Pinkie's Paradise

A BIT of History (Part 3) Joe and Mac Caveman Ninja

It is time for another trip to the past. Today we are going back to 1991 , to one of the first co-op games I ever played with my sister. Aside from the Turtles games. In this game we go back to early age of man as we take control of two cavemen..who also happen to be Ninja..apparently.. as well as the earliest womanisers. Joe and Mac.. in their first outing on the SNES , Joe and Mac Caveman Ninja

Barebones

Caveman Ninja is a bit of a hybrid between a beat them up and a platformer. In which you take control of Joe who journeys throughout several stages collecting power ups to attack with but also making jumps up tree’s mountains and across lakes. You fight big dinosaurs to claim back one of the many cave-women, and you progress to a new stage that while in a linear order are connected to a world map. Stages hold some secret totems that can unlock more stages or bonus stages so if you want there is lots to explore. If you do not feel like exploring that is fine as well because you can still get a satisfying ending by just doing what is absolutely necessary. I followed the latter route..because I discovered something. Without my little sister to play this with this game feels a bit… empty.

***Like a screen without enemies or usefull upgrades***

This SNES game is made to be played by two and it shows throughout the game. While what it offers is fine and functional this arcadelike co-op game really only shines when played as such. All by your lonesome you can enjoy the solid controls the okay soundtrack and the quite likeable graphics..but there is this sense of tedium. I like to compare this to the battle of helm’s deep where Legolas and Gimli played .. who can kill the most Uruk-hai with each other. It lifted that action scene to something more unique..for both them as well as the audience. Playing Joe and Mac alone.. felt like Legolas standing there alone. Easily picking off some foes he clearly is going to conquer. While it hits the same action beats.. the magic is a bit gone.. this would even go for Legolas, who not remember losing that game now and probably just mention it as “ a battle”.. and that was the experience I have gotten with this classic tittle.. it’s just another game.

***I see.. because I am alone I could not play SUPER game ..***

Reinventing the wheel.

The biggest issue I had with this game is weirdly that I did not feel like a Caveman… or a Ninja. I think if I ask you guys .. what weapons does a caveman use.. I dare say that at least 90% of you would say club! You do use that weapon in Joe and Mac.. for about five seconds. After which you pick up your first power-up. After which this game becomes a sort of projectile based, platformer, beat them up. Somehow when you want to play a caveman you want to bonk stuff on the head till it dies.. not throw bones at them. Yes tossing bones is your main attack in this game. In a way this game becomes a sort of 2d horizontal space shooter.. with platforming and beat them up elements.. which sounds nice and it doesn’t really play bad.. but something just doesn’t connect for me. There are a few powerups that you can collect but they don’t feel that different. I could not really tell what they did differently aside from maybe angle and a slight difference in damage. Never had I an idea like “oh this works well” or “this totally doesn’t work” it’s all on that level of.. sure whatever. I want more Oogah Boogah Club club! Points for being original.. but sometimes a girl just wants to whack dinosaur skulss with a large piece of wood.

Bones, wheels, boomerangs fire are the upgrades you use to hurl at dinosaurs, bones of dinosaurs and crazed caveman. Each dies fairly easily and if you remember a bit how enemies move you will be able to dispatch them quickly. Each stage has a boss , making it feel closer to those old beat them ups again and once this boss has been dispatched you get kissed by a girl and move on to rescue the next. My favorite weapon was the wheel. It was a bit slower.. I think.. But did more damage, I am not sure if i used it correctly but at least I had some semblance of fun when using it. The boomerangs I felt were like obnoxious bones so I never used those. I did use bones though to hit some of the faster moving enemies..but rarely. Still .. where is the Ninja weaponry. Where is the ninja jumping, where is the ninja element of this game? Well .. this game is even less Ninja.. than Ninja Baseball Batman (which is one of my favorite beat them ups ever) and even in that one the ninja part was kind of iffy. In a game called Caveman Ninjassomehow the chosen gameplay makes me feel neither like a caveman or a ninja.. that has to be a flaw right?

***So..besides being Caveman and Ninja’s they are also Australian… which would explain their names!…Kinda?***

Fire

Does that mean this game is terrible? No , in fact this is quite a lovely game. The controls are smooth, the gameplay has a nice flow to it and it looks pretty as a peach. There is plenty variety in the stages and Joe (and Mac if he is there) are well animated. There is a lot of humor in the game. When you hit an enemy it does feel satisfying because of the adorable hit animations on most dinosaurs. It just doesn’t really feel like you caused that impact. During the first 60% of the game.. the first hour and a half or so, I was entertained throughout. Happily sending some awesome screencaps to my friend.. but he lost them. Into the second half of the game we begin to see the classic tropes of repeating enemies, reskinned boss fights and all of that jazz, but in doing so it can bring back a font memory of the flaws of the past. This game really uses those flawed tropes and manages to build a still entertaining game with it. It’s just never amazing.It’s like cooking on a fire, you’ll get your nutrients of the egg you are baking on an open fire all the same.. but your omelette would have been nicer in a more controlled environment.

***Well at least breaking the egg won’t be that difficult for my omlette***

Due to it’s weird gameplay .. which still is oddly satisfying yet can’t sate any appetite, it is not a game I can easily compare with anything. Each genre it uses has better games. Like Pocky and Rocky for co-op 2d shooting with cute characters for example. Or Donkey Kong for the platforming stuff. Turtles in time is a better arcade beat them up yet oddly there is no game like Joe and Mac that is better than it. Maybe Mystical Ninja.. but that is once again a very different feeling game. In a way it kind of feels a bit like a “my first retro” game suggestion. It has a bit of all the forgotten genres. The beloved classics. So if you want to pick up retro gaming.. to take your first steps Joe and Mac is kind of a really solid choice.

***Ways to dodge a boss are pretty well telegraphed as well***

It’s forgiving it teaches you the fundamentals of platform timing, it is action packed and colourful and with a friend I am sure it can be a hoot and a half. Losing your last life will boot you out of a stage and makes you re-do it and by the time I finished the entire game I never experienced a penalty more severe than that…which is good because of the level of tedium would have shot way up and the last few stages already felt to repetitive. It knows what it is and caters to that so the game can be played by basically everyone who has a free night on their hands. It’s filled with plenty of flaws.. but some of those flaws we can still be nostalgic about.

**Kinda looks like the T-Rex skull on the wrong neck. Undifed Undead Dino.**

Going for the Bronze

At least Joe and Mac teaches us a bit of things about history. Before I played this game I always thought that Humans and Dinosaurs lived in separate ages unless in cartoons.. but hey these guys are ninja’s and those are always serious. Nor was there ever a Joe and Mac cartoon! So that must mean these events are the actual history. Humans and Dinosaurs did live together. Also the wheel was not invented for transportation but for combat reasons. It is very good against T-Rexes and for removing Mastodont trunks, from the elephant creature while they still are live! Dinosaurs also loved to captured young ladies.. or people did to feed them to the dinosaur.. history is kind of vague about that one. Still it is all rather fascinating to see how even vegetarian dinosaurs used to capture girls and be all evil! In fact even dead dinosaurs did! That is right .. in one stage you fight the skeleton of a brontosaur which has captured a dame. Who knew that dinosaurs like human females as much. I guess it explains why King Kong does what he does. I mean I bet he evolved from dinosaurs too! So it makes sense.

***You broke off those tusks.. later the tusk as well. Later it got cybernetic replacements and became a Zord though!.***

Also it shows that christianity existed before the birth of jesus, because the final boss is the devil. If your character dies they become an angel, which clearly shows that caveman clearly had some christian values! Which was really surprising! I really figured JC started the thing. Apparently that was all a lie! Maybe the story of this game made Joe lust for many women so he actually steals them from the dinosaurs.. but he finds out it is actual Satan manipulating his lusts so Satan can claim the souls of the first ninja’s ever in existance. Again History can be quite unclear about it’s motivations. Especially in the age before cutscenes were invented. It wasn’t even that hard to defeat satan, we did not need hours of introspection or prayer .. we just needed 300 stone wheels and 500 bones. Now there is a lesson that is practical. Satan’s weakness is wheels! So toss a tire at him next time you see him.

**Boning Satan also helps in defeating him!**

Joe and Mac by no means is a must play, but it is not something you will regret playing either. It can be a delightful low brow evening with a friend that you can play on your old consoles with a brewski or two. Most of these Beat them ups or 2d shoots are insanely difficult… like Pocky and Rocky for example.. and therefore can be a bit unrewarding to play, yet with Joe and Mac you are sure to have a good time. Yet at the same time I can’t help but feel this game is “that safe choice”. No matter what type of player you have this game is fine for basically every retro enthusiast but if you put it on no one will have an AMAZING time either. It’s like that student that always goes for “the passing grade”. It doesn’t go for the win as long as it can finish on the podium or in the ranking. That is something I take greater issue with somehow as someone trying to be great but failing but that is strictly a personal thing of mine. In the two hours and a bit I had played I mostly had fun and I honestly think anyone will. However I am fed up with caveman for now and it is time to leap a few years ahead. To the age wear people began to wear sheets instead of skins. Where philosophers and titans ruled supreme! We travel to the age of the third place.. . I wonder.. did people forge stuff with gold and zilver first and did bronze actually came in third or is that something different. We will find out next time!

**You might taste some Berry in your first stips and some Pineapple in the last.. but over all it is a pretty average OKiwi flavored game!**

Thank you again for reading my post and supporting the blog ! If you like my content back sure to follow the blog or check me on twitter so you do not miss any of my brainfarts! Tell me about some historic retro games I should play in the future! Now I shall board the TALDIG again and we shall meet again in the future and 1988 and 1200 BC! Remember I love you all, keep smiling and stay positive!

XO
Pinkie

**Current Ko-Fi Project: Getting a commison for a real unique avatar and art!**

Previously on A BIT of HISTORY

Part 0: What is Pinkie Doing now

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

Part 2: Flintstones Treasure of Sierra Madrock

And Next Time!

Pinkie’s Guilty Movie Pleasures: Big Trouble in Little China

It is not that uncommon to list a reputable movie when people ask you for their favorites. People will tell you their favorite movie is Parasyte, Avatar, 1917, or maybe the Harry Potter or Lord of the Rings series. We claim Dangerous Liasons is our favorite movie while it is actually Weekend At Bernie’s . Pinkie’s Guilty Movie Pleasures is all about celebrating those movies like Weekend At Bernie’s. In this installment I will tell you about my traditional christmas movie since 1998. Big Trouble in Little China!

***I love 80’s movie posters! I wish I could be one when I grow up!***

The Story about a weird tradition

Yes I said it this movie is my traditional christmas movie. Before I start with the movie a little story on how this came to be. I grew up with catholic teachings, about two years before discovering this movie I stopped believing in god already. I still believed in a supernatural force but it felt like a balance to me. In hindsight kind of like Karma or Yin Yang or something more intangible as a person guiding us. I guess that concept came from bullying or so. Regardless , I still kept up appearances and traditions for my family’s sake.

However that changed when in 1998 I was supposed to take my Holy Sacrement of Confirmation thing.My local minister banned my uncle from church from being gay, (we got warned not to invite him prematurely) and during an Easterlike dinner.. in my mother’s rentable party place he took from the Kid’s Menu. Which was very limited.. for each child they made a snack. They would make new ones.. but that would mean the children would have to move to last in line. The Minister did not take one but FOUR children’s snacks. When my mother said.. those are for the kids .. he basically said that him going first was gods will and thus he was allowed to take these. I heard this and along with the message about my uncle I was done with him.. and that church I was already just pretending to be a part of. I banned everything about it from my life.

So when it was Christmas eve my family would go to the late evening services and wanted me to come along but I refused to ever set foot in that man’s church again. I would listen to a man preach who thinks gay people are bad.. but he who takes stuff that is meant to make children happy .. was send by god and he deserves it more! Dad got very angry with me because he had to play the organ and he wanted me to see. Yet I kept refusing. I told dad that I love him and I would see him play anywhere but in church. He yelled at me a lot and made me very upset. He went very mean spirited when Mom stood up for me. She told him that if I would stand up to the minister and god for not liking what I saw, I should stick with this. She said she would stay home with me and we did. Still sniffly and upset Mom told me if I wanted to watch a Christmas movie.. but I was not in the spirit… so we looked for the least xmassy thing that was on tv on Christmas eve… and now nearly each holy eve I watch Big Trouble in Little China. Mom would go back to church the next year, yet when the priest began to talk Shiitake about me as well as slipping into a quite dogmatic approach to Catholicism one by one my family sided in my camp.

***This tradition is only kept up by me though!***

Protagonist? Sidekick? Jack Burton!

Having such a victory in fighting for my own beliefs gave this movie a bit of a underlying town for me. I did not have to be so afraid to do my own thing. It was okay to be different. Funnily enough that is in a way what this movie is as well. What based on the poster and the styling should be a generic action flick is in fact one of the most unconventional once I have seen. Nowadays we do have more of this Meta-movie humor but back in 1986 .me and this movie share a birth year, it probably was quite unheard off. It was back in the time we would get a Cis-gender, white , straight male lead with an equally straight but usually less competent minority sidekick. The white guy knows everything and the minority bumbles around. In the end the white man gets a girl and defeats the big bad and they all live happily ever after. John Carpenter wanted to make a movie for once where everything is not what it seems and than I don’t mean everyone could be an alien venus fly trap thing thing. (Yes double thing)

So he created this movie , allegedly not even caring if the movie would do well or not! He just wanted to make this. That passion can be seen in this movie. That love can be felt in nearly every scene. He wanted to make a movie where the hero.. isn’t actually the hero but the sidekick. He wanted to make a movie where everything goes against what you expect of action movies. Today this movie might not seem like that unconventional.. but this movie is still filled with some delightful anticlimactic moments, side stories that are glanced over and characters that get tossed aside. In the spotlight is one of my favorite action heroes of all time. Jack Burton! A trucker of his beloved “Porkchop” Express , as American as he can be. Gambler, Seducer and tough guy! He dresses like John Mcclane, is witty like Indiana Jones and spouts one liners faster than Arnold and Sylvester. He is also JUST an american trucker. He doesn’t know how to fire guns, he doesn’t know martial arts, he hasn’t ever killed a man. He’s just a trucker that got in over his head.. and unlike most.. “in over their heads” type action heroes he doesn’t magically get good at this either. He lucks out, muscles his way out or even more oftenly doesn’t do anything to contribute to the plot. I love him!. Not in a romantic way.. even though he is a failure.. he is still way to manly.

***He’s more american than McDonalds!***

The Good Mortal Kombat Movie

Now what is the plot of the movie? It is quite ridiculous as is the rest of this movie.. but with a main character like Jack you might have already figured that out. We see Jack win a bet against Wang Chi.. a gambler and denizen of Little China after he delivered some pigs there. Not good for his money Wang allows Jack to take him to the airport where he meets his fiancé who has his money. In the airport they meet Gracie Law.. a journalist trying to help another chinese girl in this country. During a scuffle these girls get mixed up and a street gang takes the wrong woman. A chinese woman with green eyes. A evil chinese Spirit named Lo-Pan needs a chinese woman with green eyes to become flesh again.. if he can complete a ritual with her he becomes powerful and eternal and he can rule the earth.
Jack still wants his money though.. only to have his truck stolen by the same supernatural forces that now hold the chinese women with green eyes. So Jack has to save the world.. to get his truck back. What other way can he hook up with Gracie Law anyway? Oh and of course an ancient Chinese Sorcerer joins their side and gets them high somewhere around the midway point of the story.

***Who the Frizzlestick is THAT pokémon.***

I doubt that any of this is based on any form of real chinese mythology. This belief is aided by the fact that John Carpenter said he based the character of Lo-Pan on Shang Tsung of Mortal Kombat.. which you can immediately see. His three henchmen called the Three Storms are based on Raiden.. which is SO obvious it almost hurts. Jack Burton walks almost the entire movie with a shirt with the japanese flag on it and while every character is supposed to be a Taoist in this movie, there are buddhas everywhere. Sets all feel very cartoon/comic- or even videogame-ish. Which enforces the feeling like your watching a Mortal Kombat movie.. that is actually better than the other two (though one of them definitely still is a guilty pleasure of mine) . Actors perform in a cartoony way that reminded me of my beloved saturday morning action cartoons. Overacting feels intentional and during my rewatch of this movie.. I really felt like.. darn they should make this into a cartoon. In a good way! So not like Sindels “To bad… you….r… about.. to die” line but the same goodness from one of the better Turtle Episodes or something. (The old show kids .. not the nickoledon ones) All in all. .we got a live action , Mortal Kombat Kartoon (yes thats how you spell that)

The art of the Anti Climax

The journey that Jack makes trough this very unique experience is quite unique on it’s own. Why? Well because Jack has a lot of things to figure out. During one gunfight for example he doesn’t do anything at all.. because he forgot guns had a safety switch. In yet another he wants to pull a knife from his boot (which holds near infinite knives) but he drops it, while he goes to find it his sidekick mops up everyone in the room. It’s a bit like inspector Clouseau and Cato Fong but way more in your face. We constantly see Jack struggle, like when he is shocked when he kills someone for the first time… but also when he shoots his gun in the air to be intimidating and knocks himself out by the concrete that comes down from the ceiling he shot. This movie resolves most things trough an anti climax which is so much more rewarding than it sounds. We see a new monster for three seconds when it vanishes with a litteral poof. It is set up properly though as if it is about to be something big. Like those tentacles just outside the mines of Moira or even the Balrog. But poof and it’s gone. And just when you start expecting the unexpected.. the expected happens.. just to throw you off again.

**Oh this guy! I wish we could see more of him like this!**

It is amazing how entertaining this movie is to me despite that almost not a single action seen leads to a satisfying end. I mean.. these ends are satisfying.. but they don’t seem to be correct.. in a narrative sense. No one liner when defeating the big bad, his generals aren’t even defeated before he goes down and even than they don’t go down by Jack being a badass. The action is engaging enough on it’s own to justify this weird flow.. and that weird flow is funny enough that you want to see more of it. I’d nearly call this the anti-action genre but it is just shy of being that zaney.. which comes in part due to 20th century fox who did not get that Jack is not supposed to be the main hero and demanded a few extra scenes where he is at least hyped up as one. This movie delivers in not delivering what we always saw up until the late 2000’s and I adore it for that. It is really unique and so zaney.

***There are few really good sequences in this movie! A lot actually!***

Surprisingly Real

What gets me most about this situation though is how oddly real it still feels. I mean I know there aren’t that many evil chinese sorcerers out there that do not realise western girls have green eyes, I doubt chinese gang wars happen in little china on a daily basis and I am pretty sure there are no real Beholder like spy creatures in this world, nor exploding thunder gods.
I even doubt there would be a Trucker who likes his Cabin that much he is willing to risk his life for it, or a reporter who would be that dumb. Yet it does seem to ask some questions when telling its story. How would a real trucker react when he would get dragged into this story. Why would that reclusive character care to know about Western Girls. Why would bad guys just let you walk out if there boss is shot?

***Remind me again.. what character was this guy based on?!***

Characters usually don’t end up going for the fancy kills, character progress can reset immediately simply because they are in so much over their head. For example when Gracie escapes a trance just to get brainwashed again. She did not know what her assailant would do to her so she made the best of her situation. Even if it made the seen more futile. There are a few of these scenes in the movie where we are shown “dead attempts”. Not everything that happens succeeds and as such it doesn’t feel like the plot is always moving forward… which again makes it much more real to me. One liners are used to announce a killing blow .. without pay off , kill shots end up being dumb luck or a reflex and even bonds that are forged over the course of this movie are broken by the end simply because of the impracticality of it all. This is not a realistic action movie by any means, yet at the same time it takes a quite realistic approach to the people in the story, without losing that cartooniness.

***Can someone turn this into a 90’s cartoon already?!***

I’d say the same goes a bit for the direction. The acting feels hammy .. but it feels like it needs to be as well. It’s spot on for this type of movie. Is it Kurt Russel’s best role? No.. but he IS the best Jack Burton he could be. Is the story sharply written? No.. you could tell this story much crisper and sleaker.. yet this feel like the actual tale.. that later got made greater trough stories… like the one Egg Shenn (the chinese sorcerer) begins to tell at the very first minute of the movie. Nothing is really wrapped up to nicely..but why finish your opponent off dramatically when you can do it practically. I can’t fully explain what I experience when I see this movie.

I see a incomprehensible mess that really doesn’t do what we expect from our movies, filled with fun but “wrong” characters that seem as if they are in the wrong position.We follow the story of luigi.. that goes to help Mario save princess peach.. but luigi is the main character..so why doesn’t he get to save his princess? Also why is the red guy so more effective? It doesn’t make sense to tell the story this way.. but when you can finally see it from that perspective it makes total sense! Along with what this movie means to me by ritual.. this just makes it something I can’t help but enjoy a little bit more.. every time I see it. If you haven’t seen it yet , I think you should see it too!

Starting Up: SMILE-Force

The Internet can be a dark place! With battles about what is wrong with our fandoms constantly being fought. Constantly we end up looking what is currently wrong with the world, other people or even the stuff we love. This made me find my voice and try to make the internet a more positive place! Some of my recent posts have done very well in terms of response proving that people like me are out there who would love to see the Internet as a more positive place! And since I had magical girls on the brain.. I came up with…..SMILE-Force.

What is SMILE-Force

About six months ago I joined up with the Otaku Warriors of Liberty and Self-respect. The OWLS as they call themselves. An internet based gathering of people who promote equality across the fandom. A message I still very much can get behind. However I noticed I still was unfulfilled. There was a thing I craved for on the internet even more so than equality. That need was positivity. So I decided to start my own little group thingy all by lonesome! A brand people can pick up and drop as they please. The SMILE-Force. A name based on magical girl tropes. Now you might wonder.. since SMILE is written in all caps? Does it mean anything? Well yes and no! No as in.. I settled on the name Smile-Force BEFORE making it an acronym. It is meant to force or a group that brings happiness to people but the name is also based on forcing a smile. Not giving in to all the negativity and trying to keep the mood in a room light and nice. Lately I have been telling you all to keep smiling so it felt like a great fit.

A loving heart always smiles!

SMILE stands for Super Merry Incredible Loving Entertainers. Which symbolises the people I want to join me in my fight for positivity. I am searching for people who LOVE games, anime, movies even beyond like lifestyle in general. No matter what you do or how you do it, as long as you do it with a positive angle and desire to make the internet a brighter place. It is an acronym for those incredible people who dare to stand up and say, despite negative reviews or negative community reception I like these people, this game, this anime or even this fandom. It’s for the the people who can look at a failed product and smile.. not thinking how they are going to bring the company that made it down.. but instead think of all the great things said company had given before. No matter if people are youtubers, bloggers, podcasters or even twitter and instagram accounts. It is a force that is inclusive without bias as long as we keep smiling! Current member count 1.. so I know for sure I at least try to keep smiling.

Unlock your own Henshin trough the power of smiles!

What does SMILE-Force do?

This little ,none official, thing of mine is currently seeking members to take up the moniker of a positivity emissaries. I of course take up the Badge of Positive Pink! What do I do? I try to keep promoting positivity across the web and create an actual happy place. Now WordPress is already pretty positive but if we band together we would be able to achieve so much more.
So what will we ask of members… nothing really! It’s all optional.. because positivity should always come from the heart and not from duty! A blog tour of one.. is kind of lame.. and since I will pick up this fight no matter if people join me or not I have chosen a different approach from the OWLS themed months. At any time, any member wants they can make a SMILE post. Celebrating Positivity about something. It can always be anything as long as it’s bright, happy and positive. Something you want other people to be positive about or even where you are defending that is bad in the popular opinion. As far as we, can we try to promote each others SMILE posts and just help each other out..without going through huge amounts of work. Each month I will check who made a SMILE post and put all SMILE posts together as I check out who are our “Sunshine Stars”.. the chosen warriors who fought for positivity that month. Later on some other members might do the round up post if they so desire. So .. all in all it’s much more of a way to get your regular content fitting our message shouted out.. as something you need to do work for.

***Our Sunshine Stars are not commited at all! But they Smile when they sleep! So that is good enough!***

As soon as I get members there will be a twitter chat or discord chat because.. that is what you do these days! Participation in these is usually pretty low but the channel will mostly be focussed on helping each other be inspired. Together we look at stuff that gets a negative reception.. for example that whole lawsuit and unrest in the voice acting scene surrounding dragon ball z, the release of that warcraft fail or that baby collecting game not being very awesome. We discuss of someone is willing to counter that negativity by for example writing a post on how good the Dragon Ball Dub is or by highlighting Kojima’s great masterpieces.. or glancing back on our beloved first experiences with the warcraft games. Again.. nothing mandatory.. we just seek to help each other find some content and create lovely positive pieces that still have some relevance. Good for the internet, good for you.. good for SMILE Force. If I get people to join a discord I shall also add some fun games.

***Being A Sunshine Star is FUN! Just look at the smile on this guy!***

How is SMILE-Force themed?

If you had not noticed yet by my terminology and the logo.. or me simply stating it earlier. SMILE-Force is magical girl themed. In a post talking about my hopes and dreams for 2020 I figured I would give it a Ninja theme.. based on south park’s Good Time with Weapons Episode. Yet I realised that this did not fit for a number of reasons. South Park is a show that mostly ridicules obsessions and holds shows us a mirror of what we have become. It is reflective in nature. SMILE-Force is not about that. It is simply about joy, regardless if it is politically correct, hated by the media or if you have an (un)healthy obsession with a particular anime or game. SMILE-Force is a reactive initiative if anything. Ninja’s furthermore tend not to be seen and that again is kind of against brand. SMILE-Force is about having your own opinion, (focussing on the positive ones of course) and showing your positive feelings towards the world despite the toxicity out there. So all in all, we got an idea that is very open and present. Very positive focussing on elements such as friendship, love and nostalgia yet it is also about fighting of negativity.. as such the Magical Girl/Boy style came to mind.

***What I see whenever I close my eyes!***

The fictional backstory about SMILE-Force goes as follows.(Yes I made this up for fun) Almost each year on earth around the 12th of August a celestial event called the Perseids takes place. About each minute.. somewhere a shooting star can be seen. Some of these meteors crash on earth only leaving behind a stone made of pure positivity. Keeping a warm tinted shine these stones are called the Sunshine Stones and they allow certain online entertainers with a big and warm heart to transform into Magical Warriors now as the Sunshine Stars. These Merry folks are drawn together to form a band of positivity unlike the world has ever seen. SMILE-Force. This group will soon be needed because from the depths of the wonderful internet the forces of negativity have risen again. Creating a world where one can no longer be happy and has to search fault in everything. Forming monsters on the internet.. influencers who make us want to destroy that which we love by changing the public in monsters that feast on negativity. These monsters and their spawn are called Nancies. It is up to smile force to fight the Nancy army and make the internet Smile once again. Because without smiles the magic of that place ..and thus the entire world.. will soon be lost.

How can you join SMILE-Force?

Do you want to dare yourself to be more positive at times, are you looking for a fun place to hang out and socialise with awesome people.. who are practically forced to think positively about you as well.. because of who we are? Do you want to be unapologetically be positive about things..and blame it on me for putting you in my cult? Do you write lots of positive stuff and think.. sure I will display that logo thingy somewhere? Free shout out. Do you want people to smile more?! Well those are all good reasons to join! I do not have cookies, I do not pay..but I also do not ask a lot of you, just be positive once in a while and get a cool little shoutout. Will that change in the future? Probably not.. . if anything I will add a “choose your commitment level” on top. Like how most Magical Girls can only transform once but some can use a fanny pack to grow wings and become even more powerful. No required amount of posts needed a year.. just be positive somewhere..sometime. Oh and display the logo somewhere that would be neat.

***Again.. it is a work in progress! But for now it is this!***

Signing up for Smile Force is as simple as sending me a Private Message throughout whatever way is most convenient for you. Because I want you to do it smiling!

So a private message on twitter can be send by visiting my wonderfully pink twitter

https://twitter.com/PokemonPinkie

Or send me an email at pinkiesparadiseblog@gmail.com

Please note : Do Not use my contact form! Due to all the blogs I follow, some which post 12 posts per day … I simply can’t maintain that one I do not know how to reroute the contact form to another email address. I am trying to fix this but I do not know how. So for now the message will be lost if you use the form.. so please use the methods I provided in this post! Or ask me in again in the comments.

***This is how my WordPress registration email looks like!***

Do I have any demands for you? Not really! I strongly prefer you are over 18 (not a requirement but I want to be able to have a normal mature talk with members). You should really have a positive voice on the internet, (Websites like Gloomy Drawings of me and my goth single mother… might not fit the brand) and you just need to have an open mind.
Just becaue we love something doesn’t mean others have to. SMILE-Force knows and respects that. There will be true positivity no toxic positivity. (So no “Shield Hero” is the greatest and everyone who disagrees should die” “positivity”) If you can do that there is nothing stopping you so sign up today and make the internet smile again!

Precure Pinkie (Part 1): Futari wa Precure! First Impressions

If you could name one anime that fitted me like a glove, you’d probably say Pokémon. You’d be right .. though the anime is always something I had a bit of a meh experience with.. the good episodes are amazing… the filler in between.. meh! Another good guess of an anime that is very on brand with me would be Pretty Cure. I love it’s art so much.. yet until today I had not seen a single episode of it! Shame on me! Yet now I can take you on my journey through this franchise!

How to be Pretty?!

With 16ish seasons and the first one already having 50 episodes, it might be a bit too much to take you through every single episode. So how will our journey through Pretty Cure look like?! I will have about three to four episodes per series. Which follow a certain trend.

-The first part of a series will discuss the first episode of a series. My first impressions and expectations. Analysing the main character(s) and the general set up. I will review an episode in detail which means spoilers.

– The second part will come out after I reached the midway point of a series. A hype check of sorts, because I am mostly talking about my experience there will be spoilers. Why do I dislike or like characters.. what did I like and what did I not like. I won’t spoil the entire plot or details but the story in big lines will be discussed.

-The third part will talk about the second half of the show. Did I like the ending and the show in general. This one like the others will contain spoilers

-A possible fourth part will happen when I am really impressed with a season. Where I talk more in depth on why I love it, which characters I like and maybe something about cute Pretty Cure objects and such… call it a bonus episode. These might be replaced with episodes of Pinkie looking for a Waifu.. as after only 1 episode I can already tell the Yuri suggestions are real! With that said.. it is time to review the first episode of Pretty Cure ever!

The Negatives will all blow away

It only took me as long as reaching the opening to know I would like this show! While I do not think the transformations shown in this opening look as Pretty as some of the later Cure Girl’s I have seen the message is loud and clear. “Smile your troubles away” “All the Negatives will blow away” When we conquer a problem we get stronger! Such nice positive messages in this show’s opening alone. Really on brand with me as well. Especially about negativity blowing away. It’s a pretty cute opening as well. It feels a bit too rhythmic talky for me in the beginning but I like the budududududu thing’s showing Mepple and Mipple.. the cute companion creatures of the show. It’s timed nicely. Bududududu things… sometimes I am such a wordsmith. This opening had some pretty nineties vibes to me, despite only earing in 2005.. It also is very spoiler free which is a good thing so woop!

Instead of Screencaps of the opening how about I just show you the opening!

The first episode.. and assuming by the intro the rest of the series as well. Follows Nagisa , who is a Lacrosse playing jock and Honoka who has a very big brain for her age. They are in the 8th grade.. which puts them around the age of 13 or 14. Since that now is 14 year ago.. that would make them 28 right now.. so they might even be date material! Which is good because Honoka looks super cute! Nagisa is a bit tomboyish which she wears well. It’s not my style to date but the character does feel like her own thing rather than just another Orange headed tomboy girl.. What’s with Orange haired females being kind of hot heated? Could it be that hair color tells something about personality? Honoka is depicted as a cute but somewhat conventional looking girl with dark hair (like most studious girls in anime have) in a fairly traditional cut. I do like the creatures design as well. They feel unique and they feel precious something that needs protecting.. which works well in the first episode.

Oh it’s going to be THAT type of show?!

Don’t ask me why I have seen Cute Earth Defence Club Love before this show.. but what I loved best in that show was how aware the characters were in that show .. about how odd things where that were going on. It turns out that the PreCure or Pretty Cure series was the first magical “person” franchise who did this. Which already made me love it more! I figured this would just be one of those Sailor Moon Clones that focussed more on cuteness and less on dating boys. Yet for now I think there will be more to it than that. We see Nagisa getting a bunch of love letters, but they are all form girls. Yet she glanced at a boy in this episode so that must mean she is straight. Since Honoka is very popular with boys though and she rejected a popular one, I am gonna say she isn’t straight. Maybe that is just me hoping her 28 year old self would be available! Throughout the episode the characters both seem rather aware of having unreal abilities and odd things going on which makes the cuteness somehow more adorable. I really hope this will shine on through throughout the series as well as it would allow them to get away with such cute things by just saying… yeah well it is that trope!

The episode begins with two characters of different environments doing their thing. The Jock plays sports and the nerd pours two liquids into a beaker and it goes poof…with success though! Both are not really on each others level yet but we know that will soon change because after their looks cross we get that opening. There is some slight exposition about a meteor shower where Nagisa’s friends see it as ill omens Honoka sees it as a good sign. Superstition versus science and all. I guess that will be an element as well. No sure though. Of course it won’t just be meteors we all already know something will land in front of our two heroes. Both heroes get some flippy phone like thing with a bearish.. bunny look or a bunnyish bear look, that can talk .. and walk. Obviously that is the transforming mcguffin.
We see them transform into full bunnyish bears and bearish bunnies later on so I bet there is more to them. They also seem like a couple.. but with names like Mipple and Mepple they could also be brother and sister still, I mean Japan spells that one particular word in the english language with a silent W in the beginning. You know when your brother wrinkles your sheets. That one.

***I’ll have you know I don’t day dream! I hallucinate!***

Four Cuties and an Edgelord

Nagisa is scared for the the phone creature at first. I mean I would be as well if a meteor came at me and then released a talking flippy phone. She shows her little brother who can’t see a thing about it. Moments after he walks out it begins walking again. So I assume Nagisa was chosen.. yet it still feels odd. Honoka got her flippy phone neatly gift wrapped in a neat little box. Her dog barked at the shed it was hidden in.. so she for some reason feels more chosen. Also random observation. Cats are often drawn very distinguishable from one another even black cats amongst each other. Yet everyone in anime seems to have the same labrador/ golden retriever dog! I guess that if they are not the main character .. they are just plain..but no matter what art style I look at the dog always feels the same.
Mepple.. the creature in Nagisa’s… thing.. I am sure it will get a name soon, begins to cry and tells it needs to go somewhere. Which leads to my favorite seen of the episode. In her lacrosse stick thing Nagisa carries Mepple around to where it wants to go.. still scared of it. It knows where it needs to go but only in a straight line. So we see Nagisa walking around with an alien phone thing trough restaurants and scaling walls just to be able to walk in a straight line as much as she can. That just makes sense to me as this little alien dude she is carrying would probably not know the street plan of her town.

Eventually they reach a theme park.. where some edgy as fudge guy is walking around. I mean he feels like a lead singer for an anime heavy metal band. He steals Mepple but gets distracted when Mipple and Honoka arrive at the scene. Using that scoopy net thing Nagisa has she whacks Mepple out of his hand and then the guy uses telekinesis to throw trash cans at them.. oh and road signs.. so maybe it is magnetism powers.. Not sure! Regardless this makes the situation so dire that the girls can transform. I really liked this transformation sequence because of now lewd it is… unless hand holding is lewd like the meme.. than it is really lewd. I do like the metallic look the girls get when transforming.. for some reason I do expect them to be more durable now. The transformation music was pretty cute as well.
The transformation prompts the bad guy to summon a demon ,which might just be a pokémon because it keeps shouting it’s name, that possesses a rollercoaster. It chases after the girls and shoots spikey stuff at them. Cure Black.. Nagisa’s alter ego clearly performs better in battle saving Honoka from a spiked wheel. Since she tries to pull Honaka up at the intro sequence as well I guess this will be a thing where Nagisa will punch things real hard and Honoka will help her fight more tactically. Which is a solid way to make a cast of two work well with each other without invalidating one or the other.

Like I stated earlier, both girls notice how they make some weird quotes about the light and how they are the Pretty Cure which I always find very amusing. It isn’t as silly as in Earth Defence Club Love though but instead cleverly works as a little bit of exposition. Do Mipple and Mepple possess them in some way or another.. because they also referred to themselves as Pretty cure later on and Mepple seems very similar to Nagisa so far. Mipple sounds a lot like Honoka. both have a very squeaky voice that while Kawaii kinda sounds like stepping on mice as well. The good guys defeat the roller coaster through the power of handholding and the demon transforms into a bunch of apologetic black stars.The edgie guy flies into space or at least high into the sky..surely to create a new monster of the week next episode. Leaving behind four cute things wondering what will happen next as we cut to the end. A beginning like any other but with a higher level of cuteness than average. Perfect! I am very interested in seeing this show progress. I think the tones of positivity and just the right amount of Meta and cuteness make this a great product for me. Now to watch tons and tons of episodes! Will I think it’s pretty from beginning to end or will i be cured by my insane curiosity of it?!

Thank you for reading! I love you all! Keep smiling!

Pinkie Gets Anime Powers: My Digimon

Welcome again my dear island guests to the already third installment of Pinkie Get’s Anime Powers. Today I am gonna be that Trekkie that is enthusiastic about a Star Wars Movie. So get your nooses ready! We all have wondered how it would be to insert ourselves into anime. Today I am going on forbidden ground for every harcore pokémon fan! I am stepping into the digital world… if DIGMON!

The Digidestined

Character Name:
Pinkui “Denise” Nettainoshima.
Digimon Partner:
Kotemon
Crest:
Perseverance
Age:
13, Keeps saying she is 12 to be the youngest of the group though.
Digivice Colour:
Pink
Role:
Group Leader
Fighting Style:
Brain and Brawn
Quirks:
Wears goggles over her glasses, pacifist, cries easily.

Digimon has a weird trope to give characters a western nickname. Taichi becoming Tai, Yamato being nicknamed Matt. So I thought I should honour this and go for an a japanese name with a typical western nickname. Why Denise? Because that is my username of preference in the real world! Big reveal!. Like most digidestined I’d have to go back to being a child, but since my real life age of 33 at the time of writing is something my friends mock me for..being so old. I am gonna include a gimmick that Denise is a lot older than the rest of the group but lies about her age.

Unlike in Bleach and in Jojo’s I’d take the role of the main character. The goggle wearing Digidestined leader. Why? Because I think my journey fits that of a leader very well. I could also fill the role of TK being the good hearted benjamin of the group ..but I don’t really have peers to bring with me for that. Hence I take the leadership role for this one. Denise would travel to the digital world during an online shopping spree with her friends Midori “Bean” Kuraitamashi and Futotta “Lyn” Kohatsu. A three member all female cast that can later get two new members. So since your in the digital world feel free to insert yourself if you wish.

Being the group oldest Denise has to lead the group and be prepared to save this world from an unspeakable evil. Let’s go Meta here and say that Denise is trying to spread positivity around the internet while it is becoming more and more negative. The digital world is slowly becoming more corrupted creating negative versions of Digimon. Yiyimon would have brought some positive internet people to the digital world to fight these Nega-mons as the new digidestineds. These negative digimon reduce the power of natural digimon so they cant fight for themselves as they are being pushed down. Denise would have a hard time coming to terms with this task though. I am very pacifistic in real life and will do anything to avoid a fight. But sometimes we have to realise we do have to take arms and fight for what we believe in. Sometimes in a more literal sense than we would have though

Thus she is paired up with a Warrior digimon.. something that doesn’t immediately gel with her. However during their journey they both learn to accept each other. Denise trying to outsmart while her Digimon is trying to overpower. Both can bounce of of each other fairly good as well. With Denise talking to get under their enemies skins to create openings for her digimon. Or by having her digimon display their powers by words Denise uses that example to lower morale. In the end both would prefer to spare their targets and save them from the negative corruption if possible.. but I would take a much more reluctant role in it. Trying to cling on to the false idea that violence never solves anything.. (in an anime world)

The Setting

Before I adress the Digimon itself a quick summary of the rulesets I am using. Digimon across its (I want to say ) six main anime series and plethora of games had several rulesets to play by.
First of all there is the classic Digimon Adventures Rules.. later added upon in Adventures S2 trough armor eggs and mode changes as well as an emphasis on DNA digivolution (or Yogress) Digimon Tamers added the aspect of swipeable modification cards. Blue cards and fusing with your digimon to achieve your mega form. Frontier had the digidestined collect figurines/spirits which they could transform with and could become digimon, completely eliminating the rooky stage. Saviours had alternative evolution pasts and a guy punching Digimon for energy as well as burst states and more. X-cross did not focus on evolving but on combining digimon and Applimon focussed on chips like megaman battle network and installables and such.

While for a collectable creator admirer like me the Xcross universe would be well suited it has no narrative element. My story would be… “fuses a bunch of pink things to create a bigger pink thing that looks like those other pink things combined” . It just doesn’t translate well. The Frontier Ruleset would be too much of a collectathon and it lacks that digimon feeling. It would just be another transformation. Applimon I really disliked so that one is out of the question. Armor Digivolutions where something very heavily connected to the story arc of S2 and I would not want to tell that same story over again so those are out. Which leaves us with the ruleset of Tamers or the original series. I feel like explaining every modify card would be to tedious and uninteresting but I do have some prepared for those interested to know. I feel for recognisability going with season 1 and subsequently tri would work best. That being said I will use any and all digivolution lines that have been established in all forms of media. Kotemon (my rookie) for example was introduced in Digimon World 3.. but mine follows another evolution path. Since in the world digital world evolution is not a straight line like pokémon but an ever branching path. Still by all means my digmon SHOULD be able to achieve any of these forms.

The Digimon

In Training Stage: Kapurimon

When first traveling to the digital world Denise would be paired up with her digimon in it’s In Training Stage. It’s the same stage as Koromon and Molitmon for example. “That pink blob face” for the most of them. Unfortunately for me.. mine would not be pink. I get a white and blue cat ball thing that looks fluffy and adorable as well. Like virtually any intraining digimon it’s attack is to shoot slightly acidic bubbles. It can also emit a soundwave from his helmet that paralyses the enemy. Yet this form would not last long. I would say that it would not digivolve the first episode because we try to avoid battles from the offset.. but definitely in the second one.

In the first episode Kuwagamon (it always has to be the first thing you fight in digimon) shows up.. drastically influenced by the Negativity.. not a Nega Digimon just yet.. but close to losing its mind. While Bean and Lyn’s digimon evolve in the first episode and they get their signature Lopmon for Lyn and Kamemon for Bean early.. two are not enough to hold off the feral Kuwagamon at bay. But I do not want to hurt it..after running in the second epsiode Kapurimon convinces me to let it fight as well .. paralyzing Kuwagamon before bravely dashing in and digivolving into………. KOTEMON!

The Rookie : Kotemon

Kotemon is a tiny dragon like person in a Kendo suit. It’s signature attacks are Fire Men and Thunder Kote (both based on Kendo terms/strike areas) . In this form it would be my companion throughout our digimon journey. It would be a very loyal and brave digimon that does tend to rush into battle if I am not there to stop it. For me to compliment it it would have to be a rather naive digimon.. she would be brawn I am the brain. I chose for it to be female as well because that way I can try to cute it up at times.. much to it’s dismay as knights do not look cute and pink! Luckily I carry a lot of ribbons with me. Kotemon and me would be fairly far apart in the beginning but get close rather fast when we both realise we do not seek to harm others. She learns to respect how I can negotiate and I respect that sometimes we have to brute force our way into things.

We both learn of each other. It might teach me some basics of Kendo.. like splitting a water melon on a beach. She refers to me as my Lady even when teaching me something she treats me like a superior. II would teach tricks to get her way without being the bad guy.. and how to read an opponent. As a gag I try to keep peaking behinds it mask and it keeps hitting me on the head going “Menmenmen”.. knocking me out or scaring me of.Bean who has to learn patience gets a Kamémon a turtle like pokémon that is very mellow and slow. Lyn who is always tardy and not very strict with her promises gets Lopmon.. an energetic little bunny. Lyn adores turtles and Bean adores bunnies so it’s almost as if they have each others digimon which cause some interesting group dynamics.

Kotemon is a Data-Attribute digimon that is of the Reptile type. While Typing does not oftenly matter in Digimon (unless it’s somewhat logical like setting a tree digimon on fire) and doesn’t offer super effective attacks or something.. Attribute is quite important in the world of Digimon.. even if it rarely mentioned. Digimon generally can be of three attribute types. Virus, Data or Vaccine. Virus monsters are stronger against Data, Data beats Vaccine and the latter trumps Virus.

It is nothing of major importance unlike in Pokémon but I thought you should know. Some are digimon are attribute free. Kotemon can attack with her flaming sword (Fire men) or give people an electrical gutpunch (Thunder Kote). It is a bit of a balanced digital monster with both decent defence as well as a good offence. Which landed it in the Balance Digimon pack in Digimon World 3 along with Patamon and Renamon. For those who don’t know who that are it’s that bubble firing ear bat wing ears piglike thing TK has in the original series.. and that yellow thing you found when googling furry.

Champion Stage: Gladimon

Imagine Silver Chariot from Jojo’s Bizarre Adventures and the Kool-Aid Guy doing a fusion dance. This is what you get … Denise’s Champion Pokémon is Gladimon. One of four possible Kotemon digivolutions. In case I refer to it as evolutions that is not actually a mistake. In Japanese the term digivolution does not exist. There when the great theme of brave heart plays the digimon shouts out their name followed by Shinka. Which literally j means evolve. The term was most likely changed to not overlap with pokémon as much. Being a sub girl myself though part of my brain clings onto my first experiences while another draws from recent memory. Hence the confusion! Gladimon would arrive to our show in episode 3. Kuwagamon returns but now as Nega-Kuwagamon. It power has increased and having accepted we have to fight I evolve my sweet little Kendo dino into … chibi Alphonse Elric. Gladimon is a Vaccine type.. and is part of the Virus Buster family which would seem like the perfect tool to stop Kuwagamon.. who is a virus type! But than we find out that a Negative Digimon changes it’s typing..so it is strong to what it was previously weak to. So nega-Kuwagamon is a Datatype! After a hard fight Gladimon still manages to pull out the win! But then we get introduced to the Dark Destineds. Self imposed travelers who have gained access to the digital world where they are harvesting parts of the digital world to form an army that can rule the earth and bring back an ancient evil that will wipe out all that resist.

Gladimon has only existed in Digimon Masters and not a lot is documented about it. It’s attacks are Wheel Rush wish we are going to assume works a lot like sonic’s spin dash and sword dancer.. which probably speaks for itself. Gladimon is a fair bit tinier than most champions. It would be about human size. Maybe even just kid sized. It’s a sizable increase from Kotemon , about 100% but compared to Greymon or Birdramon and basically all the Adventures cast it is a very tiny champion. It does seem to have stretchable arms though to compensate. In this form Gladimon would have the personality of a kid playing a knight. She would speak in clichés about glory and knightly things! In this form she would call me Princess, and her catchprase would be “I’ll save you Princess “ before rushing into battle. It will get is in trouble a few times.. as in this form she is a bit of a Leeroy Jenkins.

Going Further Beyond

The Crest

In the original adventures series you needed a crest of virtue to push your digimon to the level of Ultimate.. the third main stage of a digimon’s line. Usually signifying a trial to overcome. Perseverance would be mine. I have to save the world and bring positivity towards people and to do that I sometimes must do things I do not like. I must endure some hate and negativity and I must not let it discourage me. It is a journey that I figured would make a lot of sense as a counterpart for Tai’s bravery. We hit the same story elements while offering me some choices that are much more in line with my nature.

I will have to accept we have to kill some digimon who are tainted so they can be reborn as clean versions but in the area that holds my quest we encounter a digimon that once helped us and befriended us..but now he has fallen to the corruption.. the only way to save it is to kill it. This is the path we were set upon and even if things get very rough we must persevere.It seems like a nice heroes journey that fits in the world of Digimon.
Bean would get the crest of patience and Lyn would get the crest of Commitment. Two real life friends who have to learn those lessons but something I also feel could be good journeys for an anime character to learn.

The Ultimate: Knightmon

When exposed to the energy of my crest and my perseverance Gladimon can digivolve to Knightmon! Now this is a tall digimon yet still not as large as some of it’s peers. In this form my lady knight actually becomes a full fledged knight whose signature attack is called Beserker Sword.. which basically means she goes monkeydoodoo with the thing. She also has the ability to slam her giant sword into the ground or use it as a bashing weapon to blow enemies away. According to my sources she will also have access to an attack called “the Duel” speaking of duels.. next episode will be about what Yui-gi-oh deck I would use. I shall be honest though I have no idea what the attack does.. so let’s say for narrative purposes Knightmon says she has the attack but I think it sounds to omnious and ask her not to use it because I do not want harm to come to her. Then in one episode we finally have to use the attack.. and she seems to lose the duel.. I actually toss a rock at the enemy which than glows with a strange energy! “Stay away from my friend” I would shout.. before my Digimon gets hit again.. but the impact sends the rock to me. A strange gem called a positivity gem is formed.. and by believing in my digimon she could achieve her final form.

But before we move onto that some semantics first. Knightmon is a Data Attribute. Hey it switched back again! It still is part of the Virus Buster family and is known for its tremendous physical strength and extreme loyalty to it’s master. Which at one point can create another point of conflict for me as I do not want something or someone to blindly throw their live away for me. I want it to think on it’s own as well. Which is why it decides to use “the duel” eventually. In this form Knightmon would call me My queen. Her personality is a bit more “out there” being very stoic in rest but as soon as I get a scratch she practically turns into a barbarian swinging around her berserker sword.. falling back into old habits. After Kotemon originally transforms into her she starts to see herself more and more as a tool and less like a person that matters and I have to save her from that image! She matters to me after all. In the end with a gem of positivity ..or a little ray of sunshine if we rebrand it later we can finally fully connect and we get it’s final form…. and it’s PINK!

The Mega: Crusadermon

Crusadermom is a Virus Type, Virus Buster Holy Knight.. Jeesz! She did it all! Good job my friend! It is one of the Royal Knights in the digi universe. These are basically the guys protecting the gods. Even though they are powerful enough themselves. Her fighting style would be a mix of that of the pokémon Bisharp and Goku from Dragonball Z. Where she uses her extreme speed to use the slicy ribbons on her body to damage the enemy. But she can also at an instant teleport in their face and shoot sonic booms at their chest with that cannon thing! Which apparently is called a Pile Bunker. She can create laser nets with her normal hand palm and Tornado’s with the Pile Bunker as well. So she is definitely a force to recognised with and one of the stronger Digimon out there. Something we would definitely need to stop Nega-Apocalymon. Have I told you already her design is pink! PINK! So perfect for me!

***Pink, Ribbons, Monarch.. Definatly mariage material***

In this form Crusadermon would refer to me as Denise. Signifying she finally sees me as her equa instead of her superior. Which in my turn makes me realise how much I meant to Kotemon and it’s other forms. Since it’s a bit of a staple to give the destineds something that goes beyond the level of Mega for the final battle we would use something like Positivity charge.. where Crusadermon becomes Posi-Crusadermon or something of that nature. Or maybe we learn to do a synergy attack with that mysterious new member? Who knows? Why do I wear goggles over glasses? Who knows! Maybe because I can hide my tears better as I was a crybaby! Maybe to be hipster.. or maybe you have your own answers about all of this. Let me know how you’d finish the final boss or why I double dip in specs in the comments or tell me what would be your digimon!

Remember I love you all, and don’t forget to keep smiling! Stay Positive

XO
Pinkie

Previously on Pinkie Gets Anime Powers:

My Jojo’s Stand
My Zanpakuto

And Next time…..!

The OFFICIAL TOP 10: Pinkie Reviews Google’s Top 10 Pokemon 2020

It was pokémon day not to long ago. Now I wanted to do something for pokémon day.. but I figured we kind have to many “days” CAPSLOCK SPEAK day, talk like a pirate day, three variants of valentines day, may the fourth as star wars day. It’s like we have a day for everything! Did you know that on february 27 it is not only Pokemon day, but also Polar Bear Day, Chili Day and Protein day… So was I busy saving a polar bear.. popping protein pills to get all jacked up or maybe I ate to much chili…and you know! You can decide.. February 28 was chocolate souffle day..but that did not turn out good for me. On the 27th The Pokémon Company and Google released a ranking of the most popular pokémon and today I will discuss their ranking and how I feel about it.

Honorable Mention: Snow .. Number 38

Snom to my surprise gained massive popularity in the pokemon community. It isn’t really good..it’s a Snom! It’s a bug ice type which make it’s quad weak to both rock and fire and does not have very good resistances due to how bad the ice type actually is… balance wise. Snom won my heart for how cute it is though and it since have become some sort of a meme. I would have suspected Falinks to be higher than Snom those guys are so adorable but I am still happy to see something as innocent like Snom on this list. Simply because it has no gameplay… let alone competitive play use, I know people really voted for it because they love it! There is also no nostalgia for it.. this is just a entry of pure love! And it made me smile.

Number 10: Gengar

Gengar is a pokémon I love to bits, it is a well designed, scary but fun pokémon that is also fun to use in both gameplay as well as competitive play. While I do think his gigantamax is just a poor man’s version of his terrifying mega-evolution Gengar has always gotten a lot of love and support from the pokemon community and it is well deserved. Had I make to make my own top 10 I think Gengar would be somewhere in the middle bracket. Ghost and Poison type is still fun for me to use. His lore simply telling you to give up hope when it’s behind you still is one of the most ominous pokédex entries to date and they make a pokémon powerful and scary enough to back it up. A well deserved candidate.

***Gengar is a really fun Pokémon! So are his other stages!***

Number 9: Gardevoir

Now I know why she is on this list… you vagrants, but seriously Gardevoir is a great pokémon and once again worthy of a top 10 entry. For those who don’t know Gardevoir is one of these pokemon people do lewd a lot. It is a very feminine pokemon that more or less mimics a bride. However due to gender ratios in the games she first appeared in and still existing as a male form Gardevoir has also gotten a nasty reputation to be.. something of an ugly word in its context that rhymes with clap. It’s a bit of controversy about a lovely pokémon. I had many Gardevoirs on many teams and I love raising one! It’s just fun and she gets a very good moveset and utilities so I really love her. Her sleek white pink and green design is among my favorite colour schemes of all pokémon and if I ran one never did it felt lackluster. Definitely a great choice!

***Since I assume this is why people voted for it I shall include it educationally!***

Number 8: Rayquaza

Mega-Ray is definitely my favorite Mega-Evolution in the entire pokémon series. It looks stunning. Even among the legendaries it is one of my favorites, though I do feel this spot should have gone to Mew. While I adore Rayquaza’s design his impact on the pokémon world is just so much less than Mew’s. Still amazingly designed though so I do get why people would vote for this one. The problem I have with legendaries is that you get them so late into the game, I never really get a bond with them. The only mythical/legendary I really enjoyed was Victini because you could get it so early in the game. Rayquaza is something you get LATE LATE game. Like it’s an endgame pokémon and even then it’s late. So I never really felt a bond which pokémon such as those. Poipole being another exception mostly because it’s kind of Eldritch Pikachu. In the TCG Rayquaza has always had some good cards and figurine wise.. that would be the one I really want, as far as a usable legendary I think there are more memorable options.

**I wish for Girl’s Pantsu! Shen..Uhm oh.. I used the wrong balls!**

Number 7: Garchomp

This one is the first I actively disagree on. Garchomp is a great pokémon but it’s such a normy answer. Sure it is great to use a Garchomp in competitive battles as it truly is a fearsome beast with heaps of potential.. I just don’t find it fun to use.Garchomp uses Earthquake, Swords Dance, Outrage and another physical attack. There isnt that much wiggle room. Maybe you can give it Dragon Dance instead but meh! My biggest issue with the pokemon however is that it is not fun to raise.Training a Gibble I never found fun. Training Dragons from early on I never found fun.. with the exception of Goomy and Deino and the latter evolves ridiculously late. I am also not a big fan of Garchomps design.. it’s angry land shark with blades for arms. I always felt it was a bit to Edgy.. Like Bisharp.. They both feel more like Digmon to me.. so yes I can’t agree with this one.. but I understand you guys who voted for it. Now go listen to your my chemical romance cd’s because this next one is not your cup of tea.

***The best thing about Garchomp! It reminds me of Cynthia!***

Number 6: Sylveon

Oh my Arceus, My favorite Pokémon is in the top 10! Yes YES! YES. I love you guys. Not only is Sylveon the best eeveelution ever ( though most disagree with me still) it is also a very solid allrounder pokémon. That can both be tanky and deceptively aggressive. Dynamaxing has hurt how good it is (due to how fairy Max moves work) but I still love the pokémon and it’s very concept. It’s the pokemon that evolves by love (and knowing Fairy moves) not friendship but love! Well .. it used to.. now it evolves by friendship..but stil. It is a pokémon that completely symbolises love and it’s pink! How can I not love it. Sylveon is a strong pokémon that with his ability pixilate and the move hyper voice can turn into a total ringer! It its tremendously fun to use to raise as you really need to spend time with your pokémon to play with it and feed it and actually get a pet like feeling, so it’s very easy to bond with and I adore that and everything about it.

Number 5: Umbreon

Clearly you guys don’t know what the best Eeveelution is. Umbreon is better than Sylveon? Heck no! Not in my world! It has the better shiny though and it is my second favorite Eeveelution. In fact it might just be top 10 material for me as well. Umbreon is a toxic staller pokémon and while I would put Chansey in it’s spot in the top 10, I love myself a good toxic staller. This Pokémon is known as Blacky in Japan.. well actually Burraki I guess but still. It is in the top 3 of my favorite shinies and it’s an adorable little thing. My issue with it that unlike Sylveon , Umbreon isn’t that fun to use during actual gameplay, it has more weaknesses than chansey.. but also has the same as my pink egg nurse, just different immunities but Chansey has such high hp that it doesn’t matter. Unlike Sylveon I never really found reason to use Umbreon, though Foul Play is better than Seismic toss. Also it was hassle to raise it at night.. because I could not play my game that late when I was a kid. Only on a holiday and a weekend. If it was in my top 10 it would take the 10 spot.. or it is slightly below. Still solid taste.. unlike the next slot.

Number 4: Charizard

First of all you picked the wrong starter.. Team Bulbasaur! Secondly.. I really think Charizard stuff has been overkilled. He has gotten a Gigantamax, Two Mega-Evolutions, each TCG set has Charizard ringers, he had a major role in the Ash anime as well as in Origins. Charizard feels so available that it is hard not to love. I get why it is beloved but I am surprised that so many still support the old dog. In all honesty I never saw the appeal as much. I loved him in the anime.. the bond growing between him and Ash but that has later been done even better. Charizard to me feels like Pewdiepie. I am sure there is good content to be had but it also shouts a bit “buy my merch” Still a great classic because it is the dream pokémon of an 8 year old boy and those who never grew that much further into the franchise but for those who us who have been in this journey for so long.. this kind of feels like a REALLY?! pick for me. I am happy it is just number four though

***If you ask a Gewunner who is your favorite Pokémon!***

Number 3: Mimikyu

A … we return to good taste. I adore Mimikyu and find it infinitely funny that the one mimicking an OG is the more popular one of the two. Mimikyu is a ghost pokémon that dresses up like Pikachu because it also wants to be loved.. but if people see it’s true body they get cursed and oftenly perish. So it makes a costume that is very dear to it and which it will take very good care off, repairing it as soon as it is broken and not resting until it’s fixed again. This is one of those pokémon that truly touched by heart in a big way. He is the plushie I am missing most in my collection! Mimikyu is fun in the anime, it’s great during gameplay and even can see some lower tier competitive play. It has gotten quite a bit of love in the tcg and merch department as well so no matter which way you go there will be some Mimikyu for you.. without it being overly obnoxious. A great choice that is definatly in my own top 5.

Number 2 : Lucario

By far the worst pick on this list. It feels so normie. Lucario is a solid pokémon with a cool design and I did enjoy Korina and her Lucario in the anime but it is just a Mewtwo Echo Fighter in Smash, It’s so so in the pokemon tcg and for some reason it can never really live up to my expectations in games. Lucario feels slower than he should be and deals less damage than I think it should. It looks strong and cool but it also feels really catered to 8 year olds. I get why people are nostalgic for Charizard so I forgive them for voting for such a dudebro pokémon but Lucario.. I don’t know! It had that one movie it was really good in but I never really saw the appeal. At best I’d count him as my 5th favorite fighting type and MAYBE it’s in the top 3 of steel types for me. My second favorite Pokémon has now become Alcreamie I truly love it but I do get why it hasnt made this list

***Korina might be waifu Material, Lucario is as well to some!***

Number 1: Greninja

I’d go as far as saying Greninja is my favorite final water evolution. I love Primarina and Blastoise as well but Greninja had something that seemed much cooler than Water Types usually are. There is many water starters I prefer over it’s basic form Froakie, yet none evolve as cool as this one. It’s probably also one of my favorite water types to raise due to how diverse he is and how it makes so much more sense to use on land than most water pokémon. It’s protean ability which allows it to switch typings only makes it better. Since we now have Libero Scorbunny, which also allows it to switch typings base, a cool little tug of war is going on between those two. (Since Greninja gets a lot of dark type moves and Cinderace gets a lot of fighting types they might alternate between which one is super effective.

Greninja was also such a star in the anime, their bond even topping that of Ash and Charizard! In fact I might even argue their bond was better than that of Ash and Pikachu. Which is why never forgave Ash for abandoning it. Is Greninja that greatest pokemon ever? No… battlebond (Where it transforms into a hybrid between him and ash) feels to flimsey in games. Yet I do get the appeal. Not a top 10 pokémon for me by a longshot but a top 50 entry for sure. I also get why people love it which feels like a completely genuine pick so I am happy it at least got this much love! It shows that Pokémon is more than nostalgia.. it’s about bonds as well. And that is a message I can very much get behind.

***Leave it to Ash to abandon a Pokémon that can go Super Saiyan.. because they are so in Sync!***

Of course you should not take my opinion to seriously. Each Pokémon on this list has earned their love way or another. If yours is not here it doesnt mean it is trash either. That is the beauty of this series. Each finds what they love in different packages! I simply explained my view on these!
Who do you think should be added to this list?! Remember that I love you all and don’t forget to keep smiling

XO

Pinkie

*Our current campagin! Getting some orginal Art and and Orginal Pinkie Avatar!*
Click on the pic if you wanna help out!

Am I a Bad Person?

I have been making this post and deleting this post for a few times now. Recently I had a bit of a nasty experience in my beloved Pokémon Fandom. I dared to defend the new Mewtwo Remake, saying that if it’s not for those who do not like the artstyle that doesn’t mean it’s bad persé. I saw it as a new way to watch a classic. I am not a big fan of the style myself but at times the battles remind me of the games, especially back in the Pokémon Stadium days. For Nostalgia sake I would watch the new version. I have seen Mewtwo Strikes Back like seven times by now.. so I welcomed the chance to rewatch it in a different way. I will love Pokémon regardless … but does that make me a bad person?! Apparently to some it does.

Pinkie is a Fake Fan

I got accused of being a fake fan, who is destroying the franchise by simply going to see whatever is on offer. Yet this isn’t exactly true. I don’t buy everything from Pokémon. I will most likely not buy the Mystery Dungeon game, because I played it so much already it will not offer me enough new things. This movie however does! It’s a whole new look on an old movie. New effects, new animations, maybe not for the better but at least it breaks a monotony for me. Why is Nintendo greedy for doing this after 25 years? No one ever called George Lucas greedy when he released enhanced editions. When Lord of the Rings Extended cut came out.. no one said it was greedy to release an additional version. So why in this age do we have to keep nagging and demonising people for an updated version. It’s fine to not need them, for example , I do not like the Disney live action remakes , yet I do not think doing them taints the orginal classics in any way.

***I dn not mind other people do not mind these movies! As long as it gives Disney Budget to make more Baby Yoda stuff let others go see these!***

Is Disney greedy? In my opinion.. no…. and yes.. but it depends on what we count as Disney. We live in the age of shareholders, silent partners and major investors. It’s not like there is a single guy at the top rubbing his hands like Mister Burns saying… excellent the sheeple will buy everything. It’s a bunch of people in the shadow that do not care what Disney does that want numbers only. So sure at times companies will have to release stuff to up their numbers to keep everyone investing happy. We as fans might be at the heart of the company but the shareholders, money providers are the blood. The bigger the heart, the more blood it will pump, the healthier the company. However that blood doesn’t really care about the company it just wants to get that sweet sweet oxygen for those red blood cells.
The fandom can act like white blood cells to make some stands here and there to keep our company from getting sick sure.. but if we boycott and hate.. those red blood cell investor bastards just see less and less oxygen coming.. and eventually will just see that thing we love and try to block of from commercialism as dead. For any franchise we love we have to allow it to make as much money as possible.

**How people see companies they once loved for modernising their sales methods.**

So why would you hate on me for keeping the body alive? Why am I a fake fan for liking something and supporting it? My admission ticket for a movie, that game I buy that you think might not be worth it .. will help keep the franchise alive.. because it keeps the shareholders happy. If shareholders tell Nintendo that Pokémon doesn’t make money anymore.. because part 8 got boycotted.. they will tell Nintendo to pull the plug on it.. they will NOT tell them to make a better one. I will not buy everything myself, but I am grateful to the persons who do. I am happy people will buy the new/old mystery dungeon game, I am happy people still go to the pokémon movies. Because at times we do get some seriously awesome stuff. So are you a bad guy for giving critique to the company you love? No! You are the white blood cell. Am I a bad person for supporting the content I actually like, even if I might not LOVE it. No.. I am the heart that keeps the body alive.. and allows the white cells to fight for what they want. So can we all just realise this that there is no right opinion and we need both for progress?

***Shareholders. Creators and critical fans working together! Kept alive by the fan that keeps pumping money into the franchise.***

Pinkie is a horrible person

So defending something a majority dislikes now is a crime.. something that really stings. Another thing I recently got flack for is following certain youtubers. Because “They are assholes in real life” or “they have said mean things to fans”. Well , I am not friends with them or anything. I just enjoy their content. Their content does not equal them. Who they are in real life or how they act to fans is oftenly not in my field of interest. Sure if someone is victimised by a person we should offer them a platform of support do not get me wrong, but I do not want to be a judge on how someone should live their private life. If I have to stop watching a youtuber because he was mean to his girlfriend, or refused to sign an autograph , I feel like I would have to stop going to a store if my question got ignored as well, or if the store manager slapped his sister once. I should stop ordering online from site X because one of the order pickers has most likely cheated. It just feels hypocritical to judge some harder than others.. just because we have a dislike and unsubscribe button.

***In this “Orville” Episode people who get to many dislikes get “reprogrammed” in reality we are kinda already doing this!***

It feels a bit as if we live in some kind of Orson Welles like dystopia. People have to present themselves online to make money.. but the “people” decide how these people should behave. If you eat unhealthy, if you make ONE bad joke or if people find something in your tweet history of 10 years ago, your show could be cancelled and you lose your entire life. I do not want to get dragged into the whole social circus. This idea honestly scares so much. We are strangling individuality. We are forcing people to act like what we think is decent. Yet where is the limit? Soon we will dictate what a person eats, judge their spouses behaviour as well and so on. I do not want to be like that. I want people to be themselves. Flaws are included into this. A world where we force everyone to be flawless or flat out cancel their lives is something I will actively rebel against. It’s not up to us to judge a person for how they live their lives, as long as it’s not a crime. I’d rather watch an honest reaction of a guy who cheated on his wife about my favorite anime then a reaction of a person who is to afraid to do anything wrong and keeps their opinion as harmless as possible, who lives not his own life but that of his viewers choosing.

***I want to eat Kebabs tonight..but it is served in a platic tub.. am I allowed to get it my sweet fans?***

Nowaday on Twitter I see a lot of comments like “If you are friends with someone who watches Loli’s you are a pedophile yourself’ .. Friendships have to be broken to keep your own social status. Sure they are only online “mutuals” but is that really the world you want to live in? For me it’s certainly not! Yes I have a friend who cheated on another and I am still friends with them. Why? Because it does not expunge the good stuff that the friend in question did for me. They supported me in harsh times so I will do the same for them. Friendship is meant to be in good times and in bad. They did not cheat on me and me banning that person from my life would not benefit either. Sure the victim might feel a bit happier but in the end what good would it be to them either. So am I really a bad person for sticking with people who have vices. For appreciating what they have done for me.. over what they did to others? I do not think so, a cheater might be very very unhappy.. we can not look into their brain.. so are we right to judge them? I am not sure. Again.. the law is the law and we should offer a platform to support those hurt but we do not have to demonise everyone. I stick by my friends and those who did something important to me. If that makes me a horrible person.. that might just be a badge of honour I’d proudly take.

***Me celebrating my badge of honour!***

Pinkie is a crybaby

The fact that I liked Pokémon and that I defended the new Pokémon movie got negated by a guy who commented. Those who defend this movie all have pronouns in their twitter bio! Most of them use she/her so their opinion doesn’t count. This post made me cry. Do we have to alienate people to get our factualise our opinion? Why does the Pokémon movie have to suck? Why can’t people just feel it’s sucky. Our opinions aren’t facts. Why do you have to devalue my opinion for disagreeing with you. I am not asking to you to agree with my opinion, I just ask people to accept people might think in otherways and just burning something down is not always in the interest of others. Why do I have to be a bad person simply for disagreeing. Why do I need to be demonised and my opinion invalidated. Most of the time this polarised view comes from the negative camp, though not always as fanpeople can also be somewhat toxic to criticism. Yet I simply can’t see why it has to be this way. No one is factually right. An Opinion never EVER is. So no one deserves to be a bad person for having one that is unpopular.

**Kids do you prefer Ketchup or Lemon Meyonaise!?**

I cry a lot when I read forum when someone is called stupid for saying a perfectly viable argument. It worries me how people have become. It’s great that you fight for the environment that makes you GOOD. That doesn’t make people who aren’t as active BAD. The world is not that black and white. Dumping toxic waste, actively choosing toxic materials as packaging because it is cheaper is BAD. I do not separate all my waste because I do not have the room in my super small apartment. I do it as much as I can but I can’t have three trash bags in my house because I do not have room for three. I do not think that makes me a bad person. With my monetary means, with my living space, I will not always have room to do what is best. Should I give up that little bit of luxury or those games , or cute thing I buy each month to give me some semblance of happiness in order to be a good person? I do not think I need to do that.

***Super Saintly Pinkie is certainly something people should not ask for!***

Pinkie is Selfish

Everyone deserves some happiness and not always will that happiness be good for everyone. Not because I do not wish my happiness to be in the way of others but because inevitably it will anyway. If I fall in love with a girl.. some other girl might lose a chance to be with her ex, or maybe I deny some friends that one night with her because I took her out for dinner on a night they would want to party with her. Sometimes we will hurt each others feelings, it’s sad but it is a fact. If I let them go because it’s a bigger group.. maybe another group asking her out for drinks the next day gets hurt because “she already went out that week and would rather watch netflix” Than I hurt the other friends. Somewhere somehow people will be disappointed in my call. Somewhere down the line I will disappoint anyway. So here is my view. If I am gonna do it wrong to some people anyway.. might as well do it right for me. I am the only person who can look in my brain so I can without fail say if my actions will make me happy. I can only guess that for other people. So why not live life the way I know I get at least some customer satisfaction?

***I try to make a person smile every day… that pink lady in the mirror!***

We are always thought to think of others , but oftenly we defend people who aren’t even hurt. We call out western people in kimonos because it’s deemed stealing culture. Meanwhile japanese people are happy people are willing to try it.. as long as they respect the customs. Little girl tries to bring awareness to save the planet.. meanwhile we calculate how polluting her campaign is. Why can’t we look at the good side? Why do we demonise everything. I do not want to hear why I should not like an anime or a game, I prefer to hear reasons why I should. Isn’t that how love is supposed to work? You can have a thousand reasons not to love something but all you really need is one reason why you should? When did this change? I love Projared’s videos because he really loves the games and lets them shine as much as his personality. That’s what I want in a youtuber. I enjoy the new Pokémon game and the new pokémon movie because they allow me to experience something classic in a new coat of paint making it a fresher revisit. I love my friends despite their flaws because of what did for me! I do not judge them on what they did to others. The only way I can make sense of this world is by putting me in the center of it. At least that way I got some answers I can rely on.

***I am the center of MY uniiverse.. does that make me so fat that I have gravity?***

Pinkie is Pinkie: Deal with It

So am I a bad person? I help my friends, I fight for them but also can be stern to them..without abandoning them. I do think about myself and my own enjoyment but I also actively seek ways to include as many people in that as I possibly can. I think that is the reason why I can not see myself as a bad person. I try to include people. I might not operate on the global macro scale in terms of good, I try to be there on the micro scale. Help those who help me and those I can really get to know. It does mean forgiving some sins that in the eyes of the common folk might be unforgivable .. but everyone deserves a chance of happinesses. I think we need good guys on all levels. Yet not being good doesn’t always equal bad.

***Welcome to my World it’s not just blacks and whites! Mostly Pinks!***

Good and Bad usually are still only opinions though so I guess neither is either completely right as well. So am I a bad person? Probably in the eyes of a lot of people I am. But it is okay.. because I am kinda happy with the way I live. At least I try to be! And my sweet little readers, I think you should do that to. If you are going to be a bad person.. make sure at least it still makes someone happy! That way.. being bad isnt so bad after all.

A BIT of History (Part 2): Flintstones Treasure of Sierra Madrock

My TALDIG is fired up once again. Today we look at the past trough video games of the past yet again. As my mutating Fish-Bird-Kotowaru-Evolve thing stranded in the early age of men! Let’s begin there! Because there is a lot we can learn about this. Like if we believe history books, Humans and Dinosaurs never lived together.. but if we look at these games.. we clearly find evidence that they did! And today’s game even proofs they had a advanced society…. AND mode 7 graphic segments.

I wanted to do some ccover-art.. but now I can give you art and the main theme! Yay!

This is how we Rock

This licensed based game was first released to the public in America in the month or march of 1994. Europe and Asia would get the game a few months later in June and August respectively. The game was developed by Taito who also published it. In this game de designers build a game that used the Flintstones License into a Platformer with some board game, racing game and mini game elements. Anno 2020 a loose cartridge will cost you at least €25,- in Europe (PAL) but the American version easily run upwards of $50 dollars. In original packaging the game can easily run you upwards of $150,- dollars. Trough completing platforming stages a player can move up to two character (Barney and Fred) through a board game stage where they have to hit a few set encounters to complete a pathway to four additional areas. Movement on the overworld is RNG based so if you fail that stage with lots of bonus items.. you might not get to play it again but at the same time if you get stuck, RNG could make you skip a level you can’t beat.

*Fred is already looking for innocent dinosaurs to club!*

It is a interesting and novel concept to play around with that has some issues in the first half of the game. In the first map your fated encounter travels across the map himself and with Wilma and Betty walking around the map, who upon encountering them can set you set back several spaces the chase of this water Buffalo guy can make this game feel way more tedious than it is in later stages. The game has a pretty exploitable life gain mechanic in the form of bingo. Each time you exit a stage the last digit of your time left gets crossed of a bingo card, the more paths lines you form with a digit the more lives you have. This resulted in me ending the game with 82 lives, which would have capped at 99 if I did not discover the sprint button so late into the final world. All in all gameplay wise it’s a bit more floaty than Mario but due to how different it feels it just feels like a nice, slightly to easy change of pace.

***The Wheel when invented cleary did things It doesnt anymore!***

One Stone

Did you know that in the stone age they already had clubs and secret societies? Did you know they already played bowling and had some sort of olympic coliseums where they held foot races, car races and even ice skating competitions? Did you know that the cavemen had game shows that involved playing several mini games like Bobbing Monkeys on the head, Playing pinball with an armadillo and a shooting range for catapults? Well it’s in this historical game so clearly it must be true! In this game the Great Poobah, whatever that is decides to retire so he leaves everything he has.. in one TREASURE! He who will find it shall be named King of the Water Buffalo’s… wait a second…. this basically is the story of One Piece!

***(He actually said those who find….. the treasure.. but this would be cool as well)***

***So both stories.. are explained on parchement as well..Hmmm***

I am actually not kidding. Fred has to find maps, a compass and other tools to help him find a treasure their great leader has hidden. He who finds the treasure shall be made the new leader of the Water Buffalos. So all these silly people spread out across the world to search for this treasure. So you see boys and girls, the Flintstones did this story 3 years before the first one piece manga came out! It was invented in the age of cavemen! Not the age of pirates. At least now we can safely assume that Gol.D.Roger’s ancestor was the great Poobah once. Such an honour. Anyway …… This story let’s you traverse through five different worlds. There is about 10 ish platforming stages in each with a few boss stages and special event stages in between. You jump, climb, battle and race yourself to the title of Great Poobah… or you allow your wife to take you home and allow her to wear the pants in this relationship.. even if pants have not been invented yet.

***Not sure if this abuse flies anymore!***

No TRubble

In the town of Bedrock we fight big monkeys tossing coconuts, we cross waterfalls, beat huge armadillo’s and jump over stampeding cows. Occasionally we also have to avoid a cop car… and no you dumb dumbs in the age of the flintstones cars did not have engines yet.. you just ran in them… you just could run a lot faster in them because they have wheels! Like big steam press ones! Jeezs! Get to learn your history guys! It’s good I am doing this thing. In the volcano level you mostly avoid tar pits, walk on huge stone balls that always fall out of Volcanoes for some reason. Not sure why.. but why are these rocks always huge stone balls? I mean it makes sense because now we can run on them like they are a barrel.. in every video game. But why are they so round? But again lesson learned.. apparently 20.000 BC all volcanoes .. and there were a lot of them, only spat perfectly spherical stones. They don’t tell you that during history class but fudge me.. that is interesting.

The Flintstones Treasure of Sierra Madrock does take a bit to get used to. Fred and Barney have this Yoshi like hover jump along side a bit floatier jump than Mario. Apparently in the past humans could run in the air. But since they did live with dinosaurs.. and Yoshi is a Dinosaur who also knows that moves.. that kinda makes sense. They must have seen the dinosaurs do it.. and mimicked it.. however with the Dinosaurs extinguished by a perfectly round meteor the knowledge must have been lost. Lessons. Mankind in the form of Barney and Fred later unlocked a double jump by completing a complete olympic lap in under a minute which also explains why I can’t double jump. So again I think it’s safe to say this part of history is verified. Of course the double jump only works if you have clams in your pocket and I never do.. except for that one time. But that explains why Usain Bolt never double jumped either. All in all the first two areas are perfect to teach you how to play the game. Once you figured out how timing works in this game you can zoom past these stages.

***After getting hit by so many cocouts Barney Swelled up all big and purple.. and kinda braindamaged he thought he became a dinosaur***

On the Rocks

Difficulty ramps up a bit during the ice stage, the platforming takes a bit of a puzzle aspect in some stages using slippery platforms and launch pads to spice up the actions. Unfortunately by this time any platforming enthusiast will have somewhere in the area of 60 lives already. Now that supply WILL dwindle there but in this stage the Board game aspect really hurts the game. Sooner or later you will roll another digit on your bowling ball (I have not figured out how these caveman made that work.. perhaps like a magic 8 ball) and skip the stage you are having trouble with. Is this a good thing… I guess, you’ll never get stuck , but I also lacked a sense of satisfaction to finally beat a stage I struggled with, because some others are just so easy still. Luckily you can keep walking in an area to complete all the levels, but while the bowling ball is heavily biassed to roll 1 (instead of 2 or 3) it’s kind of annoying to walk around waiting for you to land on the right tile to finish that one level you want to beat.

The fourth world of the game is a jungle themed one and is a complete throwaway , it’s super easy. I did not die a single time in this world. It was in this world that I stopped completing all the stages as well because I knew they would not pose any challenge. This world mostly revolves around the mechanic of flying platforms. You see back in 20.000 bc a lot of Ptera dinosaurs, (not sure if Pteranodon or Pterodactyl) were born with a chain and platform attached to their feet. If a human jumped onto them the weight increase would scare them and prompt them to fly to a nearby platform so the human could jump of. Of course in the treetops of the jungle there aren’t a lot of platforms so they would fly to their family so they could carry the human for a while instead. In theory is a moving platform world something potentially quite challenging, but with the moveset of Mister Rubble and Mister Flintstone as well as the movement speed and sheer size of these platforms it might even be the easiest world yet. The flavor is also a bit lost as the Water Buffalo’s did not get this far, from here on out no more ice racing, mini games or cafe’s to buy life points.
So now it became a kind of generic platformer.

**Now he is regretting not inventing pants sooner!**

A rock solid game to Yabba-Dabba-Do

The final world is a series of dash to the finish stages that can be surprisingly challenging. They all feel extremely samesey though .. It’s like the cave stages in Super Mario World.. the Donut Plains 2 stage. It’s basically exactly that.. just harder.., with a 30 second time limit and the bats look more evil and instead of gold.. there is just more rock! There were a lot of strange things about stone in the stone age. Not only does having a stone wheel make you walk faster.. It could also rise up and down from the ground to block your path and crush you. Or it could delay you long enough for you to starve.. even if you ate an apple 30 seconds ago. Cavemen were weird back then. This fifth world has two tiers which means you have to play that samesy stage over about 15 times.. maybe 12 with some lucky rolls. I had fun, I felt challenged but each stage that started I was like..again..? Why am I not finished yet?

**Fun fact.. All these three are a different stage and all look like the other 12.**

After the fifth world you find the treasure and become the new great Poobah! But oh no! Your wife emancipated 22.000 years before most did so now you have to run or you will be dragged home by your ear! Since that now is 5 continents away.. you better avoid that. And we see the end credits. I finished this game in just under three hours and could have been a lot faster had I discovered the sprint button earlier and not feel the need to complete all stages. Yet for the first three worlds I did indeed feel compelled to do it all. Which speaks well enough on it’s own to tell you how this game feels. 50% I really enjoyed and the other 50% was solid to playthrough but I felt saturated. Since you do not want to use the password system of this game (believe me) this is one of those.. finish in one go kinda games.. not counting the power of the sonic save state. So for what this game is.. a game for an evening, this game feels pretty solid. Each time you play , be it alone or with a friend the rng system will give you a bit of a different route. It still will be easy for most who platform a lot, and if not I would not assume this game to be on your radar, but that is okay sometimes. It’s a perfect game to unwind. I LOVED and I mean LOVED the cries the characters make when hit , both Barney and Fred as the Dinosaurs who get clubbed! Such Kawaii death sounds!

Check from 11:40 till 12:40 if you want a demo on all the cute sounds.

It’s such a shame that you will most likely mute them… because the music in this video game.. while not bad… is SOOOOOOOOO repetitive. Each world has 1 or maybe 2 world themes. A racing theme and an overworld theme. Yet each stage has 10 stages so hearing that same song every darn stage can make you lose your marbles. It is nice that the first overworld rocks a jazzy rendition of the main flintstones theme and the level completion music is cheery as well..jeesz a little variety never killed anyone. Personally I would have liked it if they went for a hard ,medium or easy route to get to a target each time you could switch lanes (difficulty) or progress of course with more rewards along the harder routes. Each difficulty could have it’s own music as well .. that would be killing two birds with one stone. Could it be more yes! Yet all in all the 2,5 hours I spend on this game I still say where well spend. Not worth the $150,- but if you happen to be able to play it .. SOMEHOW. It’s worth a quick playthrough!

**Slight notes of Berry can be detected but that flavour that loses in intensity half way down the drink!**

Now Fred has been locked outside his door once more, so it’s time to move on before he starts pounding and yelling. Next time we will look at our final pair of caveman, who have a sweetheart in every stage! Next time we finish our prehistory arc with Joe and Mac: Caveman Ninja’s… Did you know caveman could be Ninja’s? Neither did I .. but then again Ninja’s have always been secretive.. so it makes sense.. so it must be true! But that 1991 story will have to wait for the future! Remember I love you all and keep smiling!

XO

Pinkie

**Use this actual in game password to check out other BITS of History!**

Previously on BIT of History

-Part 0: What is Pinkie Doing now?
-Part 1: E.V.O. The Search for Eden

Next time:

Short but sweet? Nah! Give it A Light Novel Title! That Time Pinkie Got Nominated To Be Weird!

I got so excited I could not wait for the next day to come anymore! I really love this new tag thingy so since today’s post failed I might as well do this one as it is quick and hilarious. Let’s try the “Give It A Light Novel Title Challenge” For those who don’t know, most Isekai shows hold similar titles such as. “ I did not want to get hurt so I maxed out my defence” “Didn’t I tell you to make my stats average in the next life”
Some more “niche examples can be found in visual novels ..for example “My Twin Brother Made Me Crossdress as Him and Now I Have to Deal with a Geeky Stalker and a Domme Beauty Who Want Me in a Bind!” Today we will do that.. to existing anime!

The Rules

Insert the obligatory rules copy and past right here:
Of course I would like to thank Iriina Senpai very much for nominating me for this one. This sort of wacky stuff really cheers me up and I needed a little pick me up today! So yay for her! Kinda scary if she knew. I got nominated by Shallow Dives into Anime for a Real Neat Blogger award once so you should already be subscribed to them.. if you listen to me last time! If not here are both A Wodka Mar-Rini and a Shallow Swimming Pool (that saves me on some booze) cocktails to take you the these amazing blogs

**Visit Irinina by Clicking her Magical Cocktail!**

**Visit Dewbond by clicking on this shallow swimming pool!**

Now that I made these cute drinks it is time to press Crtl+V.. and the next part writes itself.
“I am a magical girl I make text appear like POOF”

Choose up to five anime, manga or visual novel series that have a short title
- Light novels that have shorter titles (Date A Live for example) are also allowed.
Give these series a new title based on those classic overly long Light Novels we love!
If someone has already picked a series you wanted. It’s OK! Let’s see your own take on the title!
Link back to the original post so I can read people’s suggestions, I’d love to read everyone’s ideas. (it’s this post right here)
Include Give it a Light Novel title in your tags so everyone including myself can find them all easily. (my tags are getting out of hand)
Nominate around 1-6 bloggers.
Crow
Hikari
Fred
Iniksbane
Iridium Eye
Mononoke
Lyn
Megan

And now it’s time to get creative with names. I hope Senpai will like approve. Even if some of my titles are a bit META.. I think it will be alright! So here we go! Of course I will be doing six instead of five titles because six is the number of love.

The Challenge

Jojo’s Bizarre Adventures: Stardust Crusaders.

Okay.. this one is not a short title.. but the first part is a brand name so please forgive me. I think it’s clear that the actual title should have been.

Yare Yare Daze! A Vampire killed my ancestor’s dog and stole his body, now I have to punch The World to save my mother!

Catchy!

Kill la Kill

Of course I would pick this one I love this anime! The plot is so insane so we can have a lot of fun with the name! Also why do always prefer shows with flamboyant antagonists?

My family … and clothing….. is Evil,wearing my skimpy, talking outfit and using half a scissor I have to battle them.

Unlike Senketsu …. the new title fits!

Fullmetal Alchemist

Now it’s time to get to the good stuff. The next one is more of a Meta name. Rather looking at that the series is, we name it for one of the most iconic scenes.

I am not SHORT! I am the Hero! So why does everyone keep talking about that guy who Gattaid his daughter and her dog?

I guess I did not have to COMBINE this anime with this challenge.. but might as well fuse it with a meme thing as well.

Akikan

Now something a bit more niche though probably most of you have heard ot his one. I chose this one because over explanation only makes it’s better.

My melon soda turned into a cute girl, I have to keep her carbonated and win this weird war game.

There was a lot of naked protagonist shots in this show! So that is not my thing! Yet I liked the light hearted tone.. and with our new title.. we made it even more bubbly!

Brynhildr in the Darkness:

Now one more niche title before I move on to my final pick! I watched this show and felt it was a bit of a mediocre elfen lied imitation. Yet it gets so much better with a Visual Novel title.

My childhood sweetheart fell of a dam. Now she is a goverment controlled super weapon with a melt button!

This show is mediocre at best.. but with a cute title like that it can’t help but to melt your icy hearts a little .. right?

Bleach

Finally the long awaited number 6! A series everyone will know. .in most cases not for it’s qualities but for this particular trait. Which we will use in the Visual Novel Title.

This Hero Can’t handle conclusive battles! So each epic fight, he isekais to a brand new story!

Now I could conclude this with a joke about bleaching my eyes or something..but any joke here would just feel like filler content.

Which title is your favorite one? How would you name one of these? Let me know in the comments and if you like what I did do not forget to subscribe to my sweet little blog! If you don’t I will replace your bleach manga.. with bleach filler! Love you all! Keep smiling

XO

Pinkie

Pet Hyenas and Sparkle Guns: Birds of Prey Review

So recently I saw Birds of Prey the new Harley Quinn movie starring Margot Robbie as the subtitilular character. The movie is subtitled : The Fantabulous Emancipation of one Harley Quinn and as such focus heavily on the pale skinned prankster. While here presence could not save the Suicide Squad movie perhaps an all female cast can makes us fly with these badass broads .

Girl Power

Birds of Prey like the subtitle says is a movie about emancipation. We start with a cute toon depiction of the ballad of Harley Quinn, her rise and fall as the gal of the clown-prince of gotham.Harley is now single and having fun in her live.. coping with their break up. Which goes about as well as expected from the most well known Western Media Yandere and mental masochist. Harley still uses her status as Joker’s girl to misbehave in some clubs and get away with her crimes unpunished. Then one day in a bar she has a talk with Dinah Lance, a singer in a club who is controlled by crazed gangster boss Roman Sionis a.k.a. Black Mask. Seeing a woman so afraid of the man she belongs to and having way to much to drink Harley decides to steal a gas truck and blow up Ace Chemicals to signal the world she is trough with Joker.. in order to get closure. The way the movie sets up this murder of hundreds as an act of Emancipation feels odd and for me that feeling stuck throughout the rest of the movie.

While this movie is perfectly entertaining I noticed a discord, in the writing and the subtext. It feels like through dialogue , Harley’s narration, certain looks in eyes and of course the subtitle, you think this is about girls who no longer stand to be oppressed by those who put them down. Rise up against that tyrant suppressing them and while if we purely look at beginning and end. However if we look at the actual movie that is not what happens. None of these girls main motivation is emancipation. It’s either about revenge or surviving. For the biggest part of the movie the more focussed on characters in the movie are even trying to serve a man.In the story it makes perfect sense but with the message they are trying to send out some characters end up feeling awfully inconsistent.

TWO FACE

The two tones of this movie are also present in Harley Quinn herself. Which makes sense because she is a character that can be insanely cruel but also a semi-good-gal. Still it seems a bit to extreme. For example we see Harley blow up a chemical plant, no doubt killing hundreds working inside. We even see a few workers present. It’s just implied deaths but we also see Harley Quinn feed people to her pet hyena Bruce. Which still feels very Harley, she has Hyenas in the comics and it fits her so that is fine. However when Harley is sent to raid a police station to get a little girl for Black Mask, she suddenly shows up with bean bag pullets, glitter launchers and paint sprays to non lethally take down her enemies. Why would she spare the cops? She never did before? The incident that mallows her out a bit and pushes her more to the good spectrum hasn’t even happened in this point in the movie yet. It feels as if she turned “good” beforehand to make her fit in whatever situation she would end up with. It feels like a dramatic departure to get the crowd more on her side but it felt very odd.

Around the midway point we get another odd scene that doesn’t really match with the tone off the movie. It’s a scene involving the Hyena and the subsequent scene involving an old chinese man. What could be used as a series of events to emancipate Harley even further.. is used to negate emancipation.While the reaction from Harley Quinn is a somewhat logical one for someone in her circles it feels like a departure of the character so far.. just so we can set up a finale. There are a lot of scenes that do not pay off and it feels like a shame that something that gets a very cool set up doesn’t pan out just to add some other cool scenes. It all feels incohesive. The Ronan character and how extremely villainous he is is the biggest problem with this. He brutally murders anyone who messes with him, except for one moment..that felt like plot convenience. His murderous fickle nature make all characters we should care for act against their nature more than once. He isn’t a very good character to watch either. For someone so evil he is extremely.. passive.

Colours

So the writing is a bit wonky to say the least it isn’t exactly bad but I can’t help but shake the feeling this is not the movie it wants it to be. It is not about a broken woman rising to stand up on her own feet. Yet it is also not a dark story about a murderous gangster that pushes four women to despair either. A big flaw in my book but it does just about everything else right. The cinematography is very solid. Each shot feels unique and especially the scenes with Harley feel extravagant and crazy. There is so much colour in this movie so much fun flips and stuff like the glitter flying about. Each action scene is a spectacle to see and each uses a very unique fight choreography. It felt zippy and fun, like little action dance. Each little dance forming a pretty petal connected to a flower that doesn’t smell all that sweet. It still looks very pretty though and even better it sure looks pretty.

***If you gotta shoot people do it like this! Nice and festive!***

From Harley’s new design that isn’t as ratty as how she looked in suicide squad to the sets they visit, it all feels so unique. The flashy club, the sterile, clean looking police station, the little chinese apartment, the fun house, and more. Each location feels unique.. but it also feels Gotham. The way harley draws mr J as the more classic comic book Joker.. or maybe the Mark Hamill one feels like part of the batman universe. Characters like Victor Zsasz finally making their screen debut help with this great comic booky feeling that this movie does have. For all it’s narrative flaws I felt the storytelling was fairly comic-like. You know one of those spin off comics that is nobodies favorite but ends up being liked by almost everyone.. because it’s solid. This movie is the same, it’s quite fun to watch but no one will name it their favorite dc movie.

Just a Bird

Birds of Prey is not a movie about the group of vigilantes by the same name. Birds of Prey is a movie about Harlequin whose path just crossed with a few other characters. Characters that aren’t all as strong. The female cop and Huntress are fleshed out fairly poorly. While we get what drives Huntress, she also gets a sort of returning gag.. but since she only becomes relevant near the movies finally it all doesn’t really connect. The jokes don’t feel earned and her presence is convenient at best. She is the only one not interested in the movies Mcguffin while it really feels she should. It gets addressed in the end a bit but it doesn’t feel earned or wanted or something. Montoya the police character is obsessed with this case but we never really get explained why, if feels like a sickly obsession rather than something she really fights for, which is fine but the obsession also never feels truly established, it’s an either or situation now and it makes it difficult to feel for her story. I’ll say it’s nice that she is an openly gay character but all in all she is fairly weak overall. Black Canary is fine, she is thoroughly fleshed out and has understandable motivations though again her character is not really emancipating. She feels more like a protective big sister who has to learn to conquer her fear. Despite her power reveal not paying off.. like many things in this movie all in all she was a very enjoyable character to watch.

***This movie sure makes things look special!***

In the end it’s all about Harley Quinn and they do nail that character. She feels delightfully odd but also quite sharp. This is one of the first depictions of Harley where I see her actively using her diploma in psychology to analyse people. She can tell people are lying to her or what they motivations are. She uses it to her advantage to escape certain situations or to push someone’s buttons at other times. We do see some parts of Harleen Quinzel still while this is oftenly glanced over so they get some serious credit for that. They also do a good job of showing how fickle she is.. even if they do miss the timing. Harley does indeed have a soft side that needs to be awakened and they set it up in an understandable method. Poor writing prevents it from having the impact it should but they address the right character aspects.Margot Robbie steals every scene she is in. This Harley feels much more playful than the one in Suicide Squad, she is having more fun but she is also more that frail little bird that got caged for to long and thus is unsure if it should fly away. It’s a great element in a movie.. in which all those great elements don’t connect together all that well.

It’s not Bad Man

Birds of Prey falls in the same vein as the last Skywalker for me. It’s a perfectly enjoyable movie as long as you are there to watch and can just look at the pretty colours, the funny jokes the good action it will be a fine watch. If you want to see a story about female empowerment , with a solid consistent plot filled with great balanced characters and a satisfying conclusion.. this might not be your movie. It’s a popcorn flick that feels a bit to nineties. So the popcorn is a bit old but still quite edible. It’s the sweet long lasting kind.. not the salted butter only eat fresh one. Birds of Prey in the end is nothing special, it’s not memorable and Ewan Mcgregor really puts some ham in his acting for this one over all it’s acted out well. Yet to poorly written to care for most. I do not feel overly positive or overly negative about it when making a list. It’s balanced. Despite that I would rank the movie neutral in terms of qualities, I was entertained trough 95% of it’s runtime. The ending dragged just a bit.This movie is like a hotdog with odd toppings. The dog is tastes good.. but it’s still just a frank,the toppings are all good..but unbalanced.. there is a lot of spicy sauce so we don’t taste the rest good enough. The bun is a bit dry and even feels kinda stale..yet all in all we get the snack we kinda came for.