Review: Stella Glow (3DS) ~ Swansong

Official website

Around a month ago, I was looking for a new 3DS adventure to sink my time into. So, I downloaded a few demo’s from the Nintendo eShop. When I played the demo of Stella Glow, I wanted to give the full game a try. Later that day, I talked to my friends over at ButtonSmashers and something happened. I was asked to review this game and I got a review copy. So, that was a very lucky thing. Also, the subtitle of this review has a special meaning. This game is published by Sega, Atlus & NIS America but it has been developed by Imageepoch. Sadly enough, they are bankrupt now. So, they made this TRPG (tactical RPG) about music as their final game. Is it any good? Well, I had high expectations. And as usual, feel free to leave a comment with your opinion on the content of this article and/or the game. 

Note: I want to thank NIS America & ButtonSmashers for giving me a download code for this game.  

Swansong

In this game, you play as Alto. A boy who got adopted and lost his memories. One day, when he was out hunting, he encountered a mysterious woman that warns him to leave the village. He refuses and not too long after, all hell breaks loose.

This is how the game starts. There were a lot of cliches in the story, but they didn’t weaken the story one bit. The writing of the characters is excellent. You really get to know the large cast of characters in this game. Both in the main story and in the side missions, all characters well developed. Every character has his/her own personality and they can be very relatable.

The only negative I have for the story is that it introduces too much new major plot points in the final three chapters. So, the pacing of the story isn’t the best in the end. But hey, it’s a minor thing in my eyes since it keeps you at the edge of your seat.

Something that really helps in the story department is the voice acting. Man, the voice acting is top notch. All the actors did an amazing performance for this game. I have nothing bad to say about the voice acting of this game.

Read the full review on ButtonSmashers, since I got this game from them.

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Gamer’s Thoughts: 10 facts about the gameboy and gameboy color

Let’s do something different, not a review or a first impression. Let’s not talk about the game music or something along those lines. In this article I want to talk about the history of the gameboy and gameboy color and maybe some facts you didn’t know about yet. So, this is an experimental article. It would help me if you guys left a comment about the content and subject of this article. Let’s begin. 

Gameboy

1) Kirby’s color is white?

Did you know, that Kirby’s first appearance in the west was actually white? The reason for that is when Nintendo USA got the code for the game in order to translate, they didn’t mention that Kirby was pink. Because his first installment was on the gameboy, it was unclear which color he had. That’s why Nintendo decided to give him a white color.

Also, there are some rumors of Kirby’s name. It might have to do with a story of a lawyer that defended Nintendo when Universal Studio’s sued Nintendo for copyright infringement on their Donkey Kong license. But that’s only a rumor… right?

2) A calculator as inspiration.

Gunpei Yokoi was sitting on the train when he saw a business man playing around on his calculator. You know that stuff you did back in class? Turning the numbers upside down to try and spell out words? It didn’t take long before your dirty mind took over and you turned the number “80085” upside down.

So, that’s what gave Gunpei the inspiration to make the gameboy with the RD&1 of Nintendo. Sadly enough, the creator of the gameboy has passed away in a car accident a few years ago.

He got a few awards under his belt, but to me he will always be remember as the creator of the gameboy :)!

3) The Gameboy Advance SP wasn’t the first back-lit gameboy.

Remember those painful days when you had to have a lamp on to play the gameboy? When you couldn’t play it under your sheets easily because the gameboy didn’t had a light-up screen?

Well, the successor, the gameboy pocket got a second release in Japan. The gameboy light was actually the solution to the issue. Strangely enough, the device only stayed in Japan. In the USA and Europe we got all sorts of crazy attachments that barely worked.

What’s an every bigger mystery is why they didn’t include this feature in the gameboy color. Yes, we had to wait until the gameboy advance SP until we had backlit gameboy screens. What a shame actually. But hey, it was fun trying to hide the gameboy and put out the lights at night to avoid your parents busting in…. Just don’t forget you lower your volume.

 4) The gameboy wasn’t the first Nintendo handheld

So, this relates to my 2nd point about the calculator. When Gunpei started to design the first handheld game for Nintendo, he developed the Game & Watch series.

The Game & Watch series are now a big collector item. It’s even believed that some Game & Watch systems gave the inspiration to the Nintendo DS’s design.

Well, more on Game & Watch devices later.

5) Samsung sold it!

Around the time the WO II ended, Korea actually banned products made in Japan. Which meant that the Gameboy was banned. But that didn’t stop from being sold in Korea.

Samsung Korea actually sold the gameboy under another name, called the “Comboy”. It’s not the only system that Samsung sold. I know that they sell a version of the DS as well, so I wouldn’t be surprised that they helped to sell the whole gameboy line in Korea. But notice that’s I’m doubting since I don’t know for certain.

Gameboy Color

1) The SNES gameboy “port”

Back in the day, you could play Gameboy games on your TV using the Super Gameboy. You can even play with the color.

But strangely enough, the Super Gameboy couldn’t run Gameboy Color games. The SNES would be strong enough to run those games and it has color for sure.

We had to wait until the GameCube before we would be able to play these games legally on a big screen.

2) Trivia

The Gameboy color is the only system in the Gameboy series that has clear cartrigdes.

The colors in the name of the Gameboy color stand for each different color the gameboy color was originally released in.

And final part of trivia, all black gameboy cartridges are enhanced to be in color on the gameboy color!

3) Pokemon Crystal, two versions?

The most popular game on the Gameboy Color was Pokémon Gold & Silver. But strangly enough, Pokémon Crystal got two releases. I discovered this when I found out that I had two Pokémon Crystal cartridges.

When I saw the area code, somehow a “-1″ was printed on it. After I researched it, it turns out that there was a v1.1 released. There is barely anything known what is patched. But hey, time to hunt a copy down for your collection!

4) Wireless.

If you thought that you needed to use cables when it came to connecting two gameboy colors, think again. Some games actually used the infrared port on top of the gameboy.

I never used it as a kid, but it’s interesting to learn more about. Since according to my research, it was the first handheld that had wireless communication.

5) Motion Control before it was cool.

Oh, and it wasn’t the only first. Kirby Tilt ‘n’ Tumble was the first motion controlled game. It’s a sort of maze / Super Monkey Ball-ish game.

It actually worked with tilting the gameboy around. I haven’t played it, but I have seen video’s about it. It made me want to grab a copy of it. Since you can’t have the same experience with these kind of games on an emulator.

Final thoughts

So, that was the article I wanted to release last week. But, I was busy and tired, so I moved it to this week. I hope you enjoyed reading about the gameboy and gameboy color. If you knew all these ten facts, I hope it was a nice refresher.

I enjoyed writing this, did you enjoy reading it? Anyways, I hope to see you another time. Thanks for reading.

FROM MANGA TO VIDEO GAME: MYSTERIOUS GIRLFRIEND X

Manga: Mysterious Girlfriend X
Publisher: Kodansha
Mangaka: Riichi Ueshiba
Genre: Romantic comedy, school story,slice of life, supernatural

Concept Game: MGX: Tsubaki Sim
Genre: 3D dating Sim

 

 

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Mysterious Girlfriend X is one of the most adorable manga series out there. It’s filled to the brim with cute, unique characters that somehow gives me a warm feeling inside. Each time a new chapter is released, (which is rare) I get a feeling of joy + excitement that I usually don’t get from the other manga I read, not even One Piece (that’s a different type of excitement). Maybe it’s because of the long space of time between releases of those wonderful chapters that build up that feeling of longing, like a lover that you have not seen for months. The story of Mysterious Girlfriend X follows two young lovers Urabe and Tsubaki who share a very strange link via their drool. They are able to feel emotions that the other is feeling all through tasting each other’s drool, oh and they don’t kiss. Oh no they taste the drool by putting their finger into the other’s mouth and then tasting all that good stuff.

LOL I know, you’re probably thinking that good old Q has gone insane from all that curry he eats. I mean he’s telling you that this manga is so amazing yet it’s all about people doing all sorts of gross stuff. OK well I’m not gonna go into too much to sell you on the plot here. Instead I recommend you check (this link) for all that I have ever written about this wonderful manga. After that make sure you give the manga a good read. I promise you won’t regret it.

OK so now for the reason you’re all really here; to find out how I’d conceptualize a MGX game. Firstly before we even get started, it must be noted that this manga series must be completed first for my concept to be truly capable of succeeding, Anywho on with the game. If you’ve been guessing it would be a dating sim then you’re right. If you’re guessing a dating sim in the traditional sense then you’re absolutely wrong. To make a game that is true to the style and atmosphere of this wonderful manga there will have to be some changes to the formula. For one our protagonist will not be chasing after numerous female characters as is the norm in dating sims, but will in fact dating only one girl, Urabe. What this means is that unlike the regular dating sim where the character is tasked with acquiring a girl from a select few and then pleasing her. The player will be required to follow through with a full pre-established relationship with Urabe and manage the keep her.

I picture the game being similar to the style of persona 4 excluding all the fighting of course. Giving the player an open city to explore with progressively unlocked locations will allow the player to not only explore their relationship with Urabe, but also those with his friends and family respectively. For example the player can spend some afternoons with Ueno at the arcade and while there run into Oka who would probably then take away her boyfriend. The player may then choose to explore a bit more in depth in the relationship of his friends via a series of txt bobbles and pre-recorded anime cut scenes. Characters in the game can even borrow more from the persona formula by using a similar feature to its Social link system. By doing this the player will be required to not only focus on Urabe but in fact choose how to balance healthy relationships with other characters in Tsubaki’s life along with her. This then adds possibility for jobs and activities to earn rewards that can then be spent or given to another character to increase their social standing with Tsubaki.

By adding Jobs and other activities the developers may now be able to add mini games to mix up the gameplay and add some diversity, because as you know what most gamers hate is repetition in their games. When I think about this aspect the mini games from No More Heroes 2 come to mind. They were simple yet engaging and very repayable without feeling tedious. They don’t need to be the same 8bit style, but the foundation that they represent should remain the same, simple yet fun.

The Romance of our Title should remain on the level of the manga. This means no full frontal nudity, Shagging or any of that kinda stuff. MGX is not Futari Ecchi or Nozoki ana. It’s a cute love story that has its ecchi moments, but they’re still at the kiss and peck level. If it were to stray from that I think fans of the source material would reject the game. How the game can handle ecchi is similar to the Persona Series, yep back to Persona. Have a beach stage; every anime has a beach episode. By having a beach stage/ section it allows for the use of ecchi moments like Urabe & Oka in bath suits. It adds more mini game dynamics that can capitalize on fan service, example; the Dead or Alive beach volleyball games. Yes guys picture it now … the girls from MGX playing volley ball “mmmmm… yep sounds about right”.

Oh wait sorry about that I seem to have gotten lost in my thoughts of this titles ecchi, shameful display. Anywho MGX is a wonderful manga and it can be turned into many types of games. Even though I choose a dating sim for my concept I’m sure that it can be made into an action game, 2D beat em up or maybe an app based game with Urabe cutting stuff up with those scissors of hers (think fruit ninja). The possibilities are numerous.

This is my proposal for Mysterious Girlfriend X: the Game. Did I miss anything? What is yours?

FROM MANGA TO VIDEO GAME: Onepunch-man

This article is being posted here for all my fellow cats, 52 hours before it appears anywhere else. I hope it is an enjoyable read.

Manga: Onepunch-man

Publisher: Viz Media
Mangaka: Yūsuke Murata, One
Genre: Action, Science Fiction, Comedy, Super hero
Concept Game: Onepunch-man
Genre: Beat ’em up

FROM MANGA TO VIDEO GAME: Air Gear

This articles is being posted here for all my fellow cats, 17 hours before it appears anywhere else. I hope it is an enjoyable read.

Manga: Air Gear
Publisher: Kodansha
Mangaka: Oh! great
Genre: Action, Sports, Science Fiction, Bopunk, Comedy
Concept Game: Air Gear
Genre: Action RPG

NekoJonez: Nintendo MiiPlaza v3.0: What I want to see.

Oh wow, it has been a long time since this Neko created an article for this blog first instead of the other way around. Well, I hope that might improve my fanbase… Jonez, what were you thinking? The idea of this joke in the introduction how it’s good but not good enough and then compare it to StreetPass MiiPlaza isn’t going to work this way. Yeah, let’s just explain to the people that I wanted to write an article about the changes I want to see if they ever would make a major update to StreetPass MiiPlaza. And as tradition, invite them to leave a comment with their thoughts on what they think about the article or what they want to see changed. 

StreetPass, itself.

Account system?

If this was possible, that would be mindblowing. Just think about it, there are a bunch of families where the 3DS is owned by more then one child. They have to share their 3DS with their brother or sister. And then different accounts for them they could switch between would be an amazing feature.

Granted, it would be a pain to integrate. This might even mean that the whole 3DS system would need a major rewrite where every account will need a ton of set-up. That would be a major downside of the feature. I’m going to think out loud here and there in this article so, see this article as a sort brainstorm I did and one I’m expanding while writing this article.

Better menu’s.

This is one they should DO without thinking actually. Some menu’s of the MiiPlaza are just bad. Let’s start with the music menu. You should be able to easily access the menu by mini-game. Not having them all dumped into one list under each other. Good luck finding your song then.

For the hats menu, you should be able to search them. Or at least, put them by category. Sometimes looking for a hat is such a pain and it takes too much time to find one back.

Also, I think this is a valid remark but Nintendo, tell me why the firmwire updates are protected with the pin code and the update to MiiPlaza isn’t? Isn’t that a big gap in the consistency of your firmwire?

Please improve the menu’s Nintendo, they are working on my nerves, big time. My biggest frustration is how you can barely sort the Mii’s on your plaza itself. And if you can, that feature is quite hidden.

Since I have a game or two that drops the Mii’s of the people who helped me in game onto the Plaza. And I wish I could be able to sort of those who are from that game and who I actually saw or past in real life. And it would be such a blessing if those people didn’t count towards the achievements. Yeah, thanks to Bravely Default I have now the achievement that I have more then 100 Mii’s on my Plaza. Great…

Music

This will be a short one but to my honest opinion, I like the idea that the music changes when you have a certain number in your Plaza. Although, why isn’t it possible yet to change the music of the main plaza back to a previous version or the music you unlocked in the jukebox?

That would be amazing. Maybe a possibility to have the music that is on the SD card? Yeah, why not? Since hearing that same music over and over again might get a bit tiresome. On the other hand, it’s the OST to the game, so it might get lost and that’s no big fun to the creator of the music. So scrap the SD idea, and introduce the other idea about selecting the music of the jukebox.

And dear Nintendo, please finally learn that music isn’t a sound to indicate that you lost or won a level. A song has a duration of at least a minute. Please put the sound effects in a separate place. Turn the jukebox in a soundtest, why the heck not? To give some nostalgia-gasms to the retro gamers under us.

Misc stuff

So, in between writing and publishing this article, I put a bit more thought in what I wrote. When I was playing, I had another idea. Why can’t the exchange booth be updated? I mean here that the 4 featured hats change daily. But what if you could lock a hat for some time? When you truly want to have a hat.

Also, maybe expand the selection? And make a selection that is always there. But the 4 changing daily should have a price like 1 additional play coin or something.

Also, when you have played all mini-games with the Mii’s you met, why are they still following you for a while? If you go to your plaza, they should stop following you.

Another idea is that you can check the (past) greetings of a character. I met somebody at my college and we had to find each other by other means on Facebook. That was a true annoyance.

Also, maybe some sort of leader board for the general MiiPlaza high scores could be awesome. I understand that you can see the people you passed by are in that list, but wouldn’t it be more awesome to compare your results with those around the world?

And please Nintendo, add a way to see the progress of those on your friend list. A game that could really benefit from this is StreetPass Garden.

The games

Puzzles

The puzzles are already a great start. It was the main reason why I took my 3DS outside. And here are my idea’s to improve the Puzzle Swap concept.

First of all, it could be amazing to kind of bookmark people. When they have pieces of a puzzle you want, you could ask those people to bring their 3DS to class or to the playground daily and that way you could easily complete a puzzle.

Maybe give us a way to get more puzzle pieces from a person at once when you pay some play coins for it. I mean, you use them to get puzzle pieces from the amazing cats~

StreetPass Quest

Did you know, that if you beat StreetPass Quest twice, you unlock StreetPass Quest 2? That’s an amazing surprise.

And to be honest, the complaints I had with StreetPass Quest are implemented in StreetPass Quest 2.

So, honestly, I have no complaints here. Surprising not? One idea is that you have some sort of “log” where you can check which color does which magic. Could save you some time by looking it up online.

The DLC Games

Oh yes, I’m calling them the DLC games. And yes, I actually bought them without looking at any screenshots or video’s. I just wanted the complete experience of the MiiPlaza. I’m like that. When I see on Steam that there is a more expensive version with more features, I ALWAYS buy the more expensive version. I want to have everything the developer publishes.

So, since not everybody got those additional games, I’m also going to give a short explanation of the game. So, YEAH! More content of the NekoJonez.

StreetPass Squad

Ever thought to yourself, this StreetPass Quest is great but what if I could play a shooter with my friends? One, thanks for playing on the 3DS, since most gamers answer that question with a (generic) mainstream shooter that they can play on their computers.

And second, that’s this game basically. And I truly enjoy how the color of the Mii changes the weapon that they have. Each Mii you meet is a pod at your ship. You have four spots where you can place a Mii. 3 in front and one in the back. The other Mii’s you can place behind the Mii’s to upgrade their weapon.

What’s awesome is that you can rotate the ships so that your projectiles shoot in different directions. Also, this game has so different modes. From protecting crystals to horizontal and vertical shooting. With bosses at the end of every stage. This game is rather fun to play.

My first remark is simple. Why can’t you keep playing the game when the pods are still in tact? Isn’t that a bit silly? When beating a level, you see which pods are still in tact. Maybe I have to beat the game once for unlocking that but that is lame honestly.

But what’s awesome in this game is that you can see the scores of the people you passed by. And you can see their profile. Sweet going there. Also, the more missions you beat, the more titles you can give yourself at your profile.

The other remark I have with this game is that you should add the name of the stages in the ranking. That’s my remark short and sweet.

And my final remark is that they should add a sort of syncing. When somebody that you passed has beaten his or her high score, it should update your list with the touch of a button instead of having to pass by them again.

StreetPass Garden

Yes, StreetPass Garden is exactly what it sounds, you have a garden that you can show (off) at your friends. Each Mii that visits your garden waters your plant once. When it’s fully grown, the seeds of your plant and your guest’s plant mix. This way you can gather more plants.

It sounds boring at first, while that isn’t true at all. This game is actually playable when you haven’t any hits on MiiPlaza. You don’t get the message: “Pass by people to play this game” BS. And this game has the most depth of them all. You can visit shops, expand and decorate your garden quite a bit.

And my remarks for this game are mentioned earlier. Most of them. One major remark is how you can only check out people their garden once they visit you. You should be able to visit their garden as soon as they once visited yours. And with syncing. That could be awesome.

StreetPass Battle

Want to conquer the world with your friends? Well, that’s possible in this game! Which is an amazing concept. And it truly is amazing.

This game is actually pretty tactical. You have to win battles. While they don’t have a lot of depth, it’s quite easily to loose yourself in them. Since some battles have some special rules that make each battle feel different then the one before.

It’s based on the rock-paper-scissors style of battles. So, nothing truly special, but for a StreetPass game, it’s pretty good.

My complaints are, well… big. One complaint is how there is almost no difference in the amount of soldiers the people you meet different times bring in then how many soldiers a Mii brings in you met for the first time. That shouldn’t be the case!

Also, some battles require you to meet many people, since the amount of soldiers your enemies has are sometimes nearly doubled. A bit lazy in my opinion.

Another problem I have with the game is how you can’t give soldiers to others. When you meet a monarch from afar, you can battle them. Which is great, but isn’t perfect. If you could have an option that they get 50 soldiers when they meet you, then it would be perfect!

StreetPass Mansion

And this is your RPG-ish adventure game. In this game, you explore a haunted mansion for ghosts and treasures. Each Mii you meet, have a puzzle piece that you can place on the board. Your goal is to find the stairs in the room.

When you add a green piece to green pieces that are already laying down, then a chest or crystal appears in that room.

This is also a game where you can die. I mean here that there is no win/lose thingy. You actually have a health bar.

My major problem with this game is that when you hire investigators… The animation takes so long! It’s the longest of all the games and pressing “R” barely speeds the process up like in the other games.

This game feels a bit half finished. The game feels like it misses some great features like a list of all enemies and better inventory management. For real, this game has one of the worst inventory systems I have seen. It’s just clunky to use and destroys the fun of the game quite a bit.

And the worst part is that it’s possible that somebody has a part you can’t use in the room. Oh yes, then you’re pretty screwed. A hit just went lost.

In addition, you have to place your pieces where your character can go to. In a way, I understand why they programmed it like that, but I truly feel like it’s a missed opportunity. You could have build up so many possible combo’s.  Anyways, it’s the game I put least of time into. Since it feels a bit broken to me. Or that might just be my opinion.

Closing words.

So, I’m finally done with writing this long article. On my twitter I said that this article is around 2500 words, double from my normal article length. First I thought of splitting this article into two. And publish one piece here and the other on my personal blog. After some thought, I decided to leave the article in one piece.

Thanks for reading this article and I hope you enjoyed this article. Take it as my way to apologize of reblogging my articles here. This is one of the articles I started writing here. And when I started writing, I kept writing. I started writing this article in my college breaks and finished it on a Tuesday night just before going to bed.

So, I’m rather  curious what you guys think about my idea’s. And what idea’s you have for Nintendo to improve Mii Plaza. While the chances are extremely small that Nintendo is going to implement these changes, you never know. Maybe one day they might show up in the Mii Plaza. Or they might create some more new amazing content for us to explore. Anyways, this Neko is tired and still has some publishing work to do for this article. I hope to see you another time!

From Manga to Video Game: Btooom!

Manga: Btooom!
Publisher: Yen Press
Mangaka: Junya Inoue
Genre: Action, Science fiction, Romance, Psychological

Concept Game: Btooom!
Genre: Third person action

This articles is being posted here for all my fellow cats, 14 hours before it appears anywhere else. I hope it is an enjoyable read. 
Many of us have played call of duty in the past and those that have not have certainly seen gameplay or heard something about this massive success in the FPS genre; it’s like Final Fantasy to the RPG genre and Btooom! to the TPA genre….. oh wait, there is no Btooom! Game, but what if there was?

What if the manga was adapted into a third person shooter style game for modern PC and consoles. Could you imagine the awesome fun it would be to play such a game? By this point if you have no idea of what I am talking about then don’t worry I will explain briefly before I delve into the meat of this article.

OK so btooom! Is a manga based on a fictional game that can easily be a game in real life. The story is about this boy that is considered a Net (basically a hardcore online gamer). He is despised by his mother who has taken a husband that the boy does not seem to be too keen on. The mother then gets information about a game, ironically a real game based on the exact game her son plays. This game is played by real people with stakes that involve life and death. The company claims to be taking trouble makers out of regular society and so the wench sends her only son with this company (yes I called her a wench, what kind of mother does what she does). He is taken without his knowledge or consent to a remote island populated by giant lizards and other individuals of a similar faith as him.

They were all chosen by a person close to them that despised them enough to submit their name to be sent to the island. The main theme of the manga is kill or be killed. To leave the island one has to collect 7 gems, 6 if you don’t count the one embedded in the individual’s hand. The hard part of this arrangement is that the only way to acquire these gems is to kill people and take it from their corpse. The main way in which they battle is via the use of various bombs, hence the name btooom! The bombs are of different types and each type has a different ability. There is the standard one that just explodes, then the ones that spread a deadly acid cloud, the ones that home in on their target and numerous others.

The Island you go to to die.

Now that we are all caught up on the plot we can discuss what it would be like if this manga was made into a video game. Now as the game is already a third person shooter style affair in the manga then I say it should stay close to the source material in that aspect. The style I have in mind is similar to that of an uncharted 3 multiplayer style of game play. I think it would benefit from no HUD to add to the immersion.

The only way the player would be able to tell what Bim (the Bombs) they have active. They would be to look at their character whose stance will change depending on the one he/ she has active. For example the homing Bim in the manga is activated by holding it in front of the user’s eye and locking it on to a target. So for one like that the character stance would switch to one that is holds the Bim up in front of them. This I think will add a certain depth to the game that will allow vets to show their class by memorizing the different stances as well as being able to switch effortlessly between them even while in motion. In btooom the characters soon notice that they have to ability to detect moving targets by using the gems in their hands and putting out a sort of sonar style of pulse.

This is a great feature for such a game as without a HUD it will not have a map. The player will have to use their wits while using this system as by using it will give out that player’s location even if they are not moving. It will also add that trill of the stalk where some players can stay hidden not moving with a homing Bim only to pounce on passers-by. The Uncharted style gameplay would allow for a very limited almost accidental from of movement and verticality. This is very important to keeping the authenticity to the manga. Why I say this is because remember these are regular folks that are placed into a situation that they themselves are not familiar with, as such the character should handle in a sort of floaty as the match starts but as they kill more of their fellow men the controls will become tighter, deliberate.

The better players will use this system to their advantage, but this does not mean that by proper planning and execution that a new player can’t take them down. The system should be fair enough to reward all players but still punish weaknesses. As manga has access to an entire island I think the map should be just that. It can be split up into sections for some modes and open for the purist. The island in the manga has creatures on it most notable are the giant poisonous lizards. These creatures will be perfect for a multiplayer environment. They will add a certain degree of uncertainty and in some ways prevent the average camper from being just that, a camper.

Btooom has is a bit of like a survival story and because of that the characters have to use their surroundings to help them survive the hash island life they have been forced to live. In a game of the same nature it would be interest to add mechanics like a simple crafting system that can allow players to set traps as well as protect themselves. The system should be simple like that of minecraft or Dayz. In a multiplayer game the gamer does not have time to use a deep system when around the corner could be a homing or acid Bim.

which Bim would you choose ?

The games objective should be the same as the manga’s. What this means for the player is that if they can collect 7 gems they can call in a chopper to get them off the island scoring them one point towards an upgrade or character customization items. IF they work as a team and acquire 14 or more they would reap better rewards. A player can also solo play it and kill everyone if he can and take all the bim for himself earning him more rewards along a certain tree. I think all the rewards should be on trees that reward players depending on play style. So a team oriented player would get different rewards from the solo act and so on.

I already described a few of the games mechanics I have in mind above so I’ll focus on just a few others I think would help make a proper adaptation of the manga. Swimming is one I think the game should have. It will allow the player to use the water to stalk other players or use it as a way to escape an attack like an acid Bim attack. In the manga the company does these drop offs of supplies via parachute but the quantity is always limited.

This forces the inhabitants of the island to fight for these supplies if they want to survive. In the game it can be similar to call of duty drops but they will be random and dropped in unoccupied locations on the map near players. This I believe will result in the players playing in a similar way as the characters in the manga do. Some may get to the drop first and leave it in the open as a trap to kill other players, while others may take out anyone that they meet as they approach it then take it for themselves. The outcomes are numerous and I’ll be interested in seeing how the players play the game (if it were really made).

So far I have described an online multiplayer style game and ignored a solo experience due to the fact that a game like this would benefit more from multiplayer and less from a solo experience. As someone that prefers a solo experience I more so than most would enjoy an experience I can enjoy by myself without the competitiveness of other players spoiling my story experience. If the game I have in mind were to have what my kind prefer then it would have to be a fully customizable character dropped into the world of the manga.

He/ She would have a plot line chosen by the player e.g. (A thirteen year old bully from a broken home that beats up and robs his fellow students). With a fully fleshed out back story the character is put into the plot of the manga along with the past and current characters. The player is now allowed to explore the island and choose how he wishes to tackle his/ her survival. They can choose to partner with other characters from the manga or kill them. The game play I invasion as a Dayz meets Farcry 3 type of game play or even one like fallout 3.

This is my proposal for a Btooom! The Game. What is yours?

A Manga Cat’s views

Taken and adapted for cats from Ever So often

As we are all Cats here I won’t spare any purrs (yeah I know bad pun lol), so down to business. As of my first post here on Nekojonez’s gaming blog, I have not posted anything else and for that, I do apologize to you my fellow cats. I have been working on some new content and as you may know, I do other stuff like podcasting, but I did not post them here as I believe if I am going to post something here it has to be specialized and not just a blatant copy of what I have somewhere else unless it is relevant. The Podcast I do is a mix of many different things and so it won’t be posted here unless Neko is a guest on an episode and in such a situation he tends to post it himself. If my little cat brother wishes it then I will post some other content that may not concern gaming like manga reviews but this is a gaming blog so I doubt that would be appropriate.  Anywho I’m here now and I hope you all forgive me and lend me your paws. 😉

Neko’s a gaming cat unlike me.

UPDATE:

What I have been working on is a new series called From Manga to Video Game. It will be the focus of most of my new writing. As the basis for a few of my new articles, it will be a way for me to stretch my limbs as a writer. If you are a regular reader of the BSB you will notice that even though I am more active than I have been over the closing half of last year I am still not putting out nearly as many articles as I use to when we first started the BSB in 2012.

I keep telling others the reason that I’ve not been writing as much is because I have not been completing as many games and that my focus is mostly on manga these days, which in fact is primarily true, but it is not the only reason that I have not been publishing as much as I use too. Notice the use of the word Publish. I say publish because I write almost every other day.

The sad fact, however, is that I either leave most of my writing incomplete or never publish it because of my weird form of quality control that I impose on the content I create. With numerous articles, videos and podcast raw data on my PC, it should be a synch to take a few and publish them, but when what I have does not match the vision I have in mind there is a very limited possibility of me sharing it with others. This factor of my writing also bleeds over into other things I do which got me the nickname the over-planner.

 

Preview of some of my full content folders.

So this week I have started to use my laptop to maximize the number of articles that I write so that I will have a larger pool to pull from when I am looking for content to publish. The first of these articles was inspired by my bro Neko who recommended as I am reading a lot more manga than the number of games I play that I should write an article about what manga would make great video games (see how smart my bro is). At first, I thought of doing a top 10 style list, however, as I sat down on the loo to write I realized that I wanted to turn it into a series and focus on each manga separately.

In this breakdown series I will write about manga that has not been made into games yet. If a character from that manga has made an appearance in a game, for example, the Jump ultimate series, but the manga has not received a proper stand-alone game then I still count it as that manga not having a game. I think almost all manga can be converted into excellent video games just as long as the developers remain close to the source material and develop it in a genre that suits the game in question. I look forward to the first “From Manga to Video Game” in the next 24 hours of this Social Cat’s views being published.

An introduction to Q

A very special Hi hi Hello to all my Arpegians, Nekos and BSF. If you don’t already know who I am don’t worry. My name is Qudduws or Q to most. I am a Host of the Buttonsmashers Podcast, Every !So! often Podcast, an Editor of the Buttonsmashers blog, and of course an Arpegian. As this is not the BSB you can now add backup writer for Nekojonez’s Gaming Blog. Hmm… So how should I go about this intro to me? What would you like to know?

Into to Q

Ok let’s start with why I am here. As you may know my bro Neko is going to be on a Hiatus from his regular Blogging updates and in some ways the internet from now till early September. Neko has kindly asked me to help keep the Nekojonez’s Gaming Blog active by the occasional update during his absence, a request and offer I am happy to oblige with. Now to be quite clear Neko and I have very different writing styles but I will try to keep any content I post here relevant to things that Neko and you the readers will approve of. My personal tastes in video games are RPGs and more so it’s sub-genre JRPGs. This is one thing Neko and I share in common so I’ll try to post update based on titles like Persona, Pokemon, and the Tales series. I can’t promise not to include the occasional cat picture update, lol sorry If I’m gonna be writing on Neko’s blog I’m gonna have to be a bit of a cat. Hmm I wonder if I should use a different Pen name here. How does NekoQ sound?
I am a National of the country Trinidad of the twin island (Trinidad and Tobago in the Caribbean). To quote Blake of the Knightcast “he’s a Pirate”. My nationality aside I have not done much traveling on this planet we call earth but I plan to change that pretty soon (sideways glace to Neko) 😉 . Ok that will have to wrap up the main intro to me, don’t worry we’ll get to know each other more as I continue to update here.

Favourite Games

Lol I feel like I’m filling out an online dating profile as I write this. 😉

· Persona series

· Golden sun series

· Pokémon series

· Mass Effect series

· Xenoblade Chronicles

· Inazuma Eleven trilogy on DS

· Harvest Moon: A wonderful life (<3 Nami!)

· Forza 4,5 (only because the Top Gear crew are a part of the game)

· Final Fantasy (3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10, Bravely Default) “no other FF games were made”

· Zelda Wind Waker

That is just a short list but there are many other titles that I love playing that I didn’t add to the list because of relevance. If you would like to know what else I play you can check my Raptr account: Link

Favourite Cat?

This is an obvious answer: Sparta

Isn’t she just the cutest thing.

Super Sparta 😀

I think this should be able to serve as a good intro to me. If you have any questions then feel free to ask them in the comments below. 😀

NekoJonez: Game Diary #4: Sick day ~ PSP Games

It’s finally back! The blog game created by yours truly NekoJonez. I came up with this game when one day I realized that some game titles were generic words and they could be hid in a story. So, I played around with the idea in my mind and I forged this game. In this game, your goal is simple. I have hid 10 game titles in a made up story. Can you find them all? Don’t worry, I always mention a list from where I got the names so there can be no real debate. If I left one in that I didn’t mention in the solution, feel free to drop a comment. In this entry of Game Diary, I hid 10 PSP games. I created my list using this WikiPedia list. I admit this list is going to be tricky. Keep in mind that I used words that can be hidden in a sentence. That is a great tip to find some. So, feel free to leave a comment saying how many you found and which ones. And if you enjoy this, hop on over to my blog, I have more of them there. Anyways, here we go! 

The story

Dear diary

Today, I think I got infected with a virus. Not on my computer, thankfully. I got really sick today. Finally some rest after all these days. I was getting sick of the rush of every day. Trains, cars, motorcycles… It was giving me a serious headache. Besides, they had a strike in Brooktown High today, I couldn’t go to college anyways.

I couldn’t get into the flow of things. Of course, I was sick. My temperature gone up big time. I decided to try and play some games. But I couldn’t do it. My concentration was there. I switched on the TV and I noticed that I got some background noise.

The beats from the music from the neighbors next door was loud enough to play through my movie. The movie was about cars without a driver. A simple idea but I wish I could crush the music installation of the ones next door. But I wasn’t able to exit my home today to actually do it.

That’s all for today. I hope to write more later. When I’m healed.

Blaire.

Solution

Wow, this story was short. Well, that makes it a bit easier I think. Here follow the games in order of appearance.

1. Infected
2.  Rush
3. Cars
4. Brooktown High
5. Flow
6. Up
7. Beats
8. Driver
9. Crush
10. Exit

So, I hoped you enjoy this article and this game. I enjoyed writing this one a lot. It’s an old series that made it’s return. Hopefully I have new idea’s for future ones soon. Tell me from which library I should write a new article in this series.

Anyways, I’m going to try and write some nice new articles in my break so keep an eye on my Twitter feed for updates!