A Day of Smash

9 / 12 / 14

So, today was a pretty eventful day as Smash Brothers for the 3DS came out in Japan. Thus, Nintendo also did a stream showcasing some of their upcoming games. I was really excited to see Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker (though, one of the levels seemed really hard and now I’m scared of how long it’ll take me to 100% it :P Still looks fun though!) and Fantasy Life–though, I wish we also got to see more of both too.

During Nintendo’s Stream, they said they’d be sending out the demo to Platinum Members (2014 ones) until the Smash Brothers stream started. It hit 4PM, I didn’t get one and I’ll admit I felt a bit discouraged. I knew I had all notifications activated so imagine my surprise when at about 4:20PM I received an email! I don’t know if there was a delay sending them or if they planned to send them out longer (their stream went longer than originally stated as well), but it made my day. I think the only thing that could’ve made me more excited was a code for Fantasy Life :P

I played the SSB4 demo for about 4 and a half hours and I definitely enjoyed it a lot. My only real “complaint” is I wish you could’ve chosen between time or stock (even if 2 minutes or 2 lives was still set) and I wish there was also a training mode available. It’s been such a long time since I played that I had a hard time getting a hang of it again and having to just jump back into a match and do my best rather than really getting to practice was a bit frustrating. That said, I still managed to beat the computers on each level of difficulty.

I had the most fun using Villager in the Demo. I expect to still use Jigglypuff and Kirby most of all–they are just much more my playstyle, but I think Villager will be up there with Peach in 2nd for characters I enjoy playing as. I really want to try out Duck hunt Dog, Robin, Mii Fighters, and Rosalina. I expect at least Robin and Rosalina to also be in the 2nd category for me, but not sure on Duck-hunt Dog just yet. I’m not sure which Mii Fighter I will go with–probably the Fighter type honestly, but I may try each just incase the trophy at the end of the Adventure mode varies based on what Mii type you use.

I haven’t decided how I plan to unlock others. I want to try to unlike Jigglypuff first if possible–I know doing vs mode to unlock everyone would be faster, but I want to do the Adventure mode with everyone anyway so I may just do it that way (plus more to unlock)… Just need to figure out which characters require a certain intensity level.

In which I have to say I hate that the intensity level is required for some. I’ve really only good with a couple of characters and even then, I have my limits. Sad that the achievements/challenges section has various stuff in songs too as now I need to do them all :P Regardless, it’ll be a lot of practice for me to get decent enough to do everything… And also a lot of practice learning the controls too.

Anyway, I am very excited to be playing as this adorable bow Jigglypuff (Jigglypuff looks so cute in this game):

I miss the crown one, but her new bow is adorable (and was the other I played as)–I also like the one with the nurse hat. I do miss her teal eyes though! The blue does look nice, however.

I am a little sad though about the Ice Climbers leaving–I never really used them, but I liked them and felt they were interesting… Also that Jigglypuff has the same final smash–I think something similar to Peach’s or a fairy move like Dazzling Gleam or Moon Blast would’ve been much better. Finally, considering Little Mac has 16 colors, I wish other characters did. Robin, for example, only has 4 per gender which kind of stinks as I would’ve liked to play the white robe with black hair, but that is male only. I’ll probably end up using the pink because of this… But I guess it just makes me wonder why they didn’t do more options with other characters.

Regardless, I am still looking forward to it. I hope I can get a lot of it done before Fantasy Life comes out though…

And if you still want more Smash Brothers, you can check out the newest Nintendo Minute too along with various streams on Twitch that are still going (I’ll probably stream more tomorrow).

What I’d like to see in the next Animal Crossing

9 / 9 / 149 / 9 / 14

Chances are, we’ll end up seeing the next Animal Crossing for the Wii U. I don’t expect it to be too far off (unless they’d be saving it for the new 3DS or another portable) and after random chatter during one of my streams, we started talking about what we would want to see in the next installment of the game. While there are games that I feel need new installments and others that I feel can do much better with just new DLC (Disney Magical World is a good example of the latter), Animal Crossing is a game where I feel it could use a new installment, but with a transfer feature.

In a similar note, if Pokemon keeps the customizeable trainers (something I am STILL hoping or in ORAS so so so so much), I think a transfer option would be good for it too. Your trainer goes to a new region, keeps said Pokedex progress and badges and essentially can earn more–kind of like Ash in the Anime. Obviously, this would have some dialogue changes (or maybe just from the Professor anyway) which would probably be the biggest issue, but I think it’d still be a neat feature. Regardless, this article isn’t about Pokemon so I’ll end that train of thought there for now.

Going back to Animal Crossing, Wild World had a bit of a transfer feature, but your character just moved on so you only kept your appearance. Considering you’re the Mayor of this game, transferring would be hard unless you ditched your mayoral duties. I think it’d be neat if transferring meant your town became a bigger version of itself and more or less was a giant expansion versus a new game.

That said, onto the list:

A Bigger town. As mentioned above, I’d love to be able to increase my town. I worked really hard on it and really adore it, but the limits (30 Public Works for example) can be really frustrating. I really wish bridges didn’t count. Plus the option to have more villagers.
An actual land editor. That’s one of the main things I really feel Animal Crossing doesn’t have right now (The others being able to design skirts, pants, socks, and shoes). I think it’d be great if we could apply patterns and place things in an overview and move stuff around. Maybe even set ramps and how cliffs are, change the beach around… Just in general, make our towns even more unique.
Being able to actually place our villager’s houses. Even if the above never happens, I’d love if when a new villager popped up, Nook would show up at your door and be like “Hey, NAME is moving in. Do you want to place their house?” and you can be like “Yeah, sure!” Or “Let them choose” and if you pick the latter, it’s random, but if you pick the former it’s like when you place your house. I don’t feel it’d be too hard to implement.
Choose how many villagers you can have in your village. I’m sure there will still be a minimum and a max (5 or 6 as a minimum and 12-15 as a max seems like a good number to me?), but I know some people like smaller towns.
The campsite can also be used by our villagers. I think it’d be neat if they decided they randomly felt like camping out. I mean, your villagers could randomly do an Igloo in the first game, so why not?
Have some options when it comes to moving. I wish you could either turn moving off altogether or set it individually (more so the latter than the former) so that if you really like a villager and want them to stay forever, THEY CAN. You don’t have to worry about your ultra favorite villager leaving. Many of the villagers I have in my game are villagers I’ve had in every game they’ve been in. And I’ve never had the amount of moving prompts before this game. Most people feel the increased amount is due to the fact that the main way to get pictures is through them leaving even though you can get them through tasks as well, but whatever the reasoning is… it’s really frustrating.
Be able to have multiple laws/ordinances. I would think the price would go up for each you add, but I feel being able to add more (and having more to choose from in general) could really help make towns more unique.
A bigger item limit. I always loved how the Gamecube game didn’t have an item limit. New Leaf thankfully increased from the 20 item limit of Wild World and City Folk, but if you went and put up a lot of Wall items, that item limit suddenly doesn’t feel so big anymore.
Beautiful Town ordinance also includes flower immunity from running through flowers. Sometimes people get carried away–I’m guilty of it too. This would just save so many issues and considering flowers aren’t supposed to wilt with this ordinance, it’d be nice if it also made them immune to being destroyed from running like on the island minigame.
The ability to go back and forth between the 3DS. This isn’t too unusual–there are other games that have done it and I think it’d be neat if you could play the game normally at home and then switch when going out. Maybe you wouldn’t be able to do everything or it’d be a more comprised version of your town, but I just think it’d be a lot of fun and give the best of both worlds.
If Badges return (and I hope they do), I’d love to see a counter built into them or a counter somewhere to keep track. A large reason I am having so much trouble with what I have left is there’s no real way to know how close I am or how much I have left. I think this would help a lot in not just knowing how close you are, but knowing when to expect Phineas as well.

And that’s it for now :) If I think of more, I’ll add them, but I think that’s good enough for now.

Mail drop!

9 / 5 / 14

One of my favorite things is whenever I get stuff in the mail and despite a bit of frustration earlier, it was a really nice surprise–I expected one of the packages, but the rest I had no clue on when they’d get here.

So, onto the mail!

First up–two Pink Moon necklaces:

Despite how they look, they are not Sailor Moon merchandise. I had seen a picture randomly and decided to try looking it up–in the end, I found two… one on Etsy (the one on the left) and one on Ebay (the one on the right). Differences are the one from Etsy features darker round gems along the gold. It also has a more metal feel versus the paintedness of the one from Ebay (which is also a brighter “gold”). The one from Etsy is also a bit bigger. In general, the one from Etsy is more fancy and intricate while the one from Ebay, while still nice, does noticeably look cheaper when compared. I do think both are pretty though and not too expensive.

Next… PLUSHIES. This lovely Shooting Star Plushie:

Made by PaeoniaDrop. (You can find her on Twitter and DeviantArt as well. I am eventually going to try and make a cute bunny from one of her patterns and hopefully it won’t come out awful :3

And MEGA AUDINO PLUSHIES.

This one is by lillyann123:

While this one is by BleedingHeartsCrafts:

(Special thanks to Zero for holding it in place!)

…I truly look forward to the day where I can get better lighting in the basement and have a camera that can take better pictures.

Review: Professor Layton vs. Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney

9 / 2 / 14

This is a game I had been anticipating since its announcement and after quite a long wait (almost 2 years since it came out in Japan and about 5 months after it came out in Europe), it finally came out in North America last Friday. Was it worth the wait? Completely. Whether you are only an Ace Attorney fan or only a Professor Layton fan, this game is still something you should be able to find enjoyment in (as long as you don’t hate court rooms and/or puzzles). The game does a great job crossing over the two series along with many ties to the original games and various staples you’ll be familiar with. I’m anxiously looking forward to getting to personally play the rest of the bonus episodes, but for now let’s get to the full review.

Tomodachi Life: New Month!

9 / 1 / 149 / 3 / 14

So, it’s not September which means…

1. New SpotPass DLC!:

Bicycle Helmets! Available in Blue, Green, Orange, and White.

2. New Monthly Interior!:

Pumpkin Patch :D

Not too much has happened in my game so just enjoy some random pictures for now!:

Note: I received the game early from Nintendo. Thank you, Nintendo! :D If you are interested in Tomodachi Life, you may want to look into picking it up!

On the new 3DS

8 / 29 / 148 / 29 / 14

I woke up to a bit of people wondering my thoughts along with surprise that I wasn’t up–to be honest, I forgot about the Nintendo Direct that had been announced despite being previously excited for it. It wasn’t due to already thinking it’d be disappointing or that it wouldn’t be important since it was Japan only (I often watch the other Nintendo Directs out of curiousity)–I simply had some issues sleeping due to excitement about the mail that should come today (PROFESSOR LAYTON VS ACE ATTORNEY) which I’m still waiting for.

Thus, when I got on, the first thing I heard was new 3DS. And I felt confused. Very very confused. That feeling almost immediately hit disappointment which has been going further the more I heard about it.

The new 3DS seems to have some features I really like which only makes it worse by the fact that I don’t want it. And it’ll apparently be out sometime 2015 for North America. :/

My main issue is, like with the Nintendo DSi, eventually there will be a game you want and you will be forced to get it. The main difference is I didn’t put as much “effort” into my Nintendo DSi. It’s not that I didn’t play it as much. I definitely did. I enjoyed Flipnote Hatena and several of its features. But I adore my 3DS a lot. StreetPass is one of my all-time favorite features and for the longest time, I had the StreetPass plaza as my favorite game. I bring my 3DS everywhere in hopes of seeing that green light pop up. I had my 3DS decorated twice (The first by an awesome friend as a birthday present–the 2nd time, shown below, by myself moving it from my original 3DS after the charge port had broken):

And as most of the people here should know, I also have a 3DS Capture Card–something that does not exist on the XL. I mean, who knows, maybe it’s CPU is so big it can do streaming off it. I don’t think so considering I’m sure that would’ve been announced, but moving on… I love being able to screenshot and record my 3DS. I have a tendency to take A LOT of pictures. If you’ve played LittleBigPlanet 1 or 2 with me, you know how many times I’d stop everyone to take a photo. Or to upload photos. And that isn’t even every photo I took because for a while I just uploaded them to an SD Card before I know that is what would happen when I uploaded them to the web. Still sad not all my photos are there now. MOVING ON…

If you’ve seen my posts here, you know I STILL have a tendency to take a lot of pictures. And if I couldn’t record, it’d honestly be about 10x more at least. I like being able to record so much and I wouldn’t want two 3DS–I like all my data on one (thus part of why I’m so picky on downloading games). If it’s data on another 3DS, it never feels like it’s mine even if I own both.

So for me, recording was a way to actually lessen my pictures a lot and the fact that I could just screenshot and upload meant a lot to me because it was much quicker. Removing the SD Card (especially after one incident) was not something I enjoyed doing to upload pictures. And while I appreciate the Nintendo 3DS Image Share website, just one at a time was way too slow for the amount of pictures I had the tendency to take. If I had to use these two options without a capture card for my Animal Crossing site, Disney Magical World site, and Tomodachi Life playthrough here, it’d honestly be a huge detriment to my enjoyment and eventually just really weigh down to the point where I’d play significantly less and less (Kind of like what the moving mechanic in ACNL did). And while yes, I know one of the new features has to do with this, there has been nothing that says it’ll be more than one picture at a time. Not to mention the quality varies–of course, this has a chance to be improved as well (though, I didn’t see it mentioned).

Those who know me know I rarely ever replay games so being able to have these recordings is really special to me. And again, saved so many pictures. While you can get a capture card for an XL (though it is very expensive), I’m sure it’ll be a while for one for the new 3DS plus I honestly can’t justify the price again. I made the exception when my original 3DS broke due to how special it was (being half pink and half teal), but I know I can’t do that again–I do not have the funds to make any justification for it as much as I’d like it.

Finally, I just don’t like the XL. I don’t like the shape, the matte finish (Though, the metallic seems kind of shiny which is nice… but only the XL versions are like that and I don’t want the XL), and in general I find it too big. While the latter may not be an issue with the smaller sized one (It doesn’t seem too much bigger, thankfully), there’s still the first two problems which is why I’ve never planned to get an XL.

But yes, going off my own personal reasons from being turned off about it, I want to go over the features too and my feelings on them:

Features I like

Amiibo support with no peripheral – I won’t mind using a peripheral, but obviously this is pretty awesome and the only thing I really envy from the new 3DS.

Better CPU so the new 3DS is faster – Never really a bad thing so… I don’t really find my 3DS slow in the first place, however.

Can move files between 3DS and PC via Wi-Fi – This should be unsurprising that I like this feature. Though, you can already move pictures and stuff through the internet, so unless it’s more than one at a time/completely replaces the use of the SD Card and can also be things like backing up or transferring downloaded games (versus just deleting them and downloading later)…

Home menu themes – Up there with the Amiibo thing–one of the things I REALLY like. I’m not going to go into full detail here since I’m going to talk about it below (since all 3DS’ get it), but just yay.

Videos work in Internet Browser – Yay!

Features I have mixed feelings on/Don’t care much about

Better 3D view: I rarely use the 3D feature anyway so better 3D doesn’t mean much to me… I’m not sure why I’d be looking at it from the side anyway? I guess if I was watching someone, but…

Bigger screen on New 3DS: I actually found the XL screen “too big” honestly, so I’m not entirely sure how I’ll feel about the bigger screen on the New 3DS.

C-Stick and ZR/ZL buttons – I’m worried they will be like my issue with the Vita where they will feel too small. Also, everything just seems really cluttered now. I don’t want to say for sure until I try them though.

Better Battery Life – I’ve never had an issue with my 3DS’ battery so this just doesn’t matter much to me.

Also a Micro SD Card – I…really don’t know what it’s for/the point just yet so…

Swappable covers – You’d think I’d really like this considering my 3DS is decorated and my original was half teal, half pink, but…:

They don’t even cover it. The white (or whatever color it might be) stripes along the top and bottom because the case couldn’t actually be the whole thing really really really bugs me.

3DS Internet Filter – This really depends on how the filter is. I mean, 30 cents isn’t that much, but at the same time if I’m paying to view any site that isn’t Nintendo, it’s still kind of upsetting. I honestly don’t use the Nintendo internet browser too much. Most of the time, I use it when I need to enter a login on a website while away for work on vacation to get my 3DS on the internet and that’s what really worries me as I could see those being filtered due to not being commonly accessed sites. I mean, the 3DS DOES have parental controls. It’s disappointing (even if I can see why it is this way) that it’s not enough.

Features I dislike

Start and Select moved – I never had an issue with their original slot so…

Volume control moved – I just really liked it’s positioning to begin with.

Game Cards, Stylus, and Power Button moved to the bottom – Much more worried of things accidentally popping out now or hitting things. When my 3DS gets loose from it’s stand, it usually falls on the bottom which if it’s where the Game card and power button is… well… Not to mention I could see the Stylus just falling out randomly when it gets loose enough.

If I missed any features, please let me know.

Right now, I’m just hoping there will never be a game I like that needs that 3DS. But I know there eventually will be and thus, the only thing I really feel is a load of sadness and disappointment. Not necessarily in anyone in particular–it’d be stupid to think there was never going to be a new 3DS… but there’s a difference between a new version (XL, 2DS) and a version that you need to get for new features. And of course, when there is a game I’ll want (even if I’m still hoping there won’t be), I hope a light pink and white version will be out by then (if not a completely light pink version).

On the bright side, this does bring every 3DS the ability for an Awesome theme menu so yay!:

At least I hope that applies to North America too… ._. I do know I’ll have trouble picking one though… I hope we can maybe mix and match them.

Edit: Confirmed for October in North America too! Yay!

Tomodachi Life: Love continues

8 / 26 / 14

With team preparations for Pokemon Alpha Sapphire more or less done, I’ve had more time to play Tomodachi Life. To my surprise, love has continued to be a trend and it seems to be happening a lot more often which is nice as I had been kind of disappointed with how slow it had been going. I think it helps that a lot of my Miis now know eachother due to hanging out with a Mii and others coming over. It probably also would’ve helped if I didn’t start out with so many… too late for that though.

So, onto the updates!:

Jennifer, Zero, and Marina went on a family vacation.

Jigglypuff loves Kirby Saga:

She was denied again. But then finally (with some help from Isabelle)…:

Flora confessed again to Luke:

He said yes this time!

Meanwhile, ChibiUsa tried to get Haruka and Michiru together:

It didn’t work out, however, another attempt by Cooking Mama and well….:

Yay :D

Wally also had a good day between proposing to Kuki:

And finding out his most favorite food (Red Pepper):

I have to say, while it’s the usual house for the two personality types, it REALLY fits them a lot:

And Claire once again asked Professor Layton out–despite some competition, he finally accepted!:

I was really tempted to have her confess giving him a top hat, but I’d probably cry.

As for existing couples, Subaru and Luna had their first baby–a girl they named Cassiopeia:

Finally, please enjoy Zero appropriately dressed for playing Takamaru’s Ninja Castle in Nintendo Land.

And music fun:

Plus beach relaxing:

News highlights:

Note: I received the game early from Nintendo. Thank you, Nintendo! :D If you are interested in Tomodachi Life, you may want to look into picking it up!

Finally, I’ve gotten a few messages on Stream stuff… While it doesn’t look like my special stream will be happening soon (unless something changes–then I’ll try for Thursday), I will be streaming Professor Layton vs Ace Attorney as soon as I get the game until I finish it (not straight though–I don’t think I can finish the game in a ~14 hour period, but we shall see). I’ve wanted to do more random streams (I’ve almost streamed Tomodachi Life, Disney Magical World, and Animal Crossing), but have just not had the energy lately for various reasons.

More excitement for Fantasy Life

8 / 19 / 148 / 19 / 14

So, a new trailer was put out showing some of the multiplayer features!:

I actually didn’t know you could be able to play with more than one other person–not to mention the chat system which just makes me more excited (and does seem to be the Link version of the game).

I can’t wait until we get it T~T It’s going to be so much fun playing with my fiancé and friends <3 Definitely one of the games I'm most excited for this year! I wonder how many people it will be total--I'd guess 4, but it'd be nice if it was even more than that.

Virtual Worlds and Flash Games

8 / 19 / 14

When I don’t really feel like necessarily playing a console game, Virtual Worlds are probably one of my favorite kinds of games as they tend to feature the two things I love most:
-Customization
-Collecting
In general, if your game has at least those two things, I may be tempted to check it out. Virtual Worlds often get a reputation for being “just for kids”, but I think that’s a poor generalization (and is also part of why some do not get moderated properly) and people should try them more often. That said, there’s a lot of bad Virtual Worlds that are not much more than Flash Games, but there’s also good ones too… Unfortunately, most have closed, but I want to talk about those a bit first.

Wiglington and Wenks was a really cute site–it was both a bit educational and involved traveling around the World to collect and discover things (based off a book series). The site ended due to lack of funds which is disappointing as I think it probably could’ve gotten somewhere if it was sponsored a bit more.

Disney Virtual Kingdom is a game I didn’t get to play very much, but was kind of similar (different avatars and games, but it was the same “Go around the Kingdom approach”) to Disney’s Magic Kingdom game over on Japan’s Disney website (which is the game that Disney Magical World is based off of). I don’t think I’ll ever understand why Disney closed it (it’s not the first of Disney’s many virtual worlds they have closed either).

Some of their other virtual worlds that closed by Disney are Pirates of the Caribbean Online (I played briefly, but didn’t stick to) and Pixie Hollow which I actually enjoyed quite a bit. The main issue with Pixie Hollow was the fact that you needed to spend -a lot- of time on the site for things. There were many limited time badges (Some that required earning thousands of little gatherables that you’d also be competing with many others for) and high score badges among other things and most of the quests were member’s only. I think Virtual Worlds really need to find a good balance when it comes to member stuff and most really didn’t. Pixie Hollow at least let you gift friends which was a cute feature–especially as one shop actually required you to give one to friends which kind of helped encourage sharing (or just brightening someone’s day with a random gift).

That said, the site was still pretty popular even when it closed–the reason being given to put more time in Club Penguin (which I honestly feel hasn’t been as great since Disney has gotten it unfortunately–I love Disney a lot, but I know they aren’t perfect.

Club Penguin is another game I’ve played for quite a while and still check into every so often:

Unfortunately, my favorite things to do in the game were the missions to earn all kinds of neat awards and things like so:

And those missions really don’t exist anymore which kind of stinks. There’s still events (most of which have items limited to Members only :/), but it’s not really the same.

Despite being Virtual Worlds, most of the games are more like Solo Adventures. You can see others playing, but interaction is incredibly limited (due to, again, generally being aimed at younger kids). Some games may have gifting, but most of the time it’s just you earning everything which has good and bad points.

Not to mention many have incorporated the “make real life merchandise for codes in the game” tactic which isn’t necessarily bad (it’s not like it doesn’t work–I have a ridiculous amount of Neopets merchandise… Of course, most of the online stuff I no longer have (including the special limited t-shirts T__T) due to having been hacked when I was younger :/), but I find it’s rare I’ll want the items that are for the items I’d like in the game which makes me feel bad for the kids who probably do want the real life equivalent too.

One of the nice things Club Penguin did with that is you could buy nearly any item and just get a general code which let you pick what item you wanted. This meant you could buy a plushie or figure you really liked versus needing to get that specific one for an item. Not to mention this meant you could continue getting certain items until they changed the online stock versus things like Webkinz where it would be the plushie you got and many have been discontinued (you do not want to know how many Webkinz I have from the brief time I played) or just some games where the items just aren’t really around anymore even though the site is (Poptropica has this problem with many things, but we’ll get to that).

The main problem with Webkinz is that your account could become inactive/be gone if you didn’t register another pet fast enough which was one of the biggest reasons I stopped playing. I don’t know if it’s still like that, but I know that any site that makes you keep buying things to even stay playing isn’t really one I wanted to be apart of. I really hope that isn’t still the case as I’d have liked to check into Webkinz every so often, but that was a big reason as to why I didn’t. Webkinz is also probably the inspiration for getting a special item with the Plushie you bought that Build a Bearville did as well. Similarly, a game that has a membership structure on top of a game where you need to literally keep buying stuff for it is a bit disheartening.

PetPet Park was Neopets’ mini flash game. It’s cute and something I still have fun checking in, but also went really focused on lots of limited things and member’s only stuff. Member’s features can add onto things, but when they restrict so much of a game (Kind of like how you could only do one world of Toontown) it feels kind of forced/like there isn’t any other option. I did make my Petpet look pretty cute though:

Going back towards Club Penguin for a bit, one of the big things is so many items are member’s only. They’ve made more that aren’t restricted to members, but with so many items being limited time and can only be purchased by member’s… well… It doesn’t help that their special events tend to feature NPCs wandering around that will give a special background if you click of them. Of course, the servers fill up fast and usually people are crowding around and/or dressing up as said NPC which can make it feel kind of frustrating.

And now, onto Poptropica! If you’ve read my Twitter, you’ll know I’ve started playing a bit again. Unfortunately, finding other people who still play to talk to has become a lot harder than I expected. You can’t really chat with anyone while playing Poptropica which makes friend making kind of hard. Regardless, Poptropica is an adventure game where nearly everything is controlled with your mouse. This also means it’s not the most easily controlled game :P

The game tends to feature many limited time games and items which wouldn’t be too bad if this didn’t also mean you could easily miss out on a lot (Items I am saddest about: Puppy Pal (from a Barbie Ad), Woodstock Follower, and the Nessie hat). The Puppy Pal is not on that list, but is from a Barbie Ad (with like the perfect hair too–I wonder if you could colorize from the NPC :( ) that actually opened a few months after I stopped playing. I AM STILL KICKING MYSELF AS AN FYI.

That said, one of the things with Poptropica is it can actually get pretty challenging (which may be in part due to the controls). You can’t trade or gift items in the game, but you can “Costumize” most things which essentially is a feature that lets you copy an item someone else is wearing. You don’t own the item, but you can save it to switch to it whenever which is pretty neat. Most of the outfit I wear is actually Costumized versus what I own:

One of the neat things is you can actually colorize your skin and hair to be nearly any color. Unfortunately, not all items will pick up said color (like the Barbie wig T__T Though, whether that’s because it’s stuck blonde or because I’ve constumized it from a player versus the NPC, I don’t know and I can’t really find anyone who would’ve been around then and still plays to ask/experiment). I think it’d be nice if you could colorize clothes as well (so many nice tops and skirts that are in colors I don’t care for), but there’s a lot of options in general which isn’t too bad.

Membership in Poptropica is an interesting thing due to the fact that it’s pretty cheap and you really get a lot out of it. For one, all items are free… which actually can be a bit frustrating in a way. I have over 2,000 credits just sitting there doing nothing because I already bought everything I wanted as a member. Member items stick around even when not a member (which is awesome), but I wish I felt a point to the credits as a member. There’s a LOT of exclusive items for Members including Bonus quests on the newer islands–some of which are quite hard (I AM LOOKING AT YOU, WIMPY BOARDWALK. I WILL CONQUER YOU). The reward is usually just an item which is nice as it doesn’t really take away from not doing it–that said, it cuts off a part of the story which isn’t as nice.

I think it’d be nice to see some of the older items back for credits (regardless of membership–maybe cheaper for members) just because then maybe Members would actually have something to spend them on. Right now, it just feels if you’re a Member, credits are worthless and then there’s kind of wondering what’s really the point in that sense–especially if you stick around as a member. My Poptropican may be pretty cute (see picture above), but I will always be sad she will probably never look like this:

(please ignore my terrible editing skills)

Anyway, to finish off the Virtual Worlds talk, I’m going to end with Imagine Town. Imagine Town was based off Ubisoft’s Imagine series and was run by them. The staff was friendly, the events were fun, and it just finally had it’s grand opening in North America (it had been opened in France for quite a while–many users, myself included, were very excited for those items to come over) before suddenly closing. It had collecting, quests, and various other things. The only big issues I can think of are a few people’s behaviors and inventory limits (always a bad idea in a game where you collect things–people aren’t going to spend as much if they don’t get to get the items the buy because inventory limits! This is an issue in Build a Bearville as well). Besides that, it was a neat game and I really wanted to see where it was headed so it makes me sad it was closed so soon. Even the Lifetime membership was a great price (I bought one) and while they refunded me, I really wish the game was still going.

My character:

and room:

Before it closed :/

As for Flash games, I don’t just mean adorable games like this (I love that song so much to this day), but also the kind of games on Facebook. In general, the only thing I used my facebook for was games and most of those games no longer exist now. Pet Society and Restaurant City (the latter to a less extent, but maybe because it was closed first) both went downhill after EA bought them (way too money hungry with the prices) and never really recovered from that and thus, closed. They were two of my favorites.

Treasure Madness is probably one of the first facebook games I really liked–you go around adventuring and collecting treasure for a museum. Unfortunately, it also got a bit too into the money hungry areas with the very limited time maps that you could really only finish if you paid or gave up doing anything else. Similarly, while all Facebook games have the “hey, friends, yay!” features, there is a difference between being able to help friends and being forced to rely on a friend to continue and whenever a game does the latter, it’s really frustrating.

Fanglies by Playdom was another cute game, but was given a very short life despite how much was money focused and how much they probably ended up earning from various people (which of course was not refunded–I get that people get what you pay for, but when you close a game that fast, it’d be nice to be considerate of those who tried to support you in the first place :/

Neopets also did a cute game with Treasure Keepers which was a collaboration between Neopets and the original founders [of Neopets]. It makes me sad that it closed so quickly as there really hasn’t been many other games like it. More or less, you went around a board game (kind of similar to how you’d do Treasure Madness–going around a map and clicking) and you would earn items for quests and that you can sell for money. You could also collect these items and display them (though, they really needed a proper “not for sale” feature). It was a cute game that let you both collect, customize your shop, and also play games and I just wish it was around more. I really enjoyed it, even if some of the items that cost real money were pretty overpriced (especially when, again, sudden closure).

I’d like to say maybe I’ll see another game I’ll enjoy in the future, but at this point I think I’ve just given up on those kinds of flash games altogether and I’ll just stick to the cute bunny hopping one.

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