Thursday, 31 December 2020

A Letter to Readers


Author's Note: To all my readers, this may potentially be the last time we can share our creativity online, for our digital freedoms will be restricted even further in 2021.

Neo Retro Union wishes its readers a Happy New Year. Stay safe, read your Bible if you own one, and do not do anything that goes against the law.

Tuesday, 29 December 2020

Legitimately Modded by Nintendo


Nintendo needs to come to their senses regarding the existence of ROM Hacks because they used to design ROM Hacks of their own games specially made for certain games. In fact, the Western Super Mario Bros 2 was actually a re-skinned version of Yume Kojo: Doki Doki Panic. Yume Kojo: Doki Doki Panic never left Japan because Western audiences would be unfamiliar with the main playable characters, so they decided to replace them with Mario characters instead. It was also believed that the Japanese Super Mario Bros 2 a.k.a. Super Mario Bros: The Lost Levels would be treated as an example of lazy game design, not to mention that it was harder than Yume Kojo: Doki Doki Panic as well as its Mario-themed re-skin, Super Mario USA because Super Mario Bros: The Lost Levels was the game that introduced us to the Poison Mushroom, which would shrink Mario or Luigi, or make them lose a life when small.

To commemorate the 25th Anniversary of Super Mario Bros, Nintendo created a modified version of Super Mario Bros exclusive to Super Mario Bros 25th Anniversary Edition Wii consoles where the question marks on the Question Blocks are replaced with the number 25. Super Mario 3D World had a Mario Bros ROM Hack called Luigi Bros where both players 1 and 2 are Luigi, except the color scheme of the player 1 Luigi is based on modern Luigi. NES Remix 2 included a ROM Hack of Super Mario Bros called "Super Luigi Bros" where the side-scrolling goes from right to left instead of the familiar left to right. Ultimate NES Remix had Speed Mario Bros, which is basically a faster speed version of Super Mario Bros. Other ROM Hacks that are not included in this comic included a "Complete Edition" NES port of Donkey Kong, which included the cement tub level that was cut from the official NES version, making it look like what the NES version of the arcade original should have been, and Dr Wario, a Dr Mario ROM Hack included in WarioWare Inc.: Mega Microgame$! based on the NES version of Dr Mario but with Wario and redesigned viruses. This modified game and the Wii U game Dr Luigi paved the way for the mobile game Dr Mario World, where Dr Luigi and Dr Wario are playable characters.

But then again, Nintendo does not want so-called counterfeiters to create rip-offs of even their legitimate ROM Hacks, if the revelation about Super Mario Bros 35 undergoing beta testing at the time of the unofficial Super Mario Battle Royale's release was anything. Perhaps intellectual property protection regulations forbid the creation of rip-offs of legitimate ROM Hacks that the legal copyright owners designed in the first place.

Nintendo games © Nintendo.

Monday, 28 December 2020

Annus Horribilis


In Latin, Annus Horribilis means "horrible year", and 2020 was the very definition of Annus Horribilis. From start to finish, 2020 has seen many calamities. More than one million people worldwide have perished from the current pandemic. There have been obituaries of prominent people, mostly celebrities. Riots over injustices committed by rogue police officers have strengthened the leftists' resolve to take over democracies by any means possible. A major explosion devastated Lebanon's capital Beirut in the days leading up to Hiroshima's 75th anniversary. Web censorship taking over the rule of copyright law is depriving netizens of digital freedoms. But none of these can compare to China getting away with the biggest act of intellectual property theft. The J-31 jet fighter may actually be a product of intellectual property theft and potentially be a knockoff of the F-35 jet fighter. Maybe this is why copyright holders and copyright authorities are being so mean to people who committed copyright infringement, whether the offence is alleged or actual. They have a good reason to be overprotective of copyrighted intellectual properties because rogue dictators and terror groups have weaponized copyright infringement and intellectual property theft for more nefarious purposes.

Truth be told, every year since 2001 was an annus horribilis in one way or another. However, we need to be aware that the "beginning of sorrows" that Matthew 24 spoke about may have already begun. For those who think 2021 will be less positive than 2020, you might well be correct.

Sunday, 27 December 2020

Revealing Innerwear


This was based on a piece of Puyo Puyo fan art where Schezo pulled down Arle's skirt, revealing her striped panties. Nobody was sure if Arle was wearing panties or swimwear, but I do wish the uploader could have given a description before it became unsearchable.

Wednesday, 23 December 2020

Stages of a Boycott Campaign


Nintendo's recent actions to protect their intellectual properties has resulted in some of their customers calling for a boycott. Unfortunately, criminal enterprises have already jumped into the copyright infringement bandwagon, and it will be a matter of time before a terror attack funded by criminal copyright infringement, be it a massive bomb explosion or a massive hacking incident, occur in our lifetime, forcing us to contemplate on our moral actions on whether we should have admitted that we are in the wrong and that copyright infringement will result in the rise of evildoers more vile than even the worst villains.

For those who are wondering whether somebody said mean comments against Nintendo, the answer is yes. Back in 1985, one lady told Nintendo salespeople "I hope you fail." Now with the recent legal actions by Nintendo against their own customers' acts of copyright piracy, if that lady is still alive right now, she will become one of the biggest champions of the internet campaign to boycott Nintendo. There was also an ultimatum on whether Nintendo would choose a licensing agreement with Tencent or freedom. This ultimatum was conceived amid calls for a boycott of Tencent and anything owned by Tencent. Judging by the success of Tencent's version of the Nintendo Switch, it's clear that Nintendo chose their licensing agreement with Tencent. Therefore, people who want to boycott Tencent will also want to boycott Nintendo as well.

Currently, we are now between pleading Nintendo not to make their customers unhappy and threatening to boycott Nintendo. However, we must be aware that the decline of digital freedom in Japan and many parts of the world has been happening since 2009. All of this is merely part of the formation of the "marketplace of nations" that Isaiah 23 and Ezekiel 27 had been speaking about. This "marketplace of nations" aims to throw out small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), mostly because the SMEs are hostile towards the "marketplace of nations." Eventually, the SMEs will be thrown out by the "marketplace of nations," but the SMEs' owners will finally have their justice when the "marketplace of nations" gets destroyed by the coming nuclear firestorm of World War 3.

Tuesday, 22 December 2020

Waiting for 2020 to end


If you think 2020 was a terrible year, you are right. However, 2021 is expected to be far worse. Web censorship is already taking over the rule of copyright law, and will force many copyright holders to take legal actions against a lot of copyright violations. This will actually starve minor copyright holders because they lack the finances to take legal actions against alleged copyright infringers. The current pandemic has laid the foundations for a dystopian autocracy in our lifetime. One that seeks to establish a "marketplace of nations" to economically besiege the Anglosphere and anybody who are friends with them, as well as censor the web, whether it's because of copyright violations or community guidelines violations. At the end of the day, do not be too positive about 2021, and do not let your guard down when it comes to 2021 being less positive than 2020.

Monday, 21 December 2020

Winter Solstice


Ever wondered what is worse than getting coal for Christmas? Getting bupkis (slang term for nothing at all) for Christmas! At least coal can keep you warm when fed into a fireplace. Also, coal is an important resource in steel manufacturing and a vital non-renewable source of energy.

Because of pestilence, perhaps we should give Christmas a miss. For all we know, Christmas is not part of Christianity, and the evidence can actually be found in a fair amount of sources, one of which is the Catholic Encyclopedia.

In fact, there are big questions over the actual Hebrew Calendar year. Some claim there have been many errors regarding the actual Hebrew year. While the Gregorian Calendar is an Anno Domini Calendar, the Hebrew Calendar, however, is an Anno Mundi Calendar. Anno Mundi in Latin means "year of the world," and it's no surprise that an Anno Mundi Calendar could be the most accurate man-made calendar. For all we know, the number of years until Yeshua's triumphant return could potentially be single digits away...

If you want to forgo Christmas this year due to the pestilence, please observe the Winter Solstice instead without any merriment whatsoever. After all, we should go back to observing the Spring Equinox as the start of the new year as well...

Sunday, 13 December 2020

Piracy Ban


Recently, Nintendo had been cracking down on several intellectual property infringements, both alleged and actual. Nintendo verified with their customers that copyright piracy is forbidden, and any unlicensed usage of their intellectual properties, which includes Nintendo music uploaded on YouTube, fan games, Mario Kart hacks and Super Smash Bros Ultimate character skin mods, do not meet the requirements of fair use. The resulting internet backlash was so severe that some people called for a boycott of Nintendo on social media.

However, all of this may have something to do with Japan's copyright regulations getting stricter, possibly leading to a gradual phasing out fair use and fair dealing. This had been happening since 2009 and is nothing new.

If you are living in Japan, this is a fair warning about the shambolic state of Japan Inc amid the recent scandals. Do something more honorable by buying from ethical companies and turning away from unethical ones.

Nintendo characters and games © Nintendo.

Thursday, 10 December 2020

Liberty's Withdrawal


If you want to know why major copyright holders in Japan are taking extremely drastic actions against various kinds of copyright infringement, including digital piracy, it's because the Japanese government has always been making copyright law in Japan stricter and stricter, despite massive opposition from the general public. Basically, the Japanese government no longer wants the likes of common lawfair use or fair dealing in their territory. The same can be said with Germany, who now leads Europe and wants to enforce new regulations that some countries will not be able to meet. In other words, the loss of freedom of expression in these two countries, which last happened in the 1930s, is happening again.

All of this which had been happening are part of the formation of a "marketplace of nations" that aims to besiege the Anglo-Saxon and Jewish nation-states. Whoever said that the prophecies of Isaiah 23 and Ezekiel 27 are false have been proven wrong. The "marketplace of nations" that is besieging the Anglosphere and democratic countries has been around for several years already. However, this "marketplace of nations" will eventually get obliterated when World War 3 comes around...

Wednesday, 9 December 2020

Heart of a Digital Pirate


Despite everything the Bible taught us about our deceitful heart, and everything the legal copyright authorities taught us about not dabbling into piracy, many internet users have unintentionally or intentionally committed or supported this computer felony because of our desperately wicked deceitful heart. No wonder the legal copyright authorities have a lot of animosity towards internet users. It's not only a bug in the legal system's code, it's a bug in our moral code.

Thursday, 3 December 2020

Multi-role Bodysuit


When Nintendo and Sega co-published Mario and Sonic at the London 2012 Olympic Games, we had female characters wearing proper gymnastics and swimming attires. One thing unusual about the female gymnastics attire is that it is also the swimming attire as well. This logic contradicts the fact that gymnastics leotards are not suitable for swimming.

If you want to know why the ice skater is not wearing a skirt, this was because when I went on a cruise ship, I saw an ice skating performance, in which a female ice skater took off her skirt. However, this seems acceptable because that's what ice skating leotards with detachable skirts are made for.

This comic is just made for the idea of what a female bodysuit specially designed for gymnastics, swimming and ice skating would look like.

Tuesday, 1 December 2020

Calamity Ganon Defeated


Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity has been out for a while, and the ending ended with Calamity Ganon actually losing to his mortal enemies. So much for corrupting the time traveller Terrako with Malice, Calamity Ganon. That evil plan is doomed to backfire on you, especially when Zelda's power awakening was what activated Terrako in the first place. That mini-guardian will do anything for his maker, including going into self-destruct mode just to render Calamity Ganon vulnerable.

Calamity Ganon dislikes anybody who brings light into his territory, and Zelda was the one who did exactly that when her powers are awakened. Calamity Ganon tries to kill Zelda with a Warlock Punch, a move used by Ganondorf in the Super Smash Bros games, but he utterly fails hard, and if he could say anything, he would have said the same quote as Ganon when he was defeated at the end of Link: The Faces of Evil for the Philips CD-i.

We had no idea that Calamity Ganon being defeated before the events of Breath of The Wild was going to happen. In other words, the Zelda timeline may need some rewriting right now...

Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity © Nintendo.

Monday, 30 November 2020

2006 Called


Credits to xkcd for the inspiration for this comic.

Who can remember the time when YouTube used to be great? What about MySpace being the dominant social media platform? What about the early years of Facebook? Or even the first Twitter accounts?

Of course, with 2020 being such a terrible year, we would miss 2006 a lot. There was New Super Mario Bros, Final Fantasy XII, the Sony PlayStation 3, the Nintendo Wii, RuneScape and Maple Story were competing for the Free-to-play MMORPG market, the short film "Kiwi!" was uploaded on YouTube, and a fantastic World Cup hosted by Germany that was sadly marred by a headbutt incident in the grand final between France and Italy.

However, amid the big soccer football party going on in Germany, one non-denominational branch of Christianity had been warning us about a far right movement that is growing in power. The football tournament had distracted us from this very important omen of the end times. The Philadelphia Church of God's The Trumpet magazine has already told us that eventually, despite the efforts of the good people of Germany to rein in a sinister evil, the rise of the Revelation 13 Beast is inevitable. In fact, YouTube is largely censored in Germany, with over 61% of videos being blocked on copyright grounds. In 2019, Germany's netizens staged a protest against the European Union Copyright Directive being applied to the internet. The protesters failed to prevent it from getting approved. The Trumpet magazine also condemned the European Union Copyright Directive getting approved, calling it one step closer to the rise of the Revelation 13 Beast. All of this could lead to the end of democracy in Germany, which will ultimately lead to the biggest war in human history. One that could result in humanity's extinction if Jesus does not return...

Now, in the 2020s, looking back to the mid-2000s can sometimes bring painful memories of what internet content that was uploaded in that time period used to look like.

Monday, 16 November 2020

Variations of a Metroid Ending Swimsuit


At the end of the original Metroid, be it the Japanese Famicom Disk System version or the international Nintendo Entertainment System version, the player will be greeted with a reveal that Samus is female, depending on how fast the player completed the game. The attire in the best ending happens to have Samus wear a bikini, and a beach setting would be a better background than the surface of Zebes.

The first image is obvious. The second is a reference to Super Metroid's standard Game Over sequence and the Best Ending, where Samus is wearing black undergarments. The third would be a homage to Metroid Fusion's ending outfit, while the fourth is based on Metroid: Zero Mission's ending outfit. Samus wearing a pink bikini in the fifth image has no Metroid references, but it could be a reference to Peach wearing a pink bikini in the Seaside Kingdom from Super Mario Odyssey. The sixth image is a reference to the creamed spinach green colour of the original Game Boy's screen. In the seventh image, Samus wears a striped bikini, referencing the popularity of shimabra and shimapan in Japanese pop culture, as well as the swimwear based on them. The last image has Samus wear an itsy bitsy teeny weeny yellow polka-dot bikini to the beach, and she was not afraid to come outside.

Metroid © Nintendo.

Sunday, 15 November 2020

Poorly Designed Blouse


Remember the comic about the wardrobe malfunction? Who would have thought the blouses worn by the female enemies from The Astyanax would fall apart from getting slashed... You can say that poor design is to blame for the blouses falling apart from getting slashed by Roche...

The weapon in this comic is an iron two-handed sword from Old School Runescape, and slashing weapons such as Roche's axe are the reason the blouses worn by the female enemies from The Astyanax fall apart.

Saturday, 14 November 2020

Peace in our time 3


Author's Note: This comic was created to commemorate the launch of "Sliske's Endgame" and the quest's ending. Be warned, though, for this comic and the description below contains major spoilers.

Yes, Sliske was killed off by angry Runescape players who went to do this quest. However, it was revealed that the Elder God Jas was the mastermind behind all of Sliske's villainy, including the death of Guthix. Now that the Elder Gods have risen, the Prehistoric Abyssal's last words before he perished were actually true regarding the Elder Gods' rise bringing about the end of Gielinor as we know it.

Looks like Wahisietel is going to be happy to hear that Sliske is dead, because even villains such as Zamorak dislike Sliske to the point that Sliske must die.

Unfortunately, the peace that we got from killing Sliske is only temporary, because the Desperate Times and Desperate Measures quests came along, and it focused on the Elder Gods becoming the biggest threat to Gielinor to the point Kerapac had to take action his way. In other words, proclaiming "Peace in our time" is not a good idea after all...

Thursday, 12 November 2020

Peace in our time 2


Author's Note: This comic was made to commemorate Tuska's demise at the end of the "Tuska Comes" World Event in Runescape.

This is the second comic about the "Peace in our time" quote. Unfortunately, just like the Munich Agreement, the peace that came out of the deaths of Bandos, and in this comic's case, Tuska, were only temporary. Especially when the Elder Gods started to awaken at the end of the Heart of Stone quest. Maybe that was what attracted Tuska to Gielinor in the first place.

Wednesday, 11 November 2020

Annual Online Sale 2


Another comic about Shopee and Lazada having an annual sale? And it's on the eleventh day of the eleventh month? The only problem is that the recently released Command and Conquer Remastered Collection will not get a special discount on Veteran's Day whatsoever, unfortunately.

Happy Veteran's Day to all armed forces veterans of the Free World.

Tuesday, 10 November 2020

Peace in our time


Author's Note: This comic was made to commemorate Armadyl's victory over Bandos at the end of "The Bird and The Beast" World Event in Runescape.

The quote "Peace for our time" was often misquoted as "Peace in our time" and was a reference to the Munich Agreement. In this comic, the dialogue in the speech bubbles, including the "Peace in our time" quote, is a reference to the intro of Command and Conquer: Red Alert, where Albert Einstein went back in time to change the course of history.

Apparently, when Bandos died at the end of The Bird and The Beast, nobody mourned his demise. Not even his followers...

Thursday, 5 November 2020

The (Lost) Red Alert Reboot Script


Let's be honest. Command and Conquer: Red Alert will never be able to get a reboot, despite the success of Command and Conquer Remastered Collection. Electronic Arts had simply ruined the Command and Conquer series so much that it has been irreparably damaged.

For starters, Command and Conquer's Red Alert series was, contrary to popular belief, not really based on Cold War alternate history. Instead, it merely teaches us about the negative consequences of altering the space-time continuum. In fact, it could be possible that Dr Gregor Zelinsky was informed about the negative consequences of altering the space-time continuum by Nikola Tesla, the man who conceived the Tesla Coil that became an icon of the Red Alert storyline.

Assuming that the one who wanted to delete the tyrant who started World War 2 for the sake of a better future was not some physics genius, but rather, somebody from the Warsaw Pact, it would result in a bloodier and more brutal version of the Cold War.

MapleStory and Gunbound are two games that originated from South Korea, so it would make sense for the South Korean armed forces to draw inspiration from these games. Unfortunately, in practice, an army that draws inspiration from MapleStory and Gunbound will not be able to survive a Cold War alternate history setting where the Warsaw Pact and their allies have Tesla Coils, double-barreled tanks, airships that drop bombs that have more than half the destructive power of the MOAB, and infantrymen who can use guerrilla tactics.

Yugoslavia was a Serbian-dominated federation of Balkan states, and Nikola Tesla was born in what is now modern-day Serbia. In our timeline, Serbia fought alongside Russia against Germany for two World Wars, and during the Yugoslav era, was a staunch ally of Soviet Russia. Therefore, it makes sense for the Tesla Coil to be deployed as a weapon by the Soviets.

As far as plot twists go, Germany will be the country that betrays the Allied Nations and their allies. This betrayal will ironically anger even the German people because there are people in Germany who are currently warning us about their country being a greater threat than some other warmongering rogue dictator. This is because Germany was the country where the authors of The Communist Manifesto were born, as well as where The Communist Manifesto was first written. Even worse is that Germany smuggled a pro-communist exile out of Switzerland to foment unrest in Russia during World War 1. In our timeline, Germany is forcing the EU to implement their regulations upon the whole world that entire countries are forced to plagiarise EU regulations. Germany's attempt to enforce their will upon the earth was actually predicted by a denomination of Christianity that is currently speaking the inconvenient truth, including America's decline.

A homage to Red Alert 3, in which one conscript says "Neutrality, huh? Switzerland, please explain massive Allied military base!" will get referenced when one of the Soviet conscripts will question Japan's pacifist policy.

The Pusan Perimeter was the turning point where the tide turned in favour of NATO and its allies during the Korean Peninsula's civil war. Of course one of these Allied missions will revisit that plot of land, where the Allies and their allies must chase the Soviet forces out of the Pusan Perimeter.

A reference to Dr Gregor Zelinsky will involve a Soviet scientist either defecting to the Allies to tell the truth about altering the space-time continuum or he will tell the truth to the Soviet Commander that the laws of the space-time continuum had been violated.

Yes, Jerusalem had been totally destroyed before, as recorded in the Bible. But it was never wiped off the map despite the two cases of the city's total destruction. The Soviet Campaign will end with the Soviets seizing control of a Jerusalem that had been burnt to the ground as a result of the massive final battle. However, a remnant of the Allies will escape by a time machine, referencing potential sequel hooks. Similar to the Soviet ending of Red Alert 3, where the player becomes leader of the Soviet Union, and by extension, the entire world, the Soviet ending for the Red Alert reboot will have the player become the president of Russia, and by extension, the whole Earth.

This "lost" script, unfortunately, does not even exist. But if it did, it could be a reference to all the cut content that never got implemented in the Command and Conquer games.

Tuesday, 3 November 2020

Samsung's Forgotten Icon


Ever since Samsung's current logo was first introduced in 1993, Samsung had risen to become a South Korean icon since then. The company had manufactured many products, including TV sets, computers and cellphones to name a few. They also had a license to manufacture Sega consoles as well. The Nuon DVD Player, while also a Samsung product, was a short-lived gaming platform that could not live up to its full potential, however, and it failed to become an icon of the South Korean company. But this was not Samsung's fault, however, as VM Labs, the company that conceived the Nuon platform, faced a lot of problems. In addition to a poorly managed marketing campaign, the Nuon faced tougher competition from Sony's PlayStation 2, which happens to be able to play DVDs. It didn't help that the Nuon's graphics were comparable to the PS1 and N64 when the market was bracing itself for the PS2.

In the end, the Nuon was discontinued in 2003, and VM Labs was acquired by Genesis Microchip who in turn, was acquired by ST Microelectronics. The Nuon ended up being merely a footnote in the history of Samsung. From Samsung's perspective, the Nuon was a commercial failure. But at least its failure was nowhere near as bad as the Samsung Galaxy Note 7 and its exploding batteries...

Saturday, 31 October 2020

Creepy Cancellation


According to true biblical Christianity, Halloween should be completely removed because it is incompatible with the teachings of the Bible. Also, the people who perished from the current pandemic will not rise from their graves as zombies. Therefore, zombies are just as mythical as the concept of an immortal soul.

While pork is officially confirmed to be unsafe for consumption according to a fair number of sources on the internet, they did not discourage billions of people from eating pork. But if another incident of demons possessing pigs were to happen just like in the time of Jesus, it would have caused a mini famine in that particular area, but it would not coerce people to give up on eating pork and pork products.

Wednesday, 21 October 2020

Ice Bucket Swimwear


Author's Note: This comic is dedicated to the memory of Anthony Senerchia Jr and Pete Frates, the two men who inspired the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge, as well as SpongeBob SquarePants creator Stephen Hillenburg. All of them passed away due to Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis, a.k.a. Lou Gehrig's disease. Also, summer may be over, and the 2020 edition of the Ice Bucket Challenge had to be cancelled due to the current pandemic, but this does not mean there will be no comic about the Ice Bucket Challenge because the idea for this comic was already conceived to commemorate the 5th anniversary of the Ice Bucket Challenge.

If you played Xenoblade Chronicles, you do know that Shulk can just confront the enemies while in his swimming shorts. He also wears them as an alternate costume in the Super Smash Bros games as well. Of course he would be really feeling it when it comes to the Ice Bucket Challenge.

While wearing a sukumizu school swimsuit to the beach does not sound like a good idea aside from excursions to the beach, wearing a sukumizu school swimsuit for the Ice Bucket Challenge would be a totally different scenario, however.

Skirted female swimwear would usually have skirts that are not transparent. However, transparent skirts do exist, and swimsuits with transparent skirts should get more attention as they have far more fanservice.

Yes, female swimsuits with long sleeves that look like gymnastics leotards are a thing. Even better still, there are two-piece swimsuits with long sleeves as well.

Japanese animation seems to be obsessed with striped lingerie such as Shimabra and Shimapan. Therefore, striped bikinis would be another good choice for swimwear to wear for the Ice Bucket Challenge. Also, the "My bikini is ready!" quote in the last panel is a reference to the "My Body Is Ready" quote that became synonymous with Reggie Fils-Aime and the Wii Fit series.

Sunday, 18 October 2020

NES at 35


The Nintendo Entertainment System. The video game console that revived an industry that was thought to be dead as a result of the North American Video Game Crash of 1983, turns 35 on this very day. If not for this console, video games would not have experienced a renaissance, and pop culture would not have grown to become a huge part of our life.

Happy 35th Anniversary, Nintendo Entertainment System!

Saturday, 10 October 2020

Rise of the Ashkachus


The promotion codes to acquire Ash Cap Pikachus are now available in Pokemon Sword and Shield as part of The Crown Tundra's announcement.

The Ash Cap Pikachus could also make great alternate costumes in a future Super Smash Bros title. However, Ash Cap Pikachus would not fit in Smash unlike Ash-Greninja being part of Greninja's Final Smash. Also, Super Smash Bros Ultimate had already set both the maximum and minimum number of alternate costumes to eight, so the Ash Cap Pikachus shouldn't enter Smash unless Smash decides to add in anime characters like how non-video game characters are being integrated into Mortal Kombat 11.

Pokemon Sword and Shield © Nintendo/Game Freak

Friday, 9 October 2020

How to conclude Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicle


Unfortunately, Kodansha does not seem to be in the mood to give the animation side of Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicle the conclusion it needs and deserves right now, not because nobody wanted a proper conclusion after they found out the truth in Chapter 220, but because the production crews wouldn't dare cover the backstory that reveals one of the manga's biggest plot twists. Remember the time when Veronica Taylor said that the title of "Pokemon Master" was merely a form of spirituality? What if it turns out that Fei Wong Reed's influence went beyond CLAMP's borders and even went into the Pokemon series? Surely this could explain why becoming a Pokemon Master is the moment right before death. For all we know, Ash "Satoshi" Ketchum could have a death seal inside him similar to the one placed on Princess Sakura, and we must remember that Syaoran saying "Happy Birthday" to Princess Sakura was the moment right before the death seal inside her activated.

Of course I would like to have a real conclusion to Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicle, and they should focus on the manga chapters after the chapters where Princess Sakura got stabbed and disintegrated into petals. It doesn't matter whether it will have another two OVAs or one last movie similar to The Last: Naruto The Movie or get a new anime similar to Inuyasha: The Final Act, anime fans want to see how Kurogane defeated Fei Wong Reed, as well as know the truth behind the biggest plot twists revolving around Princess Sakura.

However, Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicle was considered to be too violent that NHK had to cancel Season 3, and the remaining chapters may be similarly too violent to have an animated adaptation. This could also be yet another reason Super Smash Bros should remain a celebration of Nintendo's video game history. Not even Ridley's brutal combat debut trailer or Galeem's massacre or the bad endings in Super Smash Bros Ultimate's Campaign mode could match up to the moment the death seal inside Princess Sakura activated. Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicle is so violent that it would make the Pokemon Adventures manga not as dark as you think. Perhaps it's better that Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicle's final chapters do not get an animated adaptation because of the amount of PTSD it would give to anime fans.

Sunday, 4 October 2020

MineSmashed


Ladies and gentlemen, we have done the impossible again. Minecraft's Steve is coming to Super Smash Bros Ultimate, and he brought in Alex, a Zombie and an Enderman.

If you are wondering how Minecraft got in to Smash, it could be due to Mojang's negotiatons with Nintendo beginning five years ago. Another explanation could be due to the existence of the Wii U, New 3DS and Switch Editions of Minecraft, and these versions of Minecraft for Nintendo platforms had the exclusive Super Mario Mash-up DLC package.

Now all we need is for Sony to let the Lemmings enter Smash, and we will finally accomplish a feat even more impossible than Microsoft allowing Banjo-Kazooie to enter Smash.

Super Smash Bros Ultimate © Nintendo. Minecraft © Microsoft/Mojang.

Update: Sora from Kingdom Hearts is the final Fighters Pass character, and he is not owned by Sony. Guess Sony is so bitter towards Nintendo that unlike Microsoft, Sony does not even want to think about taking hostilities to the personal level. Also, Exient acquired the rights to Lemmings from Sony. This means despite relinquishing the rights to some of their franchises to other companies, Sony does not want to take part in a Nintendo dueling tournament at all.

Saturday, 26 September 2020

Urbosa's Panties


On the 8th of September, 2020, Nintendo announced the prequel to The Legend of Zelda: Breath of The Wild, which happens to be the sequel to the original Hyrule Warriors. It was called Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity, and it is set 100 years before Breath of The Wild. Maybe Hyrule Warriors will finally be considered part of the Official Zelda Timeline.

While Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity will finally answer the questions to the inquiry on how Calamity Ganon won in the first place, which will include how the four Champions who were supposed to take charge of the Divine Beasts met their demises at the hands of the Blight Ganons, a segment of the trailer where Urbosa does a perfect dodge to avoid a Yiga Blademaster's Windcleaver gave people who watched the trailer a glimpse of Urbosa's panties for the very first time. Sounds like Nintendo is slowly trying to create fanservice content that could potentially give their games a "Mature" rating.

Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity © Nintendo.

Sunday, 20 September 2020

End of the Dual Screen Era


Fun fact: The DS in Nintendo DS stands for Dual Screen.

Many people speculated about 2020 being the year the Nintendo 3DS line gets discontinued. It turns out they were right because on the 17th of September, 2020, Nintendo announced that Nintendo 3DS production has officially ended, bringing the dual screen handheld era to an end. Online services for the Nintendo 3DS, however, will not go offline yet, aside from the 3DS eShop being no longer available in certain parts of the world.

Farewell, Nintendo 3DS family! Thanks for taking dual screen handhelds to 3-dimensional levels!

Sunday, 13 September 2020

35 Years of Stomped Goombas


Today marks 35 years to the day Nintendo released Super Mario Bros in Japan. Super Mario Bros was often considered the most influential video game of the 1980s, and its legacy lives on to this day.

Super Mario Bros introduced players to a lot of Nintendo icons, such as Super Mushrooms, Goombas, Piranha Plants, and many, many more. Speaking of Goombas, Super Mario Bros was also the game that introduced us to Goomba stomping. Yes, these anthropomorphic shiitake mushrooms turned traitorous and became minor villains, but the reason for the villains' villainy could be justified by the possibility of the Toads harbouring a parasite that would be capable of killing off most of humanity if not for the Toads' incompetence or the villains' villainy.

Happy 35th Anniversary, Super Mario Bros! Nintendo would not be where they are today and video gaming would not have experienced a renaissance without you!

Super Mario Bros © Nintendo.

Wednesday, 9 September 2020

Annual Online Sale


It's the annual 9.9 Sale, and e-commerce sites Shopee and Lazada are giving out special offers. However, the Sony PlayStation and the Sega Dreamcast are being left out of this annual special offer sale on their anniversary day. After all, who wants to celebrate milestone anniversaries of video game consoles that are no longer in production with a special offer sale?

Speaking of anniversaries, happy anniversary Sony PlayStation and Sega Dreamcast.

Sunday, 23 August 2020

Rotten to the core


There is currently a conspiracy theory circulating around the web about both the Mushroom Kingdom and the Pokemon World being corrupt to the core, and that everything was rigged against Waluigi, Red and Ash Ketchum right from the start.

Waluigi's designer, Fumihide Aoki, is a Camelot employee and not a Nintendo one, unlike Wario's designer Hiroji Kiyotake, who also designed Metroid's Samus. This resulted in Waluigi being treated as an outsider who does not belong to either the Mario series or Wario series. Charles Martinet claims that Waluigi wallows in self-pity, because at one point in the Mario Party series, he actually had the worst luck of all the characters in the Mario Party games, not to forget that his only solo mission without Wario in Mario Tennis: Power Tour may have ended in failure, which explains why Waluigi is never seen without Wario in the Mario Tennis titles that came after Power Tour. This is why Waluigi feels that everybody is cheating, and that he needs to cheat in order to win.

If a comic once found on the now-defunct website of Dorkly was anything, the Pokemon World is also just as corrupt as, if not more corrupt than, the Mushroom Kingdom. The Dorkly comic in particular shows that the Red that defeated Blue was a Ditto, meaning Blue's defeat at the hands of Red did not count, and this was all the fault of Professor Oak's nepotism. Another theory claims that Red failed to foil Team Rocket. And there are suspicions that Ash's 22-year losing streak prior to his Alola Pokemon League victory was due to the Pokemon Leagues being corrupt to the core. Perhaps the reason for Team Flare's villainy has got to do with the Pokemon World being wicked and lacking any beauty whatsoever because it is rotten to the core, and they seek to destroy it. This could be bad because Sailor Galaxia dislikes anything that lacks beauty to the point that she destroyed entire worlds, and the Pokemon World could well be on her target list...

Tuesday, 18 August 2020

Digital Piracy's Demise


Even if digital piracy is a computer crime, it is with deep sadness that digital piracy sites KissAnime and KissManga have been closed down due to all of their content being removed for copyright violations, and the deleted data irrecoverable. Of course, if the real website got taken down, expect the impostors to also suffer the same fate, and all of the impostors have computer viruses.

In the wake of Japan's stricter copyright law enforcement, digital piracy sites will be expected to close their doors for good. The new Japanese copyright law, however, will still allow fair use or fair dealing, and will not go after fan fictions.

The demise of KissAnime, while a sad end of an era, will benefit legitimate services such as Crunchyroll, FUNimation and Netflix. In fact, there was a time when my brother used to visit KissAnime, and that was before he registered for a Netflix account. Nowadays, me, my brother and mother, as well as my aunt and two of my cousins, are watching Netflix. In other words, people will learn to move on in search of good shows, especially those that fuel nostalgia.

Monday, 17 August 2020

WarioWare's Anti-Mario Microgames


The WarioWare series is known for its zany microgames. In fact, the microgames were the reason two games in the series were listed in the Guinness World Records Gamer's Edition for having the most minigames in a single video game. It just so happens that WarioWare: Twisted! was listed in the Guinness World Records 2010 Gamer's Edition as having the most minigames in a single video game, but that title was finally given to WarioWare Gold as of 2019.

The majority of microgames in WarioWare Gold come from past titles, and have been given the remake treatment. Three titles from WarioWare, Inc.: Mega Microgame$! and its multiplayer-focused GameCube port, WarioWare, Inc.: Mega Party Game$, however, had anti-Mario themes, and were therefore not included in WarioWare Gold.

WarioWare Gold's Mario Bros microgame is based on the Arcade version of Mario Bros, but with a similar plot to WarioWare Inc's Wario Bros microgame, only this time it involves Mario being disrespectful to Luigi by having Mario get the coin before Luigi does.

Maybe the Nintendo Switch WarioWare title will finally have Waluigi get his turn in the spotlight, and hopefully, his set of microgames will not focus on self-pity.

WarioWare, Inc.: Mega Microgame$! © Nintendo.

Update: WarioWare: Get It Together! is going to be on the Nintendo Switch. However, Waluigi is not going to be in that game. Guess he will have to continue wallowing in self-pity over nothing going right for him...

Sunday, 16 August 2020

Nintendo Switch Lite Possible New Colours


There are currently four colours for the Nintendo Switch Lite, as compared to the many colours for the Game Boy line and the DS line, including 3DS models. In this comic, here are all my ideas for new Nintendo Switch Lite colours, with three of these colours paying homage to Nintendo consoles of yesteryear. The orange Switch Lite will basically be a homage to the orange Game Boy Advance and orange GameCube, both of which are Japan-only. Then the teal Switch Lite, while nearly similar in colour to the turquoise Switch Lite, would be reminiscent of the teal Game Boy Color. Another Nintendo Switch Lite will have the GameCube's indigo colour. As for the lime green Switch Lite, while not a tribute to the light green Game Boy Color, would be a reference to Swapnote's resident Mii Nikki, as well as a tribute to the now-defunct Miiverse. Other colours include British Racing Green, which pays homage to the traditional colour of British automobiles, Shamrock Green, the shade of green associated with Ireland, and amethyst purple, which is associated with amethysts.

Now it will be up to Nintendo to consider if these new Switch Lite colours get their approval.

Saturday, 15 August 2020

Singapore's 1983 Arcade Prohibition


Did you know that arcades were actually prohibited in Singapore in 1983? Amid a North American video game crash, Singapore's then Ministry of Culture issued a nationwide ban on video game arcades in a bid to curb addiction, as well as reduce truancy, petty crimes, and possibly beat 'em up-style fighting incidents. Private clubhouses such as the Singapore Armed Forces Reservists' Association (SAFRA) and Civil Service Club (CSC) were exempted from the ban, provided that they enforced checks regularly. PC and console gaming were also excluded from the arcade prohibition, resulting in their respective markets proliferating. This in turn would turn Singapore into one of the forgotten battlegrounds of the Console Wars between Nintendo and Sega. By then, the ban was lifted because it failed at curbing addiction and reducing delinquent crimes.

If only other Japanese consoles that's not Nintendo's Famicom or NES, both of which were sold in Singapore, such as Sega's SG-1000, Sega's Master System, Epoch's Cassette Vision, Epoch's Super Cassette Vision and Sony's MSX were on sale in Singapore's video game stores, they would have thrived in terms of sales numbers amid a ban on video game arcades, because video game consoles are exempted from the video game arcade ban, and video game console sales actually thrived due to the ban.

Sunday, 9 August 2020

#SGUnited


Author's Note: To all readers who wish to know where I am from, yes, I am from Singapore, and I support the hashtag #SGUnited campaign. And yes, that is the flag of Singapore on top of what appears to be a part of a Housing Development Board (HDB) apartment. Happy National Day.

Thursday, 6 August 2020

Hiroshima


75 years ago, the Japanese city of Hiroshima was demolished by an American atomic bomb. This was followed by Nagasaki being demolished by another atomic bomb three days later. The usage of atomic bombs brought World War 2 to an end, but it made our world a more hazardous place. Since the Cold War, rogue dictators and terror groups who seek world domination have been scrambling to get an atomic bomb by any means possible. As a result, our world now tethers on the brink of a nuclear firestorm that would possibly result in no organic life being left alive if God does not intervene.

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