One Happy Team…

PSP Sony

Maverick Hunter X

Completed Maverick Hunter X.
They changed the locations of all body parts. So now you get the Legs upgrade on Flame Mammoth stage where you previously got Arms in that insanely difficult jump. Now it’s easy. Head is in Chill Pinguin stage in a new tiny room. And where head previously been it’s now Armor. So you get Armor before getting the Arms, which are the ones guarded by the boss now.
With Dash and Armor Eagle is doable. And I’ve got Mammoth even without Eagle’s weapon. Chameleon is also doable without the Boomerang now, I think his attacks are slower and spikes are more predictable. Armadillo is a bit harder than before, as you can’t stick to walls, he has a new rolling attack against that. With that, my two last bosses where Octopus and Kuwanger.
Octopus is easy now, as his fish fly in an arc pattern, giving an opportunity to dodge.
One interesting bit is that in Sigma’s Fortress, when you meet Launch Octopus, the first of the returning bosses, again, he speaks like a zombie, and X comments that Sigma brought them “back to life”. In the original game, there was no explanation given why you have to fight the bosses again after killing them once.
Also, the design of the location is more immersive, I would say.

It’s the first time I understood that you don’t just jump on handing platforms, those are stairwells that collapsed during Zero’s assault.

The only returning boss that isn’t a pushover is Armadillo. That “Sonic roll” is still an immense pain. The unique bosses are much easier, though. Especially notable on the spider: it’s slower, and the paths aren’t as favorable as in the original.
Sigma is also much slower now, making it for a fight that even a normal person could enjoy. And the final Wolf form, while still punishing, has saner hitboxes.

Despite the slightly more difficult start due to lack of Dash and new attacks for some bosses, Maverick Hunter X is a welcome remake, that enraged me far less than the original. What really makes this game outstanding in my eyes, though, is the voice acting. It’s great, a really brings the characters to life.

Tags Mega Man X

*.BAK

Sixninja transformer (MF-27)

Post author By TheAleosha
Post date November 2, 2024
No Comments on Sixninja transformer (MF-27)

As many kids in the 90s, I was into Transformers. Most transformers could transform just into one form, although ironically the most popular transformer in my hometown was Blitzwing, that could transform into both a tank and a jet. Generally, though, the more forms, the more awesome. And the most awesome of them all was Sixshot. It was also very expensive and rare, so my family couldn’t possibly afford it.
But now I’m a grown up men. So despite the fact that I don’t collect figurines generally, I decided to fulfil my childhood dream and get this one in particular.
Obviously I didn’t go for the original. Those are collector pieces, if you get one sealed, you wouldn’t dare to open it, and if it’s unsealed, it would probably be in a bad shape.
Instead, I went for the knock-off first, which is why it’s called Sixninja and not Sixshot.
It is still impressive piece of engineering. Aot of transformers couldn’t bend their knees or elbows. This one moves in all directions.
It has also very smart design. The body is hollow to stow away the head. The arms are hollow, and so are the legs. The legs also have a few catches that click together.
The robot still looks awesome. I honestly think it’s one of the coolest designs ever produced, and a true masterpiece. The forms, though… Well, not so much. You need quite a lot of imagination to see what they represent. The case when more doesn’t necessarily means better.

Tags Transformers

*.BAK

Whiskey Advent Calendar

I don’t plan to buy another Whiskey Advent Calendar this year. I’m still going through the one from last year, although I’m getting closer.

If I were, though, I’d go with this one:
Whisky Advent Calendar – Premium Edition (2024 Edition)

There are some whiskeys I can vouch for in it, like the Berry Bros. & Rudd 12 Year Old Sherry Cask, and some interesting options like Fettercairn 22.

Is it worth 200GBP? Probably not. But if it goes down to 150GBP, it would be a nice deal.

PSP Sony

Maverick Hunter X

This is a remake of Mega Man X, and probably one of the most impressive remakes I’ve seen. They got the designs, and the tone exactly right. So it’s sad that it was only ever released for PSP.

One thing that is “rigth but wrong” with transition to 3D, though, is X turning. With 2D model it was just the flipping of a sprite, the speed they kept with 3D, but now it looks strange.
Interestingly they changed the bosses quite significantly. It’s well known that the fight with Vile can’t be won on SNES. Here, you actually expected to beat him before he grabs you and Zero intervenes.

Another example is Storm Eagle. I mentioned that in the original game it’s quite harmless. Not anymore! Not only it can flow you off the ship easier to instadeath, but it now also throws homing pigeons at you as well rams you horizontally.

The upgrades were changed a bit as well. You don’t get Dash on Chill Penguin stage for free anymore.
After harder Eagle, I didn’t expect Mandril to be so easy. The original Mandril had invincibility after you froze him twice. So you had to dodge his dash attack. Not anymore. You can freeze the poor monkey to death now.

Tags Mega Man X

Emulation Nintendo

Mega Man X

Completed Mega Man X.
What surprised me after Mega Man X4 is that although you need to figth the bosses again, it is not a gauntlet. Instead, they are spread organically through multiple stages, and you also have unique bosses to figth along the way. The spider boss is difficult, but I’d say fair, after you understand it’s gimmick: it can only get to you if it has a path on the “ladder”. The “sleepy face” boss that throws its eyes at you is less fun, as it has this one-hit-kill spikes mechanic, and the “nose” has a bounce mechanic.
And by “TRex” boss I ran out of most of my ammo, so I was just throwing shit at it.
Sigma fight is three stages, but at least you start it with full health and energy tanks. First phase is the dog, which is easy. Second phase is Sigma jumping on walls, and it’s tiring, because you need to be very precise, and constantly walljump. Third phase is the wolf form, which is cool, but also random, akin to last form from Mega Man X4. Sometimes you just get unlucky and will be blasted by the plasma balls over and over, which are extremely hard to dodge.

I’ve heard some complain that this game is too easy.

In my opinion, it’s reasonably hard. You still need to know what you’re doing and be very intentional about it, and some jumps are quite ridiculous, but it’s doable even with someone bad reflexes as I am.

Tags Mega Man X

Hardware

Keychron K15 Max

After the disappointing Razer Deathstalker V2 Pro I went back to Keychron. I was eyeing Alice layout keyboard for a long time, and decided that now I should give it a chance. This time I went with brown switches as well, my Keychron K1 which I still adore is red switches.
I like K1 more for the dedicated lighting button. On K15 you need to remember the magic keys (Fn+Q) for it. I also miss the PrintScreen, although I guess this one could be replaced by the macros keys on the left.

Tags Keychron

Emulation Nintendo

Mega Man X

Strangely, the midboss of the Mandril stage, Thunder Slimer, gave me much more trouble that Mandril itself. It’s hard to avoid due to its sticky slime, and still kills X in a couple of hits.

Unlike previous three bosses, Armadilo is no pushover. It’s a “bouncy” boss, but unlike second phase of Sigma in Mega Man X4, I couldn’t find a clear pattern, so I had to brawl it cyborg’o’marsupial
The Mammoth is very easy if you fought Pinguin and Eagle first to freeze the stage and get the Eagle weapon. Octopus though is tough. First, his stage is beautiful, with an impressive on SNES water effect, but it has one of the worst mini-bosses in the game, that sucks you on spikes, which are one-hit-kill. What’s also cool about Octopus stage is that I didn’t destroy the submarine, and fought mostly harmless eel. Turns out if you do destroy the submarine, you have to fight it in a spiky arena. Have no idea why someone would prefer it, though.

Then there’s the X-Buster upgrade on Mammoth stage… What can I say, the reason I won’t replay this game ever, I think, is this bullshit jump you need to perform.

Tags Mega Man X

Emulation Nintendo

Mega Man X

Decided to give Mega Man X a try. For SNES, this is definitely impressive. Not in terms of visuals, as I think Disney’s games and Earthworm Jim are more impressive. But the first level takes place on a bridge, and crusher enemies destroy that bridge. Terrain manipulation in a 2D platformer from ’93 is mindblowing.
Regarding bosses difficulty, I found Pinguin to be extremely easy. You stick to the top of the wall and shoot it in the face until it dies. The only issue solved in later games is that X doesn’t automatically shoot away from the wall. Which doesn’t make any sense, I know.
Also, Dash is a special move in the first game, which you need to aquire. Luckily, it’s impossible to miss it if you pick the right stage.
Eagle is also surprisingly easy. I mean, you can literally smash him in the face with regular shots, no need to charge them.
A feature no other game implemented, I think, is that killing one boss makes another stage easier. I thought it’s insignificant at first, but then the electric floor at the Mandril stage was so infuriating I went to pay Eagle a visit first.

Tags Mega Man X

*.BAK

Salomon Ultra 360 Mid

Salomon Ultra X is probably my most favourite shoe. In fact so favourite that I just bought a second pair once the first one wore down, which happened pretty quicly as those aren’t very durable.
Despite a similar name, Mid shares very little with the Salomon Ultra X. Different design of the toe, different lacing system, different sole.
Hiked twice in them, 10-12km, been in deep mud, no issues whatsoever.

Tags Salomon

PSX Sony

Mega Man X4

Since Zero playthrough went so well, I decided to give X a try, although I always found him more difficult. Maybe I was wrong. What you do need, though, is to remap your controls: I put dash on left bumper, regular attack on right trigge and special attack on right bumper. Because you need them all at the same time. How people play with default mapping is beyond me.

X’s regular attack is basically a peashooter, but his fully charged attack is quite good. And since his attacks are ranged, the bosses I struggled with as Zero, such as Spider and Stringray, are much more manageable. You still need to master the evade for the Spider, though.
The playthrough this time was Dragon, because always start with Dragon, then Walrus, as he’s still vulnerable to fire, unlike Peacock, then Spider, then Stingray, which is easy with Walrus’ weapon.
Colonel is still vulnerable to Ice, for some reason, just like with Zero.
Then both Mushroom is vulnerable to Spider’s web, and Lion to Stingrays. And Owl fight with Peacock’s weapon is laughable.
Overall, I feel like X gameplay is much easier than Zero, because his weapons realy exploit their weaknesses. During the General fight, which I found to be thoughtest with Zero, I literally took no damage with X.

First two phases of Sigma are also easy. Third one is just… long. Unlike the first two phases, this one doesn’t seem to have any weaknesses. So you just go through the annoying phases over and over until it dies.
It is more than 5 minutes of real time. I know, because I recorded only last 5 minutes of it.

I had to pause the game to give my fingers a rest at one point.
But now, I can say I’ve done it. Finished Mega Man X4, 28 years later 😆

Tags Mega Man X, Mega Man X4

PSX Sony

Mega Man X4

Completed Mega Man X4 with Zero, fulfilling my childhood dream, one might say.
While Colonel is manageable, Zero against the General is another story. His only vulnerable part is the head, but touching it, or any other part of the body hurts Zero. I had to backtrack to get the second energy tank, and refill it in the Walrus stage, and beat Iris again just to be ready for this fight.

Then you need to beat the 8 animal bosses again. This sounds terrifying, but there are a few caveats to that challenge. You do get to replenish some life between the fights, and if you die, you don’t need to repeat the gauntlet all over, the killed bosses stay dead.

The final boss is all-in-all not that hard. First phase is extremely predictable. Second phase requires some well timed wall jumps, but still doable. The only challenge is to have enough life for the third phase. And the third phase is total random. I got lucky with the “alien” shooting above Zero’s head over and over.

Tags Mega Man X, Mega Man X4

Sony

Bouncer

I remember I’ve seen Bouncer in one of the gaming mags around 2000, and was wowed by the screenshots and the art. It might have even been a preview, and the screenshots fake, but still.
Many years later, it seems I haven’t missed much by not playing it.

The only interesting bit is that I was created by the guy behind first Tekkens, so the movesets of some characters are taken directly from there.

I might still play it at some point, as I adore PS2 aesthetics. But feels I didn’t miss it for nothing.

Emulation Nintendo PSX Sony Switch

Mega Man X4

I always had a special relationship with Mega Man X4. It was the first Mega Man game I’ve seen, because for a strange reason, it was ported to PC. But also, many years later, while trying Mega Man X3 and Mega Man X5 I understood that it hit the sweet spot of looking amazing, unlike X3 which still had SNES era visuals, but still having solid core gameplay, unlike X5.

What I didn’t understand as a kid is that Dragoon literally screams “hadouken” and “shouryuken”, because his moveset is basically Ryu/Ken from Street Fighter.

For some strange reason, Mega Man X Legacy Collection on Switch doesn’t have save states. I rarely use them nowadays, but Mega Man without them is still brutal.
My path is Dragon, which can be beaten with exosuit, and I think that’s the easy choice. Then Peacock, turned out to be easy as well with the fire sword. Then Walrus, for obvious reasons.

Then Lion, you just need to dodge the stomps. And Stingray, despite being weak to the Walrus weapon, can also be taked out with a saber, you can jump safely underneath.

The most trouble, I had with the spider. You need to dash-jump to avoid the homing webs, and even then, I feel that sometimes it’s very hard to do, as his position is quite random.

With Spider weapon, Mushroom is easy. And I left Owl for the last, although with Peacock’s weapon, I could have done it much sooner.

Tags Mega Man, Mega Man X, Mega Man X4

*.DOC

Shadow of the Gods, John Gwynne

Post author By TheAleosha
Post date October 17, 2024
No Comments on Shadow of the Gods, John Gwynne

A very well-written dark fantasy. The author didn’t try to reinvent the wheel, basing his world very closely on Scandinavia and Kievan Rus, with names like Yaromir, and “hundathral” being a “dog slave”.
In a typical nowadays manner, the story switches between multiple characters.
One rather funny decision is that half of warriors in this world are female. Which led to an uncanny situation where a lot of women are portrayed as brutal, agressive and rather unpleasant.
When I think of Orca, I imagine Gina Carano:

There are a lot of interesting details not found in other books. Leather covers on spear heads. The fact that characters drink and fill their water bottles, or that they cauterize their wounds.

Tags John Gwynne

Nintendo Switch

Steel Assault

A tribute to everything 8bit.
The hero is a cyborg. So it’s a tribute to Mega Man.

But he shoots grapling hook. So it’s a tribute to Bionic Commando.
But he uses a whip. So it’s a tribute to Castlevania.
But he also picks power upside that change how his whip behaves. So it’s a tribute to Contra.

And it all looks like a Strider game 😆

*.AVI

Ripley

Post author By TheAleosha
Post date October 9, 2024

The movie is very surreal in its hyperrealistic visuals. It is impressive work for sure: all black-and-white, with unexpected camera angles, ultra-wide shots and changing tempo.

And the soundtrack creates tension out of the most mundane things.

What is interesting to me is that Ripley isn’t portrayed as extremely cunning. He is very greedy, often does stupid things, and killing for him, at least from my view, is more of an impulse than something planned. The only reason he can get away with what he does is that the other characters all have their own vices: the vacuous “artists,” the greedy mafioso, the lazy receptionists.

There are some interesting motifs: everyone’s obsession with the expensive pen, stairs, and of course, Caravaggio.

Tags Ripley

Nintendo Switch

Circle of the Moon

Post author By TheAleosha
Post date October 9, 2024

I gave Circle of the Moon another try on Castlevania Advance Collection.
It’s still a bad game. Had to rewatch the intro multiple times, with no option to skip it, since the very first save point is placed badly, and I died multiple times looking for it.
The level design is obnoxious, with those “wells” that you have to jump from platform to platform, instead of a more serpentine multi-floor designs of some of the later installements. What puzzles me, though, is that the earlier Symphony of the Night got the design right, though!
Then there’s the drop rate… The main feature of the game is that you can combine two types of cards in order to imbue your whip with different powers, which gives you about 64 different options. Sounds great! And the nice thing about the Advance Collection version is that there’s an indicator if an enemy can drop the card, and if you already have it or not. But I spent probably half an hour farming for a very basic card, killing axe armor maybe 100 times, and I still haven’t got it. You know what, this simply doesn’t worth it.

Tags Castlevania, Circle of the Moon

*.BAK

WiFi

Post author By TheAleosha
Post date October 9, 2024
1 Comment on WiFi

I have so many devices connected to the WiFi now that I’m dreadful of the day I would need to change its password.

*.BAK

Hentai commissions

There is a hentai about every character imaginable. And I’m not talking about “fanart”, drawing that are both obscene and childish at the same time. For every new character in a matter of days or weeks there will be probably well drawn hentai available.
And for a rather funny reason.
There are plenty of professional comics artists sitting around. To get a contract for a new comics is extremely hard. There are a bunch of well know artists with a queue of comics, but most get none. But then you can get maybe 50 or 100$ for drawing that Rei girl from Star Wars without much clothing at all.

Nintendo Switch

Tails of Iron

Beautifully animated metroidvania about a war between medieval rats and toads. The attacks are slow and telegraphed, there are rolls and shield parries, very soulslike. But there are no “bloodstains” to return to, you just start from the latest checkpoint, which is, like in Hollow Knight, is represented as a bench. Healing is interesting: instead of multiple use “estuses”, you have a flask, that replenishes your health the longer you drink it.
The narration is also very different from a soulslike: while rats just squeak and communicate through comics bubbles, there’s an almost constant background narrator, similar to Bastion or Hades.

Tags Tails of Iron