerical approach would help greatly.

Training and new Techniques

Meanwhile Piccolo takes it upon himself to train up the other Z-Fighters In true Toriyama style they get relegated to the background , quite a bit faster this time though training under Piccolo will give them quite a level boost when it comes before the epic showdown. Piccolo would also get a lot stronger from his training with stronger fighters than Gohan. Yet it would also mean that Piccolo hasn’t fully abandoned his plan to kill Goku with the Special Beam Cannon yet.. if this Frieza is emperor of the galaxy and they could get strong enough to defeat him.. by killing the people who killed him he might be able to rule the galaxy himself. ..A thought reminiscent of his father.. that he now can not shake as well as before. Turning him into a rather merciless trainer.. only improving the Z-Fighters gains further.

Training at Kami like normally first Gohan keeps being very afraid of Raditz hindering their training when Kami has an idea. Using the same sort technique he once used on the Z-Fighters in a filler episode to let them fight against Saiyans of the past he uses this same strategy on Gohan, Goku and Raditz. Hoping that seeing the seriousness  of all will make Gohan get over his fear. Much like in the original the group the scenario is basically an unwinnable one. Unlike in the original this illusion is made   more in the vain of the Kobayashi Maru scenario from Star Trek where a captain has to  learn how to cope with that fear of certain defeat.

However this goes not as Kami and the others would have expected. While Raditz gets taken out first he does manage to seriously damage the fake historic saiyans. Gohan paralyzed with fear sees his father taken down while trying to protect Gohan he manages to take down Scarface . Shorty then cruelly  guns down a weakened Goku with a beam technique. This causes Gohan to snap again.. his power rising to new levels taking out the second saiyan. Breaking out the illusion Kami walks in surprised that they actually won. Raditz inquires about Gohan’s power boost  againg. Praticing Kii sense himself. Kami is unsure what Gohan’s rage boost is as well.. but as Raditz describes it as Gohan’s power level multiplying many times over the old Namekian says  he might know of a power like that.

Raditz scolds at the man for being so mysterious and that he should speak up. Kami ensures him that learning it would be quite impossible as they would have to travel to King Yemma and beyond which is normally only accesible if you are dead. “Goku blurts out that if Babba can cross people over from the dead to the world of the living the other way might be possible as well, they could ask this King Yemma to be there longer train. Kami sighs and says ‘Very well.. I shall tell you.. it is a technique called the Kaio-Ken’

And this is where  our story ends for now. A young boy with mysterious powers, recruits an ally stronger than ever before..but also might spell doom for the entire planet. Will Goku and his family be allowed to train in the after life? Will Raditz be able to convince the evil saiyans? What will become of Piccolo? FInd out the next time on :

Dragon Ball Pinkie!

Top 5: Dark Type Pokémon

Konichiwa Mina! It’s time for another top 5! So many more pokémon list to make, so many more pokémon to gush about! Recently I started listing my favorite 5 pokémon of all types. I started with the normal type and now it’s time for the second list. As Suggested by ThatRandomEditor.. this is my top 5 Dark types.

Rules and Honorable Mentions

The rules are the same as last time, I can only count one entry per evolution line and the entire line factors in. For example I really like Impidimp the newest Dark and Fairy type introduced into Gen VIII. However I REALLY dislike it’s evolution Mogrem and feel generally somewhat bitterly neutral towards its final evolution Grimmsnarl.  Since we can’t manually stop evolution in this game and lose the utility of an item on it when leveling which it would need because I want to keep it tiny. Therefore it doesn’t qualify in my top 5, when purely design wise it should. It’s about the journey and the feeling in this list.

Because of that rule what also applies is that I need to feel this pokémon actual fits their typings. I really like Absol , however I feel like it should not be a dark type but a normal type that people think is a dark type because it can predict disasters. Even in it’s lore it’s stated people think it’s evil (the dark type is called evil type in japan) but that is a misunderstanding. Therefore in my opinion, it’s typing is a mislabeling as well and thusly it does not qualify for a spot on the list. Yet a pokémon as amazingly designed as this should at least get an honourable mention. I really love it..but in my headcanon it’s a normal type. 

Dark Type Number 5: Krookodile

Aside from it’s hideous shiny , purely because of eye design,  Krookodile or Krook as I lovingly call it is an amazing dark type in every way. It is canonically bad natured, it is scary , it has some solid stats and a nice dual typing, it comes with great abilities and I simply love the design. Krookodile is a pokémon that is fairly fast when compared to other ground types and it is able to spot its prey up to 30 miles away using it’s extremely sharp eyesight. It will use it’s fangs to clamp it’s prey than twists his jaws around to rip his prey in half. A very crocodile thing to do. It’s jaws can crush cars according to the pokédex so it’s no wonder that it gets the ability intimidate.

I used a Krookodile named Hippo (because it was hungry hungry) during my Pokémon Black playthrough.. and I was so happy with it that when I played Pokémon Black 2 I also went with a Krookodile which I named Kaminom.. after Kamina from Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann, but with more eating flavor. Ash had one in the anime as well so it’s always nice it’s personality is showcased a bit. I also used to run a Krookodile EX card in my pokémon TCG Night Marsh/Dark Deck which made me warm up to it even more. 

 While Krookodile as a competitive Pokémon stat-wise completely gets surpassed by Tyranitar it has the better abilities in Intimidate and Moxie. Because it is defensively lackluster the hidden ability Anger Point I feel is a bit wasted on it, but hey that means I can use a decent one without having to breed for the best version, that is a win in my book. One set up as a Choice Scarfed Sweeper, with Earthquake Moxie and Crush.. this pokemon becomes about as scary as a dark type really can. With earthquake it can become a bit of a double edged sword in double battles, but with a good team to back it up and a great move pool this is one pokemon one never should underestimate. 

Dark Type Number 4: Guzzlord

While I like Darkrai more as a legendary , it always felt as if that one should have been a ghost type. It works trough sleep and nightmares and I’d associate that with ghosts. Now Guzzlord is an all consuming Eldritch Abomination that consumes everything.  It’s  body is rather indescribable and it’s cry.. especially in the anime feels really otherworldly. Eldritch Abominations really should be dark types. Which is why it’s probably my favorite Ultra Beast next to Poipole. (That last one is pink though so there is no contest)  It just hits that brief of what the Ultra Beasts were meant to be so well.  An all consuming force that just will devour whatever it’s in its path. Able to consume entire buildings and mountains (allegedly) it does credit to its name.

Competitively Guzzlord is nothing to really write home about. It’s Dark and Dragon typing along with it’s poor defences leave it wide open for to be destroyed by the fairy type, which will can hit it 4x effectively.  With fairies being very active in the competitive scene Guzzy isn’t your smartest pick. However it has potential for a great physical tank. With moves like Stockpile, Heavy Slam and Stockpile Normalium Z in it’s generation  or an Assault vest in current rules it is something that is quite bulky due to it’s insanely high health base stat. So if you are a rookie battler and want to learn pokémon movesets a bit, it’s a pretty good scout switch in to learn the ropes. 

In D&D we have something called the alignment chart.  A character can be Lawful, Neutral/True or Chaotic in mindset and Good, Neutral or Evil in heart.  One of the scariest evils to encounter is that of True Evil. A chaotic evil character just likes to see the world burn and enjoys seeing people suffer, lawful evil are your typical megalomaniacs who belief they can improve the world my reshaping it in their image. Thanos is a good example of that or Lex Luther.  However the scariest evil to me has always been Neutral/True Evil.. these characters are evil just because they exist. Their entire existence is evil and I feel Guzzlord falls under that category.. therefore he becomes de facto one of the best dark types.

Dark Type Number 3: Zoroark 

One of the few dark types that actually have a nice Shiny, this Illusion pokemon takes the third spot on my list. Like the other two designwise you can immediately tell it’s a dark type. However Zoroark is much more a dark type than it is an evil type. It’s really a family guy or gal who lives to protect it’s pack. With the adorable Zorua as it’s pre-evolution it is no wonder why.. you’d obviously want to keep  that precious thing safe. It’s darkness stems from it’s abilities to use illusions.

Unlike the psychic type these do not play out in people’s minds but manifest “physically’  allowing hundreds of people to believe in this Illusion. It protects it pack.. although quite dramatically. When it senses humans coming it can conjure strong illusions to make them wonder the forrests aimlessly. We do not know what becomes of these humans.. but we do know how Phantump are born.. they are children that get lost in the woods and starve to death.. since most pokémon trainers are children I am sure there is a link there.

Pokémon battling is all about momentum, and while not the best in any stat, Zoroark’s ability illusion allows its owner to gain momentum like crazy.  When you send it out in battle it will always look like the last conscious pokémon in your party. Taking on its nickname and even potential shininess. If you like to run poison types like me , it is very easy to bait out a psychic attack on your beloved poison attack.. but it doesn’t affect anything .. because Zoroark is a dark type. While most poison types are slow.. Zoroark is very fast. 

Having great special attack as well and access to fire moves it hard counters one of it direct weaknesses, and soft counters the other (while fire is not super effective on fighting..the burn condition halves physical attack making attacks do neutral damage in the end). If you use Zoroark effectively it’s easy to lure the opponent in making a bad play and you can seize control of the battlefield, and anything that messes with the mind of my opponents is darn sure to be a favorite of mine.

Dark Type Number 2: Malamar

While not my favorite on my list Malamar might be THE most deserving of the evil type. While Guzzlord is True Evil and just evil for existing, Malamar is Lawful evil, manipulating people into doing their bidding. Malamar is a pokémon who is stated to virtually always have evil intentions, they are so evil that they manipulate humanity to their own gain.. historic events in the pokémon world ..

Like the Kalos Pokémon war,  might be because of their influence. They seek to make humans eradicate themselves and enslave them.Now I must say that not all Malamar are that evil.. some just hypnotize you to give them a hug after which they wrap you into their tentacles and finish you off with digestive fluids.

Design-wise it also looks super evil, this is pokémon looks like a Disney Villain or I could even see it as some Isekai beast world villain. You can just see how nefarious it is. It will not play by the rules. It’s fins are said to be razor sharp and by staring either into its eyes or it’s body you can be hypnotized to either become a slave.. a tool to further their plan to get rid of humans.. or willingly walk into an acidic shower. The dark and psychic typing give it that flair and feel of a menacing villain as well. To evolve it’s predecessor Inkay, you have to level it up to level 30 and then flip your 3ds upside down enforcing that feeling that this thing does not play by the normal rules.

This is further enforced by Malamar having the ability Contrary which makes sure that whenever it would get stat downgrades it gets upgrades as well.. not only can you  not lower it’s stats because that would mean you raise them.. it also has access to the fighting move.. Super Power, which normally lowers physical attack and defence but in case of Malamar raises it.. and since it IS a physical attacker it can dish out massive damage.. while getting stronger by it in the process.  Now overall Malamar’s stats aren’t great but this is compensated by the fact that it only has 2 weaknesses. It is 2x weak to fairy and 4x weak to bug.

While that last one might seem like a problem, aside from U-turn people rarely run bug type moves.  U-turn has a low base attack power and usually is quite easy to predict. Malamar also is the only pokémon that possess the ability Topsy Turvy a move that inverts stat upgrades to stat downgrades. So it blocks off pokémon from setting up Sword Dances to get over its own raised defence. In fact.. just by bringing it to a match you can probably prevent your opponent from using stat boosting sets. A great mind game pokémon yet again!

Dark Type Number 1 : Umbreon

My number 1 dark type is also the actual number 1 dark type as in it’s the pokémon that can be considered the first dark type ever encountered. While Gen II also introduced us to Sneasel and Murkrow Umbreon is the lowest national dex number pokémon that was a dark type upon its release. This pokémon is simply stunning in every single way… well except for it’s japanese name being Blacky.. that feels a bit off. It by far is the best dark type shiny and a contender and probable winner for me for best shiny ever.  It’s just gorgeous.

While it has fairly mellow lore compared to other dark types, Umbreon still hits the flavor for both evil and dark types all the same. Trough actual darkness it’s rings can glow up which have the ability to instill fear into others. Yet it can also bland in the darkness completely to sneak up it’s prey from behind just to stealthily rip open its throat to do and enjoy it’s meal afterwards.  When backed into a corner Umbreon can secret poisonous sweat which it then tosses into its opponents eyes to play dirty. All cheat like moves in pokémon count as dark type attacks so it just works. Add the cute but mysterious design and we got a winner.

I so enjoy using Umbreon in PvP combat. It’s role as a toxic staller is something it does so well. Umbreon is a non offensive pokémon that should be run with moves like. Toxic, Mean Look (to lock a target into the field) Moonlight, which heals it and Protect.. to take a hit. Mean Look you can replace with other moves like Heal Bell to cure status, confuse ray  to make hits unreliable.. or if you feel trolley even sand attack. 

While Umbreons poison slowly wittle their target down they HAVE to deal more than 50% damage to it each time if they do not want to be whittled down, if you have no counter against it all you can do is despair and pray for a critical hit. The heal bell set even prevents your from counter toxic stalling it yourself, high jump kick becomes risky because of it’s protect..and it’s amazing defensive stats leave your opponent with very little options in general. For all those who can not breach it defences.. things are looking very dark.

What is your favorite Dark Type?
What Type would you like to see me tackle next?

With 16 types left to cover there still are 90 Pokemon to love!
Untill then you can check out the others in the series here:

Normal Types

Thank you for reading! Keep Smiling

XO
Pinkie

Pinku Pinku Updato: A Blog Update

Konichiwa Mina, it is time for a little update concerning your favorite Pink Geek Blogger who resides on a virtual island that is not build on a Nintendo Switch. This specific descriptor would most likely also be true if I used least favorite Pink geek Blogger (and so on) but let’s focus on the positives here! Today I will tell you a bit about what is to come for Paradise and update you on all things me.

One Year Anniversary Overhaul

On the 16th of June this blog will celebrate it’s first birthday and it will lead into a bit of a visual overhaul for the website! We will start using our new custom-made avatar that has been made to order by the lovely Banabel Split. Also I will most likely go for a slightly overhauled colour scheme. Reason for this is that I am currently fighting a lot with the WordPress Editor. I currently use a sunset colour scheme, pink purples and warm yellows  for my paragraph and subparagraph titles, but the current WordPress Editor  make that difficult. I am not one to paste hex codes (mostly because I constantly forget where I save them or finding the file is such a hassle)  so I slide this with feeling. However in the current block editor I can not slide.. Nani! Mendokusē!

The paragraph titles will continue to be a thing though. When I was a little Pinkie, my favorite game magazine used these and I fell in love with it as it’s charm. I would look at those titles first and wonder what the magic was to come. Their cheeky writing and those tongue in cheek references made with a good title inspired me and every form of “magazine” style writing I did kept this in as an homage in what got me interested to it in the first place. I might make picture asses for them next but I haven’t figured it out yet completely! Obviously the banner art will change as well as those feature the chibi and we are moving on to the new avatar.

The Content cocktails will most likely remain but undergo slight differences. I will most likely make them different colours and add some pink elements to it rather than  different glass types. A few of them are a lot harder to edit than others  and at times I find it hard to tell the differences. Pink however will keep a important role in the  blog no matter what route we follow otherwise. Pinkie will stay pink!

Love to my Supporters

Now it’s been a while since I started adding in Ko-Fi support and I have received a fair number of donations to date, some rather sizeable even. In the nearby future I want to create a tribute to those who support me. Either by featuring them in some sort of post or making an image on the website dedicated to thanking them.  For some reason I don’t always get to respond to a donation. Sometimes I am not able to post a reaction to it. This makes me feel bad for I am always grateful. So rather than writing a thank you note simply saying thank you every time.. I want to craft you something to show you my appreciation. A tribute image, your pick of a topic for a blog anything really.

My health is not always stable with a fair form of urgency at some time, which basically makes me forget everything else I was doing. So if I am doing my social duties and my heart skips a beat, literally I need to lie down and this can easily take away from my social requirements. Twitter, Ko-Fi and other places. My love for what you do for is worth more than just a thank ,  it’s something more eternal.. so I feel  an empty reply of gratitude even when sincere.. even more so considering how easily my focus can be lost,  is a much better way to show my gratitude. But I will come up with a few “bonuses” as well. This will probably also be implemented around the anniversary.

Content updates

For those who have been following me for a while know I have been trying out a few different types of content and this will remain. However I will bring changes to some of them.

-A BIT of History will be replaced with a BIT of Nostalgia, in which I discover a wider variety of games of my past.  While I love doing the weird content hard locking myself into games set into a certain timepiece increasing in time feels arduous, like I have to play a game.  In the end I need to blog for myself rather than for content sake, so I want to play what I want to play and the rebranded format will allow me to to this way better.

-Pinkie’s Who Would Win will  continue however my next announced match Batman versus Kyouko Kirigiri in a game of clue will be postponed. I find myself in a narrative end with that one and rather then forcing it I decide to let the ideas come up more spontaneous.. or by readers and supports of course.  So now the next post will be a surprise.

-Pinkie gets Anime Powers will also continue to go on. The next one is almost done cooking in my head and will discuss Soul Eater. 

– Pinkie is looking for a Waifu will be dropped. For now I am not in the right mindset to find a Waifu nor for Yuri romance shows.  The ones I do want to watch are fairly long and will most likely be included in my Saturday Morning Anime Adventure, or potentially in me duplicating that adventure on Sundays!

– Precure Pinkie will be cancelled for now as well.  While I do like the show in essence it’s to generic for me to binge it. It will most likely be part of my Sunday Morning Lineup with one episode a week.

Other than that I will experiment with blog post I have fun writing with, I had a bit of blog depression recently and was measuring likes again. Each post that stuck below my normal average of likes must be bad…. so I should not do it?!  People do not care.. stuff  has been messing with my mind. I decided to let that go. I write when I want to write and what I want to write about, if such a post will get a lower like rating I am sure it will cry but I will talk to it and honestly say that I loved making it and that it’s  about the love that got put into it is what matters, That will cheer up both the post and myself I would think!

Life Updates

As a NEET I am not particularly badly struck with the Corona outbreak but it has messed with my head a bit.  In a way it hyper inflated the importance of like on this blog for me, after all this one of the few forms of social interaction available to me .. if people start liking it less that really hurt. This triggered a bit of an awkward spiral where visiting other people’s blog has become a bit harder as well, because my mind tricked me into feeling people hate me and just like to be polite but hope I would go away. To a point where I dreamed people booing me… some of you have WEIRD depictions in my dreams.

I am beginning to notice I am able to manage some more consistency on my blog. I am having the energy again to blog several days in a row, I have more fun in writing now that I just write for fun again instead of for stats. In a way I accepted I am not the greatest writer out there and that I most likely will never be.  I am just a hobby writer who has fun in what she does, that became good enough for me. I got intimidated by the intellectual pieces by some of you out there. How Girl’s last Tour is like epic stage plays, how there are deep allegories of this and that in that show.

I am more like a “I got so excited i nearly peed myself’ kinda depth. That felt trivial.. like I paint by numbers but the others paint their own Da Vinci like masterpieces from their hand. Yet I realized, sometimes  people prefer McDonalds over a Three Star Meal, so while I might be the less coveted blog I am still here. I might be junk food, but that can be good as well! I want some junkfood now! And it’s like 10 AM when I am writing this!

Healthwise I have been so and so, due to a damaged lung I have a lot of trouble when temperatures bounce up and down a lot between day and night and between days. If on Monday it’s ten degrees colder than it was the previous day at the same time, I am basically broken.  My heart has been remarkable kind to me lately with only some very minor incidents.. so yay Ticker.  In general my muscles have been a bit tenser laterly causing me some mild discomfort throughout the day but all in all I am doing rather soundly healthwise. Even though I am sick a lot!

Unfortunately the same can not be said about my grandpa, who has been diagnosed with Corona this past week. Due to his phase 4 dementia it oftenly is hard to gage how well he is actually doing.  This is causing some family stress , so should I vanish for a couple of days on end, it’s most likely because something happened there and my headspace is not right. 

Other Updates

My tabletops have been come to a bit of a halt during the crisis. Since I live in a tiny apartment, I can’t maintain distance from my party and I do want to keep the rules enforced. Since some of my friends dislike rp’ing online I was forced to put my main D&D campaign on hold but we continue with some filler content set in the same world with some of those who do not mind this so much, Side Stories of their guild as it were. 

My Pokémon RP however is on a hiatus because their character sheets are custom made and are very tricky to host online due to how much tabs and stat pages I need to have opened.

My homebrew fully online campaign is still going strong.  Currently the group found out that their Live Stream has been duplicated by some people posing to be them.. but offering more rewards for watching. To safe their income.. and a friend who got in trouble because of this the group now must learn each others fighting styles, and secrets about each other so that even if they know they get tricked they can tell each other apart. It will be a fun little series of event leading them through a hotel filled with tricks and hellish creatures not taking kindly to their new guests.

I’ve been picking up some retro games lately, while I still thoroughly enjoy my time with Animal Crossing, my island is almost “done”  there isn’t a whole lot left to build and since I don’t like grinding I made my Island rather convenient for a quick pass by! I am currently playing Super Mario 2 for NES and will play Ducktales after that, after which I will probably  either go for Mega Man 2  or Ninja Gaiden.  It will not be easy but I am sure I can do it!

Meanwhile I am still playing Pokémon Reborn, currently making my way to the fourth gym with 23 level 45 shines to attempt the gym with. This still proves to be somewhat of a challenge to me mostly because I am too cheap to buy potions!  My next shiny hunt will most likely be after my online tabletop tomorrow. That is if I can get the epic boss fight today!

My quest to find a new apartment has not been very fruitful.. it almost seems as if people are staying in these days not moving!  Next week some enqueteer will come to my door to ask questions about what I think of this place. Not looking forward to that. Our walls are not very soundproof , so neither are my neighbors an my main gripes is with one of them. That shall not end well if I say it though.. so I am not sure on how to approach that situation yet.  Perhaps I can convince them that I have to get better at Ninja Gaiden to make a fun blog about it and I will mail them my answers..like a ninja anonymously!

Update done,
Have a a good one!

XO
Pinkie

A BIT of History Part 4 : Altered Beast (Sega Genesis)

My TALDIG had some issues working for a while but I had it fix. Now that we are  ready to travel back to the past that shows us the past again, I find myself asking, is this to weird?  Perhaps we should make these things a bit more straightforward? 

Change

Altered Beast is a well known classic for the Sega Genesis/Mega Drive. It started out as an arcade title in 1988 but was ported to Sega console the same year at least in Japan. The game then appeared as a launch title for the system for Europe and America and got numerous arcade releases bundle releases and was a part of the Sega Genesis Mini.
In this game you play a nameless fighter who gets resurrected by Zeus back in the days of ancient Greece (which roughly puts it at around 1200-900 BC) were you have to rescue his daughter Athena from the evil god of the Underworld Ha… I mean Neff. I distinctly remember that being somebody else though.

Altered Beast is all about changing, it’s a beat them up, the changes up the formula quite a bit. The length of the stage depends on how long it takes for you to gather three orbs that change you to more powerful forms and the final boss can only happen when you acquire beast mode. If you encounter Neff before this happens, the stage .. kind of loops on you.
You take the role of “Fighter” .. a guy in a pinkish Toga so clearly I was excited to play this one, but it left me wondering. Should I change as well?

I feel that the ‘A BIT of History’ concept might be a bit too weird to focus on. The history lessons taken from these games might be a bit too flimsy to focus on and best be relegated to a paragraph should I find such a game. So I am thinking of changing this series into “A BIT of Nostalgia’  in which  I revisit famous classic games or games that are very dear to me.
It offers me a bigger spectrum of games to play and allow me to play the games I would actually want to play, rather than have the time setting dictate which ones I should play. It took me a fair bit to get me to play this one because I wasn’t in a beat them up mood. Yet it was one of the most iconic ancient greece games. So expect some changes to this format soon. Now back to the review, because unlike the era of the ancient greeks, this game has not aged well.

Jojo’s Bizarre Adventures

This game features Fighter in Pink.. our hero that we all know and love! Back from the dead he has to stop the evil god of the underworld Neff and not Hadas..who turned Athena into a blue bird, which anime taught me mean she is a lesbian now. Throughout five stages you have to fight classic greek enemies such as cyclops (plural) and …. well there are Satyrs…sort of they have goat heads as well but I guess they are there? Though they are called Gory Goats here… then there are zombies, demons ant wasps and evil chickens with poisonous stingers. So clearly the greek setting is used very well. I can only assume all these creatures died out because Fighter in Pink really disliked them and punched them all to death.


The most important enemy in this game is the three headed wolf though, which came in two colours. The useless brown variant and the all mighty blue variant. Both will make the sound of a paper crumpling when you kick them and die right away, but by killing blue three headed wolves the ancient greeks could call upon the power of an orb, that turned them from buff philosophers into half naked Jojo characters.

Killing another  one then turns them into the old Dragon Ball Broly, and after killing a third blue three headed wolf the ancient greeks could turn into beastmen. The buffing up and the whole Neff  standing menacing before you, checking out if you are worth his time has a pretty big Jojo feel, this could be a new take on that series and since it’s set in ancient history I decided to name this Fighter in Pink. Jorges Jorda is a farmer who died from being attacked by animals.. now zeus resurrects him and by gathering the power of death…he can channel what caused his death.

The game does feel like a bizarre string of adventures with stages strung together like the graveyard, the swamp, the cave, the Greek building and the underworld/city of the dead. Wait.. if the hero died wouldn’t he already be in the underworld? Would that not be better to start? Now he gets resurrected and has to travel back to the underworld again. One could argue that Jorges would have to find his power orbs but Neff steals them at the end of each stage, assumingly needed to make him reach his final form or something.  Hmm.. clearly not all the ancient Greeks were philosophers. Zeus clearly wasn’t the smartest god either, then again that seems to be a bit of a theme with Zeus in games or movies, he tends to get blindsided a lot. So you heard it here first guys! Zeus can be outsmarted by uncle Fester from the Addams family.. because I am pretty sure that is who Neff is.

Too much bits

The Mega Drive was the first sixteen bit console, with amazing stuff like blast processing and an iconic sound chip.  Unfortunately it clearly shows that this game was not designed for this console and people were still a bit unfamiliar with the power of this machine. The enemies don’t look very clean. The three headed wolves look more like misshapen bulls to me and for a few other enemies I also had to struggle to look what they are. Now of course this in part is due to the home consoles being less powerful than arcade cabinets, but if we look at Turtles in Time, which although appearing later did it much better. Stages were changed up , difficulty was slightly adapted and  visuals and vocals were changed.  This games suffers from this being NOT the case in this port. In fact I like the Master System port more because it feels more distinct.

With the speech of Neff  included he welcomes players to their doom before the start of each boss fight, and doom you will face , over and over and over and over again. This is a problem with a lot of Beat Them Up ports. Most of these games were designed to be unrelenting so they can guzzle up as much of your quarters as much as possible. Basically in the arcade you have infinite lives as long as you have quarters. Good Beat them up ports thusly either give you infinite lives… as the price of a full priced game should get you infinite quarters or at least a series of lives and a handful of continues. Altered Beast on Genesis asks you to beat the entire game on three lives which basically equals three quarters. If even that!

There are NO healing items in this game so all damage is permanent. You get three “hearts”/blocks of life that can all take 1 to 3 hits depending on the enemies strength. Given that a random chicken enemy (who crossed over from Golden Axe) can take a complete life block away due to you having virtually no invincibility frames after being it.. this game is relentlessly hard.

Luckily by holding A (or 1)  plus start in the main menu you can at least continue on the stage you died on. Yet still finishing a stage is a rather herculean feat. Yet like most arcade games this doesn’t really come down to your gaming skills,but more to pattern recognition. If you know where the blue wolves will show up and you can manage to hit them quick and fast and gather your orbs fast enough these stages are fairly doable. Mostly because the bosses once you get their pattern down are actually quite easy. Except for the second boss.. whose tell of damage is so deceptive it took me five times to figure out that I wasn’t exactly damaging it when it flashes red when I hit it.. I needed to hit different hitboxes, which do not flash at all!?It’s things like this that show this game came out so early in the console’s life span, that actually influence how enjoyable the gameplay is.

Sega Does

I really wish I could be more positive about this game, but unfortunately there was very little that I liked about this game. That doesn’t make it is a bad game, just that I review if negatively, if you enjoy this all the power to you! I hope and know people do like this game, which is great, everything deserves love. I did like the variety in bosses and how you have to actually use your beasts powers and some strategy to take them down. I especially like the fourth stage boss, which is like a baby dragon with a huge lava ball. It releases some firebird minions as well as big strings of fire balls and avoiding both felt like a good challenge.

The third boss and the final boss however are total pushovers I beat them first try both without taking a hit just by using cheap tactics.  The third boss is a sort of dragonhead stuck on a helix fossil with some gooey egg sack material attached to it.. and it shoots purple balls and blobs. By using the Bear’s  (that stages animal)  spin jump while on it’s body you can defeat it without any trouble.  The third stage itself though has some awkward platform jumps which can be very irritating to get trough.

In the fifth stage we see Neff finally taking his true form, that of a white Rhino. Yet in the Master System it is Cyan and in the Arcade it is pink. It always grinds my gears when pink things are such pushovers. It isn’t much harder than Rocksteady from the first TMNT game on NES. You can easily jump over it and spam damage until it dies. No skill required. However everything else on that stage deals soooo much damage, especially the dark unicorns, so getting there.. is a long arduous process of learning where things spawn and when to punch it to death.

If you miss a blue wolf on your first roulation I found it rather impossible to stay alive long enough to reach the boss. The music is the same in about every stage with fairly little sound effects other as coming from the player so I am glad the fifth stage was the final one.  We see Athena standing next to some beastmen.. in the final cutscene and then we are done.
In the fifth stage we turn into the wolf again, we turned into the first stage as well..but this time he is golden. So I guess it’s a super Wolf?!

Also why go for choices like the Dragon and the Tiger? I get the wolf and the bear as those might be found in ancient greece but why not make one where you turn into a Bull/Minotaur and one in a horseman/centaur. So much potential here goes away with bad flavoring. I barely learned anything about ancient greece because.. nothing is done with the setting at all. The cutest thing is that they have  the chicken enemy from Golden Axe as a homage.

There was so much more they could do with this formula, even for an arcade cabinet. It’s not like the greek mythos is lacking in mystical creatures or cool enemies to fight. Yet according to this game it does, which by the logic of A BIT of History .. now means that I learned that ancient greek had plenty bland video game type enemies.. which in truth I never knew!

While I have no doubt that this game was amazing in 1988 and even in 1990 this game has been surpassed left and right by just about every other beat them up out there. Turtles 2 the arcade game, Turtles in Time, Streets of Rage, Final Fight and Towers of Mystara just to name a few. Nintendo in particular has time and time again shown that this does not need to happen to games. Sega more or less in their original IP’s as well. Yet even when we consider this one in the arcade , the better version it has been surpassed by just about everything. Sure the classic mario has been improved upon but you can still enjoy the original game, this just made me want to play Turtles in Time instead. I guess Sega really does what Nintendon’t . Because Nintendon’t age this poorly.

This cocktail has been sitting here for a while.. and it has fermented which leaves a Pine-Meh-Pple taste in your mouth if you can not add enough nostalgia sugar

All other posts in this series

Part 0: What is Pinkie Doing now

Part 1: E.V.O. The Search for Eden

Part 2: Flintstones Treasure of Sierra Madrock

Part 3: Joe and Mac Caveman Ninja’s

To be REBRANDED

Pinkie’s Guilty Movie “Pleasures”: Dragonball Evolution

What do you get when you combine Power Rangers, Avatar the Last Airbender, Karate Kid and a whole lot of “teenage” hormones? Well Dragon Ball of course! Not just any regular Dragon Ball either but.. their EVOLUTION!

Dragonball

Sometimes movies can be so bad they are good. This is not exactly one of THOSE movies.  This movie does something else, this movie is so aggressively unfaithful to its source material, this movie is such a trainwreck that it is just fascinating to watch. It’s like an enigma. How could things have gotten so wrong? It’s so bad they even spell Dragon Ball wrong. That’s two different words! Not one… even though spelling it as one word does make a lot more sense. It still is not correct. So when you are already misspelling the title you know you are in for a treat.

Within the first five minutes, which include still images like opening titles and production studio logos there are six major inconsistencies to mythos. Ozaaru is a demon, Piccolo’s backstory is different, using Ki is called airbending, Goku is seventeen, Goku has trouble with learning Ki… uhm I mean air bending the Mafubaa is now something completely unrelated to everything else.  Luckily this is Dragonball and not Dragon Ball.. so that is okay… right? 

Next we see Goku as your typical teen, that feels more akin to Sam Rami’s  take on Peter Parker than the character we know and love. Now obviously this movie can’t  be cast with a six year old kid or something as it would simply not work out. During the Piccolo arc, which obviously is not the first in the anime, thus timewise this makes no sense either,  Goku was a bit older… but sure I can forgive this choice from a logistical perspective.  Filming this with a child actor would be tedious and would not work nearly as well as it could in animated form. I wonder if Justin Chatwin was the right pick for an 18 year old boy because clearly he is much older…fine.  The whole whitewashing Goku thing is nonsensical because he is an alien, he could be about any ethnicity.. of course in this movie he is just hell spawn.. so I guess a white straight cisgender privileged male makes about as much sense as anything else in this movie.

Dawsons Creek

After our first fight which involves grandpa Gohan swallowing a fly to a cartoon sound effect we move onto Goku’s  highschool live. The girl he likes is with this Chad guy played by an actor named Texas Battle.. now that is a Badass name and sounds like an assistant to All Might. Yet no.. in this movie he is a guy who randomly picks on Goku because…looking like Justin Chatwin makes you a wimp? It is never explained.  Now in class we get an exposition scene about an eclipse happening in two weeks and in the most pedantic the teacher tries to teach the school what an eclipse is as the movie tries to force us backstory down the troat by having a half asleep Goku claims that his grandpa believes  it is the sign that the Nameks will use to destroy the world.

Now I know this movie is not Dragon Ball.. its Dragonball but in the original source material Piccolo Junior (the Piccolo we know in the series) and Kami do not find out they are aliens until Dragon Ball Z, which allows for a whole lot of mysticism. Now this might not seem to bad but this leads to a chain reaction. Since Oozaru , a demon spawned from the earth  serves Piccolo they already do not feel connected in this story.. why would demons and aliens work together. Is it because old Piccolo’s nickname is Demon King Piccolo?! That was a title he chose because he did not know who he was! Why make him King of Demon’s while he is an alien.. those two do not connect well.  It also kiled the concept of Super Saiyan from the get go… even before they knew this movie would not get sequals.. If Nameks are aliens they would know of Saiyans and not call them demons…. also a person from Namek is not called a Namek… it’s a Namekian! I am beginning to get angry! And we are just 12 minutes in!

To woo Chichi Goku uses his Ki…I mean airbending to open a locker, now he suddenly airbend while before it was established he can’t do it. So simply by being horney.. he gains power… and this is not the only time it happens.. it’s actually a driving force behind Goku’s power troughout the entire movie. His competence rises with his Libido. Goku is supposed to be about as Ace as I am.. sure he has kids so technically like me he would be grey sexual but the point is the whole character was once build around not caring for these things! So not only do they get his age wrong, potentially his ethnicity wrong, his demeanour wrong and his aptitude wrong.. also his motivations, knowledge and even his SPECIES are wrong. Instead we of Goku get a super powered Dawson Leery trying to woo a girl.

Uncle Ben is that you?

Chichi is the girl Goku likes obviously and because he blew up everyone’s lockers and cluttered the floor, she decides to invite him to a party..on his birthday, which without even considering his grandpa goes along with that. While his grandpa is cooking a feast for his birthday Goku decides to say nothing to him and he just takes off… just so the bullies want to beat him up for showing at a party.  Goku beats the bullies by dodging them, claiming it is okay because he did not fight…. these bullies meanwhile come at him with metal rods… what kind of bullies are these? This is not even good high school drama.The fight is sort of entertaining because of how stupid it is though. With some pretty bad effects, even for the time and some very odd choices of the bullies they soon bite the dust.. destroying Texas Battle’s characters car in the end. This of course pleases ChiChi very much because I would be thrilled if people started a fight that leaves a totalled car on my front porch as well.

ChiChi tries to come on to Goku but Piccolo shows up and Grandpa Gohan’s house and Darth Vader’s Hands Gohan into dying.. after which he force pulls the entire house down on the man… because I forgot to mention this.. but he is looking for the Dragonballs, which he gave to Goku earlier. Goku suddenly can sense this.. and runs back home.  To find the house less destroyed than it was before and his grandpa covered by two sheets of wood. Gohan tells Goku that he needs to find all the seven dragonballs and stop Piccolo becasue after being sealed by the Mafuba 2000 years ago he returned…. how he did that is never explained it just happend. At least when Rita Repulsa returned in Power Rangers we saw some astronauts open the dumpster that held  her.. Piccolo is just back.. and he has a servant named Mai because she was in the original series and we need an evil woman to fight Bulma.

Grandpa Gohan with his dying breath tells Goku that with great power comes great responsibility, using different words and Goku is upset for letting his grandpa down.  Who gifted him an orange Gi from beyond the grave, coincidentally in one of the rooms of the house that has not been destroyed. We see Goku bury his grandpa when Bulma invades his house. Her father’s Orb as stolen.. of which she knows nothing about.. but she managed to build a device that is attuned to it’s wavelength so she can locate it now that it is stolen. To her knowledge it was just a pretty thing though so why build that radar?

At least the original Bulma knew what they did so it makes sense she built a radar. They decide to join forces to find the Dragon Balls and Goku dubs the device  A Dragonball Energy meter.. to Which Bulma says DBE.. I like it.. NO! NO! That is not a good joke! Dragon Ball Z gets nicknamed DBZ.. so Dragon Ball Evolution of course would be DBE ..but you named it Dragonball not Dragon Ball! Yet now when it’s convenient it becomes two seperate words?! This movie is not even consistent with it’s own title!

Go Go Goku

By now we are only about 30 minutes in. There is an hour left, Goku goes to find Master Roshi as his grandpa commanded.. who now is way younger than Grandpa Gohan.. .like waaaaaay younger but he was his master. Which is fine if you say he is long lived because of his Ki or something but no one even bats an eye that a 50 year looking dude taught a 70 year old life time martial artist?! At least give it a mention!  Thank Arceus Bulma finds a dirty book  though and Roshi grabs her butt and she threatens him for it.. this sequence is the only thing that resembles Dragon Ball.

Yet they have to ruin it by making this movie dumb again. Roshi forgot where he put his Dragon Ball/Dragonball so they have to look.. suddenly the DBE meter doesn’t work.. and Goku can sense the Dragon Ball/Dragonball.. this is the only time this happens.. later they establish that the DBE  can detect these relics with pinpoint precision and when the device is not usable Goku can not sense it.. There are so many plot holes here that even the most avid Dragon Ball fan can’t find the crater with Yamcha anymore!

This movie only gets worse, the group gets trapped in a hole by Yamcha that Roshi can just jump out off yet they spend an entire night in that crater whining about how they are running out of time, which in itself is a plot hole. Piccolo must make his wish during some sort of special solar eclipse named the blood moon for some reason and no on realise.. hey we could just keep a dragon ball/dragonball  from him… no they have go gather them all…so they can wish for his defeat? But halfway down the movie they realise this will not work so they do decide on just keeping the balls away.. somewhere down the road and to use the Mafuba to seal away Piccolo again..bringing the Dragon Balls closer to him.

Let’s not forget that the entire world never notices that  Piccolo has a floating sky fortress… which  stops being a thing all together at one point.. he destroys cities and people in the world don’t seem to notice.  This is really really bad. At one point Piccolo can use his blood to create what can only be called Putty Patrollers. That’s right Power Ranger Putty Patrollers are in this movie.  One Dragon Ball/Dragonball is in a volcano but they can not cross the lava because they can not fly yet.. suddenly they are attacked by the putties and Goku and Roshi fight them off when Goku uses them to build a bridge. 

Sure they are monsters but clearly they are alive. Goku should not really be so murderous that he tosses these in lava to form platform but he does… also  without the bad guy’s intervention they would not have gotten to the Dragon Ball.. well that can happen right?! The bad guys might be trying to reach the same location at the same time and  thus the fight would enable the good guys in the end? No! Mai apparently was on the other side all along not touching the Dragon Ball/dragonballl for some reason until she can hold Goku at gunpoint. Why send in the putties when your enemy is in the wrong place… how did you even get there?!

Kamehamehorney 

Not a single scene makes any sense at all. After the Volcano the group decides they don’t have time to find the other Dragon Balls in time so they must learn the Mafuba.. or more like.. get it.. as it’s a spell you can like take along with you apparently. This leads to Goku reuniting with Chichi who participates in the world Tournament.. Goku doesn’t care about such a match because he does not care about fighting, or the tournament.. he does care about Chichi… I honestly do not know how they do it but that single situational descriptor of a simple situation is 100% wrong… like they could not even be more off had they actually set it out as their goal to make an Anti-Goku.

This leads to the worst scene of the entire movie.. Goku learning the Kamehameha. Which now has the power to gently light candles on fire as Roshi demonstrates… yet Goku can not mimic this straight away..invalidating possibly the most iconic scene of entire original series.. Goku doing this complex technique on his first try. Now this would be enough to insult any fans to the core..but they make it WAAAAY worse. Chichi shows up telling him.. that if Goku can use the Kamehameha to light all the candles ..he can stand next to her and they can “kiss” this prompts Goku to grasp the concept of this technique. The two kiss and we fade to black. And we pick up with a scene of Chichi sneaking out of his room.

Oppa Gangnam Style

However this is not Chichi this is Mai in disguise who earlier drew some blood form Chichi which allows her to transform into Chichi… Goku however was not in his room.. perhaps he was at Chichi’s room.. so she is found out. The technique already feels stupid and forced.. but hey guess what it gets worse. When Chichi fights my in ther tournament Mai had no way of knowing who Chichi actually is to Goku, nor does  it makes sense she knew the group would gave up pursuit of the dragon balls instead, nor that their alternative technique would be taught there.

If we consider “Piccolo must have sense the dragon balls/dragonballs they carry’ that is something the group would know as he found plenty already.  Why would  you leave the Dragonballs alone in your room when you know the enemy can detect them. Either way you look at this it doesn’t make sense and the only viable explanation is.. Goku got careless because he wanted to get it on with Chichi which is about the most un-dragon ball you can get for an explanation.

Oh No Za Ru

Mai kinda kills Goku with some kind of Gassy Energy Shot thing.. because in the doppelganger fight Goku decides and hits the wrong Chichi.. even though he learned how to sense energy and should have mastered it because Kamehameha is the highest form of Airbending.  Now dead.. in the same way Harry Potter died in that last movie, Goku sees his grandfather who tells him it is not his time yet, after which Master Roshi Fires a Kamehameha into Goku..which now has the power to revive and heal people as well.  He gets up, they leave Chichi unconscious on the floor which is the second closet actual dragon ball moment in this movie, and pursue Mai and Piccolo who now head to the Dragon Temple..which is the location where you need to use all the Dragon Balls.

Yamcha now has a hovercraft/ flying car hummer which promptly gets shot down and while they are crashing.. Goku decides to switch into his Gi… yes .. while they are crashing! While his friends lie in pain out of the car we see Goku posing in his new Gi for like half a minute.. not even looking if they are okay he decides to face king Piccolo. Swearing Piccolo he will defeat Oozaru. Piccolo reveals to Goku he is Oozaru  and the blood moon will turn him… yeesz.. a once in a lifetime solar eclipse turning you into a giant monkey? How unpratic… it’s not even gonna be a giant monkey is it?!

So Goku turns into a not so great..I’d even so slightly tinier than average Ape and kills Roshi… by the way that whole Mafuba plot line got discarded by the evil Namek blowing up the urn with ease.  His regret causes him to change back into Goku and the final fight begins. The final fight is about is massively lackluster and looks like a 1 on 1 match of  splatoon with some pretty harmless colourful projectiles flying about. Suddenly Goku is as strong as Piccolo so I guess he must really be horney after having been turned into a tiny gorilla. 

The fight feels very throwaway and not Dragon Ball at all. With one final Kamehameha.. which is also the first one.. the conflict is ended… the iconic technique is not done justice of course. Instead they combine with with a visual more akin to the Super Dragon Fist with Goku flying through Piccolo.. like in the classic.. but instead of the hole.. which would make no sense we just see a blue explosion. So it has neither the pleasing elements of the Dragon Fist nor the Kamehameha.. That takes some skill on it’s own to combine both and get non of the joy!

With the evil defeated, Goku magically learns the enchantment to summon Shenlong… because why would they get that name correct..and instead of wishing for the people  that got killed in this incident to be returned the group just wishes for Roshi back. A touching sentiment but given that they would be given one ABSOLUTE wish..a bit lackluster. Given how the Earth Dragon Balls are supposed to bring back multiple people.. they even got the dragon balls/dragonballs themselves wrong!

Gotta Heed to Call Skip on Dragonball

I haven’t even said anything about the bad acting, the sub par cgi and the lack of an interesting musical score. Not only does this movie not work as a Dragon Ball flick, it is written so bad that even with different flavor this plot would have made no sense , with huge logic leaps bad writing and the worst implementation of a franchise ever. Avatar the Last Airbender the movie is a masterpiece compared to this.. the Room had more structure in its writing and Troll 2 had better effects and payoffs. Yet there is something fascinating about this movie. I would not call it enjoyment.. I would not say I had fun .. but I stared in awe as this movie unfolded.  There wasn’t a single moment where I did not want to turn of this movie but I constantly kept wondering.. they can not mess it up more than this right? Just to see it progressively worsen as we go along. 

As a random movie this is a pile of digimon doodoo but as  Dragon Ball/Dragonball Product this is the single WORST movie I have ever seen.. and I have seen Rubber. Which is a movie about a car tire with mental capabilities to explode peoples head..with a meta subplot of cops killing an audience mixed in. DBE is not so bad it’s good.. it’s so bad it’s fascinating.

Also they forgot Krillin!