Glen-i

Stamina matches tonight from 7:30pm.

That's legitmately amazing! It's an interesting way of getting some money out of games you have no plan on doing any work on.

Welp, there will end the only interest I ever had in Star Trek... Sucks...

Thinking back on it, it might also be the game correcting your position after dealing with lag.

I kinda want these... Yes, these grips are merch from the team behind this game. Japan only, it seems like.

Yeah, the thing with official Pokémon pronounciations is that most of it comes from the anime. And when it comes to the English names, that's handled by Americans, who tend to not really care for how certain words are pronounced in other countries. The pronounciation for some of the Galar Pokémon will make you want to fold into yourself.

Wow, I never would've noticed that. Guess my mind just filled it in. @Ashley, might be worth fixing that sharpish.

Eiyuden Chronicle: Rising is available on NSO Game Trials. Well... I've not played it, and seeing as I am getting Hundred Heroes, it'd be rude not to!

Honestly, I think Zone 3 is the most difficult one. I have to imagine that if you can get past that one, you can get to the end, at least.

Princess Peach Will Star As The Main Character In A Brand New Game is effectively a spiritual sequel to the DS title, Super Princess Peach. It's an action-adventure game developed by Good-Feel for the Switch that released quite recently. Peach gets an invitation to the Sparkle Theater. Of course, trouble follows Peach like a bad smell, and the theater is almost immediately overtaken by the evil witch, Grape, and her Sour Bunch minions. The performers of the Sparkle Theater are missing, so it falls to Peach to team up with the guardian spirit of the theater, Stella, to utilise the power of Sparkle to take over pivotal roles of various plays and use those abilities to fight back. The big selling point here is the various transformations that Peach gets throughout the game. Normally, Peach has a somewhat limited ribbon attack as her only action other then jumping, but when she finds some Sparkle, what she's able to do changes depending on the setting of the play she's in. I don't think that's a real horse? This provides a decent amount of variety to gameplay, it's still very simple and an absolute breeze to get through (Good-Feel aren't exactly strangers to that mantra), with the only possible challenge coming from optional things, like finding all the Sparkle Gems dotted throughout the game. There's nothing inherently wrong with an easy game, and I enjoyed my time with it. The aesthetic style in this game is great! Loads of nice touches that sell the idea of everything taking place on a stage. Another nice detail is Peach herself. Her animations all change to reflect the costume she's in, and it's really impressive. It can't be faulted, in that regard. That said, the frame rate of this game takes a noticable dip at times, this only seems to happen in the hub area, and cutscenes, so it doesn't affect actual gameplay, making it merely a minor annoyance. I swear, it was like this when I got here! The music is... fine. Doesn't really stand out to me, though. So yeah, this is a fun game. Doesn't set the world alight, mind.

Oh my god... I've completely forgotten the name of this region... Lemme just check Serebii... Right! Generation 9, or Scarlet and Violet, are set in the Paldea region, a region I totally didn't forget the name of because I literally fell asleep playing it at one point. This region is based on the Iberian Peninsula, which consists of Spain, Portugal, and Andorra. That said, Paldea mostly focuses on the Spanish aspect of it, with a hint of Portugal in some areas. This game is the series' first fully open world game, so naturally, I hate it. But this is a thread about the Pokémon themselves, so that's not important one bit. Sprigatito (SPRIG-uh-TEE-toh) is basically "Litten, but Grass Type". Try and convince me otherwise! It's actually quite astonishing how, lame, this starter is. Pokémon has certainly had it's fair share of cats, so it wouldn't be so bad, but we just had a cat starter two generations ago, and Sprigatito doesn't do anything to distinguish itself from that. Paldea's first gym is Bug type, well, I say "first", but you can do the gyms in any order, technically, and the intended order is unintuitive and confusing, so it doesn't matter too much here. At least Floragato (FLOR-uh-GAH-toh) goes bipedal quicker then the Litten line. That's all I've got. Thankfully, Meowscarada (MEOW-skah-RAH-da) manages to be somewhat different to Incineroar. The Paldean starters have a common theming of the three main pillars of the entertainment industry, it kinda feels like Game Freak wanted another crack at the Gen 7 theming. Anyway, Meowscarada represents acting, specifically the kind of acting you see in the theater. That flower bud that seems to be floating is actually suspended by Meowscarada's reflective fur, an obvious nod to a common trick for a similar effect in theaters. Anyway, Meowscarada is Grass/Dark and it's signature move is "Flower Trick" a 70 power, physical Grass attack that never misses and always lands a critical hit! Because of this, it's effectively 105 power, which is amazing! Man, if Inteleon had a move like that, it would probably be really great in battles! As well as that, it's hidden ability is "Protean", sure, it's the nerfed version, but it still helps. Couple those with Meowscarada's base 123 speed (Higher then Cinderace!), and you've got a Grass starter that is far and away, the best one ever. Fuecoco (fwey-KO-ko) is the closest you're getting to a Bubble Dragon in Pokémon. No, seriously. Everyone thinks so, it's not even remotely subtle! I'm amazed Taito didn't sue! It's a crocodile-pepper hybrid and is impossibly cute. The colouring on it's face (And the evolutions) is very likely to be referencing calaveras, decorative skulls that are associated with the Day of the Dead celebrations. Yeah, I know, that's more of a Mexican tradition, but I can't think of what else it could be. Crocalor (KROCK-uh-lor) replaces the peppery tufts with some kind of bird nest. And yes, it does look a bit like a Sombrero. Skeledirge (SKEL-uh-durj) is a strange Pokémon. It's a quadruped, when the previous two evolutions were bipedal. You don't see that often in Pokémon. Anyway, it's Fire/Ghost, which lends further credence to the whole Day of the Dead connection, and the egg has hatched into a bird now. Skeledirge commands that bird by singing (Guess what the theme is with this Pokémon) into a fiery microphone. You can't see it in the artwork, so... The move above is Torch Song, an 80 power, Special Fire attack that also raises Skeledirge's Special Attack. Considering Skeledirge has good Defense and HP, those stat boosts can start making quite the difference if it hangs around long enough. Skeledirge is, decent, simply put. It's got a decent Hidden Ability in Unaware, and it's stats complement it's signature move, but Meowscarada completely eclipses it. A shame too, because Skeledirge is a very cool Pokémon. According to the Pokédex, Quaxly (KWACKS-lee) originally migrated to Paldea from "a distant land". The game doesn't elaborate on that, so it's anyone's guess if it will actually amount to anything. I'm not sure if it was here, but I somewhat recall someone calling it "Admiral Quacks", I dunno, that name amuses me. The evolutions do not go in that direction, mind. Blah, blah, blah. Quaxwell (KWACKS-well), middle evolution, moving on. Quaquaval (KWACK-wuh-vul) rounds off this trio of entertainment with dancing. Naturally, the animal of reference shifts from a duck, to a peacock with this evolution. Biggest GIF I could find, sorry. This thing has great animations, by the way. You wouldn't be able to create a Pokémon like this in the 2D style games. That said, this Pokémon seems to be a reference to the Rio Festival in Brazil. At least, that's what comes to my mind. If @Jonnas wants to chime in with some thoughts on what else these Pokémon could be referring to, go right ahead, this is probably the only set of Pokémon where I'm not the best person to ask here. But I can damn well tell you how it performs competitively! Quaquaval's signature move is "Aqua Step", an 80 power, physical Water attack that raises Quaquaval's Speed. Yeah, it's sort of similar to Rillaboom's Drum Beating, probably a little better though, because raising your stats is generally better then lowering the opponent's. Combine this move with it's hidden ability, "Moxie" which raises it's Attack every time it knocks out a Pokémon, and you have a great revenge killer Pokémon. Problem is, apart from it's Attack, the rest of it's stats are about average, so it struggles in the insane competitive scene with Generation 9. And we're done! That's all of the starters! Generation 9 ends on a relatively good note for me here. Skeledirge and Quaquaval are very cool designs, but I'm not keen on Meowscarada. I just don't like it's face. Anyway, seeing as we're at the end of our starter journey, it's time for me to flaunt my absolutely impeccable opinion by ranking the Pokémon here. Anyway, you probably noticed that I included the pronounciations for these Pokémon in this post. You see, I recently discovered that @Serebii has a page documenting all the official pronounciation for almost all of the Pokémon. I'll be retroactively adding these pronounciations to the older posts here.

Well, when you single handedly make Super R-Type materialise on NSO by playing too many Shmups, that's bound to happen!

Wrecking Crew has never been released outside of Japan, has it? Neat!

Oh, PlayStation doesn't allow multiple people with the same name? Man, that's so 2000's. Weird to think that Nintendo are actually ahead in that regard.

I sure do! I regret nothing! Also, gonna have to call out @lostmario here for this shameful behaviour. Haven't had to use that in a while.

Well, seeing as you mentioned it, what's up with that? Like some weird knock-off version of you. Also, Fortissimole has some mad lines, don't go slandering him!

Yeah, lunch just arrived, and it felt like we were around an hour in. We did it in the end. That went my way as soon as I got that Platinum Longsword/Boots of Might combo on the second floor! I was two shotting everything in sight from relative safety! I like what they did with the NecroDancer fight in co-op. it's a small thing, but appreciated! EDIT: We didn't do too bad when it came to the leaderboard.

Well, when you're ready, you should be able to find the lobby titled "Super Friend Dance" Only the coolest of names for us! Pass code is 4444. I'll do an All-Zones Mode run, unless you want to do something else.

Yo, it's Thursday! I should be available in about an hour and a half from here if you're still up for this? Any time before 7:30 is good for me.

Player's Choice tonight at 8pm.

Wouldn't that completely ruin the joke though? Because if you had Castlevania in there, you'd have to have Alucard as a playable character, and that means there would be a vampire in this game.

No, but to Sonic and his friends, all of us would be aliens.

Guns are easily one of the best weapons on base Vampire Survivors, so more guns can only be a good thing! Man, that's a deep cut at the end.

I think he's both? Like, Planet Mobius is a thing, so it would technically make Sonic an alien? But he's still a hedgehog. Then again, the series as a whole is a bit of a mess when it comes to keeping lore straight, so it's possible that's not canon anymore? It does smack to me of Archie Comics nonsense.

Well, I'm not surprised. 2 hits are all you get, and you take damage whenever you miss a beat? Add to that, the fact that you're stuck with the crummy starting dagger, and it's a recipe for thrown controllers! Why they mandated that you beat the game with those conditions in order to see the ending is beyond me!