Funny

The Goode Family: The Unseen Satire Masterpiece That Predicted COVID-19 and Hilariously Mocked Woke Culture

In an almost unbelievable turn of events, “The Goode Family,” an animated sitcom from 2009, might have had a prophetic moment in its very first episode. Just like “The Simpsons” with its uncanny ability to predict the future, “The Goode Family” seems to have foreseen the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Goode Family’s Prophetic Opening: Within the first 30 seconds of the pilot episode, a character ominously talks about the world facing a threat from a “super antibiotic-resistant flu-like virus.” A decade later, the world was hit by the COVID-19 pandemic. The accuracy of this prediction is both astonishing and a bit eerie. read more

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Beavis and Butthead Are Still Great 30 Years Later – And Here’s Why

I grew up with the loveable outrageous teenage antics of Beavis and Butthead. Long before Southpark, there was Beavis and Butthead. I loved Beavis and Butthead so much, I spent probably 20 bucks to win one of each doll from a crane machine in my mall. I loved Beavis and Butthead so much, that I was Butthead because of my brown hair, and my best friend, a blonde, was Beavis. (Not the most attractive nicknames, but it was what it was lol.)

Imagine my excitement and anticipation when a new series of Beavis and Butthead began on Paramount Plus a few weeks ago. I’ve been watching faithfully since the very first episode, and Beavis and Butthead may be better than ever, especially in an age of cancel culture. Beavis and Butthead are the same unfiltered, off the wall, controversial dynamic duo who are going against this woke era of cancel culture. read more

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Miitopia Nintendo Switch Demo Review

Miitopia is a cute fun casual game that brings the DS classic to the Nintendo Switch with a few new additions. I will say, I wish that instead of Miitopia we were getting MiiTomo as I friggin loved that game – but maybe if Miitopia does well, MiiTomo might be next? Maybe not though as it was a mobile game. Ah rest in peace Miitomo. I actually wrote 2 reviews about my experiences in MiiTomo before Nintendo shut down the mobile game. Read my original Miitomo Review Here and the Updated Miitomo Review Here. I still miss Miitomo very much. RIP. read more

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Viz Neko Atsume Kitty Collector Haiku Seasons of the Kitty Book Review

Neko Atsume Toys
Neko Atsume Toys

I received this book for free in exchange for a review. Thoughts and Opinions are my own.

Neko Atsume is a popular idle clicker style mobile game where you leave food out and close the app, and open the app later to find different kitties have come to your garden to sample your food. The object of the game is to “collect” all the different kitties who will come and go in and out of your garden and do various cute things on your screen. The simplistic artwork and simplistic gameplay launched this mobile app to stardom levels with over 50 million users around the world having installed the app.

The success of the mobile game spawned a whole franchise of toys, home goods, pet products, even a live action movie. So it’s no surprise there are new activity books by Viz featuring the cute kitties! The first book I will review is Neko Atsume Kitty Collector Haiku Seasons of the Kitty. As the name suggests, it’s a cute collection of poems with illustrations featuring the collectible cats of the Neko Atsume mobile game. There’s also stickers in the book that let you keep track of your kitty collection and personalize it with names and other details. See the stickers below:

A Haiku is a type of Japanese Poem that features 3 “phrases” with a rhythm that’s defined by the syllables in each phrase. The first phrase will have 5 syllables, the next will have 7, and the final phrase will have 5 again. Thus creating a rhythm of 5, 7, 5. Many Haiku create a relationship between two objects and focus on observing everyday objects and occurrences. Many Haiku also focus on seasons, so it’s quite fitting that this book Neko Atsume Kitty Collector Haiku Seasons of the Kitty breaks the book into short chapters each featuring a collection of Haiku showing us what the kitties are doing in each of the four seasons. In spring we see them playing with flowers or napping in the sun, in winter we see them playing with Christmas decorations. There are also some Haiku in the book which don’t seem to reflect a season at all, such as kitties hiding in tunnels or playing with toys, kitties just being kitties, which they do year round. Neko Atsume Kitty Collector Haiku Season of the Kitty features over 100 full color pages sure to charm you and brighten your day.

My favorite Haiku in Neko Atsume Kitty Collector features a kitty begging for more meat treats. I love this one because my own kitties always beg for treats. I joke that my kitties need an intervention, they are like treat-addicts. So reading this haiku and seeing the simple illustration warmed my heart because I immediately thought of my own kitties in real life. In fact, at several points in the book I was thinking “That’s just like my cats!” This book is definitely for cat lovers! In fact, it’s so cute and would make a great gift for any cat lover — even if they’ve never played Neko Atsume.

It could also be a great book to teach young kids about Haikus. You can have fun showing young kids this book, counting together with them as you read each line of the Haiku, and enjoying the cute and funny artwork and seeing what the kitties are up to in each Haiku.

My only complaint with the book is that some of the Haiku feel a little forced to fit the rhyme scheme, with random “meows” thrown in it feels like at times just to match the syllable formula of the haiku. Regardless of this small complaint, the book is so cute and charming that I’ve already read it front to back and re-read my favorite Haikus again and again. Reading these little poems is so relaxing – just like the relaxing gameplay of the Neko Atsume mobile game that started it all.

Once anyone reads this cute collection of poetry, they won’t be able to resist catching Neko Atsume fever and delving into playing the game or collecting the toys and other related merchandise.

If you’re looking for a great gift for a cat lover, or just looking to feed your own collection of Neko Atsume Goodies, be sure to pick up a copy of Neko Atsume Kitty Collector Haiku Seasons of the Kitty today. For just $10.99, it would make the perfect gift for that cat lover in your life, or maybe that cat lover is you! 🙂 Curl up with a nice cup of tea and kitty in your lap and enjoy the cute illustrations and see what mischief the kitties in the book get up to each season.

You can bring the kitties home for yourself on March 13, 2018!

You can buy Neko Atsume Kitty Collector Haiku Seasons of the Kitty at any of the following retailers:

Amazon

Barnes & Noble

Books-A-Million

Rightstuf

*It looks like Rightstuf is selling the book ahead of the other retailers, and for a bit cheaper too (currently “in stock” and just $8.24 at time of this posting)

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The Young Master's Revenge

Viz Media Launches New Shojo Manga Series by Meca Tanaka: The Young Master’s Revenge

vizmedia

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

 

VIZ MEDIA ANNOUNCES THE RELEASE OF THE SHOJO MANGA SERIES THE YOUNG MASTER’S REVENGE

 

Plans For Revenge Go Awry In This Romantic Comedy From The Creator Of METEOR PRINCE

 

San Francisco, CA, February 21, 2018 – VIZ Media, LLC (VIZ Media), a premier company in the fields of publishing, animation distribution, and global entertainment licensing, delivers the print and digital release of THE YOUNG MASTER’S REVENGE on March 6th.

The series, by creator Meca Tanaka, is rated ‘T’ for Teens and will be published under the SHOJO BEAT imprint. Meca Tanaka is also the creator of the acclaimed shojo manga series METEOR PRINCE (also published by VIZ Media). read more

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Assassination Classroom Anime Review

Assassination Classroom Anime Review

Overview: 10/10 Assassination Classroom is first and foremost a slice of life anime. Each episode focuses on a different student or faculty member and how Koro-Sensei helps them with whatever turmoil they are experiencing while at school. Assassination Classroom is also very much a comedy anime, as if you can't tell by just looking at the design for Kore-Sensei. He is a murderous demon lord with a sweet tooth, love for super hero movies, and kind heart, but that still doesn't mean he won't destroy the earth. Although Koro-Sensei may be a villain that the other students must defeat, it is hard to not fall in love with Koro and his classroom. Each episode does have action, with the students trying to defeat their teacher, but each episode also is full of tender sweet moments, and lots of very wtf moments and comedy as well.

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Pillow Boys Anime Review Makura no Danshi

Makura no Danshi – Pillow Boys – Anime Review

OK…. I just watched one of the weirdest anime of my life… Well two of the weirdest anime of my life…. And I didn’t really hate it?..

The first anime I came across is a relatively new anime called OneRoom. In OneRoom, everything is supposed to be in first person… except… only… it’s not??? Because why then can I keep seeing almost up the backs of the girls’ skirts?! Do I have hidden cameras in my apartment? Do I have super powers? Am I having an out of body experience? The answer is NO, they just wanted to cram as much fan service as humanly possible into each 4 minute episode…

Not only that…. But it is the first anime I’ve ever watched which puts YOU in the anime…. or tries to… but fails miserably at this… They make it so you never see, hear, or know anything about the main character… sort of… only except… you do know/assume what he is saying based on the things the girls are saying to you… And unless you’re a total pervert, chances are whatever the anime thinks the main character is feeling/thinking/saying doesn’t line up with what you’re actually feeling/thinking/saying while watching it… so it’s still almost impossible to immerse yourself into this supposed “blank slate”.

While watching it, I felt like I was playing Love+ (a dating sim game), except I wasn’t playing anything at all. It was like a waifu simulator, with all the gamification and simulation parts taken out.

Still… because the artwork was cute… and the music was catchy… and most of all because the episodes were only 4 minutes long, I kept watching….

While reading reviews after watching, just to laugh at peoples “WTF” comments…. I discovered there’s a version of this “anime experiment” designed for women as well….

Enter Makura no Danshi! Pillow Boys! An anime by the same studio as OneRoom, Makura no Danshi, or Pillow Boys, features a different Pillow Boy each week.

What the heck is a Pillow Boy? In Japan, for both guys and girls, there are anime pillow cases that fit large body sized pillows. WARNING NSFW: https://www.aliexpress.com/promotion/promotion_anime-male-body-pillow-promotion.html

This anime was blatantly created for one sole purpose… to sell such pillow cases…. and this anime is effective at doing that… Before watching this anime, I knew about the Pillow Boyfriend / Pillow Girlfriend trend in Japan…. and I’d looked at such pillow cases before… I didn’t have a large pillow at the time though; About 3 weeks ago I got a really big expensive memory foam body pillow…. It’s currently dressed in a not very feminine or kawaii dark color…. Watching Pillow Boys reminded me that I could get something more Kawaii that would fit my image, my room, my decor, my life. I already cuddle my pillow every night so why not cuddle it and look at cute anime boys too lol. So I will probably buy one of these pillow slips, as soon as I decide which one I want… there are literally hundreds of styles, some from popular games and anime, and others completely original characters.

So now that you know what a Pillow Boy is… let’s move on to the actual review…

Title: Makura no Danshi! Pillow Boys!

Episodes: 12

Episode Length: 4 minutes

Studio: Feel

Publisher: Imagineer

Release Date: 2015

Genre: Slice of Life, Shoujo, Romance, “Pillow Boy Simulator?” lol.

Where to Watch: Crunchyroll

Overall: 35/55 64% D “Average Anime for Girls”

Geeky: 1/5? lol… Not sure… I mean it does have pretty art, and actually I really like the opening theme song, and it IS geeky, because I mean, who else buys these pillows except for geeks. But I can’t in good faith give it a higher score here, because aside from the opening theme, there’s almost no other music, each episode is 4 minutes long, and there’s literally no plot, and it’s just weird as heck lol.

Sweetie: 5/5 – at the opposite end of the rating spectrum, this is an incredibly cute, kinda awkward, and at times highly inappropriate, funny, fun, anime…

Concept: 6/10 — Fanservice for Women. Blatant money-grab anime whose sole purpose is to sell merchandise… but yet… oddly… interesting… and entertaining… Each week a new Pillow Boy is introduced… and they’re all pretty cute and likeable….

I want to make a comment here… but it may be a spoiler… not that the story is important or even coherent in this series… but just in case, using my spoiler tags… you can click to read… it’s about the ending of the final episode…

[spoiler] Perhaps the weirdest thing about this anime is, I believe that the characters actually ARE pillows throughout the anime, not just cute guys who the main character (You) spend your time with… My reasons for believing this include, in the final episode the Pillow Boy says “Hey!! Don’t Fluff me! That’s so mean!” Now why on earth or even how on earth would you fluff a person? You could fluff their HAIR maybe, but that’s not what the character says… Also there’s the fact that You are always tired and/or sleeping in every episode… And… the fact that all of these guys know where you live, sleep in your bed, and seem overly familiar with you, and that’s odd especially for Japanese cultures even more so than American culture, and it STILL seemed weird to me too as an American. My first thought was WHY do I have so many different boyfriends, and how do they know where I live, and why are we sleeping together all the time? — All of these things led me to the conclusion that not only are they ACTUALLY PILLOWS; but that YOU as the viewer are well aware of this fact, and that YOU as the viewer and main character, are actually talking to and fantasizing about your pillows… making you perhaps one of the saddest, most desperate, lonely main characters that I have ever seen… On the other hand, you could just be dreaming in each episode, which would be less creepy, and also less funny, than someone talking to their pillows and pretending to be in a relationship with them lol. [/spoiler]

And when you realize THAT, it kinda completely changes the entire tone of the anime lol.

Story: 3/10 – Each week a new Pillow Boy is introduced, each episode is self contained and stand-alone. Each episode consists of the Pillow Boy talking to you about his day, and asking you questions, which you’re encouraged as an audience member to talk back to the TV (k we go from talking to pillows to talking to the TV now lol). They don’t give you much time for response, and ultimately, it suffers the same problem as OneRoom, in that it’s still difficult to immerse, because you can still get a vague idea of the “conversation” that is supposedly going on.

Characters: 9/10 – Ok so the characters themselves though are actually strangely cute, and charming. I honestly liked just about all of them. My favorite was probably the cuddly one or the shy astronomy geek, or maybe the naughty twins lol. “Let’s play find the flower” lol. But even the little boy was cute, in a strictly platonic way. But that didn’t stop the anime from making highly inappropriate sexual innuendos and jokes even in that episode such as the title of that episode: “Innocent Danshi, a highly energetic, hot, 5 year old” WHAT THE F??? That is the creepiest weirdest title for an episode I’ve ever seen. PS, the episode is COMPLETELY G rated – thank god. It’s NOT some weird creepy perverted pedophile anime lol. — You know most anime with a “young looking” “Loli” or “Shota” character, they merely LOOK young but are actually of age of consent, and not an ACTUAL 5 year old… but in this anime, he really is a 5 year old, and you’re baby sitting him… I won’t give too much away, but you’re playing power rangers and he tells you to be the pink ranger, and he wants to be the super “rare” black ranger, whose super power is “Fatty Beef Bomber” — Really? lol… Innuendo much there? Given the character’s age, that is just messed up…. But then… when you take into account what I mentioned in the spoiler tag above, about the ending of the final episode, then you can look past this part. Each character is unique and has a charm of their own.

Artwork: 3/5 – The character designs are super cute, but the animation itself is very low quality and cheap. One scene, with your coworker, in particular, keeps one still image on for 1-2 minutes… in a 4 minute episode… that’s…. pretty cheap lol. The character designs are also not consistent — the final episode brings back the pillow boy from Episode 1… and he looks like a junior high school or even elementary school student now (which to be honest, fits his personality better) Except then, near the end, he goes back to looking about college student aged again (as he appeared in the first episode) for a few seconds. I don’t think this was done for any reason other than they were lazy. It wasn’t like he was done in a “chibi” style to be more cute, It was more like, they forgot what they went with, or couldn’t decide on and stick to one style, or they were outsourcing or using different artists – which would be pretty sad given its a 4 minute per episode kind of show, which shouldn’t be overly complex or have that much detail etc.

Music: 3/5 – The opening theme honestly, would be like a 5/5 — I really like it. It’s catchy as heck. But the rest of the anime has almost no music at all… Even an episode where the Pillow Boy is a violinist, which was the weirdest episode to watch without music.

Voice Acting: 5/5 — I thought the voices were cute, as well as the artwork, those two factors played a big role in my liking of the characters and overall enjoyment of the anime.

Overall: 35/55 64% D “Average Anime for Girls”

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Cat President – a More Purrfect Union – Visual Novel PC Game Review

Frisky Lives Up to His Name
Frisky Lives Up to His Name

I received this game for free in exchange for writing an honest review. I played through Frisky’s route and received his Normal Ending.

Title: Cat President

Genre: Otome Visual Novel

Platform: PC

Developer: Oh a Rock! Studios

Where to Buyhttp://store.steampowered.com/app/474980

Geeky: 3/5 – On the fence with this score… Production values are fairly low and it shows, also not much “gameplay” as is the nature of visual novels. But it does earn a few points for geeky internet “meme-like” humor.

Sweetie: 5/5 – High marks for being an otome game (a game with a female protagonist) and for having cute cats. Also has pretty good character development and surprisingly good writing.

Concept: 8/10 Cat President is an otome game in which you get to help one of 6 different cat candidates (spoiler: one of them is a dog) become the nominee of their political party. You might also fall in love with your chosen candidate by the end of the game. Like most visual novels there is little to do aside from click and read. I like this genre of games a lot, but if you’re not used to this format, it may not be your cup of tea. On the plus side, Cat President takes a fun, whimsical, and light hearted approach to the visual novel genre. Most of the routes are short (around 2 hours each). There are multiple endings including normal, good, and bad endings which adds some more replay time. If you get all of your desired endings in one try, I estimate this game will take 12-15 hours to complete. Because of the light hearted nature, and short length of this game, it may be a purrfect game to give visual novels a try. However, if you’re a visual novel veteran, you might be disappointed by the “fluffy” nature of the plot, or by the somewhat amateur artwork, especially given the lack of poses of each sprite.

Story: 9/10 You play as a young girl who has been out of work for some time when she decides to attend a debate with her best friend and you are called upon to give a question to the candidates. You mention how you’ve lost your job and want to know how the candidates will help people like you. They all have the purrfect answer, by offering you a spot on their campaign team. These are no ordinary candidates however, as they are all cats (and a dog). This is how the game opens. The backstory explains that politics became so corrupt 20 years ago that humans are no longer allowed to hold any type of political office. It’s also eluded to pretty early on that cats can (and most do) become human (if they can afford it). Although the story does take itself lightly, and has some genuinely WTF moments, it’s not without more serious and delicate moments as well such as relationship drama, political scandals, and very likeable characters who have very human-like flaws. I was very surprised by how relateable the characters felt to me. I could see qualities in them and in myself, in my cats, and surprisingly most of all, in my past relationships with other humans.  I went into this not expecting much other than comedy, so I was really surprised when I felt myself identifying with or nodding in understanding/agreement with many of the characters and situations in this game. Plus, if you like comedy (who doesn’t like comedy right?) and even more-so if you like cats, and are familiar with the internet memes, then you will really appreciate the humor in this game.

Gameplay: 5/10 – Unfortunately, as is the nature of visual novels, there’s really no “gameplay” per say, however the game does have all of the basic functions one expects in a visual novel such as being able to review different scenes or endings and gallery items. It does feature a lot of different endings and have high replay value. I’m not really so much of a fan of the “choose which route you want at the begining of the game” it seems to me only cheap “mobile games” use this mechanic, while “real” visual novels like Clannad for example, let you dip in and out of different characters’ routes, so you might experience different parts of the game each time you play. Locking into a route right out of the chute, limits then which stories and experiences you can enjoy in each play through. I’ve noticed this mechanic becoming increasingly popular, but I’m just not a fan of it. I like the “challenge” in trying to get with the guy (or cat in this case) that I want to be with, and putting me on his route right away takes away this challenge, and therefore, in my opinion, diminishes the fun a little bit for me.

Graphics: 5/10 – This is probably my biggest complaint with this novel. The game could have been really “cute” I think if it had “anime” style drawings for the characters and cats in the game, similar to Dandelion Wishes Brought to You, or other Otome games featuring cats and animals. The photographs of the cats are cute, but my biggest complaint is they are COMPLETELY static, they needed to have more photos in different poses, or different expressions. As a cat lover and owner, I find my own cats and those we watch on youtube etc to be extremely expressive. These static sprite images don’t capture much emotion or charm of these cats. They could have used different poses or angles, or tried to get their cats to be more expressive for some of the shoots (but well cats do what they wanna do so I understand maybe it was more difficult lol). I did critique the artwork when I left a brief steam review, and I was told that it was intentional to be more humorous and fit the theme and feeling of the game, and also because the creator wanted to include his friends’ real life cats. I did write back and suggest maybe just adding some more varied photos/poses would help – but I still think anime, ultimately is the way to go – it’s what the target audience wants, and what we expect. I am not a “graphics whore” – and I play all sorts of indie games (sprite based etc) and retro 8 bit and 16 bit games — but with a Visual Novel, the art work becomes highly important, because you don’t have that “gameplay” you need the artwork to help tell the story, hence the name “VISUAL” Novel, right? So the art was disapointing, if for no other reason, than it felt too still / stiff and wasn’t emotive or expressive. Although the writing was full of charm and did a great job defining the characters, the art didn’t help draw out that charm in any way.

Music: 6/10 – Music “gets the job done”, the main track is Hail to the Chief, the official presidential anthem of the USA. It’s really the only track I remember hearing consistently throughout, but I do remember hearing different tracks, including a vocal track even, but they’re ultimately not very memorable. The good news is, since each route is short, they can get by with a very limited number of music tracks, and the music itself does its job by providing background noise while not distracting or detracting anything from the focus of the story.

Replay Value: 10/10 – The replay value is exceptional here due to there being 6 dateable candidates, and each one having multiple endings. The characters are also diverse enough that each route feels like a fun and unique experience. The relatively short nature of each route makes multiple playthroughs easy and enjoyable.

Overall: 51/70 73% “C Good Game for Girls” – If you love games like Hatoful Boyfriend, and love cats, furries,  internet humor, memes, youtube, or just want a fun, light hearted visual novel with great characters and a surprisingly warm and touching, though ultimately hilarious story, then you need to check out Cat President – a More Purrfect Union.

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Cosmic Spacehead, Sega Genesis, Retro Videogame Review, Cosmic Spacehead on Sega Genesis, Cosmic Spacehead Retro Videogame Review, Codemasters, Point and Click, Adventure Game, Sega, Cute, Kawaii, Funny, LOL, Humor, Charm,

Cosmic Spacehead Retro Sega Genesis Videogame Review

Title: Cosmic Spacehead

Genre: Point and Click / Puzzle Solving

Release Date: 1993

Platform: (For this Review) Sega Genesis (there were also other versions including NES and Gamegear).

Developer: Codemasters

Where to Buy:    

 

Geeky:  4/5 – High marks here for the graphics and production values, losing a point for the sometimes challenging/frustrating puzzles as well as challenging platform minigames which create more frustration than enjoyment at times.

Sweetie:  4/5 – High marks here for charm and whimsy – losing a point for weak story and lack of replay value

Concept: 8/10 This is a very cute and cheeky point and click puzzle solving adventure game with a lot of humor and mischief. It also had amazing graphics for its time and technical limitations back in the early 90s. What I like about Cosmic Spacehead is how colorful and detailed the game world is and how it mixes sometimes crude and adult humor into a rather childlike game setting. However, the story is pretty “out there” and if you’re wanting anything serious or emotional or thought provoking this game is not for you :). But if you’re looking for something “different” or just simply “fun” you should check this game out.

Gameplay: 7/10 The 90s was the hay-days for point and click adventure games, however, Cosmic Spacehead takes a slightly different approach to the genre by also combining different game mechanics in the form of dozens of fun minigames, from platforming, side scrolling, even racing. These cute and fun minigames helped breakup some of the tedium which often plagued other point-n-click games of the 90s. Aside from the minigames, the controls in Cosmic Spacehead are your typical run of the mill point-n-click fare. You explore different locations, examine objects, pick up and use objects, talk to various characters, and solve puzzles to continue on your journey.

One of the pitfalls in the gameplay is that many of the puzzles make no logical sense and leave you backtracking or just spending hours via trial and error which takes some of the fun out of the game. There’s also not a large number of puzzles, so assuming you do not get stuck, you can easily complete this game within a few hours.

At the end of each level, you’ll encounter a mario-style platform minigame which is often criticized for being extremely challenging as if you get hit or miss a jump it’s instant death.

Still, it’s the experience of playing a virtual cartoon and enjoying the humor along the way which makes the game so much fun and unique. In an era of a lot of “sameness” this little game was brave enough to be different. It didn’t always pan out, but taking risks, is worth a few brownie points in my opinion. Cosmic Spacehead is a game that wants to make you smile. And it does that very well. It may have been a parody or attempt to mock the success of point and click adventure games at large. Nothing about this game takes itself very seriously.

Story: 5/10 You are Cosmic Spacehead, and you’ve just returned from discovering an ancient forgotten planet called Earth. However, when you get back home, no one seems to believe your story. To make matters worse, you’re dirt poor and have no way to get back to Earth to prove everyone wrong.  To remedy this, you begin to carry out errands and odd jobs which leads to earning in-game currency and puts you closer to your goal to prove Earth exists. The story like everything else in the game is very light hearted and has a tongue and cheek style of humor which may appeal more to adults than young kids despite the simplistic gameplay. Although the story is zany and bright, there’s just not much substance to it to merit giving it a higher score. It’s a fun and enjoyable experience, but not amazing by any means. The story definitely takes a back seat to the gameplay here.

Characters: 7/10 – Although there are few characters in number, they are very unique and memorable. The humor and colorful graphics helps to endear anyone friend or foe that you meet along your travels.

Graphics: 10/10 – One of the best looking games on the Genesis. The world is bright and colorful and animated to help bring the characters to life. It’s a playful and vibrant world and is one of the most charming games you’ll see on this system.

Music: 7/10 – The music in cosmic spacehead is bright and bold and strangely addicting. It helps set the futuristic theme and like the story itself, it keeps an upbeat and sometimes unexpected tempo that seems to fit the game world quite well.

Replay Value: 3/10  – The game is short and linear. However, there’s really no other game like it, and it’s worth replaying just to revisit the colorful worlds and characters. Once you know the puzzles though, replaying games such as this becomes not nearly as fun, therefore, I recommend waiting a few years between replays, so you might forget some of the solutions along the way and get to have fun solving them again – well fun, or hours of frustration – either way, Cosmic Spacehead is a really quirky and cute game that you’ll want to revisit at least once again for nostalgia’s sake.

Overall: 55/80 69%  D+ “Average Game for Girls” – While this is my objective review, I’d still recommend this game anyways – it’s short and sweet, and cute and whimsical enough that it really should be considered a must play as it’s oddly addictive and endearing in so many ways.

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Stormfall, Stormfall Age of War, Stormfall Strategy Game, Stormfall Age of War Browser Game, Stormfall IOS, Stormfall Android, Stormfall Game, Browser Game, Mobile Game, IOS, Android, Strategy Game, City Building, Free, Free Game, Plarium, Fantasy, Fantasy Games, Funny, Funny Game, Gaming, Apps, Online Game, Online, Multiplayer, Review, Game Review

Stormfall Age of War Strategy Game Review

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Title: Stormfall Age of War

Genre: Strategy Game

Developer: Plarium

Platform: You can play it directly in your computer browser. Or they also have a mobile app for both android and IOS when you are on the go.

Where to Get the Game: It’s free to play and you can find the apps or browser version at the official website. Link at top of this post.

Overall: 84/100 84% B “Very Good Game for Girls”

Geeky: 5/5 The ability to lead huge troops and the skill tree and city building aspects make this game high on the geek list.

Sweetie: 3/5 It’s a “pretty” game, but there’s not much “cute” – there’s also not much customization as far as appearances go. The story although funny, is mostly just there to move you through the quests and progress through the game, and not there to give you a sense of who’s who, why your kingdoms are at war, or about the lore or setting in the game world.

Concept: 9/10 Stormfall is a smart, sarcastic, witty, funny browser game which offers a large variety of quests, areas to explore, massive scale combat, ability to customize which research you take on, an awesome musical score and beautiful lush graphics with voice acting by a smart-alec narrator. While it does little to innovate the strategy genre, it is still a fun game for anyone who loves these city building types of games, and the high production values will keep you entertained, while daily quests and lots of things to see, do, build, and explore will have you replaying this game often.

Gameplay: 10/10 Like most strategy games, there is a city building aspect which the game introduces early on. You build farms to feed your troops, iron mines to get materials to arm your troops, and earn taxes to help fund your troops. You build libraries to research magic, and other structures to help build new types of weapons, armor, and unlock new units to add to your armies.

There’s also a skill tree element called the “Art of War” where you can customize which talents you learn, learning them in different order will branch off to letting you learn different skills, such as fortification, bows, thieves, trading, smuggling, etc. This is where a lot of the initial strategy comes into play.

The tutorial really helps new players jump right into the game and learn the mechanics. The narrator keeps the game entertaining and gives it a fresh perspective. From research, to city building, to intrigue, alliances, and battles, this game offers many options to let you take charge of your kingdoms.

The user interface is clean and intuitive, and combat feels dynamic but yet not overly complex or frustrating. The game has a good sense of balance between building and researching and battling to progress your kingdom.

Story: 7/10 – This game cracks me up – it is so funny LOL. You’ll see the humor right away within the first few seconds of the tutorial. The humor is accented by great voice acting! I’ve never seen a strategy game take such a sarcastic approach. It’s very refreshing! It makes it stand out in a sea of similar mobile games. It makes it unique and memorable and keeps me playing for longer. Beyond the humor though it seems like not much is revealed about the world, characters, lore, history, or setting of the game.

Characters: 3/10 The only character that’s given much personality is the narrator. I kinda feel this is a missed opportunity, as your advisers could have been given much more personality, and dialog even if it was only written and not voiced. I also think the game is missing a gameplay element by not letting you “recruit” advisers or having some bonuses/enhancements for different advisers, or aging/dying/marrying/mentoring etc of advisers, like many other games in this genre offer.

Graphics: 10/10 – The game is brought to live with beautiful detailed 3D environments and rich fantasy artwork and animation.

Music: 10/10 – For a little mobile/browser game, this game has some seriously wonderful music. It reminds me a lot of the music from Lord of the Rings or the Hobbit. Very pretty and the same “fantasy” vibe. It’s very dramatic music. There’s a good variety too, from very intense drum solos, to calming harp-like music.

Voice Acting: 7/10 – I’m surprised there’s voice acting throughout much of the game, and it’s actually pretty good. I like the tone, humor (at times), and deliverance throughout. However, very few of the key characters in the game are voiced and voice is given primarily through a narrator.

Community: 10/10 – Whether it’s chatting in game, forming alliances, recruiting your friends, joining a league, trading at the market, or using the official forums this game has a great sense of community that offers a break from the routine tasks of managing your kingdom.

Replay Value: 10/10 The daily quests, and sheer amount of things to build, do, and learn about this game make it worth logging in daily to work on your kingdom.

Overall: 84/100 84% B “Very Good Game for Girls”

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Mechanical Rocking Horse for Adults

WTF is a Mechanical Rocking Horse – It’s Awesome That’s What it Is

Mechanical Rocking Horse for Adults
Mechanical Rocking Horse for Adults

So my new “life goal” (ok not really) is to lose enough weight to get under 154 lbs which is the maximum weight limit for a toy by a company called UFREE which makes something called Large Mechanical Rocking Horses.

How did I come across this? I just encountered a video clip here: https://www.facebook.com/ponycyclenz/videos/1081942061815988/ of a mother, father, and baby, all riding various sizes/shapes of these Mechanical Rocking Horses, bouncing down the street…. And it is totally adorable… and looks like great exercise too.

You can buy one too from Amazon here: http://www.amazon.com/UFREE-Mechanical-Rocking-Bounce-Children/dp/B00D3CHKKA

Apparently, UFREE isnt the only company making these. Another popular search term and / or Brand name is “Pony Cycle” (which is where that video above is from).

Making Fitness Fun again, Getting weird looks all over town, Being 30+ years old and riding a “bouncing stuffed animal” What could go wrong? LOL….

I really really want one. In fact, if another company offered one that could support my 200 lb ass I’d buy it right now lol.

Of course losing weight, I could also buy lolita fashion, etc… but we all know I’m too lazy to actually exercise. I was 120 lbs and a size 6 in college but that was 10+ years ago lol.

I do want to lose weight though, so any motivation, even a stuffed, bouncing, ridiculously cute horse would only be a good thing.

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Katamari Damacy | We Love Katamari | Katamari Forever | Review

Katamari Damacy Review

Title: Katamari Damacy

Genre: Platform / Puzzle

Platform: PS2, Xbox 360

Publisher: Namco

Release Date: September 21, 2004

Language: English

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Geeky Factor: 

Sweetie Factor: 

Overall: 53/70 76% C  “Good Game For Girls”

Story: 2/10 The story in Katamari is really silly and crazy (as is much of the game itself). It follows a prince whose father has accidentally destroyed the universe and you find yourself in the role of said, young prince, ordered by your father, to go “roll up” the planets to put them back into the sky; meanwhile your actions are also impacting a human family back on earth whose father is an astronaut who’s unable to travel to the moon due to the king of the universe destroying the cosmos. The story is often told with still images, or silent clips and movies, and really plays a huge backseat compared to the gameplay. The fact is, story is not this game’s strong suit, but it doesn’t NEED to be, because the gameplay stands alone.

Gameplay: 10/10 The gameplay in Katamari is what it’s all about! This game is CRAZY fun and addictive! It’s easily one of my favorite games of all time based solely on gameplay alone. The concept is simple but yet challenging and incredibly fun. You start off as a very small creature given a magic ball with the power to “roll up” any objects which are smaller in diameter than it; you start “rolling up” small objects such as paperclips, buttons, etc; and grow bigger, and as you grow bigger the objects that were obstacles for you before, now get rolled up when you come into contact with them, cars, people, animals, entire buildings, everything in the environment is interactive. If however, you bump into something larger than your current ball, it will break a few pieces of your ball, making you smaller. You are under intense time limits and have to have mad skills to race around the map rolling up as many objects as possible before the time is up while avoiding obstacles which would take away from your mass. You also can rollup “cousins” (other characters to play as), and presents on each level; which give reason to replay some levels to get 100% of the goodies.

Concept: 10/10 As weird, crazy, silly, and possibly drug induced, as this game is, it’s still delightful. At the time of its debut it was a revolutionary, one of a kind, masterpiece that quickly became classic due to its unique concept and fun and addictive gameplay. You do have to wonder what these creators were thinking though. They have some fantastic imaginations, that’s for sure!

Characters: 5/10 Character development is not this game’s strong suit, none of the characters have much history, back story, lore, personality, etc and none of the characters really mature or evolve throughout the game. The characters however ARE all very unique and cute/funny, although not very deep or relatable.

Graphics: 8/10 I love the cute, colorful, “sugary sweet” art style of this series of games. However, the polygons are rather simplistic, and the graphics look a bit dated even for their time back then; but I still rate it highly, especially when looking at it from the prospective of my target audience (young female gamers) I think they will love the colorful and zany level designs in this game.

Music: 10/10 The music is one of my favorite parts of this game; and one of my favorite soundtracks of any game. I had the theme song for years as my ring tone 🙂 The track is memorable and distinctive to this series; and it puts me in a happy “peppy” mood and fits the mood of the game perfectly.

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Final Scores:

Geeky Factor: 4/5

Sweetie Factor: 4/5

Story: 2/10

Gameplay: 10/10

Concept: 10/10

Characters: 5/10

Graphics: 8/10

Music: 10/10

 

Overall: 53/70 76% C  “Good Game For Girls”

I want to stress that this game is “better than a 76” but due to my scoring system I cannot overlook the fact that it essentially has no story or character development; however it’s one of those games that doesn’t really need one! If you ignore those two score marks, then it becomes 56/60 or 93%!! That probably more accurately reflects my own opinion regarding my enjoyment of the game and how much I’d be willing to recommend this game to anyone; but my readers expect story-centric games, and this falls short in that area so I had to give it a more objective review.

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