Pokémon Alpha Sapphire Review

The time has finally come Pokémon fans, November 21st, Pokémon Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire has hit the shelves and I am ecstatic! At long last I can beat Steven Stone all over again!

Now with these being remakes and all don’t expect the story to change too drastically if you played the originals on your Gameboy Advanced, it’s pretty much the same thing with graphical updates and a few new odds and ends.

STORY AND GAMEPLAY

The key differences between Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire are pretty much the story. In one story you get a bunch of eco-terrorists wanting to evaporate the world’s oceans and causing a major drought. In the other you get another bunch of eco-terrorists wanting to flood the world. Other than that the main difference between any Pokémon game is what Pokémon you get, you obviously get Groudon in Omega Ruby and Kyogre in Alpha Sapphire and a few other different Pokémon sprinkled throughout the region of Hoenn.

Once again, like with every Pokémon game you go out as a preteen on your Pokémon adventure to earn eight Badges from eight Gym Leaders, defeat the Elite Four and the Champion, catch ’em all and become Pokémon Master. If you played any of the original games you’re pretty much good to go and you know what to do.

The one thing brand new to this particular generation that I am glad to see returning is the EXP Share system and the Pokémon-Amie system from X and Y. The EXP Share let’s you level up your team lickity split without any tedious grinding. The Pokémon-Amie is a fun little distraction that you can pet your Pokémon and feed them treats and play with your Pokémon so they like you more and win more EXP and help you out with battles. If you play with them enough, your Pokémon will survive from a critical KO and break through different statuses so it’s very important that you play with them enough. And besides who wouldn’t want to play with their Pokémon?

I also like some of the new PokéNav functions being an app called the AreaNav that lets you learn what Pokémon are in the area and if you caught them all! Finally! No more looking up Bulbapedia or Serebii to see if you caught every last Pokémon in the area! Another function of the AreaNav lets you know about Pokémon that are rustling in the grass. Depending on the Pokemon its tail, head or a generic black shadow will rustle in the grass and you have to move the circle pad delicately to sneak up on it and the closer you sneak up on it, the more you know about it from its shadow.You can even find Pokémon who have a really rare move you have to breed into it in the wild!

GRAPHICS

Since this game borrows from the X and Y engine expect amazing visuals and fully fleshed 3D models of you, your Pokémon, the towns and routes. However they still haven’t figured out how to put everything with the 3D on so you can only really have full 3D popping out at you when you’re in a battle, but that doesn’t make it any less gorgeous. The Hoenn region is a lush tropical island full of sandy beaches, green forests and gorgeous water so you’re basically going on a nice vacation whenever you turn the game on!

CONS

As great as this game is…. it really needs to work on a few things. They’re not overly critical but it’s just a little bit disappointing that there isn’t some things returning from X and Y.

One particular thing is that there is no trainer customization. We’re back to looking like Brendan and May in this game instead of whatever we wanted to in X and Y with different skin tones, hair styles and clothes. The official statement on that is because Kalos was focused on beauty they had that, but it’s still just silly that they just scrapped some easily programmable assets because of it being a different region.

Another thing I’m a little disappointed in is that the fact that your first party Pokémon still can’t follow you around. Granted they probably don’t have time to render about 718 3D models to follow you around and if they’re willing to over look size and shape into that account. I’d just really would love to see my starter follow me and interact with me again like back in the good old days of Heart Gold and Soul Silver… or Yellow if you want to go that far back and just have Pikachu follow you.

FINAL RESULTS

I love this game, heck, I love any new Pokémon that comes out because after a while I feel nostalgic starting over with a small cute Pokémon and raising it and watch it fight with me and share good and bad times with me, it’s like making a whole new friend. A new friend that’ll make more new friends and so on and so forth until I have an army of friends that will always stick with me! I definitely recommend this game to any Pokémon fan or someone who wants to get back into Pokémon!

Oh and one more thing, there is enough water, but not enough Spinda!

Pokémon Art Academy Review

As a Pokémon fan, I’m always excited whenever the franchise tries something new away from its wide exploring RPG monster catching world and Pokémon Art Academy is no exception. A crossover with the franchise and Art Academy, a game that teaches you how to draw, paint, and use different art techniques like hatching. Unfortunately for me, as an artist, I’ve never gotten my hands on an Art Academy game, not even knowing the series existed and even then I think I’d be too busy playing something else. However, slap Pokémon on it and I’m all for it.

This game is a little odd however, while it was released in Japan in June and Europe/Australia in July it only now receives a state side release on October 24th… about a month before Pokémon Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire comes along and hooks us Pokéfans into our Hoenn adventure. Why did it take so long? I don’t know, it even got a rather quiet release with hardly any heads up. The only reason a few people would get this game however is that if you register it you can get a free ORAS demo code. Anyways I’m babbling, let’s jump right in!

STORY/GAMEPLAY

Pokémon Art Academy is where you and your rival go to school together to become master Pokémon Card Artists. Now whether this world actually has Pokémon in it that also has the card game for some reason or this is our normal world is a mystery but they treat an art school where they take drawing Pokémon serious, that’s good enough for me and wishing that this was a real place for me to go. Your art instructor is Professor Andy, brother of Vince from the Art Academy series and your rival Lily (if you choose your gender as male) or Lee (if you choose your gender as female) and you learn various art techniques and whether or not your rival is up to the task to be a Pokémon artist instead of an abstract artist.

The gameplay is really nice. You start off with your entrance exam picking one of three Pokémon to draw (Pikachu, Piplup or Froakie) and you’re ready to go! Professor Andy will go extremely easy on you with a bunch of beginner lessons like head shots of round Pokémon, to full portraits of easy to draw ones. Later on you begin to unlock new lessons with construction shapes and shading along with new tools like paintbrushes and pastels. As soon as you finish the beginning lessons you get straight into more advanced lessons, a little too advanced for beginning artists if you ask me, but as an experienced artist it was a cinch. Then it puts up more complicated Pokémon for you to draw with different art styles like paint and pastels.

There is also a free paint mode where you can draw more Pokémon as soon as you unlock lessons and even have no subject at all to draw whatever you want.

The game is extremely relaxing, before going to class I play a few lessons to wake me up and do some daily art.  I’m even learning more things I can use in my own personal art projects!

There are a few complaints however, due to this being a Nintendo 3DS game, you don’t have much room to draw. The regular 3DS bottom screen is about 3 inches and that is way too small, even the XL would be a little too small to play on. This game would definitely be better on the Wii U where the GamePad is almost as big as a regular tablet. My second complaint is that you can only share the pictures on Miiverse. I never really use Miiverse. I’d much rather would save it to the SD card like how Sm4sh takes pictures so that I can upload it wherever. That is why I don’t have art breaking up the paragraphs here. I would if I could but there is not the option.

FINAL RESULTS

All in all this is an OK game! I like it! Honestly, I didn’t think I would like it as much at the start since there’s too many beginning lessons and as someone who really wants to improve their art I don’t want to be stuck doing a bunch of stuff I already know how to do, but the advanced lessons are teaching me a lot! I’d much prefer if there was a Wii U version due to how small the screen is. This is better for Pokémon fans than actual artists. However if you do have children that are interested in art and Pokémon this is a good game!

Spotlight: Hamtaro and Licensed Games

It’s quite a rarity when a licensed game is considered decent or even good, but Hamtaro has managed to make one of the best licensed games I’ve ever played! Hamtaro is a children’s anime that premiered on Toonami in 2002 among Tenchi Muyo!, Gundam and Cowboy Bebop, with everyone questioning Toonami’s decision. It’s like putting up G3 My Little Pony with Batman and Courage the Cowardly Dog. But despite that it’s considered a cult classic with people who tuned in and watched it, unfortunately Viz who distributed Hamtaro in the states just thought it was a lost cause and cancelled it after 104 episodes and two and a quarter OVAs, less than half of the actual 295 episodes four movies and four OVAs of the series with a small spin-off in 2006. What’s odd is that they still have a vice like grip on the license since they’re not doing anything with it, so it’s not like they’ll gain anything by selling nothing and they should probably give the rights to a company that’ll nourish it but I digress.

 

 

Hamtaro starred a little golden hamster that always had big adventures with his little hamster friends. Occasionally they’ll meet a new hamster of the day, especially in the later seasons. They’re not too action packed or emotional, but it’s an extremely fun romp through a world of cute fluffiness. Oh, and they have owners, but they’re not particularly interesting.

Hamtaro’s game count is seven excluding the horrific edutainment CD-rom game “Wake Up, Snoozer!” and a bizarre plug-and-play laptop circus game that was released in Japan only. However because of Viz being a dummy they only released five of them internationally with one of them being EXTREMELY rare.

HAMTARO HAM-HAMS UNITE

Hamtaro Ham-Hams Unite was released way near the end of the Gameboy Color’s life. You take control of Hamtaro of course by trying to find the rest of the Ham-Hams in time for a party that Boss has prepared. You also learn Ham-Chat, which is slang that hamsters use and is important to your progression in the game.

This game isn’t particularly perfect, it’s kind of ugly and brown but I guess that’s to be expected with the GBC’s limitations. It’s also not the best story wise since the latter games get better with plot and characters but it’s a good start for what the series has in store. (Please excuse the use of Japanese boxart, finding a quality picture of the American one is hard to find but your better off this way. The American one is stock vector garbage compared to the made-for cover the Japanese box has.)

HAMTARO HAM-HAM HEARTBREAK

This is somewhat the poster child of Hamtaro games, if you’ve played any of them, this is the one! After waking up from a nightmare Hamtaro needs to go find Bijou but when Bijou needs to hang back to fix Oxnard and Pepper’s relationship, the hamster from Hamtaro’s nightmare, Spat, has announced that he will ruin all love across the land. Hamtaro and Bijou will stop him for sure though, along with the angel hamster Harmony!

This game gave me a lot of trouble for the past few years to the fact that I couldn’t beat it because of a stupid slide puzzle, but a while ago I figured out the slide puzzle and beat it! I didn’t think an easy game like this would take a few years to beat. Either way Ham-Ham Heartbreak is an extremely memorable experience with cute graphics, neat characters and an interesting story.

HAMTARO RAINBOW RESCUE

Hamtaro Rainbow Rescue is the rare one of the bunch, only being released in Japan and Europe. A hamster named Bo has fallen from the sky and Hamtaro and the Ham-Hams must take him back to his home in the sky, Rainbow Land by finding an object that matches with the seven colors of the rainbow.

This is my favorite game of them all, I was lucky enough to get a bootleg import from China to play it. Unfortunately it died a month after I got it but I managed to beat the entire story and after story and it was extremely adorable. It’s such a shame that it never got to be released. Like Ham-Ham Heartbreak it has amazing graphics and story. I also really like that there’s a lot of extra hamsters that weren’t lucky enough to get placed into the show or at least into the dub of the show.

HAMTARO HAM-HAM GAMES

Before Mario and Sonic and the Olympic Games sunk their hooks in every Nintendo console ever, this was the quality Olympics game to play. Bo from Rainbow Rescue is holding the Ham-Ham Games, which is held every 8686 Ham-Ham years. Take control of Hamtaro, Bijou, Boss and other Ham-Hams to take the gold in a multitude of sporting events including Tennis, Sailing, Volleyball!

This is an interesting turn in the series due to it being a change in genres, from adventure puzzle solving to general sports. However that makes it a little challenging at first. I remember when I first got the game it took a little bit of practice through the different sports but you learn fast. Another plus is the fact that a few of these characters popped up in the third Hamtaro movie. It’s good to see some of the movie characters show up since the movies are exclusive to Japan and all.

HI! HAMTARO HAM-HAM CHALLENGE

The last of the games in the Hamtaro series, Hi! Hamtaro Ham-Ham Challenge is based of the Hi! Hamtaro shorts that were introduced after the main series. This is an edutainment game based for younger children that teaches simple math, memory and word comprehension. Hamtaro and the Ham-Hams have different mini games in store to play.

This is definitely for little children or fans of Hamtaro only. If you’re expecting a story, look to the previous games. It’s cute for what it is, and looking for all the scratch off cards will take forever, so that’s basically the only reason for anyone to keep playing besides the Ham-Hams.

Unfortunately, Nintendo has no plans of releasing the first few on virtual console due to Hamtaro being “dead” so your only hope to play them is either ROMs or finding used copies on eBay, Amazon or Gamestop. If you do manage to find them and play them for yourself, I assure that you will be treated with a hidden gem of a license title!

Spotlight: Horror Games

Since Halloween is coming up, I’m sure the lot of you are trying to figure out what you’re going to do besides dressing up and going to a party or staying in and watching the same old horror movies over and over again. If you’re not afraid of playing video games, I recommend giving these games a try!

FIVE NIGHTS AT FREDDY’S

One of the new hidden gems on Greenlight, Five Nights At Freddy’s lets you control Mike Schmidt at his deadbeat job at Freddy Fazbear’s Pizza by watching over the restaurant in the graveyard shift. It’s all fine and good until you realize the beat up anamatronics start disappearing on you and moving to different sections of the pizzeria. Keep your power supply good until 6 AM and keep a light out in the hall so you can keep an eye on them sneaking up on you. Also watch out for Foxy, he seems silly peeking his head into your office but he’s all business like the others. This game is receiving a sequel in 2015 for more screechy goodness and you can find the original for a small fee on Greenlight, Steam, Andoid and iOS!

YUME NIKKI

A cult classic, Yume Nikki lets you dive deep into the weird dream world that Madotsuki holds in her mind. You’re given no other instructions other than to sleep and just explore the dreams. It’s up to your own interpretation what this girl is dreaming of and what her life is. This game inspired fan games such as Yume 2kki, .flow, and others and managed to get a manga, a light novel and even a music single! It’s entirely free and can be downloaded on Uboachan with new updates as soon as they come out.

IB

A personal favorite of mine, Ib is a game about a little girl going to an art museum with her family, but it turns on her and becomes an art museum of horrors with paintings crawling after her, killer mannequins on the loose and a new friend joining Ib in this madhouse. You can lose yourself in the story and fall in love with characters and possibly never want to visit an art museum ever again.

STORY OF THE BLANKS

For all the My Little Pony fans out there who want more traditional horror than gross torture fanfiction, Story of the Blanks features the lead of the Cutie Mark Crusaders, Apple Bloom being drawn into the Everfree Forest by a mysterious pony and into the peaceful villa of Sunnytown where no adult ponies have their cutie marks. Apple Bloom soon finds out what happened in Sunnytown so long ago and undead pony zombies are soon after her. Guide her back to Twilight Sparkle and escape the horrible curse of Sunnytown.

AMONG THE SLEEP

While this has been out for a year, I managed to take a look into this and enjoyed it thoroughly. While it’s not really jumpscare scary, it’s just more nerve wracking. You play as a toddler on his second birthday after receiving a teddy bear as a present. Your teddy bear comes alive and becomes your friend through this journey. You’re awoken from your crib as your new friend is taken away from you and you must travel through your house and memories looking for your mother who suddenly disappeared. This game is also available on Steam.

These are a few recommendations, however there are plenty of other horror games out there so take your pick on what you’re interested to play.

 

Spotlight: Ghost Pokémon

Pokémon is a series full of cuddly critters that battle each other to get stronger and is one of Nintendo’s most popular franchises. However a lot of people don’t realize that it hides some dark secrets under the guise of a friendly child’s game. Here are a few Ghost type Pokémon that make you glad that these Pocket MONSTERS aren’t real.

Banette 

Banette is a ghostie from generation 3 that is a doll with a dark secret. Its Emerald Dex Entry says “An abandoned plush doll became this Pokémon. They are said to live in garbage dumps and wander about in search of the children that threw it away.”  Other Dex entries mention that it also sticks pins in itself to generate energy for making strong curses. What we got here is a vengeful voodoo doll that crawled out of the trash to find its owner based on the Japanese myth of Tsukomogami, which is an inanimate object that comes to life after 100 years of its creation. Remember to treat your old toys with care, lest you want it to come back to you.

Drifloon

A cute purple balloon with a cloud on its head? What’s so scary about that? Not much unless you’re a child or a parent. This generation 4’s Japanese Pokédex entry states that it takes children to the land of the dead. In America that’s been changed to taken away but that’s still a creepy thought. However you don’t have to worry too much, Drifloon are so light that a child will be stringing it along rather than the opposite. It’s evolution, Drifblim seems to have given up it’s pre-evolution’s hobby so don’t let it worry you. Naturally these little guys are based on balloons, or rather the spirits of popped balloons. See that yellow X there? Probably a band-aid. Adorable!

DUSKULL FAMILY

Where to begin with these guys, this is a true triple threat right here. Duskull, the first in the line has their Black and White entries say that “It loves the crying of children. It startles bad kids by passing through walls and making them cry.” The first sentence alone should really tell you this guy is bad news. Startling bad kids? Not so much, however some other Dex entries inform that it’ll spirit away bad kids… or so say the tales. Maybe take some entries with a grain of salt but this is Pokémon, anything could happen. These critters are based on the Namahage, or the Japanese version of the Bogeyman that yells at children for their bad behavior.

Moving onto Dusclops with its Sapphire entry “Dusclops absorbs anything, however large the object may be. This Pokémon hypnotizes its foe by waving its hands in a macabre manner and by bringing its single eye to bear. The hypnotized foe is made to do Dusclops’ bidding.” So if it doesn’t eat you, it’ll make you do its bidding. Good thing that usually they’re under a trainer’s control… and fictional. Based on the Chochin-obake which are one eyed lantern monsters. And of course there is some mummy in that design.

Finally, Dusknoir has its Diamond and Pearl entry state that “The antenna on its head captures radio waves from the world of spirits that command people to take them there.” Friendly. It’s likely the radio waves are based on electronic voice phenomena which are basically voices of spirits and such.

YAMASK

Now, Yamask isn’t too scary in itself or what it does to people. Look at that face, isn’t it cute? But like all Dex entries the truth is pretty earth shattering. Black gives us the information that “Each of them carries a mask that used to be its face when it was human. Sometimes they look at it and cry.” So what we got here is a ghost of a person that carries around a death mask of their face and they remember being human themselves and they cry as a Pokémon. What a harsh afterlife… These Pokémon are based on Ba, the Egyptian souls.

LAMPENT

Lampent, the middle evolution of the fan favorite Litwick line has the honor of having this entry in Black 2 and White 2. “The spirits it absorbs fuel its baleful fire. It hangs around hospitals waiting for people to pass on.” Next time you go visit your sickly family member and see this guy hanging around, you better bring a hose… since it’s a Fire/Ghost type after all. Hitodama or Will O’ The Wisp is what this guy is based on, along with an old street lamp.

PHANTUMP

Like Yamask, these little guys are humans transformed into Pokémon. Their Y entry states that “According to old tales, these Pokémon are stumps possessed by the spirits of children who died while lost in the forest.” Even if it’s an old wives tale it’s still just as unsettling. Phantump are based on kodamas, little tree spirits that inhabit old dead trees.

 

GOURGEIST

It’s about time Pokémon released a jack-o-lantern instead of wasting its time on vegetable lambs of Tartary and skinks. Gourgeist is a neat ghostie that has two interesting dexes. In X “Singing in eerie voices, they wander town streets on the night of the new moon. Anyone who hears their song is cursed.” and in Y “It enwraps its prey in its hairlike arms. It sings joyfully as it observes the suffering of its prey.” So not only does it strangle the life out of whatever its going to eat, it will also be cursed. Lovely.

GIRATINA

Last but certainly not least is the legendary Ghost/Dragon type, Giratina. Where Arceus is considered the God of the Pokémon world, this is the Satan of the Pokémon world. However this guys not really all that bad. Platinum Dex tells us that “It was banished for its violence. It silently gazed upon the old world from the Distortion World.” All it does is chill in its world, no big deal. Not to mention the Distortion World is less of a Pokéhell and more of M. C. Escher’s Relativity. But of course in the Pokémon world, if it’s big, scary and is wild, it can’t really be a good sign. Giratina borrows inspiration from a number of different ideas like the Basilisk, a sauropod and the Amphitere.

 

There are plenty of other Ghost type Pokémon, but that’ll take a good while to explain them all. For those of you who want to read all about them, good luck sleeping tonight.

Rainbow Rocks Review

The second Equestria Girls movie has made it’s television debut on the Discovery Family channel this weekend and I’ve managed to sit myself down and watch it… which is a considerable accomplishment for someone who was a little hesitant about a sequel to the “meh” factor that the first Equestria Girls movie brought.

Equestria Girls is Hasbro’s answer to Mattel’s Barbie and Monster High fashion doll line with the cast of My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic. It’s basically the show but instead of magical ponies, it’s magical school girls but without the cool factor of some magical girl series. You could say it’s 120% lamer. Jokes aside let’s dive on into this movie.

The opening setting is the human world where it’s basically like our own world except the humans have pastel colored skin and bright colored hair not unlike ponies. It opens straight away with the antagonists, Adagio Dazzle, Sonata Dusk and Aria Blaze sitting in a restaurant complaining how they’ve been in the human world for way too long and they need some magic and soon see off in the distance a rainbow explosion from the fall of Sunset Shimmer from the previous film. They realize that there’s magic in the human world at that location and go straight away.

After the opening credits, we see a few members of Canterlot High get ready for their school’s musical showcase including the “Humane Five” performing as The Rainbooms. Whenever they perform however they gain the pony ears/(wings for Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy) and they don’t understand since the magic from Princess Twilight’s crown should have faded since Twilight went back to her world. Sunset Shimmer looks on with her new friends and tries to continue to make a good first impression. Sunset Shimmer is called to show some new girls around the school which turns out to be Adagio, Sonata and Aria. Sunset notices there’s something off about these girls and at lunch she tells the others. Soon enough the Dazzlings trio waltzes into the cafeteria and begins to sing an enchanted song that turns the students against each other and the musical showcase becomes a Battle of the Bands.

Sunset and others try to contact Twilight through Sunset’s old spell book she used to use to write to Princess Celestia. About 30 minutes of exposition which you could easily learn in less than 30 seconds in a promo, we’re finally in Ponyville where we witness what the “Mane Six” just relaxing in Twilight’s new tree castle. Twilight gets the message from a newly arrived book and calls everyone to a meeting. Apparently the mysterious singing trio are former Sirens that were banished from Equestria by Star Swirl the Bearded. Unlike actual Sirens that shipwrecked sailors with their beautiful songs, these Hippocampi critters basically caused intense disagreements amongst the ponyfolk with their voices. Because you know, you can’t have death of innocents in a kid friendly show, so let’s just have them all fight like a bunch of dummies. Either way Twilight and faithful assistant Spike decide they must go back the human world and Twilight rigs up an instant transport.

Twilight and Spike arrive in the human world and Pinkie Pie decides that they should have a sleepover at her house to try and think of a plan to stop the Sirens from taking over the school. Twilight and Sunset have a talk about how they’re both worried they’ll let everyone down and the musical showcase and the school be ruined. The next day, the battle begins with several bands/groups including a comedic rap with Snips and Snails, Octavia jamming on her cello and a great cameo of Bubble Trouble on a musical saw. The Rainbooms finally go on with new lead singer Twilight replacing Rainbow Dash and the audition doesn’t go smoothly due to other bands trying to sabotage their chances. Sunset Shimmer is soon cornered by the Dazzlings and they start filling her head full of negativity and doubt.

The Dazzlings and Trixie’s band The Illusions get to be the headliners in a large outdoor stage in the final bout. Twilight and the others are trapped under the stage with only Spike going out for help. Spike finds the only one not under the Dazzlings spell, DJ PON-3 who never takes off her headphones. DJ PON-3 takes her radical magical transforming DJ car and hooks up the Rainbooms’ musical equipment and proceed to drown out the Dazzlings’ hypnotic voices until they go rogue and become their Siren forms. However the Rainbooms throw out their showstopper and they turn into their Rainbow forms. A giant winged unicorn that looks suspiciously like a Robot Unicorn vanquishes the Sirens and now they’re just harmless humans that can’t even sing anymore. With the human world saved again Twilight goes back home and the Rainbooms become the best show in town with new member Sunset Shimmer and the film ends.

Now a review doesn’t really tell the whole story does it? Well there’s a reason that I give you this rundown…

THIS MOVIE IS ONE OF THE WORST MOVIES I HAVE EVER SAT THROUGH.

I want my hour and a half back after watching this garbage. I’m usually very generous in an opinion of a movie or a game or anything and if something bugs me a little I usually just brush it off because it’s just a little thing. But when it becomes this level it infuriates me to no end.

Why did they make a horrible sequel to an average movie!? Why would they continue this!? WHY ANYTHING!? I have no idea, I guess they needed a few extra bucks and they probably think that any pony fan would watch it to satiate their pony thirst until the fifth season whenever that is…

The plot is too stupid and easily solved, the music is horrible to compare to the series regular standard of Broadway gold, and the entire thing is just a mess… The only positives that this gave out is a few little quirks and gags here and there… However those ends do not justify the means.

Do yourself a favor, never watch this pile of road apples. Just don’t even bother. Watch an actual episode of the show, watch an episode of the classic show, watch one of those G3 movies, It’s way better than this! Hopefully this nonsense will make it stop and we’ll have a legitimate Pony movie rather than this.

Smash for 3DS Review

The time has finally come and Super Smash Bros for 3DS has finally come out to the states. Playing throughout the week with all the characters and modes unlocked have given me some time to play through so it’s a good time to make a review.

GAME PLAY AND MODES

The game play is extremely fun with four different modes including regular Smash, the highly anticipated Smash Run only for 3DS and the Classic and All-Star modes. I usually do these by myself because from what I’ve heard, the online connection for some of these modes are painfully slow and there seems to be no talk of a patch soon so it might be best to wait until a patch comes out.

Other than that it’s excellent, it’s a pain to actually make this post since I want to play more and more! I do think All-Star mode needs some fixing up however. If I recall back to Melee and Brawl All-Star mode had items where in this one there are no items. Then again I could be wrong, it’s been a very long time. But that’s alright, this mode can be cleared in about ten minutes depending on the difficulty. One thing I wish that would come back from Melee and Brawl is a type of Story mode like Adventure from Melee and The Subspace Emissary from Brawl. Sakurai has stated that an adventure type mode was cut due to him wanting people to play the game itself instead of watching cut scenes on various video sites. Understandable, however I would still like an adventure mode so that some of the characters being unlocked wouldn’t be such a pain to unlock.

Home Run Contest, Multi-Man Melee and the new Bomb Rush and Trophy Rush mode has been included. However they’re fun little side modes that can be accessed in Solo Games and More mode. They’re just fun little modes you can get for a challenge checklist so I don’t really spend too much on them.

Another thing that should be stated is some of the internet features like Global Smash Power and Street Smash is well… useless. I really don’t care who the best Smasher in the world is and Street Smash is entirely useless if you live in the middle of nowhere where there are no gamers present. One of the checklist challenges is to get five hits in Street Smash and I’ve only gotten four. I’ve only been lucky to manage to get those four by taking my 3DS to classes with me. It’d be better if the entire Street Smash idea was scrapped or just be a Japanese only feature since they care more about handheld gaming than US/Europe’s take on home console gaming.

CHARACTERS AND STAGES

With a whopping 51 characters, you certainly have lots to choose from, and 12 of those being unlocked, you even have lots of options straight from the get go! I started naturally with my main character, Pikachu! However, Pikachu is just to get warmed up to the game, eventually I started unlocking new characters and stages one by one and play on all of them. A few of my new favorites are Duck Hunt, Greninja, Villager Rosalina and Luma and one of my most favorites of all, Bowser Jr. hides a neat secret. His alternate costumes are of the 7 Koopalings so that means you can play all of Bowser’s “children”.

Tell me that isn’t the coolest thing? Some other fan favorites come back as Ness, Captain Falcon, Sonic the Hedgehog and Jigglypuff.

The stages in this game are also amazing as well, but not as expansive as the characters with a few being recycled from past games. There’s a total of 34 stages with 9 reused stages there is still a nice number to choose from. You can also access their Omega Form as well which turns off items and stage hazards and leaves only a plain platform for you to fight on but that’s only in Smash. I love a few of the newer stages, however that’s only three or four with the rest being a little forgettable.

MUSIC

Pulling all of Nintendo’s talent, the soundtrack is absolutely AMAZING. While having only two songs per stage, you’d think Nintendo wouldn’t try as hard on a handheld console, but they do amazing work with such limited space. From such legends as Yoko Shimomura (Kingdom Hearts, Mario and Luigi RPG series) to Hirokazu Tanaka (Metroid) have collaborated on this wonderful soundtrack. One of the best things about this edition of Smash is that you can go to the sound test area and listen to it, even with your 3DS on sleep mode like your own personal music player! While not complete, GilvaSunner has a majority of the songs on his youtube channel that you can try out for yourself.

The score is not 100% original though. A few songs are ripped from Brawl, noticeably in the Yoshi’s Island and WarioWare Inc. stage. While those songs are as good as they are in Brawl, I’m disappointed that they don’t at least add a new song real quickly to the mix.

OTHERS

One thing I do love about this game is that the fact there is a camera mode when you’re playing a match. This is how I got a majority of these wonderful pictures. I am a little disappointed that you can’t take a picture anytime though. I’d love to have a picture option to take a screen shot of all the trophies I collected.

Speaking of trophies, they’re perfect. I’ve always loved trophies since their inclusion in Melee, you get to learn so much about Nintendo’s history. In this edition, a former writer from the Mother series has taken up putting the descriptions of each trophy and they are hilarious! You’ll get a little bit of information with a little bit of humor. I even snickered when the Pokémon Trainer started to quote the beginning of the theme song. Of course a few of the trophies are a giant collection of puns such as Eggplant (Pit) and the Cuccos but if you are indeed curious about these things you could always look them up if you want more information. These are just small snippets of information.

FINAL RESULTS

I enjoy this game, it’s absolutely unputdownable, so writing this review is a little hard for me because I want to get back to it extremely badly.

Is it perfect? In some aspects no, but it’s the first build of a handheld Smash game so I’ll let it go this time. It’s got it’s flaws like any other game but the positive definitely outshine the negatives for me.

I’d rather not give games a number rating, but based on my emotions, I love it. I will thoroughly enjoy this game until I beat it 100%. In closing, here are some more wacky pictures to leave you with some goodness!

October CoroCoro Pokéinfo

Once again CoroCoro has gone above and beyond to present more Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire information by giving us more Mega Evolutions and game play mechanics.

For those who don’t know, CoroCoro is a Japanese mangazine that features different manga and news to video games and anime and Pokémon is no exception and every Pokéfan waits with baited breath for the new issue to come out when a new game is announced. With Pokémon Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire being released November 21st, the anticipation is extremely close!

Starting off we have the new Mega Evolutions of this issue. Mega Beedrill and Mega Pidgeot with some previous Mega Evolutions being shown with Mega Sableye, Mega Audino and Mega Slowbro. Mega Beedrill and Mega Pidgeot don’t really change much other than having the abilities Adaptability and No Guard respectively, however those can be game breaking. Adaptability can raise the attack of a Pokémon’s STAB (Same Type Attack Bonus) from 1.5X to 2X which means if Mega Beedrill uses a Bug or Poison type move that means it’ll gain that 2X attack bonus. Mega Pidgeot’s No Guard allows all moves to hit which means it’s not safe from any attack but that doesn’t mean the opponent is either. One good Hurricane and that opponent is knocked out! So these could mean more use out of these Pokémon rather than being dumped into the PC box after a few catches later.

Next month CoroCoro will give out codes for an Eon Ticket to Southern Island so you can get Latios in Alpha Sapphire or Latias in Omega Ruby. You can also Mega Evolve them and then you can fly around the skies of Hoenn and even fly to Mythical Places which are found in islands in the sky. Different legendary Pokémon can be found and caught there.

Next CoroCoro issue is the last issue before the big release so there will be even more big news once it comes out and we’ll all be taking a tropical vacation to Hoenn this November.

You can learn more about this information and about Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire here!

Mini Update!: Super Smash Bros. Wii U Release Date

Super Smash Bros. says “Wii” would like “U” to play their game on November 21st.

The long awaited release date of the Wii U edition of Super Smash Bros. has arrived! The official website updated and fans can now face each other on the big screen.

It is unknown if there will be a special Wii U bundle at the time due to it being super popular but there is a major chance at that happening.

A review of my playthrough of the Nintendo 3DS edition will be made later in the week so stay tuned!

Bob’s Burgers 5th Season Premiere

Finally, FOX’s final animated show of the season has made it’s premiere. The new cult classic, Bob’s Burgers will make it’s premiere this Sunday at 7:30 PM Eastern time.

The episode titled “Work Hard or Die Trying, Girl” will have Gene stage an underground performance of a “Die Hard” inspired musical. However a feud will be triggered when he decides to schedule it at the same night as Courtney’s school play.

FOX has been rather sporadic with its animated show releases since early September making a microseason out of American Dad and have it premiere for two weeks and then having The Simpsons and Family Guy season premieres with the latter being an hour long. However, things will go back to normal this week with Sunday Funday going at its normal hours.