Let's Play #21: Here it comes!

So, we bursted through the 20k threshold thanks to Rob auctioning off what he'd be playing next on his stream, and Solitaire edged out Dark Souls after a frantic between war between a few people with really deep pockets! This means it's time to reveal my next Let's Play!

So this is a popular game on the N64, which is a sequel to one of the most critically acclaimed N64 titles (which I've already LPed). Although the graphics are almost identical, the game feels VERY different from its predecessor. Its final boss is renowned for its difficulty, though if you're enough of a sidequesting fiend you can obtain something that will utterly trivialize it. Speaking of difficulty, a few mini-games will have you swearing like a sailor!

Ladies and gentlemen... Let's Play #21!

You know it's true.

My thoughts every time a wild low-leveled Pokémon attacks me in the post-game.

It's on!

The Speed Gamers' Final Fantasy marathon is on right now! They're raising money for ACT Today, a charity for care and treatment of people with autism, so if you have some spare change you want to get rid of, they're taking all donations!

Remember that should they hit the $20000 mark, I will announce the Let's Play that will be following up Star Road on this blog, so check back!

Edit: Turns out I'm a fool, their $15000 target is the first of many if I understand it correctly. This means the announcement will be taking place in a matter of days, barring a shocker.

Edit 2: We will be having an actual speed run for a change later today (Thursday)! Color me surprised! Essentia, holder of the FF6 world record with a blazing 4:48, will be working her magic at 5 PM Eastern. As a side note, only $8000 were raised so far. UNACCEPTABLE.

Join Avenue: The shops reviewed

Since it's been such a long time since I've done any kind of written rants, and tomorrow I'll be posting an LP video that focuses exclusively on the Join Avenue, I think it's an appropriate time to share my thoughts on each of the shops that can be found there. First, here's the reference you should be using whenever you want to look up something. It withholds a few details that I know of, though, so I'll point these out when I can.

15 grand, eh?

Seems like that's the target for TSG's upcoming Final Fantasy Marathon. And I gotta say... that's not exactly aiming for the stars, now is it? Aside from the floptastic Star Wars marathon, every week-long marathon thus far has broken the 50k mark, and even THAT raised 75% of that 15k goal. Heck, many three-day marathons came close to 15k. Is it just me, or is having such a low goal going to be a turn-off to certain people, who may be more inclined to donate if the goal is further away? It's what I've always felt, anyway.

On a related subject, expect an announcement from yours truly on the subject of the marathon later this week.

Old YouTube channels still around?

I found that out by accident. I don't know if it works for anyone else, or if it's just on my end, but it seems like when I use Firefox and am NOT logged into my account, I can still see channels with the old, still-barely-workable channels. It only seems to work on Firefox (maybe it also works on Chrome, but I don't want to get anywhere near it), as in IE I get the YouTube One (Person Thinks This Is A Good Idea) version regardless of whether or not I'm logged in.

Of course, feel free to try it out. Would be hilarious if it worked for everyone!

Pokémemes = Pokémon-Amie's target demographics

I can't reblog a Tumblr post directly, but I sure as boots am going to do the next best thing.

(Also see my post from May 29 on the same subject.)

Anyone else having trouble accessing the TSG website?

Because every now and then I get greeted by this error message:

Fatal error: Call to undefined function mobile_device_detect() in /home/tsgadmin/public_html/community.thespeedgamers.com/includes/session.php on line 1571

Now I know Local's been working on some stuff earlier this month, but I thought it was supposed to be done and over with. And with nine days left until the start of the FF marathon, I really really don't want to miss any of it over such issues. (Edit: On second thought, there's always the Twitch website itself, however donations might suffer if that happens...) Am I the only one who's having problems, or is it really an issue with the site itself?

As a side note, I don't know what any of this error message means, but I see "mobile device detect" in there. I'm not using a mobile device, but a desktop computer! The hell?

Best. Erratum. Ever.

Courtesy of today's Sun. Why can't we have newspapers as awesome as those they have in the UK?

Super Smash Bros. for Idiotic Marketing Department

For the love of Arceus, Nintendo, can't you do ANYTHING right aside from the games themselves? Who the fuck is going to call it "Super Smash Bros. for Wii U"? Just watch, everyone will go the Sonic 2006 route and call it SSB4 until the end of time. Speaking of which, doing just what Sonic 2006 did and just calling it "Super Smash Bros." would've been a better idea than... this. At least drop the "for" from the title, you morons. "Super Smash Bros. Wii U" wouldn't have been the best name ever, but it would've been a step up. I'm just one guy who's a few buttons short of a controller, and I can still come up with better names than your crack team you pay god knows how much. Sad.

F5 ALL the sites!

So the roundtable is about to begin, and to my knowledge it isn't being broadcasted anywhere. You know what this means? ...well, it's in the title, so there goes the suspense. Hopefully we learn more about the Fairy type, and I wouldn't say no to knowing what the deal it with sky battles. Fingers crossed that it's not just a type of battle where only fliers and levitators are allowed, and that there's more to it. Maybe more on that Pokémon-Amie BS as well? Yeah, raising happiness isn't going to cut it, walking/running/biking 128 steps has a 50% chance of increasing happiness... ACROSS YOUR ENTIRE TEAM. Right now it reeks of gen 6 counterpart to the Dream World in terms of absolutely tedious and annoying mini-game.

Edit: Aaaaaand it's done. I'll give my two cents in tomorrow's LP episode(s).

The entire TSG community banned for spam! (not really)

If you tried to access the TSG forums last night, you may have gotten a message saying you were banned for spam. Obviously, as a heads-up, you weren't, since everyone had the same message - the catch is, even if you weren't logged in / didn't even have an account there you were "banned for spamming"! The site's been having a few hiccups for the last few days, so just bear with it. Obviously everything should be fixed in time for the FF marathon. Hopefully.