Well, despite people being pretty negative about this game (though, I am still super excited for it), it looks like it’ll be what finally gets the normal/small sized New 3DS over to North America! Europe and Japan have had it for quite a while so it’s nice to see it here too.
I don’t have any plans to get one, though. I don’t care for any coverplates too much right now (the closest being the Animal Crossing Happy Home Designer ones, but not enough to make me want to get one. Plus I’d have to get a new Capture Card then and I don’t have the money for that right now :P
My fiance does, however, want the black one. But right now, it mostly seems confirmed to be in the bundle only. I’m sure we’ll see it separately eventually (Or at least I hope so), but until then, I’m guessing only the white will be available. Hopefully it does come separately too.
(There will also be a special New 3DS XL for Triforce Heroes in the usual gold with a Hylian Crest.)
I’m glad to see it coming over though. There was no reason to put it off for so long :(
I haven’t written much in a while which is generally due to not having too much to say. Most of it is just sporadic excitement which is probably easier to follow on my twitter. That said, I’ve gotten a few questions on things and also wanted to talk about some of stuff I am excited for some more.
So, to kick it off–I’ll bring out the recently released game for the 3DS: LBX (Little Battlers Xperience). The game had caught my interest pretty early on–I had no idea what it was having never heard of the series in any form, but it looked neat. At E3, I got to see it even more and it actually looked pretty fun. I’ve been really wanting some new games to play (Why must you not release things during most of Summer, Nintendo? :( ) and while everywhere else was enjoying Woolly World we still have to wait for October so… Regardless, I figured I’d give it a try and honestly, I’ve been enjoying it.
I’m still having a bit of trouble with the combat, but the game itself is still a lot of fun. When not in a battle, the game actually reminds me a lot of Megaman Starforce–just with 3D models. Running around town, the random battles, the quest system… I really enjoyed the Starforce series and it was one of the first Megaman games I played so I had fun seeing the type of style again. The battles aren’t similar at all (though, that may be for the best) feeling much more free form.
The game features nearly full voice acting–pretty much all the cutscenes and several bits of the dialogue are voiced similar to the Professor Layton series–though, considering the game is by Level-5 that isn’t really surprising. :P I was shocked by just how much introduction there was right at the beginning:
The game follows the first season of the show and features the Japanese animation (as apparently the dubbed version actually did many cuts/edits). That said, the voices are the English cast–but I find them pretty good usually. I would say the only “annoying” parts are during battles where many of the people you fight have one of a few random ones even if it’s supposedly new people and some of those voices can be abit… ear-piercing.
My only real issue with the game though is I wish you could actually color parts. There’s so many parts and color schemes (and even some color variants for a few robots), but even with all the colors, very few match and it can make your robot look… really odd. That isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but I wish I had the option to both do something unique and make it look a bit more Uniform versus it being a mismatched bag of colors.
But yes, I’ve uploaded a few videos so far and plan to continue to do so. If it looks interesting, definitely give it a shot! Even though it’s a port from the PSP, it actually had a lot of new stuff too so I think even if you enjoyed that version, you could have fun with this one as well. I also want to thank the nice people who commented with information about the series :) It’s really made me want to check it out when I have time.
While I am enjoying LBX, I’d be lying if I didn’t say there are some games I’m looking forward to even more coming up in only about a month now! It’s hard to believe Happy Home Designer is only a month away. I’ve been watching a lot of Japanese footage to keep up to date on things, but unlike how I usually play Animal Crossing games, I don’t really have much planned out. I have an idea on what buildings I want for Main Street and what kind of outfit I want to have in the long run:
I’ve also been slowly working on turning patterns back into QR codes and even making some new ones:
What do you mean Mega Audino isn’t relevant? Mega Audino is always relevant.
I can’t even decide what I’m most excited about it. I’ve already spoken about it a few times so I won’t go on another ramble, but I can’t wait and there aren’t enough words for how much I’m looking forward to playing it. Also still hoping to be able to get at least one box of cards! It’ll be 6 cards per pack and each pack costs about $6 so it’s like $1 a card which isn’t too bad :3
Of course, that isn’t the only game coming out in September! Super Mario Maker is as well–I do have the game preordered, but I’m not sure how much I will play it in comparison to Happy Home Designer. I am a bit sad that it seems the Modern 8-Bit Mario Amiibo will be, at least for a while, exclusive to a Wii U bundle. As I already have a Wii U, I don’t really need the bundle… I just wish this would stop happening considering other regions are getting it by themselves. I loved the Modern more than the Classic (though, both are great) so I’m just super sad it may be a while before I can get one… (at least at a not overpriced amount).
That wasn’t the only Amiibo news though, Woolly World announced that in addition to the 3 Woolly Yoshi’s, there will also be a Mega Woolly World Yoshi Amiibo:
I’m pretty sure I need it. It’s a fair size bigger than the normal sized ones:
And one of the big things that have been popping up is people discussing if it’s overpriced or not and to be honest, I’m not really sure. Offhand, I don’t really think it is. But when I compare it to my lifesized Kirby plush that was $50, well…:
Regardless, I think I’ll probably end up getting it. But I hope that this is a one-time thing–I wouldn’t want to see many other “Jumbo” versions of things.
Moving onto November, more Amiibo will be coming out that month too. The three pack of Mii Fighters will be out November 1st which I really hope to get and the Mewtwo Amiibo will be out November 13th. November 13th has also been the confirmed day for Animal Crossing: Amiibo Festival and while you can get Isabelle and Digby with the game, Reese, Cyrus, and K.K. Slider are in a 3-pack:
Meanwhile, Lottie, Nook, and Mabel will be sold separately. While I plan to get all of them, I know K.K. is pretty popular and was one of the ones that people wanted by itself. I’m just kind of tired of seeing the 3-packs in a way :( I hope I will be able to get all of them though… As it is, Amiibo Festival is supposed to be free from the eShop… and yet Isabelle and Digby will only be shown with the bundle… You also get 3 cards, but going with the $1 per card and $13 per Amiibo, that’s only about $30. The fact that we have to pay another $30 is… really disappointing. I mean, I prefer physical releases anyway, but if the game really is free on the eShop (over $30), I can’t help but feel a bit disappointed.
Going back to happier topics, on November 20th, Pokemon Super Mystery Dungeon comes out! I hope I can find lots of time to play it between Thanksgiving and wedding stuff… I know I’ll probably play it a lot during the reception at least.
I also want to bring up Style Savvy 3–while we are still waiting for a release date here in the US, Europe has recently announced that the game will come out for them November 20th which is a huge surprise. I really hope we hear about Style Savvy 3 in the US soon–hopefully in October (as November is busy enough). I’m not sure how I’d be able to decide what to play if it and Pokemon Super Mystery Dungeon came out the same day… At the very least, if Europe is getting it, my hopes for the US getting it soon are hopeful. But part of me fears we may not get it until 2016 which is a bit disappointing :(
And just to finish this entry off, the latest Splatfest will be happening this upcoming Saturday! It’s the first North American sponsored one and it’s for Transformers. I don’t really care much for Transformers personally, but I am looking forward to what other sponsored Splatfests could happen in the future. As for who I voted for, well…
(I voted for Autobots :P)
(On a final note, while I don’t want to completely buy into the Professor Layton in Smash rumors, no matter how likely due to reasons, I’m pretty excited at the thought. )
I’ve been going back and forth on writing this article for various reasons, but as it’s a topic that has been bothering me all week, I figured I’d start. But before we get to the main point, I do want to bring up the recent Super Mario Maker overview trailer:
I’m genuinely pretty excited (I mean, every Amiibo being usable except Mii fighters and most of the Animal Crossing cards is pretty awesome–did not expect the Pokemon ones considering Woolly World), but there is one aspect of this overview that really bums me out–having to wait 9-10 days to get everything. With everything shown and even getting to try the game at E3, I know I’ve certainly had ideas that are now going to be on hold for more than a week after the game comes out. I can only imagine what others had in mind too.
Artificially lengthening a game that is specifically focused on creation is a bad decision because when it comes down to it, most people who just want to focus on the creating are not going to bother. I know it doesn’t seem long in the long run (and 5 minutes a day is going to probably be just me opening it and leaving it there and shutting it off until I’ve unlocked everything honestly. The fact that I can’t even earn those 5 minutes just by playing the game and have to be in the creation screen stinks because I have no interest in even starting up a level until I unlocked everything), but nearly any game with a huge creation aspect has things about sharing saves for someone who is willing to unlock everything for those who want to focus on that one part.
And while yes, Super Mario Maker does have a non-creation part in actually playing levels you and others created, the underlying factor is still all about creation. LittleBigPlanet is another game about creation and while it had its own story mode and other things and thus, creation was just a part of it (although, a big part), it didn’t bother me as much considering there was still a whole story and “normal” Gameplay mode. Even though all parts that were used could be gotten in the game, there is a difference between earning them versus sitting around waiting and not being able to do much. Like if I could play 5 minutes or so of user levels and unlock new parts rather than having to wait on the creation screen for 5 minutes, I’d be significantly less frustrated. But while LBP always felt like a bonus to me, Super Mario Maker forcing this wait feels more like a chore.
I’ve heard similar arguments about Happy Home Designer, but while Happy Home Designer does have a large focus on creativity, the main focus really is helping make Villagers their dream homes. You can revisit at anytime, you unlock a lot of items relating to their theme, and when you get the few that you wanted to add that weren’t there, nothing is stopping you from returning. In fact, it’s actually encouraged–the only way to get bigger rooms for each villager is by doing this a number of times. This gives motivation to it versus just being stuck waiting on a creation screen. If I make a level in Super Mario Maker, chances are I’m not going to go back and re-do it–I’ll just make a new level. That’s not really how things work in Happy Home Designer though.
HHD isn’t perfect, of course. One of the biggest “issues” with the game, in my opinion, is the fact that you can only do one house a day. Whether it be cards or a villager outside, it’s always just one. Even if you choose to remake someone’s house to just add one item, it’ll suddenly be night and you will need to “write about your work” to save. And that’s kind of awful. There’s no reason you shouldn’t be able to do more than one Villager a day (especially if more than one of your favorites are outside). Similarly, you can only do one lesson a day–each which unlock various items. While revisiting is a large part of the game, I feel there are plenty of reasons to do that (such as unlocking more items from other villagers) without forced expansion of the game. At the very least, the game is not real time so you can easily do multiple in-game days in a day (and hopefully the same Villagers will still be there)–it’s mostly just a minor nitpick.
Of course, while I do have my frustrations with that, it’s not really what my worries are about. To get to that, I want to bring up a simple question: What makes a game too Japanese?
According to a recent interview, a game being “very Japanese” can lead to a large reason of it not even being attempted/it can’t come over. And while I can understand how some games can fit the bill easily like Nikki’s Travel Game which is essentially trivia about Japan, I feel a lot of games don’t fit under the bill as much as they are said to.
And then there are ones that I feel easily do, but somehow have managed to make it over. For example, I often heard of Earthbound being considered to be a “very Japanese game” due to its quirkiness. While some of it was changed for the US, it’s still mostly the same and the game has a fairly dedicated fanbase. Tomodachi Life is another game where it probably fits in the “very Japanese” category–I mean, it literally has a Japanese word right in the name and while the game received an overhaul with a few things (I do still wish we could’ve had that Japanese Folk songs in the concert honestly…)–the food especially, we still received the main core game play. Splatoon is another game that can easily come off as “too Japanese”–Squids are definitely more popular for characters in Japan over America and Inkopolis is strongly based off Shibuya–a popular district in Tokyo, Japan. Despite that, it has done really well and we even received the Squid Girl Outfit which is pretty awesome. And Splatoon isn’t the only game to use Shibuya–The World Ends with You is another game that is filled with several references to Japanese culture around Shibuya and also has quite a dedicated fanbase.
But that brings me to Happy Home Designer which features a number of pretty awesome “very Japanese” items–many of which have been excluded from normal access in the main games overseas since Wild World. I’ve mentioned before how much it has always disappointed me considering the Hinaningyo (雛人形) in the original Animal Crossing game is what started my interest in Japanese culture–an item that I suppose would also be under “very Japanese”, and yet I’m so thankful for.
We rarely hear about a game being “too American” and yet, overseas seems so closed off about having games that may be “too much” in the opposite. Even with games that have plenty, if not all, English dialogue and/or voice acting. “The setting is too Japanese”. “The clothing is too Japanese”. “The attitude is too Japanese”. “Ramen is too Japanese” (I’m looking at you, Ace Attorney). And if you include everything else, but feel the need to change the location, I can’t help but ask “Why?”. (And yes, I am aware that not every game makes it over to Japan, but I feel for a lot of those it’s more based on budget or the game isn’t region locked anyway)
New Leaf even translated every single foreign event. All Japanese items had English names. Everything was possible to get if you knew people with those region games and it makes me wonder why they couldn’t have all been included in the first place. And this makes me worry that we’ll be left out on items in Happy Home Designer too. Will themes change? Will items be completely excluded? Will we get a theme that makes no sense with the items we get due to a change? All because it’s “too Japanese”?
And the thing to keep in mind with New Leaf is not everyone could meet people with other regions of the game. Contrary to belief, not everyone can freely use the Internet. Similarly, some parents can be pretty strict. My family was always very opened to me talking to people and making friends all over the world as long as I kept them up to date, but most people didn’t have that kind of experience. When it comes down to it though, these shouldn’t even be worries. It should be a way to learn about things because it’s so small. And yet these small changes are constantly changed for who knows why considering what comes over as is.
And that brings over the issue of popularity/how many people may want it. Some games do really well, others not so much. That doesn’t make something a bad game. That doesn’t mean it wasn’t worth it. Would it be more worthwhile/money incentive if it was digital only? If people really want the game, they would probably be okay with that. It’s so incredibly hard to see games being given up on. I loved the original Magician’s Quest: Mysterious Times and while the second one seemed absolutely amazing, we never got it. Most people never heard of the first game as it wasn’t marketed well here. Treasure World is another game that did some really awesome things that was made by a company that normally just does ports. And yet also didn’t receive another title due to never being heard of.
I know I’m still waiting on any information for the third Style Savvy game–the first two did well–not amazing, but well, and yet there’s still been nothing and I’m not going to lie–I’m definitely scared we may not get it at all. If we don’t hear anything by mid-October, I’ll probably give up hope. But is that game suddenly too Japanese now with all the changes? I mean, they took out an entire shop in the last game…
I just wish “Very Japanese” or “Too Japanese” stopped being an excuse. Use it as a way to let people learn about other cultures. It’s not going to be an end-all for a game. Make it become the norm. Games come from all different cultures and places and they should be an experience to learn, not an excuse to give up on it.
I don’t know if Splatfests are just becoming less fun as they go or if this one was just frustrating for a lot of people I know, but this Splatfest was the first that truly made me want to give up partway through. I did still manage to get Hot Dog Queen though:
So yay for 18 more Sea Snails.
Before I go into what I felt was iffy about this Splatfest, I want to say I am not upset Hot Dogs lost–I honestly would’ve been very surprised if they didn’t. In fact, I was surprised we managed to have the higher win percent (and if we had 3 more win percent, we may have won over the large popularity vote for Marshmallows) as most of my battles just went… terribly. To make matters worse, disconnects were awful. If I finally found a group I worked well with and where I felt we actually had a chance to win or at least be close (as most matches weren’t close at all and were very one-sided–something I also blame the map choices for partially), after a few matches I was always disconnected at either the lobby or results screen. I don’t know why, but this is so incredibly disheartening and it wasn’t even happening to just me–it was happening to others I know as well.
Disconnects just managed to get even worse at night as, despite being Hot Dog Queen, my fiance and I were going to play some more for wins and every single time we got disconnected at either the lobby or within the first half of the match. I don’t know why, our internet was fine, and it happened out of nowhere, but after 10 match attempts that end in a disconnect somewhere, we ended up not playing anymore for the Splatfest. It was his only time to try for the day too and now he didn’t get to play at all.
I will say I wish Splatfests were in the morning again like with the very first one. I find Splatfest seems to work much better when it goes up and I’d rather not be asleep for the first part of it–I like waking up to it.
Besides that, I wonder how many people who added to the popularity Marshmallow vote picked it because they knew it’d be more popular. The fact that I keep seeing people just pick who they feel will be the winning team over which they like (My only temptation to Marshmallows was because that shirt was so cute) is just super disheartening. And honestly really silly for a difference of 6 Super Sea Snails. I still have 30. I don’t know who is managing to use up so many that they need to vote for what they feel is the popular one.
As usual, you can find my Queen journey on my Youtube channel. Due to some issues, I chose not to embed it–however, the highlight for me of Splatfest was that the pair used Victorian Tea Party colors and I do love Tea Parties.
Anyway, I hope the next Splatfest is better, but I don’t really find myself looking forward to it. :(
I wasn’t expecting to write an entry about this, but I received a question on Ask.fm asking and due to their character limit, I couldn’t fit it all so…
But yes, to answer the question… I’m sadly not enjoying the update as much as I wish I was :( I had gotten excited for new gear, but yet again there was only one new dress (and besides that, I honestly only like one other top and not as much as the dress) and yet again, Ninja Squid continues to just not be on anything I really like ;~;
Similarly, I only like one or two new hats–but neither more than the hairpin which also just… god, if we could just pick our abilities or something I’d already be enjoying the update so much more.
I was excited about the idea of the level increase with rewards for Judd, but the fact that it’s now done like Splatfest has made it awful. I have mixed feelings on how Splatfest title leveling works, but felt it was okay for the event as it’s not that much you need to earn. For leveling though, that isn’t the case. This method essentially means if you don’t care enough, you can earn your 400 points and just stop bothering. Sure, you can an extra 3 points if you win, but that is nothing compared to how you could get 1,000+ points before even adding on a bonus 300 for winning. There’s nothing that really encourages you to try your best. That doesn’t mean I don’t plan to try my best, but I don’t feel as motivated anymore. Even if I had a bad team, if I still did well I could be proud. Now? I lose more than half of the points I could have had to go towards leveling. That’s absolutely awful. Even Ranked experience had gone down a lot because of it. But the fact that you can earn more just by playing the Ranked mode and lasting (I know not all games last the full time, but I feel more do than though) even if you lose makes me feel that Ranked is even more encouraged and that makes me sad as it’s easily more kill-encouraged in that mode too.
I do like the idea of Private Matches, but since you can’t earn experience through them for your items or level, I don’t see myself using it much. I’d rather just gamble with the play with friends mode and hope we all get in eventually. I think it’d be fun to use later, but right now, I just don’t see the point beyond testing things out.
Squad Battles is something I don’t think I will ever use. I feel that’s essentially forced microphone mode and ignoring that for various reasons I don’t talk much–let alone on a microphone, I have a hard time talking about what I am playing. I’m just not good at it. It’s just not a mode for me. And as I can only use one weapon well and only when not having to aim it, I’m as useless as can be so I don’t want to waste a slot on someone’s Squad and be the reason for the loss.
As for Urchin Underpass, it’s not that I dislike it… I do like it, but I also really liked the original Urchin Underpass and I feel this is so different, it could’ve been its own level option. The original Urchin Underpass is still in single player and the local mode (which sadly still gets no updates :/ I’m still so upset about everything involving local play in this game).
Splatfest starts tonight though (at midnight but) so I’ll still be playing, but I just feel so discouraged with all of it. I’m not entirely sure why these changes were made, but I’d be lying if I said I enjoyed them.
As for the highlights in the update for me:
-Super happy we got the Squid Girl Outfit and the Sushi Chef outfits. It does seem like there won’t be any outfit exclusives per region (beyond Splatfests which don’t stick around) and that’s just really awesome.
-The Squid Girl blue/new light blue color is amazing. I really want a nice pastel pink color to go with it. The pastel green and this shade are now tied for 3rd in my top three favorite colors (First is the Pink that goes up against the turquoise, second is the Milk Tea color in Japan & the turquoise that goes up against the pink)
-The new music is awesome. I especially really like “Shellfie” (even if I wish it’s name was better :P)
I really hope they will continue to add more colors. That’s definitely something I’d like to see more often beyond just weapon/map updates. I do wish we could permanently select a color match-up though that would show up only on the user’s end if they have it selected.
Chances are if you’ve viewed any of the tumblr blogs, you already know this, but I wanted to mention it on my site to explain the lack of updates recently (though, part of it is not having too much to play right now! I sadly was unable to record the voting for the 3rd Splatfest :( But should still have videos participating in it on Saturday and some videos/possible streams tomorrow as well).
But yes moving on, I’m sure most people who have read this blog or my twitter know I am incredibly excited about Happy Home Designer. While I do have some apprehensions about minor things, I’m just really looking forward to it and I can’t wait to play. So, when Sami Spoon asked if I was up to making a guide with her as she’s playing the game in Japanese, I quickly agreed and thus, it began :P
You can find the guide by clicking here! :) At the moment, the layout itself is up. The pages that will take the longest to complete are Items and Character stuff just as there’s so many. I’m hoping Buildings will be the next page we get up. But yes, it’s been a good way to help somewhat quell my excitement. I can’t wait to be able to play it myself in September <3
So, people have been anticipating the Splatoon update in August for many many reasons–the biggest being that it was going to finally let Friends pair up with eachother. That said, the update will apparently be containing much more than I expected. You can read the full source over on BusinessWire, but I will be picking out some of the things that caught my attention the most.
To start, I will bring up what most people were waiting for the update for:
The new update introduces Squad Battle and Private Battle matchmaking options. In Squad Battle, players can participate in Ranked Battle rule sets with friends, rather than being teamed up with other players through a random selection. After a player creates a squad, friends can be recruited to form a team of two to four Inklings. Friends will always play together on the same team and battle against other squads at random.
In Private Battle, friends can splat it up in private, customizable matches. Two to eight friends can battle together by selecting their favorite map, mode and weapons. The number of participants ranges from 1v1 to 4v4, but teams don’t have to be even: If the host chooses, he or she can select a 1v4, 1v2, or any other combination of players.
Now I’ll be honest, this has been something I have been both looking forward to and dreading at the same time. I do want to say I am disappointed that you can’t be in a team of 4 versus other teams in Turf War–only Ranked. While you can choose which mode for all 8, it doesn’t seem to work that way for you and 3 friends vs four friends you may not know. I’m also assuming your ranks won’t go up in this mode either, though, I don’t really care either way for if it does or not. It has been confirmed your rank DOES actually go up and you can still earn experience which is pretty neat.
My main reason for dreading though, as I feel once people can set teams, there will be a lot of precedence on roles and what to wear and there has already been stuff building up to that. I just don’t like seeing things get super competitive and knowing I’m not that great of a player, I don’t see myself becoming part of someone’s squad.
Making it even worse is just the fact that there’s still no real local play. I’d love to try things out locally with friends or even a silly 1 vs 1 with my fiancé, but it sadly isn’t possible :(
That said, it’ll be great to finally be able to just play with groups of friends if we want to. The question now is if they will still randomize or if it’ll always be the same four or if there is a setting for it to randomize or not. Considering there is a Set Teams button though, I have a feeling you’ll get to pick:
And it seems you can set a password for your lobby too, which is nice. Unfortunately, you do not get experience for this mode which I find… incredibly silly (especially as you do in Ranked and even in Mario Kart 8, if you customize around, you can still earn coins to unlock things). Unless you really want to play around with a mode, the play with friends option is still viable and while it may take longer for it to be all your friends, at least you’ll still learn experience.
Just seems like a really silly thing to me. I would’ve felt it’d have been more likely for Squad Battles to not get ranked/experience so the fact that it is getting it while Private Battles are not completely blows my mind–and not in the good way :/
Moving on, I think it’s pretty cool you can do smaller groups and even a Tag-team kind of thing with two others to take on other Ranked teams as well:
Moving past that, the part that surprised me quite a bit was this:
With this robust new update also comes an increased level cap in both Regular Battle and Ranked Battle modes. After downloading the software update, players will be able to reach level 50 (raised from level 20) and rank S and S+ (both higher than A+).
I did not expect any level cap increasements at all. While I definitely know some people have been really wanting a level increase, I never felt like it was needed. It’ll be a long journey for 30 more levels. I just hope that most of the weapons and new items won’t be locked behind them. Speaking of new items, there will be more than 40 new pieces of gear being added to the game “including everything from a leather jacket to a sushi-chef costume.” For those who may be unaware, the Sushi-Chef costume was actually the winner in the Famitsu Contest:
While I don’t think I’ll use it personally, it’s still pretty cool and I’m super happy it’s coming over in the first place–a lot of people were worried it’d be exclusive to Japan. I hope other regions do a contest like this too at some point.
I just hope one of the new pieces of gear is a dress (Poodle skirt to go with Leather Jacket would also be acceptable). With Ninja Squid. Please give me a Ninja Squid dress. Please.
And it was then I was hit with an even bigger surprise–two new weapon types:
While Inklings around the world are enjoying and mastering the current arsenal of weapons in Splatoon, two new weapon types will be available with the update, adding a new layer of strategy to the game. The bucket-like Slosher weapons hurl ink straight ahead at an impressive range. By adjusting the angle, these new weapons can be used to splat opponents who are up high or even on the other side of a wall.
With the Gatling-style Splatling, players can charge blasts of all-powerful ink. A maximum charge unleashes the full potential of this particular weapon type.
While I don’t see either beating out the Roller for me (after all, both still seem to use aim which is something I do not do well with), I definitely find both interesting and am curious how they will be in the game.
Finally, Urchin Underpass is getting quite a bit of construction too!
While some of it looks interesting, I actually really like Urchin Underpass. Blackbelly Skatepark and Bluefin Depot tend to be my least favorites with a still undecided opinion on Camp Triggerfish so I’d just have rather seen either of those changed up over Urchin Underpass. I hope I can catch it for a last stroll before it closes down for construction.
So despite some of my apprehensions, I’m honestly really excited and I did not expect the update so soon–I mean, I knew it was August, but I was expecting mid to late August over having it next Wednesday. And rest assured, more stuff is still going to continue to come out!:
Despite its size and scope, this massive August update is not the end of the splat-acular free content coming to Splatoon. Following this update, more content will continually roll out through the rest of the summer and fall, including the Rainmaker Ranked Battle mode, additional maps and new weapons. More details about these additions will be revealed in the future.
I’ll be honest–I was really hoping we’d see Rainmaker in this update! And maybe a new map too. Mostly sad that Rainmaker will still be a bit off, but maybe we’ll see it in the next big (although, probably not as big as this :P) update. What are you looking forward to most? :)
So, as most people know by now, Mr. Iwata unfortunately passed away about two weeks ago. Nobody really expected it and despite having to skip E3 the last two years, most thought it was nothing this serious (I mean, look how well he did in the E3 video as a Muppet last month!). A lot of people have been asking me to write something though so I will do my best.
It’s been hard for me to think of something to say. There are so many great stories about Mr. Iwata that people have posted and he was such a big contribution to both Nintendo and the gaming industry as a whole–being a gamer himself, he had a point of view beyond just a company president and did so many awesome things. In fact, Pokemon Gold & Silver were the first games I played in Japanese.
While I still couldn’t think of too much to say involving it beyond wishing all the best to Nintendo and Iwata’s family, I wanted to make sure I stopped by the tribute that the Nintendo World Store had set up. Today (July 24th) is the last day so I made sure to stop by yesterday and I tried my best to make something for the occasion:
As for my note, it was a simple Thank you and a few other words, but I did do my best to draw a cute Kirby too. I didn’t feel right taking a picture of the table with his photo and the books, but it was a very nice set-up. We did take a picture of the area where everyone had placed things:
Some close-ups:
Seeing everything together is really nice. But yes, Thank you so much Mr. Iwata for everything you did.
It’s been so long since I made a baking entry on here! While I haven’t baked as much as I’ve liked to recently (wedding plans take up a lot of time ;~;), the main issue tends to be either not making anything too new or due to things being… jumped on before I can get a chance to take many pictures of the steps.
Despite that, I decided I really wanted to make a nice cake for myself as I didn’t really get a proper birthday cake on my birthday. I would’ve made it on the day or even Sunday, but after a very busy Saturday and the giant heatwave that started on Sunday until tonight, it ended up being pushed back… I decided not to write anything on it (I think that’d be going too far when I’m doing it for myself), but I’m at least making my favorite kind of cake :P
I’ve always been rather picky with birthday cakes. I’ll try pretty much anything, but I’ve always had a favorite kind of cake–chocolate cake with vanilla/marshmallow frosting. My grandmother has made my cake for most of my life, but I know she’s been busy with things and I don’t really want to bother her with making my cake again this year. I dislike 90% of store bought cakes and despite living around many bakeries, I generally don’t like any of their cakes. In general, most bakeries around here never taste very fresh to me and if I do like something, it’s usually a cupcake specialty shop.
Going back to cakes, the only store bought cake I really enjoy (that has frosting anyway so excluding coffee cakes and crumb cakes) is this one: Entenmann’s Marshmallow Iced Devil’s Food Cake. But while I do enjoy it, I wanted to have something special–it doesn’t feel right just picking up a cake from the store for my birthday.
Spray two 9-inch cake pans with a type of baking spray (like PAM) or spreading a light coat of butter around the pan and flouring lightly.
Mix together the flour, sugar, cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda, and salt into whatever bowl you plan to mix the cake batter in (I personally use a KitchenAid Mixer Stand)
Add milk, vegetable oil, both eggs (I recommend breaking them in a separate bowl to make sure no egg shells get into the mixture), and the vanilla extract to the flour/dry mixture and mix everything together on medium speed until completely combined.
Reduce the speed to slowly add in the hot water to the cake batter.
Once everything is in, start beating the cake batter on high speed for about 1 minute to add air.
Pour cake batter evenly between the two cake pans. Bake for 30-35 minutes or until you can stick a toothpick in the center of the cake and have it come out clean.
Remove the cake from the oven and allow it to cool for about 10 minutes.
Then remove it from the pan and let it cool completely.
Once cool, add frosting.
I forgot to take a picture of the cake before frosting it, but yes, I can’t stress enough about not frosting the cake until it is cool. It’ll just slide off. Or melt. Or both. Either way, it won’t be fun. Regardless, while the cake is cooling, it’s a perfect time to start the frosting (if you didn’t make it while it was in the oven anyway):
Ingredients for Frosting
1 Cup Sugar
4 Egg Whites
⅓ cup Water
½ teaspoon Cream of Tartar
1 teaspoon Vanilla Extract
Frosting Instructions
Add the water, sugar, and cream of tartar to a medium sauce pan. Do not stir. Bring it to a boil.
Leave it boiling until thick clear bubbles appear. As soon as it does, remove the pan from heat and turn the fire off.
In a glass or metal bowl, put in the 4 egg whites and beat them until the mixture becomes thick and foamy causing soft white peaks to form.
At this time, slowly add in the sugar syrup.
Once fully added and mixed, add in the vanilla extract.
Mix until nice and fluffy.
Add a few drops of red food coloring because pink is the best color.
If the cake is cool, frost it!
The lovely frosting:
Our finished cake!:
Now to enjoy a piece of belated birthday cake <3
Bonus: TheDaftLynx surprised me with this lovely drawing of Mega Audino for my birthday!
I love it so much. Thank you again!! <3
If anyone here reads my twitter, you will know I talk about being excited for Happy Home Designer a lot. I already reblogged the article I wrote on my main website and while I am still pretty undecided on where I should write Happy Home Designer stuff (Here or my Animal Crossing blog site), that doesn’t really lessen my excitement.
It’s definitely a game where I’m planning to take it slowly over preparing everything ahead of time. I’m sure I’ll want to change things up as I unlock more items. But yes, between more customization options being confirmed (Gender, Hair, Eyes, Skin Color, and Facial Expression), how cool window customization is along with the awesomeness of the interior doorway customization:
And then just the special mascot/sponsor villagers that I’m REALLY hoping they both come over somehow:
I can’t help but just be super excited about all of it.
