Revisit: Superbowl Sunday

Hello everyone! I hope you are doing well.

Well it has been a week since Superbowl. I barely was paying attention to the sportsy parts, but even I know the comeback that the team made was pretty impressive considering how far behind they were. Congrats to the winners, better luck next time to the losers.

Now for the commercials.

I am not going to talk about all of them. If you want to see all of the Superbowl Ads for this year, then you can watch the playlist here.

My second favorite was the Skittles commercial. It was just really funny how everyone is tolerable of the situation they were in because of candy. It did make me want Skittles, but I didn't go buy them. If I wanted to, I would have had to walk to the store, and I wasn't feeling my best to begin with. I will congratulate the commercial for making actually want to buy the product they were showing.

It seemed like the Budweiser commercial was really controversial. Everyone just assumed that they were pushing some sort of agenda with foreigners, when it fact it is just a history lesson on how the company started. Really, guys? Is everyone going to get offended when someone comes from out of the country and starts their life in the US? I swear, the people of today are growing more intolerant by the second. For everyone always shouting about Free Speech all the time, people of today sure don't seem to like hearing what other people have to say and love blocking it out. Strange.

Anyway, my favorite commercial was the Mr. Clean commercial. It was funny and sexy if you wanted to look at it that way. Of course people complained because of the sexualization of a cartoon character man. Some were more mad that it was a man, others were more mad that it was a cartoon. Some made fits because people were complaining about this, where if it was a woman, it would have been different. Some didn't care, they just didn't want this sex thing near their sports.

And ya know what I think? As long as the process of reproduction is also used for pleasure, there will always be sexualization going on. There will be sexualization of everything and everyone whether you like it or not. And as long as Free Speech is around, you will have to deal with it forever. It isn't just Free Speech for you and only everything you agree with. Free Speech for all and everything, or Free Speech for no one.

This was the other reason that the Mr. Clean commercial was my favorite, it shows how sensitive the people of today have gotten, and it is really sad.

I personally didn't get offended by any of the commercials. However, I have a high tolerance of others and their opinions. I'm an insightful type of person that likes to listen to what others have to say and then think about it for a while before saying something about it. I honestly wish more people were like that, but having people that are different is what makes the place we live so interesting.

So you do you, people of today. Until next week!

Superbowl Sunday!

Hello everyone. I know, Jelly is talking about sports?! Kinda, but not really.

I don't like sports. I will be tuning in to the Superbowl tomorrow, but not for the football. I am tuning in for the commercials. Last year I missed out since I was called away to a friend's house to make cupcakes. I have no regrets because it was cupcakes. I am more so going to have it rolling in the background while I continue my routine. I will only look at the TV when the sports isn't happening.

Sorry, football fans.

I know it was a short update this but I will make up for it with this picture I drew.

I hope you all enjoy the rest of your weekend. Until next week!

Fire Emblem Birthright(Spoiler Free)

Hello everyone. Jelly here.

I am not going to talk about much this week. Personally, I am in a really dark place right now.

I can tell you what I have been up to, though. I have been playing a lot of Fire Emblem: Birthright on my 3DS.  I had to start over since I am playing it on a new system, the last one broke in half, and I couldn't transfer the data. Well, I wouldn't be able to transfer the DLC, since I had the cartridge. It's fine, I would have restarted anyway. I am still enjoying myself. I had to re-purchase the DLC, though.

I am enjoying the game just as much as I first time. I have some friends that can't find it in themselves to play this game. They say it is because of the perma-death game mechanics, which they added the Phoenix play-style in Fates to fix. But they don't want to play that either because it isn't the true experience. They think of it as mocking the player for not being able to handle the game for how it originally was.

Personally, I don't care. I don't like the pressure of losing my characters in game. That is why I play on the phoenix mode. Am I mad that I can't handle the main way to play? No, it's just a game. I have more important things to get offended about.

I think, however, that people forget that middle mode that exists. Yes, there is classic mode, that features the perma -death. There is the phoenix mode where they come back in the middle of battle. But there is also casual mode, where they come back at the end of the chapter.

Some people just don't play it because the main mode is called Classic mode. It makes them feel mocked for not playing it the way it has been played in previous iterations. Sucks for them, getting offended by some text. They miss out on a experience that I believe to be quite enjoyable.

Anyway, I have been letting myself disappear into this game's world since I don't like the real world that I live in right now. I took a break because I was getting too depressed to play, and realized that I forgot to write yesterday. For that, I apologize.

I hope you all had a great weekend and enjoy your week going forward. Until next week!

Nightmares

Hello everyone! Jelly here. I hope you all are doing well today.

Personally, I am really tired. I haven't been getting much sleep. Usually it is due to me waking up in the middle of the night or nightmares. This time it was both, but I blame my lack of energy on the horrible nightmare I had. Unfortunately, I remember it...so I will tell it to you.


I was in an amusement park; the place resembled Knotts Berry Farm but the layout was different. I was standing around, waiting for the group I was traveling with to catch up. Suddenly, we hear a creaking noise that echoed through the skies. I look up and see one of the rides that once stood tall fall over and crash to the ground. It happened again to two more rides. I was panicked, but also confused to the sudden collapse of these rides. Suddenly, a man from our group runs up next to me and yells, 
"Everyone! It's a tsunami!" He points towards the way where the first ride fell.  Just as I align my eyes with the direction he pointed, I see it: A large wall-like wave of water that swallowed up the skies coming our way. I have never felt so horrified and scared of my life. Apparently everyone around felt the same way, as ear-splitting screams filled the air.
The man that stood next to me helped me snap out of it so that we can run. I ran as hard as I could, I ran with everything I had, but I was moving so slowly. I should have been able to keep up with everyone else, but it seemed like I was being intentionally made to move half as slow. 

There was no escape for me.

I get caught by the wall of water. I thought it would be over for me right then. To my surprise, I was able to grab a hold of this tall sturdy thing. It kind of looked like one of those billboards they have in the mall that changes its poster every few seconds, but there was no poster inside. I held on with every fiber of my being, with every ounce of energy I had. 

I closed my eyes, I just focused on holding on and breathing. As I reached inside myself, I spoke, "Don't give up, I won't give up...! I'm not ready to die yet!"

I opened my eyes.

The wave of water was gone. I was on the ground, still holding on to the billboard, standing and soaking wet. A lot of things were surprisingly still standing, while even more things were in ruins. More importantly, the park looked bare by how little people that were still up and about. Fortunately and to my surprise, the group that I was traveling with was still alive. We all decided that we would get supplies and then make the journey home. I saw a few people in their own groups, all heading in one way: towards to back entrance/exit of the park. It was usually reserved only for employees, but it seems it was converted to an emergency exit. After taking a deep breath, I head in the same direction, wishing that I could be home safe in my bed.


Like a cue, that was when I woke up, safe in my bed. It was like my nightmare was trying to apologize to me for scaring the shiz outta me. You are not forgiven, nightmare!

So that was my nightmare. I hope you appreciate my writing skills. When was the last time you had a nightmare? When you woke up, did you feel like you had less energy than before you went to bed?


I hope your days started off better than mine. Until next week!

Pain...I Don't Like It

Hello everyone! I hope you are doing well. I hope that your day is filled with sunshine and rainbows.

Because I am in a world of pain.

So basically, the day I am just about over my cold, my mouth starts hurting. I thought it was just soreness from too much pressure on it. However that pain, on a scale of 1-10, went from a 1 to a 9 within hours. Thank goodness the supervisor at my dentist office made an opening for me, because I was NOT going to last until Monday...

I had to take a combo of Uber and Lyft to get to the dentist, get my prescription, and to get back home. There was a lot of walking in between. The dentist couldn't do any work on the tooth because of the abscess. The tooth it was on was getting worked on by draining it the last time I came in, so that was kinda fortunate. The point is because they couldn't work on it, they gave me antibiotics and pain meds.

Once I got home and I had finally relaxed a bit after taking the pain meds, I realized something. I did all of that traveling around in public, getting in cars with complete strangers, without being on my anxiety/depression meds. I did all that walking around only on the energy of fives crackers. I pushed myself through these situations all because I was in horrific pain that I wanted to do everything to make go away. Pain is quite the motivator. I wouldn't suggest putting yourself in pain just to get things done.(Please don't hurt yourselves; I do not approve) I am saying that you shouldn't be surprised on what you can do when you find yourselves in that situation.

I would love to hear if you have had anything similar happen to you. Have you been in so much pain, that you were willing to do anything(and did) to make the pain stop?

I'm gonna go lay down, watch One Piece, and eat Malt-o-Meal now. Until next week!

Happy New Year!

Hello everyone! I hope you are having a Happy New Year! At the very least, I hope it isn't miserable. I, on the other hand, am dealing with being sick. It feels like the worst thing, but it's just a cold.

Moving on, did any of you make any resolutions for this year? Let me see hands! Nice! Now how many of you actually plan on following through and not giving up at the first hurdle? Oh, there's still some hands! Now put your hand down if you also said that last year, and even years before that, and it never worked out?

...and there goes the rest of those hands. I thought so.

New Years's Resolutions are difficult. We set high goals for ourselves, but they seem so large that we end up giving up. It's why I gave up on making them. I like the idea of making small goals than one giant one to strive for the entire year. Does it make it easier for me to finish? No, but that is more of a personal problem and struggles with my mental illnesses.

I do suggest that those that have a hard time with their resolutions should chop it up into smaller pieces that are track-able. You are most likely to see results that way. I wish you luck on your goals.

I'm gonna go back to bed now. Until next week!

Happy Holidays!

Hello everyone! Sorry I didn't talk to ya last week. I was too busy relaxing instead of celebrating! And I want to continue doing that, but I thought I should at least check in on ya!

Did any of yew get anything special? Have you done any nice activities? Did you have some great family bonding? I hope you enjoyed yourself, regardless of the holiday you celebrated.

Sorry there isn't much updates this week. We will have a more fun post next week! Until then, Happy Holidays and a Happy New Year! <3

Side Effects and Withdrawal Symptoms

Being diagnosed with the mental illnesses that I have, I was prescribed with medicine to take along with therapy. I just have insight that I want to share with others.

For those that aren't sure if they should take medicine, I say you should. I don't think they should be taken on their own, though. They should be taken under the supervision of your doctor/therapist/psychiatrist.  There are a few reasons I say this.

They aren't there to fix you. The medicine isn't like aspirin that you can take and make your problems go away. They make your illness easier to manage. It is more akin to making things more balanced, but to say that alone would be false. If you are taking depression medicine, it isn't going to make you less depressed by making you happier.  It takes away the factors that you can't control, such as chemical imbalances. So if there is a chemical that you have too much of or not enough of in the brain, the medicine is going to help treat that.

Now if your mental illness is only caused by chemical imbalances, taking the medicine would probably make you feel better. Those should stay under the supervision of a doctor in case things change. Maybe you will need a bigger dosage or a medicine change if it doesn't work. Maybe they can teach you techniques along with the medicine to make your illness easier to deal with.

For everyone else, the medicine will take away the chemical imbalances and leave you with the environmental causes of your illness. Medicine can stop your brain from making too much of the panic chemical, but it can't change the fact that you were scarred due to a childhood experience. The medicine will thus help you locate what the root causes of your illness is alongside help of a doctor. For some, it makes it easier to talk to therapist about their problems. If your brain was making too much of a certain chemical, you might be too anxious or cynical to even want to talk to a medical professional.

I don't only suggest you take your medicine for being able to help talk you through your problems, although that is a good plus, but also so that you have someone to look over you when you go through side effects. If you run into unfavorable ones, your doctor can adjust or change your medicine to help find something that works for you. More importantly, when they day comes that you no longer need to take the medicine you will need your doctor around. They will make sure that the experience is the most tolerable as it can be, since taking any medicine for a long period and lowering the dosage will have an effect on the body.

The last thing you want to do is suddenly stop your medication entirely, after taking it for a long period of time, without the supervision of a doctor. You shouldn't do that when under the supervision of a doctor! It is true that everyone is affected differently from medication, but this is still the worst things one can do. You will most likely be hit with withdrawal symptoms harder than that you would being weened off them. Unfortunately, there are two typical symptoms from lowering/stopping the medication: worsening the thing you are taking the medicine for, and suicidal thoughts. As you might imagine, running into these symptoms after suddenly stopping medication and not having a doctor around is very dangerous. So please, just don't do it.

If you are currently in a situation similar to this, but you don't have access to doctors, I have one suggestion: Reach out. Tell your family and friends what is going on with you, especially if they already know you are suffering and expressed they care. I am blessed to have access to such people myself. When I tell them when I am at my lowest, they do NOT let me out of their sight.

If you feel like you don't have anyone to reach out to, you are wrong. There are many resources out on the internet. I will even make it easy on you and link you to place with many resources. Click here to go to the resource page of Anxiety and Depression Association of America.

From personal experience, I can say that taking medication has made the process of tackling the root sources of my depression easier than before. I can also say that suddenly stopping your medication is the worst, at least for me. I wouldn't wish this on my enemies.  I wish you all the best of luck in recovering from your mental illnesses.

Pokemon Sun and Moon Talk(Spoiler Free!)

Hello everyone! Happy Saturday!

So, I have Pokemon Moon. The experience has been fantastic for me. Game Freak really went out with this one, and I love them for it! There are so many fun things going on throughout the game. Now that I am at the end of the game, I can say that this generation beats out my favorite gen from before, which was gen three.

What I have enjoyed most from Pokemon Moon is the characters. I love meeting everyone and seeing how they interact with the plotline. Then there is Team Skull...my goodness! They are by far my favorite bad guy team in the entire series.

The Pokemon designs are great as well. Everything seems so well thought out; It is refreshing compared to the last gen of Pokemon, where it felt like Game Freak were running out of ideas. I absolutely adore my Primarina. He is just the most beatiful lil' angel! I love him and he is mine. <3

People were so quick to Rule 34 Primarina, Popplio's final evolution.

I don't see it though. I might be biased because I have one, but I didn't see it even before I owned the game. Now if anything stood out to me as an automatic Rule 34, it would be Salazzle.

It's very curvaceous, big hips, promiscuous eyes... When you call it into battle, this is the first thing I see.:

Don't even get me started on it's Pokedex entry...oh wait too late.:

...So yeah, when I compare the two, Primarina is an absolute sweetheart. Then again, the internet is very fast to Rule 34 anything they can get their hands on. Whatever floats their boat, I guess. 

The point is I love this game, If you have it, I hope you are too! :)

Plus Size Shopping

Let's get real for a moment...

I am fat.


I am not saying that in an insulting way, or even a complimenting way. It is a fact; I am really close to being 300 lbs. People tell me that I don't look overweight, but I am without question.

Being a woman and overweight, it makes shopping for clothes very costly and potentially limited.  A lot of main clothing stores usually either have very little or none in my size. When they do have clothes in my size, they don't have many options compared to sizes under plus. Then there's the price; Because plus size clothing uses much more material than the usual sizes, it is marked up. Shirts and pants, depending on the brand, can be marked up from between one to ten bucks!

Then there is the bras, dear goodness...

Stores usually carry very little in my size (42DD). The last time my mom and I went shopping at Wal-Mart for a new bra that fits me, we had to scavenge through all of their bra options for at least ten minutes! We were only able to find two bras, and they were 40 bucks each! Don't get me started on plus-size clothing stores, where you are more likely to find your size without much hassle. Those bras typically run from between 40 to 60 dollars!

This makes clothing shopping for me, someone that has no means of income currently, very difficult. For the most part I have to rely on my mom to pick out my clothes that will fit me. However, I am a young adult and I should be developing my own taste in style. I want to be able to shop for my own clothing without having to spend all of my funds when I do come across money that I usually use for groceries.


Fortunately, I recently just came across two online stores that fulfill my desires. I would like to share them with you, so women that also struggle finding clothes that fit without breaking bank can have an easier time.

The first one is a second-hand clothing store called thredUP. Most or all of the clothing here is either designer brand or comes from a high-end clothing store. However, people are kind enough to give away clothes they buy that they no longer want, to which they are significantly marked down. Now just because it is secondhand, it doesn't mean the clothing here is of bad quality. This store only sells clothing good shape or better after inspecting all the clothing they receive, Some of these clothes even still have their tags on them!

I recently bought few pieces of clothing from them. They have a good selection of clothing for plus sizes. Clothing here can be as low as 99 cents! Thanks to a special offer, I was given ten bucks to spend on shopping here. I was able to buy a few pieces of clothing and only had to pay for shipping once done, which was only $5.99. I highly recommend it!

To check it out, and get yourself $10 to spend on clothing here, you can visit the site at this link.: thredUP

The second store is My Bra Outlet. This online store focuses on plus size undergarments, but they also sell swimwear. From the browsing I have done through their bra selections, I haven't seen a bra that goes over 22 bucks. Of course things can change, but bras ranging in the twenties is a lot more affordable than bras being no lower than forty bucks.

To see their bra options, you can visit their site here.: MyBraOutlet


I hope what I have found makes plus-size shopping easier on you, even if it is by a small amount. Happy shopping!

I'm Back! Let's Talk.

Hello everyone! I'm sorry I have been away so long! Things have happened, and not good things. Well..at least most of the things aren't good. At the very least it feels that way.

I don't know if you all know, but I have been struggling with Major Depression, Generalized Anxiety Disorder, and PTSD for a while now. Recently I have come to terms with having Type 2 Diabetes. It's getting close to time for me to pay loans back, and I have no means of income. Worst of all, I have no health insurance since July and my temporary assistance expired a week ago. And now I am running out of all of the medications I need.

Dealing with everything has been really hard on me. I hope it is understandable as to why I was away for so long. However, I am back now and that is all that matters. Yes, it is understandable if you think this won't be for long, but this is important to me. I finally have a true motivation on what this blog will focus on.

Me.

Yeah, I know it sounds pretty selfish, but you know what? I have spent my entire life doing things for other people. It's time I do something for me. If I can help people along the way, that makes it even better.

The main focus will be insight on what I go through on a daily basis. Mental disorders are a very serious issue in the United States, especially depression. However, there are too many people that don't understand how big of a problem this is. So if I can help them see, even a little, then I have done well. I also want to connect to those that also suffer from mental disorders, especially those that suffer the same ones as I do. We can connect here and be there for one another, This will also show to those on the outside that not everyone's situation is the same.

I will talk about my experiences, vent or rant from time to time, and of course share expression my emotions through art.

The secondary goal is more entertainment worthy. I will share and talk about things that I like and recommend.

I want everyone to feel welcome here, and hopefully we will grow close to one another. Thank you for being patient with me.

~Jelly

Happy New Year!: Changes for 2015

Happy New Year! I hope everyone is staying safe and responsible.

Anyway, if you haven't noticed already, our blog has gone through a name change. Do not be alarmed! With the hopes of great changes in the future, I am expanding the range of medias of art that can be talked about on my Blog. While most of this change will be so I will be able to share my love for art, this does not mean that the form of media discussed on this website will be changed.  Blog for video games will still be made, I just made more available options open.

I plan to start updating this more, but with classes hammering down on me harder than it has ever been before, on top of trying to find a job, I simply haven't had the time personally. Once I get another personal project ip and running, I will be personally be making more updates.

That is all for now, Happy New Year!

~Jelly

Skylanders Review

Howdy folks, EVA-Kirby here.

Today, I am going to go over a series that came out way back in 2011 and has continued to still be a smash hit today. That series I'm referring to is none other than Skylanders, Activision's latest cash-cow franchise that targets kids with the gimmick of mixing toys (...well, more like figurines) with video games. The biggest surprise is that it isn't entirely a bad experience.

Skylanders is a unique series where it offers the gimmick that "Toys come to life". Indeed, this is true, as the figurines released for this game have technology in them that allows them to be scanned into the game via the series' "Portal of Power", a USB peripheral that scans the figure and its characters' data and uploads it to the game. Any data that your characters gather while in the game, such as upgrades and money, are saved back into the figure so you could take that figure and plug it into your friends' copy of the game without having to lug the game system itself with you. It's a pretty neat idea, with the only flaw being that each figure costs about $10, excluding special variant figures, but if you're used to getting stuff like Lego's (Bionicle and Technic come to mind), this could be overlooked. Each figure plays entirely different from each other, even if the characters might be somewhat related. Take 3 dragons from this game: Drobot, Sunburn, and Spyro, who happen to be an Iron-Man style dragon, a phoenix dragon and... well, you should know who Spyro is by now. However, their gameplay is entirely different: Drobot acts like a SHMUP ship complete with a hover mode locking his shots in a direction, Sunburn focuses on flamethrowers and teleport spamming, and Spyro shoots fireballs and headbutts folks into submission. Not one character is ever the same gameplay wise, and allows for some nice variety.

The story for each of the games varies with each new release, but the basic premise is that there exists an alternate world named Skylands, and you the player have been chosen as a Portal Master to summon the Skylanders back to their home (always due to some in-game dues ex machina sending them to our world) and save the day from whatever evil the game throws at you. It's your typical Saturday Morning Cartoon plot, if anything, but it somehow manages to pull this off well enough so that you won't be groaning at how corny the dialogue can be at times. It also helps that the makers of this series have put a lot into fleshing out various background details of its main characters, which are often supplemented via storybooks. But, since this is about the games themselves, I won't be discussing those here.

So far, there have been 3 seasons of this game released, with a 4th one on its way this Fall as of this writing. The titles are Spyro's Adventure, Giants, Swap Force, and the soon-to-be-released Trap Team. Each game has offered a new gimmick in their figures to keep its players wanting more from each new title: Spyro's Adventure introduces the concept and setting; Giants adds in elite player characters known as Giants, who are used to unlock new features in the game; Swap Force adds in player characters that can swap the top and bottom halves of their figures for an insane variety of attack patterns; lastly, Trap Team uses crystals to allow you to capture boss characters and treat them as playable characters too. We're going to be looking at the seasons currently released, their games, and the figures released with them. Do note, I will not be covering the games not on the console and 3DS versions, like the games for the iOS, since those don't really feel like proper games to me and are more... mobile game-based.

Before we begin, Spyro's Adventure's conception is a bit odd, as originally this was intended to be a Spyro the Dragon reboot, hence why he has top billing in this title. However, due to the popularity of the other Skylanders, Spyro himself (as well as Sparx and Cynder from the Legend of Spyro series) has been reduced to a mix of a Guest Character/Canon Foreigner, not unlike another character named Reiko Kirishima, the main character from the Sega CD game Time Gal who would later appear in Castle of Shikinami 3 in a similar manner like Spyro does here.

The first game, Spyro's Adventure, was released on all major consoles and the 3DS at the time. It should be noted that the console versions and the 3DS version differ entirely that the consoles play like the Gauntlet games (think a beat-em-up) and the 3DS plays like a 3D platformer that each have their own stories. I'll be covering the console versions from here on, since I have yet to play the 3DS titles. The story for this game begins when the previous Portal Master before you, an elderly wizard named Master Eon, is utterly curbstomped by an evil little midget Portal Master named Kaos, who for all intents and purposes, is effectively a more competent Invader Zim (even right down to the same voice actor), and manages to fling the Skylanders to our realm so he can run unopposed to take over Skylands. Naturally, you have to go in and kick his butt.

Gameplay wise, this game displays elements of your average beat-em-up title like Gauntlet Legends and Castle Crashers. You proceed through each level defeating various baddies, solving puzzles along the way, and leveling up your characters along the way in either single player or co-op gameplay. Speaking of characters, this game introduces your basic characters that will be prominent across all the games thus far. Each character has their own attack style and stats, and by gathering experience points and money, you can upgrade your total health and buy new moves for your character. Furthermore, each character has 1 of 2 move branches, where a character can only choose 1 of these movesets to further power up a particular attack, and once you choose a branch, you cannot change it unless you reset the figure itself, so pick carefully. Also included is a VS mode, though it’s at its bare minimum. Considering this is the first title, I feel this could be forgiven.

Giants, the sequel to Spyro’s Adventure, picks up after the first title by introducing a team of Skylanders known as the Giants, who were able to quell an invasion of giant robots known as the Arkeyans 10,000 years ago, but as a result, were sent to our world. Flash-forward to today, and Kaos has returned from the last game to reboot the Arkeyans again to lead them to conquest. Fortunately, the Giants have also arrived as well…

Gameplay-wise, this game is effectively Spyro’s Adventure 2.0, offering a better framerate, longer levels, additional game modes, improved multiplayer, a better range of popular voice actors, and a difficulty level. Toy-wise, the game introduces several new types of figures, including the Giants, Lightcores, and Series 2 figures. Giants are the main feature of this game, as they’re effectively MUCH beefier player characters with better defenses and HP for starters, and they can access many of the hidden areas of levels through varying methods, such as being able to punch down walls, drop through floors, and even pull in islands and ships via their chains through sheer brute strength, and in one case, through sheer mental power. In addition to all that, they also have hardware that illuminates various parts of their body when put on the Portal. Lightcore figures also have this same feature, but instead they are reprints of the smaller figures who give off a smart-bomb effect when first placed on the Portal for any level. Speaking of reprints, the Series 2 figures are reprints of characters from the first game, who not only gain a new power in addition to their normal moves, but they can also swap moveset branches at various points in the game, making them a much more worthwhile investment than their Series 1 version. As one last highlight, all the Skylanders had gained new voice actors, even for ones that hadn't gotten any new figures in this game, and range from popular VAs like Tara Strong, Yuri Lowenthal, and many, many others.

In 2013, Swap Force was released, providing yet another entry into the series. In this game, the Swap Force Skylanders had defended the Cloudbreak Islands, a source of vast magic power used to replenish Skylands’ magic, from the darkness 100 years ago, but upon staving it off, they too were sent to our world, but not before gaining the ability to mix and match bodies due to the Islands’ magical energies. As they finally emerge and head back to Skylands, Kaos returns again, and now it seems he has a new ally to assist him…

This game had made the biggest changes to the game’s formula compared to the last two titles, and to put it simply, it’s glorious. For starters, you can now jump much like in the 3DS games, which allows a lot of stuff to happen due to just one action being allowed, from integrating it into puzzles and platforming, to dodging stuff in combat. When you play Co-op with a friend, both players get the gold and experience points one player gets, so that it doesn’t become a mad dash to get more stuff than your bud. In addition, the graphics had gotten a complete overhaul so that the game’s cutscenes can flow seamlessly into gameplay, and they look as good as many recent CG movies released these days. In addition, the graphics now have a more cartoonier feel to them; for instance, the series’ “Goomba”, the Chompy, looks less like a ball with antennae and teeth as it did in the past and became more goofier, with the teeth losing that ferocious edge on them and the antennae becoming more like those eyes you’d see on Courage the Cowardly Dog’s weirder characters. Altogether, the additions have only made the series look more impressive overall.

Of course, nothing in life is ever perfect, and that even applies to Skylanders. Each game has had numerous flaws in them that must warrant looking into, aside from the huge price tag of the games and the figures. For the first game, SA lacks any real difficulty during the various stages, save for the bosses, which display some shocking surprise difficulty by featuring attack patterns you would expect in the Touhou games: the final boss is especially egregious on that matter. There’s also a lack of replayability once you 100% the levels due to lack of multiplayer modes outside co-op and the limited vs. modes. Also, the Wii version has fewer issues than the other console versions since it was supposed to be the intended version, so there are quite some numerous bugs present in the X360 and PS3 versions, such as some things not loading properly. The only reason you might want to consider this game is if you’re just curious to see how the series started.

Giants seemed to have worked out the difficulty problems and lack of multiplayer modes, but it in turn seems to have generated issues of its own. The main complaint is that it feels heavily like an expansion game rather than a full-blown game, where several levels don’t even have that much impact on the plot, such as when you’re attacked out of the blue by ghost pirates for no reason, merely to pad out the game. There’s also a complaint that some Skylanders got a nerf when making it to this game, mainly due to some figures not getting repose, but also because the developers forgot to try and improve their damage rating from the last game.

And lastly, since Swap Force presented the greatest amount of changes, so too did it open up its own flaws. One of the biggest faults with this game was the inclusion of the Swap Force areas: while they were fun little diversions from the main game, the fact that these were treated much like elemental zones and not optional if you wanted to get 100% in the game was rather annoying, considering you had to buy an entire new set of figures in addition to at least 1 figure from each of the 8 elements if you had played the earlier games. …sure, the idea of buying new stuff for a game is marketing reasons, but it still hurts. Also, unlike the last games, where it introduced only so many side characters but at least saw them make some character development to like them better (as much as you can have for a lil’ kid series like this, anyways), characters are introduced almost with each stage, but forget to actually give them some development, making many of them unmemorable in the long run. Another thing that got hit was the Vs. mode, where we went down from having at least 5 modes with at least 6 stages for each mode… to only 3 Vs. variations with about 3 stages at best. After forcing us to get more characters, you skimp out on the Vs. modes? The heck, Activision, I might want to beat up my friends w/ these new guys, and you only give us 3 stages to work with? Lame, mates.

Skylanders is a fun lil’ series that folks of all ages could enjoy, despite the flaws each game has had. There is a good variety of characters to play as, solid gameplay, and humorous lore to keep folks entertained for a good while. The price tag might seem expensive, but with a series like this, you should worry more about getting figures you happen to like: it’s best to enjoy a game with gameplay that suits you to a T. Of course, my only concern for this series is if Activision doesn’t keep things fresh in a good way; Trap Team’s starting to push it by making items that seem to be required for its gameplay… but it’s too soon to be making accusations. We’ll just wait and see how this will go.

Until next time, See ya!

-EVA Kirby

State of Affiairs

Hello everyone!

I apologize for the low uploads these past weeks. I kinda got a bit depressed when I couldn't get my team and I to E3 this year.

I also said I planned to record, but literally just when I started getting into it, my headset broke. So now I can't do commentary until I receive my new one. I could do a non-commentary run, but I've already started playing into Pokemon Ruby on my emulator, meaning I would have to start over if I want to record. Uhm, starting over a Pokemon game? Doesn't really sound very nice.  I could also start recording where I am now, but I dont know about that, plus it just sounds weird. I will think about it.

Speaking of Pokemon, my 3DS doesn't work anymore because it got soaked in soda, and it was far beyond fixing. So, until further notice, I no longer have my 3DS to play on.

So yeah, this what has been happening. I know its a bad excuse, but it has brought my motivation down in wanting to do things. I will get back on a regular posting schedule soon enough.

Until then, have a good day.

~Jelly

OmegaRuby and AlphaSapphire

Good morning/afternoon/evening fellow watchers.

So, as far as I know of, yesterday it was announced the release of the Pokemon OmegaRuby and AlphaSapphire in November of this year. It was also announced by Iwata ( Go here for the whole "Finacial Results Briefing" ), these two games are going to be full remakes, while the trailer...well why don't you just see for yourself?

 I don't know about you, but this news blew my mind. Generation Three was my favorite generation of all time. Contests, Ash collecting, Hot Tubs, but most of all: Secret Bases. That was my favorite feature of that generation, the secret bases. While it has been noted that these games are going to be full remakes, there is the fact that it is going to be "a new adventure" in a "brand new world". This makes me think of two things: They are going to add extra things to it, or it's going to be in 3D like X and Y. Maybe it will be both, but oh man, the thought of decorating my secret base while in 3D gets me excited! So all I know is, if they make any changes, they BETTER not take out the secret bases! Or else...I'm going to be sad. D:

Anyway, in celebration of this announcement, I am planning doing some sessions of me playing Pokemon Ruby. I will update here when I post them up, so if you are interested, you can come watch. If you don't know my YouTube channel, you can check our info page, where it should be listed there.

With that, I hope you have a great day. :)

~Jelly

New Super Smash Bros Pt. 2

Good morning/afternoon/evening fellow readers!

So if you haven't already seen the Nintendo Direct about the NSSB, you can watch and react along with these guys here.:

Now that we are all caught up, let's talk about the awesomeness of these upcoming games. In the last installment of my NSSB, I talked about how they are releasing the game on the 3DS, as well as the WiiU, which was amazing enough as it is. The 3DS will be coming out first, and I believe it will be coming out this summer, while the WiiU version comes out in the winter.

The next thing you will notice most likely when you see the Direct play is how beautiful this game is. Not even going into how crisp, smooth, and HD it looks (seriously though, have you looked at the substitute plushy?), the art direction is just fantastic in this game. They added new stages, and all of them beautiful, the characters look so much detailed, and the backgrounds are just really pretty to look at. I can literally pick up this game, go into a stage, and just gaze as its design for a while because of how spectacular it looks. You can tell that Nintendo put a lot of time and effort into this game, as if it was their little child. Oh Papa Nintendo, you really did raise them well.

In our next installment of NSSB, I will talk about the new and old stages they show off in the Direct, as well as other awesome things in relation to the stages.

Until then, have a great day~! :)

~Jelly

Construct 2: Fighting Game Tutorial

Hi everyone! How's your week been? It was a busy for me. Finally, landed myself a small part-time job to tide me over for my money troubles (in other words: More games to buy XD), but I'll still be active on my blogs whenever I have chance.

So on that note, allow me to share with you something interesting that a friend showed me that you can make in Construct 2. It's a tutorial you can use to create your own fighting game! Following the tutorial, it's your basic setup on hitboxes, character sprites, lifebars, and directional inputs for move commands for your character. If you ever played with M.U.G.E.N, and used one of Elecbyte's creative tools (Fighter's Factory), it shouldn't be that difficult to see some similarity on how you create and modify your game for your characters. The only difference you'll see is the parameters that Construct 2 offers to make the process a bit easier in developing.


If you're interested in trying it out, just click on the link I provided for the tutorial. If you want to learn more about Construct 2 and how to use it, I also placed a link to the site if you want to download it and try out its free version before deciding wanting to buy the full version of it.

Well that's it from me for now. I'll be sure to drop more news with you guys and provide some more useful stuff that you guys may have interest in gaming development.

Laters :)

Construct 2:
 
https://www.scirra.com/construct2

Construct 2 - Beginner's Tutorial:

https://www.scirra.com/tutorials/37/beginners-guide-to-construct-2/page-1 

Construct 2 - Basic Fighting Tutorial:

https://www.scirra.com/tutorials/468/part3-basic-fighting-game-tutorial-video-series

Displaying an image with SDL - basic C++ class structure

Today, we will create a simple image displaying program with SDL 2.0 and Mingw. This will help you understand some of the program structure related to C++ and how SDL used objects to render images on screen. We will be making a class to hold our program logic, and using that class to render an image to the screen.

Create header file; this file will hold our class, the one we will be building our program with. With a class, an entire object, with it’s variables and methods, can be encapsulated into a single object, to be used as needed or desired by a program. In our example, this class will run the loop for displaying our image to the screen, and for testing for user input.

Add the two includes at the very top of the file:

#include "SDL2/SDL.h"

#include <stdio.h>

And enter the following to start the class definition: class cpp_Application {

The class keyword will start the class definition for this header file, defining the name for the class as cpp_Application when an object of this class is created. After this definition, enter the next line below and type public: . This will define any method or variable with a public scope, meaning any method or variable can be used or see by anywhere in the program.

On the lines below, define the following 4 methods:

cpp_Application()   //The default constructor for C++ classes

~cpp_Application()   //The default constructor for C++ classes

Int executeProgram();   //Method to run the program in a loop; this method will be called to call all other loops

Int getInputEvent(SDL_Event* event)   //This method takes in a parameter of ‘SDL_Event’ type to check for user input. For this tutorial, it simply tests for interaction with the window.

Then, while still defining the class in the header file, type private: . This will define any methods and variables defined after this line only viewable and usable to this class only. This helps with a lot of the concepts that make C++, such as enabling data encapsulation to protect the data from being altered by another component in the program. In the next few lines in the header file, below the private: declaration, enter the following few variables:

bool running; //Boolean for program execution

SDL_Event    applicationEvent; //Event object for user interaction

SDL_Window*  applicationWindow = NULL; //The window to open and use for our program

SDL_Surface* windowSurface = NULL; //Surface object to be used with window for rendering.

SDL_Surface* testImage = NULL; //Basic bmp image for tutorial use

End the class definitions with };, like any other method. Please remember the semi-colon ‘;’, this tells the compiler that our class definition is done at this point.

Create another file, this time a .cpp file, but name it after the .h file. When this file is opened, type #include “headerName.h”. This line will ‘include’ the header file in the source when compiling this cpp file, looking at it for the definitions and boundaries of the data.  Don’t forget to also include the “SDL2/SDL.h” file as well.

In the cpp file, we add the definitions to all the methods defined in the class in the header file. Starting with the constructor method:

CPP_Application::CPP_Application(void) //Default constructor

{

   running = true; //Set running boolean to true

   SDL_Init( SDL_INIT_VIDEO ); //Initialize SDL

   applicationWindow = SDL_CreateWindow("SDL Tutorial", SDL_WINDOWPOS_UNDEFINED, SDL_WINDOWPOS_UNDEFINED , 800, 600, SDL_WINDOW_SHOWN); //Create Window for SDL

   windowSurface = SDL_GetWindowSurface( applicationWindow ); //Get the surface for the created window, and return it to a Surface object

   testImage = SDL_LoadBMP( "imagefilename" );

   if( testImage == NULL ) //Tests to see if image loaded properly, if not, then an error message is displayed

   {

       printf( "Unable to load image %s! SDL Error: %s\n", "testImage.bmp", SDL_GetError() );

       running = false; }

};

First note, this method starts with the class name and :: . This is because we are defining the function of the method declared in the class, and ‘::’ tells the compiler that this function’s scope is being defined for that classes method. So every method declared in a class that needs a definition should start with the original classes name and ::.

This first method is the constructor method, which is called first every time an object of className type is created. This constructor method will initialize every variable needed to start this class; in our case, it will set the running Boolean variable to true, initialize SDL with SDL_Init(SDL_INIT_VIDEO), and initialize all the objects in our class by calling the appropriate methods. applicationWindow will be created when SDL_CreateWindow() returns; windowSurface will be initialized with SDL_GetWindowSurface(), that method being passed the already created window for our program. And finally, our image object testImage will be called and initialize with our image file to display with SDL_LoadBMP(). If the image file is NULL, our program tests for this, and ends execution if the testImage is NULL. Note that the window dimensions are 800 to 600, this will e important for our image. Note also our image being loaded is a .bmp file; we will need this format for this tutorial. This image format is easily found in MS Paint, which will suffice for our needs.

With our constructor defined, defining our destructor will be easier. Enter the following:

CPP_Application::~CPP_Application(void) //Default destructor

{

   SDL_Quit();

};

Again, note the class name and use of :: for scope definition. This method simply calls SDL_Quit(), which will end execution and use of SDL and close all objects related to SDL before closing the object itself. Also note the tilde ‘~’ character by the number 1 on your keyboard; this character is specifically for defining a destructor.

The next method to define will give us our program loop:

int CPP_Application::executeApplication() //Function to run when program starts execution, main loop

{

   while(running)

   {

      //Render the image

      SDL_BlitSurface(testImage, NULL, windowSurface, NULL);

      SDL_UpdateWindowSurface(applicationWindow);

     

      //Get the input from the window

      getUserInput(&applicationEvent);

   };

};

The function starts with a while loop, with our running Boolean as a conditional; when this Boolean is set to false, this loop ends and the program with it. While this loop executes, the following methods will be called repeatedly:

SDL_BlitSurface() : Taking four arguments, this method will blit, or draw an image to our surface. The first parameter is our image to blit, the second one is NULL (normally used to define the boundary size for the first parameter), the third parameter is our window surface (the one defined in the constructor), and the fourth is NULL (again, used for boundary sized for the third parameter). This method tells the computer to draw this first image unto the latter image defined in the third parameter.

SDL_UpdateWindowSurface() : Taking the SDL_Window object as an argument, this method simply redraws our window to display our current image.

And the third method called in the loop is the fourth method defined in our class, getUserInput().

The fourth method defined in our class is the getUserInput(SDL_Event) method. This method takes an SDL_Event pointer object as a parameter, which is a way for SDL to check for user input from various devices. When a user event is detected, this method will call to check for what kind of even has happened by calling SDL_PollEvent(event) != 0 . If the event object isn’t NULL, then it is compared to several flags that indicate the current status of the program: in our tutorial, all we do is check for end program conditions, and set the running Boolean to false if the window was exited out of by the button at the top-right.

From here, in the .cpp file, define the main() method below the other definitions. Once ready, simply enter the following code in the main:

CPP_Application application;

application.executeApplication();

return 0;
These lines will define as object of our class by name for its type, and by the name application for its object name. The object name is the name called by the program to reference the object of the class type defined. This object will have its executeApplication() method called, which will start the loop to run the program and display our image. And the last line will return 0, ending our program execution after the loop exits.

With these two files, create and enter a new directory and find the SDL2.dll – you will need to move that .dll into your new directory to make this program, or any program that uses SDL2 to even start up. When you have the .dll file for SDL2 inside the same directory as your .h and .cpp files, start up MS Paint.

In MS Paint, simply create an image of 800 by 600 pixels (or as close as you can) and add whatever colors, text, or drawing you would like to see displayed to the window. Remember to save this image as a .bmp file, so that our program can load it into our Surface object. Save this file in the same directory as the other files, and save it to an easily remembered name, like test.bmp or image.bmp. Before compiling the source code, remember to go back into the .cpp file and add the image file name to the SDL_LoadBMP method between two quotation marks, with the .bmp file type at the end (i.e : “image.bmp”).

With all this done, enter the command prompt and maneuver to the directory with all the files you’ve just made. Enter the following command to compile and link this program:

g++ -o SDL2.exe cpp_Application.h cpp_Application.cpp –lmingw32 –lSDL2main –lSDL2

If the compilation and linking goes well, the execution of your program should display the image you just drew in MS Paint!

New Super Smash Bros.

Good morning/afternoon/evening fellow readers!

So let's be honest here: Who ISN'T hyped about the new Super Smash Bros game? It has been a popular brawler since its first game, Super Smash Bros. I personally started on the Smash Bros. Train when Melee came out. But this isn't a Nintendo 64 or a GameCube we are talking about today. We are talking about the new one coming out soon, first for the 3DS and finally for the WiiU. 

First of all, it's already an awesome surprise that they are actually making this game for a handheld. Usually when Nintendo has something they know the audience likes, they don't stray too far from what they usually do for that type of title. Now they are expanding a popular series to a handheld system! That is one of the coolest ideas they have done. Not only do people have two different ways of playing the game, each game for each console having its own benefits, but it also ensures that people that don't have the WiiU get to enjoy the awesomeness that is Super Smash Bros.

Now if you saw the Nintendo Direct for the new Super Smash Bros. game, you know how awesome the game looks for both systems. This was the game everyone has been looking forward to for the longest time. I don't know about you, but even though I have a 3DS and not a WiiU, I really want to get a WiiU so I can play the NSSB game. The question is "Will this game save the Nintendo WiiU?" 

Well, it's definitely a possibility. There is SO much hype for this game, it could blow you away. Look at it this way, even if everyone one is like “Oh no, why should I get the WiiU when I can play it on my 3DS?” there’s still a lot of people that don’t have a 3DS.  With so many people on the edges of their seats, barely able to wait for the 3DS release, there’s no way that this is going to have a bad turnout.  Most people aren’t going to let this game pass by them. If they did, they probably aren’t into brawlers or just don’t like Nintendo very much. You can bring up the “Oh, I’m too broke” but let’s be honest: How many times have you splurged money on something that you really couldn’t afford?  About everyone at least once, unless you are a child that can’t afford those things, but in a lot of those cases, most of those families live in homes and can already afford these products if they don’t have them already.

Let’s face it; people are going to get what they want, even if it’s not good for them.  And there is a LOT of people that want this NSSB game. There will be systems bought, whether handheld or console, and there will be a lot of game stores having long lines of people waiting for their preorders and others feeling pretty bad that they didn’t preorder. I know I’m going to get the NSSB game no matter what it takes (except for stealing, because I wouldn’t do that, and you shouldn’t either!).

Now in my next post, we will start talking about the game itself. Until then, though, I hope you have a great day! :)

~Jelly

My Apologies

Good morning/afternoon/evening to my fellow readers.

I would just personally like to apologize for not being as active as I should. I have been trying to think of what to talk about with you guys and gals. I was thinking that maybe I can record me playing some games and show them here.

Then I ran into computer problems, and now it's really slow. And I don't know why yet. I've deleted and uninstalled things that I don't need, and I've ran Antivirus, Anti-malware, and Anti-spyware. It seems like its gotten a little better, but then again, I haven't tried multi-tasking that I like to do. Anyway, I have to make sure my computer is ok before we talk about other subjects. I apologize for the inconvenience.

But when you see me again, you bet that you will here a lot about the new SSBB. I know everyone is excited for that game, and so am I.

Until then, I hope you have a great day! :)

~Jelly