Hammerwatch Review

What this game has to do with hammers, I have no idea. But it's fricken fun as hell!

You start off as either a paladin, wizard, warlock, or archer. A bridge breaks behind you and the main purpose is to find a way to escape. You fight monsters and huge friggen hard as hell bosses! You can do this with your attacks and skills, which you can upgrade with traders along the map. You learn combo's, increase defense and offense, and even buy more lives. Each upgrade makes your gameplay experience just a little smoother.

These guys are fricken annoying!

This is a hack and slash game, and basically, that's all you do. Hack, and slash. I usually play as a wizard or archer, because they are ranged, and use my skills and attacks to annihilate hordes of enemies. Try not to die though, because if you run out of lives, you have to start all the way from the beginning of the whole game!

You can play this game either with the keyboard, or a controller. Personally, I suggest investing in a Sixaxis paired with Motoninjoy, that way I am able to play like it's a real game. It also runs so much smoother on a controller as well. And the best part is, it's multiplayer! You get to play with up to 4 of your friends, or just random people, and play to your hearts content.

Now this game didn't have the best launch. The Multiplay still to this day has bugs, but once you do get it to work, it works wonderfully. All characters in game share the same number of lives. so if you only have 8 lives, and your partner dies 7 times, you need a new partner.

I would suggest this game to anybody who is interested in playing. I personally spend several hours playing this game when i get the chance. So if you like it, it'd be addicting.

Castlevania 3 First Thoughs

The first thing I think about when I play this game, is Symphony of the Night. This game, unlike the first two, has a very good system going for it, including items. The level designs and basically ALL of the monsters are exactly like SOTN. Of course, with notable differences. Castlevania 3 has a time limit, and no item equip screen. Which sucks, but oh well.

The jumping mechanism is kinda difficult, and you cannot fall from one floor to one below you, you simply die. Try to jump on a platform and miss? Death! The game in and of itself is pretty difficult. If you don't have the proper skills. you are going to die. There is barely a learning curb.

Imma try to finish this game before I make a full review. So look forward to it.

Path of Exile: First Thoughts

Path of Exile is a free to play game (in which you can buy stuff in it) that is actually pretty fun! You pick your character, which can be an archer, a thief, or a witch, etc, and you go through this land of exile. You are here for a specific crime you have committed, and you earn your rep on this island by destroying enemies that get steadily harder the farther you go.

I picked the witch, because I love magic and ranged attacks. She seems a little OP at the moment, and I am leveling up like it's no one's business. The one thing I don't like in this game. Is that your inventory is small. Oh, and you get to sell your armor for scraps of paper and orb shards. Fuck currency. So while you are adventuring, it is also most useless to even pick up items.

Also, your potions refill themselves as you fight enemies, and if you equip it, you also have a forcefield.  Ah, who the fuck needs to think while playing these kinds of games? Click ALL the time! No, really, all you really have to do is click the mouse, and if you need to heal, press 1. Everything else is basically pointless. Alt allows you to see all the items as they appear on the ground. Items you question why you are picking up in the first place, saying the shops don't sell anything of use.

It could just be my inexperience though. I am not all too far into the game. And although it's fun, I honestly don't know how much further I am going to play it. I recommend that you try it out though.  It's a lot better with a buddy.

Games not meant for the DS?

Look at that completely usable bottom screen!

There are some games, like SolatoRobo, which is a game designated for the DS, but uses none of the features of the DS. This is not uncommon either, as fairly many games have started this trend. But why?

It seems to me like a way of earning more money for a game, without using any of the features that the console has for it. It's a cheap and petty way to earn more money for a game that could be so much better, or so much different, with the stylus.

Zelda used all the possible features
that the DS had to offer

Pokemon and Zelda are games that incorporated the touch-screen very well, and through that had some pretty unique gameplay. In Zelda's case, the stylus-based movements are what paved for way for the Wii's motion controls. It bettered the games and made it fun, and dangerous all at the same time (*swings Wii-mote and shatters brand new flatscreen TV*).

But if a game is going to be made without any real use for the second screen at all, then why allow it to be published on the DS, and not, say, the PSP, or the GBA? It would make more sense for a game like Castlevania Dawn of Sorrows to be made into a GBA game. Adding crappy implementation of the touch-screen is just as bad.

Okami is a game designed around this touch-screen concept, and would be a great addition to the DS, because it uses the touch-screen all the time! It is actually the main basis of the game. Why can't other games do that? And if you are not going to implement any groundbreaking touch-screen semantics to the gameplay, then why the DS at all?

Unpopular opinions: The death of Brian Griffin.

Let me start this list off by making this statement, and getting it clear from the get go: I fucking hate Family Guy. And Seth Mcfarlane. And Brain Griff- you know what? The whole damn cast. The show hasn't been funny since (Arguably, mind you) the 4th season, and even halfway through that I stopped watching it. I'm serious. Not a single episode. So when one of my friends told me Brian died, I wasn't the least bit shocked, seeing how Seth Mc-Goddamn-Farlane has the writing talent of Andrew Lloyd Weber, with all of his fingers replaced with thumbs.

God I just want to punch him and never stop. 

Ok, that's out of the way. The reason I am making this article in between lining up my sights at Seth's stupid fucking face (No! Bad Alex! Stay on topic!) is because a lot of people I know who still watch Family Guy for SOME REASON, say that it's a shit move for him to do. I don't know why this particular moment is the straw that broke the camels back, when all the other straws were jumping up and down on a dead camel, but I digress. 

I think killing of Brain Griffin is the best choice. Because not only does Seth not have a mouthpiece to spew his stupid fucking BULLSHIT (Ok sorry, sorry) but also, because this would be the perfect end to show that should've ended. This is the problem most shows have: They run on too long. Spongebob, Fairly odd parents, The Simpsons, Motherfucking Family Guy, The Cleveland show (which should've never existed in the first place) and only a few shows can get away with running on for a long time. Futurama (arguably) and Law and Order: SVU. 

Family Guy is DONE. It's been done for a long time, and it needs to be over. Do I believe it will end since Brian died? No. Seth McFarlane is too much of  douche for that.

 Oh GOD I WANT TO HIT YOU!

But this isn't the final straw. This camel has been dead for a while, and Seth keeps expecting it to carry more straws. This show has far reached the point where it was supposed to end. This death isn't a shock, it's just desperate and stupid. 

I await your hate mail with bells on my toes. 

Black Tiger Review

Yes it does, yes, it, does. ;3

Oh My GOD! Wtf is this?! This game is pretty difficult, and I have a hard time understanding it at all. You jump, but you can barely control the jumps. I wound up falling into the same put 7 times while playing because I could not stop or slow down my jumps.

There are people that you save, and they either give you coins, or time. Idk what the coins are used for. Not the stone arrows, but no time to think about that! There is a fucking 2 minute timer to get to... place!You fight these baddies that take a long time to kill, and you are going to die in this game... a LOT!

But don't worry, if you suck as bad as I do, there is a surefire solution to that. Sissy Mode! I-I mean, "casual mode." Which I had to start playing just to find out what the hell was going on.

There are some old men that you save that start to sell you stuff. I save their life, and they are like "Sorry, still gotta pay up!" Nice old people, gotta love em.

The gameplay is basically you going through this castle, killing all these monsters, and dragons, with throwing knives and a whip. The sidescrolling hack and slash portion of this game reminds me a lot of Castlevania, with some Contra added in. Some parts will leave you upset, because as you get farther into the game, some platforms are nearly impossible to jump on. If it wern't for casual mode, I may not have even beaten this game. But don't let it fool you, even casual mode is pretty damn hard.

Who are you, Mystery Woman!?!?

In the end, you see him posing with a beautiful maiden. One that is never before mentioned or implied to in the game. But hey, it's an old arcade game, wha'd you expect?

Xbox 360 vs PS3

Which one will turn out as the top contender in my eyes? Well, first we have to look at the pro's and con's of both.

The PS3 is far superior in game choice, as there are very few games on the Xbox 360 that I find interesting. Well, the 360 DOES have Minecraft... but it's non-compatible with the PC version, damn game systems! I love games like Sly Cooper 4, and (game). Although many downloadable games for this system has font that is incredibly small, and hard to read.

The one main thing I love about the PS3, is that the PSN has free-to-play games, while the 360 does not have that feature. Or at least not one that I could find while searching for interesting games on it. So while I cannot access my steam games until my computer is fixed, the PSN has been a lifesaver for me. Although, to be honest, I payed for most of the games I have on there.

The PS3 controller is also much easier for me to handle. I have been a big fan of Sony since Breath of Fire 3, so it goes to show why I would be interested in the PS3. I also use it for online gameplay via Steam. So I am probably a little biased in this regard. Meanwhile, on my various attempts to play the 360, the controller always confused me. It was bigger, awkward, and it didn't help that almost every game I played on it were FPS's I was coerced into playing.

Overall, I enjoyed the PS3 over the 360, but that might be entirely due to bias. What do you think, Xbox or PS3?

Sola To Robo: First Thoughts

The game is pretty witty, I LOVE the reactions that poor Red has whenever something goes wrong. Or his cheeky expressions whenever he is acting full of himself. It's kinda like what you'd expect when watching an anime. This game is not the only one who has that kind of gameplay though. Atelier Iris is another game that plays like it could have become an anime. The openings for both, animated with a background of awesome sounding music, is just like that of the opening of a Japanese anime. Both also include floating villages... hmmm....

The controls are pretty simple, and the battles so far are easy enough.

Let's not forget the obvious product placement

You go through sidequests for people in order to get money, kinda like Mana Khemia. The graphics portrayal are pretty comical, it's hard to explain it any more than like that. Kinda like a manga, perhaps? But the 3 dimensional graphics part of it is pretty awesome. Also, you can customize the robot you ride, to make it stronger.


You find this mysterious boy, who doesn't like you due to your non-serious demeanor. But he apparently refuses to leave you alone, saying you are some being of destiny.

I'll tell you more about this game when I finish it. Until then, jya nei!

Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past Review: Part 2

Hello all! This is a continuation of my first installment, which can be read here.

The GBA version made several changes to it so that it'd be easier. You know, cause videogame players are IDIOTS! In the SNES version, when you get an item, you then have to search for ammunition or magic so you can use it, not in the GBA version. You get full magic or ammunition the moment you get the item. You know, because handicaps are obviously needed for this game.

Plus, you get to keep the shovel.... which you can use again later in the game for... nothing. Besides one or two spots that holds rupee's, there is nothing you need the shovel for. That is why, in the SNES version, the flute replaces the shovel. Hammers can now destroy rocks and bushes. The save screen in the SNES version made you quit every time you saved, the GBA allows you to save and continue. In fact, there are numerous changes from the old version to the new version, many of which are redundant and pointless.

When you are getting the Zora flippers, no one ever tells you how to get them. In fact, you don't even really need to get them before the second level in the dark world. And they cost 500 fucking rupee's! Why do Zora's sell flippers anyhow? They don't need them! But on well, Zelda Logic.

On the subject of tunics, the one's in ALTTP are not half bad, given their only ability is to heighten your defense. There is the green tunic, the red tunic, and the blue tunic... always the same tunic's.

This game actually had some secrets even I did not know, and that gives it an air of mystery along with the review. There is a sprite in the game coding for an enemy that ever appears in the game. Called the Cannon Soldier.  He has full AI, graphics, attacks, and recoil. But sadly, he never made it into the game.

Now back to the review. The heart pieces are relatively easy to hard to find, depending on where you look. Many are simply placed behind a wall that has a crack in it. Some areas of the map are made specifically with this in mind. Like the hole in the clump of bushes in the forest, and the well in Kakoriko Village. This game allows for a bit of exploration, but for the most part, there is very little to find outside of heart pieces by exploring. Besides the flute.

This game does not hold death properly! Your uncle dies, and so does the king, but... maybe not. Maybe they just passed out... or got held prisoner... outside of the fact that the game's own dialog is either a death scene, or you are told the king was "eliminated." But at the end, what happens? Everyone is alive again! Yay!

I will end off with one irksome thing, the title. A Link to the Past. A Link to the... Past? This game does not incorporate time travel! You go through the light in dark worlds like Twilight Princess and their Twilight World! The game makes you think that it has something to do with the past or future, and that's simply not true.

This game is awesome! It got me playing for days and days, and the levels are pretty fun to go through. I think I will always be a fan of this game, despite the irks. It will always be my favorite game ever.

What do you think?

It's time to duel! Skullgirls vs Dustforce.

Hello friends. Inuyuru again, with a NARB segment I like to call "It's time to duel" where I take two games with a similar theme and make them duke it out to see who is top dawg. Today I've chosen two games very close to my heart, Skullgirls and Dustforce, both PC games you can find on our dark lord and master, Steam. Now I know what you're thinking: Inuyuru, what does Skullcaps and Triforce have to do with eachother? And who will come out on top? And why do you always do that thing where you come up with a funny variation of the games' actual title? Well to answer your questions in this order:

1)Skillgals and Dustbunny are both games that breath a breathe of fresh air into video games, what with them both relying heavily on skill and fast reflexes, partaining to cognitive thought, 2) you'll have to piece together what info I give you and read til the end, unless you have other well thought out opinions, in which case I'd love to hear them, and 3) because using petty humor in a blog about video games helps me overcome my depression and crushing boredom that comes with the monotony of life. Plus I'm hilarious, so shut up.

Skull and bones is a fighting game with tits. Lots of tits. Underage tits even. But it's a fighting game, trust me. It's similar to the MvC series altough you can choose how many people you have on your team, and adjust teams accordingly, and every character plays differently, with different powers, different back stories, and different bust sizes. (Ok I'll stop with the boob jokes now) You can learn each characters powers and abilititties (Ok for real this time) and make teams matching up with something or another. It's pretty fast and flowing and intuitive and some characters are very very funny. It breathes new life into an otherwise dead genre of fighing games, by bringing back the feel of MvC2 or Street Figther 3 third strike, aka, the BEST STREET FIGHTER.

Dustforce is an action game about janitors cleaning up messes using the power of vacuum cleaners and parkour. So as you can guess, there are significantly less bewbs, but what it lacks in breasts, it makes up for in fun. You can choose between 4 janitors: Blue, the balanced straightman, Red, who has a better vertical leap, and is therefore black by default, Violet, for when you want to give up jumping power for speed, both the leg movement and the drug, and Green, the heavy and where this analogy kind of breaks down. The gameplay is so fucking great that if it were a beautiful woman, I would marry it and it's sister. It's a flowing parkour esuque feel, using momentum and speed build up to your advantage, avoiding traps. I'd run up the side of a building, jump on to the roof of another and slide down a pipe right into a monsters ass, and landing on a dime, feeling like Tony Hawk with wings on his penis.

So which wins? While I recommend both if you're white enough to do that, honky, if you absolutely have to buy one, pick Dustclouds. Skullgirls is a game that's fantastic in a sense that it adds on to something that you like, sort of like a Red Velvet cake, if someone put layers of German chocolate on top. Dustforce is a supermodel wearing German chocolate cakes, as a bra, while she herself, is made out of German chocolate cakes. Dustforce takes home the trophy because, while Skulkgills adds something fresh to the fighting game genre, Dusty boots adds something to video games all together, and that will, and should, always warrant more respect.

Ittle Dew review

Hello all. I am Alex Turner, or more commonly known as Inuyuru, a contributor for Not Another Review Blog. This will be my first ever post, so please be gentle sempai. (That wasn't in bad taste right?) Moving on.

Ittle Dew is an adventure-RPG-omg available on Steam, the earthly embodiment of Jesus for pc gamers. You play as Ittle, a spunky, adventure seeking girl garbed in green, accompanied by Tippsie a drunken dog fairy, who is also maybe a woman, who gives you tips in the form of telling you how fucking stupid you are. It's like A Link to the Past as seen through the eyes of Robert DeNiro circa Taxi Driver. You find yourself on an island after drifting on a raft for what seems like days and instead of finding help, you grab a stick and raid a castle, so basically standard vidja game lore.

The story is pretty good in the sense that it's supposed to be ironic. You find a castle, you go inside, you make fun of stuff, you find some chests. All the while trying to find a way off the island, which some smelly pirate will give you if you find something in the castle, possibly wood. The chemistry between Ittle and absolutely ANYONE she comes across, is amazing. Even the monsters she comes across have a snark prepared for them, and watching the interaction between Ittle Wittle and the Tipper is hilarious, if a little grating sometimes. The dialogue is drenched in so much irony, you can put it on a plate and make it pass for a fancy dinner that makes fun of you as you eat it.

The gameplay for Mountain Dew is as I said, very similar to Link tootie Pass, a game I very much enjoy, and you enjoyed that, you're going to fall in love with Little Moo, faster than Van Gogh and anyone in direct proportion to how many ears he had left, compared to how many he was willing to cut off. Basically what I'm saying is, it's great. It's a heavily toned down version of  Link Cables for a Gameboy, in the sense that it gives you siginificantly less items. You only get 4, and you have to go to completely separate dungeons to get them AND you have to locate the chests with the money to buy from the store to get the opportunity to - wWAAAH!

Sometimes it's a bit frustrating. There are some puzzles based around how fast you can solve them and as I said, the game isn't above mocking your dumb ass, for not being very very clever. There are times where I got angry at Littlest Pet Shop, but anger is a motivator. I'd slam the enter key and yell my way through dungeons like a boss.

The art and animation is very well done, and lovely, and quite fitting for a game of this caliber. All in all, this is a great game and worth every penny. There's a lot to complain about, but the pros out weigh the cons. If you buy anything from Steam and want to scratch that adventure itch, Little Bear is the game for you.

Is Polybius Possible?

The initial idea for this game has been out, apparently, since 1981. It's the story of an arcade game that was introduced to a few random arcades, and caused the people who played it to have hallucinations, intense stress, suicidal tendencies, and wake up in the middle of the night, screaming. This kinda sounds like symptoms of PTSD. Now, how accurate can this be? Can a game exist that causes something like this?

There is some scientific evidence, but not much, that claims that sound waves, known as Binaural Auditory Beats, can affect mood and perception. Some people even claiming it makes you high. There is even evidence that strong low frequency sound waves can make you feel nauseous, and give you splitting migraines. So having symptoms of sickness has been known to occur with particular soundwaves, but nothing to suggest that long term effects, similar to what is described, occurs.

If not sound, then maybe sight? Well, optical illusions are one thing. This game is thought to be trippy, with flying shapes, much like the game Tempest, just moreso. But optical illusions, although can hurt your eyes if stared at for too long, does not cause visual hallucinations. There is nothing that sight can do unless it gives you a seizure, in which case, you would not be screaming in your sleep, you'd be on the ground.

So unless you tortured these kids some other way, there is no way they would be affected this badly by a videogame. Of course, this game most likely does not exist. Even Snopes debunked it. And it meets my criteria for "it never happened." And number 3 has to always be present.

1. It was something the government did, or a big organization
2. It was highly eerie if not outright spooky
3. The evidence for it's existence mysteriously vanished without a trace, so you cannot verify what is said as being truth.

The same thing with Pokemon Eerie Black, Pokemon Wounded Silver, Majorias Mask Ben Drowned, etc. The game mysteriously vanished. But not just that, but all the kids who played Polybius conveniently contracted amnesia, making it impossible to even find anyone who was alive just 30 years ago who played it. Although Game Theory does have some good anecdotal evidence.

It's a shocker how nobody as of yet took that idea and tried to make it into a decent game. Polybius is a cool sounding name, and creating a game that incorporates the myth into gameplay would be an excellent idea. Which isn't copyrighted, so if you wanna make it, go ahead.

But what do you think of this?

Legend of Zelda, A Link To The Past Review: Part 1

I have played this game so many times, it isn't even funny. It's my all time favorite game, but despite my bias, it does in fact have some flaws. This is the first game I ever remember playing, and is probably the main game that really got me into the gaming world. This game had adventure, not bad graphics (at the time), and was just plain addicting. And it is generally hailed as one of the best Zelda games out there... but still below Ocarina of Time.

The game is fun! You start off as link waking up to Zelda's telepathic voice to find out that your uncle is leaving the house for some unknown reason. You follow her voice, which leads you to a hidden passage, one that your uncle must have also known about. You find him against the wall, apparently too aged to defeat two green guards that don't even chase you and has a broken sword... or a dagger? My hero -__-

She is my what? 

You speak to him, and he gives you the sword and sheild. They tells you that you have to save Zelda, she is your........ well, it never says. This has actually become a meme in recent months, but it has been nagging at me since the age of 5. This question is never answered. Ever. What is Zelda's relation to Link? Don't think too much into that, although that might become a topic of a future post.

Can you tell me which bush the entrance is under?
You'd never guess.

The main appeal of the beginning is pretty cool. It is raining outside, storming even. And you have a voice constantly nagging you to go to the castle. You can try to explore, but you really can't. There are these golden guards that are only there to block your path and you never fight them in the game ever. They all tell you to go back to bed. You are basically led, through no other option, to find this not-so-well hidden entrance behind a bush.

The game altogether is not bad. But it can be kinda linear. Green knights take 2 hits to kill, blue take 3, and red takes 4. None of the bosses are hard to figure out either. But the monsters do start to become more and more difficult as the game goes on. Turtles that you find in the later dark world levels need to be hit with a hammer before they can be hurt. Some enemies, like the yellow Stalfos heads in the first dungeon are invincible, and other monsters, like the Freezor in the ice dungeon, can only be killed with the fire rod.

Some of the enemies are just unimaginative, or at best, similar to other characters from games. I mean, what game wouldn't be complete without a wide selection of colored Juju's?

Look familar? They should, they are a common monster found in many games
 as a cheap attempt to not think about enemy sprite designs.

These are from BOF 3

These are from FFX

The character design could have been better, but it really wasn't that bad for what they had. And some of them really aren't half bad. But of course, no talk of ALTTP enemies would be complete without mentioning:

OMG! It's VIVI!!!

The game does not have any cross-level gameplay. While there are some areas on the map that need certain items to get to a secret heart piece, etc, once you beat a level, there is literally no reason at all to return to it later on. Something that other Zelda's accomplished well. In fact, none of the levels contain any secret heart pieces, and only a few levels award your curiosity with rupee's, such as the first level. There is very little use for many items outside of the levels, except for a few notable exceptions. And you really cannot beat any of the levels out of order. Which sucks, but oh well.

There is a ton, and I mean a TON more I can talk about this game, such as the differences between the GBA version and the SNES version, and more hidden non linear adventures, as well as other things. But I think I'll save it for another part.

Project 33 (Voice Actors Needed)

What is Project 33? Well, for the most part, it's a mystery. At least until it's release date in January of 2014. The story revolves around 3 characters, Music, Mido(Green), and Ao(Blue) as they run around fighting these sound beings called Statics. This animated series will include a ton of fight scenes, shock, and the occasional wittiness. Even the promotional artwork for this upcoming series looks awesome. This animated series even has promotional fanart.

Although they are just a couple of months away from the opening episode, they are in fact recruiting voice actors for the role of various characters as well as background characters. No expertise is needed, but if you have any, it'd do you good. The only requirements is that you are available to send in your work as soon as humanly possible. No dilly-dallying and no-shows, if you are going to apply, you have to be serious about getting the voices in.

All people willing to apply for voice acting roles should converse with the Voice-over Director via Email, or via skype at charmywarmymed. They need them as quickly as possible, so don't delay.

Mini Quest: First Thoughts

This game is kinda like Zenonia... if you puked it out. The gameplay is awkward, and the controls are hard to grasp. But that aside, it's... meh.

You are just tossed into this world, and everything is happening way too fast. The first monster you fight is a wolf inside this guys basement, why are you here? Why are you at a blind man's house? Why do you want to be a Mini? Fuck it, these questions will never be answered.

When you get a quest, usually the person who gives it to you is highly vague and you have to look at the menu and find out what the hell you are supposed to be doing all by yourself. You get potions, and a random assortment of armor. So far, you only get 3 skills in the entire game, the last one is so far not even out yet. So this game is in development, so I guess they'll fix the bugs... sometime... this game has been out since 2011 and people are still complaining about the lack of updates.

The characters you meet have very uninspired names. I mean, I know this game is free, but still, Porto the portal wizard? Really? At least he got a name, the rest are called names like "Angry Hermit."

This game isn't terrible, but it certainly did not deserve the 4/5 star rating it got, I'd give it a 2/5 star rating at best.

Tropes Vs Women - Ms. Male Character

Took Anita long enough to get this one out! But without even watching the video, I learn that she has, of course, disabled comments. But, at least for now, she has ratings up. And although I am critical of her, thinking she is biased and over-reacting, she does make a few good points.

Watching this, she does have good points. Albeit somewhat extremist based on her view as a feminist, but her facts hold true. There is a lot of games which are lazy and use stereotypical methods of portraying gender to the audience, like long eye lashes and a bow.

While this is a cheap character profile, it does not in any way diminish female roles. In the contrary, using these kinds of characters may have opened up the portal for more advanced and independent women to exist in videoames. In the game Fighting Force you are able to play as two different kinds of women, and in games like FF12, you are able to fight as one of your 3 female characters. So games exist where you can play as a female. In Okami, the main protagonist is a strong female. So yeah, they exist. And she aknowedges that as well, albeit it in the last 30 seconds of the video.

Maybe I'm a dude? Nah, that'd be
too hard to explain to the audience.

I adore the fact that she does mention that gender is a false dichotomy, and should not be forced into two separate categories, a topic that I may have mentioned once or twice before. This is a fact, gender is a spectrum, and people should not base characters on gendered stereotypes. But it does happen, and it'll take awhile for people to stop using stereotypical methods of character design. I love how she also mentioned transgender references in gaming as well, granted only for about 20 seconds of the over-all video.

While she does make many good points, I believe that her video could have been better. But hey, at least in this one, there was far less extremist feminism and male-bashing! But she is correct, it is a notable trope in all media that portrays certain aspects as girl, while everything else is male. And for most great game designers, it is changing. I am sure I will still have to live with this for awhile longer though, because it's part of game design.

What do you think of Anita's new video?

Minecraft Review

Blurring the world

I enjoy this game from time to time. Unlike the numerous people on YouTube, like this person who created the Beetlejuice roller coaster, I simply played this game casually. I build houses, and I never use the multiplayer function, or at least not yet. But I have seen it played as multiplayer so often that I can review it based on that (My little brothers, older brother, half of my friends, and my boyfriend, are all fans of the game).

I love to build large houses , enourmously large houses that really have no reason despite the fact that I was bored. If I can become self sustaining, I will. My last world I played in, I had a wheat farm, in which I can make bread so I didn't die. It was like Farmville, just with more explosions. I learn new things about the game every time I play it. Such as the need for torches in your house so creepers don't appear right behind you.

That's basically the whole game. Mining, and Crafting. You mine the materials you need, and craft the items you desire, like pickaxes and swords. The better the materials used, the better the item that gets created. But all items have a certain amount of uses before they break. And so far, from weakest to strongest, there is wood, stone, iron, diamond, and gold. How diamond armor works, I haven't a damn clue...

Look at that lively expression

There are two modes you can play on as well, Creative, and Survival. Creative allows you to create large scale and fantastical structures without the fear of monsters. Also, you can levitate, which is awesome! Survival is where you are set out in the middle of nowhere and have to use the resources at hand to build a building for protection before the sun sets. Once the sun sets, you're screwed. Spiders, Endermen, Zombies, Creepers, you name it! And when you die, you lose it all!

Now personally, I can understand why the game is popular to a sense. You start out with nothing, and then gradually earn all you need to survive until you have everything. That's life, and it's a story arch that many people adore. In fact, I am even using it for one of my upcoming books! But to say that this game is over-rated would be an understatement. All one has to do is visit YouTube to see the various Minecraft parodies, originals, and song rip-offs. The amount of Minecraft fan-art is staggering as well, and it baffles me as to why.

This game has no good graphics, it's all just blocks. It has no storyline, no plot, no real ending (not including the one they made for it after the fact), and no payoff. Although I believe the game is fun, and enjoyable, I honestly don't believe it deserves the reputation at has. It's easy to bore of this game, and it reminds me so much of games like Farmville mixed with a sense of danger.

But that is just me, what do you think? Tell me in the comments below!

Blade Kitten: First Thoughts

I played the demo version of this, so idk how much holds true to the full game. But here goes:

The characters are pretty bland. You get the Neko girl who is looking for adventure. The thieving blond accented girl who is your rival, and then there is the odd-colored warlock looking girl who I assume is the antagonist. Then there are all the weak guards who are trained to atack and defend, but suck at it compared to a cat-girl with a floating sword.

The battle style can be a little more exciting. The enemies dying in one hit is really boring, at least in games like Jak and Daxter, the enemies take some skill to defeat. You need to skill at all to defeat these enemies. You don't even defeat them in a stylish format either, like you do in Dust an Elysian Tail.

The game is easy, you can climb and attach to walls like Spiderman, wall jump, double jump, infinity shield yourself, dash, and attack at long distance. So The games main protagonist is OP right from the start. It makes traveling through the levels a breeze. Just mash the X button a million times. You don't even need to know where you are going, you'll get there eventually.

About to die? No worries, you have infinite lives, and there is a checkpoint every two minutes, you know, because you obviously are too stupid to play the game correctly. I guess even the game thinks it's made for girls, and thus, has to be overly easy and idiotic. All you really have to do is walk, jump, and slice. You don't even have to stop.

That game in and of itself is pretty fun. Well... I had fun. It's not as fun as it's counterparts, Dust and Elysian Tail, or even Mark of the Ninja. But it wasn't half bad.

I'd recommend you try this game out for yourselves, which you can do, for free!

Final Fantasy X Characters from Worst to Best

I love FFX, I played it religiously (no pun intended) growing up. Many of the characters you get to fight with are crappy, or mediocre at best. I am going to list these characters in order from worst to best, finally arriving at the 3 characters I use most in my Party. Now I know that all stats are based on the Sphere Grid, so I am just going by the stats using the path that we usually are forced to go on until we get Key Spheres.

7. Kimahri - Sorry fellow furries, but in lines of practicality in battle, Kihmari sucks. His main skill is Lancet, which steals a small, small amount of health and MP from your opponent, and in all reality is a waste of a turn. Using this ability he is able to learn moves for his overdrive, but all the moves he learns are weak, or useless. His attack is not much higher then Tidus', and his HP does not make up for it. Overall, he is not all that good in the line of battle.

6. Rikku - With low attack, defense, HP, MP, skills, etc, why is she above Kimahri in terms of usefulness? Two reasons: Steal, and Use. These two things allows her to attack with a high base power, or boost stats very quickly. But her saving grace comes from her Overdrive, Mix. I loved mixing various combinations of items to see what I get, you get tons of choices based on your decision. You can come up with a high powered elemental/physical attack, or an extremely good healing potion, etc. But you are limited to the items you have in your inventory, and some are rare, and cannot be re-obtained.

5. Wakka - Wakka's only saving grace is that he can blind his opponent. Or silence them, etc. Also, he is great when attacking monsters from very far distances away, flyers, etc. But his attack is low, and his main role is to give your opponent a status effects. And even then, his MP is not very high, so using his skills is limited. His Overdrive consists of a weak attack in whatever elemental power you are lucky enough to land on at the time, and is basically useless in any boss battle.

4. Tidus - His attack, health, and MP is pretty mediocre, and in terms of overdrive... it's passable. During a boss battle he is by no means a last resort, He makes the best backup characters for when you need a stronger character in your lineup.

3. Lulu- Her main attack sucks, but she has the best niche magical abilities in the game. Got a fire monster? Attack it with ice! No, not water, ice. Her MP is very generous, although her HP could have been better. She is one of the easiest characters to have killed off by a single attack in battle. Her overdrive is great, it allows you to cast multiple versions of the same spell, at the same time. Of which, you can power up using the joystick. A great attack when fighting elemental monsters.

2. Auron - Unrivaled attack power, and a brilliantly high amount of HP, Auron is a must for any party. His skills allows him to lower enemy stats while also hurting them in the process. And his overdrive is way overpowered. It allows him to attack all the enemies at the same time, dealing large amounts of damage.

1. Yuna - How in the world is Yuna a better pick then Auron? Well, in short, aeons. By herself, Yuna is great at healing, and has a pretty decent MP, but her attack and HP is terrible. She, by herself, cannot hold up a battle on her own. But with her wide array of aeons, she is extremely overpowered. She can hold a battle by herself for hours, allowing her numerous spirit monsters to fight her battle for her. Some of these, like the Magus Sisters, are highly overpowered.

In short, Lulu, Auron, and Yuna are my favorite characters to use in battle due to their usefulness and their abilities. Other people's teams may fluctuate, but this is simply the one's I picked based on how good they are in battle.

What is your best FFX party, and why?

Why Agahnim, Why!?!? (Game Research)

Agahnim, the dark wizard made famous by the masterpiece Super NES classic, A Link to the Past, is shrouded in mystery. What is his deal? Why is he committing these crimes?

Many believe that Agahnim is simply the "human" form of Ganon. They think this because Ganon generally takes a human form in other games, but he is always Ganodorf in those games. This would be the only time he would take the place of someone who is not Ganondorf.

When you defeat Agahnim in ALTTP for the second time, a bat flies out of his body, and leaves the mage behind. This bat is Ganon, or at least a part of Ganon. The body left behind is either the full mage, or the corpse of the mage, that he controlled to help stop Link. He could easily of just been using Agahnim as a vessel to bide his time until he became more powerful (No different than what Voldemort did in the first book). Ganon refers to him as his alter ego, but this does not mean Aganim is Ganon. As one may have forgotton, Ganon has a nack for controlling other people's bodies, including Zelda at one point. In fact, even some of Ganon's minions are keen at taking control of people, sometimes several people. So possessing someone's body in order the hinder the main protagonist is nothing new to the Zelda universe.

Now many people postulated that since Agahnim looks like Ganon, with blue skin and red clothing, that he must be the human version of Ganon. I don't think so, because whenever someone in the Zelda universe is posessed, they take on traits of the possessor. Namely, blue skin. This is seen in Zelda's posession in Twilight Princess, as well as Narue's possession in Oracle of Ages. Both obtained blue skin, and evil demeanor.

But why is Agahnim doing all this? The only logical reason with the evidence thus far, is that he was controlled by Ganon to do his bidding. Agahnim has no back story, and no, I am not going to use that horrible manga remake as evidence for the canon.

For all I can find out, there is no definitive answer. Agahnim is simply another one of those cliche' bad guys who have no real motivation. Many theories and stories can take place, but there is no true reasoning behind his attacks, unless he is simply possessed by Ganon, or Ganon's alter ego (which may be the bat, because he never again turns into a bat, ever.)

But what do you think? Mention it in the comments below!

Triond Review

I actually owned a Triond account which I wrote on for about a year from 2010-early 2012. At this time, I was really just learning the basics of the internet, something I never really had the chance to do before the age of 18. I mainly used Triond to help me earn a small amount of cash, because otherwise I earned no income until I got my first job at the age of 20. I now own one again, because I can always earn a little more cash, even if it is a dollar a month.

Triond is a good site to go to in order to hone your skills as a writer. Sites like Gather, Bukisa, Triond, etc, which reward you for writing good articles, and are filled with people who will in fact correct your mistakes, will help any developing writer grow.

When writing on triond, you can write about anything. From science to poetry, you can publish it... to an extent. They do review your writings and twiddle out the horrid from the not half good. Writings that are bad that make it through this review process then has to go through a hoard of flag-happy enthusiast who get bonus' for flagging content that is not up to snuff. The end result is a wide array of mediocre to brilliant articles on so many topics, written by people who usually are trying to make a couple bucks.

You cannot post any unoriginal content on Triond. Even if it is from your own blog. But if you post it on Triond first, you can then post it on your other blog if you want to. You own all the rights to your work, just after you post it on Triond.

The sites that they post your work on are.... less than professional. In fact, they load the sites with ads so much that it takes the site longer to load. But as a result, you get about a penny, per 10 views. Most of the traffic you get you have to make yourself, but that is not always the case. Just a day after I uploaded my first article, I got 6 views, without even posting it to twitter or facebook.

This site will not make you rick, or get you quick money. It will get you pennies, sometimes only a few dollars a month, if that. But even a dollar a month is something extra, so if you are a writer, go for it.

Popular Song - MIKA

Umm... what did I just...?

Well, the video was awkward. It reminds me of a very cliche' movie. It must be a Disney show song, because Disney is literally that cliche. They are bullied by the popular kids, and as a result, they concoct a potion to turn them all into stone. Then, they smash them all to little bits with a dinner plate. Must have been some cheap stone. They stare at you the whole time too. With this look of eerie monotone apathy.

The song itself is pretty repetitive.

Popular, I know about popular It's not about who you are or your fancy car You're only ever who you were Popular, I know about popular And all that you have to do is be true to you That's all you ever need to know 

The message is the same old message mentioned time and time before. You know, the one that never holds water.

Always on the lookout for someone to hate,Picking on me like a dinner plateYou hid during classes, and in betweenDunked me in the toilets, now it's you that cleans themYou tried to make me feel bad with the things you doIt ain't so funny when the joke's on youOoh, the joke's on youGot everyone laughing, got everyone clapping, asking,"How come you look so cool?"'Cause that's the only thing that I've learned at school, boy (uh huh)I said that that's the only thing that I've learned at school

In other words. If you are a bully, you will always grow up to be doing hard manual labor at a dead end job, while the bullied is the one succeeding at life. While this may happen in some cases, for the most part, many people who are popular are able to succeed in life better because they have more connections. You know, while they are jerks, popular kids have their own hopes, and dreams, and ambitions. So chances are, they do succeed. While the bullied kid may become depressed, and have self hatred because of being bullied. and not make it in life.

Although bullies are more likely to become criminals and wreck havoc, the amount of bullies who simply don't make it in life can't be numbered. They are probably slightly higher then people on average.

Standing on the field with your pretty pompomNow you're working at the movie selling popular corn

Popular... no. Just, no. Never again.

The tune is pretty catchy, but this song probably does not deserve 36 million views and 400,000 likes. I would give it a 2.5 stars out of 5. 

Mahou Shoujo Madoka Magica Review

Not half bad, despite it being ungodly short. This was actually not a bad anime.

The anime, despite the opening, does not revolve around Madoka Kaname. Which is a pretty epic way to have the biggest main character be a character on the sidelines. The main character is actually Homura Akemi, who repeatedly goes back in time to try to prevent Kaname from dying so she can remain with her... reminds me of another twist ending plotline, oh right! Mirai Nikki!

The series is really dark. It involves love, but it also involves plenty of death, pain, and anguish. Mourning and scarred pasts are common. But in a good light, there is plenty of pubescent lesbianism in here, which makes it pretty awesome. Taboo and dark.

I love this anime both due to the dark feeling of the characters, and the magical abilities. The characters are able to fight witches due to the magical abilities they have gained by, basically selling their soul to alien lifeforms. The character development is pretty cool, and one of them even has fangs : 3

The ending was ok, if not kinda cliche'. She has the power and changes the entire universe, past, and future, because of it. That way nobody ever has to become a witch ever again. Kinda reminds me of... Mirai Nikki. This anime has a lot of correlations it seems. Person gains power to become ruler of space and time, and the other character fights to keep them in their memories despite everything.

I would recommend this anime to anyone who wants to watch it. Espessially those like me who like anime with a dark, macabre twist.

Red Like Roses Pt 2

Ok, so this song isn't really that bad. The guitar opening is actually extremely awesome and catchy. It makes you want to get up and dance, or expect this to be in the fighting scene in a videogame.

Then.... she sings. Casey Williams didn't do a bad job on her other songs, like Red Like Roses, Pt 1. But she simply does not have the voice for hardcore rock-ish music. It kinda sounds like a carebear being angsty. It simply doesn't work.

Now don't get me wrong, this song is super catchy, despite her voice. I keep listening to it on repeat. But the fact remains that they should have gotten another singer. There is only one throughout the whole series. Casey Williams, whom is Jeff Williams daughter. So it's not too shocking as to why she got all of the singing parts. Cheap talent.

But I digress. This would be a lot better if they got a different singer, but it's not a bad song. I'd recommend it to anyone who wants to hear an epic song.