Kitty Powers, Match Making Meows!

Are you struggling to find true love? Awkward at making conversation on dates? Well, have I the dating simulator for you. No, really! It involves wacky topics and embarrassing situations, just like life. Not mention repercussions. If you lie a lot or only have shallow details in common, you'll end up all alone. And not a Japanese high school in sight. Let's get this love ship a' sailing!

If you are an avid fan of watching people play video games on youtube, no doubt you've seen the title Kitty Powers Match Maker before. It is a casual game that involves matching clients with dates. Simple really.

What makes it so appealing?

Kitty Powers herself! Haha, well she does really add something special to this game. Her adorable pink personality shines through at every corner. She is one of my favorite drag queens, I have quite a list too. Video game drag just speaks to me; I will have to make that White Mage costume sometime. If I forget to mention something, remember, in-game, Kitty is there for you every step of the way. I love her! Bullet list time.

• Easy peasy to play
• Smooth soundtrack
• Addicting achievements, seriously
• Mini GAMES!
• Custom character creation
• Plethora of personalities
• $$$$
• Letters
• Kitty Powers, mew!

Aight, let's kick things off with the gameplay. As stated above, this is a very easy game to get into. The tutorial is simple to follow and doesn't take much time. Nothing worse than a dragged out forever never ending tutorial, eh Twilight Princess?

After loading the game, you make your very own character in Kitty Powers. The purpose of this is to have you somewhat familiar with personality types and preferences. You design your character, pick your category, I went with geeky, and then take a little quiz. 

Note: If you have other friends who play the game on steam, or whatever platform you're using, you will soon see your friends as potential clients or dates. Set them up with true romance or give them someone really nasty!

The controls consist of clicking your mouse on the screen. You can use the number pad if you're playing on the computer to enter numbers in a few mini games. For the most part though, it is click based. It's a nice change of pace. I mean, I love ESO, but like any MMO you need all your focus on your keyboard, plus mouse. For my brain dead mind after a day of work, just left clicking is soothing.

The goal of the game is to have a successful dating agency. You are helping to run a small dating outpost for Kitty Powers. By making strong matches, you're able to gain promotions and a reputation as a great match maker. But, if you lose clients or they end their relationship later, you lose your good name. A good rep means more money earned per date.

Clients and their potential dates have star ratings. They range from one star to VIP four star. Once you've become more affluent, you'll be able to match VIPS. But, they are picky sons' of bitches and will scorch you if they don't have their way.

Dates consist of pulling the love handle three times as well as two mini games. The love handle is a slot machine where you pick which topic your client will discuss with their date. In the beginning, the conversation topics are limited to outward appearance, horoscopes, weather, and interests. 

C'est un grand pilon au vin!

At the beginning of the date, you must always choose a food dish for your client's date. Their date will describe the type of food they want. From there, you pick. There are always five options and in some of the easier restaurants, you often have two correct choices. As the difficulty increases, the choices become more foreign, literally. Just wait until Sweden. 

You have to be careful when choosing dates for your client. Their type will greatly influence how they feel about certain topics. For instance, if your client likes drag queens, minimalist art, and making fancy hats, they are an Arty type. They have no interest in eating caviar and business meetings, both Chic traits. 

If your client screws up on the date, they'll receive an X. Three Xs and you're out! Well more like in the dustbin. Your client will also receive a broken heart. They will leave the agency if they have three broken hearts. Thus, choose carefully.

Quick Tip: If your client has a low star rating, try to pair them with someone of a similar level. You have a better chance of matching them, even if they don't match up perfectly. Lower stars means they are less fussy with their dates. They can handle more difference. Watch out for VIPs!

Before I finish here, let's go over the mini games. I've provided a few tips that may help you avoid any nasty Xs. If you like, simply skip to the next paragraph, this is really a guide area.

Story Time - Memory

• Find a match in order to tell a great story
• Three tries
• Cheating, extra try
• Tip, start in a corner and work your way through a row or column. That way you'll remember where each picture is easily.

Go bananas, go go bananas

Dessert Cart - Memory

• Remember the order of the desserts
• One try
• Cheat, eliminates one option
• Tip, say the name of the dessert out loud as they pass by. Or, record the dessert cart with your phone's camera.

Tip the Waiter - Arithmetic 

• Pick the right amount of tip based on the percentage
• One try
• Cheat, eliminates an option
• Tip, remember that moving the decimal point over to the left one unit divides a number by ten. Or just use a calculator T_T

Careful not to poop!

Clench the Fart - Higher or Lower

• Guess whether the next card is higher or lower
• One try
• Cheat, passes you on one card
• Tip, the Ace is both high and low, either guess will be correct. Otherwise, just luck and probability.

It's never aroma, never

Compliment the Chef - Memory

• Remember the pattern of words that become illuminated
• One try
• Cheat, see the pattern again
• Tip, move your mouse over the words and say them out loud. This helps both your verbal and physical memory. Or just record pattern with phone, again.

Can it I keep it to the right?

Split the Bill - Panchinko

• Drop a coin down a series of bumpers into one of two slots, Panchinko
• Five to seven tries, depends on difficulty of restaurant
• Cheat, gain an extra coin
• Tip, try to go for a fifty-fifty since you'll more than likely waste a lot of money otherwise. Fifty-fifty won't yield hearts, but then you are safe. My strategy is to dump the coins all at once, this almost guarantees fifty-fifty. 

Oh now he tells me his name, thank Basil!

Which Waiter? - Memory

• Select the correct waiter
• One try
• Cheat, one waiter eliminated, not killed though
• Tip, remember your waiter's nose and hairstyle when ordering food, this often is the key difference in the higher level restaurants.

My bratwurst now bitch!

Spider Attack! - Action

• Squish or spare the spider
• One try
• No cheat
• Tip, this depends on the date's personality. For squishing the spider, click on it when it scuttles towards the date. You're less likely to miss if you're right handed, for left mouse users, other side.

Get her breath too

Something Smells - Timer

• Spray deodorant on your client for a set time
• One try
• Cheat, Kitty tells you if you sprayed too little, just right, or too much
• Tip, count out loud the seconds. Or, use your phone/kitchen timer.

Is he looking at her chest?

Lights Out! - Memory

• From dark silhouettes, pick your client's date
• One try
• Cheat, one is eliminated, killed
• Tip, remember the hairstyle and eye shape of the date. Or have a picture of them at all times on the date, little weird though.

Uh-oh Ex! - Truth or Lie

• Your client's ex stops by
• Pick truth or lie
• Cheat, spin the wheel of misfortune again if your lie did not work
• Tip, this depends on the date's personality. If they are spicy, tell the truth. If not, lie and hope they are convinced!

Prince Ali, mighty is he

Meeting Mr. Manager - Memory

• Introduce the date to the restaurant's manager
• One try
• Cheat, one name is eliminated
• Tip, at the beginning of the date, say your client's date's name out loud with a noun or adjective, like Angus Anus. Or have it written down somewhere.

Oh God, they're one of those Matching couples

Chameleon Date - Memory

• Your client's date will update their look in the bathroom
• One try
• Cheat, one possibility is removed
• Tip, as the date is excusing themselves for the restroom, observe the color of their clothes, hair, and earrings. The later levels use the earrings a lot. Or have a picture of them, weirdo. 

Is that a real number?

Taxi Call - Memory

• Memorize the taxi number that the waiter gives you
• Three tries
• Cheat, see the number again
• Tip, use the number pad. When viewing the number say it out loud several times. Or, take a picture of it.

She was dropped, repeatedly

Selfie! - Action

• Take a selfie of your client and their date together
• One try
• Cheat, have a caption say whether the picture is good, bad, or great
• Tip, reflexes are everything. Your client could go from super happy to cock-eyed in a second. Try to let a second pass before clicking, that way if they are quickly cycling through faces, you won't have accidentally taken a poor picture. Patience is key.

Found you Waldo!

Crowd Spotting - Action

• Find your client's date in a crowd before their phone dies
• Timed one try
• Cheat, have a yellow box appear outlining where the date is
• Tip, CHEAT! Seriously, in the harder restaurants this saves so much time and difficulty. In the easier levels, look for the date's hair and clothing color. It sucks if they are an Artsy type though, all black.

Sucker punch to the pout

Flirt you better do - Rock Paper Scissors

• Play rock paper scissors in order to have your client flirt with their date
• Three tries
• Cheat, see what your client's date is going to do
• Tip, absolutely cheat. Otherwise you are playing blind, like real rock paper scissors. If you don't score two happy faces, the date will not be impressed. For timing your client's move, click on the choice right before the right choice, the delay of one second will have you select the appropriate option.

Five Bad ones, AVOID!

Chocolate Box - Mine Sweeper

• Select three chocolates from a box
• Three tries
• Cheat, chocolate is removed
• Tip, don't cheat, it doesn't always remove the bad ones. Instead, pick a middle chocolate. if there are several bad chocolates touching it, red number, then pick the next chocolate on the other side. The green number signifies the date's favorite chocolate. Only try to find it if red is zero or one.

The mini games are a chance for your client to wow their date. They consist of various dating dilemmas, as Miss Powers puts it. One such example is when your client sees a spider. They have the option to squish it. But, not all people like killing spiders. It depends on your date's personality.

Quick Tip: Some clients will always have the same personality type. Vintage clients will always be traditional. Make sure that they don't have a globe icon next to their name though. A globe icon means that it's someone else's avatar; anything goes with real world people!

There are ten different personalities, yes they are different than types, in the game. They are split into polar opposites. Sometimes, these personalities affect the mini game outcomes, like the spider example above. Time to list the types and the games they affect! Again, if you prefer to skip ahead, click here.

Active/Lazy - Yellow

• Dessert Cart
• Active will always choose a healthier dessert 
• Lazy, bring on the calories!

Methodical/Carefree - Blue

• Spider!
• Carefree will cry if you squish a living thing
• Methodical, KILL IT WITH FIRE!!

Introvert/Extrovert - Green

• Farting Higher or Lower
• Extroverts understand a gassy belly if you accidentally let one rip
• Introverts prefer everything to stay in, including gas

Traditional/Experimental - Purple

• Splitting the Check, Panchinko
• Traditional prefer the client to pay
• Experimental want to foot the bill, just like me!

Spicy/Romantic - Red

• The unwanted Ex
• Spicy personalities don't mind if the client's ex shows up, bygones
• Romantic, yeah exes are no-nos

Personality traits are unlocked as you advance through the game. In order to discover a date's personality, a client must go out with them and ask them questions. The topics are chosen via the Love Handle; all conversation goes through the handle. 

If you run into trouble, conflicting personalities, you can always lie. It's up to chance whether or not your client will evade being caught. The lower their date's star rating, the more likely, but it's still a gamble.

Note: If your client tells one lie, you can still make a good match. Only if their whole relationship is built upon lies should you avoid the match. If all else fails, exit the game before your client is committed to the dustbin. Then it's as if the date never happened.

Besides mini games, the personality traits also affect how your client will react to bad habits. Bad habits are unlocked far later in the game, along with guilty pleasures. While guilty pleasures pertain to the opposite type of your client, a geeky person who loves sequinned dresses for example, the bad habits are personality based. These questions can be asked on the second and third date, not the first; too personal.

They can pick together!

Take someone who likes to belch in public. Their date will need to be extroverted and possibly carefree to be understanding of that bad habit. It's often a good idea to see if your client and their date are accepting of each other's bad habits. If they aren't, it's unlikely that you'll receive a great response later on.

Warning: Bad habits may clash with your own client's personality. For instance, they might be a romantic but love to dance in their undies. This means if their date is also romantic, they will hate their bad habit. 

Enough about personalities, let's type cast people!

• Arty, art, music, poetry, Andy Warhol etc. 
• Chic, think Sex in the City business woman
• Edgy, punk and goth
• Geeky, me (if you can go on about the difference between orcs and dwarves, you're geeky)
• Glam, new Hollywood aka Paris Hilton (or is that middle aged?)
• Hippy, everything is alive and free maaaaaan, Frankie
• Hipster, contradicting interests
• Practical, DIY to the extreme, Tim the tool man Taylor
• Sporty, parkour and cross-fit gym rats
• Vintage, old Hollywood, Meryl Streep (legendary)

You need to lift weights if you want to wear bling.

Some of the types have overlapping interests. Both Arty and Glam personalities enjoy drag queens, as an example. There are over six hundred interests, hot damn!

Unless you keep an excel spreadsheet open while you play, like me, you may want to access this guide for some reference. It's not complete but it may help. Also, if you don't know what something is, google it.

When selecting your client's interests during the date, start from the top and go down. That way, you're less likely to repeat yourself on later dates. Don't lie unless you're trying to unlock the mismatched type achievements. Those don't usually end well in the long run anyways.

Note: As you earn more money, you'll be able to unlock the dates' types in the black book. That way, you'll know if your client's interests will match their date's. This is often done later in the game when you have more money than you could possibly spend. Still, it's an option.

Money! What is money used for? Money is used to unlock new restaurants, the gift shop, the salon, and more. Different restaurants have different difficulties and introduce new mini games when they are unlocked. You can also use your coinage to reveal dish descriptions on each restaurant's menu. This really helps with the more difficult restaurants. I don't speak Swedish but their menu does.

Spot the pretty kitty, mew

Quick Tip: As your client says goodbye to their date, look for a black cat in the background. Click the cat if you see it for extra coin!

Gifts, these little guys are a god send with VIPS. You can buy a gift for your client's date on any of the dates, even the first one. These give extra hearts at the beginning of the date. The more hearts throughout the date, the more likely they will want to keep seeing your client. It's also not a faux pas to buy your client's date the same gift twice, or thrice!

Note: Once you've unlocked the gift shop, clients will send you gifts in the mail along with their letters. This only happens when a client's relationship ended up well. Bad matches never send gifts.

Letters are sent to you after you've made a match. It is the client letting you know how everything turned out. If it was successful, your reputation will go up. If not, oh dear, it drops like an anchor. Success is based upon how well your client and their date truly matched up. 

Do they have common interests? Are their personalities compatible? Do they accept their faults, bad habits, and all? If yes, then happily ever after, and more babies! I need babies for my trophies.

I mentioned that the achievements were addicting, right? I have unlocked everything in Kitty Powers, including all of those lovely trophies. The babies one was the hardest for me. In order for your clients to have kids, they must have an A+ relationship. So many As happened for me, few pluses.

Mawwige, is a wondewful whing

It took awhile but I finally received my fifty babies. I had to learn a lot about how the game works in order to really assess matches. I could tell when I had a B or B+ couple. Sometimes, that's what you have to go with if there are not any other suitable choices. Still, it made me appreciate the hard work it took to make this game simple to play and hard to beat.

Thank you Kitty Powers for giving me, an introverted geek, a game where I can mine sweep chocolates and learn about ethnic dishes. It's great fun and silly all in one. I can't wait to see what Love Life is going to be like. Goodbye kittens!

P.S. If you see a coin or fairy flying across the screen, click it! You'll receive some dough or extra love points.

Back to Video Games

Audience, I've done it!

I have completed my Decode Montreal programming boot camp! HORRAY!! Ah, it feels great to be done.

The last two weeks were stressful, to say the least. Surprisingly, it wasn't the code that cause most of the stress, it was having to work with people seven days a week in the same room for seven days. I am more introverted than that. I'm fine working on a team, but I need a weekend where I don't see any of them. Being around the same people eight days a week, if you catch my drift, is too much.

Fortunately, my extroverted teammates were willing to have a group meeting to discuss this stress. We worked past it and created a great final project. It was an administrator dashboard for a company called Dialogue. Basically it is a web app that allows their customer's HR managers to better manage their healthcare plans and employees.

You can see a video of the web app in action by clicking here. I highly recommend putting some music on in the background, more enjoyable that way. Blinded By The Light is my choice.

Anyways, what this means is that I am applying for jobs once more but also creating little coding projects and learning new skills along the way. I'm able to clean my apartment regularly again, spend time with family and friends, and cuddle with my adorable kitty Rogue once more. Ah, so wonderful!

I'm also playing with my look a bit. This is primarily due to my hair dryer, of over a decade, dying a few days ago. So, in order to add some fluffy volume, it's pin curls time! With bobby pins of course. Fortunately for me, I really like the outcome, even if they fall due to humidity I still have a nice bouncy wave going on. Blaise is pretty keen on them too.

Yup, bobby pins did this

So, you could say that while a lot has changed recently in my life, a lot is still going on. Admist all this controlled chaos, I'm back to doing my favorite hobby, video games.

I missed video games so much. Just sitting at HAL, my desktop, for hours murdering splicers in BioShock or pairing up couples in Kitty Powers' Match Maker. Animal Crossing kept me company on my DS but even that had time limits.

Now it's time to pour some hot chocolate, put on my slippers, and relax with some Fallout 4. It's back to video games audience!

Coding Coding Everywhere!

Hello audience!

So, I just finished, last week in fact, my introductory course in HTML and CSS. What am I up to at the moment? Well, I have to complete a prep course before the coding boot camp starts, Fall 2016.

Oh yeah, I was accepted in the boot camp course!!! It isn't a real boot camp, rather it is an intensive class that crams a lot of material into a short amount of time, two months to be exact. I know, some of these courses do more harm than good, easy in easy out.

However, computer programming boot camps tend to stick with most people. The fact of the matter is, they force you to apply what you've learned for eight hours, each day, for two months. That's a lot of repetition and practice.

Needless to say, I am very excited, as well as a tad nervous, to start my course. From now until then, it is learn as much as I can from the prep course and practice practice practice.

Going back to my intro course, we had a final project. The project was to hard code, write from scratch, our own website. The biggest catch was that our website had to be responsive; this means, that the website needed to look good across all platforms, like phones, tablets, etc.

Audience, I'm pleased to announce that I nailed responsive! My website looks great on any device. So long as you aren't using an old version of Safari or IE. Come on guys, Chrome all the way.

Besides that, I've changed my blog's appearance slightly, bit more blue and a bit less opaque in the sidebar. The latter was done with my fancy new HTML and CSS skills.

I will continue to work on the previously mentioned JavaScript Monty Python project. Hopefully I'll have it fully running for you soon enough.

In the meantime, enjoy the little JS Zelda game I created. It is at the bottom of the page. It's simple, but cute.

Oh right, to see my website simply click here or on the link in the upper right hand corner of the sidebar.



As for video games, my latest obsession is King's Quest 2015. I have since fixed my desktop machine, HAL, and can now enjoy PC video games. Ah, how I missed the slouching posture and cheeto dust.

Next time, I'll have a post about an actual video game rather than my programming.

Laterz!

Coding here, coding there

Hello there audience!

So, this is a post to explain my absence. It has nothing to do with too much stress or anything dire. Rather, it stems from three sources:

1. Lack of motivation
2. Lack of playing anything except Animal Crossing New Leaf
3. Extreme interest and drive at learning JavaScript, in addition to HTML and CSS

The last one, numero 3, is the main purpose for this post. You see audience, I am currently learning some web development. Hopefully this will take me down a path towards a suitable career. So far, so good. 

In fact, I often become so excited about something new that I've learned, namely in JavaScript, that I decide to immediately start coding something random. My latest, and most driven, JS, HTML, CSS project concerns creating a click-based adventure game centered around the bridge keeper exchange from Monty Python: The Holy Grail. Yes, I realize that there may not be a nerdier or geekier phrase in the universe than that one.

I am hoping to have it completed before my family comes up to visit in July. I want it not only to function without major bugs, but I also to look like a million bells. Damn, Animal Crossing has really brainwashed me. 

The only thing that I need to be wary of is biting off more than I can chew. I have a habit of trying to run before I can walk with new skills. Programming is not forgiving, in the slightest. Running often just causes crashes to occur. So, it is a good discipline for me to be learning because it forces me to constantly learn from trial/error. 

Once my project is completed, I'll launch it on the Pixel Dust blog. It is a short game but has many possibilities. I hope that you will enjoy my work audience. Until that time, or if I pick up another game in between now and then, I bid you adieu.

New Leaf, A Somewhat Crossing Tale

Ah, it's time to mellow out. Let us go into a world with cute animal friends, bamboo shoots, alpaca sales associates, and a WiFi community that makes you wish for guns. Lots of guns.

Welcome to the world of Animal Crossing, New Leaf style! This 3DS title is the latest installment in the Animal Crossing series. New Leaf has honestly "wow-ed" me. It is a refreshing version of Animal Crossing with many new elements as well as re-implementing some old favorites. Bullet time!

• Choice in Town Layout
• Rover (again)
• Mayor baby!!
• Your very own secretary!
• SWIMMING
• Perfect Fruits
• Bad puns
• D-Pad Shortcuts
• Bamboo Shoots
• Silver Tools
• DIVING
• Badges
• Playing.Card.Furniture.
• WiFi Jackasses

Oh man, how am I going to fit everything into one post? Augh! Too much, man. Just, too much. This will definitely require secondary posts. At least I've included screenshots from my own file though, adds a touch. Where to begin...Hmm. I'll start with Rover, the annoying cat. 

Let's have a long consequential chat

If any of you have played the first Animal Crossing game, for the Gamecube, then you know who Rover is. He is a sweater wearing cat who will not shut up. This seems like a touch of hypocrisy coming from a fellow blather-mouth, that's right blather, but I stand by my statement; Rover, you need to shut it. 

Fortunately, you only deal with Rover once in this game. That's right, once. He is the first character whom you meet, such a throwback to 2002, and helps you set up your game. Rover asks you questions in order to determine your name, your gender, and your looks. The name and gender parts are very obvious, however the looks often requires some thought. There are tutorials that reveal which answers yield which face, but for first time players, I recommend just going with your gut feeling. If you don't like your face, just start over.

A new feature, in the Rover questionnaire segment, is deciding your town layout. Rover shows you four different maps and asks which one is your town. This is a new feature in the series and a definite step up from Wild World. 

A quick note, I have not played City Folk, so I cannot pass judgement.

Anyways, there are few important factors in deciding the layout of your brand new town. Firstly, you want to have the town hall in a relatively easy point-of-access. This will be your main hub as mayor. Oh yes, you are the new mayor of the town audience. This only happens to your first character, all others are regular residents. 

Right-o, the second aspect is the location of Re-Tail. This will be the shop where you sell everything. Personally, I put Re-tail near the beach in order to balance my town's look. That was a wise decision, you'll be visiting the beach often in this title. Do not put it in a tight corner or right next to the town hall audience. You want access to everything but need to have some space in between in order to create a fluid town. Desolate neighborhoods are never fun. Besides, you will have a downtown for all other shopping needs.

The downtown, called Main Street, is a pile of crap, in the beginning. There is almost nothing there. All you have is the post office, Tom Nook's housing company, the Nooklings' crappy cranny reincarnation, the Able Sisters' clothing boutique, and the museum. Compared to the final downtown, this is truly appalling. Still, you have to start somewhere.

Her head "is a bell" shape, get it?

Start, that's right! As soon as you exit that train, you are greeted by a very excited golden retriever named Isabelle. She explains that you are the new mayor of the town. No matter what you say in response, you are the mayor. Isabelle then takes over as the next leg of the tutorial. Bye forever Rover!

The tutorial is the usual thing; meet your neighbors, visit important buildings, decide where you'll live. Wait, I can choose where my home will be? It's a dream come true! Dear audience, I built my house next to a scenic river. Oh should I say, I pitched my tent. Yeah...you start the game by living in a tent. It is motivation to upgrade your home. Who ya gonna call to do that? Tom Nook!

Oh Nook, you are a wily tanuki. This old raccoon dog has moved up from being the only shop owner/landlord to being the only landlord in town. Wait, what? Yes, he gave his shop ownership to his adorable little nephews who are, somehow, greedier than him. Seriously, every time you buy something in their store, they gleefully exclaim how shiny all your bells are, ugh. 

Warning: Do not sell anything to the Nooklings. Re-Tail gives you 25% more bells per sale on your items. This will not change over the course of the game. It is, ridiculously stupid.

Bells! I forgot about bells. In Animal Crossing, the form of currency is called bells. The reason, coins make a chiming sound when they hit, well, anything. This is why the creators coined the term "bells" for the game's coins. You adjust, eventually.

Hold up, wasn't I talking about living in a tent? Right, Tom Nook is the one you go to about remodeling your home. Just like before, you go to the post office to pay off any debts you have. You can also access a bank account, from the beginning, at the same ATM. Once your debts have been cleaned, you don't have to do anything. New Leaf gives you the choice to expand your home, rather than forcing you. So, if you are fine with a modest sized house and want to focus more on community projects or Main Street, you can. Without anything hanging over your head!

Now, I mean, I of course went as big as you can go audience. Let's be real, when I play Animal Crossing I play to perfection. It did take some time paying off my mortgage though. That is where the beach comes in. Well, rather, Kapp'n.

Quoi de neuf, Blaise?

After a few days of exploring your town, receiving advice from Isabelle, making friends with personified animals, and namely, paying off your first home upgrade, you'll be able to access your island. Isabelle will introduce you to an old friend, a turtle named Tortimer. In the original game, he was the mayor, so there is going to be some throwback. He invites you to travel to his island in order to relax and have fun. This is the golden land you need to make bells and become obsessed with mermaid furniture in the process. Blaise knows what I'm talking about. Find Kapp'n, the Kappa, on the beach and fork over 1,000 bells in order to sail to the island of wonder!

Quick Tip: Although Kapp'n's lyrics are amusing, you can skip all that by tapping the "B" button a few times. He will be a bit grumpy but you'll arrive faster.

The island has three new characters and one very familiar one. Hi, again, Tortimer. Having fun being tour director? 

The new characters are Kapp'n's family; his mother, his wife, and his daughter. His wife, Leilani, is in charge of tours and returning you home. Tours are how you earn island currency, medals. In order to buy the island exclusive stuff that Grams sells, you'll need to reel in some medals. This is best done by playing tours that are intermediate to expert; the higher the difficulty, the more medals you can earn. Play a number of tours in order to see which ones you enjoy as well as which ones you are talented at winning. Do this a number of times in order to buy that snazzy wet suit!

Quick Tip: Always earn double the amount in tours. This means, if you need to catch four fireflies in a challenge, catch eight instead. This will guarantee that you will earn the most medals possible. This also applies when playing with other players.

Near the door to the island cabana is a basket. You must, and I mean must, put anything you want to take back to your town in that basket before you leave the island. If you don't, you'll find your pockets empty on arrival with some small change in the bank.  Leilani always warns you before you leave, so don't fret too much audience. 

Tiptoe, to the palm tree, on the island, 'neath the moon

Outside the cabana, you'll find your private island. Here is where it can rain money. The gyroid, his name is Lloid, will allow you to borrow tools to use on the island. He will take them back, even if you keep them on you, before you leave the island. After dark, your island is on the same clock as your town, big juicy beetles will appear on the palm trees. They range from a selling price of 6,800 to 15,000 bells. That is a lot of bells. The ideal island set up, lemme bullet it:

• Palm trees on the east and west coasts, spaced with at least four steps in between them
• Zero flowers
• Zero shells on the sand
• No trees on the south coast
• One to two regular trees on the center of the island, Rainbow and Giant Stags

With this setup, you can easily weave in and out of the trees, thus maximizing your beetle catching potential. Golden Stags and Hercules beetles are touchy, they require a very slow approach, but yield high sell prices. Find a routine path to take through the trees, I often do an infinity shape. in order to keep respawning new bugs. If the beetles aren't appearing, there are probably other bugs preventing their spawn rate. These jewel beetles, roaches, and hermit crabs can easily be spooked by slamming your net nearby. Load up on beetles, stash them in the basket, and head home to reap the rewards. 

Quick Tip: Use the D-pad to switch between tools. This is much faster than constantly re-opening the menu. On the mainland, store any extra equipment in opened letters. This frees up space in your inventory.

There are other ways of earning bells in New Leaf. The beetle grind can become tedious and suck some of the fun out of the game. So, I'll give you a quick list of alternatives and how to capitalize.

• Perfect Fruit
• Bamboo Shoots
• Fossils
• Turnips
• Sea Creatures
• Mushrooms

Another new addition to this game, the perfect fruit. In previous titles, you would have to either visit different towns to find fruit or randomly be rewarded a new fruit species for doing a favor for a neighbor. You see audience, the fruit that is native to your town, it is not worth much in your town. Native species sells for a mere 100 bells per fruit. Foreign fruit though, they go for 500 bells. The goal was to cover your town in various fruits in order to make a tidy profit. Then, the perfect fruit happened.

I stumbled on perfect fruit by accident. I saw that one of my apple trees had a shiny looking apple among two normal ones. I shook the tree, snatched up the shiny, and discovered that it was a pomme parfaite. I immediately planted it and hoped for the best. Sure enough, a healthy tree sprouted and I had a perfect apple tree. It did not take long before my entire town was covered in perfect apple trees. These little babies sold for 600 bells at Re-Tail, a serious bargain. They sell for even more. 3,000 bells per fruit, in foreign towns. How sweet is that!

Lots of apples for me to crunch
Trees all around growing by the bunch

Quick Tip: Fruits can be bundled together. Simply drag and drop the fruit onto another of the same type. The maximum number of fruit per basket is nine. This is great for storing fruit in your home as well as carrying it around. 

Then, I discovered the drawback; perfect fruit trees do not last forever. Eventually, they lose their leaves and drop two perfect apples along with a rotten one. This requires a constant need for an ax and a shovel in order to keep your crop fresh. Fortunately, Lief, the sloth, opens a gardening store in Main Street where you can acquire axes. 

Bamboo shoots are another crop in the game. They must be bought, or taken from a foreign town, at the last upgrade of the Nookling's shop. In order to harvest the shoots, you must have full grown bamboo stalks. After a few days, you'll see some "X" marks in the ground. These are new shoots that are harvested via shovel. They sell for 750 bells at Re-Tail. If you don't dig up the shoots, new bamboo will grow and take over the town! Motivation enough to harvest those suckers.

Fossils, these little babies will be the bulk of your bell earning on the mainland. In order to find fossils, you must dig up "X" marks, like bamboo. There are usually three to four fossils buried in your town daily. You must take them to the museum for Blathers, the curator of an owl, to identify them. Happily, you can select multiple fossils so that he can identify them all at once. You then have the choice to either keep them, or donate them to the museum. I always donate in the beginning because then my museum is full and Blathers doesn't guilt trip me.

Turnips. Ugh, I hate turnips. Every Sunday there is a sow named Joan who appears and sells you turnips. They function like stocks in the game. In fact, there are many stalk market jokes in-game, oh Joan. 

Warning: Turnips go bad after seven days. Even if you set the time back a day, they will still go bad. Rotten turnips are worth nothing and cost a fee at Re-Tail for disposal.

You cannot sell turnips at Re-Tail on Sunday, that would be cheating, but can every other day of the week. Each day, Reese, the Re-Tail alpaca, will give you a buying price for turnips. This fluctuates daily. My advice, sell turnips in bundles on days when the price is higher than what you initially paid for. Sure, you might have fewer turnips for the really big blowouts, but you won't lose everything either. Safe stalks makes for steady income.

Hey maaaaaaan.

Ah, catching sea creatures. In order to hunt down the treasures of the deep, you must acquire a wet suit audience. These can only be bought on the island. They are the tool necessary to swim which makes them very invaluable.

Once you are suited up, go to the ocean shore! There, you can enter the water and swim around. Pretty soon, you'll start seeing black shadows with bubble trails. These are your targets. Press "Y" to dive and "A" to move around in the seabed. Your shadow must touch the other shadow in order for you to catch the sea creature. The ones worth the most amount of money are the hardest to catch, the crabs. 

It is best to practice as much as possible so that you can minimize your escaped prey count. There are jellyfish in the waters and they will temporarily paralyze you, bastards. Be careful of the bouey boundaries as well; crabs love to swim past the bouey line rendering it impossible to catch them. Just keep to the seabed and mash "A" when chasing a target. You'll have fun swimming, regardless.

And finally, mushrooms. This crop is a funny one. Yes, more funny than bamboo shoots. Mushrooms will grow under two conditions; the month of November or special tree stumps. November is the mushroom hunting month in Animal Crossing. They can be found at the base of trees. Every day, new mushrooms appear all over the town. One of them is even a piece of the mush furniture series, oooh. However, when it is not November, you can still harvest mushrooms by having a special stump grove in your town.

May the Triforce be with you

What are special stumps? They are tree stumps that do not have the regular ring pattern on them. Instead, they will have a heart, butterfly, triforce, musical note, leaf, etc. The likelihood of finding a special stump with a regular ax is low, annoying low. However, there is a silver ax that almost always yields a special stump. 

This ax is found on Club Tortimer, the name of the WiFi island that you can visit. The silver ax does eventually break, but lasts much longer than a regular ax. It will take many tries to find a WiFi island with a silver ax. Thus, you should always have some medals saved up before surfing the online the waves. You also need to watch out for trolls, they could ruin your WiFi experience by simply crashing the connection. 

Alright, this post has gone on far enough. I know that I have more to say about New Leaf, I'll just say it later. I'll make a post specifically about the WiFi jackasses. In fact, I'll even categorize them. I love you New Leaf, clearly, but this novel needs an ending.

Music as per usual audience?

Ah, that's better. Well, time to hunt beetles!

New Leaf Slideshow

P.S. I have included a link to a New Leaf Slideshow right above this. I mostly wanted to show off my mermaid furniture. Enjoy you guys <3

Chrono Trigger: A Timeless RPG

Audience, voting time is over. All who participated, thank you. I'm happy to see that each of the games received at least one vote, poor Pokemon Blue, which means that they will probably have their own posts in the future. Probably.

In any case, congratulations Chrono Trigger! I am not surprised that this title won. After all, it is one of the greatest RPGs in the world of video games. How can I possibly write a post that hasn't already been written about such a fulfilling and mind-blowing game? Simple, I'm going to go on tangents and drop tips along the way. This approach usually turns out alright.

Now get in the car Marty!

Where to start...how about the title? Chrono is the name of the main character, the spikey red haired dude pictured above. However, a Chrono Trigger is a magical weapon in the game. Its purpose is revealed about halfway through the game. As always, I'll stay away from major spoilers. I want you to play this game, remember?

Fun Fact: The FMV, full motion video, cut scenes as well as the box art were drawn by Akira Toriyama aka, the father of Dragonball and DBZ.  

The game itself is about a group of adventurers trying to stop an alien life-form that is devouring the planet. This monster has a name, Lavos. Depending on when, yes when, you stop Lavos, you will experience a certain ending of the game. We'll touch on those possible endings later. For now, bullets baby!

• Storyline is amazing
• Chrono is the main hero
• Six other party members
• The sixth member is a secret
• Soundtrack is beautifully overwhelming
• Magic attacks depend on characters
• Creepy Fair Games
• Replayable with overpowered stats
• You can name your playable characters, anything
• Countdown attacks
• Riddlesome* Quests
• Magic combos
• Sake Soup drinking contest

Ahem, Chrono himself is not all that interesting. I say that in the sweetest way possible. Similar to my beloved Link from the Legend of Zelda series, Chrono is a silent character who is designed to be a reflection of the player. There is nothing wrong with this style. It worked. It still works. Regardless, the game went above and beyond by trying something new for the time; it gave the player six five other main characters with distinct personalities. Rather than imagine character traits, Chrono Trigger assigns them via character specific dialogue, attacks, and quests.

Quick Tip: The game allows you to switch between the characters once your party exceeds three members. Try to play with different character combinations in order to not only unlock all group attack sets, but to also experience different dialogue reactions. Having a kickass all-girls team is most satisfying.

By the by, let's quickly summarize these various characters. I'll even include my names for them:

• Marle (Mare) the cheeky daddy's girl/white mage of the group. She is honestly the best healer and can also dish out some sick ice attacks too. I only named her after me because her name is one letter away from Mare.
• Lucca (Bulma) the brains and mechanical know-how in every situation. She is Chrono's best-friend and burns enemies with her fire magic. Like Bulma, she is a scientific genius. Also like Bulma, Lucca has purple hair (books). Unlike Bulma, she is not an obnoxious damsel in distress at all times.
• Robo (Droid) the personified robot aka The TANK. Robo can handle several hits to the face and is one of two playable characters who does not use a type of magic.
• Frog (Kirby) is well, a talking frog. He is a so-so fighter and healer, kinda the red mage of the crowd. Though, even there he is in second place, wink wink secret character. His healing targets the entire group but does not heal as much as Marle's spells. His magic is water based...he's British though?

  

  "What you say? No rubbish, or NayNay head go boom!"

• Ayla (NayNay) is the barbarian babe of every nerd's erotic fantasy. She speaks in broken English but has a strong wit about her. Ayla is the other non-magical character, preferring to use her strength. She also does not have a weapon, just a rock hard fist. I named her NayNay after one of my best-friends for two reasons; she's a beautiful blonde, and the fact that the name "NayNay" sounds hilarious in caveman dialogue. 
• ...there is a sixth companion but that identity is going to stay secret. I'll tell you this though, I named that character Cell. Yes, from Dragonball Z.

Those are the main characters in a nutshell. You can change their names after a while, a nice trait if you make any spelling errors or regrettable jokes. Also, your party appears as a group in the overworld as well as the towns. That's right, one character does not represent your entire party. Instead, they are all realistically displayed onscreen. Their outfits don't change, but put this game in its era. Having multiple sprites as a moving entity was big for the mid nineties.

Quick Tip: You can save in the overworld as well as swap out your party members, heal, change game settings, etc. It took me far too long to realize that all of these options were available to me there. I kept going to The End of Time...avoid that stupidity.

Now, this game's central setting is time travel. In the beginning, you are only exposed to a limited number of eras. This, of course, grows over the course of the game. The End of Time is the central hub for all your time-travel needs. Before your Delorean that is. You can name that too! Mine's called Nimbus.

Go Nimbus Go!

Enough with the names Mare. Let's cover some battle tactics now, shall we? 

I mentioned that there are countdown attacks in Chrono Trigger. This means that a certain amount of time must pass before you can attack an enemy. This is represented by a depleting bar that is located underneath each character while in battle. The speed of the bar depends on individual levels as well as character choice. For instance, Robo has a slow countdown since he is the defense tank. Whereas Marle is all about agility and healing, so her countdown is much faster. 

Depending on whom you have in your party determines the overall quickness of a battle. This matters greatly later in the game; there are some nasty enemies who love to paralyze your party before you can even land a blow. 

Other aspects of battle, ah! I mentioned magic and combos before on the list too, right? Magic is elemental in this game and is assigned to specific characters. In order to unlock magic, Chrono and the gang have to deal with Spekkio. He's annoying as all hell but does give you elemental magical powers. You'll meet him. You'll hate him. Guaranteed.

Anything else on battles. Hmm. I'm certain that I left out Magic Points. Let's talk about that!

Magic is different than Magic Points, MP, because something has to be confusing. Magic Points are what enable your party to do special attacks, Techs. The other two letters in battle, TP, refers to Tech Points. This is your general experience that is earned from each battle. As you level up your characters, they are able to do more Techs and hold more MPs. The maximum amount of Magic Points is character specific and plateaus at level sixty. Health will also reach a maximum, 999/999, eventually. Though there are only a certain number of Techs in the game, TP does not cap like health or MPs. Go EXP TP!

Now magic is a lot of fun to use. There are five factions of magic; light(ning), ice, fire, water, and shadow. Magic Techs will be represented by an elemental symbol in the attack selection. Enemies are elemental as well, this is displayed in battle, and can have up to two element types. Light Techs will hurt water enemies, but things become tricky when an enemy is both water and light affiliated. 

Obviously, same elemental attacks will do squat against the same magic-based enemy. Keep that in mind when exploring new areas. You don't want to be fucked over having to use Lukka against lava monsters. 

Just like enemies, you too can have elemental combos. In fact, you can have tribos, triple combos. Certain Techs exist between characters. This means that you will need to have both, or all three, characters active as well as the Techs unlocked in order to execute the attack. These Techs cause massive damage but cost a pretty penny to use. 

Quick Tip: There are some hidden triple Techs in the game. They are unlocked via gemstones scattered across dungeons and time. You must have the unique gemstone equipped in order to use these awesome Techs.

The enemies in Chrono Trigger are pretty story specific. Certain ones exist in certain areas as well as eras. You enable battles by triggering parts of an area, rather than random encounters on the overworld. These triggers can be anything from grazing an enemy sprite to stepping on a certain patch of grass. After exploring certain areas so many times, you'll have the fastest routes mapped out. 

Besides possible spoilers, I suppose I could mention the coolest part of Chrono Trigger, the endings.

What? Is that an oxymoron? Mare, how can you talk about the endings without spoiling the game? Easy, there are twelve possible endings to Chrono Trigger. I actually have achieved them all, serious Lavos dedication. They are triggered when you initiate the fight with Lavos, the big bad alien/planet eating parasite. Since there are several eras to visit, and certain era changing events that occur in Chrono Trigger, there are many possible conclusions to the game. My personal favorite involves dinosaurs which requires a second play-through.

Don't Panic: Chrono Trigger is designed to be replayed. Once you beat the game for the first time, you are able to roll over all of your experience and weapons to a new file. Basically, you play as an overpowered renegade and can do so again and again.

Anything left? Well, yes, so much left. But what to talk about? I did mention the save-thing already. Also the riddlesome quests, though I don't want to spoil those beyond the word "riddlesome". Perhaps you're wondering about the fair games or the soup drinking contest, audience? 

Games from Hell...Eh, they're weird.

Ha, those are actually important to the plot, namely the soup drinking. The fair games function as optional mini games too, but are necessary at one point. There is one game where you can win cat food. The more cat food you win the more cats you'll have in your home. The number can be a normal two to a ridiculous twelve. Even the crazy cat ladies of the world are shown some love in Chrono Trigger.

This game is beyond fantastic. It is, not was, revolutionary in the world of gaming. Chrono Trigger gives the player choices with vastly different outcomes, an actual RPG. Not the,"good" ending, "bad" ending, and "crap" ending choice of the subsequent RPGs. It introduces multi-functioning attacks that required the player to experiment with all of the characters in order to have the full scope of the game. Then the dialogue diversity revolved around party selection, it is just amazing. 

Chrono Trigger was so ahead of its time, hell, it's ahead of this time. Whoa, just like in the game. Chronoception.

Until next time audience! Here's some music to bridge the gap.

*Riddlesome (adj), a troubling problem related to solving riddles. (Coined by Mary)

Choices, choices.

Hello my darling audience. Let's ignore the gap between this post and my last one, ok?

Moving on, I have a proposal for you all of you who read this blog. Lately, I have had ideas for blog posts but cannot decide about which ones to write. Such a hard life, yes.

This is where you guys come in. There is a poll below that will enable you to decide which game will be featured as the topic in my next post. I'll gather the results at the end of nine days, giving everyone plenty of time to vote.

Now, this will not be an every post thing. I thought that I might try it out though, give you, my audience, a choice in the matter. That way, everyone wins. Plus, I'll probably write the other posts later, unless they do not have any votes. Then, meh, screw 'em.

Please, choose wisely. Or don't, it's your choice audience!

Which Game, Which Game?

Chrono Trigger

Undertale

Pokemon Blue

quizs