Nintendo 64 – Pinkie's Paradise

Pinkie Ranks: Top 5 N64 Songs/Soundstracks

Welcome back again little lights of my life! Today I will ramble more about gaming! Why?! Because as a Virtual Blogger it is now my task to have factually correct opinions! So to celebrate that I am right I really wanted to do a top 5. I wanted to do a top 5 Kaiju first.. but I realised.. I really have to know them a bit better. Mamma Mothra is considered the mother of monsters so .. maybe Godzilla is like my brother.. I might need to learn more about him before I think he is a bit basic.

So because I was listening to video game music while listening to this post .. how about I review video game music again! From the N64 this time! As I did SNES and NES in the past! Like with them, only one entry per franchise (uhm kind off) ..with an honourable mention in the same game (most of the time) .

_{<Disclaimer> All the Songs Are YouTube Videos, to hear them read this post on my actual website. <End Of Disclaimer>}

Number 5: SS Anubis – Jet Force Gemini

Jet Force Gemini was a great game on the N64 that would have never really been on my radar. Shooting bugs with an anime girl, a guy in space armor and a dog wasn’t something I was particularly interested in at the time.. it looked “kiddy” yet did not play kiddy.. so I kinda found that dumb! So I decided to rent Star Wars Shadows of the Empire instead… man I really disliked that game! The shooting was so awful. I returned the game the same day as I took it out.. even though I rented it for a week.. I did not want Shadows to be my weekend! The Video Game Store Owner recommended me to Jet Force Gemini instead and since I wanted space Violence I reluctantly agreed. My mind was blown. This game was so much better! It also had really great music! Very different from what you expect such a cute looking game. The game played so smooth as well.. so I actually kept renting this until I finished it! …Which meant I would have been better off buying it.. .but oh well.

SS Anubis is a track that has a super foreboding tone, but also something big! It had this explorative.. spy movie like quality that also really worked well for alien stuff. Those were some strange times! It is very loopable.. and non intrusive and easy to put on a loop, by it’s own it might sound a bit boring for those who have never played the game.. but there was a way that these tracks were designed where ingame sound and audio blended together in such a nice cocktail that this always left an impression on me! A second favourite of mine is the fire planet Eschebone! I mean.. there are just so many pretty sources of light there and.. the music is absolutely bone chilling. There is a real sense of danger and evil there.. and even though the level absolutely sucks donkey kong.. with the last K being replaced with a D but it’s theme was amazing. Rare did an amazing job. I could have filled this list with just rare songs alone and it would still be a great list. They are on here a lot.. in fact….. the next entry might be Rare as well!

Honourable Mention: Eschebone

Number 4: Sloprano – Conker’s Bad Fur Day

I love platformer games, yet on Nintendo 64 that love was tested a bit. I wasn’t the biggest fan of Mario 64. It’s a great game don’t get me wrong but there were a lot of stars that aren’t fun to collect. I now.. and always will dislike a game that requires ultra specific , conditions such as entering a level at 12 o clock to stop all the moving parts, or figuring out some super vague secrets. Nowadays I do enjoy playing through it. .but then I was heavily leaning towards Team Rare. Donkey Kong 64 is a game I (as one of the few people) really liked (except for playing the Arcade games) and Banjo Kazooie, in my eyes blows Mario completely out of the water. So when a platformer was said to release with lot of potty humor, violence and Teddy Bears I was on board all the way! I had a lot of fun with the multiplayer but I had even more fun with the campaign.. especially the earlier parts.

Sending bees to a sunflower, so she gets ticklish enough to show her boobs to a horney and hungover king bee… and of course.. fighting a giant turd by the power of conjuring context sensitive toilet paper. I loved this game so much and in part it is because of the Opera Scene.. weirdly I am a sucker for Opera music in video games and this one is no different.. although a bit low brow! It’s a song sung by a baritone piece of poo that flings parts of his body at you and the entire opera is metaphors for the excrement. However the way how tempo in the song is used to ramp up difficulty and the comical and clever text pushed this towards some greater heights. While I would not say this track is “forgotten” I often see it passed over for the DK Rap, which I will cheat with and make my honorable mention here. Conker Had great music troughout the game, I very much love the main theme as well.. but since these are the two most iconic N64 songs with Vocals..both by Rare and the same type of game .. I think it is allowed.. and that way you can compare and agree with me that Sloprano is a more unique song!

Honourable Mention : DK Rap – Donkey Kong 64

Number 3: Gerudo Valley – The Legend of Zelda Ocarina of Time

The Legend of Zelda Ocarina of Time was my first experience with this absolutely amazing franchise, with either this or Windwaker being my favourite installment. The Minish Cap taking a close third. My little sister forced me to call the main character we know as Link Turban8 (Tulband8 in Dutch) or she would reset my game over and over.. so my first Journey with Turban8 was quite unique.. I had never played a game like this before and here it became clear that I was a true gamer and my sister was not. We had to play together but I picked up on the nuances of this game fairly quickly and in the end she abandoned playing this so Turban8 was strictly controlled by me. I loved the music of this game so much, the overworld theme, Zelda’s Lullaby, Saria’s song.. this game blew me away! Music was an actual theme in the game and I would often just try to match the songs that were playing in the background. I learned to do this pretty okay as well.. and I adapted to a new way of Video game thinking.. away from the SNES platformer mentality.

One song impressed me so much more than the others, and that was the song of Gerudo Valley! My oh my did I love that song. The temperament of that song, the punch it packed and the “Bandito” theme really made this an absolute bob! I would often return to Gerudo valley just to hear that amazing song. Song of Storms will be put forward as my honourable mention, it can’t hold a candle to Gerudo Valley for me though! I love this song SO much! I loved it so much it was in my dreams! I once dreamed I got married to a video game character and we had to dance on the music! I just soared like an eagle to Gerudo Valley! Even did the rose/flamenco thing! Hmmm….I watched a lot of cartoons back then! I wasn’t able to beat the game at that age, the temple of Shadow and Spirit proved too tricky for me.. but I kept coming back to this game and falling for the song over and over again. I was so happy it got to be a thing in Smash Bros as well! They also made an absolute amazing Mariachi version of this!

Number 2: Rainbow Road – Mario Kart 64

When I was just a little Pinkie, I had a little friend with a bowl cut, who always invited me to come play Mario Kart on SNES.. I always lost and did not think I would like the sequel.. I hated SNES Rainbow Road to the core! My friend always beat the living daylight out of me! So when I first got Mario Kart 64 I kind of was upset! I didn’t really like that game.. I always played it with my friend because they wanted to play it, not because I liked it.. but I quickly realised how good this game actually is! I loved how this game controlled.. I loved the new weapons and I could actually stay on track and .. since I was not friends with Bowlcut anymore.. I did not really lose to anybody.. except my sister .. but she would punch me if she lost, so I faked losing a lot. Regardless , whenever she was not there I would race the AI on harder cc’s and win! I had so much fun! Then I had to do Rainbow Road.. and it was AMAZING.

Rainbow Road 64 is my favourite Mario Kart Track and Track ever. It really felt like the end of a (short) journey and instead of being punished .. like in the last one you were rewarded with a gorgeous track..which almost took as long to complete as the entire rest of the game. Seeing those character depictions on the sky, the sense of actually driving on a Rainbow.. it did more to me than being just a great track.. and track.. I think my love for Rainbows came from that game.. before that I kinda felt they were overrated but I loved Rainbow Road 64 so much that I even made a Mario Kart Rainbow Road Dungeon in my Digimon campaign. It was super fun! During the game the track almost constantly played and no one was ever annoyed by this music looping. It hits all the right notes of grandeur, space and lightheartedness. This isn’t a final dreadful trial for you to overcome.. this is a reward.. your victory lap! That is to me what Rainbow Road should be. The track before that, should be the final trial. This game got that feeling right, and this track is a perfect accompaniment for it. Oh right.. honourable mention.. Koopa Troopa Beach I get.. cause Island vibes?! It isn’t even in the same ballpark though.. heck.. if Rainbow Road is Yankee stadium.. then Beach isn’t even in America.

“Honourable” Mention: Koopa Troopa Beach

Number 1: The Entire Soundtrack – Banjo-Kazooie

I know , I know, this sounds like yet another cheat.. but you can really take your pick here and pick from anything in this library of this game. Freezy Peaks, Gruntilda’s Lair, Spiral Mountain, the actual main theme, every single track is amazing.. but before we get into that let’s talk a bit about my history with this game. I was reluctant to pick this up as Mario 64 had been a bit of a mid-experience for me. When I say MID I mean that in the softest way possible. I had a great time, but I no where nearly loved this game as much as I loved Super Mario World. I did not love it as much as Super Mario Bros 3 either. It was somewhere around Mario 2 and 1 for me. However because of how much I loved World.. this felt like a disappointment.. I did not care too much about how impressive 3d was. I wanted a fun game I could play with my Sister, I wanted Yoshi, Especially Stompy.. my Yellow Yoshi (my sister claimed the blue one). Then Banjo came and I expected the same experience.. but I was blown away! This game.. was SOOO much better. I am sorry but it just really is. Mario 64 is a great game.. but Banjo… it’s the near perfect collectathon platformer. It is one of those 10/10 games for me.

The gameplay, the humor, the synergy and most of all the music. This music style is SO unique! I am not good with backoffice names.. especially when it comes to music.. or voice actors.. I don’t really care who voices a character as long as I like the voice. I love the voice acting in a Hat in Time .. yet I have no idea who did it.. I love the music in Blast Corps.. I have no idea who did it! When it comes to music I know two names. Nobuo Uematsu, who I still refer to as “that Final Fantasy Guy” and that there is Grant Kirkhope. All respect to Uematsu.. but he just makes amazing music.. Grant Kirkhope’s music is so unique and so is …Kirkhope, I’d almost call it a genre. I can recognise if a song is a Kirkhope and that style feels so catered to the iconic bear and bird. Even if it is used in other games it is as if you can taste that love for this franchise. Whenever I hear a Kirkhope song.. I imagine a Bear and a Bird jamming out to it. There is a love for the characters here.. a LOT of it. After this game .. this type of music and sound design became part of this type of game.. so it simply is just outstanding and I can not pick a favourite. It was the birth of something new.. and I’ll take it as a whole! If I ever would be a VTuber, I would very much would like an Kirkhope style intro! If he’d make one I’d begin streaming the next day!

Thank you for reading trough another of my posts! If you want to support the blog , interact with me in the comments and tell me your favourite N64 song! If you want to support me even more, consider buying me a coffee or becoming a Patreon!

Pinkie’s Who Would Win: Naruto VS Luffy

Hello my dear island guests. It is time for yet another new series on my blog. It’s all based around a simple question. A question anime fan ask all the time! Who would win? Now of course Pinkie’s Paradise is a haven of peace and joy! Gladiatorial combat will not be part of it. Ram would have to much cleaning to do! That’s right she stayed! So instead for each face down we let our combatants duke it out in more mundane situations. This time the Gum Gum Pirate and the Nine Tailed Ninja duke it out…. in my game-room!

<This post features some atmospheric music suggestions found below each segment title viewing this post on the actual site is recommended for the full experience>

The Challenge

Of course the challenge will vary every installment of this. Combatants are allowed to use their abilities and we take into account how their mindset works. By placing them in a much more humble situation we do not need to do some math to find out that Luffy punches with the power of one octillion ton of tnt or having to go to weird science to show that Naruto’s beast bomb can blow up the moon.. which is more than Luffy can handle or something! No! These fights would cause planetary devastation and that’s not nice! We would pick something you and I could compete in and feasibly win against them, why? Because that is how we make friends with them! Also I think it’s a bit more of an original idea than just analyzing their abilities or letting people vote who would win! This is more on brand for me.

So how do we place a flexible man and a duplicating man on equal level? Well it is very simple! We call in the help of Nintendo! In februari 1999 a game of theirs released that could test how flexible your hand was, how fast you could tab buttons and how strategical one can be! It forces people to work together..as well as against one another. Today we will find out who of these two will be our Superstar. That is right! We are playing Mario Party. Now there are a lot of Mario Parties to choose from and the winner may depend on our choice. Obviously the ones with the car would bore both to death.. as those are proper mario party games. To keep things a bit simple.. I decided to go with the first game. This way there can always be a rematch, should there need be one!

The Set-Up

Luffy and Naruto would meet in an epic staredown, but smiling, both be handed their N64 controllers for the first time. Immediately we see a difference between our two contestants. Naruto like any normal human being has difficulty holding this weird spaceship shaped controller, while Luffy wraps his hand around it with ease! The Rubber-Devil-Fruit Powers are coming in clutch already! Now since Naruto is Japanese he will hold the controller by the middle prong, tiny hands and all that, as the N64 controllers were designed that you could hold it depending on our hand size or what stuff you needed. Since the D-pad is barely needed in this game Naruto is not to disadvantaged but Luffy struggles less when needing to switch positions and has an advantage in minigames.

Now it’s onto selecting their characters, this doesn’t give them a advantage… or does it? Luffy would as mentioned before have less trouble with the controller and would be able to select his character first. Choosing Yoshi.Why? Because I believe Luffy would get excited of having a dinosaur as a Nakama. Naruto who saw the frog like features of Yoshi would have most likely picked him as well but now decides to choose Peach. A choice which will come into play later. Donkey Kong and Wario would be selected as the computer controlled opponents, as both tend to fight villains and these two are the closest to that..even if they are thinking of the wrong Donkey Kong.

Now for a board they will select DK’s Jungle Adventure. Luffy would be to distracted by the cake .. in Princess Peach level and Luffy would not want to give Luffy the advantage of duking it out on a tropical island, as a pirate, islands like that would be Luffy’s favored terrain. They would consider the Wario Stage for a bit but both have had their fair share of war and are not to keen on reliving it. Which brings me to what versions of both characters we use. We use both their “young adult” post time skip forms with most of their abilities intact. However transformation states are not allowed. So no foxfire Naruto and no Geared up Luffy.

The First Half

Immediately after the turn order is decided, Luffy tries to activate his conquers Haki to knock Naruto out or gage his inner strength, which obviously would not knock out Naruto but would knock out just about everyone else on the island… maybe if Irina is visiting she would have already been knocked out by the cocktails beforehand. This action does come back to bite Luffy in the posterior though. Now that there is no one to tell them how to play the actual game.

Naruto is much more likely to pick up video games more natural than Luffy. His world is a lot more contemporary than Luffies. Just less for ninja’s .. however there are computers and technology in his world. Additionally Naruto is less obsessed with his goal. While in his free time Luffy would eat, train or think of what new Nakama he wants to at, Naruto would actually spend his free time more “normally” making it much more likely he can slip into the right mindset. As a result in the first five rounds of mini games or so, Naruto would most likely come out on top, though perhaps still losing to the A.I. ..at least in the first two games.

In the second quarter of the game however we will see a much more balanced and equal game. Luffy would use his gum gum arms to completely dominate the stick spin minigames, (these are mini games where you rapidly spin your analog stick around to win a minigame) and Naruto would use his shadow clones to win the rapid button presses minigames, however since Luffy is cute used to his Gum Gum Gatling Gun.. he develops a finger technique based on it called the Gum Gum Mini gun as he gains ground on Naruto. Having two clones aid with button presses is less effective than a flurry of rubbery fingers, so it looks like the most minigame award would go to Luffy.

There is a reason that Naruto chose Peach. He readies his ultimate distraction technique as he asks Luffy. “Can you see my character” he uses his Sexy-No-Jutsu to transform into a bikini Peach. This distraction would work, for about two minigames. Not because Luffy got a nosebleed.. but because he is super excited that he now might be able to add a Genderfluid-Ninja Nakama to his team and become Pirate King for sure. Naruto would tease Luffy for long enough to win a couple of games and take some momentum back.

***Luffy gets excited about a cool trick he sees!***

The Second Half

In the second half of the game Luffy would recover, Sanji would somehow burst in and begin to swoon over Naruto causing him to turn back and yell at the chef. Where he came from nobody knows.. but when there is a half naked girl he just would show up. Luffy is gaining more and more advantages in minigames. In games like Bumper Balls, where you try to bounce each other of a small island using big rubber balls for example would be akin to physics Luffy is very familiar with, there are a few similar games like swimming around a rubber hammer and other things.

However in the water based games Luffy is a bit overly careful and ends up losing more than once. For some reason in the bonus game you can dive up treasures he manages to get his character down under water.. but he can’t get it back up, not because he really can’t but because he believes he can’t . As a result Luffy is not very good at the bonus games that allow you to earn more than 10 coins.. as a large part of them include water. Around turn 15, Luffy has won about 8 minigames, Naruto won 5 and the NPC’s have won two. However since Naruto wins the bonus games.. he would most likely still have the most coins…it doesn’t really help that Luffy likes to land on red spaces as that is is defining colour.

Team games are alway won by Luffy.. if Naruto is in his team or not.. he is very good at working with other people, while Naruto technically should he is much more a I need to do this guy. Something that really developed more after his time skip. Luffy is having more fun than Naruto, he lands on more question mark spaces and would luck out more having three stars where Naruto only has one. He is enjoying himself so much he loses sight of the tactical aspect of the match, as Luffy is prone to be distracted.

This will end up costing him dearly in the final five turns, coins are ample except with Luffy who keeps spending them. Still seeing Naruto as a potential Nakama he shows him kindness and doesn’t steal from him using Boo. The Water 7 arc shows how easy to forgive Luffy can be and in general he really treats his friends well. Now Naruto is not a bad person but he had Sakura tell she had feelings for him even if she did not and his best friend betrayed the village.He also wants to knock sense into said friend…destroy his goals and motivations and drag him back to the village. He also has more drive to win. Naruto has been in way more petty competitions than the stretchy pirate and he wants to win them all, while Luffy is more prone to see non essential competitions as “fun”

This will result in Naruto tactically allowing an NPC to steal a star first, as Luffy has the most he would always be the target of the NPC.Naruto holds off until this has happened to snipe a star of Luffy as well, planning it out as close to the final turn as possible, just to end up using his coin lead to buy himself an additional star as well. Luffy who is just having fun would tactically not be prepared for this being considerably less intelligent compared to Naruto. While both are tactically about equal in combat, Naruto’s time with Shikamaru makes him much more likely to pick up some of the strategic skills needed here. He has also displayed them more in finding enemy bases and plans where Luffy usually shouts enemies out of hiding or creates other ruckus.

The betrayal would anger Luffy and cause him to go all out in the last phase. Activating his armament Haki for more rigid button presses and even faster spinning. Most of the future pirate king’s big fights end with an enraged Luffy giving it his all. This can result in either two things of which the latter is more likely to me! Luffy completely dominates the last two minigames crushing all former records OR he accidentally breaks the analogue stick or buttons during a flurry of matches and in actuality losing the last two matches due to controller failure. Since normal people already break N64 controllers when Mario Partying to zealously, this would be the scenario I’d think would unfold with angry Luffy as well.

The Super Star

Now that the match is over it is time for the bonus stars. First of is the minigame star, a bonus star that has been present since game one. This would be very close since Luffy won more mini games but really struggled with bonus games..because his fear of water. Naruto would have won less but he is more money aware than Luffy and would have bested him in the bonus mini games, partially due to more natural gamer instincts part due to a lack of fear. Wether or not the controller broke for Luffy during the end phase will decide whoever wins this bonus star. Which in fairness would be more likely to be Luffy so we will give this star to him.

The Happening Star is a bonus star that would be awarded to those who landed on the most green event spaces. This would definitely go to Luffy, he is much more prone to experiment on a games board and just see what happens if he goes on that square. Naruto oftenly being short on cash would prioritise blue spaces and getting cash..because he also is put on the backhand of minigames.

The Coin Star would be close again but I feel like this would end up going to Naruto, even though he spend more money than Luffy. Here is my “math” for that. During an average math on DK Jungle you can buy about 5 ish stars. Due to him dominating in the Minigames I gave Luffy 3 and Naruto 2. However Naruto spend 50 coins to steal a star of Luffy as well. So Naruto spends 90 coins and Luffy 60. From minigames Luffy wins somewhere close to the 150 mark the Ninja boy not being that far behind due to the bonus minigames paying out a lot more. However where Luffy would explore a board and see what stuff does, plus he likes his icon being red I feel on the board Naruto would easily make double of what Luffy makes. Easily compensating for the 30 coins he spend more. Luffy would want to try out a bowser square just to see what it would do and from that alone losing that amount of coins is fairly easy. The fact that Bowser is on this board and sells you fake golden banana figures for 10 coins is something I feel Luffy would also fall for more than once thus Naruto ends up with the most coins.

Now depending on how RNG went four likely scenarios can unfold.

–Naruto did not manage to buy a second star after stealing Luffies, because he needs to time it close to the end if the game, in which both players would end up with three stars.
–The NPC blundered and did not steal a star, in which case both the heroes would end up with four stars.
–Naruto’s strategy worked completely, in which case he would end up on 4 stars and Luffy on Three.
–The NPC would fail to steal a star, and Naruto would have bad rolls on the final dice and not make it to his third star. In which case Naruto would end up with 3 stars and Luffy would take 4.
Now it would seem that we have two ties and and one victory for both, but in Mario Party in case of a tie the victory goes to he who holds the most coins. So in most of our simulations ..victory would go to the blond boy! Naruto is the super star!

Now I hope you all enjoyed this first edition of Who Would Win! How do you think should win?! What type of match up would you like to see you next? I had a blast making this post so there will be a lot more of these!
I shall all wish you an amazing day and will leave you with the teaser for the next one.

Be Loved or Bee Love?! Pinkie chooses the latter! Bee Love Award!

In the penultimate post of tag week I got nominated for an award I never had heard about. It is called the Bee Love award and I love the name. However this tag can be done by simply posting the logo and doing some nominations. It’s not even a specified number!. Post the logo.. thank the one who nominated you and then nominate people and you are done!I can’t do a lot with that! So I decided to add something to it! Since this post is called Bee Love and not Bee Loved.. I guess it’s about love for bees?! A top 5 bees it is.. video game bees to be exact.

Thanking Craft Lover

Selina, thank you again for the nomination and sorry it took me that long! I needed a fun idea to give this post some content it took me a while to come up with something! I talked about Selina’s crafting blog a fair bit in my sunshine blogger award so feel free to check that one out and of course Selina’s very own blog! If you want to get ideas for crafts everyone can make.. or be inspired for delicious smoothies Craft Lover is the place to be!

Number 5: The Good Bee
(A Link to the Past-SNES)

Now I bet all of you would have expected me to pick a lot of special bees. Like Maya the Bee from one of her video games? Or like Bee video game bosses. While not untrue in case of the latter sometimes a bee is just a bee. Bee Mario is also not on here.. because.. he isn’t really a bee! The good bee however is! And he sparkles! Not only was a link to the past one of the first games where i could catch a creature in a small container and allow it to fight for me… .I LOVE CATCHING CREATURES IN A SMALL CONTAINER AND MAKING IT BATTLE FOR ME SO MUUUCH!..

It was also sparkly. While the good bee doesn’t have to much of an impact on the main game, when playing a randomiser encountering this little bug is always exciting because we get another free item! Having a buddy to battle with you isnt half bad either! Except when you release it when trying to sell it.. and it goes off to attack that stupid weathervane! That’s a BAD Bee! …Which also is a thing.

Number 4: Not even in the manual Bee
(Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde-NES)

Now this game is absolutely horrible, for those who have never seen the Angry Video Game Nerd, this game is the unholy grail. It might not be the worst game in existence…but it’s pretty close. I host bad video game nights for my friends every now and again and whenever some rolls to play Jekyll and Hyde.. it’s always fun….for the ones not playing. For the majority of the game you try to play as Jekyll.. mostly because if Mr Hyde goes further than him you die. Jekyll has a walking speed that is slower than that boat Guts and his party got on in the Berserk manga. He has to take a quick stroll to the church but he mozies around so slowly that the One Piece Manga can start AND finish by the time he has walked down the street. Horrible! All you can do is prod your cain at people…who all try to kill you for some reason. It doesn’t do anything! Hitboxes are completely unfair and don’t even get me started about the bombs.

Amidst a slew of named enemies in the game, the appearance of the bee is not even alluded to in the manual. The cat and the dog are in there.. but the poor bee gets the short end of the stick.. and that can be taken quite literally. You see the Bee is the ONLY Enemy that Jekyll can kill. It has this dubious honor of being the only fair enemy in the game. Mr Hyde has a few but if you have to much fun with those.. you die! So the bee is the only fun thing in this game and that makes it a great bee for this list.

Number 3: King Bee
(Conker’s Bad Fur Day Nintendo 65 and Xbox)

Bees are usually video game enemies, regular bees as the two above or these super cutesie adorable heroes that everyone loves. Pinobee was one of these platform heroes that cutified the bees. Charmy Bee from the Sonic Squad was another of those.. but to me bees aren’t cute. They are quite scary beings that haunt me and while not as mean as wasps nor as scary.. their video depictions oftenly being more wasplike give me the heebie jeebies. So there are no nice bees on this list. King Bee from Bad Fur day definitely is the nicest of the lot.

King Bee is a washed up hungover looking bee, who had a rough night and the next day he just wants to pollinate something with big boobs! Not even kidding.. that is what you as an equally hungover squirrel have to help the man with. However the big breasted sunflower is kind of shy and covers her chest. So you have to gather plenty of small bees to tickle her armpits so she throws them up in laughter. When you tickle her enough her boobs show and the king is finally energised enough to do his job… that is a whole lote of bee and a whole lot of love! Perfect for on this list.

Number 2: Capital B
(Yooka Laylee series)

Now it is finally time for a major character on this list. Somehow I like me bees lower profile. But this video game villain is quite a good bee. He looks scary and the idea they made to make him into a corporate gold loving maniac worked like a charm. In both Yooka Laylee and the sequel the impossible lair this villain plays a major role, without really popping out. Unlike Bowser or Dr Eggman he feels much more like a behind the scenes guy. While Bowser later got his Koopa kids to control, the way how Capital rules his company and twarts the heroes kind of feels spot on. We don’t find him 5 times before the final encounter.

His looks are crazy and remind me of the Joker. The world seems to be catered around him in both games..which makes sense for such a megalomaniac. He is one of those classical style villains done right.. we miss these types of villains these days. Even Bowser and Eggman are deeper now and not always evil for evil sake. This guy is just a meanie bo beanie for the sake of money and being evil! He wants to rewrite reality and enslave all bees into a hivemind. Not only is he Capital B.. he is a Major D and a Giant A hole as well!

Number 1: Zinger
(Donkey Kong Country series)

The bee I most remember from video games is definitely the Zinger from Donkey Kong Country though. Man did those things look scary when I was a kid. Being terrified of wasps this hybrid design between bee and wasp made them look as deadly creatures.. and so they where. The easiest one to kill can only be killed by a barrel or by the animal companions. Some other bees are completely and utterly indestructible. Hitboxes of certain death! Many vine swinging stages had these set up as hazards and many many times did they cost me a precious life.

What made them stand out the most to me was their sound effect. This weird melodial buzz that audibly changes when they change height was very unsettling to me. Not completely buzz like but close enough to unsettle you. Each buzz lasting indefinitely until it reaches it peak height or death to repeat the cycle gave it also some sort of timerish feeling like a ticking bomb. These creatures actually gave me nightmares and yet when they got replaced by the buzzers, the buzz saw green bees in Donkey Kong Country 3.. I missed them! Zingers became iconic to me, more so than Goomba’s , whatever sonic has or Kremlin’s from the same game. While later that faded down a bit.. I tried to make drawings of these monsters way before I realised I could not draw! When you say bees in video games.. I say Zinger.

Nominations

Now let me repeat the tag rules again.

Thank the one who nominated you and provide a link to their blog.
Share the Award Logo
Nominated some people.

So really .. there are no real rules except for being decent. So I talked about bees! With this post I dare you to write about something you normally would never write about. It can still be within the realm of your blog.. but why would you talk about bee monsters in anime.. or a documentary about pollination. Of course it doesn’t have to BEE about the flying insects but just show us something new! Let’s have fun with this one!

My nominees are:

Lyn from: The Otaku Author
Who I nominated because I think he hasn’t done this tag before.

Megan from: A Geeky Gal
The person who might have the title for most blog awards ever…so if a new one catches my eye .. she gets nominated.

Naja from : Blerdy Otome
Because I really want to know if there is an Otome/dating game with bees for some reason! Also her blog starts with a Bee .. so I feel it is destiny.. also I wanted to write her name correctly for once!

Kat from: K at the Movies.
Because I really wanted to give K a B.

Joe from: Average Joe Reviews
Because I feel a Bee is a good grade for an Average Joe!

The Worst Pokémon Game

Yay it’s time for Chibi Pinkie to play again! While this post goes life I am at playing the dutch theme park the Efteling with an amazing friend of mine, this week has not been so fun for Chibi Pinkie. Not only are we a bit sick I also have to review the worst Pokémon game ever made. Fun and me had no fun with this one. By far the most horrible and unplayable Pokémon game of them all. Hey You Pikachu!

The Disclaimer

Hey You Pikachu never got launched in Europe. However trough having a big friend who is working for an even bigger international gaming company, as well as having known (past tense) retro game dealers I managed to actually play this one and even finish it. However I do not own the game I just played it knowing full well the material is not optimised for us. Some of my gripes will be a result of that. Prior to this review I brushed up on the game however by watching several playthroughs and I noticed plenty of people had the exact same gripes (just a bit less tedious) This game got very mixed reviews and ended up with passable grades on Metacritic so I do guess this doesn’t apply to everyone. If this game works for you, good on you but I very much hate this ‘game’

The Concept

When Pokémon Stadium was a big succes a people aid bucks extra for a peripheral to transfer their beloved poképals to the N64. Seeking to do something similar they designed yet another attachment for your controller. they could charge you extra for, this time you would be able to talk to your Pokémon. In this game you play the nameless and even shapeless protagonist this time that once more gets hired by our good old pal Samuel to do yet another form of research. This time his newest invention allows you to befriend wild Pokémon and gaining their trust. The concept is a stroke of brilliance, this could have been such a great game if it had been designed better. The idea of winning a pokémon’s trust and actually focus on the budding bonds between a human and a singular pokémon is something that in these days I would crowdfund immediately. This is what I would have wanted Tamagotchi to be. The Pokémon you encounter of course is Pikachu which is arguably a bit uninspired, but don’t worry that wasn’t no where near the only uninspired thing in this game. By talking to Pikachu you can go on , sort of adventures with him to collect leafs, catch fish toss a ball and suchlike things. All in order to win that Pikachu’s heart and earn the most horrible ending in a kids game ever. bit but more on that later. Pikachu can buy stuff from a store, you can pick up items while Pikachu follows and of course you can talk to your Pikachu and it can respond to you. Unfortunately it listens about as well as a Lvl 100 Missingno traded to you before you have any gym badges, whilst you try to operate the menu blindfold would in the main games. Oh right and you only have moves with like 50% hit chance… and your pokémon is confused… and paralysed. Commanding a Pokémon like that just about is the feeling that this game will give you.

The Atmosphere:

Pikachu lives in Viridian Forest which basically looks like it copied the textures of Ocarina of time, which at least in Japan launched at the same time. Making the looks feel adequate on intial glance. Because saying positive stuff is fun i’ll say the area’s the game is set in are charmingly mediocre and pikachu looks and sounds cute. Pokémon have their names as cry which brings some charm to this and that is where the positives end. Regretfully I am not only talking about the atmosphere… this is it for the game. It’s cute to look at and see Pokémon do their thing. Pokémon Snap however can do that for you as well however and so much better. Where you have 7 very different locations on that one… this one is just grasslands .. sometimes with a bit of water. It makes sense because it is set in a much smaller area but jeez some fauna would be much appreciated. By far the WORST sin in terms of Atmosphere is how the actual ‘levels’ are designed. Item placement is so random it looks like Michael J Fox with a mouse was in charge of placing them. On a grassfield with no bushes or trees at all you can find 12 strawberries laying around, just scattered around. Pokémon to interact with are treated in a similar fashion. Guys I know you made this game for kids but does the term world building mean anything to you? Pokémon tend to group together. this would be the ideal game to show that off. Have a family of Oddish fight over some strawberries and let Pikachu bring them a few! Awesomesauce. But no.. the Oddish are scattered and don’t interact with each other at all. Fishing for Seaking or Goldeen’s will produce super tiny fish which don’t have an appropriate size. Items show up with no rhyme or reason and the laws of the world make no sense at all. At one point Pikachu can shop with money while for remainder of the adventure it is just a pet, mixing the Pokémon Mystery Explorers world a bit with that of one similar to snap feels odd and non-cohesive as everything else in the game. Though flour and eggs, milk sugar salt. love and sprinkles could make a wonderful cake together when combined properly, just tossing some flour eggs and sprinkles in a pot and baking the living shiitake mushrooms out of them and then cooling it down with milk you had a lovely day with, does not result in the same thing. Hey You has the ingredients of a game, even a decent one at that.. but the elements don’t gel into a cohesive product..we end up with just some ruined ingredients.

The Technical Thingies

Dear Arceus who art in better games. If Tommy Wisseau could write and design a more cohesive world, the game designers of Big Rigs over the Road Racing, could have made a more functional game.. it would be close but at least when you play that game you are winner. (And yes I written that correctly) Let me be straight with you.. this game doesn’t work.
It starts and you can finish it but it doesn’t work. It isn’t prone to crashing nor is their something really broken about the game… it just doesn’t work. Voice control is atrociously bad, thus there is no gameplay. When you make a sound there is a 1 in X chance Pikachu chooses the word you want it to hear. Mechanically wise this basicly results in gameplay mechanics that are akin to roll a 3 on a d6 to progress. A one and two will result in something cute , 4 5 and 6 may even hinder your progress or will annoy Pikachu. Progress is possible it’s just up to a matter of ever so slightly manipulable chance. The game works as follows, you read some dialogue and examine some items and everything in Red Text or Blue Text can be recognised as a command. For example Oddish, Pikachu, Throw or Thunderbolt. Simple enough should work but it really doesn’t With my accent it’s a total no go while these are really simple words. Trying to make Pikachu buy the middle item in a shop failed so often I almost cried in frustration while the Oddish level is a showcase of bad design. Think about it’s 20 years ago and voice technology is still really coming up and there is a plethora of issues. In one level you have to make Pikachu water a radish to let it sprout as oddish. The voice command would be “Pikachu Water a radish”.

Issue number 1, Pikachu has to hold the watering can but he will snag about everything else you hold in your hand as soon as he gets to close. Annoying but overcomeable, now when you water a radish it becomes an Oddish… which is also a separately recognisable word. Voice tech isn’t that great so as soon as the first Oddish sprouts out of the ground, you have about a 50% chance from Pikachu getting the next “radish” command right. In the entire rest of the map you only find strawberries. which is again a word. “Water A’ and Strawberry are kinda similar in sounds once you pronounce them vast enough. So now at best.. you have a 25% chance of actually being able to execute the task, and that is if Pikachu even choses to recognise the words at all. Since the voice is basically your only option to make Pikachu do anything it kinda gets frustration when you end up with about a 10% accuracy in your commands. Compare it to playing Mario but 9 out of 10 times the A button doesnt work. Doesn’t that sound delightful. If Pikachu holds an item and he gets frustrated because he doesn’t understand you… he oftenly tosses it, depending on where it flies of too (the physics are rather extreme) you might not be able to get that item anymore that day. Yes thats right I said that DAY , the game that listens to you 10% of the time… has a time limit.
This game does not work.

The gameplay

To describe how this game plays I am going to use a comparison. Imagine taking one of those children that feature in those supernanny shows too a foreign museum of modern arts. Now imagine that kid drank about two liters of red bull prior to this event. Now you are given the task to keep him in check whilst learning yourself about some artwork that is made of random stuff stuck in a oversized plush torso. and I mean random stuff like.. red dyed drainpipe.. and straw bundles with LED lights in them. The kid keeps asking you to tell him what to do Dora the Explorer style. This would be about the same experience as playing Hey You Pikachu. The latter having the advantage that you can rip out the cartridge and toss it out of the window… but still, Sans would be surprised how bad a very bad time could be ..should he put his hands on this game. This is made worse by Pikachu’s horrible walking speed. It’s cute to see him waddle, that genuinely still made me happy, but seriously he is slower than any windows update. When you make Pikachu walk from place A to B , Disney will have released two new live action remakes by the time he gets there, oh and have I mentioned the game has a time limited. Those two go together super well. Now Pikachu CAN run… he just rarely does it. “Pikachu picked up a A STRAWBERRY, It wants you to guess what it is holding” is the text prompt that follows when I decided to just move to him’
‘Strawberry’ I say. Pikachu nods! I guessed correctly! Wow.. so it can still work. ‘Pikachu eat Strawberry’ is what I say next. Even though the word is not in this game Pikachu clearly must have heard, Pikachu YEET Strawberry’ as th Strawberry wizzes past my ear.. it’s gone.
It looks upset because he wanted to eat it. The day is over…. isn’t this fun.
Now the game is still cute to look it, so cute even that it might have been enough if not for the horrible way this game ends. Mass Effect 3 had briljant choices compared to this. You know those “it was all a dream endings we pretty much universally hate?”

This is worse.
So you are a kid without a pokémon of your own over the course you befriend Pikachu and it even follows you home and sleeps on your bed as your bonds grow. You have yelled at Pikachu , cried in your pillow of frustration that it doesn’t listen and even considered giving up on being a gamer because this just isn’t fun and this isnt working at all. All your hard work will be worth it in the end right? You get to capture Pikachu and use the voice commands to have a battle with it right? How amazing would that have been for an ending! Unfortunately we do not get such a cool ending… nor does this game just fizzle out like Pokémon Snap kinda did. In the end, you release Pikachu back into the wild!
The game ends with you saying farewell to Pikachu and it cries as it runs off into the forest knowing that it will never see you again. The only reward you get as a player for stomaching trough this yank as frizzlesticks game is another punch in the gut. All your progress is nullified, that bond you earned is severed and Oak has some research that has never been used again in the entire world of Pokémon. At least that kid you took to the museum MIGHT say thank you for the nice day Miss Pinkie.. or insert your name. It is nice and consistent though, you get punished for playing , you get punished for finishing it oh and of course you get punished for buying this because you had to buy that microphone for it too.. that no other game used. This game is like an inverted stress ball. I legitimately have a bad heart and this game frustrated me so much that I actually noticed it harming my rhythm.

The Verdict

The title and the rest of the blog have pretty much made clear that I will give this the lowest score in my ranking system. This is a cute-ish game to look at and that is the best credit I can give it. There is no effort in designing a stage and items have randomly been placed just to cater to the extremely young and it’s to frustrating for them . This game should only be played if you do not care what actual happens… which kinda defeats the purpose of playing a game to begin with. Seaman which released earlier is the better microphone game.. much weirder…but he at least reacted a bit. Pokémon Snap is the cuter game to look at and let just run. A pikachu plush is cheaper and less frustrating and about as interactive.
When it comes to pokémon, you gotta catch em all, however when it comes to Pokémon-Games you can easily Leaf this one alone.

Now unless the creepy jester of the Efteling kills me , I harm my back and neck even further than I already have in the rides or if I get sick from the theme park food, we shall be back tomorrow where we will answer the questions of our Sunshine Blogger award finally! Keep following me for that one! Leave a like, follow the blog, make a witty comment and remember:
I am not weird just very pink!
Until we read again
Wait Pikacchu what are you doing to my room?!