Sean

So this one doesn't catch you out later - the terrible awful river-riding/red-coin collecting secret course in Delfino Plaza that takes three minutes of boat riding with a Yoshi to get to has a pipe at the end of it, unlike every other secret course in the game.  You'd think it's there to return you to the start of the secret course due to how brutally hard it is and how you only get one shot at it.

This is not the case, the pipe sends you back to Delfino Plaza to repeat the entire process of getting into the secret course again in full.  The only way to retry the secret course IS to kill Mario.  So yeah, don't touch the pipe (and take a decent stock of lives just in case).

Yeah, it was just easier to kill Mario than to complete the race and get kicked out to the hub.

The problem with the games structure is that you have to do 6 episodes in order for shadow Mario to appear in episode 7 so it’s all mandatory. It’s not like 64 where you had the freedom to do whatever you wanted in order to meet a certain requirement of stars. 

I don't think the amount of shines you collect really matters. What matters is if you've beaten seven stages in each level I believe. So there is a minimum amount technically, but it's correlated to the levels. So if you beat six missions in each stage, not doing the seventh, and get the other shines from secrets and blue coins that add up to the total of only doing the seven missions in each level, it won't unlock. You have to do the seven stages in each level to get to the ending. 

So there really is no purpose to any of the shines you get from non-episodic missions or even the blue coins. WHY DOES THIS GAME HAVE BLUE COINS.

Yeah the requirement is just beat mission 7 on each stage. On my first Playthrough I didn't unlock the level until 70-80 shines but on latest playthriugh i got it in the 40s lol. 

Very polarizing. Not sure why they stuck to such an arbitrary number of shines besides tradition 

The blue coins are to buy shine sprites from the tanooki store. This game was rushed as hell and my theory is that those blue coins were a substitute for the scrapped levels they had planned for the game but they needed to sell GameCube copies

It's probably because of Super Mario 64 having 120 stars, and they didn't want to fall short of that in the sequel. It was a rushed game, and figured having blue coins everywhere would be easier than creating entirely new levels or missions in their development time. It's certainly not fun though collecting them, and there's no real reason to fully complete it outside of if you really love Sunshine or like a new picture at the end of the credits. 

The more shines you collect, the brighter the island gets.

You get a reward for collecting them all.

collecting enough shines is what unlocks most levels so technically you do need to collect them to beat the game, but you get enough just by doing the first 7 missions of each level so it's basically pointless to collect any of the others.

it's real dumb.

ugghhh and here I was playing the game trying to get every blue coin thinking I could cash them in and skip most of the bad stuff.

Yeah the only thing it would TECHNICALLY affect is how quickly you open up all seven courses.  A player who is struggling to complete the mandatory missions in the earlier courses could collect more shines elsewhere in order to open up the later courses just to have more choice on what mandatory shines to tackle first if they're sick of trying the earlier ones over and over. 

And even with the above, there's another cheeky mandatory roadblock in that you need to clear Pinna Park Episode 4 to open Sirena Beach and Pianta Village.  If you're struggling enough with earlier courses you're certainly gonna struggle with Pinna Park Episode 3 (the pirate ship red coins one) so all of what I said is of incredibly limited and specific value.

So yeah, in short, Mario Sunshine is full of horrendous design choices that fly in the face of what made Super Mario 64 so beloved and deserving of a sequel, yes.

How does it feel 

I too play through games I hate more than once just so that I feel justified in my hate. 

mario is smiling there... but inside, his heart tells a different tale...

*closes eyes while looking sad*

The image of pure Melon-choly

Just wait til you get to the pachinko machine 

Or the poisonous river ride.

@Blue Blood I've never really played through all of Sunshine before. Kept starting and restarting throughout the years but this is my first serious attempt at beating it.

Blimey. You just did one of the worst missions in the game, and considering the new control schemes... yuck. I can't much stand the thought of trying that mission. If you still dislike Sunshine or dislike it even more now, that's pretty understandable.

I still want to see it to the end but this mission made me give up on ever wanting to 100% complete it

Don't 100% Sunshine. Just don't. Most of the game's bullshit can be avoided through the story missions, but you'll be up against some real shit if you go for everything. Cut your losses, and only see the better parts of the game. 

Great game. Not as amazing as the original, but still a good time. How much did you pay for a physical copy?

50 USD since I wanted it sealed.

That's actually not bad. 

welcome to the club buddy 😔

You thought we were kidding

i dont believe for a second it wont come out on PC but yeah the fact that they're holding it is very unfortunate. 

Still waiting for the good version of DmC to come to PC.

The thing that's really blowing my mind is the raytracing support.

Like... how are you going out of your way to make that work on console and not the platform that's had it for over two years now

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Still waiting for the good version of DmC to come to PC.

and RE7's VR mode. I think it's just as likely Capcom will simply not bother.

That's Capcom for you.

Huh, didn't see that coming.

Still neat though.

Really? That's cool. I'll certainly be tempted to give it a try myself then, since I don't see a reason to buy a PS5 and one game wasn't enough for me.

Oh okay I may stay with ps4 then lol

if im not chewin on strings of orange after i drink it? baby, it aint OJ

pulp-free orange juice is great

I used to think pulp was little dead bugs in my juice when I was a kid.

Grossed me out ever since.

bad replies so far imo

no your a bad reply

I wouldn't say gross, it's actually "cleaner", but it doesn't feel as natural. I also think the pulp has some good vitamins and fibre that are important. 

pulp-free gang rise up

I understand thinking pulp is gross but not the other way around

screw the pulp.

I can't stand juice with bits in.

No we don't say pulp in the UK

oh sorry, you're kinda aiming that pot-shot away from yourself.

Also, I always had the impression that pulp-free juice was for little kids

Still need to. I did read Lost at sea tho

I played an earlier demo before...yea, it's aight

I love that it's a fully playable 3D Sonic game with a pure focus on momentum-retaining gameplay, fluid controls, and expansive level design I can just mess around in

I don't like how basically every single action I preform feels like it lacks any form of scope whatsoever. The amount of speed and air you can achieve from the game without putting in barely any effort is ridiculous, and if you're not using your momentum to eclipse actual challenges or achieve tangible progression in front of you, constantly flying at 100mph, then where's the catharsis? I love the alternate routes that I can find through the levels just for the carefree nature of it, but what drive is there behind a rail above a path when I'd be going that fast and far in the first place?

It's not like it's completely devoid of interesting design like the blue springs either, it's just waaaay too eager to show off the speed you can achieve, without understanding the challenge and mastery behind that in the past was just as much the point as the speed itself.

You gain too much speed in the air...

The homing attack is based on the direction Sonic's facing, not the camera...

And the 2nd boss fight is a stinky...

Other than that, it's A-Ok.

It's the camera and unwieldy air control that bring it down for me. Fighting stationary enemies is an exercise in frustration.

annalynn is adorable

Hope to check out Sonic DVD.

Galactic, GT, and Newtrogic Panic (which was released prior to SAGE2020) are probably my best in show for the Sonic side, at least. 

Nah 

Roger isnt as good 

Sonic games shouldn't have voice clips in levels at all but Jason's are especially obnoxious

When the choice between voice clips is Jason and literally no voice clips ever put in the game at all, it's a matter of addition by subtraction.

Put Ryan's instead.

I mean if there's one thing I'll take Jason over, it's fan voice acting

I had voices switched off in Sonic GT within like, 10 seconds 

whoo.wav

Sonic should be voiced by Ryan Reynolds

@Tracker_TD Oh man, the Sonic and Shadow voices...

Because Nintendo are fucking dumb

They looked at the toilet paper craze/profit margins from the pandemic and were inspired

Because they can and know that people will still buy it. It's Nintendo, not EA, Sony, Activision, SE, so it's fine. Hypocrisy is a thing of beauty.

I haven't seen anyone defending this situation so I don't think hypocrisy applies here.

Doesn't have to.

Fanboys are easy to dunk on, and it's good catharsis for the times I was a fanboy was rooting for another company they had a bone to pick with, so I'mma bring em up right now even though their actions in the grand scheme of things are the same as the average consumer who doesn't give any of this a second thought

Yes.

I'm choosing to read this as "they MUST smoke weed, that's the only way to explain their behavior."

please understand Motoko has stonkin' great tits and shoots people real good there's no politics there

Luffy fights the government in One Piece because funny stretchy monkey eats and does what he wants

the only explanation i can think of for the rise in this type of thinking is that younger anime fans are only consuming recent WSJ stuff and ignoring any of the deeper messages in those stories

either that or anime has lost it's political edge so to speak, but it doesn't really feel like it has..?

The Promised Neverland is INCREDIBLY political, hell even MHA dabbles in it so I think it's less anime being less political and people just being stupid 

I think it's been an issue with the perception of anime since it started getting more recognition in the West, definitely don't think it's a recent thing.

I definitely don't think they should be watching those anime either but did you forget that a large percentage of modern anime tropes and content are designed specifically for dudes to get their rocks off/fantasize about

Not only that but with how surface level the material touches on it, they can pick and choose whichever characters they actually identify with and root for in the process, which is how you get people cheering on Mineta or Sanji without batting an eye when the main character or side story reaches an emotional peak that's supposed to resonate with the audience. Since they both get the same time of day, if not moreso the former for those character moments being wAcKy, to them the point of the show doesn't even have to be the conflict theming; just the caricature moments they enjoy

A large percentage of anime tropes have been so dudes can jack it going back to the late 70s at least. That doesn't mean anything as it pertains to people complaining about political messages not belonging in anime in 2020.

Yeah I'm lost as to what boobie anime tropes have to do with any of this.

Because it inherently backs up tropes, behavior, and fantasies those people view to be correct in their "apolitical" *cough* worldview? That caters to them and specifically them compared to an audience moreso concerned with commentary on real world injustices? As much as anime creators love to stick a half-baked political commentary into their action anime as a fight against the system, the actual tropes and character worldviews they willingly continue to contribute to throughout their genre and overall medium does far more to fall in line with the desires of that crowd than it does in calling for actual social justice.

The "point" of anime is not those purpose-of-conflict themes to them. And for them, anime has always been on their side in terms of actual politics thru fanservice. They didn't come from nowhere and it definitely isn't a mystery why so many of them are attracted to it in the first place

Watch something besides Dragonball then.

And here I thought all the big boys were saying anime was better than western toons because they have more mature themes. I guess politics aren't part of that like I thought?

I find it weird that you seem to be blaming creators first and foremost over idiots who can't process the messages that a show is trying to convey. The industry has a pandering problem but this doesn't have anything to do with whether or not anime is political.

I wasn't really focusing on them tbf, moreso citing the phenomenon that leads these stories more often than not, but why not? Why do I have to stop the buck at the idiots who don't dive deeper into the themes when the creators often aren't much better or different themselves, when they are the ones legitimizing regressive character tropes and the politics tied to them through entertainment? I'm not calling for anyone's heads specifically here but I do think the buck should at least touch base with the people with the most influence purveying these ideas, whether the series has a hint of good intentions or not.

And as long as the creation and culture of the media is juggling the two politically opposed concepts in one hand, trying to have it's cake and eat it too, it has everything to do with the audience it amasses and the things they come to expect from the genre. Like how is One Piece supposed to be a series that is so clearly against oppression and progressive ideals when it has scenes, storylines, and an entire character dedicated to the prevailing "trap" humor, of all things?

(I do think Oda is on the side that does tend to fight against inequality more often than not, and at least believe in what he's backing up the conflict at least; he has given some positive trans representations in the series after all, which is more than others can say. But he has a long way to go before he actually has the full picture laid out for him imo)

Like with any medium there's pop anime that may touch on topical themes for the sake of being topical while still carrying many problematic tropes and then there's stuff that goes deeper into social politics. In either case though, both are touching on politics in some way, which is what the status is about(whether Anime is political or not, not how good at being political it is. That's a case by case thing, but you'll find that the biggest series will disappoint in this regard no matter where you are or what medium you decide to look into.)

 

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Why do I have to stop the buck at the idiots who don't dive deeper into the themes when the creators often aren't much better or different themselves, when they are the ones legitimizing regressive character tropes and the politics tied to them through entertainment?

Because you're also refusing to recognize that something can be political, and even political and be making a positive point about something, and even be political and be making a positive point about something and have that be the main point of the media; and all the while still have elements people consider problematic, especially when the problematic things are in regards to a completely different topic. Your first attempt at a rebuttal was exactly trying to claim that people who are idiots not seeing anything beyond some fanservice thing that appeals to them overrides anything else in an anime and makes them correct for saying why they feel that way. Your argument basically boils down to "Well, there's anime tiddy in this anime. That makes it so the outspoken 'keep politics out of my X' people can act like some sort of laughable alt-right version of tumblr, pretending that there's nothing else to the show beyond that; and they'd be right for feeling that way."

No they're not, because they're idiots. They are the same stupid fucks who lament the good old days of sports; when the only thing that happened during events was non-political things like the national anthem being sung, a group prayer at the beginning, the Air Force flying jets over the stadium and people thanking God when they won the big game. They're the same stupid fucks who play every Call of Duty game and revel in shooting people in "bad" countries as a virtual extension of the US military, then go nuclear on YouTube comment sections when a AAA game is announced with a gay main character because it's forcing a "wokeness." It's not the fault of the creator if people like a thing they made while also being too stupid to recognize that there's stuff in it beyond the tits on the lead girl; and the assholes who react with revulsion to even the most benign political stance they don't like as if the entire concept is at odds with the medium they are talking about are absolutely worthy of the derision on display. It makes me think you were using this status to argue a poorly thought out devil's advocate point without even understanding what it was about.

Furthermore, MAH VIDEOGAMES idiots latching on to an anime because it's got a hot chick in it and completely ignoring anything beyond that she's hot and in the show and people get in fistfights all the time doesn't mean that the show is apolitical. It doesn't mean that the political and/or social commentary is surface level. It doesn't mean the creator was wrong for trying to make it political when there's some other thing in it that people don't like. It absolutely doesn't invalidate any point trying to be made by the political and social commentary either. It should be blatant that it doesn't, for that matter, because the comic book industry has has had political allegories and subtexts and social commentary and in-universe morality debates so explicit that they are the entire point of certain series' storylines for decades even though the comic book industry has characters who dress up like streetwalkers; but here we are.

And you don't seem to understand that (popular[though again that's just proving my point]) anime actually encourages politics that those in the alt right identify with, specifically because they're problematic?

It's not apolitical. It's all political. Apolitical is just what they want to call it, as "without politics" has a cleaner, purer sound to them that can be associated with "only wanting to escape the real world". Apolitical is only a term when someone is 100% comfortable with the politics surrounding them at any time, so if you pick out those common threads of worldview that shines a light into the culture's politics - you find the threads that those people identify with.

I don't know why you're acting like I'm the person acting with some random form of agenda to go to bat for alt right folks when you are the one typing out a paragraph that's trying to separate the prevailing portrayal of sexual and identity tropes in the medium as "problematic", but not problematic enough to actually be tied to politics, and definitely not problematic to be more of an issue than a small blurb we can stand to ignore, as the real, entirely separate politick about social justice are obviously the main attraction! Nevermind that one is designed to appeal to the average viewer from episode to episode while the other is a mere background reason for the world conflict as a whole. Nevermind that one is half baked in it's execution because a creator thought that the civil rights movements were interesting while the other, as the creators themselves claim, are their actual self-inserts into the story entirely. And nevermind that the two are, again, diametrically opposed to each other politically despite "being separate" in terms of topics, lending one or the other to feel as hollow as the 

To be fair, this status from the start was moreso arguing in favor of more niche, but artistically driven works that go the entire mile and portray social issues without any holes barred - I'm not saying those works don't do that. And I'm not saying that anime isn't a valid form of expression for them, or that people have any sort of right expecting them to be "apolitical" in the first place. The problem is that "Anime" as a popular phenomenon has pretty massive issues that it needs to deal with, that do actually cater to and fit in with this audience and it's specific worldviews, (lgbt-phobias related comedy - lgbt-phobias and joke culture, misogynistic characterization and fantasies - misogyny and inceldom, whitewashing - anyone on the spectrum of deciding to defend racism this one time to full on white nationalists, and then of course lolis) and the mindset of "where did they get the idea that this is all made for them; idiots" is entirely the wrong mindset to be approaching it with, and almost feels like it's willingly missing the forest for the trees with all that is popular anime culture. It doesn't matter what it used to be for all intents and purposes, if it is what it is today.

But by all means, keep looking into the sky as you wonder where all the raindrops keep coming from

And if you can't make the distinction between how anime pulls off sexualization and identity compared to comic books... I don't have the time for that deep a dive, but they're just so different I don't even see how you can compare the two outside of "Oh wow sex appeal(!) sold one medium just fine without inhibiting and working against it's themes, why are you acting like big titty anime girl delegitimizes anime when it clearly doesn't for comic books?"

Which, in all honesty, sounds like a pretty devils-advocate-y position to have wrt the "problematic" sides of anime culture, bare minimum

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It's not apolitical

Good. Glad we could come to an understanding. A shame that you wasted so much time to get there and deliberately misread arguments in the process, but in the end it was all worth it.

日本語を学ぶよwwwwww

Wow ! Then please fansub for me all 61 episodes of Nono-chan, all 117 episodes of Azuki-chan, all 1,253 episodes of Chibi Maruko-chan, and all 7,701 episodes of Sazae-san

i said for YOU to do it, not me

lazy ass