Realm of Randomness

MLP:FiM Season 2 Review #15 - The Super Speedy Cider Squeezy 6000

2012-01-29T19:24:00.000-08:00

So last episode was a total bust as an Applejack episode, instead being a Derpy/Pinkie episode, depending on who you ask. But this week looks to be different, as the serious business that is apple cider goes down!

My gosh what I would do for a glass of apple cider right now. That stuff's delicious.

Spoilers after the break!

After the zap apple shenanigans in Family Appreciation Day, it seems that the producers cant get enough of all of Ponyville lining up for some manner of Apple Family product, so this time we're introduced to their famous apple cider! Which looks unmistakeably like beer, amusingly enough. No wonder Berry Punch wants so much of it...

Anyway, so the contention of this episode is the introduction of the Flim Flam Brothers, alongside an insanely catchy song, who bring with them the "Super Speedy Cider Squeezy 6000", a faster way to make apple cider with the help of technology! Their plot is simple - offer to work together with the Apple Family to make cider while splitting the profits, or if that fails they will simply use their cunning to get things set up so they can compete with the Apple family and take all the profits! Yep, they're cunning, snake-like traveling salesponies. Surprised? Neither am I.

So anyway, the Flim Flam Brothers end up in a competition with the Apple Faqmily to see who can make the most cider, with the winners getting exclusive rights to sell cider in Ponyville! This is very bad, as the SSCS6K is much faster than the Apple Family and the cider sales apparently hold so much weight that they would no longer be able to hold up without them. Which seems a little odd to me considering the aforementioned zap apple jam sales and the fact that they would still be able to near-exclusively supply fruit to Ponyville, but what do I know?

Push comes to tug comes to outright-cheat, and ultimately the episode becomes a lesson on the importance of quality over quantity. As predictable as that is, though, it manages to not be anywhere near as trite as one might imagine - the SSCS6K actually makes high quality cider under normal circumstances. The undoing of the Flim Flam Brothers isn't that their technologically-motivated methods are any worse than the Apple Family's, it's that they choose to sacrifice quality in order to win the competition. It actually makes the episode pretty cleverly set up instead of it being a anviliscious lesson on technology vs. tradition like you typically see in children's cartoons.

Speaking of doing things differently than usual, the letter to Celestia fits this to a T, subverting the expectations of basically everyone and being one of the funniest MLP moments in recent history. Bravo for that!

Frankly, the entire episode has a very cool vibe to it, with everything tying together very, very nicely. Everything from the incredibly-catchy, very musical-esque song to the handful of new background ponies to the several times with what definitely appeared to be little shout-outs to the Brony fans (such as the now-typical Lyra and Bon-Bon being put together in crowds) just works, and makes the episode another one that takes my expectations and throws them out in favor of going way, way past.

There are a few minor issues I have with the episode, though. The ending felt predictable and somewhat anticlimactic, with the exception of the letter, and the plot overall wasn't anything too out of the ordinary. It's not an episode that I would say rises quite to the lofty peaks set by Lesson Zero or even Hearth's Warming Eve, but it's still a great episode in its own right. So, for the forth time this season, I'll give this episode a

9/10

Pros:
-Very high quality song that brings to mind 80s musicals (or possibly Veggietales)
-Much better than the usual "technology vs. tradition" plot I was expecting
-Gives more personality to background ponies
-The letter to Celestia

Cons
-Still fairly predictable
-Ending was quick to the point of being anticlimactic

---

You know what's cool? Flim and Flam have Cutie Marks that, when put together, make a whole apple. I don't see any of the Apple Family's Cutie Marks being as cool as that!

You know what else is cool? Pretty much everything else.

You know what's less cool? I probably will never be able to get the Flim Flam Bros.' song out of my head.

~C.O

PS TwiDash next week!

My Little Pony Episode Review Schedule Change

2012-01-28T20:53:00.000-08:00

Okay, no doubt you've noticed that I've been having trouble meeting the Saturday date consistently with the MLP Episode Reviews. So to make things easier on myself, and to make things more predictable for you, I'm going to officially say that, from now on, they should be up on the Sundays after the episode is out instead of on that Saturday. Hopefully this will allow me a bit more time to mull over the review as well as allow for times when my alarm clock doesn't wake me up to see the episode!

In conclusion, this will probably be better for everyone involved. See you tomorrow with the newest review!

~C.O

MLP:FiM Season 2 Review #14 - The Last Roundup

2012-01-21T22:08:00.000-08:00

Applejack has always been criminally underrepresented in My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, having relatively few episodes in comparison to the rest of the Mane 6 and simply not being nearly as interesting. Season two has been working to change this somewhat, with Applejack getting a lot more screen time and some interesting character to her name, and The Last Roundup continues that trend by giving her another episode to her own.

...or... does it?

Spoilers after the break.

So we start off relatively simply - the cold open explains the main plot (Applejack going to a rodeo to win a bunch of blue ribbons and such) and sets us up for our Applejack episode! Then we have the theme song...

And suddenly no self-respecting brony cares about Applejack's presence in this episode anymore.

Two words. Two, fateful words that mean EVERYTHING. Now, this is a really big deal. If you haven't watched the episode, I recommend you at least go look it up and watch the first little bit, because this is, quite literally, a history making moment for the My Little Pony show and fandom.

"Careful, Derpy!"

We've been teased with Derpy Hooves being a certain pegasus' name for a while now, and it has been outright said that it was. But this... in an actual episode, Derpy Hooves being named as Derpy and getting a scene to herself, speaking roll and everything...

We, the bronies, made this character. We named this character. This is practically unprecedented.

The Last Roundup will inevitably be remembered as Derpy's episode, and for good reason. This is really a big deal! Let's go on to the rest, though, shall we?

So Applejack promises to spend the prize money to fix the town hall's roof, and heads off tot he rodeo with a big town sendoff by the mayor. Cut to her coming back, when she doesn't. Instead she says shes not coming back to Ponyville! Everyone is upset, Big Mac sheds manly tears, and the Mane 6 (minus AJ) swear to go find her!

Thus they go to do so, and find her at a cherry orchard. They then proceed to pester her incessantly to find out why she's staying there.

Eventually we have out happy ending, with a pretty good moral! The main plot isn't terribly unpredictable, but pulls the episode along at a good pace and keeps enough twists to make it fun.

And by twists I mean Pinkie Pie.

Pinkie Pie completely steals this episode. I can't find it a particularly bad thing, since most of her shenanigans are hilarious, but it almost seems wrong that Pinkie would so firmly have the spotlight most of the time when it's supposed to be Applejack's episode.

The episode certainly didn't do what I expected it to, but that's not really a bad thing when there's so much... fun to be had, even with the relatively predictable plot. From Derpy to Pinkie to a crazy chase scene that reminded me of Indiana Jones, this episode has a lot to like in it.

I gotta say though, Applejack's attitude throughout seemed awfully over-dramatic. It wasn't to the point where she seemed OOC, like Rarity in Sweet and Elite, but it still bugged me a bit. It was obviously necessary to get the moral across, but... maybe it could've been done a little differently.

I guess... I guess that's what it comes down to! Unlike the previous couple of episodes, it manages to be very funny while rarely straying into "completely ridiculous" territory, and it keeps up a good moral and pretty fun plot throughout. There's a lot to like about this episode, and really not a lot to nitpick about.

That's why I'm going to give it a...

9/10

Pros:
-From Derpy to Pinkie, it's full of fun and funny moments
-Speaking of Derpy, Derpy alone is a huge plus for this episode because of her significance
-Paced very well, keeping things moving quickly while not rushing it

Cons:
-Applejack loses the spotlight for most of the episode
-Applejack being totally over-dramatic about things

---

I fee like I should be writing more, but... well, this episode ended up a lot like Hearth Warming Eve, in a way - listing the good points would basically be summarizing the episode, and there aren't a lot of bad points to discuss without nitpicking terribly. I liked this episode a lot, and it grew on me tremendously after the first watch-through.

...is it just me, or is Dinky everywhere in this episode? She's in the crowd during the ceremony, on the train when AJ's going to Canterlot, and she shows up again when the Mane 5's train is stopping to find Applejack. It's just funny to me that the same episode that confirms Derpy's name and gives her a real personality would have her fanon-filly show up so much!

Speaking of Derpy, I'm not sure I like her canon personality and voice all that much. She seems a little too... well, derpy! But I can look past that, as her showing up at all is a huge testament to the brony community and the MLP creators being amazing.

Seriously, this episode is history. Mark it on your calenders - today is Derpy Day.

~ C.O

MLP:FiM Season 2 Review #13 - Baby Cakes

2012-01-15T22:39:00.000-08:00

Previously on MLP Episode Reviews...

"Still, it stands out a bit among pony episodes for its oddities."

Haha, Jameson, haha. You thought Granny Smith's shenanigans were crazy?

You ain't seen nothing yet.

(Spoilers after the break)

So right off the bat we're introduced to the Cake family's two brand new foals, Pound Cake and Carrot Cake. As an added bonus, we get to have the Cakes' names canonized as well as Cup Cake and Carrot Cake. Pinkie is naturally overjoyed at all of this because she's Pinkie Pie.

So far so good. Skip forward a month and the babies are... surprisingly mobile, actually. Babies don't really get that mobile in a month do they? Whatever, they're ponies, they don't need such fickle things as logic.

Also I'm pleased to note that the model for foals seems less creepy than the foal we saw briefly in Mare Do Well. I don't know what they changed, if anything (and I don't care to go and do a comparison at the moment) but the two baby Cakes lean much farther "cute" than "creepy". Which is good, since it's basically their episode.

It's quickly established that Pinkie doesn't know the first thing about babies besides playing with them, and then the Cakes realize that they have a big order of some sort that they have to fill and they need a babysitter right now. They intelligently attempt to ignore Pinkies insistence that she babysit and go to ask every single other member of the Mane Six.

Somewhat less intelligently, that includes Rainbow Dash. Who they ask before Rarity. Does this seem odd to anypony else? I mean, granted, Rarity didn't even give them the time of day, but Rainbow Dash babysitting seems like approximately the worst idea ever. Possibly worse than Pinkie Pie babysitting.

So anyway, Pinkie gets the job because everypony else is busy and we head on our way to a relatively typical, if completely ridiculous, episode all about the main character dealing with babies. You've no-doubt seen this type before if you've watched a cartoon, and this sticks mostly to the formula... for a while.

It does start to get pretty formulaic for a while, though. Pinkie's eccentricities make it not as bad as it could be, but stuff doesn't really pick up until Twilight shows up.

Twilight offers to assist Pinkie in quite possibly the least tactful manner possible and reinforces part of the episode's moral of not biting off more than they can chew. It's not tackled a whole lot, but it's there a bit due to this scene and the report at the end. It also allows for a brief break between the crazy and the insane.

The rest of the episode proceeds roughly how your typical baby-daycare episode goes, except with some distinct twists. I won't go into too many details for fear of completely spoiling the episode and just summarizing things, but stuff gets crazy.

So really... it's pretty typical, just with pony-related shenanigans. The episode is very clearly one based primarily on laughs and moments that are completely over-the-top. Which, I suppose, is what Pinkie Pie episodes are all about!

And as ridiculous as this episode gets, and as much as I honestly wish it hadn't gotten quite as ridiculous as it did because, frankly, it's hard to explain logically and I think that only Pinkie should be able to break rules like that, it's all made somewhat better in the re-watch for one single reason: it's foreshadowed. Seriously. And that's awesome.

I'll give Baby Cakes a

6.5/10

Pros:
-Pretty darn funny most of the way through
-The horror-style sequence is brilliant and a great twist on the formula
-The Cakes. Just the Cakes.

Cons:
-Is completely ridiculous
-Totally godmodding foals

---

Dear Princess Celestia,

Today I learned that unicorn and pegasi foals are absolutely terrifying. Especially the former. Based on this experience, I must conclude that Earth pony foals are equally terrifying in some way. Can they summon enough strength to plow through walls unscathed?

Also, I find it odd that, if foals learn flying and magic so quickly and easily when they're only a month old, why do they have to relearn it later in life? This is a vital question that must be answered.

But most importantly, if a normal unicorn foal can hover itself and phase through walls, what did Twilight do? Given her particular ability with magic, did she just level half of Canterlot?

Your faithful (if somewhat concerned) student,
Lavender Print

P.S. - Pumpkin Cake may be pony Jesus

MLP:FiM Season 2 Review #12 - Family Appreciation Day

2012-01-07T22:13:00.000-08:00

So the winter break is over, and we're all no-doubt back to school or work. Or both, even. But in spite of the daily-life shenanigans that are back in full-force, it's all good because MLP is back too!

And because this season really likes Apple Bloom, Rainbow Dash, and Rarity, here's another episode focusing on Apple Bloom, and costarring Granny Smith! Because everyone loves old people.

The review will contain spoilers, as always!

If you've been following Friendship is Magic season two, you've probably noticed that Granny Smith, and the Apple family in general, has been showing up a lot more than they did in season one. Thus, it shouldn't be too surprising that Granny Smith gets her own episode in Family Appreciation Day.

The main plot is pretty simple: Apple Bloom's school is having a family appreciation day where each little pony brings in a family member to present their work, or their life story, or something along those lines. Apple Bloom finds herself in a position where her constant tormentors, Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon, are mocking her for being associated with the eccentric Granny Smith. Granny Smith ends up being the pony that Apple Bloom has to bring for family appreciation day, and so, out of fear of mockery, she tries to get Granny out of it in any way she can.

The subplot is much more unique, interesting, and more than a little odd. The Apple family is in the middle of harvesting "Zap Apples", special apples that only grow at particular times, and only after certain special signs occur. This is the connector that leads to Diamond Tiara meeting Granny Smith and Granny Smith being the only family member available for Apple Bloom to bring to school.

The Zap Apples are simultaneously pretty cool and incredibly weird. As Granny Smith notes, they're magic so that sort of combination kind of just happens. But, due to the Zap Apples and some other elements throughout the episode, it ends up being kind of an odd episode, to the point where parts of it gave me Homestar Runner-esque vibes.

It makes sense that the episode would be a tad bit eccentric, of course, as Granny Smith is its main focus and she's... well, quite eccentric indeed. Still, it stands out a bit among pony episodes for its oddities.

Or perhaps it just stands out for Granny Smith. She's certainly an odd character, and she's that way in this episode through and through. It seems weird that, even if she is the odd old person-type, she would refer to Apple Bloom multiple times in a manner that is basically insulting. Not to mention there are a few scenes where she pulls off peculiar stunts that would feel right at home as the sort of thing Pinkie Pie might do, or even the kind of thing one might see Homsar performing (see, I told you there were Homestar Runner vibes!).

The end of the episode is when it gets really interesting, though, as we end up learning the backstory of Ponyville and how it was founded. Amusingly, that makes two episodes in a row that are about the founding of various pony civilizations, which is definitely not a bad thing!

All in all, I'd say it's a pretty well-rounded episode. I'll give it a

7.5/10

Pros:
-More backstory!
-Nice to see Granny Smith get a good chunk of characterization and backstory

Cons:
-A bit too silly for its own good
-Main plotline is simple and predictable

---

Thus, Granny Smith happened. What an odd character.

Incidentally, she is the oldest thing in Ponyville. How awesome is that??

What isn't awesome is Filthy Rich's name. Honestly, who names their don Filthy Rich? Someone named Stinking Rich, evidently...

~ C.O

MLP:FiM Season 2 Review #11 - Hearth's Warming Eve

2011-12-18T17:39:00.000-08:00

So after this season having our first episodes blatantly based off of real-life holidays, here we have our obligatory Christmas episode! Technically it's set up as decidedly ambiguous like the Halloween episode was earlier, so you could call it a "winter holiday" episode, but let's be honest: the episode's filled with decorated trees and wreaths and the like. It's a Christmas episode.

Although admittedly I would've liked to see a pony menorah. Menorahs are kiiiind of awesome.

Spoilers after the break!

Hearth's Warming Eve is quickly explained to be a pony holiday in celebration of the founding of Equestria, and the Mane 6 are heading off to Canterlot to play characters in the annual pageant to celebrate said founding. They are all way too excited to be going to Canterlot, since they've been there many times before, but whatever. Also, they use the train from the season two opening, which is especially nice since I don't think we've actually seen the train in the episodes before now.

So as it turns out, before Equestria was founded the earth ponies, unicorns, and pegasi all lived in roughly the same area but had very a strained relationship - the earth ponies provided the food, the pegasi worked on the weather, and the unicorns moved the sun and the moon, which is apparently a job that is easy enough for a bunch of unicorns to do. Which is odd, but okay.

Anyway, they all basically hated each other. But then a massive blizzard covered the land, and none of the ponies could do anything about it! They tried to work out something together, but instead the three tribes opt to part ways and look for new lands.

All of this is narrated by Spike, with Rarity, Rainbow Dash, and Pinkie Pie playing the roles of the three tribes' leaders and the other three playing the roles of their respective tribes' assistants. The actual story is presented as a play, but we see most of it as "actual" events, with the Mane 6 standing in for the specific characters. Frankly, it's a great setup: the little transitions out of the story serve to remind us that it is, in fact, still a pretty normal play, while the actual sequences let us see more than what the play setup would otherwise provide. My only concern is that it's a tiny bit confusing, as I initially wondered if what we were seeing actually was the play, supplemented by magic or something along those lines.

So the three tribes all end up finding the same land, and fight over it more. Unfortunately, as they fight the blizzard rematerializes and the ponies are forced to seek refuge in a nearby cavern. They continue to fight over territory and the likes, and the blizzard begins to freeze the cavern, as well as the three tribe leaders! Twilight (as Clover the Clever) realizes the cause - Windigos (named after the real life myth of Wendigos, with apparently a different spelling according the the MLP wiki), malevolent ice spirits that feed on hatred and are also pretty cool looking (no pun intended). The three assistants huddle together, noting that they don't really dislike each other at all, and end up accidentally calling upon the powers of harmony in their time of need to scare off the Windigos and defrost the cavern and other ponies. The six, now realizing the error of their hatred, form together to found Equestria!

It's a very fun story, helped along by the sheer character of the Mane 6. In particular, Pinkie and Fluttershy get some great screentime that they've been missing since Discord's episodes! It helps that the pony pairs are played excellently as foils to each other, especially with Applejack and Pinkie. The actual setting is great, too: the three tribes take influence from our own ancient cultures, and the areas they go to are both very fun in design and even have some tiny easter eggs that hint at additional backstory, such as a carving of what appears to be a Draconequus.

My only concern about the story is that it seems to be a little bit trite to me. The lesson is relatively basic stuff that we've seen before even in MLP:FiM. Obviously a show subtitled "Friendship is Magic" is going to have its fair share of episodes that remind the audience of the importance of harmony, but it still counts against the episode a bit. On the other hand, the actual plot hints very strongly at the origin of the Elements of Harmony, so the triteness was practically necessary for that piece of backstory...

Did I mention that I love backstory? This episode is great for it, and I love it for that. I only wish that Celestia and Luna had been explained somewhat... the flag for Equestria put up at the end features two alicorns that may be Celestia and Luna, but they are never mentioned in the pageant itself. Oh well, I suppose it just leaves more holes for the fandom to fill in!

The episode ends off with a brief song that appears to be an Equestrian national anthem or something similar. As I've established, songs make everything better, but I didn't like this one all that much. It was a tad bit cheesy even for, well, being a song in MLP, and it was sung by a lot of ponies at the same time, so you couldn't really hear any of the Mane 6 (or Spike, who hasn't been heard singing before) over the collective voices.

...if you haven't noticed by now, all of my complaints have been very minor. I liked this episode. I liked it a lot. Enough to give it a

9/10

Pros:
-Lots of awesome backstory
-Filled with new locations and little visual easter eggs
-The Mane 6's personalities shine incredibly brightly
-Episode set up is brilliant, although maybe the tiniest bit confusing

Cons:
-The plot may seem a tiny bit trite
-The song isn't one of the better ones

---

When I first saw this episode, I didn't think much of how I was going to rate it, which I think speaks tons for how much I liked it. Usually when I go out of an episode, especially the second time, I'm thinking of bits and pieces of what worked and what didn't work, putting together a general idea of a rating in my head. When I finished this episode the first time, though, I just wanted to look up Wendigos to remind myself what they were. When I went through the episode the second time, it became more and more apparent as the episode went on that I had very few complaints.

I'm still not sure if I liked Hearth's Warming Eve as much as Lesson Zero, and it's gonna take even more than that to dethrone my favorite episode, Cutie Mark Chronicles, but darn if I didn't like this episode a lot.

If only poor Ditzy had been allowed to take a part in the play... poor Ditzy, being ruthlessly kicked off stage.

So now I suppose we have a bit of a break! No more MLP:FiM episodes until January 7th... well, you all have a great holiday, and I'll see you again then! I might even see if I can't get something else up between then and now... I do have a few ideas of things to write about, and a winter break from school!

~ C.O

MLP:FiM Season 2 Review #10 - Secret of My Excess

2011-12-10T19:33:00.000-08:00

If you're sick of episodes focusing on various ponies, you're in luck, because this week everyone's favorite dragon gets his own episode! The closest Spike's ever gotten to having an episode to himself was Owl's Well that Ends Well, and I don't think anyone really liked that episode much, so this promises to be something interesting at the very least!

And it also promises to have a more grown-up Spike for part of it, and thus promises to give the fanartists a ton of draconian inspiration. And that doesn't seem like a bad thing to me!

Spoilers after the break.

So the episode starts off with... well, Rarity being basically awful, again. Spike's birthday is coming up, so he's been prepping a rare fire ruby as a special birthday delight for himself. Rarity sees the gem and more or less takes full advantage of Spike's crush on her to get the gem. While Spike seems happy enough to have gotten a peck on the cheek from his favorite pony, the entire scenario just seems so... wrong.

Rarity, I like you! I like you a lot, you're a pretty cool pony! But holy crap have you been awful these last two episodes. You're supposed to be the bearer of the Element of Generosity, remember? You're not the bearer of the Element of Taking Advantage of the Kindness of Every Other Pony in Equestria!

JEEZ. What makes it even more infuriating is that, as Rarity brings up the action several more times in the episode, everypony, including Rarity, acts like it was entirely Spike's idea. It's just so... it's just really annoying to me. It feels like the act itself was supposed to have seemed a little different, but maybe wasn't written as well as it could have been. I don't know, the entire thing just strikes me as odd and frustrating.

But we can move on from that now. I promise. Until I bring it up again, anyway.

So, skip ahead to Spike's birthday. The rest of the Mane Six brings him gifts, and he is really happy and having a great time! Then it turns out the the Cakes have a special surprise for him, so he goes to see them and gets a sapphire cupcake! Incredibly happy about how his birthday is going, Spike heads back to the treehouse only to bump into Cheerilee who, upon finding out that it's Spike's birthday, improvises and gives him a hat she had just purchased.

So Spike, not being the best role model in the world, decides to take advantage of the generosity of other ponies to get lots of gifts. Twilight catches him hassling a pony and Spike promises he'll stop. He doesn't.

So that's where the plot comes in: it turns out that when dragons express greed, they grow larger. And when they grow larger, they get greedier. So Spike gets caught in a vicious cycle of growing larger and greedier, and rampages through Ponyville.

It's a good plot for an episode, but has some odd implications. Is greed the only way dragons can grow? Will Spike be stuck forever young, as a sort of dragon Peter Pan unless he opts to hoard things? It's... relatively simple to explain around with fanon, but still a tad bit odd to explain as a wholly natural process.

The episode has its fair share of fun easter eggs along the way, too. There's a brief background scene with Lyra and Bon Bon (!!) as well as Ditzy popping out of a well in her most blatant appearance in quite a while. And, interestingly, there's a doctor that is pretty heavily implied to be Twist's father. He has a similar-looking cutie mark along with the signature lisp. It's a pretty cool touch, I think, and adds an extra dimension to the characters without being terribly blatant about it.

Plotwise, the episode isn't bad outside of that one instance in the beginning. The... perhaps less-than-stellar writing is only highlighted, though, as Spike giving the fire ruby away in an act of generosity (obviously the opposite of greed) ends up being a key plot point. And the entire time Rarity continues to act like it was entirely Spike's idea! It has to be bad writing, right? I hate to think that this show has any of that, but it's just so... so... bad that Rarity would act like it was entirely Spike's idea. Urgh, geez. I don't know. This is probably not anywhere near as much of an issue as I am making it out to be!

Outside of... that... I enjoyed this episode quite a bit. It has loads of characters in it, from Zecora to a brief cameo by the CMC to even some random Wonderbolts, and the overall message isn't a bad one at all. Spike gets some development both personality-wise and capabilities-wise (dat tongue), which is certainly welcome. Even Rarity's actions aren't anywhere near as egregious as they were in the last episode. So, overall, I'll give Secret of my Excess a

7/10

Pros:
-Loads and loads of characters!
-Fun Easter eggs abound
-Solid plot, if perhaps a little odd to be natural

Cons:
-Dat Rarity scene
-Suffers the common cartoon issue of getting off scot-free for blowing up the entire town
-Spike's design as a fully-grown dragon looks for all the world like he's wearing eyeliner

---

I like Spikey-Wikey, do you like Spikey-Wikey? If you don't you clearly have no soul.

...I really hope Rarity redeems herself soon. She has not been making me very happy as of late. Expect for her song last episode, which was good. But besides that, she really needs to get with the generous-being!

...though I have to admit that the scene with Spike and Rarity plummeting to their perceived doom was absolutely adorable. I... I might have to forgive Rarity just so I can ship her with Spike forever and ever. Because my gosh they are adorable. Quite easily the second-best MLP ship.

...so hey, next week's the holiday episode! I'm pretty stoked to see exactly how Equestria was made! Who wants to bet that Pinkie Pie ends the story with "...and that's how I got my Cutie Mark!"

~C.O

MLP:FiM Season 2 Review #9 - Sweet and Elite

2011-12-03T19:09:00.000-08:00

Rarity is just so awesome that she needs another episode to contain her awesomeness. Despite the title, she's starring in this one without her wacky little sister. Which... may or may not be a good thing, depending on which ponies you love most and least. Because you have to love all of them, you know. It's impossible.

Well, except Trixie. Nopony liked Trixie, no matter what certain people with their popular sites may have you believe.

Spoilers and warnings, spoilers and warnings.

In Sweet and Elite, Rarity is visiting Canterlot for... reasons? For fun? It's not really made clear, but isn't really important anyway. What's important is that Rarity is in Canterlot, and that means this episode has a ridiculous number of unicorns and incredibly... "posh" ponies, as Twilight calls them.

However, the catch is that Twilight's birthday is in a few days, so Rarity wants to get back to Ponyville in time for that as well as make Twilight a wonderful dress! This becomes more and more difficult for Rarity to do when she meets up with Fancy Pants, a highly-influential gentlepony with a terrible name. Fancy Pants takes a liking to Rarity, and invites her to a Wonderbolts derby, which causes Rarity to meet up with many other *ahem* "posh" ponies that, due to her having an association with Fancy Pants, want her at all of their various hosted events.

Thus Rarity is caught in a moral dilemma: should she indulge herself and go to the various fancy festivities, making sure that her status in Canterlot is kept intact, or should she work on Twilight's dress for her birthday?

If you guessed that Rarity would stay true to her Element of Generosity and make Twilight her dress, you would be guessing incorrectly! Frankly, out of all the things in this episode, this bugs me. It's understandable that Rarity would put things off a few times, as she clearly has trouble denying other ponies' offers for parties and such, but when it all comes to a head and Rarity finally decides to lie to Twilight so she can get out of going to her party and instead go to a party with the "posh" ponies... it strikes me as practically out of character for her. I know that that's the point of the episode, to make her grow as a character and learn a lesson and stuff but... what happened to the generosity that Rarity exhibited in the second episode, where she sacrificed her personal beauty to help out a serpent that she didn't even know? It just seems odd to me.

It's actually really kind of interesting... if anything, Twilight is the insanely generous one in this episode. She goes out of her way to make sure Rarity gets to be part of her party, she helps Rarity rent a room in Canterlot castle, and she encourages Rarity to mingle with the "posh" ponies during her party so that Rarity could potentially sell dresses. It all serves to just emphasize how little generosity Rarity shows, and thus really bothers me.

It also hurts that the finale of the episode seems somewhat redundant, as it's something we've already seen, more or less. The rest of the Mane 6 get in on the fancy party and disgust everypony with their... less-than-fancy mannerisms and such. Just like in The Best Night Ever, minus the hilarious ending with Celestia. Frankly, I wasn't a big fan of that part of The Best Night Ever, and I'm not a big fan of the same theme going on here, either.

Besides that, though, the episode is pretty solid. It has a nice song in the middle of it (songs make everything better!) and due to it taking place in Canterlot we get to meet a whole batch of new background ponies, including a good quantity with entirely new body shapes. In addition, we get several cameos by previous background ponies of the "fancier" persuasion, like Octavia and FOTO FEENEESH herself! It's all great stuff, and it's very clear that the animators aren't cutting corners when it comes to giving the local life and variety.

As a bit of a side note, Fancy Pants is kind of awesome. He's pretty much the only Canterlot pony that isn't a complete jerk, and instead seems relatively down to earth and gentlemanly. Which is totally awesome. More awesome male ponies is always a good thing!

So yeah, definitely a split episode with distinct ups and downs. I'll give it a

6.5/10

Pros:
-Development of Canterlot, complete with plenty of new minor ponies
-Awesome song!
-Cameos from a handful of previous minor ponies

Cons:
-Rarity seems practically OOC
-Final scenes feel too much like The Best Night Ever

---

This episode is one of the few that actually lost some points in my book after rewatching. It just seemed like the things that bugges me the first time bugges me even more the second time around, and that was... not really very good. Oh, well.

Oh, and I've decided how to answer last week's question, by the way. The numbers are for comparison purposes, and only good for comparison between episodes of My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic. Which should be relatively obvious, but it's good to say nonetheless.

Also worth pointing out is that a 5/10 is going to be average, like the point system should be. That is to say, all of the MLP episodes I've reviewed so far have been above-average, which fits with my feelings that MLP:FiM as a whole is an above-average show.

But I'm getting off topic. I will now take this moment to say that I personally really didn't like that one mare that was hanging around with Fancy Pants when we first meet him. I mean, who does she think she is stealing the goddesses' body shape like that? What a jerk!

~C.O

MLP:FiM Season 2 Review #8 - The Mysterious Mare Do Well

2011-11-26T20:53:00.000-08:00

Rainbow Dash is just too awesome to have a single episode to herself, apparently, so here's another Rainbow Dash episode! And apparently even the introduction of a new pony, the titular Mare Do Well! The excitement is almost too much to take, hence my flagrant usage of exclamation marks!

Spoilers past the break, as if that wasn't relatively obvious by now.

So the episode starts out with Scootaloo making up for her non-appearance last episode by hosting the official Rainbow Dash fanclub! Also Snips and Snails are there, traitors. Not that I'm complaining, since I never liked Trixie much anywa--

WAIT HOLD THE PHONE, that's a Nyan Cat Rainbow Dash poster in the background! Okay, this episode is officially awesome. Rating, right now.

10/10

...carrying on...

Rainbow Dash has several little feats of heroism and is praised by all. But, since she's Rainbow Dash, she let's it get to her head and turns into a massive braggart who's more concerned about bolstering her popularity than actually helping ponies.

But then a mysterious masked pony that the mayor dubs the "Mare Do Well" shows up and steals all of Rainbow's thunder, helping ponies and disappearing just as soon as she appears. Y'know, like a fairly typical comic book superhero. In fact, she even gets posters that are straight parodies of the Batman Animated Series logo. This episode is just full of subtle little nods, isn't it?

Rainbow tries to outdo the Mare Do Well, fails spectacularly, and finally goes and angsts on a cloud. But then she finds out that the Mare Do Well is making a public appearance, so she goes to unmask the mysterious mare! The scenario culminates in a chase scene not unlike the chase scene with the Black Raven in Professor Layton and the Last Specter (though this one's almost certainly not an actual reference due to the game being so recent), finally unmasking the Mare Do Well and discovering her identity:

SPOILERS it's actually the entire rest of the Mane Six! Eager to teach Rainbow a lesson in humility, they came up with the Mare Do Well together, each taking on one of her various roles, with Rarity being the costume designer.

...and that's really it. The plot of the episode is simple enough, but the actual action scenes are good enough to prevent it from feeling like it drags on too much, with the possible exception of Rainbow's annoying gloating. It never gets as bad as Apple Bloom in The Cutie Pox, though, with much better pacing.

The problem, unfortunately, is that there's really not all that much to the episode. It focuses almost exclusively on Rainbow Dash, which isn't necessarily a bad thing, but it loses some of the vital character interaction that makes episodes of the series great.

And maybe it was just me, but the Mare Do Well's actual persona became pretty obvious once she used magic to fix the dam, and even moreso when she proceeded to fly around. It definitely wasn't as bad as, say, how obvious it was that the tortoise would end up as Rainbow's pet last episode, but it still seemed a tad bit too predictable. It lacked the subtlety behind the finale of Sisterhooves Social.

It's definitely not all bad, though. This episode has some fun moments with background ponies old and new, including one of the two infamous ponies from the Comic Con poster's balloon. Not to mention it brings up the Pinkie Sense for the second time in the whole series, and reveals that it's more than a simple prophecy, and instead is something that Pinkie can actually circumvent. Which is a little scary - is that perhaps too much power for one pony? With great power comes great responsibility, and Pinkie seems to lack in the latter, so...?

But I'm getting off topic. The Mysterious Mare Do Well gets a...

6/10

Pros:
-Continuity nods and further development of Ponyville
-Fun action scenes, and good pacing within and between them

Cons:
-A tad bit predictable
-A bit too simple, plotwise
-Too much focus on Rainbow, to the exclusion of other ponies

---

Am I being fair to these episodes? It's totally weird, because I keep feeling really really bad for giving sixes and stuff. I mean, I like the episodes, but I kind of set a precedent with Discord's episodes being sevens, so...

Gah, I don't know. Rating is so hard when half of everyone ever seems to think that anything below an eight is bad.

...if I hate rating things, then why am I even bothering with a number system?

...wait, that's actually a legitimate question. I'll get back to you on that one.

~ C.O

MLP:FiM Season 2 Review #7 - May the Best Pet Win

2011-11-19T21:04:00.000-08:00

So My Little Pony is going to be taking a Rainbow Dash-centered twist for a few weeks, and first on our to-do list is to get that filly a pet! If the fandom's hypotheses hold true, she'll end up with either a turtle, a falcon, or Scootaloo. So let's get right to it and see what happens, shall we?

Here there be spoilers, fyi.

Rainbow Dash starts off having a twisted dream and ending up in the middle of a pony-pet playdate that the other mane five have weekly. Perhaps most importantly, we get to see Winona and Owlowiscious again! We haven't seen those two since... well, since they had their first appearances!

I don't think anyone really liked either of those characters much, though, so... eh, whatever. It's still cool.

As the ponies-with-pets explain to Rainbow why they didn't tell her about the playdate sooner (read: she didn't have a pet), Rainbow suggests that she might want to get a pet. Fluttershy, being Flutterhy, gets super-excited at the prospect of introducing Rainbow to her animals, and does so promptly. With a musical duet, even! It's a really fun sequence, and marks the first song of season two. It's totally worthy of that title, too, and it's kind of out of nowhere int he best kind of way. I mean, did anyone actually expect this episode to have a song?

While Fluttershy and Rainbow sing and Rainbow hates on most of her animals, we see a particular pet a few times and it becomes pretty obvious that said pet will end up being Rainbow's in the end due to its dogged pursuit of the title despite being ignored. Spoilers: it's the tortoise. And no one is surprised.

Ultimately, Rainbow Dash decides that the best way to decide on a pet is to make them ~~fight to the death~~ participate in a series of competitions to see which one is fastest, most agility, awesomest, and that sort of thing. So a batch of flying critters and the turtle from earlier show off their skills, all while being mercilessly judged by Rainbow Dash doing her best impression of Simon Cowell. Meanwhile her friends cheer her pursuits on, even after Twilight and AJ briefly comment that Rainbow seems to have the wrong idea of what having a pet is about. Do I sense a moral coming on? Quite possibly.

The events culminate in the finalists (a hawk, falcon, bat, and owl, along with the tortoise that adamantly refuses to be left out) racing Rainbow Dash herself through Ghastly Gorge, a terrible place filled with all kinds of things you might see in a merciless video games, from masses of thorns to "Quarray Eels", terrifying eels that try to devour all the competitors, and come dangerously close to succeeding. The things are practically ripped from Super Mario 64! Sheesh.

But then the twist comes along: Rainbow gets cocky and causes a rock slide, pinning herself under a boulder while the flying pets head off to win the race. Of course, there is still one pet left to save her and take her to the finish line, where she proclaims the tortoise victor and writes a letter to the Princess. She also names the tortoise Tank, which is a pretty great name, and gives it a magic propeller so it can fly with her. And they lived happily ever after and Rainbow had a pet!

Easily the biggest strength of this episode is its variety of characters. It has none of the typical background ponies (except for a very creepy and subtle appearance by Ditzy) and instead has a host of assorted other animals to focus on. The competitors are all very unique and fun to watch, even though none of them speak. It's great to see, and almost certainly something that will stand as unique in the series.

Unfortunately, the episode suffers from being too darn predictable. As I mentioned earlier, it's quite obvious as soon as we see Tank that he's going to be Rainbow Dash's pet, and it doesn't exactly help that practically all of the fandom already guessed it before they even knew that the episode was going to happen!

Much like Sisterhooves Social, however, the ending is a little bit of a twist from the usual. It would have been pretty easy for them to use the cliche of "slow and steady wins the race", but instead they tied the episode together with a nice moral about judging pets and friends by more than just physical qualities. There's even some great fridge brilliance to be had: ultimately, the pet that won Rainbow's heart was the one that showed itself to be loyal to her, and naturally that would be something that the holder of the Element of Loyalty would appreciate!

Even though the episode's predictable, it's still a lot of fun. I give May the Best Pet Win a

7.5/10

Pros:
-Awesome musical number
-Very unique characters throughout
-Pulled itself together very nicely, avoiding cliches

Cons:
-Really predictable

---

Again we have an episode not nearly as grand as previous ones, but quite good nonetheless! And that musical piece was all sorts of fun, so yay. I can't wait to hear all kinds of fun remixes of it from the fandom!

And as a bit of a side note, I personally wasn't a big fan of the use of The Ride of The Valkyries in the Ghastly Gorge sequence. It's a fine song and all, but using premade music felt like it was almost squandering the talent that goes into making amazing custom background music for the series. That's probably just me, though, and I didn't really think it was anywhere near objective enough to put in the review. So I didn't!

So, how long do you think it'll take Tank to show up again? It only took Winona 29 episodes, and Owlowiscious managed to pop up again in only 9!

Speaking of popping up again, Big Mac's episode streak has finally been broken! Oh snap!

~C.O

MLP:FiM Season 2 Review #6 - The Cutie Pox

2011-11-12T18:27:00.000-08:00

Y'know, I think the first four episodes of season two kind of spoiled me. I mean, we had a pretty awesome duo of episodes that, while rushed, introduced Discord and his amazingness, then we had the fantastic Lesson Zero, one of my favorite episodes ever, and then Luna. All these normal episodes just seem so... well, normal in comparison.

I just find it funny that the writers have managed to get Big Mac into every single episode in season two so far, excluding the very first episode. It's clearly because he is the BEST STALLION.

Blah blah blah, spoilers, etc. etc.

For our first Cutie Mark Crusaders-themed episode of the season, we start off with the trio trying to - you guessed it - earn their Cutie Marks in a new, wacky manner. Specifically, bowling. They fail as per usual, but Apple Bloom is hit particularly hard and, in a fit of depression, wanders into the Everfree Forest.

Meanwhile, Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle just let her do that. Um, isn't that forest supposed to be dangerous? Girls? Seriously?

Ah, well, anyway, AB meets up with the best zebra, Zecora, and learns a bit about zebra magic to boot. She latches onto the idea of making a potion to get her her Cutie Mark, and, sure enough, in the next scene she appears to have succeeded, having gained a little silver ring on both flanks.

If you read the episode description provided by your television provider, you can probably guess what happens next. AB gets a whole bunch of Cutie Marks, each forcing her to perform the talent associated with them, and is diagnosed with Cutie Pox by Twilight. Eventually, Zecora helps out, AB admits her misdeed, and all is well once more.

If it sounds like a relatively simple plot, it is. The episode does a pretty good job of elongating things, though, having scenes that, for the most part, don't wear too much on the audience and allow the writers to develop a little more about Ponyville and its inhabitants. Zecora in particular gets some great screentime, and the episode has a lot of new background ponies present in the bowling alley and in Apple Bloom's class. It's also really nice to see the minor fillies and colts present with some dialogue. The whole episode feels really lively, with more ponies getting the spotlight than your typical episode might allow.

However, the middle of the episode is primarily Apple Bloom showing off her "special talent" (and, later, talents) and begins to wear a little bit. It's great to see her classmates' reactions and some from the various townsfolk, but I can't help but feel like the whole sequence could've been shortened a bit without losing impact.

In addition, the ending of the episode strikes me as detrimental to the episode as a whole. Apple Bloom supposedly learns her lesson and send a letter to the Princess, but ultimately remains apparently unchanged. I get that the writers want the CMC to keep up their goal and antics for future episodes, but it still doesn't sit well with me that AB would learn nothing from the events of the episode. Character development is something important to chows that are largely character-driven, and I feel like this was a bit of a misstep in that regard. It certainly doesn't make things look hopeful for the CMC eventually getting Cutie Marks, like I very much hope happens.

The Cutie Pox isn't a bad episode, but it certainly feels... filler-y, to an extent, which is unfortunate. With that in mind, I give it a

6/10

Pros:
-Develops Ponyville with a few new areas and a handful of new background ponies
-Grants some of the minor characters some time to shine
-Zecora

Cons:
-Apple Bloom apparently learns absolutely nothing
-Apple Bloom's showing off gets dull after a while
-Feels almost like filler, with nothing of real consequence happening

---

Y'know how I said earlier that the season started off with a bunch of great episodes so now these ones feel more mundane? Yeah, I'm pretty sure that's happening, which is almost a shame. Again, though, I must stress that this is not a bad episode - just not as good as episodes 1-4, and some of the better ones in season one.

And as an aside, you know how Dizty Doo/Derpy Hooves has been popping up in every episode in season two? Her appearance in this episode was particularly perplexing - she shows up for one scene as a filly in Apple Bloom's class. Does Ditzy have a canon daughter that isn't Dinky? Was filly-Ditzy the results of time travel, no doubt due to her association with the Doctor? These are all very important questions that need to be answered by every fanfiction ever.

Speaking of fanfiction, someone on the Equestria Daily thread for this episode smartly pointed out that the Hearts Desire flower will almost certainly show up in shipping fics now. Which is highly amusing to me. Go, guys, and use this premise to make more fics of the best ship!

Also, join me next week when Rainbow Dash gets an episode and Scootaloo becomes her honorary sister! Probably, anyway.

~ C.O

MLP:FiM Season 2 Review #5 - Sisterhooves Social

2011-11-06T19:09:00.000-08:00

So Rarity's absence in the last episode was such a big deal that she needed an episode for her (and Sweetie Belle) this week! I mean, she is the fourth-best-pony, so she needs to have the spotlight on her on a regular basis.

Thus, Sisterhooves Social, the new episode after the brief second hiatus after Luna Eclipsed. Again, I apologize for the late post - I didn't get to see the episode live and was busy most of Saturday.

Spoiler warning as per usual.

The episode begins with Rarity's parents dropping by and dumping Sweetie Belle into Rarity's care while they go on vacation. It's a quick sequence that sets up for the entire episode's premise, and it's fine and all, but I felt it was a little confusing. It throws a lot at the audience and it's kind of hard to catch what the whole deal is on the first watch.

So with Rarity having to sister-sit Sweetie Belle, she promptly gets things set up and done. Sweetie Belle, a bored little filly, wants nothing more but to help, which Rarity finds... taxing, to say the least. Sweetie Belle's apparent inability to actually succeed at doing anything doesn't help matters, as she repeatedly makes Rarity very angry. Like, grinding teeth, hilarious facial expressions angry.

...is it just me, or dot he animators absolutely love to use insane facial expressions in this season? There weren't really all that many last season, but this one is just piling them on left and right.

Eventually, things come to a peak when Rarity denies Sweetie's request that they go to the Sisterhooves Social - an event where sister teams of ponies compete for prizes and glory. Fed up with her sister, Sweetie declares that they are no longer related, and Rarity agrees. Sweetie storms off, Rarity rages privately, all is well and good.

If it sounds a little bit generic, it kind of is. My biggest issue with this episode is that it doesn't bring much new to the table - it's fairly standard fare for a kids cartoon, the typical "episode where siblings get mad at each other and later reconcile". Mind, the whole episode isn't that predictable, especially the conclusion that ends up being very fun and surprising, but the basic plot leaves something to be desired.

Sweetie Belle's frustration with Rarity leads her to seek sympathy in Apple Bloom, who is working on the farm with Applejack. After seeing how well they work together, Sweetie's frustration is only magnified. As Rarity puts it, "Applejack, why do you have be so good and make me look so bad?"

Meanwhile, Rarity finds her spur-of-the-moment anger at Sweetie dissipating with time, and seeks reconciliation. Here's the twist: where typically that would be the end of it, Sweetie adamantly refuses to give Rarity the time of day. Rarity and Applejack has a discussion, and Applejack explains to Rarity what she's been doing wrong, with metaphors that naturally have to do with apples. I mean, what else would AJ talk about - carrots? Hecks naw.

The episode ultimately concludes with a little plot by Rarity to prove herself to her sister and the two make up again, with Rarity having grown to be a better, less generally-awful sister. Happiness and joy abounds!

This episode was kind of a mixed bag, I felt. On one hand, it did wonders for giving AJ and Sweetie Belle some character development through their focus, and Rarity and Apple Bloom were also very great characters in this. The focus on the four of them gave them a chance to really shine, develop, and have awesome character interactions, which is great!

On the other hand, that was really all there was to it. The overarching plot was, as I said, a little bland, and the episode didn't really have a lot of the lasting appeal that the last four did. It felt like it would sit somewhere on par with Luna Eclipsed, if it hadn't starred Luna and hadn't had the awesome Nightmare Night costumes - certainly not bad, but it doesn't have much to let it stand out, unfortunately.

An interesting thing to note is that this episode has less of the Mane 6 present than any other, with only AJ and Rarity showing up, and is the first episode in the entire series to not have Twilight. Part of this is because of Lesson Zero - the ending of that episode had Princess Celestia decree that all the ponies would write letters to her, so instead of Twilight being put in just to send the letter, Spike just shows up at Rarity's place at the end to take the note straight from her. Though I miss Twilight, this turns out to be a really good thing, proving that the individual ponies can stand up on their own very well in more individually-based episodes. Not to mention it lets Applejack finally develop a little, something she's been in desperate need of for a while.

Sisterhooves Social gets a
6/10

Pros:
-AJ and Sweetie Belle get much-needed development
-All the main ponies have great characterizations

Cons:
-Plot seems generic
-Introduction to set up the plot isn't clearly explained
-Overall seems a little same-y, with not a lot to make it stand out

---

Not a bad episode to be sure, but unfortunately I think it's going to be one that is pretty much forgotten as the series goes on. It just lacks that extra "oomph" to really make it something special, I think.

...also, on a semi-unrelated note, does it bother anyone else a little bit how so many ponies in Ponyville apparently have little sisters that are around ten years younger than them? I mean, there were five teams running the race, and possibly more around the Sisterhooves Social... it just strikes me as weird.

Unless, of course, some of the teams weren't really sisters and they were just racing together so that some of the sisterless fillies wouldn't feel left out. Which, coincidentally, makes the explanation for why Dinky Doo would be racing super-easy! Yay fanon!

...but seriously, Dinky will never stop being Ditzy's daughter, even if explaining your canon away includes clones, time travel, or something equally ridiculous! Fanon forever, Hasbro!

...that last part was a joke. Probably.

~ C.O

KRDL Ability Review - Water

2011-10-29T12:53:00.000-07:00

Okay, so someone on the Kirby's Return to Dream Land GameFAQ board had the great idea of assigning members to review abilities in the game and post them. So, naturally, I signed up for a few abilities! The only thing is, when I was working on my first review, for the Water ability, I noticed two distinct things.

One, it was becoming really, really long. Like, it ended up needing three posts on GameFAQs just to hold it.

Two, it was really fun to write.

And so I first thought, "maybe I should put this somewhere where I can go on for longer without running out of space" and then I thought "would it maybe be fun if I did a review for every ability in the game instead of just the three I got here?"

And so I came to the conclusion that I would post any and all ability reviews I came up with on here, my blog where I post random silly things like reviews for abilities in Kirby. So without further adieu, here's the first of my Ability Reviews, Water Kirby!

Water
“Look out—you’re a water wizard! Ride the waves and cool down hot flames! Your Water Gun is supercharged too!”

Basic Description
Water is a Kirby ability that has seemed like an obvious addition for quite a while, what with it being a classical element that was only previously represented through Ice and, in Squeak Squad, Bubble. Naturally, Water has some inherent advantages when it comes to getting around stages with water in them, and above-ground it has a very fluid feel to it. It’s my personal favorite of the new abilities introduced in Return to Dream Land due to its fun, and highly useful, nature in battle, along with its mobility advantages. Outside of its basic usage, all of Water’s moves can also solidify lava, making it a vital ability for several puzzles.

Aesthetics
To me, an important part of Kirby is how fun all the abilities look, and Water doesn’t disappoint! Water equips Kirby with a crown comparable to the other “elemental” abilities’ crowns, featuring a gold band with a water droplet-esque design on the front surrounded by two swirls that bring to mind waves. The crown is topped with a transparent column of water that waves along with Kirby’s movements, and the top of Kirby’s head peeking through the water is visible as a dark blue. The only aesthetic concern is that the water column looks a tad bit awkward - while abilities like Fire, Spark, or Ice have crown parts that can be imagined as free-standing, Water’s doesn’t seem like it should be able to stand up at all. In addition, the transparent effect allows any characters sitting on top of Kirby or items being held by Kirby to be clearly visible as clipping through the hat, which is a bit odd looking.

Moveset

(Damage amounts are approximates and averages taken from testing with the Metal General, and are all per hit)

1: Wave Attack (120 damage) - Kirby spits a small wave of water forward that travels in a steep ark in the air and quickly zips along the ground. It’s a quick but weak projectile, taking multiple hits to kill all but the weakest enemies. Unfortunately, it’s also a bit unwieldy and Kirby cannot rapid-fire it very quickly. It certainly works as a projectile, but it’s hardly Water Kirby’s most useful move.

Dash: Surf (40 damage (hit), 160 damage (wave)) - Instead of dashing normally, Kirby will ride a small bit of water. The surf travels slightly faster than the normal run, but also has less traction, having trouble turning around once it gets going. It gets its biggest use in puzzles, as the dash automatically solidifies lava that Kirby runs on as well as granting him full immunity to running on lava, even certain types that can’t be solidified. In addition, if Kirby runs into any enemies while using Surf he will bounce off harmlessly, even doing a tiny bit of damage to the enemy if it is a normal enemy. Surf also has a slightly more powerful way of doing damage - if Kirby gets going fast enough and quickly changed directions, he will release a short-ranged wave of water in the direction he was initially going that can damage enemies. It’s not very powerful or particularly useful, but it’s definitely a nice touch. Finally, though there aren’t a lot of places to do so, Surf can also be used to dash along the top of bodies of water.

Dash+1: Wave Surf (320 damage) - Here’s where Water Kirby gets good. The Wave Surf amps up Water’s normal Surf, putting Kirby on a large wave that sprouts from below his feet and can damage enemies considerably. He stays on the wave for about two seconds, and the wave can help launch Kirby up slopes. If it hits a vertical wall, the wave will dissipate, but if the wall is only a single block high Kirby will fall nicely on top of the block. Wave Surf can also cross gaps quite effectively, able to dash right across gaps of two blocks. Most importantly, Wave Surf has some very nice invincibility frames - Kirby simply cannot be damaged while performing the move and will travel through most enemies and obstacles in the way, only being deflected if Kirby himself hits a Gordo or something comparable. The only issue with Wave Surf is that it’s a little bit unwieldy at first, as the move cannot be manually canceled. On one final note, when Wave Surf is used Kirby is surged upward for a moment, reaching slightly higher than when the wave settles. This is a relatively minor property of Wave Surf, but there are certain circumstances where this additional height can help Kirby grab or hit things that the rest of the attack will miss.

Up+1: Geyser (160 damage) - It turns out the column of water on Kirby’s head isn’t just for show - Geyser sees it expanding and shooting upward from Kirby, damaging any enemies above him. By holding up and tapping 1, the Geyser can continue indefinitely, and by releasing up it can be quickly canceled, making it fairly easy to throw out. Unfortunately, the water is stopped by ceilings and has an incredibly small horizontal range, so its usage is fairly limited. Kirby is also immobile while doing the move, so it has the potential to put him in danger if the player cannot cancel the move quickly enough.

Down+1 in midair: Fountain Hover (80 damage) - Kirby will shoot a steady stream of water downward as long as 1 is held, keeping him bobbing up and down slowly in one spot in midair. He can move left and right while performing this move, and can be aimed up and down by holding the respective buttons. However, he will always try to return to a default distance from the ground, and will move especially quickly back upwards if he is moved towards the ground, so be careful not to lose control. In battle it’s very weak, but can potentially keep Kirby above enemies that can’t get very high into the air.

Down+1: Water Crown (160 damage) - Kirby thrusts his fist downward, creating a small burst of water from the ground. This… is very unwieldy, probably one of Water Kirby’s worst moves, since it has such a small range. Kirby IS invincible while doing it, however, so with good timing it can potentially be used to dodge dashing attacks from small enemies.

Hold Down, then Up+1: Rainbow Rain (40 - 210 damage) - Kirby summons the powers of friendship and creates a rainbow around him with a flourish, damaging enemies all around. It hits multiple times and each hit does more damage the closer the move is to finished, easily making it Water’s most powerful move, especially against bosses, and it hits a very large area around Kirby to boot. In addition, Kirby is completely invincible during the duration of the move, so it can be used to dodge and doesn’t require as precise timing as Water Crown due to it lasting longer. It can even be rapid-fired by holding down during animation! This is Water Kirby’s best offensive move alongside Wave Surf. Its only real downside is that it leaves Kirby immobile while the move is being performed, and having to hold down can make it a little tricky to pull off. But it’s worth it to destroy your enemies with epic water rainbows!

1 underwater: Enhanced Water Gun (at least 120 damage) - While in the water, Kirby’s normal Water Gun is, well, enhanced. Instead of a single bubble, Kirby shoots two twirling bubbles that go about double the length of the normal Water Gun. This is especially useful as it can go right through blocks and enemies that it breaks, as opposed to the normal Water Gun only hitting one thing at a time. It’s definitely not the most useful underwater ability, though, so it may not see much use.

Overall
Water is a powerful ability, if only for its Wave Surf and Rainbow Rain being very effective against bosses that sit static for any period of time. The added bonus of its most powerful moves giving Kirby a lot of invincibility to work with helps quite a bit, too. It isn’t the most fun ability to use against normal enemies, though, since the majority of its moves are either weak or simply hard to hit with. Overall, it’s a fairly high-end ability that may not be a lot of fun to use in normal stages.

Aesthetics: 8/10 - pretty, but some clipping issues and the water column seems almost out of place
Power: 9/10 - tears through any bosses that have periods of not moving, which is most of them
Fun-Factor: 8/10 - hurt somewhat by the lack of interesting mobility moves, and many of its moves are impractical or very situational

Overall: 8.5/10

MLP:FiM Season 2 Review #4 - Luna Eclipsed

2011-10-22T09:59:00.000-07:00

After over a year of waiting, and 28 episodes ever, we finally have our Luna episode! Woohoo! Will she be like the fans imagined, way better, or way worse? Will the MLP community shatter under the pressure of having a canon Luna finally?

Spoilers: they're actually doing pretty well from what I've seen. Let's get right to this! This'll contain spoilers and such, as per usual.

This time I'm gonna try to be less... plot-summary-y. I think I relied far too much on that in my last reviews, so hopefully this one will read more like a... well, more like an actual review!

---

Luna Eclipsed tells the tale of the Ponyville Halloween-analogue, Nightmare Night. It's basically just like Halloween except with the reasoning behind the costumes changed and made a bit more important - you must wear costumes or else Nightmare Moon will gobble you up!

...yeah, I don't remember Nightmare Moon doing any gobbling in her legend from episode one, but eh.

Halloween specials are always fun, and this one is no exception. It's cool to see all the ponies in their various costumes, which, while most of them are fairly traditional ghosts and the like, have a few references for fans to spot, like a particular pony who looks suspiciously like he's dressed up like Scorpion from Mortal Kombat. Which is, of course, awesome.

Zecora also makes a reappearance in this episode after only getting to show up a few times last season, and she doesn't disappoint. She tells the tale of the "origin" of Nightmare Night with help from some crazy green smoke that she can manipulate magically. So zebras have magic in some form, and that is amazing.

But, of course, the real pony everyone was excited for the return of was the titular Luna. Apparently she thought that it would be a good idea to regain the love of her subjects on the one night where they all have fun being terrified of her. And to top things off, she arrives in a death metal-esque chariot pulled by evil-looking ponies with bat wings and wearing an ominous Sith cloak.

Obviously things were a bit different a thousand years ago.

As would be expected, Luna only really succeeds in terrifying all the ponies in Ponyville, helped somewhat by her usage of "the royal Canterlot voice" (read: echoey yelling) and the royal we. Twilight is the only pony that she doesn't terrify, so she goes off to try and help, and things escalate from there, with Twilight getting her friends' help and eventually convincing Luna and Ponyville to accept each other, with the latter having some fun from the former being deliberately scary.

Now, the part of the episode that everyone in the Brony community was worried about was how they would characterize Luna, and I think they did quite well. She speaks in ye olde butcherede Englishe (warning: TV Tropes link), amusingly playing off her being imprisoned for a thousand years, and has a tendency to yell a lot. But when she stops yelling or isn't directly addressing the "commoners", she's about what the fandom expected - a bit shy and insecure, and really socially awkward. Heck, when Twilight and Applejack explain the carnival games to her, she starts talking about fun in a way very reminiscent of Starfire from the Teen Titans cartoon. The writers really have given her a nice, unique character that leaves a lot open for some great development if she comes back.

...which I really hope happens, as, unfortunately, there's only so much development that can fit in less than 22 minutes. Don't get me wrong, there was definitely some, but it would really be a bummer if Luna was just forgotten again after this episode. She really needs another episode or two to her own so she can really get that character development through adjusting to modern life.

Although if she does come back, I hope she's gotten over the yelling and aforementioned butcherede Englishe. Both wore on me after hearing them all episode and, in the case of the former, seeing shout marks emitting from Luna's mouth most of the time got a bit annoying as well.

It also doesn't really help that the conclusion and moral of the episode seem a little... lackluster. Ultimately it amounts to "the kids love Luna because she's scary, and the rest should get to know someone before judging them", which bothers me twofold. In the case of the former idea, it almost seems like a cheap way to end the episode, almost suggesting that a problem hadn't existed in the first place instead of Luna being able to work to solve it. In the case of the latter, it seems a tad bit generic and a lesson we've already seen before in Bridle Gossip, where it was done better. I wish that more emphasis had been put on Luna growing and adjusting, much like Twilight did when she first arrived in Ponyville, instead of the other way around.

It also bugged me a little that Rarity was completely absent from the episode, but since her voice actor was already voicing Luna, Zecora, and several others ponies in this episode it's possible that they didn't want her to have to strain her voice too much. But Fluttershy was also practically absent, only in one scene where she acts a bit out of character, being terrified of Luna and Nightmare Night for unexplained reasons. I mean, yeah, Fluttershy is afraid of stuff, but that scene just seemed to... hyperbolize that in a way that didn't make a whole lot of sense in context. It certainly serves as a stark contrast to her appearance in the last episode, where she seemed out of character in the exact opposite extreme.

And, though not unexpected, the episode gave no reason for Luna's absence for the last 28 episodes. She just pops in with no explanation as to what she's been doing, which is unfortunate. Though I suppose it can be guessed that she was resting and regaining her strength, as her mane is now magicy like Celestia's, but it would've been nice to at least have her absence explained briefly in passing.

But that's not to say that the episode is a bad one. Quite the contrary - it's very good, with Luna and Zecora making it particularly awesome, and the other characters making things fun. I mean, Ditzy Doo/Derpy Hooves even got an amusing scene with Carrot Top! Fun stuff, though I wish she would get a real role outside of comic relief, and perhaps even a canon name. But that's neither here nor there.

Overall, I give Luna's first real appearance an

8/10

Pros:
-Luna and Zecora are amazing
-Seeing all the ponies' Nightmare Night costumes
-Fun character interaction throughout

Cons:
-Ending and moral seemed a bit lackluster
-Luna didn't get as much development as I would've liked, and her absence remains unexplained
-Complete lack of Rarity, and Fluttershy's scene was awkward

---

And thus every single fanfic with Luna in it has been made obsolete. Okay, that's a lie: the writer's spin on Luna was definitely different, but I feel that there's still plenty of room for the fandom Lunas that we've all come to love.

And now we must once again deal with a break between episodes, though this one is pretty short. I'll see you again in two weeks, when the only one of the Mane 6 absent from this episode gets to have an episode with her little sister! I wonder if they'll offer an explanation for Rarity not being out during Nightmare Night...? I mean, this episode tied in with Twilight having to "iron her cape" last episode, so who knows...

~C.O

MLP:FiM Season 2 Review #3 - Lesson Zero

2011-10-15T09:43:00.000-07:00

Hey everypony! After the two week hiatus, I'm back again to give you my thoughts on the newest episode of My Little Pony, Lesson Zero.

I'm going to be doing this review a liiittle differently. While the previous ones were strictly first-impressions, deliberately written after I watched the episode on TV, before watching it a second time via internet means. This time I'm going to go ahead and watch it the second time while writing this post. What does this mean? Well, it means I can think more about the content of the episode as a whole instead of just as a first impression, which I figure will be good. Is that good? I think it's good.

Watch this episode on YouTube here.

As usual, SPOILERS.

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While it's a well-known fact that all of the Mane 6 have had a mental breakdown at some point or another in season one, Twilight's was probably the shortest, as it only lasted for a minute or two before Princess Celestia arrived and Pinkie solved their problem. This episode serves to fix that issue, and give Twilight the full episode of mental breakdown that she deserves. So yeah, Lesson Zero is basically Party of One except with Twilight instead of Pinkie.

This, as you may imagine, is completely awesome.

The episode starts us off with the Best Pony demonstrating to us exactly how massively OCD she is, running through a checklist of things she needs to make a checklist. Recursive checklist-making is something only Twilight could pull off, I think.

After this short little scene sets the mood, we get to see the opening, newly remastered! It's not all that different, but the music is more vibrant and exciting, and a train has been added to the scene with Twilight walking, housing the Cutie Mark Crusaders and Ditzy Doo/Derpy Hooves. I'm a little disappointed that that was basically the only visual element that was changed, but the new music is pretty great so it all works out!

Back to Twilight, who has some deep distress over cupcakes that she ordered for a picnic, because it's possible that one cupcake may have more icing than another. Did I mention that she has some incredible OCD in this episode?

Oh, and Spike's there too. Even if he's not the main focus of the episode, he's still completely great, acting more or less as a foil to Twilight's need for insane quantities of preparation and perfection. Also he is shown to have a forked tongue for the first time, which is minor but cool.

It's about this time that everything goes to crap, as Spike casually mentions that they "don't need to send Celestia a letter this week", and Twilight proceeds to flip out. She insists that it's absolutely vital that she sends Celestia a letter about her findings in friendship every week, else Celestia will fear that Twilight isn't taking her studies seriously, will make Twilight come back to Canterlot and take a test, which Twilight may fail and then be forced to go back into magic kindergarten.

Twilight's bad habit of taking everything to its absolute worst possible conclusion has gotten even worse since A Bird in the Hoof, it seems.

Spike, of course, tries to talk Twilight out of her nonsensical train of thought, even resorting to amusingly breaking the fourth wall a few times, but Twilight will have nothing of it. She must find a friend with a problem she can solve before the end of the day so she can learn something about friendship!

Naturally, she fails spectacularly in this regard. But while she does, we get to see Rarity be incredibly overdramatic (even more-so than Twilight), Rainbow Dash obliterate a shed of Applejack's with an Atomic Sonic Rainboom, and Fluttershy use crazy fighting moves to massage a bear. It's all incredibly fun to watch, due in no small part to the animation.

The entirety of this episode is animated beautifully. Friendship is Magic is known for its top-notch animation, but this episode raises the bar quite high with some brilliant transitions, awesome animations, and just downright looking incredibly sweet in motion. If this becomes standard for season two, I am prepared to be very impressed.

So anyway, with Twilight being unable to find a friend that needs her help, and apparently forgetting about Pinkie Pie, she begins to completely lose it. To the point of hallucination. It seems like she must've had some kind of insane childhood trauma during magic kindergarten. Poor girl, we can all relate to that.

Spike reminds Twilight about the picnic they're having with her friends, and Twilight makes a plea to her friends to help her out. Unfortunately, her friends shrug her off as being completely ridiculous. Twilight responds with copious teleport spam, which means that Twilight has already demonstrated her teleportation in two-thirds of season two, much more often than she used it in season one. Just amusing to note.

With her friends not helping her, Twilight takes a spectacular dive head-first off the deep end. Observe:

Yeah, I think that speaks for itself. Twilight decides that, if she can't find a friendship problem, she'll make one! And so she proceeds to absolutely terrify the Cutie Mark Crusaders by being completely insane. Frankly I think she ends up being more frightening than Pinkie in Party of One, especially when she starts acting almost Discord-esque with her appearances and logic.

Ultimately she ends up enchanting an old, raggedy doll of hers named Smarty-Pants to make anyone that looks at it fall in love with it and fight over it. This goes approximately as well as one would expect, causing the CMC to become uncontrollable. Then Bic McIntosh (for that is how it's spelled, weirdly enough) shows up and Twilight pleads for help. McIntosh also falls in love with the doll, utters a particularly memetic phrase, and eventually the entirety of Ponyville needs to get their hooves on Smarty-Pants.

With the day reaching its end, and chaos abound, the sun sets and Princess Celestia appears before Twilight and her friends with incredible drama befitting Her Royal Majesty. With a glowy flash, Celestia removes the enchantment and the inhabitants of Ponyville disperse. And Big McIntosh runs off with the doll in a scene that I'm sure TwiMac shippers will latch onto, especially after "Dig Mac" licking Twilight last episode.

Celestia commands Twilight to meet her at the library, where she explains to Twilight that, surprise surprise, she doesn't particularly care that Twilight failed to meet her weekly deadline. The rest of the Mane 6 burst in to support Twilight, explaining that they should have taken Twilight's feelings seriously earlier instead of just laughing them off. Celestia degrees that the Mane 6 should all report their findings on friendship, but only when they discover them, to much cheers. Celestia heads back off to Canterlot, mentioning that she showed up because Spike let her know what was going on, and the Mane 6 write a letter to Princess Celestia together.

Let's just get this out of the way - this episode was great. Great animation, fun story, focusing on the best pony... and, perhaps most importantly, it went in a completely different direction than I expected. It would've been easy to write the lesson-of-the-day as "don't let your fears get the best of you and make mountains out of molehills", but instead that was just the secondary lesson. The main lesson being about taking your friends' troubles seriously, even if they seem silly, is an excellent lesson, and frankly strikes me as one that's much more advanced than what you typically see in a kids' cartoon. It's really a lesson that everyone can benefit from at least somewhat, and it perfectly exemplifies why this show is so much better than the usual "lesson to learn" type of shows.

Only time will tell how Lesson Zero will hold up to the rest of season two, but it would be an injustice at this point to give it anything less than a

9/10

Pros:
-Much deeper plot and lesson than the scenario would have seemed to lend itself to
-Generally hilarious
-Fantastic animation, even for Friendship is Magic standards
-The focus on Twilight and Spike, especially Spike, was done very well

Cons:
-Twilight's personality seems somewhat hyperbolized
-Celestia showing up to fix the problem seemed a little deus ex machina-ish

---

I must say, I was really impressed with Lesson Zero, as you may have garnered from earlier. I wasn't expecting much more than an average episode to hold us over until next week, when a particularly hyped episode airs...

So I'll see you then, when we'll finally find out what canon-Luna is like. And, inevitably, the entire MLP fandom will flip out and go insane.

Personally, I'd just like to see her with an abacus.

~C.O

MLP:FiM Season 2 Review #2 - The Return of Harmony (part 2)

2011-09-24T07:18:00.001-07:00

Yes this is still happening; no one can be as surprised as I am. As before, be wary of SPOILERS!

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The epic conclusion of Discord's little saga! And, more or less, it goes off as one would expect. Discord mocks the ponies for failing, and reminds them of his riddle, prompting Twilight to go look for the Elements back at Ponyville, where they began. This is not made easy by the others, who are still suffering from the effects of Discord's spell, and continue to plunge into chaos as their colors get even more grayscale.

As they head back to Ponyville, we get to see the extent of Discord's shenanigans, and it becomes very clear exactly why he was an awful ruler. Everything is in complete chaos, and Discord's sense of humor is heavily based on ruining others' day. It's all pretty crazy to watch, and I get the impression that the animators were having a lot of fun making it all. I mean, how could you not with such ridiculousness?

Twilight gets back to her library, mostly intact but completely sick of her friends, and manages to find the Elements of Harmony in the book she read in episode one. Success! She forces them onto her anti-friends, appointing Spike as Rainbow Dash since she flew off to Cloudsdale earlier, and faces Discord!

...this goes about as well as expected. This is also probably a good time to mention that all of this part of the episode is hilarious, as the ponies anti-personalities play off of each other wonderfully, and Twilight gets funnier and more ridiculous every time she gets more frustrated. Which is all the time.

Twilight, realizing that her friendship is basically ruined, goes gray as well in a very sad scene. It's interesting to me how this one clashes with the ones in the last episode, as Discord isn't even there... I have to ask if the graying out would happen without Discord or not. I suppose this is as good a time as any for the fandom to make sense of all this!

Poor, friendless Twilight goes to get Spike and leave Ponyville (as Discord gets great pleasure from her pain). However, when she goes upstairs, she finds that Celestia has been sending back all of her friendship reports from season one, and she gets to reading them. In a great scene, she has flashbacks of the lessons she's learned and is reinspired to reunite her friends and stop Discord! And she gets her color back, which is always a good thing.

It's around this time that it becomes plainly evident that this duo of episodes was meant to be the finale of season one.

Twilight heads off to get her friends, and she turns them back to normal by using a memory spell to remind them of the hardships they've went through before. It's pretty great, but I can see why some people would call it a bit of a cop-out. After all, Twilight hasn't used such a spell before.

To them I say, "Deal with it, Twilight's the Element of Magic and she can do whatever spells she wants!"

With her friends mostly reunited, they still have the issue of Rainbow Dash. Cue awesome chase scene with the ponies working together to subdue Rainbow so Twilight can cast the memory spell and get her back to herself again. And it is an awesome scene, especially for Fluttershy.

~~My only regret is that it didn't have enough shipping between Twilight and Rainbow.~~

So with her friends together, they go to take down Discord, and, after some shiny effects, succeed. Discord is still rather cocky, you see, and apparently doesn't notice that the ponies are back to normal. Or maybe he is underestimating the power of the Elements? I don't know. Honestly it's a bit anticlimactic.

Cue Star Wars-esque finale scene where Celestia congratulates the mane six and we fade to credits, where the usual credits theme is replaced by the music going on at the time. Again it becomes really obvious that this was supposed to be season one's finale.

Overall, it was definitely a good episode. Again it felt a little rushed, and I was a bit sad that the main topic of the episode was Twilight reigniting her friendship than defeating Discord. It was expected, but still a little sad, since Discord is amazing.

I really can't help but agree with any of the other fans and say that this duo could've worked much better as a movie. I'll assume that the team didn't have this opportunity, though, since when they were making this I doubt the brony phenomenon was at any more than its very first stages.

It's also a shame that the CMC intro to last episode was apparently mostly a throwaway scene. According to Celestia last episode, Discord's return actually wasn't the CMC's fault (well, entirely, at least), and since they didn't show up in this episode... that scene really didn't have much importance at all. Oh well, I suppose.

Finally, I'm totally bummed out that they didn't have Luna in the last scene along with Celestia. After how many times they mentioned her last episode, she just would've fit. But, alas, we'll have to wait a bit longer to see her... hopefully she's adequately awesome when she comes back.

So yeah, I might've had my hopes a little too high for this episode, but I still have to say it was very good. With this little ark finished, I have to give this episode, and the ark as a whole, a

7/10

Pros:
Discord continues to be amazing
Hilarious shenanigans with the backwards-personalities
Discord's chaos is amazing to watch

Cons:
Rather predictable
Discord takes back-seat
Still felt a little rushed, though not quite to the extent of episode one
Really should've been the finale to season one, but that didn't work out

---

So there we have it, episode two! I'd like to say "see you next week" again, but unfortunately the series is apparently going to be taking a little break before really starting back up. Hopefully I can live without new ponies for a little while!

Oh, and as a point of reference, 7/10 is absolutely not a bad score. I would give the first Professor Layton game a 7/10 as well, and I love that game (and series) to death. I'm not running my scores quite to the hyperbole that certain game websites tend to!

~C.O

MLP:FiM Season 2 Review #1 - The Return of Harmony (part 1)

2011-09-17T11:38:00.000-07:00

So yeah, I've totally been into the new My Little Pony show for a while now. Season two just started up this morning, and I thought it would be fun to post little episode reviews on my blog as the episodes came out! After all, I got up at 7 AM to watch the darn episode live and I bought a new channel package from the TV provider just to watch the season, so let's make it into something fun!

Warning: these reviews are absolutely going to contain SPOILERS! I guess I could do spoiler-free reviews, but frankly I just think it'd be more fun if I didn't try to hold back. Not to mention with a show like this it's hard to establish what constitutes spoilers in the first place. So I highly recommend that you watch the series yourself, first. It's all on YouTube, after all!

Anyway, onto episode 1 of season two, The Return of Harmony (part 1)!

---

Season two begins, somewhat surprisingly, not with the mane six but with Cheerilee and all the important fillies/colts (Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon, Snips and Snails, Twist, and the CMC). They're on a class field trip, you see, to the Canterlot gardens, where a bunch of statues represent typical good stuff, like friendship. Except one, which is notably not a pony and not a good thing: it's a statue that represents discord! Which, if you've been following any of the pre-release stuff, you know is the antagonist of this episode.

But the best part is that the CMC have to fight about the meaning of the statue and (wait for it) their discord in front of Discord makes the statue crack as Cheerilee and the class continue their field trip. So everything is the CMC's fault! They should totally get cutie marks for that.

Actually, around this time there's something in the episode that bothers me a little bit. Discord is a crazy abomination of a critter that they call a "dragonokis" (yeah I have no idea if that's the right spelling or not). He has the head of a pony, body of a dragon, and an amalgamation of a ton of other animals for limbs and horns and the like. So why didn't they just call him a chimera? One of the things I love about My Little Pony is the classic fantasy mixed into the world: the dragons, the manticore, the cockatrice... but they opt to make up a species for Discord, when the obvious existing one is right there! This isn't exactly a big deal, but it still made me a little sad.

EDIT: A good point has been brought to my attention: a classical chimera was a specific amalgamation of creatures (lion + goat + snake) as opposed to the more modern, general definition it has been given in things like Fullmetal Alchemist and Mother 3. So this point no longer really stands as criticism, but I'll leave it up anyway. For posterity.

Oh, and I was a tad bit disappointed by the theme song. I was under the impression that they had rerecorded it for season two, but it's the same one we've already had for 26 episodes. Again, this is hardly more than a nitpick on my part, but still it left me a little disappointed. Hopefully they kick in a new theme a few episodes in.

So now that we're done introducing Discord, we get to see the mane six as discord (I wonder how many times I can say "discord" in this post?) descends upon Ponyville in the shape of cotton candy clouds that spaz out and rain chocolate milk. Which is also referred to as chocolate rain. Eeyup.

But it's evil chocolate milk, for you see, it does nasty stuff like make corn pop into popcorn, apples grow giant and bend their trees, and rabbits turn into long-legged Salvador Dahli-esque abominations. Which segues nicely into the fact that I really hope this isn't the only Dahli reference Discord ends up creating, 'cause I feel like Dahli's freaky surreal imagery would fit perfectly with our villain. Let's see some melting clocks all up in here!

So the mane six deal with the clouds and Celestia calls them to the castle to ~~give us some exposition~~ let them know what the deal is. Apparently Discord was a previous ruler of Equestria but he was rather too fond of things being entirely insane so Celestia and Luna staged a coup with the Elements of Harmony and turned him to stone. Which is possibly the best way to stage a coup ever, by the way. Unfortunately, due to Luna and Celestia no longer being tied to the Elements of Harmony as they once were, presumably since one of them was banished to the moon for 1000 years, Discord's out and causing chaos/discord for everything, because that's just what he does.

Then Celestia gets owned when she finds out that the very secure box she had the Elements in has been breached and Discord stole them. Oops!

This is also when we first get a real introduction at Discord, as he comes to life in a stained glass windows and mocks everyone, conveniently reminding the audience of the specific Elements and which ponies they go to. It's actually pretty cleverly set up, I think, as it was hardly obtrusive and Discord wandering around in the stained glass (and at one point moonwalking on glass-Twilight's head) is awesome.

So after Discord has fun at everyone else's expense, he challenges the mane six to a game - he hid the Elements in the castle labyrinth (made of hedges, and seemingly lacking in minotaurs) and they can go get them! But without magic or flying, so he takes away their horns and wings and tells them that as soon as one pony leaves the maze the game is over and he wins. He then separates them in the maze and proceeds with his dastardly plan - turning them all against their Elements!

One by one, the ponies are hypnotized and turn grayscale as Discord tricks them into forsaking the Elements that are such important aspects of their personalities. It sounds a little trite, but I felt it was actually done pretty well - as soon as I began to worry that some of the ponies willingly going against their Elements was out of character, a scene made it clear that the little shows Discord was putting on were really more of a formality as he hypnotizes Fluttershy with a quick bop on the head.

So everyone is hypnotized except for Twilight Sparkle (who is deliberately allowed to see all her friends acting on their anti-personalities), Dash flies away from the labyrinth, and the game is lost (...sorry about that). With that, we get the "To be continued..." and we have to wait another week for part two.

So, overall, I wouldn't call it a bad episode. It wasn't particularly surprising, wasn't particularly amazing, but it did a good job with the concept. Discord is a pretty interesting villain so far - his powers are obviously many but are left pretty undefined, and his entire personality makes me think of an eviler version of King Bumi from Avatar: The Last Airbender, which is definitely not a bad thing. His design was one that I had a negative knee-jerk reaction to when I first saw his outside of the stained glass, but it's grown on me and now I can't wait to see how terrifying fanart can make him look.

I do find it a little hard to swallow exactly how useless Celestia is. She's supposed to be this immortal, goddess-like figure who moves the freaking sun as her special talent, and yet she lets the mane six deal with Mr. Cause Equestria to Descend Into Chaos. At least Nightmare Moon had the excuse of being her sister and thus having similar powers. Maybe I'm just too used to the fandom making her more awesome than she is "supposed" to be? I dunno.

Also the pacing of the episode before Discord showed up bothered me a little. It just all seemed too quick, too awkward. Obviously they really had to rush things along a bit to get to the actual plot, but it still felt weird to suddenly have all the mane six show up at Sweet Apple Acres with Ponyville almost randomly in chaos.

And, unfortunately, it's hard to judge this episode on its own. It's only half of the story, and a lot of it was setup. I really wish they could have aired the two Return of Harmony episodes back-to-back like some series do for their season premiers.

Overall, it certainly wasn't a bad episode, but it wasn't amazing either. It's very possible that I'll change my mind when episode two comes to wrap up the story, but as-is I give it a

7/10

Pros:
Discord is a pretty nifty villain
Takes a concept that could be trite and puts a nice spin on it
Adds some nifty backstory to the Princesses

Cons:
First half of the episode feels weirdly paced
Perhaps a little bit exposition-heavy

---

So see you next week when we can wrap up this story ark and get a better feel for how this all ties together! Until then, I will await terrifying, child-scarring Discord fanart with bated breath, and perhaps even make some of my own.

~C.O

Because, Frankly, I Want to See More Remakes

2011-05-05T22:14:00.000-07:00

YES I KNOW, REMAKES ARE AWFUL AND LAZY AND BLAH. But I was thinking about a certain game and I realized that this certain game, though one I am personally quite fond of, hasn't really stood up to the test of time. At all. So, anyway, let me get to my point.

Sonic Adventure 3DS.

No, not a third Sonic Adventure game. Sonic Adventure 1, for the 3DS. I want this. Let me elaborate:

Sonic Adventure (or, as I played it, Sonic Adventure DX: Director's Cut) is one of my favorite Sonic games for a number of reasons. For one, it has one of my favorite stories within the series, a great blend of serious and playful. It also introduced the very interesting backstory of Knuckles and even pulled from some of the coolest things in real life, like the Mayan pyramids. Overall, the story felt really heartfelt and the characters in it were really likeable and relatable, especially Tikal and Gamma. The only other Sonic game that got to SA1's height of storytelling was its sequel, but I personally prefer the former, and the latter is still very playable today.

The other thing SA1 really did right was its gameplay. While not nearly as refined as, say, Mario 64, it managed to be a very fun game and set a great standard that a grand total of one later Sonic game stood up to. It also managed to actually keep up the fast pace that Sonic was known for throughout: even though it has multiple playstyles, all of the characters, with the exception of Big, were built for speed and were rewarded for being quick. This is one thing that even SA2 stumbled on, as any levels outside of Sonic's and Shadow's were... well, really slow!

Unfortunately, SA1's presentation, while fine for the time, doesn't really hold up now. The models are... bad... and certain character animations (like talking) are utterly atrocious. It's kind of hard to appreciate a game's story when your protagonist has a bad habit of looking like some kind of evil puppet in most cutscenes!

So SA1 is a flawed gem; a great game that, with some modern-day polish, could really shine! And what game does that sound like? Here's a hint: it starts with "The Legend of Zelda", ends in "Time", and is being remade for the 3DS. So, naturally, I would love to see SA1 get a similar treatment!

Outside of fixing some of the awful animations, I would like to see the actual gameplay polished a tad. It's great as-is, but making things a little less slippery and more predictable, like maybe adding the modern-day reticule to Sonic's homing attack, would go a long way. Obviously, Big's gameplay should be changed, as it stands out now as a slow distraction from the point of Sonic. Of course, this could be difficult, as Big is naturally a bulky, slow character... perhaps his gameplay could be akin to the classic Sonic water levels? They could be slower and more puzzle-based, and since Sonic Adventure doesn't feature any true underwater levels, Big could fill that void.

If Sega is willing to go beyond a normal port, SA3DS would be phenomenal, and possibly even a good way for them to go back to the Adventure games and learn from their level design. The only huge issue I can see is if Sega can't get back into the "groove" and ends up hurting the original design rather than enhancing it, but Sega hasn't done too badly recently. I think that, if they tried, they could really bring out a bit more shine from SA. And that would be great!

...though, since this all seems pretty unlikely at this point, I'll just have to hope Sonic Generations has a Sonic Adventure level or two!

Super Mario Galaxy 2 - Day 1 (05/23/10)

2010-05-23T10:53:00.000-07:00

WELL ideally I will be getting a certain amazing game later today. So I've decided I will keep progress here for posterity or something! I will be updating this post continuously throughout the day with my progress and thoughts on the game, and that'll be pretty sweet I think.

First, I'll put down some pre-play thoughts:

*I fully expect Galaxy 2 to be better than Galaxy
*I hope the final boss is tougher and less anticlimactic
*I hope the story makes more sense and ties into Galaxy in some way rather than just being a "reboot"
*Rosalina had better make an appearance, and not just as the Space Witch lady
*I hope there's a third playable character, even if it's just Yoshi solo or something
*I hope there's at least one more new power-up we don't know about yet, like Flying Mario was in Galaxy
*Speaking of Flying Mario, I hope he's in and used more
*I really hope that power-ups like Fire Mario don't have a time limit any more!
*SO PSYCHEDDD

(NOTE: There will be spoilers in my descriptions. You have been WARNED.)

1:11 - Suuupppeeeer Marrriooo Galaxxxyyyyy 2!

1:14 - Interesting opening sequence, but with the classic 1-1 block formation. Niiice.

1:16 - Oh, hey, uh, Bowser. You're looking large today!

1:19 - That whole bit about making more sense than Galaxy isn't looking good. XP

1:29 - It seems like levels are longer and have more coins. I wonder if there are any 100-coin Stars? Also, Mario is still abusive to Piranha Plants.

1:30 - Ooh, a running coin total? I wonder if I get to buy anything...

1:43 - How you know a game is awesome: Banzai Bills on stage 2. HECK YEAH. Also, a use for crawling???

1:57 - Yoshi is amazing. Predictably. Also, I have 33 lives already! XD

2:04 - THIS is what Galaxy was missing: the pwnage of Lakitus.

3:06 - Didn't I own you last game, Bugaboom? Eh, whatever. STOMPITY.

3:09 - First death. On "The Puzzling Picture Block", trying to get the Comet Coin. 70 lives left. XP

3:19 - Dash Yoshi is kind of tough to control! Several deaths ensue.

3:46 - Music is fantastic, btw. Cosmic Cove Galaxy has especially amazing music. Club Nintendo should have the soundtrack as the Platinum prize this year. :D

4:22 - So the STARS are the steroids! Got it. Oh, and Bowser 1 = defeated. To the face.

4:35 - Hit the 99 lives limit. The lives are like NSMBW. SO MANYYYY. I actually hope it doesn't save the lives so that I can collect more later!

4:37 - No hatless Mario with 99 lives? Aww.

4:40 - The remixes in this game are GREAT. :D

4:55 - IT'S WEEGEE TIIIME. Honestly I'm not sure why I would ever play as Mario again.

5:56 - Okay, Dinner time and then homework. I guess that's all for the moment! Overall consensus so far is that it is a LOT of fun, and quite possibly even better than Galaxy! I'll keep this post updated.

8:02 - Playing again. Really the biggest disappointment of Galaxy 2 is that some songs seem to be reused from Galaxy... slackers. >:o Also, lives don't save. This is actually a good thing.

8:03 - OKAY the game just HEAVILY implied Rosalina exists. I'm happy with that!

8:05 - Still can't jump on Bullet Bills. Dang.

8:30 - Y'know, these Wigglers are actually really small if you compare their size to the Goombas (Supermassive Galaxy - Huge Trouble with Big Wigglers).

10: 29 - Okay, I'm officially done for the night. *yawn* Final totals: 55 Stars, on World 5, 26 Comet Coins, 1366 Coins, and 2089 Star Bits.

Sonic and Sega All-Stars Racing Demo - Impressions

2010-02-12T17:40:00.000-08:00

So. Because the game has been interesting me for quite some time, I downloaded the demo of Sonic & Sega All-Stars Racing (it's not over!) With Banjo-Kazooie (whew!). Now, I've been sort of debating whether I should get the Wii or 360 version, so one of the main reasons for getting the demo is to see how much shinier the 360 version is and how it controlled. And, of course, I want to know whether Sega Racing (why couldn't they have called it that?) has any chance of beating out Mario Kart for the best wacky kart-based game. I'll give it to you now: based on the demo, Mario Kart is substantially better, big surprise. Now for the rest of my thoughts.

First off, the game controls quite well. The controls are quite responsive for the most part, if the default scheme is a bit weird for Mario Kart fans.The only issue I saw here was that occasionally I would accidentally drift the wrong way, and using the same button for drifting and tricks seems quite haphazard as I'm fairly sure that if you're doing a trick when you hit the ground you get penalized... problematic if you want to immediately drift.

The game is also fairly pretty. The actual models seemed a biiit last generation, but it doesn't really matter in a game like this; as you're speeding along you don't notice any graphical "issues". It certainly looks pretty enough, and the track seemed very nicely made, a pleasure to look at.

But neither of these aspects matter all that much. The gameplay is what everyone wants to know. Is it a Mario Kart clone? Is it better or worse? Is it... fun? Well, it's certainly fun when you're in first. Everything is bright and cheery, the drifting mechanism works well, and you'll likely cruise along at a solid pace for the most part, tossing some items behind you as you drive. Then, however, comes the beginning of the race and if you get caught near the end of the pack. When you're actually competing with opponents, they feel very... stiff. The game has a distinct feel that you're racing alone. The items don't seem to do all that much, and you'd have to REALLY try if you want to knock anyone off the track... it's nothing like the frantic contact sport of Mario Kart. And it's not nearly as fun.

But my biggest issue with SSASRwBJ (JEEZ) is the items. In kart-based game, you'd typically expect items to really help racers who are falling behind, preventing the race from becoming too one-sided. In this game... well, items are practically useless in this regard! Not only do the items not DO all that much (they just spin you a little as opposed to Mario Kart's style of stopping you completely), but you're pretty much getting the EXACT SAME ITEMS no matter what your place is! For a few races I was stuck in the back of the race, in seventh or eighth place, and I pretty much got the same items that someone in third would get: triple boosts (not as effective as in Mario Kart), triple rockets/boxing gloves (the shell equivalents), and an occasional SHIELD. Yes, apparently I need a shield in last place, thanks!

And then there's the fabled All-Star moves... claimed to be able to turn the race on its head. As you might have guessed by now, they don't do that. At ALL. Several times I sat in eighth place, waiting for a good item to save me, while watching the seventh place car get the All-Star. This coupled with the facts that apparently only one person can use an All-Star at a time and that if you DO get the All-Star you're likely so far behind (the pack gets separated FAST) that it will do nothing for you makes the item nigh useless.

As it turns out, Sega Racing is really quite fun on lower difficulties, as you'll likely lead with little to no issue and hit people with a boxing glove occasionally. However, much like Mario Kart Wii, it gets frustrating when you put the difficulty too high, but for completely different reasons. I must say, being stuck in last with no chance of coming back might be even more frustrating than being in first before being bombarded with various items! At least in Mario Kart Wii I knew that if I fell back I could get back up with items.

It's a shame, really, that Sega Racing is plagued by these balance issues, as they really keep it from being anywhere near the caliber of Mario Kart. I'll remain optimistic for the moment and hope that perhaps the final game is more balanced, but until then the demo remains as proof that, no matter how people complain about it, Mario Kart really does know what it's doing for the most part, and is the best kart racer on the market.

Top Five Features I Want on Nintendo's Next Console

2010-02-11T15:22:00.000-08:00

Let's face it: the Wii, while a good gaming system in its own right, is fairly far behind the rest of the Generation when it comes to features and technical specs. The reason why this is is fairly obvious, and it was a smart decision, but all the same I want the Wii 2 (it won't be called that) to be a MUCH more top-notch system and a top-notch system needs fancy STUFF, right? So here I'm going to list my top five things the Wii 2 (still not called that) should have.

5. HD Graphics

YES, gameplay is much more important than graphics. That's why this is at number five! But the point still stands that prettier looking games look, well, prettier! The proposition of an HD Nintendo system becomes that much more sweet sounding when you realize that Nintendo would do much more with it than Sony of Microsoft. Nice graphics shine best with style, not realism!

4. Backwards Compatibility

The next console being able to play Wii games should be a high priority for sure. It just expands the library and makes the console that much easier to buy! I mean, I almost certainly would've gotten a DSi if it had played GBA games! The Wii 2 (not the name) being able to play Gamecube games would be amazing, too.

3. Achievements

Achievement unlocked: Write a blog post!

...That was so lame. I'm sorry. Anyway, achievements (or trophies or stamps or whatever) are awesome in general. It's just undeniably cool to be able to feel more sense of accomplishment throughout the game! The Wii has some games with these (Wii Sports Resort comes to mind) but the Wii 2 (that is so totally not what it's called) really needs to make them a standard for all games and add a point system, like the other consoles. Maybe with Nintendo's magic, they could even do something like unlock system menu skins by having enough points?!

2. Better online

Gosh. Freaking. DANGIT Nintendo! What is wrong with you here?! Friend codes would be fine as long as they're optional, but please just let people who want to have online friends have their online friends! Do you know what Friend Codes are doing? They're making little kids go to evil places like GameFAQs *shudder* and find "friends". You're making them more vulnerable to online predators, not less! Even outside of Friend Codes, make the online better. Make games like Brawl not suck online. Seriously.

1. Bigger, Better Hard Drive

If there is anything that I find more annoying about the Wii than its general incapability for DLC, I don't know what it is. It's just frustrating when people want to add shiny DLC things and can't because of the Wii's inability to hold them and use them! And I'm sorry, but when SD Cards are your main source of a hard drive, you know there's a problem...

You know what'd be funny? If someone was looking back on this blog post after the next console's release and it was called the Wii 2 (IT WON'T BE).

Because Pokemon Cards are SRS BZNS

2010-01-03T20:09:00.000-08:00

This post is not to rant, nor is it for me to share with my readers some opinion or another that I have. No. This post is for something much more serious. It is for posterity.

You see, there is this goal I have of collecting a whole bunch of Pokemon cards. Specifically, to collect at least one card for every single one of the creatures, currently at the count of 493, as well as a single card for each of the creatures special Formes, bringing the count to somewhere over 500. Well, I'm posting this to make note of all the cards I don't have, as that is a much smaller list than all the cards that I do. As said, this is mostly because I want to be able to look back at this in the future and see my progress. It's also sort of to brag. So, without further ado, here are all the Pokemon and Formes that I don't have a card of:

#018 - Pidgeot
#031 - Nidoqueen
#034 - Nidoking
#045 - Vileplume
#062 - Poliwrath
#069 - Bellsprout
#071 - Victreebel
#080 - Slowbro
#097 - Hypno
#115 - Kangaskan
#121 - Starmie
#144 - Articuno
#164 - Noctowl
#176 - Togetic
#189 - Jumpluff
#193 - Yanma
#197 - Umbreon
#201 - Unown H
#201 - Unown J
#201 - Unown N
#201 - Unown R
#201 - Unown X
#201 - Unown !
#201 - Unown ?
#217 - Ursaring
#225 - Delibird
#230 - Kingdra
#236 - Tyrogue
#251 - Celebi
#268 - Cascoon
#269 - Dustox
#282 - Gardevoir
#289 - Slaking
#306 - Aggron
#334 - Altaria
#337 - Solrock
#346 - Cradily
#350 - Milotic
#351 - Castform
#351 - Castform Sun Forme
#351 - Castform Rain Forme
#354 - Banette
#369 - Relicanth
#378 - Regice
#379 - Registeel
#386 - Deoxys Defence Forme
#398 - Staraptor
#414 - Mothim
#423 - Gastrodon East Sea
#461 - Weavile
#464 - Rhyperior
#466 - Electivire
#468 - Togekiss
#469 - Yanmega
#475 - Gallade
#477 - Dusknoir
#479 - Rotom Fan Forme
#479 - Rotom Heat Forme
#479 - Rotom Mow Forme
#480 - Uxie
#481 - Mesprit
#482 - Azelf
#484 - Palkia
#487 - Giratina Altered Forme

And that's it! Well, unless you want to count specific Arceus Formes, but I don't. That's actual a longer list than I really expected! Oh well. No big deal, I'll collect as I go! And I believe I notice a blatant pattern... here's a hint: I don't have a lot of the rare Pokemon cards in comparison to commons! Also, I started collecting like this recently, so most of my cards are EX series and newer. So yeah!

I would also like to use this space to say that I officially have two Shiny cards (not Holo, Shiny), both obtained just recently! This is a big thing for me, as one of my biggest wishes in getting the cards was for a Shiny, and now I have two, one of one of my favorite Pokemon! I guess this is some of the bragging part, huh? Well, they're a Shiny Shinx and a Shiny Drifloon and I keep the two of them at the very end of my collection, in a special page just for them. Yay.

Mega Man 9 Through 10

2009-12-09T16:43:00.000-08:00

Okay, so Mega Man 10 just got announced in the newest Nintendo Power. Absolutely sweet! It sounds great already! But... then I read the internet and it occurred to me that Capcom almost certainly won't improve the problems with Mega Man 9. Why? Because most people are blinded by sheer nostalgia and don't see those problems. I, however, am immune to nostalgia, having not played the Mega Man games until getting them this year in Mega Man Anniversary Collection, and thus... well frankly, I'm worried.

Mega Man 9 is a beautifully presented game. The 8-bit style coupled with the current-age presentation makes it leaps and bounds above any previous Mega Man game in this category. However, its greatest strength and weakness lie in its association with a certain other Mega Man game: Mega Man 2. Mega Man 2 is typically universally praised, and often even considered the classic Mega Man game. Why? Well, mostly because it was so much better than Mega Man 1. Its controls and overall gameplay were refined to being downright amazing, not to mention Mega Man 2's great soundtrack. Simply put, it was a very good game by perspective. But, contrary to popular belief, the Mega Man series didn't stop evolving after that. And therein lies Mega Man 9's problem...

Mega Man 2 had a glaring weakness, and that was artificial difficulty. For example, in Heat Man's stage there is a long disappearing block puzzle, a staple of the series. Very near to the end, there is a situation where a block appears above you mere moments before the block you're standing on disappears. Well, you're almost definitely dead now because you didn't know it was coming, timed your premeditated jump wrong, or tried jumping from the side and failed due to the imprecise physics (they got better in later Mega Man games, meaning the same puzzle in Mega Man 9 is a good amount easier). Does anyone else but me see the problem here?

But, as you may have heard in a certain song, having a certain Item 2 makes it much easier to make it through that level. Item 2 is guarded by Air Man, who also has a bit of a cheap tactic. Now, Air Man isn't a hard Robot Master at all, really, especially if you have the Leaf Shield weapon. But the trick is... well, one of his attacks is literally impossible to dodge. Literally. No joke. Completely impossible! And the rest are quite hard as well. Does... anyone else see the problem?

And finally we come to the infamous Quick Man. His stage was entirely about memorization because the primary hazard were large speedy lasers that kill you instantly if you touch them. You had to memorize where they came out and dodge accordingly, and it was nearly impossible to get through on your first time unless you were incredibly lucky. Am I... really the only one who notices these things and realizes it shows lazy level design?

Mega Man 9 is heavily inspired by Mega Man 2, which makes sense. However, 9 fails to remedy 2's problems and, instead, builds upon them! For example, 9 has a HUGE amount of instant-kill spikes in each and every stage, a hazard classically used only occasionally or in water-based stages. Also, it introduces fast-moving streams of lava that kill you upon contact that are rather reminiscent of Quick Man's lasers. A huge quantity of the game becomes frustrating due to constant and unfair deaths, and Capcom gets away with it. Why? Quite simply because most people playing Mega Man 9 now played previous Mega Man games in the past, when they were, say, five or six. Thus they weren't quiiiite so good at video games and misremember the games as harder than they actually were. Mega Man 9 is easily the hardest of the classic Mega Man series to date, with the possible exception of Mega Man 1, but no one notices that because they remember the past games as harder than they were.

Level design ruined for me what would have otherwise easily been the best Mega Man classic game yet. I very much hope to see Mega Man 10 evolve past 2 and see that Mega Mans 3-6 were just as good, if not better, and to pull away from artificial difficulty. If so, Mega Man 10 could very easily be the best in the series and even pull in brand new fans to play previous Mega Man titles. After all, they're on the Virtual Console!

---

Just for kicks, here's some more things I would like to see in Mega Man 10:
-better menu music
-Roll as playable, and actually competent unlike in Powered Up
-a "Dr. Wily was behind it" that actually feels somewhat surprising (haha, as if)
-less DLC that should've been included in the first place
-Mega Man with his abilities past Mega Man 2 (Mega Buster and slide)
-the other playable characters having very distinct playing styles, like Vile and X in Maverick Hunter X
-maybe some kind of collectibles like the cards in Mega Man & Bass?
-Bass
-Robot Masters from previous games?!
-Co-op
-Proto Man being really cool
-stuff from previous games, like maybe an unlockable Break Man costume??
-another amazing disappearing block puzzle like Spark Man's

Super Smash Bros. - The Greatest Advertisement in Gaming

2009-12-03T20:16:00.000-08:00

It's no secret that I absolutely love the Super Smash Bros. series. Ever since I ran across the original N64 game due to a combination of Nintendo Power and the official website, I have completely loved the series and followed it through three platforms. The reason I loved Smash Bros. so much was simple: it was a cartoony, fun crossover game that took characters from all over Nintendo's library and made them fight each other in any way they could. The funny thing is, at the time I really wasn't a big Nintendo fan. Like, at all. Super Smash Bros. was only the third Nintendo franchise I really got into, believe it or not, after Pokemon and the Mario spinoffs (I hadn't even played a Mario platformer yet!). And boy did Super Smash Bros. expand my horizons in video gaming.

Now, before I start explaining, let me make a point. Here's a list of franchises I have played after being inspired by Smash Bros. in some form or another:
Super Mario Bros. (the mainstream games and certain spinoffs)
The Legend of Zelda
Kirby
Metroid
Star Fox
F-Zero
Metal Gear Solid
Kid Icarus
Earthbound/Mother
Mega Man (through Smash Bros. forums!)
Hotel Dusk
The Legendary Starfy

That's a long list of franchises, isn't it? The point becomes obvious when one realizes that quite a few of the above franchises I have gotten very much into and have purchased quite a few games in! That is a lot of money for Nintendo, and even other companies in some cases! And, even if a character doesn't necessarily show up in Smash Bros., I may still run across his series on a message board and be inspired to play their games, prominently shown in the Mega Man series. Heck, I could probably list a few more franchises, such as the Ace Attorney franchise, but I don't want to be here all day.

If you haven't guess yet, my point is that Super Smash Bros. has a, perhaps intended, side-effect of making people want to look into other games to find out more about their favorite fighters and the like. This should be a surprise to no one. This view lends a definitive reason for a character to be playable in Smash Bros., one that has already been used on one occasion before: Roy.

Roy, if you didn't know, technically debuted in Super Smash Bros. Melee. Why? Because Melee came out just a biiiit before his first Fire Emblem game. So the Japanese designers decided to add him to promote his game. In a similar fashion, the two Fire Emblem characters in Melee inspired many gamers to take interest in the series and got it taken out of Japan! That takes some series advertisement skills!

Where am I going with all this? Simply, the next Smash Bros. game needs more new franchises represented through playable characters. Playable characters are the ultimate way to advertise your franchise, because people will inevitably play as them at some point and from there they will take interest. I firmly believe the series hasn't been taking enough advantage of this: Melee only introduced three new franchises through characters, of which only one was still being made games for. Similarly, Brawl introduced six but two of them were "retro", one of them was a Mario spinoff, and two more were third party. Why is Pikmin the only recent Nintendo franchise being playably represented?! It's a waste of potential advertisement they could've given for plenty of other "deserving" franchises, such as Animal Crossing (represented through everything but a character, annoyingly enough), Custom Robo (has an Assist Trophy), Golden Sun (an Assist Trophy), The Legendary Starfy (another Assist Trophy, and was Japan-only), and maybe even the Wii franchise (no real representation).

Basically, my point is this: as great as it is to add characters to existing franchises, the next Super Smash Bros. should instead focus on playably representing new, recent Nintendo franchises that the audience can easily get a hold of, as well as Japan-only franchises that need introducing to foreign audiences. I believe this could do wonders for smaller, failing franchises and pump up already-popular ones as well.

Other M - After the Storm

2009-09-10T19:07:00.000-07:00

Okay okay okay. Metroid: Other M looked absolutely fantastic when it was shown at E3, and it was shown in an incredibly epic way as well! I mean, I know I freaked out when I heard "Any objections, lady?" from Adam! But. BUT. I now worry that Other M might actually not be quite as good as it once seemed. An unfortunate prediction, yes, but it had to be done.

First let me clarify: I am NOT going to complain about the art style or graphics or some nonsense like that. What I am worried about is the gameplay. And even then, I'm not worried that the game won't be fun. I'm SURE it'll be loads of fun! But... I'm worried that it won't be a Metroid game's style of fun. Let me elaborate:

Rewind with me, if you will, to the original NES Metroid. Now, admittedly, I didn't actually get itno the Metroid series until much later, but bear with me. So, first Metroid. You're dropped on an alien planet without any particular celebration, only knowing that you have to stop some aliens from abusing crazy creatures to take over the universe. And at that you go into the depths of the planet without so much as a line of dialogue or hint of another civilized being even existing. What was the key that made that atmosphere so effective? Isolation. And that is exactly what I fear Other M will lack.

Fast forward a bit. We've had Metroid II: Return of Samus and Super Metroid, both adding in more and more story while still leaving you stranded on a planet to figure stuff out for yourself. And then we hit the Metroid slump and the only time we see Samus is in Super Smash Bros. Fast forward a bit more and we have a BRAND NEW Metroid game on the horizon! Finally, we get a new Metroid, and it's called Metroid Prime. Now, Metroid Prime is amazing and easily the best game in the Prime trilogy. Why, you ask? Because it managed to do the following:
A) It tuned down the difficulty of the series just enough for newcomers while still keeping people on their toes,
B) It fit very well into the Metroid timeline (well, except with Ridley) and had a lot of very fun power ups spaced well within the game,
C) It wasn't Echoes, and
D) It fit in a LOT of story and even some "dialogue" through scans while still maintaining the sense of isolation.

Read that last one again. Metroid Prime did it wonderfully. Sure, your ship would occasionally pipe in with some scan data from the area telling you where to go next, but that was IT. No other humans, no "real" dialogue, just you on an alien planet fighting a terrible poison of sorts. And therein lies out problem with the direction Other M seems to be taking. Let's look at two more Metroid games, shall we?

Metroid Fusion came out simultaneously with Prime and was also rather amazing. It took place after Super Metroid and introduced a new threat to the series among other really nifty things. It really had a great story going for it, but therein lies one of the reasons a good amount of people dislike it at least somewhat: it really didn't feel like a Metroid game. Sure, it had Samus in it and it had Metroids in it and it had Space Pirates and the Galactic Federation and power ups and it was the same genre, but it felt less like Metroid than Prime did, despite the fact Prime tried a lot of new things, including a new genre. Why? Because for the most part you were being told outright what to do by your little computer buddy, Adam.

Adam really had two major effects on the game. One was that it made it harder to get stuck and made it easier to add in a compelling plotline. Two was that he basically removed the sense of isolation! You don't have isolation when you're being told what to do all the time, and that brings us into Metroid Prime 3: Corruption. Currently the newest game in the series (excluding re-releases), Corruption was very very good. But it was worse than Fusion when it came to isolation!

At the start of the game you go through a well-populated command ship, talking to troopers along the way. Then you meet two other bounty hunters who are going to work alongside you. Later on you lose the other hunters but throughout the entire game you are constantly being fed objectives by another talking computer. And even then there are parts where you end up with the Federation again. See where the problem is? The most memorable part of Corruption to me was at one point where you teleport to the other side of a planet and lose communication with your computer-lady. It was short, but tremendously sweet to feel that seclusion that Corruption so desperately needed.

And finally that brings me to Other M. What have we seen? That it will delve into the story of Samus, that there are definitely new NPCs and that Samus will be beating things up outside of shooting them. I for one am tremendously worried that we will have another case of a quasi-Metroid game that ends up focusing too much on story and not enough on telling it in a way that lets the player really feel like they're stranded on a planet with little hope for survival, like the "classic" Metroids did. I sincerely hope this won't be the case, but at this point I find it hard to believe. Maybe I'm just being pessimistic?

Oh yeah, and while I'm at it I might as well warn you that I may or may not rant later about why Other M will mess stuff up by having Samus talk. I'll leave you with this for now, though, in sympathy for your own sanity!

If there's one thing that's worse than something freezing...

2009-07-31T14:41:00.001-07:00

...it's something freezing and you being unable to figure out why.

Yes, I posted yesterday about my poor, scratched up Animal Crossing: City Folk. But was that really the problem with the disc? I'm not sure anymore. Don't get me wrong, the disc's label has a nasty looking scratch on it, but I'm wondering if it isn't a problem with the disc at all.

I'll admit, I haven't been playing a huge quantity of Wii games lately, so my assumption that Animal Crossing was the only one with issues might have been more of a fluke than anything. I have a feeling hat Animal Crossing loads a lot of data at the same general time when you start up the game. And I have a feeling that therein lies my cause of freezing, coupled with a classic Wii issue...

Overheating. I've always been worried about it. I've never quite been sure whether to lie my Wii horizontally or vertically, and I've always been worried when it gets pretty hot in WiiConnect24 mode. And there lies my problem, I think. I think that it is VERY possible that Animal Crossing: City Folk was instead freezing because of my Wii overheating rather than any disc problems. Let me explain how I hit that conclusion.

The moment it hit me that it might be a Wii issue was when I tried to play Zack and Wiki (great game, btw) right after Animal Crossing freezing. Three times in a row it refused to even start! And that game wasn't scratched in the least! What the heck?!

Anyway, this brought me to the realization that my Wii was probably overheating and causing a sort of chain reaction with Animal Crossing than the disc being broken. This correlated nicely with the fact that my Wii is transported weekly and doesn't start failing to play Animal Crossing until about Wednesday. Thus, the Wii has the time to heat up from WiiConnect24! Bam! There was my problem. So it all comes down to the Wii having an issue. This was pretty much confirmed when I tried Animal Crossing again after unplugging and cooling the Wii to have it work just fine.

The question then becomes whether that's better or not. On one hand I won't need to buy another copy of Animal Crossing, while on the other hand Nintendo's feature continues to mess stuff up. Sigh. Whatever, I guess. At least the situation seems to be cleared up. At least, for now.

Note to self: DON'T LEAVE DISCS IN CONSOLE

2009-07-29T20:17:00.000-07:00

Ever since the video game era changed from cartridges to discs (ie when I got my Gamecube) I've always been careful to remove the discs from the console after I was done. This has become a bit of a pet peeve of mine, mostly because I hate having to remove the disc previously used before playing a game. Beyond my laziness/easily annoyed-ness, though, usually leaving discs in a console didn't cause any problems.

Or so I thought.

Okay, so yeah, it usually doesn't to my knowledge. But the occasional error of leaving a disc in has caused an extremely annoying, stressful, and annoying situation that I've been dealing with for a while now: a certain game of mine freezing. Repeatedly. For no discernible in-game reason. Specifically, it's a game I've recently gotten rather into (ie kind of obsessed with), Animal Crossing: City Folk.

Now, City Folk isn't very much of an evolution in the Animal Crossing series. Heck, it's a complete shame that Nintendo didn't do more to evolve the series! It really is! Buuuut... I'm a sucker for Animal Crossing so of course I bought it. And it has been great. Even with the lack of evolution it's still easily the best Animal Crossing title! But this isn't a review. This is a cautionary tale of caution about lazily leaving your discs in. Which, as I've said, usually shouldn't cause any issues.

BUT

It has to me. And it will to you if you're not careful. My Animal Crossing: City Folk disc got scratched up, and there is no doubt in my mind about how: I accidentally left the disc in while transporting my Wii. Think about that and you'll no doubt see the issue: disc is in, Wii bounces around, disc bounces around inside Wii, disc hits things and gets scratched. The moral? Don't leave your disc in while moving a console! Heck, don't leave 'em in at all in case the console gets bumped or something! Why am I writing about this? Because Animal Crossing has been absolutely infuriating about it! It's one thing to freeze, but another thing entirely to work perfectly for several days after having been "fixed" (in this case, resurfaced) only to freeze again. It is so. Unbelievably. Frustrating.

...I just want my game back, that's all... *sniff*

I WOKE UP EARLY TO SEE NINTENDO AT E3...

2009-06-02T11:04:00.000-07:00

...IT WAS TOTALLY WORTH IT.

Okay, so they only actually announced three games I'm super excited for, but the last was just about the epicest thing ever. Yes, epicest. I'll discuss my opinions about the three...

First up is New Super Mario Bros. Wii. Well, it was a sweet thing to kick off the conference with, that's for sure. It's basically a 2D sidescroller for the Wii that looks a lot like its DS predecessor but adds the awesomeness of 4-player co-op/versus in the vein of Zelda's Four Swords games. It also showed a new item, the Propeller Suit which lets you fly up by shaking the Wiimote. It just screams potential if you ask me, and it will be GREAT if they add a bunch of characters (the trailer showed Mario, Luigi, and two colors of Toad), a bunch of returning items as well as some new ones (I want to see some suits from Super Mario Bros. 3), and make it differentiate itself from the DS's version.

Next is something of a surprise: another Mario title for Wii, Super Mario Galaxy 2. Hax, right? This one will likely be an awesome game just like Super Mario Galaxy 1, but I'm afraid it will feel too much like a rehash. But it has Yoshi! YOSHI FOR THE WIIIIN!

And finally, the HUGE surprise of epic proportions... Metroid: Other M. A new Metroid for the Wii that screams epic. It looks like it will be an early title in the timeline, as Adam from Metroid Fusion shows up in an alive form. It is also going to be a more "mature" approach to the series, and as long as it doesn't just randomly throw curse words and blood in there I'm totally game. Oh, and it looks like it transitions between third person sidescrolling, third person free-roam, and first person free-roam. EPIC.

No Zelda, though. But that's okay. I just really wanted to see Pikmin 3... Metroid makes up for it, though.

OMGGGGGGGG It's GSDS!

2009-05-08T23:01:00.000-07:00

Finally.

Well, it certainly took them long enough, but Pokemon Gold's and Silver's imminent remakes have finally been officially confirmed! They are called Pokemon HeartGold and Pokemon SoulSilver. Not bad, but I personally think they should have flipped them for GoldHeart and SilverSoul or kept the DawnGold and DuskSilver ideas, but whatever. I can't complain! At all! I'm psyched!

Well they just got announced in Japan, though, so we won't see them translated for a while. Since they're supposed to come out in Japan this fall, I'd wager that they show up in the U.S. 3rd or 4th quarter 2010. Just a guess.

I think the big question on everyone's minds is what they'll add to the remakes. I mean, FireRed and LeafGreen, while still definitely remakes, added the Sevii Islands to the mix (along with all the newer gameplay mechanics, of course) and even officially introduced Deoxys! Maybe Hg and Ss (as I will refer to them now in the same style as "Fr and Lg") will add some new Pokemon Formes? Maybe to correspond with the Arceus movie? Maybe. I'll go ahead and list some more stuff I'd like to see:

-Leaf added into the official plot - In the original G and S (and C), the protagonist (Red) and rival (Blue) from the original Red and Blue show up as a final battle in Mt. Silver and a replacement Gym Leader, respectively. Now that Fr and Lg have introduced a new female protagonist (or "Leaf"), I hope to see Hg and Ss put her somewhere in the story as well. In other news, we'll have Blue's name reconfirmed, so I can't wait (there's been controversey since he was called Green in Japan based off of Pokemon Green and since LeafGreen was called the same thing in all the world...)

-Maybe another region? - Now, G/S/C already have you traveling to Kanto after you beat the Elite Four the first time, and I wouldn't be at all surprised to see some bonus area added to their DS counterparts, much like with Fr and Lg. Maybe it could be one of the more recent regions re-added? Maybe Hoenn? Eh, probably not, but it's possible...

-Better Underground - Sinnoh introduced the Underground, so why not optimize it to the extreme? It could be Wi-Fi compatible, even! That'd be great.

...Wow, I expected that to end up longer. Oooooh well. I just want to hear them remix the Champion theme to epic DS proportions... I love that theme...

Failtastic Localization FTL

2009-05-06T20:13:00.000-07:00

You know Stafy? The little starfish who was Japan-only? Well, if you don't know, he had a series of platforming games (five, I believe) and was quite the popular little bugger. He appeared in cameos in a Wario Land game, Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga, Super Princess Peach (as a special enemy that was super-rare, no less), and most recently as an Assist Trophy in Super Smash Bros. Brawl. Well, I've never played any of his games before, but for a while now I've been really wanting him to show as playable in the Smash Bros. series to up his chances of being brought out of Japan. Well, he has been brought out of Japan, and now I'm going tor ant about it. Why? Because of weird localization changes that FAIL.

Okay, so the series was recently confirmed to be coming to America. YAY! Right? Well, yeah. Buuuut... they really screwed up on the pointless re-translations. The title changed from The Legend of Stafy to The Legendary Starfy... not bad at all until you realize that they changed his name. Which wouldn't even be that terrible, but his name had already been officially translated as "Stafy"! And they change it! But that wasn't terrible either, certainly nothing to rant online about. Then I got my Nintendo Power...

Okay, so Stafy (or Starfy, as I guess it is now) has a sister. Who basically looks just like him except pink and with a bow. Her name was Stapy, which I can only assume wan't pronounced like "staple." But yeah, that was official too (she had a trophy in Brawl). But with Stafy being changed to Starfy, we'd probably end up with Stapy being changed to Starpy, too, right? Nothign too bad, right? WRONG. Instead, they changge it further. Her name is now Starly. Ess-tee-ae-arr-ell-why. And "Why?" indeed. They fail so bad at localization that now Starfy's sister is a freaking POKEMON. STUPID. STUPIDSTUPIDSTUPID.

...okay, optimism... at least its not 4Kids... then it'd probably be called "Starfy the Starfish and HAPPY FRIENDS" or something. I hate 4Kids... and I can safely add whoever the heck decided to rename Stafy's sister to the list or people who PHAIL at localization.

On the plus side, I CAN'T WAIT for Punch-Out!! Wii and Ace Attorney Investigations: Miles Edgeworth. Though Why it's not Miles Edgeworth: Ace Attorney Investigations is beyond me. But that's certainly not a big issue or anything, and the former does sound a little better. Eh, they should've just called it Miles Edgewroth: Perfect Prosecutor and been done with it.

Jameson's Five Rules of Sonic Musical Quality

2009-04-23T21:43:00.000-07:00

DISCLAIMER: These rules are not meant to be literally factual and are merely my opinions stated in a factual manner to perhaps be moderately amusing. Thank you.

I have noticed that one of the things that Sonic games usually to pretty well with is their music quality. And thus, I have put up a list of things to test a song or Sonic game soundtrack with to see if it sucks or not. If you happen to find any exceptions to this list, please inform me and I will add it to the list or shoot it down. One last thing: the list goes in order of priority, so if your song is already awesome by rule #1, it can't be shot down by rule #3. Get it? I'll put examples at the end.

RULE #1: If a song is by Bentley Jones then it is automatically awesome.

RULE #2: If a song is by Crush 40 then it is automatically awesome.

RULE #3: If a song is a love/romantic/*ahem* "special friend" song, then it automatically sucks. The exceptions to this rule are the love songs in a few games that are more peppy and happy than really "romantic", such as the ones in Sonic R and "Follow Me" from Sonic Heroes.

RULE #4: Any Sonic game developed by Sega or Sonic Team will have at least a decent soundtrack. No guarantees for other companies.

RULE #5: It is difficult, but possible, to make an already good Sonic song worse in a remix. While I can't think of any instances of a remix being worse, I will leave this one open juuuuuust in case.

And there you have it! Okay, now examples:
"Dreams of an Absolution" (SONIC the Hedgehog (2006)) could fall under Rule #3, but is saved by Rule #1 and thus is awesome.
"Dear My Friend" (Sonic Unleashed) fails and sucks due to Rule #3.
The soundtrack for Sonic Chronicles has no guarantee for quality due to Rule #4. Sure enough, it had probably the worst soundtrack of any Sonic game ever.

Thinking Outside the Box of Failure

2009-02-24T20:50:00.000-08:00

Y'know, I can come to terms with my weaknesses. And one such weakness is my general inability to think outside the box. It tends to hang me up in certain video game puzzles, I'll tell you. XD

A great example is in The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass for the Nintendo DS. Well, in PH there's a part where you need to get a stamp from a map on the wall onto the map you have to mark the next place to go. Well, when you examine the map on the wall, you get your map on the DS' bottom screen and the wall's map on the top, upside down. Perhaps the solution seems obvious to you, but I spent ages tapping and sliding on the touch screen, trying to get something to happen. I actually got the solution accidentally... my DS' battery was getting low and I, since I was in the car at the time and had no interest in saving and having to start over the dungeon, closed my DS to save power. When I opened, wow, what do you know, that was the puzzle. I had to close my DS to line up the screens and transfer the stamp... wow.

I guess that's excusable. Buuut you know there's a problem when you can't figure out in Metroid Prime 3: Corruption that you need to actually examine and press a button instead of scanning it as is a Metroid Prime staple... jeez. I guess I had the excuse that it was a demo in a public place. I guess.

At least I can hope that I'm learning from the Ace Attorney series, what with having to think outside the boxes on plenty of cases. At least I can hope.

Coraline + Pikmin 2 or something

2009-02-15T20:14:00.000-08:00

Today, I went to see Coraline. In glorious computer 3D of epic! Now, I haven't read the book (though I probably will now), so I can't judge it based on that, but I really liked the movie. It seemed like it was really well adapted. Just about the only problem I had with it was the animation had some choppy parts, especially at the beginning... however, it seemed like it actually might have been on purpose, as the entire movie seemed claymation-esque. I really did like the movie, though. Especially the story.

...Still not as good as WALL-E, though. :P

Oh, and just recently I beat Pikmin 2. Which is saying something, since I've had it since, like, its initial release. Which was ages ago. Well, technically I had done the first part of the game ages ago, but had never finished the main story part two or gotten all the treasures. Which I did. And I must say, the final boss is EPIC. It wasn't too hard (probably in part due to the fact that I started that game when I had the terrible moral of playing games with the guide in my lap the entire way) but required a lot of startegy and was just... pretty cool overall.

...Still have to beat Challenge Mode though. DANG Challenge Mode. HATE IT. >_>

---

Currently actively playing:
Elebits: The Adventures of Kai and Zero
Pokemon Ranger: Shadows of Almia
Elite Beat Agents
Rayman Raving Rabbids 2
Animal Crossing: City Folk
Super Smash Bros. Brawl

A rather random question

2009-02-07T17:17:00.000-08:00

I PROMISED I'D KEEP REGULARISH UPDATES AND I INTEND TO KEEP THAT PROMISE!

So, yeah. I just got done adding printed box art to my used games without it, so yay. For the moment, I can't say I have much to say. I know there was something I wanted to rant about, but I can't remember what it was...

Oh, well.

Random Question of the Day
Please give your opinion in the comments.

If someone was theoretically able to travel faster than the speed of light while maintaining their standard physical form (as in, not turning into energy), what would that person see?
1)Normal
2)Things ahead of them
3)Things behind them
4)They wouldn't be able to see

OMG I finally made a blog!

2009-02-04T17:17:00.001-08:00

...as per usual, it takes me forever to actually DO something, as anyone who has seen any of anything I've done should know quite well. This time, I made a blog! Why not? I figure it should get updated more often than my website, and I often have a good amount to say.

So... let's start this off. First post will just be a long list of some favorites of mine, just so you can know what to expect. Why not?

EDIT x A GAJILLION: Sorry about the formatting... the editor thing glitched up the HTML and screwed it all up. It's fixed now, along with some nasty typoes I typed.

Video Games
Favorite Game Overall: Super Smash Bros. Melee (GCN)
Yeah, I play Brawl more now, but Melee gets this spot because it was such a jump from the N64 original. Also, I like Melee's single player better overall. The pre-set stuff just doesn't do it for me.
Favorite Single-Player: Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney - Trials and Tribulations (DS)
The best of the wonderful Ace Attorney series, if you ask me. The plot is just so... epic. I mean, the rest of the series have great enough plots, but this one ties together all the cases and... well I'll shut up in fear of spoilers. Notable, Portal gets second place but just wasn't long enough.
Favorite Multiplayer: Super Smash Bros. Brawl (Wii)
Just barely beats Melee because of the chaotically fun items and stages. Kind've odd to put it above Melee when I said I liked Melee best overall, but hey.
Favorite Character: Miles "Tails" Prower (Sonic the Hedgehog)
Though I admittedly don't love his personality in some of the more recent games, Tails wins me over for his personality in the other games and his overall adorable-ness. Runner up: GLaDOS (Portal) because she owns all.
Favorite Mario Character: Yoshi
Yeah, ever since I stole him from my Mom in Mario Party, I've loved Yoshi. He's just... adorable, and has the cutest voice ever, and also has every capability to be awesome (freakin' winged Yoshi, anyone?). Close runner-ups include Luigi, Dry Bones, and Blooper.

TV Shows/Movies
Favorite TV Show: Avatar: The Last Airbender (Nickelodeon)
Yeah, say what you want about Nick, but Avatar is epic. I've always preferred shows with an epic plot, but also like non-crude humor. Avatar has both. In perfect harmony. Well, with the rare exception of some dumb crude humor.
Favorite Educational TV Show: Zaboomafoo (PBS)
I loved this show way back when. That's a fact. The only reason Veggietales didn't when this was because I wasn't sure whether I considered it an educational TV show or not... I was considering making a "Favorite Christian TV Show" just for it, though.
Favorite Movie: WALL-E (Disney/Pixar)
I love this movie. It's cute and has a good plot and lovable characters and all sorts of good things. I think the biggest thing about it, though, is the fact that it has so many points to make depending on how you look at it. The irony of it being made by Disney kind of gets me, though.
Favorite Comedy: Kung-Fu Panda (Dreamworks)
I was one of the ones who expected this movie to be crap. I was so wrong. It has a good lesson behind it and is downright hilarious. And no, the lesson has nothing to do with being fat, if you haven't seen it and are assuming that.
Favorite Pure-Disney Franchise: Lilo and Stitch
Yeah, kind of odd. I blame the fact that I have a soft spot for aliens. And Pleakley pwns all.

Other
Favorite Book Series: The Bartimaeus Trilogy (Jonathan Stroud)
I can't pick just one book. And as much as I love Harry Potter, Warriors, and several other series, I can't not pick this one. It's just so... great. And the ending was so... wonderful. And... stuff.
Favorite Song: Endless Possibility (Sonic Unleashed; Jarret Reddick)
I see it, I see it, and now it's all within my reeeaaach! (Endless possibility!) I see it, I see it now, it's always been inside of meeeee! (And now I feel so free!) (Endless possibility!)
Yeah, I love pretty much all the modern Sonic songs. Sue me. Did I mention I love video game music overall? It's what fills my iPod, mostly.
Favorite Band: Linkin Park
Yeah, their songs appeal to the angsty, emo side of me. Or something. I dunno. Runner up: Crush 40! *shot*
Favorite Superhero: The Flash (DC)
Yeah, I'm not too fluent on superheroes. But running real real fast is an epic super power, and The Flash is pretty awesome in Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe. Runner up: Nightcrawler (X-Men) because he poofs around, is cool looking, and I think he had a cool accent.
Favorite Thing to Draw: Sonic the Hedgehog (I wonder...)
Based on how freakin' much I draw him. Runner up: Kirby.
OK, I think I'm done Now: Yep, Done Now.
Better believe it.