March 10, 2013

femfreq:

Damsel in Distress: Part 1 - Tropes vs Women in Video Games

This video explores how the Damsel in Distress became one of the most widely used gendered clichés in the history of gaming and why the trope has been core to the popularization and development of the medium itself.  As a trope the Damsel in Distress is a plot device in which a female character is placed in a perilous situation from which she cannot escape on her own and must then be rescued by a male character, usually providing a core incentive or motivation for the protagonist’s quest.

ABOUT THE VIDEO SERIES
The Tropes vs Women in Video Games project aims to examine the plot devices and patterns most often associated with female characters in gaming from a systemic, big picture perspective. This series will include critical analysis of many beloved games and characters, but remember that it is both possible (and even necessary) to simultaneously enjoy media while also being critical of it’s more problematic or pernicious aspects.

For more examples of the Damsel in Distress see our Tumblr for this series: http://tropesversuswomen.tumblr.com

Visit http://www.feministfrequency.com for more information, videos and a full transcript.

Yo, this video is interesting and important. Can’t wait for more in the series.

4:01pm  |   URL: https://tmblr.co/ZpvIwufwEmHd
(Notes: 2,051)
  
March 8, 2013
DKU comics

I’ve been working on a rather large article for a while now, and it’s finally ready! I’m not posting it here though, because it’s hosted over at my favourite Donkey Kong fansite, DKVine. It’s a rundown of all the printed comics ever published that are DKU (provided they are available on the Internet, otherwise I don’t know about them). It’s got descriptions and highlights and then, you can even view the whole comics themselves under each paragraph! It’s amazing!

I should take a step back though. First, anyone who’s read this blog for a while will know I like video game comics. They’re a great way to expand on a game world, and while I like comics fine, they’re way better when they involve the established characters and worlds of video games that I’ve played. They also are an easy form of merchandise to collect and appreciate digitally.

Second, I like lists, spreadsheets, categorising and organising things. This article started as a rough list in TextEdit and a series of links to where you could find these comics on the Internet. I decided to expand it inot a hopefully-interesting to read article, in the hopes of helping anyone else who like me was on the hunt for DKU comics.

Third, some background if you are unfamiliar with the DKU. It’s a concept that describes a shared universe of video game characters, starting with the Donkey Kong Country series. Diddy Kong Racing expanded the Universe to include Banjo Bear (and all subsequent Banjo games), Conker the Squirrel (and etc), and Tricky the Triceratops (who makes all following Star Fox games DKU because it’s the same guy in Dinosaur Planet and DKR). That’s the basic gist of it but it makes for some interesting hypothetical interactions as it expands. The DKU is the guiding principle of the site DKVine (which even used to be called DKU itself, and before that Donkey Kong’s Jungle Vine).

The article really became a thing though when Matt (Waddle Dedede on the forums) asked me to follow through on a suggestion I made in a comic thread. It’s thanks to him that it got published and that it looks so damn sexy. Seriously, check it out, it’s got flippy tags and subheadings and expandable images and everything! He made it all happen and I am very grateful to him for what seemed like a lot of work.

Oh yeah, I should put the link. Here: http://www.dkvine.com/features/milo_investigates_dku_comics.html Also, if anything else comes to light, I will post about it in the linked forum thread (which I think you have to get to through the news announcement post; or just check out the DKU subforum). Actually, here: http://www.dkvine.com/interactive/forums/index.php?showtopic=8159

Why are you still reading this? Have you read the article? I’m really happy with it, I’d like for you to read it. It’s got a wide range of crazy and weird comics, most of them in English. Yep so that’s that.

8:12pm  |   URL: https://tmblr.co/ZpvIwufnJmQd
Filed under: comics scanlation fandom dku gaming comic 
February 26, 2013
Rockman Xover (iOS)

A note first about the name here. I can’t be arsed with the pretentious use and pronunciation of the “cross” symbol. It has no place outside vector maths, and I am generqally annoyed by its widespread use recently. However, I find amusement by pronouncing it as “X”, ie. “ex”. Namco ex Capcom, Street Fighter ex Tekken, Project ex Zone. I refuse to say this the way those marketing suits want me to. So now we have Rockman ex-over, supposedly a great celebration of 25 years of Rockman history. Pffffttplhplhplhphhhhffffrttthhtttthhhhhhhhh. Not to give away my feelings too early or anything.

Similarly to Animal Crossing, I’ve been playing this game daily for the last month. It’s somewhat addictive and I like to fire it up for a little bit, use up my energy points or whatever then quit. Progress has really slowed recently though and I missed the 8-bit event it seems, so I’m nearing my limit I think. Can’t beat the World 5 Shooting Star bosses either, there was a huge “difficulty” jump there.

I say that in scare quotes because there is nothing whatsoever related to skill, reactions, etc. in this game. There’s barely even what could be called gameplay. Stages are extremely basic flat autorunning affairs with random baddies at two levels: ground, and a flat plane above you, for you to jump n’ shoot at. You pick up cards and auto collect money. The only strategy really is sometimes if you’re not careful you have to choose between picking up a card or jumping to shoot a flying enemy.

Boss fights are a completely different gameplay style, violently shifting to a turn-based RPG battle system, and using the stat points that you’ve been collecting all those cards to enhance. I found all the bosses of the first four worlds’s stages very easy, except maybe the final world bosses, and then as I said the curve shoots up to impossible, as if the game is saying “go grind for a few weeks, loser”. Except it doesn’t say that, or maybe it does because I haven’t bothered to translate all the Japanese it comes out with.

Did I mention this game is not available anywhere except the Japanese App Store? I found it was quite easy to make an account there and get the game, although having that account with an app installed from a different region store causes some minor App Store problems every now and then. The game itself is very unforgiving to non-Japanophones, although (as with my long-ago playthrough of Zoids Saga 1) I figured most of the functions out fairly easily.

There’s also social features, with friending, chat, and team battles. People just friend you automatically, as you are often shown random players and given an option to send a request. So getting partners to team battles is never a problem, but I’ve never had a chat request (not that I would understand them anyway—my formal written Japanese is vestigial but present, but colloquialisms would defeat me).

This game was advertised as a “social RPG”, a genre that is much bigger in Japan than in the West. I think this fulfills the promise of that kind of game, as far as I understand them. It has all the hallmarks I would expect, along with copious in-app purchasing, limited play, premium items, and “community” features. Not as cynical as some, but not as well executed as others.

The game is kind of a mess to play. It feels like it was thrown together in a few days. So many buttons, menus, dialogs, loading screens. Things aren’t explained that well and viewing your cards is janky as heck. The two play modes have no pause button. There is lag, especially between menu screens. It asks you to optimise your cards (a process that leaves them most assuredly non-optimal) every time you view the equip screen, and before every boss fight—ie. way, way too often. (Although I may be missing an elemental bonus effect that it accounts for, but I doubt it.) It’s playable despite the horrible interface stuff, but I don’t know how much longer I can stand it for the very little content I get for that.

And so we come to that. As a “social RPG”, it’s passable. As a tribute to 25 years of Rockman, it fails horribly. It, uh. I can’t even. There’s just. Ack. Ok, I read an interview, and the guys who made it sounded so passionate and authentic. How is there such a big disconnect between their attitude and this pathetic scrap? What characters are used have new, fairly nice sprites, but they are used so badly. There are 7 sub-series to Rockman, and some are woefully underutilised in the cards. Others (X) are overused in the worlds and bosses. I don’t think I’ve even seen a Zero series character yet. The new armours are cool, but literally the only characters that appear aside from the bosses are Over-1 and Kalinka (at least she has a new portrait!).

I dunno, this game is just a massive wasted opportunity to me. The mechanics are just executed so badly, and Rockman series representation is so, so limited. A brief cutscene of that Legends airship is not really good enough! Stages only have two bad guys and a Met, for the whole world! And did I mention the loading screens! This is not an adequate Rockman celebration game. It’s not an adequate Rockman game. There’s been a lot of weird Rockman spinoffs, but a lot seem to have more effort involved than this.

Rockman Online looked way more exciting than this, although had it been released I probably wouldn’t have been able to play it. That game looked like a crossover done better. It didn’t claim to represent all 7 series, but it did 2 (Classic and X) very well, with new character designs, nice environments, loads of characters appearances, and proper gameplay.

Anyway, as I said, the game is mildly addictive and it is somewhat gratifying to see something of a wide range of minor characters in the cards, and the occasional more important one showing up. It also familiarised me with some characters and enemies from the Battle Network series (or at least their name and picture, which is all you get with the cards), so it has that. And I must say, the gameplay is unique among Rockman titles. There are small consolations and additions to Rockman canon here, but on the whole it’s pretty disappointing. The customisable equipment/card system surprised me at first with its depth, but ultimately there’s not much point to it.

So I’d say my reaction to this game has been mixed. I’ll keep it around and maybe try to beat those hard bosses, but it’ll take a while. They seem to update with content every now and then too, but some of it is time-limited, very frustrating. I must say, Capcom better have some tricks up its sleeve for Rockman’s “anniversary year” because the fanbase is pretty angry already, and Xover hasn’t done anything to help matters in the West. In fact, fan reaction was so negative that Capcom America promised not to localise it for now. (Insert they’re happy [i]not[/i] to make a game when the fans demand it comment here.) Me, I don’t mind so much, I’m not so short-sighted about these kinds of things, but I’d hate to see this get worse. Although if anything, the way the suits upstairs in Japan are treating the franchise, if anything it’s making the fanbase stronger in its support. Unfortunately they are allied in hostility towards Capcom, so that could get ugly.

Personally, anniversaries don’t mean too much to me (love you honey), but if it means the game companies take the excuse to make more games, then I’m all for it. And any game game in a beloved franchise is important to me in its own way. So in a way, I’m glad Xover exists. I just wish it was better, and I hope it doesn’t preclude further crossovers. Anyway time to end. For those who mind, sorry about writing another Rockman post. To my fellow Rockfans, Rock On! (so lame, I am so lame.) Ok, let me try again: pray for a true peace in space! No wait, wait that’s Metroid. WHAT AM I WRITING FOR!?!?!? Heh, much better.

10:30pm  |   URL: https://tmblr.co/ZpvIwuf1-ziR
Filed under: rockman megaman capcom ios review rockman xover 
February 26, 2013
Animal Crossing (GCN)

A while ago, out of the blue, a friend presented me with the original Animal Crossing (ok, it’s not actually the original, as it’s the third of four versions of Animal Forest for the Japanese N64… long story). She’d found it in the course of her work at the op shop (that’s the thrift store for you Yanks) and set it aside for me, as a renowned game nerd. I was pleasantly surprised but actually had no interest in the game really.

Seems callous to say that, but it seemed a little pointless to me. I finally booted it up this year, for one reason: to unlock the playable NES games that you could buy for your house. This was partly to stick it to Nintendo’s overpriced and under-featured Virtual Console, as I had essentially got this game for free (my friend paid $5), scoring more than 10 NES games which would cost quite a lot if I lost my mind and bought them for my Wii.

But then, as I’ve mentioned before, a funny thing happened. I named my town and myself, I moved in. I took on a debt to Tom Nook and set about paying it off. I endeavoured to earn more money to upgrade my house, to make room for all the NES games (the basic house can’t contain them all), by doing jobs for villagers and finding things to sell. And somewhere along the way, I became hooked.

I found myself playing the game every day, and forgetting all about the NES games. Eventually I remembered them and, as I’ve chronicled, was disappointed. But for over a month, I played almost every day and got a lot out of it. I found the game charming and compelling. The simplicity of it made it very accessible to me, it was just easy to boot it up after work and mooch around the village for a bit.

For those who don’t know, Animal Crossing is a kind of “life simulation” game, where you directly control a single avatar and do various tasks in an environment with no specific goal. Like the Sims, but with cute cartoon animals and stuff. There’s a lot of calendar and time-based events too (it’s all real-time).

Getting to know each villager, discovering new ones moving in, witnessing some random events, fishing and digging up fossils. It was fun just living in this simple community, and I developed a routine for each day. The goals of upgrading my house and Tom Nook’s store kept me motivated.

After a while, I began to lose that motivation, especially after I learned that the store couldn’t be further upgraded without another player visiting. This kind of mechanic in games is very frustrating for a “Forever Alone” such as myself. I also got all the NES games (all the Universal Code ones, anyway), and fit them in my house, so that motivation was gone too. Collecting stuff was fun, but the general lack of Nintendo-related memoribilia compared to later games left me with little desire for continuing that (I fortunately got Kafei’s shirt very early and loved it, got the Master Sword too).

I also felt that I was reaching the limits of what the game had to offer me. Perpetual winter was getting me down, and the way the villagers seemed to not have any sort of continous relationship to me made the social interactions seem hollow. I’d found almost all the fossils, and bugs weren’t showing up for another few months. I unlocked the extra bridge, and experienced New Years. I felt like I wasn’t getting much further, so I stopped.

I feel that the game was too simplistic, a little barebones. I feel that the sequels may have the added features to keep it compelling longer, to get me to the next holidays, but there wasn’t much to this. However, those later games don’t have the killer feature of NES games (which I think is genuinely cool, aside from the emulation video output issues I had). Even the later Animal Forest e+ release Japan got had some extra features that sounded cool, and playing a game with e-Reader support always makes me feel like I’m getting a compromised experience. Not to mention the Island, reachable via GCN-GBA link cable (cursed peripherals I don’t have!). Oh and the whole not having friends thing (at least not ones who own this game).

Having said all that though, for that one month I had heaps of fun with this. Plus now I know about the series, it helps me get stuff other people say and references in Smash Bros or NIntendo Land. I hope to play games from every Nintendo series eventually, a very nebulous goal at this stage that I may act on more purposefully one day. Yeah so it was fun but a little simplistic. I’m not planning on getting New Leaf or whatever it’ll be called here (can’t count on NOE) but I think the evolutions developed between then and now could make it a much more compelling game (although I don’t like the less chibi body shapes).

I give this game 1 month out of 12. Oh yeah and it got annoying running around trying to find villagers for errands, sometimes I swear they were hiding from me. Thanks much for reading, chimp!

Wife’s comment: It was ok for a while but got very repetitive. Finding the balls, ah!

8:14pm  |   URL: https://tmblr.co/ZpvIwuf1pwCJ
Filed under: review nintendo gcn animal crossing nintendo ead 
February 13, 2013
The Four Guardians and some other Rockman Zero stuff

I just read an interesting post on the Reploid Research Lavatory about the Four Guardians of the Megaman Zero series. Kobun #20 translated three different interviews with the game’s creators about the fates of the four and why they didn’t appear in Zero 4. Red it here: http://kobun20.interordi.com/2013/02/10/fate-of-the-four-guardians

Now I knew about the first two already. The first, from 2005, says that it’s up in the air and although they were great characters and loved by the dev team, it wouldn’t make sense to fight them in the fourth game with such a big threat looming and they couldn’t fit them in in any other capacity. They speculated (without confirming) that the Guardians (sans Phantom of course, although he could have done Elfy things with them) were elsewhere fighting for the sake of humans against other enemies or Weil’s schemes. They do desire justice and to honour the memory of X, so that makes sense. They also mentioned the possibility of exploring their adventures in some other form. That never happened.

The second dashed those hopes by stating plainly that they had all died in the final battle with Omega in Zero 3. Shielding Zero from the explosion when Omega was defeated (shown) apparently caused them fatal injuries (not shown). The game’s ending suggests nothing of the sort, and the way it was expressed seemed like a cop-out. They mention then the piece of art in the Rockman Zero 4 Physis Soundtrack, depicting all 4 in robes, watching the game’s ending with X. Whether this is non-canon or their Cyber-Elf forms made perfect by X is up to you, I suppose.

So we have three sources here: two developer statements, and the artwork (which I am taking as canon because it’s too cool not to). I believe they can all be reconciled, and the third interview, coming from the recently released R20+5 art book, retcons both statements into one in a different way than I thought of. It states that the Guardians were considered dead according to Neo Arcadia’s records because they dropped off the map and went missing. They were presumed dead, and it is further stated that their continued fighting to help humans is not impossible.

Now, my theory: the Guardians (Harpuia, Leviathan, and Fefnir) did shield Zero from X’s explosion. In the Zero 3 soundtrack (Telos) there is an an audio drama track with Cyber-X and Cyber-Phantom visiting an injured Fefnir and Leviathan during the events of the game. I envisage a similar scene occurring to all three in hospital again after the final battle, but with X and Phantom telling them of other problems that need their attention elsewhere. This accounts for their absence in Zero 4, as previously speculated.

However, I also believe they died fighting Omega, as stated in the second interview, but not in the same battle at the end of Zero 3. Slightly different to the explanation offered there, but it is also partially fulfilled by the third interview, so I feel more comfortable with it now. You see, it makes more sense to the subsequent ZX series if all the heroes who were made into Biometals are at the same place. So I propose that Cyber-X alerted them to the fact that Omega had lived on in the dimensionally warped region of his defeat (Weil’s old laboratory, where Zero was originally found by Ciel). Of course, at this point they have had the opportunity to have some other adventures in the meantime. The Four Guardians go there and battle Omega again, trying to keep him down and out. They previously stated that they still feel the need to fight Zero, and this gives them that chance too. Presumably Omega has manifested some new physical presence.

During this new battle, the Four Guardians and X succeed in stopping Omega rising again, but at the cost of their lives. They all lived on as Cyber-Elves, even Omega, and similar to how X’s body remained to seal the Dark Elf, the Guardians and X remained to seal Omega. Later, Weil attempts to crash his satellite Ragnarok into Area Zero. Zero manages to crash it somewhere else—we see in ZX that the Ragnarok Core (the basis for Model W, and thus all Biometal) is right near where Omega’s corrupted data form can be fought. This is because Zero crashed Ragnarok right onto the same lab. The influence of the Ragnarok core affected the Cyber-Elves in the area, and when Ciel explored the crash site (with Serpent and others), they were able to recover the Elves of the Guardians, X, and Zero by converting them into pure Biometals. Taking them away, they were able to do good in the world again. However, this left the Ragnarok Core (what would later become Biometal Model W) alone with the Omega Elf, who was then able to partially recover and form a Biometal of its own, spontaneously and with the help of the Core.

The Ragnarok Core being near Omega is canon, but my theory of the Guardians being there explains how Ciel was able to make the Biometals as a result of that trip. In ZX, Vent or Aile (or both) find Omega mostly recreated, and take the Biometal for themselves when they defeat him. And during the game the Core is removed, so that accounts for everyone. The death of the Guardians at that time, well after the end of Zero 3 but before the end of Zero 4, explains why their Elves were watching the fall of Ragnarok, but allows them to fight for the humans in the meantime. It also explains them dying in a fight against Omega, and ties into ZX.

I hope I explained that the way my mind understands it. Now the only thing left unexplained is why Model A in ZX Advent is so much like Axl, and who actually created it (I don’t believe Master Albert did). Until further X games say otherwise, let’s say Weil was able to get ahold of Axl’s body and stored it in his lab (presuming he died in the Elf Wars, and his own Elf stayed with his body). It was then subjected to the same processes that led to the creation of the other Biometals, so with Zero and X’s help Ciel must have made Model A as well (since they both knew Axl in life). It’s fine for Albert then to take that Biometal and corrupt it, but the similarity is too close to be ignored. Unless he means that Model W, speaking as Albert, indirectly caused the creation of all Biometals because they were made by studying the Ragnarok Core and through its influence on the Cyber-Elves, including Model A.

Oh, speaking of which, I have to say another thing about Weil. I found out since my other Rockman posts that according to Inafune, Wily was alive in X5 and helping Sigma. Huh-what?!? So now I’m thinking that Weil really is just Wily with an altered appearance and his own custom cybernetic enhancements to allow long life. He stayed secret for ages, and makes his comeback in the Elf Wars. It explains why there are two guys so evil and with a similar name. Ah, Wily. Stay classy.

12:01pm  |   URL: https://tmblr.co/ZpvIwue0p-vJ
(Notes: 3)
  
Filed under: rockman fandom megaman capcom inti creates 
February 12, 2013
Yoshi series overview

I had occasion to play a bit of Yoshi’s Island DS yesterday, trying to beat the last few secret levels (what a slog!). It reminded me of a post I started a while ago then abandoned. This is v2 of the Yoshi series overview.

So the Yoshi series is distinct from the Mario series, but maybe not distinct enough to get the recognition it deserves. It shares secondary protagonists (Mario, in baby form), primary protagonists (Yoshi, but a bit different), primary/secondary antagonists (Kamek, Baby Bowser, and Bowser). It also shares several enemies, although with a different art style and there are many unique ones as well. These elements are good to tie the series together, but perhaps hold the Yoshi series back a bit. Of course, the other problem it has is its splintered identity.

There are three incarnations of the Yoshi series, separated by recurring elements and characters and by very different art styles. They are (in order of personal preference) the Yoshi’s Island style, the Yoshi’s Story style, and the Super Mario World style (aka generic Mario series style). You can classify games in these categories, and also Yoshi appearances in spinoff games by which one they most closely resemble or draw inspiration from.

Chronologically, of course Super Mario World came first. The art style is “normal”, “generic”, in the early days simple line drawings, and later the weird plasticky 3D CG Mario renders that are so recycled and overused in promotional material and new spinoff games. Yoshi’s proportions featured a longer neck, smaller head, and smaller arms. Yoshi was very popular as a character and appeared in many games and other media, such as cartoons, comics, etc. Several spinoff games were produced to capitalise on his popularity, and are classified as “Yoshi series” games despite appearing before Yoshi’s Island, the first “true” Yoshi series main game. They belong here as they feature the Yoshi before the redesign in YI, and before the time jump too (more about that later).

-Mario & Yoshi (also known as Yoshi’s Egg in Japan and the laconic “Yoshi” in America) is a puzzle game for NES and Game Boy. You play as adult Mario and trap Super Mario Bros. 3 enemies between egg halves to hatch a Yoshi.

-Yoshi’s Cookie involves adult Mario baking cookies and Yoshi eating them in another puzzle game for NES, GB, and SNES. A later re-release for the SNES, Yoshi’s Cookie: Kuruppon Oven de Cookie, added a mode with a world map, controllable Yoshi and recipes for your own Kuruppon Oven (a Japanese oven brand). It was also featured in the Japan-only Nintendo Puzzle Collection for GCN, with a new story mode. This story mode had (mostly) Super Mario World enemies. So there are 5 versions of this game. The cookies also make cameos in several other games, and the game inspired the Puzzle Mode of Tetris DS. The modern versions of Egg in Game & Watch Gallery 3 and Mario’s Cement Factory in G&WG 4 were also inspired by this game.

-Yoshi’s Safari, the greater Mario series’ only rail shooter, used the Super Scope in an adventure with adult Mario riding Yoshi, shooting SMB3 and SMW enemies.

The other class of games in this category is any which have Yoshi as rideable, as a callback to SMW in which you play Mario but ride Yoshi. These also usually use the “generic” Yoshi appearance, which was altered slightly after the release of Yoshi’s Story and has since been fairly constant. These consist of Super Mario Sunshine, Super Mario Galaxy 2, New Super Mario Bros. Wii, and NSMBU. The former two seem to use the unique character of the major green Yoshi, known as “Yoshi”. Ergh. The latter two have several Yoshis in different colours. Pretty much every Mario spinoff is also here (and Super Mario 64 DS), as the featured Yoshi is supposed to be the same one who is friends with adult Mario. However, many contain elements of YI and YS. Basically, specific elements of SMW-style Yoshi appearances are edible berries, adult Mario, little frog-like Baby Yoshis, enemies of “Mario” games, and Yoshi being a supporting character. The proportions and art style are also characteristic.

The Yoshi’s Island style came next, with the first game YI being marketed in English as Super Mario World 2, even though it had very little to do with SMW. Yoshi was the protagonist and main playable character, and he had to protect baby Mario. You actually play as 8 different coloured Yoshis, but they all played the same. This game had many new enemies, but some came over from the Mario series with new appearances. The whole style of the game was hand-drawn, a crayon look, sort of a storybook feel without the more literal storybook elements of later Yoshi’s Story. It was just a really nice look, with pastels and soft colours but also very characterful pixel art for the characters and enemies (unlike SMW’s pixel art, which I think is a bit lifeless). Yoshi took on a shorter neck, larger head, bigger arms, a much more animated appearance, and more colours. The games in this series:

-Super Mario World 2: Yoshi’s Island. Established many new design elements for the Yoshi series. The plot involved Kamek (caretaker of Baby Bowser) kidnapping baby Mario and Luigi, who were being delivered by the Stork. The Yoshis (led by a certain green Yoshi) take baby Mario and then go to rescue baby Luigi.

-Yoshi’s Island: Super Mario Advance 3. A remake of YI on GBA. It replaced Yoshi’s voice effects with Totaka’s voice samples from Yoshi’s Story and added some extra levels, but was otherwise pretty much the same. Oh and it didn’t have the Super FX chip so couldn’t handle some of the EXTREME graphical effects (eg. screen-warping) the SNES original had.

-Yoshi Touch & Go. Basically an early DS game that was built around the hardware capabilities. It’s a sort of retelling of YI in a way, but as a score attack marathon game. Yoshi runs along, you tap to fire eggs. There’s also a mode with baby Mario falling and you draw things to help him, which was adapted from a GCN/DS tech demo called Balloon Trip. I’m not sure if it actually represents a new chapter in the YI saga, but if not then it’s the third game based on the same events.

-Yoshi’s Island DS. The only “true” sequel to YI, it directly follows many of its conventions and styles, unlike Yoshi’s Story. The graphical style is the same, but it introduces more babies for the Yoshis to rescue, including Peach, Donkey Kong, Wario, and Bowser in addition to Mario. The story is weirder, adult Bowser and Kamek travel back in time to capture the babies to stop them thwarting their plans in the future. Also apparently all the babies, including Luigi and a final newly hatched Yoshi, are “Star Children” with DESTINY or something.

-Yoshi’s Panepon (aka Tetris Attack). A spinoff on the SNES, this game was a reskin of the Japanese Panel de Pon with fairies and flowers replaced by Yoshi. It was later released in Japan too. Being released soon after the original YI, it featured many enemies from that game and Yoshi’s design, although it also included the SMW-derived baby Yoshis. So you see how some games mix and match elements. Still, on the whole taking most of its cues from YI puts it here.

To figure out which spinoffs are taking inspiration from the YI style, one of the giveaways is the crayon-style art and soft pastel colours. For example, the Yoshi’s Island stage in Brawl or the board in Itadaki Street DS. Any game with babies is also derived from this, as YI games are the only ones with baby versions, who are regulars in sport games now. Yoshi making and throwing eggs was introduced here, although YS shares this trait. Mainly it’s enemy types, as there are lots of unique baddies or familiar ones with a specific style. This style lent itself well to the Paper Mario series, so you’ll see some guys turning up there. Similarly, Mario Party Advance is a haven for forgotten minor enemies, as is Super Princess Peach. Mario & Luigi: Partners in Time is also linked as it involves time travel to the same period, babies and Kamek. You also get elements in certain modern remakes in the Game & Watch Galleries, such as a YI-proportioned Yoshi in G&WG2’s Vermin, Goonies in G&WG3’s Turtle Bridge, etc. Oh and I almost forgot, WarioWare DIY has a YI-based microgame called Yoshi.

Yoshi’s Story was a big redesign for the Yoshi series that greatly affected Yoshi’s portrayal afterwards. Interestingly, the childish art style of YI is said to be a response by Miyamoto to pressure he received to make the game like Donkey Kong Country’s pre-rendered art. Instead of the “modern” 3D computer-rendered graphics, he went for a simplistic hand-drawn style. It’s ironic, then, that YS on the 64 went all out with 3D rendered character models and backgrounds, and ended up being (in my opinion) pretty ugly, and not as well received. It’s still very cutesy, but the colours are brighter, and everything is very rounded and shiny. Unfortunately the game is pretty awkward to play too, but it has unique mechanics that stood it apart from YI from the directional tongue and analogue egg aiming to the non-linear structure of levels. The style’s not just generic 3D models, though. The game has a storybook conceit in the menus and everything looks crafted, such as knitted stuff, newspaper and cardboard, wooden blocks, pop-ups, clay, etc. It is this aesthetic, and the proportions of the squatter, rounder baby Yoshis, that characterises any game or element in the YS style. It spawned a few sequel-type games too.

-Yoshi’s Story. Baby Bowser has turned the island into a pop-up book, put all the adults to sleep, and stolen the Super Happy Tree. Some newly hatched baby Yoshis have to eat a lot of stuff to become really happy and then beat baby Bowser.

-Yoshi’s Universal Gravitation (aka Yoshi Topsy-Turvy in America). Using the 3D-type art style of YS but an older-looking Yoshi, this game used a GBA title sensor for Yoshi to interact with stuff. No egg-throwing but a fair bit of eating, it’s the art style that places this here. It mixes some painted stylings with lots of cardboard and constructed scenery. Not to mention the story in which adult Bowser is causing trouble, so this time the spirit deity thing of the island turns it into a picture book (again). The structure’s different though, it involves little mission-type things in a level, you have to please different spirits by doing various things.

-Yoshi Demo. This unnamed tech demo for the GBA was based very heavily on Yoshi’s Story. It featured an endless level in the style of YS’s first level, with some of the same enemies but also some new ones. It may have represented a close sequel to YS on the GBA but nothing ever came of it. It’s playable though, so it kinda counts as a game.

-Yarn Yoshi. This recently announced game for the Wii U is looking like a sequel to Yoshi’s Story (and Kirby’s Epic Yarn). The knitted and crafted aesthetic and 2.5D levels certainly place it in this category. Also, no babies.

-Yoshi Cart, a sub game in Nintendo Land. Much of Nintendo Land features a crafty-type art style, with knitted material and handmade costumes and whatnot, so Yoshi’s game in it fits in here. Also, the point of it is to eat fruits, based on the YS fruit types. It contains music from YS and YI, but the fruit and style put it here.

-Picross NP vol. 2. This Japan-only Picross game came in instalments, each of which featured a particular game that was current. Vol. 2 has a series of Yoshi’s Story-themed puzzles, although being pixelated sprites they could arguably fit with YI too. The theme though is YS, and there are some characters here unique to YS.

As I said, many games following the release of Yoshi’s Story incorporated elements such as fruit (bananas, grapes, apple, musk melon, watermelon) and the general proportions of Yoshi shifted slightly to the rounder body shape. His voice is another thing that stuck around in most places, although you still get the old vocalisations in Mario Kart 64 and NSMBWii. Basically, if there’s fruits, no Mario, round-looking enemies in 3D, bright colours, and the Super Happy Tree, it’s based on this game. An interesting part of this category is that the aesthetic is not just a visual choice for the game, it’s part of the story too. The two main games so far have had the island becoming a literal book, and if Yarn Yoshi is anything like the Kirby game, the plot will follow similar lines. Yoshi Cart is also a recreation in Nintendo Land.

The Smash Bros. series is cool because it is such a big crossover. It happens to cover all three categories separately. There are three stages, all called “Yoshi’s Island”, that uniquely belong to one of these. The first instalment’s stage was YS-based, with cardboard and wood stage and the Super Happy Tree. There were also 3D-rendered Fly Guys carrying fruits. Melee had a SMW-based stage with the blocks and pipes from that game, as well as Lakitu and berry bushes. Brawl had the YI-inspired stage, with 2D Fly Guys, a Support Ghost, and watercolour-style graphics.

Now, I mentioned baby Yoshis in YS. I’d now like to present a way for all these games to fit together cohesively. Throughout all, three stages of Yoshi growth are shown. The first is the newborn babies, which are very squat, frog-looking guys that grow up after eating stuff. They first appear in SMW, then in Tetris Attack and more recently in NSMBU. However, this contrasts with the “baby Yoshis” seen in Yoshi’s Story. So YS’s version must be more grown up, as they have more definition and independent ability, although their proportions are shorter than other incarnations. These are then “infant Yoshis”, which grow into “adult Yoshis” with the more familiar proportions that, while the design has changed over the years, are fairly consistent. These infants are, however, seen several times emerging directly from eggs, (black and white Yoshi in YS, baby green Yoshi in YIDS’s end) but mostly from very large eggs. So Yoshis have chance to develop while still in the egg, which can grow to accommodate this. If the egg hatches while still small, the little frog “baby Yoshis” are born.

Now as for individuals, my theory goes like this. The primary Yoshi that is such a big part of the Mario series, is playable independently in SM64DS, appears in many sports games and also SMW, SMS, and SMG2, is now an adult. At the time of Yoshi’s Island he wasn’t yet born. The star of YI, Touch & Go, and YIDS is an older Yoshi, perhaps the father/mother of Mario’s Yoshi. At the end of YIDS, the green Star Yoshi is born. This same one then is the star of Yoshi’s Story, along with some other infants. Baby Bowser knows that this one will grow up to help Mario and hinder him, due to Future Kamek telling him in YIDS. This is why he calls him Mario’s pet, even though this Yoshi has never met Mario before. Later on, he grows up and even becomes the new protector of the island, taking over from his ageing father (the ringleader of YI and YIDS), filling this role when a grown-up Bowser attacks in YUG. Then, Mario visits one of the Yoshi Islands (don’t ask) and meets this Yoshi, in a fateful meeting between Star Children in SMW. Yoshi’s Egg is part of the aftermath of Bowser trapping Yoshis in eggs in SMW, as Mario has to now hatch some more. From there they have many adventures together, including baking cookies and shooting Koopas. Sometimes Yoshi’s different coloured friends from his island come along too.

And that’s the story of Mario’s Yoshi and his father. Ah, but what happened to his father? Another theory I heard goes that the Yoshi Village Leader on Lavalava Island in Paper Mario is that father, older and wiser (and fatter). He has a feather on his head and a brown Yoshi friend who he had adventures with. The evidence is not exactly overwhelming, but it’s the best theory I’ve heard as to what happened to him. (I haven’t played that bit yet, so I don’t know what he says to Mario either).

Well, that was altogether too long. I haven’t said too much about Yoshi before though so I wanted to get out some of the differences between his portrayals, and the styles seem to fall along one of these three lines. Looking at different interpretations of characters is always interesting to me, especially characters I love. I could say a lot more on this subject but I really have to stop. Thanks for reading (or skimming).

12:01pm  |   URL: https://tmblr.co/ZpvIwudy6uHV
Filed under: yoshi fandom nintendo 
February 11, 2013
suppermariobroth: ““The infamous Mario Party palm burn affair as documented in Nintendo Power." ” I thought it was a bigger problem that the required motion ruined the control stick faster than usual. Those 64 controllers had a tendency for the stick...

suppermariobroth:

“The infamous Mario Party palm burn affair as documented in Nintendo Power." 

I thought it was a bigger problem that the required motion ruined the control stick faster than usual. Those 64 controllers had a tendency for the stick to wear out and become loose over time, and my impression was playing Mario Party contributed to that. Didn’t see them sending out new controllers to players, though.

(via suppermariobroth)

12:01pm  |   URL: https://tmblr.co/ZpvIwudt94Ea
(Notes: 563)
  
February 11, 2013
Donkey Kong Country 3 (SNES VC)

As you may remember, I picked up the Donkey Kong Country trilogy before it vanished from the Virtual Console. I played them back to back, which was a good way to compare their differences. I grew up with 2 and 3, and I still greatly prefer both to the first, especially now after my retrospective run through. Many people consider DKC1 the best, but as I’ve said I find it clunky and unpolished.

One of the biggest strengths of the series is atmosphere. All three do it very well, but each has a unique tone and character that is quite different from the other two. In the case of DKC3, the character designs are a little more wacky, but the environments are rich, beautiful and mysterious, although there are echoes of previous archetypes (not enough for it to seem stale or derivative though, everything is fresh). The impression is of traversing new territory (although all three achieve this). There is also a noticeable theme of nature vs. industrialisation, with the former represented by many level types and wildlife, and the latter by the Kremlings’ factories and pipes.

The music varies between lively, tranquil, and oppressive, similar to DKC2 in those variances but again with a completely different feel. Eveline Novakovic (nee Fischer) did the music, unlike the previous instalments which were scored by David Wise. This soundtrack proves the dominance of this series in great video game soundtracks (my opinion, of course).

An interesting side note to this, however: when the DKCs were being remade for GBA, at some point someone decided that instead of just inserting new, horrible mini games and new collectibles (DKC3 GBA has the former but not the latter, strangely), this one would get a more significant makeover. A whole new world with new levels was created, and the entire soundtrack removed and replaced by a brand new one composed by Wise. Thus DKC3 is one of the rare games (also Rare games) with two soundtracks. The new soundtrack radically alters the feel of many of the level archetypes (and includes remixes of DKC1’s Aquatic Ambience and Jungle Groove). On the whole I don’t like it as much, although to be fair it suffers from the GBA’s sound chip and speakers.

On that note, recently OverClocked Remix released the long-anticipated DKC3 remix album. It’s massive, and apparently very good, but I decided that before I listened to it I wasn’t familiar with the Advance soundtrack, so I should hear that first before I hear it remixed. I downloaded Cody’s rip from here, and while I played my SNES VC DKC3, I muted the TV and played the corresponding GBA level music through my phone. It was certainly a different experience, and I learned to appreciate a few tracks more than my initial impression. Some also got on my nerves, like the yodelling new Frosty Frolics.

So what about the game? Well, there’s a lot to say but I feel it’s been said better elsewhere. That elsewhere is probably lots of different threads on DKVine though, so I’ll summarise a few main points here.

More than the first two, the game uses gimmicks in new stages, which changes the gameplay feel from one that can be run through quickly with basic jumping or climbing mechanics to sometimes slower and more complex interactions. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but it results in a different style that you need to know about. Series staple gimmicks of course return, such as swimming stages, dark levels, and mine carts (roller coasters in 2, toboggans in this one). The boss fights are also more interesting and strategic, with some quite unconventional methods needed. The animal buddies too are on the whole more complex, with tricky abilities rather than just making you stronger or better at jumping. So complexity is increasing through the series to here.

It’s also been said that in this game you can see the seeds of the 3D platformers that were becoming all the rage (and have since sadly quite died out). The more freely explorable open world map, the heavier emphasis on collectibles, the fetch quest items, the secret world and worlds that do not have to be completed in order, many NPCs like the Brothers Bear (also known as Mindless Idiots Who Ask For Your Help or MIWAFYHs). Of course, this game was being developed alongside Donkey Kong 64, as well as Banjo-Kazooie (and Super Mario 64, which Wrinkly Kong is playing on her own N64 at one point) so some design elements crept in. I think they enhance the game though, and make for a more compelling experience in a lot of ways. There are lessons they can teach each other.

The other consequence of this late development is that the game, when it came out, had to compete with the N64, much like Paper Mario as one of the last N64 games was competing with the Gamecube. This has contributed to its relative lack of popularity compared to DKC2 (awesome) and especially 1 (overrated). It has become a bit overlooked and is also criticised in the mainstream for “not having Donkey Kong”. I say, screw that guy! The new characters were heaps of fun and the gameplay was super solid, the atmosphere was absorbing, and there was loads more to do than in Donkey’s own game (DKC1). He isn’t needed, as far as I’m concerned, to make a game great.

Of course, the game is nowhere near as influential on the greater DK series. Kiddy never showed up again, although Ellie the elephant and the Banana Birds had cameos in the Donkey Konga games (Barnacle Bear is also apparently in the 3rd one, but I haven’t seen evidence of this apart from a promotional artwork). Barrel Blast, a haven for fan service if not particularly good apparently, featured toboggans, Kopter, and the purple parrot who is alternately known as Squeaks, Flapper or Quawks. The unreleased Diddy Kong Pilot also featured Buzzes alongside Zingers, which is cool. This also has the dubious honour of being the last Donkey Kong game in which Wrinkly Kong is alive. She dies soon after, despite being a fitness nut in this game, to become a ghost in DK64.

So, DKC3. Underappreciated, I see it as pretty much one of the last great 2D platformers before the “retro revival” stuff recently that gave us great stuff like DKCR and Rayman Origins. It also builds complexity on top of the very solid gameplay and physics of the DKC series up to that point. Besides this, the music, art, characters, etc are all top notch, typical of DKC, but with their own flavour that tells you this game was designed by a different team. (Sidenote: disappointing that almost all enemies are all-new, a discontinuity from 1 and 2 which shared enemies with new designs and roles). Another great game of my childhood that was lots of fun to revisit. I give it 5 bananas/Bear Coins/Bonus Coins/Banana Birds/DK Coins/extra life balloons.

9:35am  |   URL: https://tmblr.co/ZpvIwudsSzFi
(Notes: 4)
  
Filed under: donkey kong Donkey Kong Country 3 SNES review Rareware 
January 29, 2013
Megaman ZX (DS)

There’s been a lot of stuff about comics recently, but don’t worry! I’ve been playing games too. Specifically Paper Mario Sticker Star, a Christmas present, and I also picked Metroid Prime 2 back up after a long break. Almost finished both of those now, but first I have to talk about some games I got through earlier.

I played the Zero series games in a weird order. I think my first was Zero 2, then Zero 1. Those were in Japanese, then I got Zero 4 in English. When shopping for DS games I chose ZX Advent (the sequel) over ZX because of the purported improvements, especially to the map system and voice acting. Then I eventually got a copy of ZX, along with Zero Collection, and had my first play of Zero 3. And now finally I’ve got around to playing ZX.

Overall, before I go any further, my impression of this game is better than its sequel, Advent (ZXA). There are a number of reasons for this. Its characters were more memorable, playing as Model ZX (who plays just like the Zero I’m used to) from the third mission instead of the third last was great, and it had a more manageable number of transformations. On the other hand, the mission handling was clumsier here, they improved the rewards and economy in the sequel, and the Model transformations seemed better utilised there. But enough comparisons.

The ZX series seems a bit maligned, at least from traditional Megaman fans. I don’t see any good reason for this, as it retains the smooth but challenging gameplay of Zero, and seems a natural extension of it as well (although the new characters I see may put some people off, with many of them being whiny kids). There’s also tons of fanservice if you’re looking. Plus I think it maintains a high standard of quality, unlike certain installments of the Classic and X series. I guess if you didn’t like Zero as much, ZX and ZXA are even more out there. But me, I love Zero.

So it’s only natural that I loved this game, too. I played through it twice in a row, and I wouldn’t normally do that. You choose between playing Vent and Aile, so I did both. There are very few differences between them: minor story points and dialogue changes, and slightly different attributes, but so slight hardly anyone even notices. They even have the same backstory and relationship to the major NPC, Giro. One might think they are interchangeable. The animated trailer however shows both of them double Megamerging and using ZX’s powers, so it’s possible that alternate playthroughs are in a way half the story, with the “true” events involving both, which is hard to portray in a game with a single player I guess. (The dual protagonists is something the sequel executed much better, also).

So I can’t really escape comparisons, I don’t think I have a way of judging this game outside my frame of reference. I also think it’s worth judging games compared to similar ones, after all I didn’t play it in a vacuum. Ah, this is getting too meta.

I think I’m a bit out of practice with these reviews. Ok, well, the storytelling is fine, but the animated cutscenes are a little jarring with their heavy compression artifacts and Japanese-only audio. That’s not too much of an issue, as the whole Zero series had Japanese boss barks, but keep in mind I played ZXA first which had a whole English speech track over most cutscenes, animated and otherwise. The characters in the game were quite memorable, most of the major ones had ties to the Zero series, which I appreciated, and the NPCs all had unique appearances and personalities (a problem with ZXA was too generic appearances in NPCs).

The levels were well designed, I think- I’m not an expert on that kind of thing. Enemies often required a bit of strategy to beat, although some parts were just annoying, like the radars that reversed the controls. A commonly cited criticism of this game is that once you get Model H, there’s little reason to use any other form. True to an extent, although I like Model ZX enough to switch between the two often. Model OX (Omega Zero) was awesome too, but you only get it after you beat the game unfortunately.

There were lots of collectibles and so on, but there wasn’t much to spend the E-Crystal currency on. I liked how all the areas were connected, it felt like a cohesive whole (although the environments were quite different, it was just nice to be able to move through it all smoothly). The map is quite useless, though. I had a walkthrough’s map open on my iPhone the whole time I was playing.

The plot is interestingly linked to the Zero series, and now I see where all the plot threads of ZXA came from too, so it ties together well to the other games in the “greater Zero series”, which includes ZX and ZXA. (They’re totally the same. Art style, gameplay, developer, pickups, font, everything).

The bosses were all interesting and different. They unlock extra attacks for the forms, but I didn’t use the special abilities of any Model form hardly at all. I only used them to get around levels, and faced bosses almost exclusively as ZX. This may be due to my own familiarity with the strictly Zero fighting style.

I mentioned the world map, but it would have been a lot easier to get around if there were more tranceivers. Anyone who’s played the game will know what I mean, but I guess it makes you more familiar with the layouts and all. The tranceivers also dispensed missions, which brings up that you can only bloody do one at a time! This means that cutting grass or stopping a rogue robot from killing civilians have the same priority, and if you go somewhere to do something but forget to activate the mission, you’ve wasted the trip there and the return. And you can’t do multiple things on one trip out, plus if you are asked for something, the request is in the tranceiver, but it can only hold two optional requests at a time as well! The whole mission thing is a mess and they thankfully fixed it up in the sequel.

I think I’m running out of things though, so in all I had lots of fun here. That old feeling of hining your skills against specific bosses by replaying them a few times, and doing two runs in a row- it was good. I should say that the Zero and ZX games are quite hard, they’re not for everybody. But when you’re a gamer like me, you relish the feeling of mastering this art. I don’t feel that way about a lot of genres but 2D platformers and jumpy shooties have enough precision, as long as the game is well constructed and quick.

So this game is absolutely essential- for me, who loved the Zero games. You might like it too, who knows. I don’t really know which to recommend more, this or its sequel, though. But I’m glad I was able to play them both, with their strengths and weaknesses and their linked plots. It’s sad to see this series fall out of favour recently as Capcom is bringing Megaman back to basics or whatever it is they’re planning, I’d love another installment. It’s just, so nostalgic for me but also new, with fresh twists. And it advances the overall robot continuity so far, but the roots are still there. Ah. Good stuff. So I guess for me this game is signifcant as it fits into the greater whole of the Zero/ZX series, but it probably stands just fine on its own. (I wouldn’t know, like I said, I’m so ingrained in my little world :p). Anyway that’ll do. Tata for now.

10:01am  |   URL: https://tmblr.co/ZpvIwuctZWVr
(Notes: 1)
  
Filed under: megaman rockman megaman zx capcom ds review 
January 25, 2013
Super Mario-kun Vol 12 Special Stage 1 scanlation (DKC)

My other latest project, a single chapter of Volume 12 of Super Mario-kun. I’ve posted before a series of 4koma strips from another volume, and now I’ve graduated to a proper story. This is a brief one-shot based on Donkey Kong Country, but not really retelling the game. Rather, it’s the story of Mario and Yoshi crashing their plane into Donkey Kong’s territory on New Year’s Eve. They then have to find the missing banana hoard (again), which is in the possession of a Rockkroc. It’s silly (to be expected of this manga) but a bit of fun, and a rare friendly interaction between the Kongs and Mario.

I started working on this when I realised the Zelda comic was going much quicker than my last. I was waiting for Caramelman to finish the translation but still had the comics itch, so I picked this up and translated it myself. I used Google translate mostly, and this site for the meanings of the various sound effects used. My sister-in-law, a Japanese linguistics student, helped a lot to refine the script after I’d done the first draft, also introducing me to Jim Breen’s online dictionary site. She then signed up to Twitter so I’d have something to put on the credits page. :)

I’m releasing this chapter alongside my previous 4koma translations, which come from Vol 14 of Super Mario-kun. If in future I scanlate any more SMk, I’ll update the archive and web gallery, to keep all of it in one place.

.cbz version (use Simple Comic on Mac, or CDisplay on Windows)

Web gallery

If you’re after more Super Mario-kun translations (not by me), there’s not a whole lot but I’ve found a few:

Chapters 1-7 of Volume 1 (Super Mario World) are hosted here, by various translators. A better version of some of these chapters is contained in this archive. A single short comic from Volume 19 (Yoshi’s Story) has been translated here, and a 4koma from Volume 35 here (Christmas-themed). Apparently another translator has done Chapter 9 and 12 of Volume 1 (12 in colour), links here and here, but the host is currently down so I can’t verify. Keep an eye on that one. Finally, a chapter from Volume 38 (Super Mario Galaxy) has been translated here.

Oh, and if you’re wondering where I got the raws from, well a while ago I stumbled upon a filesharing site folder full of very nicely scanned volumes, with no hint of who scanned or uploaded them. If you’re interested in the original Japanese or want to translate some yourself, have a look here.

If you know of any more around the Internet, let me know. And also, spread this DKC one around and enjoy!

9:11pm  |   URL: https://tmblr.co/ZpvIwucbXjdR
(Notes: 19)
  
Filed under: comics scanlation super mario kun donkey kong Donkey Kong Country comic 
January 24, 2013
Zelda Ocarina of Time comic (German Club Nintendo) scanlation

It’s a new comic scanlation! This one is not from a special edition, but from the regular print run of the magazine. It’s actually two separate comics, printed in issue 5 and 6 in 1998. They form a somewhat cohesive whole though, together with the two part comic in Special Edition #9, which has already been translated and can be found here.

They are called The Gate of Time (6 pages) and The Sleep of the Righteous (4 pages). The first is a weird story that involves Adult Link, Navi, and Sheik telling Child Link about all the stuff he’ll have to do, before he even speaks to the Deku Tree! It’s not really 100% consistent with many actual gameplay mechanisms, and feels like it’s breaking the 4th wall somehow. The second is more straightforward, and retells the beginning of the game pretty much, up to meeting Zelda. They can be seen as following each other, and the Special Edition comics are a prologue so it all works if you read it like that.

Unlike the previous Club Nintendo offering, I don’t know who wrote this one. But it was also drawn by Work House Co, from Tokyo. Again, big thanks to Caramelman who did the German translation, which was so good I didn’t have to do much to it. The original was a bit wordy in some parts, but I tried to preserve as much of the content as I could, since this comic was more about the dialogue and plot, especially part 2. Some of the speech bubbles are a bit squished as a consequence.

This one also had a lot less jokes and stuff, so the main draw here is just Zelda fandom. I was surprised to find this hadn’t been done already actually, as the translation community is fairly busy over there. Check out the History of Hyrule site for a ton of manga and other comics (although it’s a bit hard to navigate).

I also realise I’m stepping a little on Opentrain’s toes with this, as they have pledged to translate all the regular issue comics eventually. They’re being slow right now though, and this is the very last one before the lower-quality N-Gang shorts start up. I thought this was more important too, since it is quite close to the game, and a bit of an outlier really in the whole Club Nintendo canon, being fairly serious and true to the game (early Special Editions are like this too).

Anyway, for this comic I used a new technique which made my previous method look like the wild scramblings of a gibbering idiot. Basically, my new image editing program, Pixelmator, has a “magic eraser” tool that made blanking speech bubbles an absolute breeze. More accurate and so much quicker. It also has a good text manipulation mode, so I only needed the one program for the whole process. And I’m happy with how it turned out, I’ve learned a lot about fixing little things to make the text look better.

So that’s it. I’ve decided to just do one version of this, it’s jpegs, but the highest quality. It’s a little janky up close but I’m just a perfectionist, I’m sure it’s fine for most people. Enjoy, and share and whatever!

Download .cbz (to read .cbz, I recommend Simple Comic for Mac and CDisplay for Windows)

Web gallery

6:23pm  |   URL: https://tmblr.co/ZpvIwucWVDm8
(Notes: 10)
  
Filed under: zelda comics scanlation fandom club nintendo gaming ocarina of time comic 
January 19, 2013
Club Nintendo comics database

I have some Club Nintendo-related stuff to share. For my own purposes, I made a spreadsheet a while ago to track the titles, issue numbers, character appearances, and availability in German and English of all known Club Nintendo comics. I felt it was worth publishing on the Internet in case there’s anyone like me hunting for these comics, so here it is on Google Docs.

The information here leans heavily on Super Mario Wiki, as most of the regular issue comics involve Mario or Mario series characters. A huge step in this process was the Opentrain translation project, who have completely translated the first four years’ print run comics, and are hosting an archive of almost all the raw German comics.

I will try to keep this updated if any new information comes to light, so if you want to know where to find any Club Nintendo comic, check here and I might be able to tell you. Oh and on that note, if you can add any information on where to find any of these comics, message me here or through my email (which I think Google Docs should tell you).

1:39pm  |   URL: https://tmblr.co/ZpvIwuc5FqCJ
(Notes: 4)
  
Filed under: comics scanlation club nintendo comic 
January 19, 2013

suppermariobroth:

“Darker and edgier” Donkey Kong.

Why does DK have a tail? And no pupils??

(via suppermariobroth)

1:33pm  |   URL: https://tmblr.co/ZpvIwuc5EHNj
(Notes: 239)
  
January 18, 2013
Yay, my translation is getting retumbled by Supper Mario Broth. Kutlass’s original line here was “Such a disgrace” or “This is so shameful…”. I decided to tweak it slightly. This is one of a few examples of where I tried to spice up the text a bit.

Yay, my translation is getting retumbled by Supper Mario Broth. Kutlass’s original line here was “Such a disgrace” or “This is so shameful…”. I decided to tweak it slightly. This is one of a few examples of where I tried to spice up the text a bit.

(via suppermariobroth)

11:08am  |   URL: https://tmblr.co/ZpvIwub-on7Q
(Notes: 33)
  
January 15, 2013
NES games (Animal Crossing)

Heh. Well, I have a little something to say generally about the generation before mine. My gaming world was the tail end of the SNES and most of the 64’s life. Oh then I got an Xbox but whatever. My point is, I never played a NES game. Ever. I never held a NES controller, I never saw those pixelly screens. The closest would be playing DK Arcade in DK64, and it was horrible. I think the first NES game I ever played and completed was the unlockable original Metroid in Zero Mission for the GBA. Much later I played the Mega Man 2 port to iOS. And while I can appreciate those games now, to some extent, well…

The NES sucked. The hardware sucked, the games sucked. The design of them was awful and not fun. The graphics were offensive, the music mostly unbearable. Even now, that I am actually interested and a fan in many different franchises, I cannot play NES games and I don’t want to. I’ll play Mario All-Stars just fine, planning on starting BS Zelda 1 at some point, liked the Donkey Kong Land games.

I think the Game Boy is better because games for it were designed better with its limitations in mind. It was a post-NES product, with the lessons learned from making games for the NES. But the NES itself was ugly, mired in arcadey sensibilities and only taking the first baby steps towards what is, to me, compelling game experiences.

I fully recognise that it was huge. Enormous. Everyone who was self-aware when it came out was impressed. I was not and am not. I also acknowledge that the SNES was firmly standing directly on its shoulders in a number of ways. It’s even in the name! But I started with the SNES, and when I look back I only see a mess. Even now.

Even so, the reason I started playing Animal Crossing (I received it as a gift some time ago) was to unlock all the NES games that are emulated within it. This is a really cool feature I think, a good way to celebrate history (as with the aforementioned Metroid, or Game & Watch minigames in later titles). So I wanted to give them a shot, give them a chance. Part of it was also sticking it to the Virtual Console.

The Virtual Console is cool, but the games are very overpriced. Especially NES games. I’ve made my point clear here, so for their perceived quality to me, they are nowhere near worth that price. I got Mega Man 2, often called the best ever NES game, for $1 on my iPhone. This comparative pricing structure, as well as the perceived value per cost, will mean I would never consider getting a NES game there. My wife bought Zelda 1 and gave up on it because it was too hard. I would not have done it because I knew it was not going to be fun.

Anyway I’m drifting off point a little but I wanted to try some NES games and this was a cool way to do it. Obviously it’s never been repeated because of the VC. So I started out, got my new house in VC City (as I called my town) and started working with the goal of getting a house large enough to accomodate my future NES collection.

But then a strange thing happened. The game hooked me, and I started playing it just for it. So much that I forgot about the original goal of collecting playable NES games. But I’ll talk about AC itself in another post.

I received my first game from Jingle on Christmas, Balloon Fight. I decided to use Universal codes to cheat my way into the rest of them, because they’re rare, and some were otherwise unobtainable to me. I could only get 10 of the possible 15 (it’s compllicated). Even playing them was complicated. There were compatibility issues.

Back when I played DKC, it initially didn’t work because of a scan line issue or something. Similarly, the NES->GCN->Wii caused some issues. I use a component cable from Wii->TV, which enables 480p support. But GCNs don’t support that, and switch back to 576i 50Hz or 480i 60Hz (sometimes configurable). On top of that, the older NES format which is emulated in Animal Crossing didn’t work at all through component out. I don’t know what resolution it is, but I had to switch back to the default composite cable.

Everything became blurry, it was like stepping into the past. This is how we used to play. I was so used to the sharpness of the 480p Wii, it was a strange feeling. But I went and booted up some games. I tried Balloon Fight, Donkey Kong, Baseball, Pinball, and Donkey Kong Jr. Math. I have yet to try Clu Clu Land, Excitebike, Wario’s Woods, Tennis, and Golf.

It was… disappointing. The games are just limited. They’re stuck in this tiny little world. I realise their value as the first little window into a larger world of gaming possibilities, but like I said before, I’ve looked back and given them a proper go now and there is no reason to play these old games. Gosh I sound so stuck up. My point is though, it made the whole Nintendo retro nostalgia trend seem really hollow and misguided.

I don’t have the nostalgia, and I experienced an old game and found it bad. Therefore making new games that explicitly take after gameplay styles of old games is a bad idea. Also, I never ever bought into the 8-bit aesthetic and I feel it has been done absolutely to death.

Urgh, that’s enough I think. I’ve probably made some enemies with this post. Sorry if it’s overly complainy. I didn’t go into any of the games either, but then I didn’t actually play them for that long. Long enough to finish Donkey Kong though, took me about 5 minutes! Now how is that value? Ahem, anyways. I suppose people could say similar things about the 16-bit era, but I truly believe gaming took great leaps forward in gameplay, storytelling, and audiovisual at that time- pretty much everything. Well, that’s just my opinion after all. And that’s enough from this whiny dude today. Cheerio.

10:01am  |   URL: https://tmblr.co/ZpvIwubn1Ckg
Filed under: nes animal crossing gaming 
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