Tag: Konami

Paradise Hill: Origins

POSTCARDS FROM PARADISE HILL

… I never really understood how I got there until long after I was already apart of the town. The last thing I remember is seeing Cookie walk into a fog. I followed in after him wondering where he was off to. He seemed quiet and more focused than usual. Eventually the fog grew so thick I could barely see directly in front of me. I called out for Cookie to no response.

It felt like I had been walking for days. Eventually the sand of the beach turned into asphalt and I began following the lonely white road line to keep some sense of direction. It felt as though I was traveling in dream years. So quickly through time that it gave the illusion of time itself standing still. When all at once the silhouette of a sign jutted out through the mist.

“WELCOME TO PARADISE HILL”

That was a few weeks ago I believe. But it could have been years ago. Time is a concept very rarely regarded in Paradise Hill. Besides, I had bigger fish to fry. I stood with the letter in my hand. I couldn’t believe it. The letter read:

“NOTICE OF EVICTION”

I stood shocked. I had fallen in love with the town. No traffic, no lines, no one to bother me. The fog made certain things and people a bit harder to see but really, once you got used to squinting all the time it was quite the destination. It had all of the makings and charm of your typical north west lumber town.

Nurses between shifts walking down the road together. I seem to see the same group every day after I wake up, hop out of bed and take a shower in Paradise Motel. “Hi ladies! Working hard or hardly working?” They always seem to get a kick out of it.

When I did leave the motel room in it was in short bursts. Run to the corner store and pick up a six pack – stop at the diner and use the kitchen to cook up a couple of steaks and then stroll merrily back through the blurry black and white white fog to my hotel room. Occasionally outside some loud fire siren would go off and it’d start to get dark outside but i never seemed to have an issue with it.

Just like anywhere else – you keep to yourself and no one tends to bother you. Not even in Paradise Hill. Until now.

As I read the eviction notice the board of directors at Paradise Hills sited a few reasons for my cause of eviction:

1.) LACK OF LODGING EXPENSES PAID: It’s true. I wasn’t paying rent. I mean no one ever asked. One time some guy with a huge hat knocked on the door and just sort of stood there and walked off. But I didn’t know if he was the landlord or just a creeper.

2.) THEFT OF GOODS AND SERVICES:

– (5) Welcome to Paradise Hill gift shop shirts

– (16) Six packs of Paradise Hill Ale

– (2) Bottles of sexual lubricant

– (1) Copy of The Titanic

– (1) Copy of Silent Hill: Origins

3.) FAILURE TO FACE YOUR OWN INNER DEMONS/ BE CREEPED OUT

Mr Winkle. Please – keep the goods you have procured and please leave town immediately. You are no longer welcome here at majestic Paradise Hill. Also your Sea Lion has been returned to your home safely. Please do not speak to any one on your way out as you have been creeping out the other residents for quite some time now.

Sincerely,

PARADISE HILL TOWN HALL

I packed up all my belongings as some beautiful sad music began playing from no where and I backpacked out of town. As I was on the outskirts of town I heard cheers of celebration. But before long I saw the bright lights and sights of Paradise again. Like a tilt-a-whirl through the dark. As I walked through the crowd no one seemed to notice me.

It dawned on me that I was now trapped in Paradise Hill forever. I was free to travel across the globe but no one would ever see me again. Only maybe being able to detect my presence here and there like that one movie with Sean Bean in it.

Baddest Bean on the planet.

Which I was completely fine with. I began to think of the possibilities of my new invisible life. I could sneak into Area 51 and finally figure out what the hell that place was all about. I could get into concerts for free. I could haunt people! This was going to be great. But my first mark was a hot dog stand I saw off the path near the coconut’s huts. I grabbed a roll and reached in the hot water and grabbed a hot dog. I slapped it into the bun and took a bite. Ah. Delicious hot dog stand hot dogs. Disgusting and delicious and now free for the rest of m-

“You gonna pay for that?”

Turns out I wasn’t invisible. And I wasn’t getting free hot dogs for the rest of my life. I walked home.

FANCY INTRO VIDEO

Released: March 4 2008

Developer: Climax Action (Sudeki, The Italian Job)

Published: Konami

Well back to reality and really sad gaming. Today, we have a case of a game that might have been alright if it wasn’t associated with such a strong franchise. I also sort of wanted to use this opportunity to explain what little work that does actually go into these posts and the sad consequences that result from playing (generally) nothing but bad games all of the time.

Not pictured: The Cry Hole that I crawl into after hours of bad gaming.
Shelves of despair

When Pinkie and I had a check in conversation (now that she has a palace built it’s become a whole event with feasts and festivities etc) she asked what I was working on. I told her I was planning on starting Silent Hill: Origins. She responded with, “isn’t that the really bad one?”

Which surprisingly it’s not the really bad one. It’s just not a really good one. Which sums up this game perfectly. If it were named anything else it would probably be considered a forgotten but slightly above average survival horror game – starts off kind of lame, picks up and ends in an absolutely nonsensical way. Put the words Silent Hill on the case however and now you’re looking at a lackluster experience.

In the game you start off as rootin’ tootin’ truck driver, Travis Grady. He’s driving his MAC Truck getting his kicks off Route 66 and all that when he spots a little girl in the road. He swerves to avoid her (as most human beings tend to do) and stops to get out and investigate the scene. Looking for the lost child, he sees her approaching from behind him in his rear view mirror only to disappear which scares the shit out of him but certainly doesn’t deter him from abandoning his vehicle and walking miles and miles in a thick fog in the middle of the road.

Eventually this leads Travis to a house fire. He spots some weird broad hanging out by the burning house and runs in because of course he does. And he rescues some kid that’s torched like a marshmallow. Eventually passing out – he awakes in Silent Hill to go search for the french fry kid and madness ensues.

Now, if I may – first off – I am a Daughter Daddy. She is the light of my life. When my wife was pregnant I think I surprised her by crossing my fingers and hoping for a daughter and we were lucky enough to get a bright, beautiful, healthy little lady. I fucking love that kid. BUT – I have watched enough scary movies to know that if I’m out in the middle of no where and some creepy little girl is hanging around – I’M NOT FOLLOWING HER. I DON’T CARE. GO AWAY. LEAVE ME ALONE.

Alright, with that out of the way lets cover a couple of things that this game does really nicely. The sound effects and soundtrack are top notch – Silent Hill quality. Like all other SH soundtracks, composed by the master, Akira Yamaoka. The absolute badass Thom Yorke-esque dark genius of video game soundtracks. The sound effects and music are unnerving and uncomfortable – aptly suited for the atmosphere.

I want to recommend this game so much more but it breaks my own personal cardinal sin of gaming: difficulty due to controls. There is nothing I hate more than fighting a game more than the story or gameplay itself.

Controls and saboteur camera angles are what takes this Silent Hill entry out at the knees. The storyline and voice acting isn’t seminal by any stretch of the imagination but it’s not noteworthy poor. The puzzles are weak and there is a lot of backtracking (RE style) – also not a lot of actual area to explore. For an open town the game has you on rails for a good majority of it.

Camera angles that can really get in your head

The game does certain things right but it does so many little things wrong that it begins to become a serious distraction. The small unnecessary changes are enough to anger longtime fans. The nurses now see and react to noise/light/everything – just another static sprite that is easy to avoid but lacks any of their signature creepiness.

You can pick up large heavy objects to toss at monsters – which is cool – but kind of pulls you out of it as you go through your inventory and realize that your character is carrying twelve portable TVs, three filing cabinets, sixteen I.V. drip bag stands and six different guns. I am not a huge fan of Resident Evil’s death-by-no-inventory-space strategy but how many fax machines can one guy hold?

Not to mention you don’t even really need weapons most of the time. The ability to punch your enemies is overpowered for a survival horror game. I have beat up so many nurses in the past week I could star in my own episode of COPS.

Bottom line: Please for the love of all things holy – Konami – if you are going to outsource one of your flagship franchises please let it be to Kojima Productions. I don’t give a shit what beef you guys have. Figure it out and lets do this.

SHOP TIL YOU DROP

Now here is where it gets tricky. To be frank, even the bad games I adore. I just love playing games. I love buying them, I love looking at my horrible collection of bargain bin trash just as much as any rare games I find. Like little trophies made from melted garbage can lids. They’re mine and I absolutely enjoy playing and writing about them.

Generally, on this blog I deal almost exclusively with cheap games. This game? Not very cheap. Luckily for me, I purchased this years ago before everything Silent Hill exploded in price online.

I would never, ever tell anyone what to buy or what not to buy. I wouldn’t even judge anyone for buying Rule of Rose for $16,999. I mean, I would hope you would find it cheaper but whatever at the end of the day it’s your money, you work hard for it, you spend it on whatever you want.

Right now it looks like it’s averaging about $110-120 on eBay.

Is it worth $2300? I’d have to give it a hard, “no.” But I clean pools for a princess that pays me in bad games – so you do you. I would suggest checking out eStarland or Lukie Games over bid sites for collector’s series games like Silent Hill. There are a ton of gougers that will buy everything up just to raise prices even higher upon resell THUS continually driving up market prices for regular gamers like you and I. Dicks.

DESERT ISLAND SONG

The classic that can get anyone in the mood. Even if it’s for Origins:

Periwinkle’s Lowing Hanging Fruit Punch Ingredients

1.) A small chunk of fur from Parka (Cold Winter)

2.) A thimble of Jack Bauer’s sweat (24: The Game)

3.) A can of Reservoir Dog Food (Reservoir Dogs)

4.) A handlebar mustache (American Chopper)

5.) Blood of a Backstreet Boy (American Idol)

6.) An impossible to control Q-Tip (CSI)

7.) The tooth of a terrorist (Fugitive Hunter)

8.) One Mona Lisa Smile (The Davinci Code)

9.) One Copy of, “Night Rocker” by The Hoff (City Crisis)

10.) One blood stained trucker hat. (Silent Hill: Origins)

Suggestions? Requests? Send me a message!

Pinkie’s Who Would Win: LeLouch VS Kamina

At times like these.. We need entertainment..and sure anime offers entertainment on it’s own but sometimes you want something more.. something ancient.. something more befitting as a princess. Bread and games! In the past I have done my take on Death Battles….with a twist because making people battle to the death is mean! In fact making them fight in general gets them hurt is mean as well! So I let the character face off in non violent ways! This time I will make LeLouche and Kamina play a game of YuGiOh!

Why Kamina and LeLouch playing Yu-Gi-Oh?

Lelouch

So the way this works is I focus on characters that have a lot in common. Before I had Naruto and Luffy play Mario Party as well as Yuno and Junko play a game of Gloom. Today I chose to do something a bit different..because this is not just a simple match! It’s also a lesson about perspective. About how opinions have a value that is very different to the one owning the opinion compared to the one listening.  Even Facts can change if you look at them form the right perspective. So why Kamina and Lelouche?!  Well first of all they both are charismatic leaders to an underground movement that fights the terrible people in power through amazing feats and mechs!  One does it by using his brain to  create larger than live scenario’s factoring in the  tiniest things imaginable, the other does it by sheer reality shattering determination. In a way it’s a battle between brains and heart. YuGiOh is an interesting battlefield for such a match. 

Kamina

I also chose this math because it would feel extremely one sided. Something you can very easily call at first glance. We all know LeLouche is a lot smarter than Kamina, he can outstrategise him very easily. If they were to play a game of YuGiOh as we can play it in our current day.. there is no doubt LeLouche would lose to Kamina. Yet this where negativity on the internet.. and flame wars start. People ASSUME just from my title.. sure LeLouche would win, he is so much smarter. We already determine the skillset in our mind needed to overcome the challenge… However, is that really true from all angles? No! I hate LeLouche as a character and I love Kamina as a character.. so I am biased. So as a writer I am going to make Kamina win! If you have assumed that outcome, congrats! You looked at the one fact that I can not change.. the writer’s preference. All the other facts I can bend, and I will prove this next.

Setting the Stage

This will not be our stage!

If we take LeLouch and Kamina into a realistic setting than there is no doubt LeLouche would win… but what if I argued with you, there would not be a match at all?! Even with a concept of mine.. an event like this needs an audience. Modern day YuGiOh doesn’t really have that, it’s not all that fun to watch plus if we treat Kamina and LeLouch like normal guys we also take away what makes them great. They are Anime characters so people would want their match to be anime as well. People would want to see LeLouche shout out “You Have activated My Trap Card” or see Kamina contact fuse X Head Cannon with Y Dragon Head on instinct. We want this duel to be scripted and written in order for it to shine! We need that fan-service. This changes the outcome to the match considerably!  A Match between LeLouch and Kamina in YuGiOh HAS to be set in the anime setting of YuGiOh to be interesting… and here is where  “Zero” quickly loses his ground.

THIS will be our stage!

But before we will look at why I will make LeLouche lose let’s first think about what type of decks they would be playing… just for fun! It’s anime YuGiOh so this is all just flavouring. Both of them will have lots of machine cards. LeLouche will have a deck that is somewhat of a mix between the deck of Bandit Keith and Espa Roba. His signature card will be Jinzo. It is a powerful disruptor card that was very dominant in the Meta for years. LeLouche’s style of fighting is very reactive, he forces his opponents into actions while taking over dominance through their mistakes. Thus his deck would contain cards like Cyber Jar.. Cyber Dragon and Man Eater bug (only a mechanical version to fit more into his archetype) He would probably play cards like Powerbond (which is a fusion card for mechanical monsters that doubles their attack power for the price of you paying their original life points next turn). Kamina will have a deck along the lines of Jaden Yuki.. Elemental Hero/Neos contact fusion decks, maybe some XYZeed  cards, again with a mechanical twist.. but still very much in line with the hero deck, let’s say a “roid” variation of Yaden’s deck.. Kamina overwhelms ands rushes in, his strategy is focussed on heavy hits and using cards like Limiter Remover to gain new heights and overcome the new obstacle in front of his way.

You have activated my trap card! Role Reversal!

Lelouch’s Ace

So once again we find ourselves in a conundrum! It looks like LeLouch would be more likely to have a reactive deck , he has the  smarts and is super analytical.. and there in lies his problem.  He is not YuGiOh’s protagonist material.  Whether it is Yugi, Yudai, Yusei,Yuma, Yuya  Yusaku or Yuga, they all have something in common other than the first two letters to their name!  They duel..with their hearts rather than just their brain.  In fact all of the YuGiOh protagonists face a character whose intelligence is unsurpassed. In case of Yugi and Yuya they face the creator of their respective game, the ones that know all the nuances. In case of Yusei he faces a character from the future whose knowledge is unsurpassed. We see LeLouch make choices where things are being sacrificed.. oftenly  not the things he treasures most.. but he is willing to make hard choices.  Most seasons of YuGiOh go out of their way to show that this is wrong.

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Kamina’s sort of ace

Kamina however is almost exactly what a YuGiOh protagonist is. Like Yugi he is the mentor of another, like Yusei he has a lower class origin, like Yuya there is some mythos about his father and about walking in his shoes. He also has some similarities to Yuma, where the lead of YuGiOh Zexal says KATOBINGU.. as a away to make him surpass his limits, it is basically the same as Kamina’s well known phrase about a Drill Piercing the heavens.  Kamina is even colour coded correctly to be a YuGiOh protagonist.  The loud happy go lucky main characters were predominantly read, while the cool characters were predominantly blue.  Kamina wears both.. and manifests both traits. Meanwhile Deuteragonists in Yu-Gi-Oh tend to be colour coded in Black or White. If this story would be a YuGiOh story Kamina would be the main character, and therefore be more likely to take the win!  This is no Guarantee, but it is an indication.

Every Yu-Gi-Oh! Protagonist, Ranked by Hairstyle | CBR

I activated my Spell Card: Power Bond!

Now LeLouch has a way to win through his Geass.. he could make Kamina give up the match.  We have  seen that people would try to resist his Geass, so even if we factor in Kamina’s sheer determination.. he might be able to compel the man into a victory?! But I would argue that LeLouch would not use his Geass on Kamina for this. First of all LeLouch is a brilliant chess player and I think this would cause some sense of honour in him when it comes to games. He wants to prove his superiority often as well, at times in his own show even, flaunting it a bit. Like I established earlier this is for all intends and purposes a friendly game. Lelouch is very much a zealot for his cause and would be much more inclined to  think about ways to make Kamina come to his world after the match. Use his Geass for when it matters. Perhaps he would make Kamina be forced to tell how Gataii works or find a way for him to get actually home.

By YuGiOh logic the match would have an audience of friends as well.. as rarely a match is watched without friends being present.. here LeLouche however takes and advantage.. as he is not the protagonist, he MIGHT be able to duel alone!  However the Deuteragonists in YuGiOh tend to have a sidekick strolling with them. Be It Mokuba or that weird Robot in Zexal. LeLouch is not evil so he would probably have a companion…and unless that is Ralo it might be hard for LeLouche to use Geass in public. He still might… but it is heavily dependent on many variables. The power that comes closest to LeLouch’s power is that of the Millenium Rod .. but we will put it in the millenium Eye .. because.. you know the obvious reasons! Either way the power of LeLouch ends up on the Antagonist spectrum.

Kamina on the other hand, is never really attributed a power… yet he very much has one!  Kamina warps reality!  At several times , Kamina WISHES something into reality. Whether it is for their gunmen to fuse, just by believing to it..to more subtle things.. like making the Katana in his sheath longer than it actually can be to old some offensive presence against a beast man.. Kamina has a power to stack the deck in his favour , quite literally!   Can you care to guess who also has this power?!  That’s right! The Protagonists. Yugi , Yusei and Yuma for a fact have manifested new cards in their decks.. with either cards combining while there is nothing in the extra deck or cards being powered up! Exactly like what Kamina did with Gurren and Lagann or his Katana respectively. Like Kamina non of these character actually possess this ability.. with the exception of Yusaku.. yet they all manage to do it to land them a victory… just like how Kamina beats Viral. Unlike the Code Geas Protagonist, the Gurren Lagann Deuteragonist also seems much more likely to use this power, because Kamina is much more in the moment and less strategy! Reality bending by believing in your own will seems very much like heart of the cards to me!

The Actual Match

So how would this play out?! Let’s say the match set up would be as follows. It would take place somewhere after the evil king arc of Yu-Gi-Oh GX. We all know the Shadow Realm is a Dubismn for death, yet Yudai has traveled to the world of spirits.. which also happened in Yu-Gi-Oh 5d’s so  this story could also be set after Rua’s trip to the spirit world as well. Two people who died would travel back with them somehow to this new world. Not knowing how to get back Kamina and LeLouch would have to find a way to get back to their world.. which they would be trying.  Both of them quickly find out to get anywhere in this world you have to learn how to duel.  After getting their respective   decks the two would travel around trying to find a way home.. before eventually hearing rumors about  a duelist that claims to be from another world.. where giant robots are used to fight the evil rulers of that world.  Seeking each other out the two would end up in a duel!  Neither willing to share information with that other stranger.


Kamina would begin the match a bit stumbling..much like a Joey wheeler. Forgetting that Five star monsters need a tribute, and he would function as the exposition provider for the first part of the match where the basic rules. LeLouch would start the match carefully, playing monsters in defence position, like a Man-Eater bug along with some trap cards.. Maybe a Scrap Metal Scarecrow  Trap card to get a read on his opponent first. LeLouch would not immediately punish Kamina.. as his ignorance could be fake! Besides.. even if Kamina would end up losing this match, he could always use his Geass on Kamina to make him tell him what he knows.. but there is something strange about this man.. he doesn’t seem like a NeoBritannian, is he from another part of the world? 

While LeLouch tries to read Kamina the man gets some monsters out on the field. Hero like robots.. a mix between elemental heroes and Jojo stands! When he has trouble getting over a high defence power,  Kamina starts yelling at his two monsters to fuse. Just as LeLouch starts explaining to him that he can not fuse monsters without a magic card.. suddenly Kamina’s extra deck glows and the two monsters fuse anyway!

Amazon.com: Yu-Gi-Oh! - XY-Dragon Cannon (MFC-051) - Magicians Force - Unlimited Edition - Ultra Rare: Toys & Games

From here, the man also known as Zero would start playing the match more seriously and more aggressively.. but for each smart thing he does, Kamina has some kind of “monkey” answer. Letting his monsters hit over an obvious trap.. but generating tokens over it, attacking a monster with equal attack meaning both monsters get destroyed but generating advantage of it.  Mister Lamperouge would get frustrated.. and would consider using his Geass to make him forfeit as the man gets on his nerves. He doesn’t seem to play by skill , yet this man is also completely unpredictable and what is with this incohesive deck?!  It’s unlike anything he has ever faced before. However Lelouche is also a proud man.. he is Zero.. he outsmarted the NeoBritannia military.   He will not lose to this … strange man! He is smart enough! 

LeLouch would get Jinzo out knowing this practically would guarantee him the victory! Equipping him with some fancy helmet, attack boosting item to make him look more like Zero. Kamina had just made a mistake and played all the cards in his hands on the field.. now he had no way he could bluff anymore. After LeLouch’s turn there would be no more monsters on Kamina’s field.. his five trap zones are locked off and he has zero cards in hand he could only lose if Kamina somehow managed to summon a monster that could beat Jinzo from drawing a single monster card. LeLouch explains this and tells Kamina to just give up.. like a good chess player he should topple his king..forfeit the match.

Clipart rat dead rat, Clipart rat dead rat Transparent FREE for download on WebStockReview 2021

Kamina would then tell that no fight is  decided before the final card is drawn!  He knows Lelouch is not from his world.. he is too much of a fancy pants for that, yet he feels their spirits somewhat connect but Kamina just wants to win! This guy being all smug.. he needs to be toned down!  Even if things seem impossible his drill is the one to pierce the heavens. Kamina would make a destiny draw finding card of sanctity (the anime version) into a monster reborn, bringing back a monster with 2400 attack points , equips him wih a drill item that gives however much attack power Lelouch added to Jinzo and then normal summon preferably something cute like a Kuriboh variation.. that reminded him of Bootah. Since most Yugi Protagonist get their own Kuriboh cards let’s even call this one Kuribootah. Which of course magically appears in his deck. Kamina crashes into Jinzo .. and while Lelouch laughs at this silly mistake, Kamina reveals that by sending Kuribootah from his side of the field to the graveyard, he can inflict damage equal to his monster’s original life points that just got destroyed.. there are no weak cards.

The royal family member would scream at first, on how impossible Kamina’s draw was and his life points role to zero. Kamina laughs and says “Chance, who the hell do you think I am?” The two would shake hands , having learned from each other. Through this duel they have learned that the other does not know the way home. So in terms of gains.. it’s actually a tie! Yet LeLouch swears that next time he will meet Kamina he will defeat him in a duel!  Kamina tells him he never will because he plays with his mind and not with his heart before walking off in his signature pose. As he walks off a lost flyer blows towards LeLouch and he grabs it! “New Duel Runner technology? Something that provides energy for our city?! Perhaps this energy can be used to create a portal of some kind, he will look into it”

The Facts!

And that is how Kamina would win  in a match of YuGiOh! While it is heavily coloured by my opinion, it is also guided by analogies and comparisons that closely resemble facts.. Yet that doesn’t mean that I am right here. It doesn’t mean that LeLouch would NOT win given the chance. I simply used my opinion to create a chain of events and set a stage for the underdog’s victory.  There is nothing “wrong”  about it as all these things I told you are based on what I perceived. If you interpret LeLouche different than me that is fine but I have seen all the traits I gave him.. perhaps because I dislike him and are more prone to review some of his traits as negative.

Opinions or even ideas oftenly stem from a certain angle. Even when we talk about the same thing like “animation” one can discuss how good an anime is because everything is so fluent.. yet you can also demonise it for it’s choice of colours, both still being tied to the subject of animation, yet different angles. So when we pit two fictional characters against each other we could look at the stats and do calculations on who would win.. or we could hold a vote and let the winner of the vote win.. After all an imaginary character exists only in our minds and if the majority believe that Wolverine would be able to kill Superman, than it is pretty safe to assume we can collectively imagine them winning. Yet the characters are also fictional, there are certain rules to fiction and a universe, tropes and style, so by placing characters in a universe it is also fair to assume they have to follow the rules of that world. Totally different outcomes.. non is wrong.

So when I dislike your favourite anime,  or you dislike mine it doesn’t exactly mean we have reviewed the same product.  What I review as a pool of characters, driven more by plot than once own motivations , you might review as a nail biting action packed sci-fi spectacular. We perceived it differently, we had a different experience and as a result.. we arguably have not even seen the same anime. Sure the name of the anime is the same, and the events are the same, but that’s not the whole thing, anime as we process it is an experience that uses our mindset to become.. a thing only experienced by you and by twisting that mindset or opening your mind you can create new experiences… such as this seemingly unlikely outcome.

Amazon.com: YU-GI-OH! - Abyss Script - Fantasy Magic (DESO-EN023) - Destiny Soldiers - 1st Edition - Super Rare: Toys & Games

I intentionally gave Lelouch Yu-Gi-Oh cards that were very metagame dominant , while giving Kamina more of an anime protagonist style deck, from the angle of who is smarter, Lelouch would win, from the deck building standard, Lelouch would win and based on how many victories one had…in their respective lives, Lelouch would win. Yet I love Kamina and not Lelouch so based on Yu-Gi-Oh’s narrative structure and tropes I found a solution. Within this angle I am correct and this will be the outcome, (with maybe some details altered here and there) . It shows my opinion/idea is not incorrect, no matter how much one may tell me to die or that I am stupid. This shows there are no wrong opinions, only ideas and angles we have not explored yet and by opening our minds we will allow ourselves to experience entirely new worlds, and enjoy countless new possibilities.

Jaden Yuki (Character) - Giant Bomb


A BIT of Nostalgia: Castlevania IV Review

Hello once again Mortals, we are drawing closer to Halloween and I am nowhere even near done with spooky games…at least for myself. However one big title should not  be missed out on during this month! A classic that I hold close to my heart!  That classic of course is Castlevania..and since most of my old consoles are already packed up.. I started with Castlevania IV on the Mini SNES!  Luckily this is my FAVOURITE Castlevania game! Hooray! Instead of being scared of the monsters this time they can be scared of me!

Belle Monde 

Castlevania IV released on Halloween 1991.. well at least in Japan! A few months later in December in America and the likes and almost a whole year later we got it in Europe!  On the 23rd of November just 6 days after my 6th birthday. It was the 6th game that bore the castlevania title! So 6-6-6!  An unholy trinity of events! Little did I know than how devilishly good this game would be. It scores about an 8.2 out of 10 on average but the only grade I can give it is 1! A number 1!  Soon after this the game would take on a more adventure style approach with Symphony of the Night and while that is oftenly the fan favourite I really prefer that genre with Metroid while I prefer the old style Castlevania. I see them as almost different series in fact so I shall not be comparing them to any of the Alucard or Soma Cruz sames.  They are great as well but this was a whole different kind of beast. 

Belle Monde means pretty world and that certainly can be said about this game. Producer Konami really went all out in giving us neat little details in the background, amazing Mode7 graphics and very recognisable monsters. Translucent ghosts, fragmenting skeletons, a hulking frankenstein.. and a 9 foot tall dracula are all in this game and they are all impressive fights of their own accord. Classics such as the Medusa heads come back to frustrate you now more than ever before.. or is it?! With the new control screen players can whip in any direction and even  wiggle their whip about all limply giving it some stringlike control which can be used to slowly tickle an enemy to death! As a result of this simple change Simon Belmonts techniques have drastically improved. On our 11 stage journey we travel through castles, swamps, caves, spinning stuff and of course clock towers. Every stage has two or three very different looking segments.

 A lot is done with motion in this game’s graphic design. We see Skeleton ornaments following the hero in the background. We see books trying to leap out of their bookcase, and  so much more allowing the background to truly come to live!  This also results in more tension! Will that thing come leap at me or is it just a simple background element? The certainty has been taken away and that is a good thing! Not only do you have to pay attention to your opponents.. you want to keep an eye on the background as well.. the game forces you to appreciate it’s beautiful world! My favourite stages for the background are stage 8 and stage 9.. while i hate stage 8 in every other sense.. the creepy paintings that might grab you, the carpet that can push you into the ceiling that is great! Stage 9 is my favourite! It’s a treasure room where colourful ghosties constantly rise up! What a great night to have a SNES mini!

Belmont

Part IV of the series does not follow up on any of the games. Part 1 was followed by it’s sequel and both dealt with the story of Simon Belmont, while Part 3 was actually a prequel and it told the story of Trevor Belmont and his companions.  Rather than follow up on the story of Trevor and Alucard among others Part IV focuses on Simon again.. but rather retells the story of the original game.. in a new way! This means we will both visit familiar and unfamiliar locations and face a slew of enemies that the oldest castlevania player will immediately recognise.. and so does everyone else for that matter because these monsters are really iconic.  We will once again face off against mummies, frankenstein, death and even the giant bat makes it return albeit in a different spot in the game and it is not really a bat.. yet it is still the good old familiar boss from the first game. The game does a good job off playing into nostalgia with the iconic themes such as vampire hunter and bloody tears being hidden deep inside the game. You will have to work for your shot of nostalgia! The game has some nice tunes but nothing near as iconic as aforementioned themes but hey it’s a konami game you know at worst you will be pretty well off in the sound department. 

Control Wise alternate timeline Simon has no equal. Even Richter from Dracula X  and later Rondo of Blood could not be a master whipper like this Simon! As a result of the tight controls I find this Castlevania relatively easy….among the linear games. The exploratory stuff is way easier.  Still I deem this game fairly “doable” in terms of difficulty. Mind you that this is my favourite Castlevania, I know some patterns by hand and some timing by muscle memory but easily up until the 8th stage I breezed through this game like it was nothing. The eight stage however has one excruciating bit of trap dodging!  I can never really get that pattern down and always end up using luck to make my way through.  Since I so often get stopped there it by far is my least favourite stage in the game. If you are new to the series and want to try a game out I do suggest you start out with this one for it’s supreme control scheme and playing the best Belmont but like Castlevania III there will be a few cheap moments. 

These moments in comparison to the third and most diverse game in the franchise however are few and far between.  You have unlimited continues at your disposal and a password system to clear the hurdles ahead. A game over will send you back to the beginning of a stage however and this includes sub areas. So if you are on stage 9-2 and game over on the boss you get 5 new lives to try again from 9-1. This is how it has always been with Castlevania and with the exception of the last stage that is rather fair you really do become a better player for it. No risking the biscuit you really need to learn and master clearing it all in one big swoop. It felt really rewarding to finally clear a stage after mastering the bosses and minibosses. Given how varied the stages are it doesn’t feel like too much of a punishment either.. except for the aforementioned stage 8 that is littered with Instakill boobytraps in it’s second coeur and with how a bat randomly flying through that trap can ruin a run and send you back over and over again… that stinks! The final stage.. Stage B,  has a four man boss rush that is quite hard and a game over.. sets you all the way back! So be prepared to get good. You really must become a true Belmont but are also very much given the proper tools to do so. 

Cool Whip

What makes this stand out most to me is the gameplay itself though!  While Castlevania III had more diverse characters and ways to traverse through a stage this one is more focussed on giving Simon a new challenge each and every stage. The first stage has you jumping between a foreground and a background stage. The second stage places you inside streams of water that hinder your control, the third stage has vertical/ceiling hazards. The third game may offer you a different set of characters, I really prefer it if you have to overcome new obstacles every time. Except for the instakills in stage 8 this game really does a much better job at that. It really feels you have to master becoming Simon! One can argue for the choose your combat style approach of the later parts but to me it feels much more satisfying to use the tools you have! You HAVE to master Simon’s whip, you HAVE to clear that one boss you can’t seem to hit with it. The game hands you just enough tools to get the job done, but doesn’t make you overly cool and competent and thing that moderen games for me oftenly have. We are handed tools for flavour rather then challenge.

There is the old Castlevania clunk, the annoying knockback, the non momentum based jumping and the occasional unfair enemies, but that in a way is part of the experience. It gives this Castlevania something “scary” Leaping to a platform you can barely see, fearing there might be a bat to knock you off towards your demise has something we don’t really see these days. There are still indie games to that, but it is weird that this lack of polish causes.. a “personality” in the game. Back in the days we would look at our cartridges or at our screens and say “Castlevania IV I am going to beat you today” .. now we usually talk about events within the confines of the game. “Come on Geralt  you got this” “Handsome Jack you are going down” which is fine as well but in the end it is also your character that conquers a game. These old games might not offer the same immersion but they offer this amazing reward of conquering and you actually feel skilled for doing it! Those weird Castlevania quirks that are present help that experience SO much.Climbing a stairs and the floor goes out of sight? Well that means if you get hit on the stair you now plummet into the abyss!  You inch forward.. not in game..but you’re busy with your controller, hitboxes, invincibility frames etcetera. You are fighting a game!

I can not beat Dracula in the capacity of my person and in the end who cares about Simon beating Dracula.. it happens a million times. However me beating Castevania is unique to me. That is my feat! While I also beat Breath of the Wild and fought those two Eldritch like being in Smash Ultimate..those feel more like I played through the game. I experienced the game. I beat the final boss because I had the right tools, I feel like without too much effort I would have done it the next attempt even if I had died there. This old game .. I did not beat because I had the dash move, the big sword, the upgraded bomb or whatever. No I beat it because I learned the Pattern Patterns, I was able to distinguish the spots where my character would be safe.  I discovered a strategy to deal with those pesky  energy balls Dracula shot and I found a way to deal with those fireball enemies in the sky! It is not anything in the game that made me beat this.. it was ME! It wasn’t even that cool magical whip! … No it was me positioning a character in smart spots, me using a extra weapon cleverly! ME! ME! ME!

Vampire Killer Game

I do think that Castlevania I through III have aged a bit, the challenge is rather grueling! Mostly the second game is obnoxious with it’s puzzle element and poor translations, messed up ending screens and weird gameplay choices. I and III are difficult to a point where it isn’t as much a part of the timeset anymore. Castlevania IV does the same thing.. yet it does it perfectly. While sometimes unfair, dying feels like your fault always.. even when it’s not (Except for stage 8)  having to redo a stage feels super frustrating..but the stage has enough variety that it doesn’t feel like intense punishment. It is perfectly beatable in a short time if you are good enough but can get you trapped for hours if you can’t deduce a boss pattern! It is still your fault! It emulates perfectly on the SNES mini… BUT that is because it has a great controller for that. Should you emulate this game on PC and use a PS4 or Xbox One controller, I think you fill find yourself in a lot of trouble. You need D-Pad accuracy here, no Analogue stick can do that, lot of these controllers also have issues with double direction inputs like up and right..when using the D-Pad.. I think this would be so much harder to complete on those.. so play this on an SNES mini or on a virtual console with a proper controller.

Yet once again this also proves a point, this game wants you to use that SNES controller, it wants you to go D-Pad, it wants to be played as it used to be played. Now don’t get me wrong! I think anyone playing a 2d platformer with an analogue stick when they have the option to not use an Analogue stick should have their Gamer Card marked… not totally revoked just marked! Yet this game shows it a lot more than others. I usually prefer momentum based platformer action like Mario or Donkey Kong yet strangely this game shines because of its amount of clunk!  I can drop to my death just because I was a fair amount of pixels of my jump. I can get knocked into a ravine and be forced to start way back at the beginning just because I missed the timing of a single whiplash and there is a slight delay .. plus my hitbox is slightly larger than me so I can’t cheese it in the final moment.  In Mario when I make a mistake I can correct (somewhat)  here if I make a mistake I am dead. Yet that gives this game it’s horrorish vibes. Single mistakes can lead to a painful death, not just for Simon it will be painful for the player as well.

So in a game like Castevania its flaws become its strengths for me? Does that mean its strengths become it’s flaws? No! The stage design is still briljant and plays into that level of non immersion while still being super cool. Dracula’s castle has clear game mechanics that make no sense in the context of the world, but it is not trying. Nowadays characters notice everything so when we suddenly see barriers appear it has to be given a lore explanation through a cutscene, while the makers just wanted to give you some action. Sorcery, creatures carrying sealls or whatever.. it all becomes a challenge for the main character to overcome.  Simon doesn’t say anything about water following two  ways, he doesn’t question the spinning walls in stage 4 because they are not his challenges to overcome. They are YOURS. We are the ones that have bloody tears from frustration while trying to master the game and we are the ones that hopefully will be the vampire killers. For me Castlevania IV is one of those perfect games. Not because it is perfect.. but because it is very much a game and it keeps you feeling important all the way.

This weekend there will not be any blog posts as I am getting the key of my new flat Saturday! Which means the entire weekend and most likely the entire next week I am either without internet or doing stuff! Next week I will have a few posts scheduled ahead of time to wrap up Halloween month with a two day Pokémon post and some blog tags. If I have time I will try to visit your blogs with my phone! Otherwise I will see you all when I get back! Enjoy next weeks post and see you all soon! If you want to help with creating a pc corner for my blog check out my Kofi page!

I tribute summon this Retro Review: Yu-Gi-Oh Stairway to the Destined Duel

I like older games! So I write a lot about older games! The game I am replaying today is one of those games, you just sink so many hours into.  I truly adored this game when I was a little Pinkie, nothing made me happier than just wailing endlessly on Mokuba with my Slate Warrior and Harpie’s Brother! Which now is named Sky Scout! Yu-gi-oh changed..so has my perception of this game? Let’s find out!

Back to Battle City

Stairway to the destined duel is a Gameboy Advanced only game that came it mid April 2003 around the world. In this game you play a nameless protagonist without any sprite of their own.. as you see through their eyes in a visual novel esque way. You  travel across Battle City to defeat duellists and compete in tournaments hidden all over the map. Each day of the week you can travel a bit, and interact with one location. Each duellist you have beaten gives you a choice of a card pack to improve your deck with.These opponents usually are the series staples such as Yugi, Joey and Kaiba. Of course there is also a number  the famous opponents such as Rex Raptor, Weevil Underwood and Mako Tsunami. In total the roster contains 23 opponents you can face and everyone of them uses their themed decks.. which gradually improve like yours as time goes on. Your goal is to find and duel all five Ghouls before having a showdown with Marik for the faith of the world.. but there is so much more to do.

Unlike the story driven GBA games  “The Sacred Cards”  and “Reshef of Destruction” there isn’t much plot to follow. By winning duels and by being  at certain spots on the map in particular days you unlock stuff. New duelists become available if you win or lose against opponents or get specific cards, Rare Hunters, show up at certain days in certain areas. It is all very random and casual. You pick this game up , not because you want to complete it or rush to the ending you pick it up because you want to play a few duels. It should be noted that this is in the classic Yu-Gi-Oh erra. When I say classic I do mean classic. This game doesn’t go much further than the Labyrinth of Nightmare Booster packs which was only the fifth ever series of booster packs ever to be released. It was really the age of the anime and as such I think it works better if you see this as an anime game than a yu-gi-oh tcg game. At least nowadays there are plenty of “more expansive” games to collect cards in. While the options feel quite limited today I must say some elements really pleased me. More so than some later instalments of the series. 

It’s time to D-D-D-Duel

What makes this game stand out is how fast it actually plays. With only 1000 trading cards and effect monsters , and your extra deck being limited to fusions thi game has to make very little checks! It shows.. these duels are paced so nicely! Coming of Reverse of Arcadia, on of the alleged best Yu-Gi-Oh games I must say that dueling in this classic game feels so much snappier. The quick play spells or constant monster effects are sparing so we do not get that “AI”  lag later games have to reveal that they have something activatable on their field or in their hand. Later games have this prompt you press to skip activation points for a certain card. For example the spell card Rush Recklessly can be activated anywhere in a battle. Mystical Space Typhoon is a quick play spell and Solemn Judgment can negate any cardplay. When you know a bit about the card game you can tell when a trap card is not going to be something scary like “Mirror Force”  if your opponent stalls.  While the player can skip triggers.. the AI can not and you see it think to activate a card.  It can result in matches feeling very stally!  So pacing wise..with maybe an exception for Legacy of the Duelist, this is the game to play.

The story based games often also have save points while in this game you can just pick up your GBA,  play two matches while you wait for your pizza to come out the oven and put it away. This is what I loved so much about the game and this is why to this day I love it so much still. There is a simplicity to it that Duel Links used to emulate, but in a much more greedy money hungry way. If you want a good and nice old classic deck..You just have to pick it up and play! Within a minute after booting  the game up you are already in the first turn of your duel and can play some nostalgic matches and little by little improve your deck! All duellist differ enough from each other to also play for a bit longer if you say prefer but the monotone basic graphics might make that a bit of an underwhelming experience in the long run. Dealers choice though! With just 1000 cards to collect this is also THE Yu-gi-oh game to start with when your new to the game. Yes you mis Xyz summons, yes they haven’t heard of synchro’s and hell no there aren’t any pendulum or link summons.. so there is still more to learn.. but this game off all the Yu-gi-oh games I think is best equipped to teach you the core mechanics in a very easy way. I had no rulebook but I learned to play Yu-Gi-Oh just from this game alone bu looking at all the visual clues and text you can get far. 

Obviously knowing how to play will let you get further. For example the character Mokuba is unlocked by losing five duels. Tiny Pinkie unlocked him right away , as she stumbled to learn the rules she took quite a few losses. Nowadays Pinkie however has much more insight in how to play cleverly. Sending Dark Magician to the graveyard seemed bad when I was young.. but now with Premature Burial in my deck and Monster Reborn, I rather have it in the grave than in my hand. Now I know with Change of Heart I can steal a monster.. but I should not just swing in with it because after one turn I lose control! I better use that stolen monster to tribute summon. I am only one Hunter or maybe two away from facing the “final boss”  and I have yet to unlock Mokuba in my current run. Which does bring me to the downsides of the game.

Trap Hole

This game was made in a time that people didn’t completely understand the whole mechanics behind Yu-Gi-oh yet! It was fairly new and there wasn’t t THAT much of a Meta. You played a deck because you thought it was cool and you made it work. Now people realise to keep their deck very small and utilize your graveyard. It isn’t bad to have monsters be in your graveyard. Combos like stealing a Maha Vailo (who has an effect to gain 500 attack when he is equipped with something)  with Snatch and Steal.. weren’t familiar yet.. but they are now!  As a result I find this run to be somewhat too easy. I only lost to Kaiba, Joey and Ishizu so far and have almost five victories on everyone so far. And that was upon my first writing this post Since my margins have increased a lot further. The Duelists do get stronger as time passes.. but I can’t help but feel they are meant to grow alongside you.. if you are already grown they do seem a bit amateurish. To be fair Joey, Yugi, Ishizu, Kaiba Odion, Pegasus  Bandit Keith and Meric.. heck even Tea for some reason can give a run for your money but if you understand how their deck works , which isn’t that hard..it is pretty easy to build in counters.

Tiny Pinkie for example used to love to play “The Bistro Butcher” which is a 1800 attack four star beater card, which meant you can summon it directly and in 2003 there weren’t a lot of higher beaters out there. It had an effect as well which was super cool! Butchers forces your opponent to draw two cards, which could lead to decking out! Deck destruction in the anime was always depicted as something really brutal and all, but giving them +2  is actually great for them. It’s like paying 1800 life points for Pot of Greed…which is still legal in this game as well., But while it dealt massive damage it also boosted my opponents hand. Now that I know to avoid it and play seven coloured fish instead I take almost to little of a beating. It doesn’t mean I flawlessly win all the time (though my deck is approaching that point)  but yeah.. I know how to play Yu-gi-oh and getting a pack with a chance of good cards after every match is quite a lot like the easy mode. Later games like Reverse of Arcadia. give you money from which you can buy packs! I have a lot of trouble beating that game! Mostly because of the plethora of useless cards to pull with a more finite resource!

I am not sure if I want to call the card reward a negative though.. it does mean I can really see my deck get better after a particularly lucky duel and that made me a lot happier than the lucky draws in later games ever did. It makes the game easier.. but now each duel feels so much more rewarding..So I will keep this as a pick your poison. If you want a challenge you are better of elsewhere! If you want to have fun with deck building and feel like a bad-ass for whooping Kaiba’s butt! This is your game! It is really rewarding for playing and I do really love that about this game! It lacks a bit of love in the translations though! There are a few weird dialogue lines, there are typo’s and Tea gives her sub Japanese name as they forgot to change it. I kinda chuckle at the these.. old retro games did this all the time and I am happy to see it on occasion! But if you want a sleek experience..Legacy of the Duelist once more is the better option. I find these flaws.. to give it some soul!

What IS a negative though is the huge amount of RNG. For example there is a contest called the target competition in which you are given two duelist you need to face and defeat.  All duelist randomly walk across the map like you and I am not  fully sure if everyone is there every day, but whether or not you find that specific guy  or not really depends on where you decide to stroll too. The same goes for the elimination tournament.. it will be held on Fridays on a “secret” location If you aren’t on a space adjacent to a tournament on Thursday.. you can not compete. Not that winning tournaments does much anyway you just get a more “weighted” back with some chance to find rare cards. Yet again this reward is RNG. I was lucky to get a Jinzo very early on which really made dueling easier and I really want to use it against Odion just for a laugh! Yet the rare hunters that show up..start on random days and the one you do encounter is… you guessed it RANDOM! This is forgivable since the game is basically made to just pick up and play but if you want to beat Meric and get it over with.. you really should know.. in this game you are playing with more RNG than anime version Joey Wheeler.

Like i said earlier the textures can be a bit boring as well. The overworld map is  fine but its just a map with some icons on it and your duel background is just a pyramid wall. Monster art is only visual on a basic attack animation and cards are just represent as rectangles in their colour with a black square. This can make it easy to not notice a monster has been tributed and you attack into a to powerful monster or you  swap your monsters and thought Battle Ox was left and Giant Rat was on the right.. while in truth it was the opposite and you see your Rat kamikaze against Alligator Sword by accident. Again though I am not really sure if I mind I like having  to check the field and be on my guard.. it keeps my head in the duel. In Legacy of the duelist where you can see every monster crystal clear it is easy to check your messages in between an opponent thinking if it should activate Rush Recklessly on your draw phase but here.. if I look away and miss Mako tributing his 700 attack point fish for a 2300 attack ocean monster and attack into it.. it could lose me a duel. The lack of animations can get kinda boring but it also keeps the pace of the game up. This game is my favourite paced yu-gi-oh of the all.. so I am not sure if I would trade that away. As long as I keep playing this game in short bursts this is fine!

King of Games

All in all I do not think Stairway to the destined duel has aged all that poorly!  It is not a game you’ll want to play to play some modern yu-gi-oh.. but I am going to be honest here.. modern day Yu-Gi-oh is not fun to play anymore anyway. One Turn Kill Decks,  Turns that last half an hour due to all sorts of activations and combos, flooding the field in a single turn.. it has turned Yu-Gi-Oh away from a battle field where people deal blows each turn.. to people tossing stuff on the board and them making it go boom in a single turn maybe two. This to me is the Yu-Gi-Oh i like to play.. a style that would linger up until the early synchro days.
This is nothing to the actual trading card game.. but this plays pretty darn close to how the anime feels. If you want to feel like an anime character without having t o deal with stupid changing banlists, (I do not know why some games did that)  and take on the King of Games of old.. if you want to learn how Yugioh works.. this is still my highest recommendation! Jus run Seven Coloured fish over The Bistro Butcher!

It is intuitive, you keep oversight , characters look and act like themselves and there are a few hilarious glitches and exploits to take advantage of! Tea introducing herself with her japanese name but after that going back to Tea.. using cards to break the return to owner effect of Change of heart .. and other fun stuff is there for you to try.This is one of those games that might be to easy but you can just play with a more gimmicky deck! There is a lot of fun to be had with this old cartridge and I will be playing it on and off for a while I think!
I will go play a few matches and play my own Blue Eyes White Dragon! Let’s go WHITE LIGTHNING ATTACK!

Do note that this review is from a very specific standpoint! There are plenty of reasons why this game could score much much lower. For what this is however, being a callback to the purest and classic Yu-gi-oh , with a retro feel to match I do very much stand by my view! What is your favourite Yu-Gi-Oh game?! Have you even played any?! I am considering buying Legacy of the Duelist for Switc and reviewing that for you was well. Want to see that happen than please consider supporting my Kofi page!


Shouting, Punching and Breaking Legs: Weird NES Controllers

Hello Island Guests, if I would be a Pokemon I would be a fossil Pokemon. So I guess I’d be a Fairy Rock type. Why? Because I constantly keep being stuck in the past. My first console was an NES, a very simple game console that got released on the Dutch markets  in the fall season of 1987. A year after I was born.

Five years later or so I had one! A very simple system with a D-pad  and four buttons (Start and select count). I love this controller, so many memories! Yet even back then Nintendo always was trying to discover new ways to play.. so worked better than others.

The Konami Laser Scope

By now it should be no secret that I hate children, they are loud, obnoxious they tend to hurt me, they think they know it all , they are helpless and unpredictable. I would describe kindergarten as like a trashcan for dead baby jokes that have gone to waste. Now of course this is a exaggeration of how I actually feel I am very anxious around children. Mostly their loudness can freak me out.. or if they play their games at full volume on their phones.  Back in my days children would have to play games in the living room though, so the noise would be very difficult if you were reading a magazine or on the phone.. which back then had cords on them that were connected to the wall. So a kid gaming was even more of a plague.

Luckily Konami came up with their Solution. The Konami Laser Scope! A huge headset children could put on.. shielding you from the bloops and bleeps of space fighting games and classics like Top Gun. It was advertised this way so it seemed great. Little did parents know! This game does a good job at muting out the game soundtrack and those sound effects. It is a fairly sound proof headphone. The problem.. this controller has no A and B button, you play this controller by yelling “Fire”…. Or anything else for  that matter. So instead of the Duckhunt theme and sound effects you hear your child yell Fire Fire Fire all the time!  Unadopt!

Design wise it seems like a sort of combination of an eye exam device, a saiyan scouter with some rad but cheap danger looking stickers added to it so kids would feel cool when wearing it. The truth? Yes with things you look completely cool!  If cool was spelled D-O-R-K that is. Yet the Laser Scope wasn’t just a controller. You can remove the head visor thing and fold back the microphone thingy and wear it as a actual headphone for your walkman! Now that .. in comparison makes the full controller look really cool!

The Power Pad

In 1988 the whole marketing department of Nintendo collectively forgot all worlds in human existence except for one word. Power! .. They could add words before it like Horse and Nintendo and sometimes even words behind Power.. like this one time they tried something with a piece of clothing for your hands?! What was that all about?! One of the Power Guys suddenly said “Body Power” and everyone clapped. So it was time to develop a controller around Body Power…how do we do that?! Well simple!  We make a sheet  with 12 balls depicted on it.. because twister is kinda popular as well.. and then make kids run and jump as a controller.  A very early DDR pad if you will… just weird.

Nintendo always wanted us to stay fit.. like nearly every generation of their consoles had some fitness equipment. There is the Balance Board for Wii and Wii U, that Ring for Nintendo Switch, A fitness Bike for SNES, the Gamecube had a handle.. so you could take it out to run outside and the NES had this thing. Twelve numbered orbs on a grey mat.  Player one usually takes  the blue numbers, player two plays on red. Which baffles me because , well  number 1 and 2 are blue, 3 and 4 are red. Then 5 and 6 are blue again and 7 and 8 are red.  I mean it makes sense on the mats design, you count the numbers and all.. but  since this thing is meant for multiplayer mostly… WHY would you do it like this?!

The game works best on button mashing games like those Olympic or running games. Player 1 runs on 5 and 6 while Player 2 runs with 7 and 8. By jumping you somehow actually jump. Fun.. but you just did a 100 meter hurdle jump thing. On an 8 bit console, it isn’t exactly thrilling. It supported a few other games but it came with the game World Class Track Meet. Why would I want to run?! I mean nowadays I get it with the whole fitness idea, but back then we played video games because we did NOT want to play outside and run. But this is coming from me, I lived in a small town where there was plenty of space and safety to do it better than a power pad could. Maybe it’s different for city folk.

Other games that came for the pad are kind kind of weird. There is for example Eggsplode and Short Order, a twin packed game that allows you to break bombs and prevent chicken murder or play simon says with hamburger parts to fatten up animals. They are solid mini games but not really something to justify getting a mat like this out, relocating your NES and sliding away the coffee table.   Technically this mat is about as big as six children standing in double file so that is a rather hefty chunk of living room. Just setting this thing up takes you longer as how long these games are actually fun so all in all.. it gets you moving.. but it is a bit odd. 

The U-Force

Now things begin to really get odd. The U-Force I would describe as weird predecessor of  the kinects. Yet.. it looks more like a monolith in a plastic case. Like those screens look like how evil computers looked like back in the 80’s. It isn’t immediately obvious how you use this. I’d say it is part Kinect, Part theremin part ??? with mostly the latter being true. The U -force has several settings depending on what game you play.  New games would tell you what U-Force setting they need in the manual older games should be able to find in the setting which can be very different between each game.

Some games require it to be a fully flat surface and you play games like a theremin, another game could require a mirror like set up, while a third game requires that same mirror like set up but requires a flight stick peripheral. The weirdest thing.. this peripheral is just a piece of plastic with buttons that is not connected  to the system in any way yet it fairly flawlessly mimics your actions and button presses. In Punch Out I think you can actually punch towards the screen and for some driving games you like swipe left and right to steer left and right and tilt your hand  to accelerate or decelerate. It is an odd contraption which works differently each time.. but what’s weirder..  It really really works. 

Playing Mario on U-Force is kinda fun it doesn’t work as clean as an actual controller but I do feel like I could beat a stage or two, unlike with my next two entries. Punch out allows me to beat Glass Joe at least, and Top Gun.. well I never really liked that game but I should really give it a try sometime. It is a gimmick and it doesn’t make things easier or better, it just is another way to play.  In that way it is like the theremin again. I would not call it like an actual controller, it’s a neat thingamajig that can be fun but quite puzzling why it was made in the first place.

The Roll’n Rocker

Now this is a controller which was distributed by LJN.This company has gained notoriety because of the AVGN, claiming there is no pot of gold but a pot of shit and the end of this rainbow.  When it comes to this controller though, that might be underselling it. This thing is broken and non functional at all. What is it? It’s basically a D-Pad you can stand on and by shifting your weight you use the directional controls. It works about just  as well as using an actual D-Pad after your hand got hit by a rainstorm of bricks. Even then depending on how much of your hand is crushed, you still have a better chance with your mangled hand as with this controller. 

The design is super retro. It’s how Back to the Future would imagine us using controllers in the future. It is a grey piece of plastic filled with stubs to make it less slippery with bright blue center with three  side bits  with Roll’n Rocker written in a tubular or gnarly font. Because of the three blue prongs you already lose your direction a bit making this finicky controller even harder to use. Since this totally Rad desgined thing does not have any buttons it has a socket where you can plug in an NES controller..so you can still use the A and B button. So much like R.O.B.  This controller still requires the original controller but unlike ROB which was a gadget to use your controller,  this IS a controller still.. so already it is so dysfunctional that you still need the thing you try to replace it with.

Now this could be fun for games like Skate or Die ,  Back to the Future or  Menace Beach. Games that are  have you skateboarding for a bit part of their gameplay. Now what these games all have in common is that they are bad games that all at least have featured in a AVGN episode.. as a testament that other people think this as well. So when you add a non functional controller  things get even worse.  Back to the Future should work for several reasons.. It doesn’t need buttons, it utilizes  controls in all directions an it is part of the LJN line-up. If you distribute a controller you best make sure it works with the games you put out as well. Why would you stand up on wobbly thing to play these games in the first place anyway it made me nauseous when I tried it out at first and anxious.. definitely a miss and a head-scratcher.

This one did not have any advert or commercial so I had to make due

The Power Glove

Another Power Item.. where The Power Pad required Body Power the Power Glove feeds on your sanity. Very few controllers are as dysfunctional as this item. Yet the marketing of this controller was SO freaking cool. It was used in a movie called the Wizard, which was basically a big NES commercial and showed us the first footage of Super Mario 3 we ever saw. Back then bad was a word we used for good! The main character’s rival used the power glove and said it was so bad! We thought he meant it was cool… but no this time bad actually meant bad. Yet just looking at the commercials we all wanted the Power.

The controller needed to be programmed for each game, except for the two games which were made for the Power Glove.  Super Glove Ball and Bad Street Brawler. While both games can be played with regular controllers they have extra moves and options when playing on the power glove. One of these games.. actually works with the power glove. Bad Street Brawler… not so much.  The latter is a great game to play though. It has your beat up self launching midgets and  Gorillas as the punk rocking guy Duke Davis. Super Glove Ball is like tennis with a hand.. and it actually works with a power glove. You wave your hand and the hand actually moves to where you want it. It’s kinda fun.

When it comes to how easy it is to actual game.. this catchphrase is right!

Mario however doesn’t work, Castlevania.. works okay..but when you need to move up or down a stairs.. it doesn’t work anymore.. so  at least the first three enemies are fun. Rad Racer more or less works but it teaches you super unsafe driving methods and at irregular intervals does teach you what will happen if you drive like that..Bam!  The Power Gloves does offer a unique gaming experience though, it will make you question your sanity?! I am such a bad gamer that I can not do this or is this thing really this broken?!  Do you want to feel hopeless like a baby chicken tossed in the tub?! Then the Power Glove is something you should definitely try out. The Power Glove arrived at the end of 1989 and it would take Nintendo 17 more years to make this concept functional.. that is how broken this is?! Why 17 years you say? That is when the Wii came out!

Pinkie’s Saturday Anime Adventure (Week 1)

Hi Island guests! Earlier I talked to you about how having unlimited access to anime and media to critique it on, has opened it to nitpicking and devalued appreciation. Why would we bother with a 7/10 show when we can watch a 9/10 one.I said I would love to get a format reminiscent back of Saturday morning cartoons.

A format where I have to work myself around anime instead having access to everything at my convenience. For true love doesn’t bow to your every whim.. you have to put some effort into it. This is the story of that quest…

Setting Up

The adventure began with laying down some ground rules and a schedule. Like how I have my fictional tropical Island I would now have a fictional anime network as well. Anime of my selection would air the way I would want to, yet be sorted out in certain time slots. I opted for a five series time slot which I could expand upon later. Running from 9:00 until 11:30 (in order to fit it in with my medicine imposed insomnia or occasional night terrors, I put it a bit later in the morning). Five series would air at the full hour mark. Midway down a series (around the 11 minute mark for anime) I would pause the anime and play some Japanese commercials on youtube for about 5 minutes.

I am not allowed to pause the anime earlier, nor am I allowed to go backwards if I miss anything. If i need to get something, I need to step away and let the anime run.. except for during commercial breaks. During the commercial breaks I would make notes for the blog, refill my drink and schedule bio-breaks. Obviously I can not skip ahead either. With this set up I have about 3 minutes to make some final notes and set up the next series. If I am late for example I start at 9:05 I will have to skip my episode until the anime runs as if it was started at its original time slot. So in this case five minutes in. Each Sunday I report to you all about my little adventures.

Pinkie-TV-Guide

Originally I browsed for the first five random picks I wanted to watch. Which ended up being Hikaru no Go, BNA, Bofuri, Yu-Gi-Oh Sevens.. and the second season of Ducktales, (from where I left off). Turns out the the second season of Ducktales isn’t on Disney + yet, which I discovered in the middle of my watch, so as a sensible tv network I had to fix this by adding in a double episode of what came prior. So for the next six weeks my schedule ended up being the following.

9:00  AM : BNA (I really love studio Trigger Stuff)
9:30  AM: Yu-Gi-Oh Sevens (Because I love card game anime and YGO)
10:00 AM Bofuri (Because cute girls with shield sound adorable to me)
10:30 AM Bofuri (So the Pink Network could correct their stupid error)
11:00 AM Hikaru no Go (Because I read Iridium Eye’s compelling review about it)

Having bought some cereal the day before, I was ready. The japanese commercials were set up, my phone was on silent as Saturday morning cartoons were back! Sitting on the couch I eagerly waited for the nine minute mark and pressed play.

BNA Episode 1

The moment I pressed play I realised I made a pretty rookie mistake. I forgot the milk with my cereal, so I ran to the fridge while the opening credits played. It was weird to see how a first episode had an opening in the first place. That isn’t that common.I couldn’t tell you if I liked it because I had some cereal prep I forgot. Luckily I was back before the main action started.

A Tanuki girl that looks kinda to human compared to the other beastman out there is fleeing from some racist humans. They end up trying to kill her when she is fleeing to some sort of beast city. Mind you guys that I am telling this from my headspace while viewing this. I know the name of the character now but not at the time.. nor do I think the first episode ever told us. When things seem dire for the main character a weird scientist lady shows up.. which suddenly is a weasel like creature, which we later find out is a mink. She has some henchmen as well. A fight breaks out between humans and the animal-people and the tone for the series is set. 

I thoroughly enjoyed watching this episode, though I can not help but feel it is kinda heavy on the racist allegory. In the same way X-men can be a bit jarring in it’s world building as well. Even in the first half of he episode. After the rescue I am positively surprised that the mink isn’t like a best new friend but some sort of shady figure who extorts those she rescues for all their money. Like what we see in a few american shows when they smuggle chinese or mexican people inside the United States. We then are introduced to Animacity home of the animals as some happy place, but what seems like a terrorist attack happens just as the little Tanuki girl enter, which leads to my favorite moment in the show.

A huge tv screen drops down on the crowd in the city which were looking at the screen for the cities tenth anniversary.(Which kinda felt a bit exposinatny for my taste) and the Tanuki girl tries to save an old goat.. the face on that goat made me smile so hard. Also when she is yelling crap crap crap.. when she is about to get crushed really amused me. She is saved by a crying wolf who is blisteringly fast while the old goat still has his 10/10 face. Amazing I loved this moment. Tanuki girl is accused of the bombing by the wolf, who seems like some sort of private detective but she convinces him it was some sort of other wolf she saw earlier. Using his nose, which was a really cool visual, he pursues the actual terrorist.

The episode concludes in a big epic fight that like other Trigger feels quite over the top. Yet I feel could have been a bit bolder. It felt very visceral and violent though and the punches have this nice connecty feeling and characters can bulk up to the extreme. Visually this is why I love Trigger so much. The bad guys are hired by humans which triggers the wolf into wanting to kill them. The Tanuki girl catches up and stops him.. revealing she was once a human to setting up  a mystery for the next episode.

All in all a fine first episode. I wasn’t as amazed as I would like from Trigger but it is definitely I will enjoy seeing again next week. There is plenty of stuff. My rating of this episode is a Peach out of Pink.. it’s on the right track but it could be pinker!

YU-GI-OH SEVENS EPISODE 1

The moment this started up with a big commercial for a new form of card game named Rush duel I knew I was going to have a rough time. It did not help that my second serving of cereal had to much rice thingies with to little milk. My mouth was getting dry as in horror I saw the main character bursting through something.. with a giant mecha..while holding some Yu-gi-oh cards. In the second scene we see him trying to install some new duel rules and I began to really regret putting this on the list. I could have put the new pokémon season here.

The opening did not help either, many of these characters look super generic and referencing to old shows a bit.  I liked the girl with the purple hair in it though..so perhaps there is some hope. After the intro we get a glimmer of hope though, the world building seems quite interesting with a Kaiba Corp clone really bogging people down with super strict rules, enforced by camera robots. Breaking these rules will get you a strike and getting six strikes will get you banned from dueling.  While trying to install the new rules.. and he failed Yuga the main character failed and now has five strikes. All in all fair.

This attracts the attention of three peers. Gakuto looks like the Seto Kaiba from season 1.. but with purple hair and the demeanour of Bastion Misawa from GX.. but more snively and whiny. He is the type that is afraid of breaking the rules and he annoyingly yells it out all the time. Tatsuhisa is a blue haired kid who has the power.. to do a sparky thing to disable electronic devices. He duels an ancient tablet under the city that spawns a crowned man .. but he lost and got six strikes due to it..due to the prophecy written on this tablet he now thinks Yuga might be the one to activate it. Romin is the purple haired girl.. she plays music and doesn’t know how to duel.

That is all the characterization we get in episode 1 because we have to move into a rush duel. Yuga installs his new rules but they have to be implemented or such.. but a guard droid spots him and he has 6 minutes and 66 seconds ( which ISN’T even a legit time expresion and just is there to tell us this new Kaiba Corp is evil i’d guess) to implement the rules by a live action programming. Luckily his duels can be fought in that time he says. Which basicly involve a weird form of dueling with three zones instead of five and where you can always draw five cards, and summon and tribute as much as you want in a single turn… like Yu-Gi-Oh needed more speed?!

While the duel itself was entertaining enough, the ace monster of the main character feels insanely gimmicky (it powers up 300 points per any of the seven attributes) an ability Yuga called road over 7 or something. The duel disks also changed into a seven, It’s the seventh series and the series is called Sevens. Well Sevens is correct as there are a lot of them not subtle either. My favorite moment came just before the hero summons his ace though, when Blue Eyes white dragon makes it return. Too bad it’s massive 3000 attack gets hit by a 7000 attack ending the duel in one turn after it was summoned. This show is going to have some serious pacing issues.

Now this might sound super negative and in a way it is, but there is some merrit behind the concept of rush dueling. If they make better duels than this, the format could be interesting for the anime allowing for some more storytelling on the side. It’s like a really ugly oyster.. it still might hold a pearl. For now however this gets a Salmon out of Pink. It can be called pink.. but you could also say it’s a soft shade of orange.  There is a charm factor in there.. but something about it is really Fishy.

BOFURI EPISODE 1

No more cereal, I can pay some serious attention to this one!  Immediately I find the main character Kaede very appealing. There is something about her mindset that I really dig. Gaming with your friend but then being left alone to your own devices is something I can relate to fairly well. While I have absolutely zero interest in her school live, we jump into the virtual world of the mmo she is about to play very soon and I really enjoy the way she over simplistically builds her character. I like the concept of being so Noob in strategy  that the devs would not realise how broken this is. It’s nothing special.. but it brings me back to the age of classic Dragon Ball. Which is a good thing.

Kaede choose the handle Maple, because I assume that is what her name translates into? Unsure though.I enjoy how she is depicted as a newbie in the style that I would act as well. While I am a gamer MMO’s can at times feel overwhelming to me and instead of reading a 40 page guide on how to Cleric I prefer to pick up  skills as I go. Also I love the concept of this MMO not having a tutorial, it would bring some sense of community, which I feel a virtual MMO should be about.. so points for world building. We see how Maple is super slow.. she doesn’t want to feel pain so she goes for a full defensive build..which makes me wonder why they even feel virtual pain in the first place that seems kinda cruel.. point retracted from world building.

Soon after we get my favorite scene in the episode. Maple encounters a cute bunny enemy which she completely outstats. She is just having a lot of fun letting it attack her and playing with it, just enjoying how it relentlessly tries it best. I would play an MMO like that as well. Just having fun, enjoying the animations and the cute creatures.However in this MMO your skills are developed situationally which I think is a cool concept. When she after a long time of playing accidentally kills it she is actually upset as she bonded with it.  That did happen to me.. when I played a MMO once.  Since Maple plays at night she dozes off while playing which triggers a number of defensive boosts. I found this set up pleasing throughout the entire episode.

To gear up she is told to go to a dungeon as she lacks money to buy crafted items, under explained that you should not clear dungeons alone we see her do exactly that, locking her up into some more insane upgrades ending up with her getting some amazing gear since obviously all drops are now for her! I would love to be able to play an MMO that way! This is how I want to play I absolutely adore it.  Her eating the monster because her weapon broke was funny to me to and felt as if the cooking mechanic kinda was exploited. Fun fun fun fun fun!

I’d rank this episode a Bubblegum out of Pink. Cute adorable and exactly in line with my mindset, there is little gripes I have against this one.It might be a bit to pastelly and lack true colour depth.. but  for a Saturday morning “cartoon” this is what I want.

BOFURI EPISODE 2

Forgive me for the length of this post, this is about a whole weeks worth of blogging in one. But starting from second episodes I can be a bit quicker so next weeks installment will be a bit more brief. As now I do not need to talk about set up as much.  Episode 2 of Bofuri  started with me missing the first minute. Due to set up issues.  I dropped in to see Maple eating some bugs to raise her explosive awareness and acquire an enemy devour trait she puts in her shield.

The first half of the episode revolves around a PvP event, I love how Maple due to being such a Noob is able to  outplay many enemies, simply based on how her mindset is so much simpler. Enemies strategise wrongly against her, and she ends up easily being able to take them down due to her non gamer build. That really is something special about this show to me.  I also really love the set pieces. The locations are quite pretty, nothing to special but there is a way they work with lighting here that really makes it stand out to me.  I also really like how Maple starts drawing in the sand during the PvP event .. Jeesz I wish we could get mmos like these. That concept of “just have fun” is something I deeply DEEPLY appreciate in Maple. The drawing scene while she casually dismisses some enemies just to say “back to drawing” was my favorite moment of the episode.

Which is why I like the second half of this episode significantly less. This focusses on Risa or Sally as she is known inside NewWorld Online.  It’s about her start in the game and while obviously that was a point that needs to address this feels like a more normal brand of gamer. Sally doesn’t dump everything into a stat. she is more of a min-maxer that tries to go for an optimal build. This vexes me for two reasons.. she sees how powerful Maple is.. so if your goal truly is to never get hit by anything, why not try to experiment in the same way as Maple did?! Secondly we see her solo a boss as well which invalidates the whole concept of Maple being so strangely OP.. it kinda feels like it’s “Just an easy game” now.

That being said, I do like how they play together, like true friends should. Maple even wears her newbie gear to they kinda look like they belong together, which I appreciate. Sally helps Maple fish because her dex is to low.. and Maple needs scales to get  cute white shield she wants. It felt wholesome .. the idea of discovering something cool while doing that fishing also quite appealed to me. I hope Sally doesn’t rub of Maple to hard and she will do her own thing in building her character.. but I do not mind them having moments. I am also surprised how the anime keeps putting in a lot of content in each episode. So far both episodes feel like 2 smaller episodes strung together .. and it’s pacing that really pleased me.

Not as good as the first episode but still among the best I watched this saturday. I rate this one a Seashell Pink out of Pink. It’s like a mario game! It’s cute, it’s fun and you want more of it… but when you find out this is a water level, you can not help but to prefer to have seen something a bit different.

HIKARU NO GO EPISODE 1

A young boy with two shades of hair finds an ancient relic from their grandfather and then becomes possessed by an ancient spirit which prompts them to become the king of games, by creating traps for their opponents.  Haven’t I seen this plot somewhere before? It even ran around the same period as Yu-Gi-Oh. Starting in 2001.  Come to think of it Shaman King aired in 2001 as well. I guess ancient spirit buddy cop series were the Isekai show of 2001.

Now unlike Yu-Gi-Oh I have not a clue on how Go is played.. and after this first episode I think it’s about surrounding an enemy stone with your own and you win if you get 4 or 5? But I am not sure yet. Anyway this first episode of this anime felt like  a bit of a mixed bag for me. With some highlights and some lows.  The lows mostly taking part in the first part of the episode. We see Hikaru find a go Board in his grandpa’s attic along with a girl.. he sees blood stains on the board while she does not.. he then hears a voice and gets a vision of this spirit.

An ancient Go player that got cheated out of a coveted position in the king’s court, which made him drown himself.  Having last possessed an ancient Go player from the Edo period this spirit now wants to be able to do some divine move so he can rest. While a fair set up I can’t help but feel what an incredibly sad figure Sai is. Not sad as in tragic but as in pathetic. His suicide is something that really made me dislike him. I get that I might miss a cultural significance of importance and honor here but man. The way he cries when he can play a match again trough Hikaru, his goal.. it all just feels kinda.. meh.

Hikaru on the other hand I understand, playing games to get the spirit that possessed you out of your head while also letting him help you with your homework, I really like that form of synergy as  base to start a show out of. I personally do not buy that you are send to school just hours after you collapsed into a catatonic state that lasted long enough for paramedics to come pick you up and rush you to a hospital even if it  had no medical but spiritual grounds. I’d figure people would tell him.. take it safe stay home today.Even when he starts to vomit  out of nowhere and talk into nothing.. he is still forced to make a test….  So I had big credibility issues with the first episode. Which could have been simply solved by establishing Hikaru as a “Boy who Cried wolf” type of character, as is though this is one cruel school.

The second half focussing on a match against youth prodigy Akira whom he randomly encounters in a Go Café.  The way things are framed, the way the game is paced out, the back and forth from camera angles the way we take a peak in both players heads as well as Sai’s really makes for an interesting mixture for matches.  It feels like what makes Yu-Gi-Oh  great.. without the stupid shenanigans which dragged it down again. The fact that Hikaru can count so fast on a Go Board and picks nuances up quite fast gives potential for the future as well.  I love the character design so far as well. It doesn’t feel as lavish and zany as some of the other early 2000 stuff. Making it much more based in reality. In a way making the characters, except for Sai much more relatable. Not an amazing first episode but a nice solid first match.

I’d rate this a Piggy Pink out of Pink. At first glance it looks a bit dirty but than you stare in it’s eyes for a bit longer and you can not help to be endeared. If the tone moves more towards that of the second half of this first episode.. this show can bring home the bacon for me.

Week 1

Now with a Whole  weeks worth of blogging we end on a quick sumary.
Favorite Watch: Bofuri (Episode 1)
Favorite Moment: USAGI SAAAAN! (Bofuri)

Least Favorite Watch:  Yu-Gi-Oh Sevens (Episode 1)
Least Favorite Moment: Sai Crying (Hikaru no Go)

Cereal: Brandless Choco Rice things.. with a monkey on the box!
Bowls Consumed : Two
Favorite Commercial: Sweater Chicken

Pinkie Gets Anime Powers : YuGiOh

We all have done it, wonder how our life would be inside of an anime?! What powers we would get. How would we work in an anime world? The past few weeks I have been asking myself that questions a few times. With the world in its current situation I think it’s the perfect time to resort to this form of escapism once again as this time we travel to the world of Yu-Gi-Oh

Duelist:  Yuni “Pinkie”Cohn

Character Name:
Yuni Cohn
Duelist Name:
Pinkie
Age:
24, but she has silver hair though she is often seen as much older.
Role:
Main Character
Relationships:
Pegasus Niece
Quirks:
Converses with her cards, seems oblivious to what is real and what is not, keeps quoting cartoons and anime. Doesn’t like if people call her madam or “that older woman” Sweet Tooth.


Every Yugioh main character has got to have a name that begins with Yu. At least if you watch the sub…. I am looking at you Jaden!…. Since I bet I would sound much cuter in Japanese than I would sound in english.. a name starting with Yu it is. We use this series to introduce Yugioh back into the main world of the show.. and while we are at it.. let’s make this a legacy show! I believe we are very close to the 20th anniversary so let’s create a world that can highlight some of the shows greatest moments. In order to achieve this feeling we are going to combine the latest show with the first season of the classic show for maximum callback.

Set somewhere between GX and 5d’s ..but with all the newest  card rules intact. This anime fully takes place inside virtual reality. Using technology similar to  that off YuGiOh Vrains. Our story borrows a lot of concepts from Ready Player One. Pegasus is retiring having reached the age of 65 he has decided to pass his company Industrial Illusions on to he or she who can become the next king of games, Thus the story is set about 40 years after Season 1.Pegasus will entrust his company only to someone who can beat his “video game” Duelist Kingdom 2.0. A completely virtual world. In this game he created several “bosses” based on actual duelists of the old world.To challenge one you have to pay starchips which you can acquire from challenging other players.  If you defeat a boss, you gain a golden millenium item card. The first 8 who show up at the pharaoh’s tomb with all the 7 items can duel each other in the finals for a change to beat the true king of games. If you beat him…become Pegasus successor.

I based a game on my favorite book yu-gi-boy!.. Yep Defo can see Max do this sort of stuff.

Yuni lives with her adoptive family in poverty. Pegasus is her last known  surviving blood relative and all pleas for help to his address have so far been unsuccessful. Too poor to even own a deck, Yuni spends what little surplus money she has, on sweets. Her owner of her favorite sweet shop, and older lady named Ryndia one day invites her to share some tea with her. She explains that she has been invited to the tournament..but can’t. No one will look after the shop.. and her old bones would ache in the vr pod. She tells Yuni she knows she is Pegasus niece and offers her a chance to finally be acknowledged. Handing her her own personal deck as well. Yuni agrees.. thinking this could save her family and finally make her connect to blood, as she would enter the virtual world of Duelist Kingdom 2.0.

I did not feel like hours of photoshop today so instead we get a rough depiction of how she would look like more or less.

Taking the duelist handle of Pinkie in the virtual world, she is a bit of an odd girl. Unlike other YuGiOh characters she starts completely alone, so Yuni starts to talk to her cards and begins to develop a friendship with them. Giving them personality and voices in her head.
This way we can bond with the cards a lot more… which can help card sales.. it’s YuGiOh after all. Throughout the series we see Yuni develop her own “heart of the cards” ideal, where she relies on her friends to come through for her. As her bonds grow, she also begins to feel this world is more real.  Going into a bog to save a drowning animal, risking herself for holograms. However this often results in her finding new cards.. as if the world rewards her for caring. Her weird approach to this..makes her hard to befriend as people think of her as delusional.

The Deck: Madolche Archetype

The deck that Yuni would use would reflect her love for sweets and look cute. After all I have to stay on brand for my blog. Desu Nee? The archetype I have chosen to use is the one of Madolche. Which is a combination of both sweet and viable. It also works well because of Yuni’s belief that these cards are her friends and would never abandon her. Now this is not a tutorial on how to Madolche but it is an extremely powerful deck with One Turn Kill possibilities and insane combos. Madolches get send back to your deck instead of your graveyard when destroyed by your opponent and help each other be summoned or revived should you tribute them. They work together to banish the opponent’s field while striking with 5 or six of them combined (yes six is possible now if you follow master rules 4.0 … long story)


As in all my powers, there is a theme of love and friendship somewhere and I believe Madolche can produce the idea of this feeling. Of course for the anime this deck has to have a lot added to it to provide a new gimmick of the week…but hey by completing quests in the duelist kingdom or beat some holographic minibosses… like Weevil or Rex , Pinkie obtains new cards. So at least it will be way less male-cow-manure like than 5d’s or Zexal where cards magically poof into your hands. Pinkie’s signature monsters still would be the current deck aces. Madolche Queen Tiaramisu has the power to banish monsters from her opponent’s field. Pinkie would imagine her as a Tsundere or as she jokingly calls her Tsundessert. Her “bestie” would be Madolche Puddingcess Chocolat-A-La-Mode.. and if you think think that is a mouthful.. her card effect is almost longer than this post. She can use XYZ materials to summon friends though.

For those who do not know… and I assume that is just about everyone reading this XYZ cards are a special summon from your extra deck by stacking two or more of the same level monsters on top of each other. After summoning the player can than remove those stacks from the card to conjure up powerful effects.

Link summoning will also still be a thing for our heroine’s deck. Link summoning is like a complex form of tribute summoning..which do not have levels but ranks, (equal to the number of creatures used… or creatures used + any older rank card used) these blue cards have arrows and whatever the arrow is pointed at can be targeted for effects. During Master Rule 4.0 you can only have 1 special summoned monster active…BUT you can also special summon into zones your Link Monsters point at, which sounds way complexer than it is. However in the upcoming format that rule should go away. As this paragraph hopefully made clear.. it’s kinda hard to explain how such a deck would work..besides in YuGiOh we need the power of flexible rule interpretation anyway.

Screw the Rules , I have imagination!

As is custom in these YuGiOh series your main protagonist has to have some super powers. We have seen Yuma turn super saiyan to create new cards (like the character actual becomes blond and super powered) .. we see Yusei turn gold and launch his motorbike into space.. where he finds a new card and Playmaker literally can surf… (yes they surf in the newest yu-gi-oh)  into a storm to pick up a new card mid duel… like an item box in Mario Kart. I do not want something as stupid for Pinkie, it will only happen once and with reason, but more on that in the next paragraph. Pinkie just talks to her deck and she asks if a certain card can come out to play. We see a animation of her reaching for a card and then the right cute confectionary girl or critter takes her hand and the duel proceeds. It’s heart of the cards..but cast with love and friendship instead of hope or trust. 

New cards can be obtained at the end of an episode..but each yugioh series introduces a new form of Kuriboh as well. Kuriboh, Winged Kuriboh, Kuribbon, Kurainbow and others have been introduced to the show in various weird ways, or they have been used to cheat… a lot. Since Pinkie’s deck is sweets based her Kuriboh variant would be called Kuribonbon, which basically looks like a chocolat Kuriboh. By banishing it from your hand it can negate any chosen action of your opponent’s turn . (Negate an attack, negate a summon, negate a trap card activation, Negate a magic card etc, in trade your opponent can not gain any battle damage… but Kuribonbon can only be played on your opponent’s turn). She will find this card by eating some candies while dueling when suddenly one talks to her and turns into a card. She is dealing with a card cheater at the time so will use it still but later out tells it to never cheat again.

Nawww.. 5 minute photoshop well spend!

The Power of Harmony

Each new season has a new summon mechanic ..which she will all use..(except for maybe pendulums.. in which you set two level scale monsters in your spell and trap zone and than can summon EVERYTHING, that falls in between those level increments from your hand ..and even graveyard in certain conditions) as this will be a legacy show. Fusions, rituals, synchro, links, and xyz will all feature. I guess I will include pendulums as well or I would feel bad for them.. but just in an episode or two! Of course Yuni also needs a new summon mechanic of her her own. I chose for a technique I shall dub Harmony summons.

It is a technique that is quite like the classic fusions. Where you need a very specific combination of cards to tribute. Cards that harmonise with another.  For example this could be having Madolche Queen Tiramisu, Madolche Puddingcess and Madolche Puddingcess Chocolat A la Mode on the field and tribute them for Madolche Grande Dessert. (No idea how it would look yet) A bright red card (Pink is taken unfort) that functions as a sort of boss monster. All materials needed get placed under the card like overlay materials however instead of using them to trigger effects, sending one to the graveyard can prevent the monster from being destroyed or send back to the hand.. these are monsters you are going to need to hit multiple times.


Their effect at base is a useful combination or at least themed similar to the cards that are used to summon it, however their effects increase as their life cards are lessened. For example cards gain 300 attack per life card that got send to the graveyard, or per card send to the graveyard they can lock up an opponent’s spell or trap zone, maybe even a monster zone. When a Harmony monster is destroyed you take triple battle damage that turn. I think the concept of using boss monsters could really work well in YuGiOh, especially in the anime.  It’s a mechanic we do not have yet, while plenty of other card games do use this trope. Cardfight Vanguard and Pokémon amongst others.

Playing your cards well

All in all I think this could make for an interesting anime show, the risk of having a lonely protagonist could make battles stale, but of course we will occasionally see a battle of the rivals  some she will be rooting for others she won’t. Secondary characters oftenly exist to lose or function as an inferior to the protagonist. As a result a great many of these duels become throw-away and inconsequential. By focussing on Pinkie as a solidarity character we can focus on others when it’s their turn to shine.. the other characters have their own fight and should not be written in a way just to assist the main character. Sometimes path cross and we can harmonize.. cheer for each other to give each other strength to make it to the next battle..or we see how are battle styles do not match and how they would use the game for evil!

All in all I think this could be a solid concept for a very different YuGiOh show. Instead of focussing on some characters that aren’t going to make it far we focus on one girl and her cards, making those cards matter as well. In the virtual world we could bring back some homages as well, such as bringing back Deck Master duels, from that Noah Arc.. in the middle of the Battle city finals. We can young Kaiba functioning as one of the key holders.. while old Kaiba makes his return to finally own both Kaiba Corp and Industrial Illusions.We can  bring back other main characters from unconnected series simply as programmed bosses… “Master of this technique”or so and we have plenty of opportunity to make this show as long or short as we want depending on how many cards we want to introduce! So Konami if you are reading this…let’s talk! I am cheap!

If you want to talk more about anime powers, write me! Remember guys and gals I love you all! Keep smiling and stay positive!

XO
Pinkie

https://ko-fi.com/pinkiesparadise

Previously on Pinkie Gets Anime Powers:

My Stand
My Zanpakuto
My Digimon

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