Excessive details on Snowboard Kids

NOTE: If you aren't a fan of Snowboard Kids or uninterested in this article, turn back now.

Hello everyone. Sorry for not updating my gallery in a while, It's just I've been doing a lot these past days, so I couldn't get to drawing lately (artist's block). One good thing I have to mention is that the illness I had the past week is almost gone. So until I get the urge to draw, I just want to have a moment so I can talk about a game series that has been a big part of my childhood for years, known as Snowboard Kids.

Yep, you heard me correctly. The Snowboard Kids series. Never heard of it? Well, now you do. The Snowboard Kids series was a nice little racing game that fell downhill during an attempt to revive the series after five years of absence. The series kicked off in 1998 with the original game for the Nintendo 64, shown below:

Developed by Racdym (now known as Racjin) and published by Atlus co; Snowboard Kids (known as Snobow Kids in Japan) is, as I've stated already, a racing game featuring four 10-year olds and a single 11-year old living in the Canadian Rocky Mountains hitting the slops to prove who was the best snowboarder in town. Unlike real life, the five children involved were not limited to just everyday snowy mountains to show their skills, they also went as far to snowboard on public highways, grasslands, a theme park, and a dessert. If you were to make it through the first eight courses, you would get the chance to race against a ninja named Shinobin with an unknown age on Ninja Land, and if you defeat him, you unlock him as a playable character, but this brings unfairness thanks to Shinobin's 2.5 stars per category, thus making the gameplay a little unfair for players choosing the default characters in multiplayer races not using on of the game's special boards. Thankfully, CPU players do not use Shinobin, unless you're racing on Ninja Land as one of the default characters.

This game does have decent ratings according to it's page on GameFAQS. It's certainly not the best on the Nintendo 64, but it is a good title to keep you occupied for a couple of hours.

But what about owners of the PlayStation who didn't have the N64? Surely people may have seen this over at a friend's house and liked the game, but their family wouldn't allow them to get a N64 because they already have the PlayStation? Well, the people over at Racdym and Atlus came up with a solution: Port the game to the PSX, but add a little twist.

And that, was how Snowboard Kids Plus hit the scene. Taking everything you loved about the original and adding more content, Plus seemed to be a step in the right direction. To tell you the truth, I have been hunting down this title for quite some time, but there is one little problem: The game was released only in Japan. Fans that lived in the United States and Europe never got to experience this title when it first came out. Only after the invention of emulators and importing could one actually play this remake.

Compared to the original, Plus appears to be nothing special. The only difference between the original and Plus versions is Plus adds in four additional characters, with one being entirely secret with the same stats as Shinobin (and one default with un-balanced stats). Alongside the inclusion of the new characters, Plus also featured cutscenes, and additional methods of customizing the characters. Judging from gameplay videos I've seen on Youtube, I assume this version has smoother frame rate but slower gameplay than the N64 version.

But the big question is, why was the game never released outside Japan? Well, I think that maybe the staff involved in producing the first game feared that the it wasn't that successful with American and Europeans, plus the appearances of some of the female characters (Nicole, the blond haired girl with the long ponytail, for example) would be too sensitive for audiences outside of Japan.

Now we take a step ahead to 1999, when the first official sequel was created.

Enter Snowboard Kids 2 (or Super Snobow Kids in Japan), the sequel that somewhat worked. All the characters from the original (and let's not forget the items) returned, joined alongside another 10-year old female known as Wendy Lane. Unlike Plus, this installment was given an international release on the Nintendo 64, although it was not released in Europe. Only Japan and America received this sequel.

The second game withdrew the Time Attack mode in favor of a full-fledged story mode featuring the six children and their daily lives while a teal-green alien named Damien attempts to sabotage their adventures and make their lives as miserable as possible. I don't want to tell you about the game's ending, so feel free to head over to Wikipedia and see for yourself.

Shinobin, as well as all the characters exclusive to Plus, did not appear in the sequel, although SBK2 has several characters (three to be exact) that can be unlocked as you advance through the game. The different terrains the characters snowboard on have become even zanier; only three of the nine courses in the entire game (not counting two courses where sub-games are played) feature snow. Aside from the absence of Time Trial and the secret boost at the start of a race, and slightly slower movement speed, I thought this was a great entry in the series once you run through it once.

After around five years of absence, Altus decided it was time to give the series a revival. So they turned to a new company known as "in-glove Co., ltd" to develop the next entry in the Snowboard Kids, and it turned out to be a big mistake. A very big one. This was primally an insult to the original N64 games, although there were a few good things that were in the game. Since I didn't enjoy this one as much as the originals, I'm going to discuss the negative factors about the DS game; SBK: Snowboard Kids.

Now incase you're wondering, yes. These are the characters I used for the promotional image I created especially for this article, but that doesn't mean anything. Let's start talking about how much this one failed to impress me, starting with the characters.

One thing I was quite disappointed about was the fact the cute chibi-styled characters with big fat noses were abandoned in favor of a general anime style, and also that there were very little simalitaries to the characters from the original series. First of, none (and I repeat, none) of the characters are actually young enough to be considered children. In fact, two of the characters (Jam and Tommy) are 18 years old, thus making them not teens but adults. So, that right there defeats the whole purpose of it being called "Snowboard Kids". Should have been "Snowboard Teens & Adults." It would have been stupid, but it would make a whole lot of sense how old everyone was. If you don't believe me, this diagram should be quite useful.

Also, all the characters are now from different countries. No longer do they live in the same town located in Canada. The only person that still resides in Canada itself is Tommy, who has also transformed (personality-wise) into a nasty bully.

Now let's talk about the two newcomers. Brad Maltine is, I kid you not, the sister of Linda Maltine, the girl responsible for starting the snowboard tournament in the original Snowboard Kids. The other newcomer, Koyuki Tanaka, is entirely original, although very slightly inspired by Kaede, one of the two secret characters from SBK+. Kaede also serves as part of Linda's replacement, since they're both of the same gender, and appear to have similar stats. (not sure, though.)

Another thing I was disappointed about was the gameplay itself. No longer do you see these kids (um,... excuse me.) teens snowboarding down strange and bizarre landscapes, all the courses in this game take place on snow. The closest to the original format this game's courses ever got was one of the tracks featuring the characters snowboarding down the top of buildings. They were covered in snow, but even if it wasn't, it would still be interesting.

Now how about Projectiles and Items? Well, to say the least, they brought them back, but made things a lot worse when it comes to them. No longer can you collect coins scattered along the track and break open red and blue boxes to obtain weapons to use to your benefits,... Well, yea. You can do that in this game too, but all the items are free, and there's not much variety. Plus, they only house non-projectiles. So how do you get projectiles? You earn them. How? By filling up some stupid "SBK" meter by doing tricks and picking up diamonds. And that's another thing that bugs me. The SBK meter. It's probably on of the most annoying features about the game. It's main purpose is to signify how much "energy" you have. They power-up your projectile weapon, and if you fill it all the way, you can do a special trick by launching off a ramp, then almost immediately touching several pannels on the touch screen. If you miss-calculate a touch, don't jump high enough, or waste too much time touching the screen in the right way to do the trick, you'll fail at the special trick, and waste precious time, allowing your opponents to pass you.

I feel I've said enough. Overall, SBK: Snowboard Kids isn't bad, but it's not much of a worthy title on the DS if you look past it's flaws. If you can't get a hold of the originals, then get this one if you can find it. Hopefully Atlus will bring Racjin back into the ring to create one last SBK game that stays true to the concepts of the N64 installments, even if it's a enchanted remake or compilation of the original games.

Good day, everyone. I'll see you later.

Questions Mark 3

NOTE: This post contains very minor mentions of that "franchise" that is still, and will remain cancelled. And like all previous minor mentions of it, it is for important reasons.

Do you have a Facebook and/or twitter accounts?

As I had said multiple times previously, yes. I do have both Facebook and twitter accounts. Unfortunately, I will not add you to my friends list on Facebook (unless you send me a request). You will have to search my real name (Justin De Lucia) and look for it yourselves, since I don't how how to link to one's Facebook page (yet). If you want to know which of the Justin De Lucia's is me, look for the one with this image:

My twitter can easily be accessed simply by going to the Twitter widget located on the right side of this blog, then by clicking on the "Join the conversation" link, you will be taken straight to my twitter page, and from there you can follow/reply to me. Alternately, you can find a link in the "External Links" section of this blog, also located on the right side.

Why are there no links to any Rosenkreuzstilette sites (including unofficial sites)?

First off, I should say that Super Justin: the Blog is not a Rosenkreuzstilette fansite, despite my excessive love to the series and all that I've done to praise it, but the reason why I avoid linking to RKS content is because some of the sites (the website of WOMI, for example) consist of/link to adult (not safe for work) material. And since I have a few friends from my school who visit this blog (either at home or at school itself), I don't want anyone to get into severe trouble.

When someone asks you for a request, why sometimes will you reject it?

Just like nearly every person on this planet, I like drawing specific things, so if just so happens I don't like the character(s) you ask me to draw for you, I'll reject it by saying (as polite as I can) something like "Sorry, but I cannot do your request."

And since we're on the topic of requests, I'd also like to mention the following: When asking for a request, please avoid saying something like "Do not disappoint me with my request," as a comment like that can get me excessive stress. Just ask, give me the references, then wait for the final image to be done. I'll put as much effort as I possibly can into your request. I know I am not a perfect artist. Nobody is perfect at anything, no mater how much you work at something, there is always going to be some sort of minor flaw that prevents something from being perfect. For me, it's art. If just so happens the artwork I create for you is not to your liking, just let me know of your opinion, favorite it if you like, and do nothing else. Don't say anything negative, or else you'll make me feel upset.

Why whenever you need additional characters for Aozora Jitsuwa, you always start a contest?

Well, incase you probably haven't noticed, I'm not so good when it comes to designing characters, plus, it gives regular people a chance to have their own creations get represented and greatly featured in my own series, much like with the Mega Man games and Rosenkreuzstilette ~Freudenstachel~.

Speaking of Aozora Jitsuwa, do you plan to create an official wiki for the series?

If you are curious, yes. An Aozora Jitsuwa wiki is currently in the planning stages, but in order to avoid harsh criticism, I'm going to probably wait until the first of the games based on the series.

Wait wait, GAMES?!?

That's right, everyone. Haters of Aozora Jitsuwa, get ready to get out your trusty weapons and prepare to commit suicide, because it is true, I am planning several Aozora Jitsuwa games as we speak. All of them are currently in the early planning stages; none of them have started development. Since I'm here, I'm going to let you know what's going to be made.

The first of these games, simply titled "Aozora Jitsuwa" will be a 2-D platformer focusing solely on Aozora and his attempts to take back the Jetters after they were kidnapped and re-programed by the A.C.E.S. to do their dirty work. The game will be mostly a clone of Nintendo's popular Super Mario series, but with a much higher level of difficulty (A great amount of levels scattered around 11 worlds, and a very, very limited amount of 1-Ups, which are well hidden in the levels.) and boss battles somewhat inspired from Mega Man. I also plan to throw in some of my own gimmicks just for added amusement. The game will also consist of spoofs and parodies on other popular video game series, as well as many different manga/anime. Unlike with that other game I had to cancel, this game (as well as the entire Aozora Jitsuwa series in general) is not intended to cash in on the popularity of any of the series that are spoofed or parodied, they are meant to act as non-profit tributes with a bit of a nostalgia feeling.

The second game has a working title of Aozora Jitsuwa 64, and as you expect, it's going to be based on the gameplay style of Super Mario 64, and will feature a gang of eight evil witches as the antagonists. Currently, at this time, there is a contest going on to determine the members of this group, and everyone is allowed to participate.

Well, I'm out of questions for the time. Anything else you have to say?

Yes, one thing for the Japanese:

の私の日本の視聴者包めば嫌悪症は気づいていなく、私の「特権」が永久に取り消されてしまったそれに基づく何でも(ゲーム、日本製アニメ、コミック)決して日の目を見ません極度のジャスティン。 これは余分な批評がされた原因厳密な著作権侵害を避けるためにであり。 私はpixivで日本のユーザー全員および幸せな私の悪い機構にかかわるユーザーをRKSのための開発に加わった特にそれら作るためにこれをしています。 私は決してそのような事を再度作成しません。

(Translated: Incase any of my Japanese viewers and haters are unaware, my "Super Justin Franchise" has been permanently canceled and anything based on it (Games, Anime, Comics) will never see the light of day. This was done due to excessive criticism and to avoid strict copyright infringement. I am doing this to make all the Japanese users on pixiv and those involved in my bad schemes happy, especially those that took part in development for RKS. I will never create such a thing ever again.)

SJB Review: The Almighty Mr. Ice

Hi everyone. Today I am proud to present the second of my game reviews, and this time, it's the Korean Super Mario Bros. clone by HighMind entitled The Almighty Mr. Ice, available for iPhone and iPod Touch.

Yea. We probably know how much SMB inspired so many games, and this is one of them. But anyways, you control a guy named Mr. Ice on his quest to stop his evil look-alike, Dark Mister.

Now upon starting, you're presented with three options, "New Game," "Load Game," and "How To." Since I don't want to start the game from the very beginning, I'll select "Load Game" and load my previous save file.

Here it is. The stage select screen, where you can choose your destination. Now wait a sec... look at that yellow stamp on the level windows. They spelt Normal as Nomal (that "nomal" stamp only appears if you complete the level on Normal difficulty). But anyways, select your stage, then the difficulty setting. I'll explain what the difficulty settings do later, but now, let's see what Stage 1 looks like.

Okay, Right off the bat, what's wrong with this picture? Look at Mr. Ice, Don't tell me that reminds you of a few specific characters. And I can name three. Numbuh 2 from Codename: Kids Next Door, Rayman from Rayman, and Mario from Super Mario. But oh look! Coins! Another element taken straight from Mario!

Now don't get me wrong, I'm not trying to bash this game just because it's a clone of the Mario games and the characters are based off pre-existing characters. But I just wanted to say that for the lols.

Oh, and one more thing. The game lacks BGM. That's right, no music exists in this game whatsoever. How nice.

Here's our first blocks. a "How" block telling you how to play, (duh.) and a "Item" block which houses one of the game's two items. Let's hit the "How" block and see what it has to say.

*sigh* It appears we have some Engrish in the "How" boxes. But how can I complain? The people that made this game were Korean (No offense), so they probably didn't understand English well. Another thing I'd like to point out is that a lot of the later levels also have these "How" blocks, and they have "U" written instead of "You."

Anyways, I hit the "Item" block, and out comes a sliver boot. Let's have Mr. Ice pick it up and try it out.

...And now he's blue. Just like with the Fire Flowers from Mario, collecting the Ice Boots simply changes Mr. Ice to a different (baby-blue) color and gives him some new abilities. One of them being the ability to freeze enemies. Let's see that in action.

Oh look, an enemy. Let's execute a simple stomp attack while wearing the Ice Shoes and see what happens!

Now the enemy's frozen solid. Unlike New Super Mario Bros. Wii, you don't pick up frozen enemies and throw them, Mr. Ice kicks the enemy and sends it flying, like Koopa shells.

Look at 'em go; Wooooooo.....

Here's the other thing the Ice Shoes can do. You can perform wall jumps. But unlike Mario's wall jumps, you can jump straight up instead of towards the opposite wall, and you do not slide down when you are against the wall.

Moving on to stage two, we have or next enemy: Crows.

They're not much of a threat right now, but later, they'll become loyal pests.

Oh no! I got hit and shrunk down to half my size! Fantastic. How fantastic.

And if any of you are wondering what's with that Mr. Ice hologram on the floating platform, that's an ally of yours. You use them to cross instant-death spike pits and perform higher jumps. (Plus they also help you in a section in stage 5, where you have to travel along a certain path, or else the game sends you backwards in the level.)

Here's the other item. A red glove called the "Almighty Glove" that grants Mr. Ice the ability to damage everything on the screen by shaking the iPhone/iPod Touch, or by tapping the screen multiple times quickly.

Get ready for another Mario homage.

That's right, the Spin Jump from Super Mario World even makes an appearance. By jumping then touching the screen again, Mr. Ice dives down and destroys any non/solid block in his path.

I'm going to be skipping stages 3-5 and move on straight to Level 6, where the frustration begins.

This is where I began to experience troubles because of how difficult it can be to perform a super jump. You know how in Mario games you get more hight if you jump off an enemy with the Jump button held down? Well here, you have to touch the screen right as Mr. Ice lands on the enemy. If you're just a millisecond early or late, you have to try again.

Here's another situation were the same thing occurs. You have execute a Super Jump on the hologram so that you can jump over the spiky slime creature as the hologram passes underneath the block it is standing on. If you mess up, you fall into the spikes and die instantly. So in order to bypass this section, I had to let the spiky slime hurt me and use the after-invincibility to quickly cross the pit.

The most difficult of all the levels in this game is the seventh. Look. this spike pit is too wide for me to cross it without getting killed, so we have to look around for another way.

Bingo. Again like the Mario games, there are hidden blocks that you have to find in order to progress through the level. What a why to up the difficulty, especially since I got stuck in other parts of the game and couldn't escape from where I was.

Here's the second and more challenging pit of stage 7, which requires you to master the Super Jump (bouncing off the enemies) to progress...

...but the wall is to high even to reach with the Super Jump. So what do you have to do? You see that crow? You do a Super Jump off it after using the Mr. Ice hologram to reach it safely. But if you miss the Super Jump, you can't try again. You have to return to the solid ledge to the left of the pit, and wait for the crow to reappear, then wait for the hologram to reach you, then try again. And if that wasn't enough, there are other parts of the same level that require you to jump off crows to reach the other side, so that's why I said you have to master the Super Jump technique, because that first pit is not the only one that requires you to jump off crows just to get to the other side.

Now I think it would be time to discuss what the difficulty levels do. Normal has no exotic twists, Easy makes a Ice Shoe power-up spawn whenever Mr. Ice becomes small, and Hard makes the boss faster and more difficult to defeat, but also requires you to collect all 99 coins that appear in each level before you can actually confront the boss, and given how some of the coins are well hidden inside the breakable blocks that you often have to walk across to clear a gap, it makes Hard mode much more difficult that it should be. If the amount of coins required was a little smaller, that that would be perfect, since you wouldn't have to search every nook and cranny for each coin. Also, the difficulty settings don't adjust the level layout or enemy behavior in any way. Only Hard makes the boss itself harder. That's it.

And so, we're up to the final boss, Dark Mister. And like I said, he's a evil version of Mr. Ice that is twice as large with a zig-zag mouth. You have to use the green slimes as a spring to jump high in the air and drill-stomp Dark Mister in the head several times. Once you beat him, this screen comes up:

This game is telling me if I want to unlock Stage 9, that I have to run through all 8 levels on Hard mode, which would be near-impossible given how well the coins are hidden. I'm not even going to bother showing it, since it would take forever trying to reach it.

And one more thing. What's with the random crashing before/after some levels? If it happens after you beat a level, it corrupts the data, making you have to start all over again.

So that's The Almighty Mr. Ice. My final opinion? It's a fairly decent clone of Super Mario, but a lot of things in the later stages made the game harder than it should be. If you're not sure if you're going to like playing this, play the Lite (free) version first before you decide to play the full product. It's not the best game on iPhone/iPod Touch, but it's decent enough to be somewhat enjoyable.

UPDATE: Hey everyone, Just a small minor update. Not long ago I unlocked the Extra Stage, and it's just a really difficult level with the BG of Stage 1 and the FG of Stage 7. The boss is just Dark Mister all over again, and the boss of Stage 3 is now a regular enemy, the same size of the other enemies.

The Almighty Mr. Ice receives a 6.8/10.

Request

Hi everyone. I'm in severe need of help, so I'd thought I'd ask a simple question.

I am currently looking for a great easy-to-use utility to create 3D models (both male and female, different sizes for different ages) that can be turned a full 360 degrees, have it's parts bent in many different ways, and allow multiple camera angles for viewing them.

Currently, I have my eyes set on Poser, but if any of you know a different program that is free of charge simliar to Poser that works on Mac OS X and does not contain any viruses and spyware, that would be excellent, because I could use it for great anatomy refrences.

FAQ: Episode Tsu

NOTE: Like before, none of the questions/answers I write are not intended to be offensive or harm anyone's feelings. If I do, I'm sorry.

Hello SJTB readers, I'm back once again to awnser some more made-up questions some of you may have. Most of it is about deviantART, along with other things, so let's get cracking.

Why do you like drawing anime pictures?

I just love Japanese and Japanese-styled media/artwork. Nuff said.

Why is the rate at which you submit artwork much, much less than last year?

For those of you that ask this simple question, let me sum it up for you. Would you like me to create one good image every few days, or spam my gallery with a bunch of royal s*it? Art takes time to create, especially with anatomy. (For some reason, some of the people I've met care about nothing but the anatomy. But of course, that's my personal opinion. *insert some stupid happy expression here*

Do you accept requests, art trades, and commissions?

Yes, yes, and no. While I do like drawing pictures for my friends and loyal fans, my current skill level prevents me for doing something "decent" without people saying "OMG the anatomy and perspectives are wrong, my eyes are bleeding!" *insert stupid smirk here*

Also, not to mention I have other things to do besides drawing. It's true I have a lot of ideas, but it's just I have to put an awful lot of effort into trying to get the anatomy as impressive as possible. (Remember kids, everyone cares about nothing but anatomy! (and for those of you who do just rate a picture based on it's anatomy, remember to also say your opinions on the other things in the picture, not just the anatomy, as that isn't the only thing to care about.))

Sorry for going off topic, but yes, Requests and Art Trades are open if anyone is interested, But remember, there are rules and guidelines to these, which can be found on my main deviantART profile page. As for commissions, I cannot do them because I don't have my own Credit Card, or a valid Paypal account. But if you're dying to give me one, you can always donate some points or give me a gift subscription, or if all else fails, just ask for a request, because with that you'll save a couple bucks for other uses.

Any new concepts you want to try out soon?

Aside from the other thousand thing I would love to draw, Jenosa Arma from Scurge: Hive. Don't ask why. I just adore her design. (although it looks a bit complex, but hopefully I'll work it out. Another thing that is also in my agenda is a request for my dear mother, and also an art trade for a friend of mine.

Is there anyone you've met online that you would conceder "mortal enemies".

If you must know this, people that strictly hate me in any way, shape, or form.

What happened to that stamp you uploaded on DA?

I took it down because people were getting pissed off at it. It was intended to tell people that the artists with the stamp placed on their profile had fairly great works, but not enough comments from visitors, thus requesting more commenters in general. *like around 20 or 30 per deviation, no matter who is pictured in the drawing.)

What do you conceder the "true meaning" of friends on deviantART?

Both people watching each other. Not one watching the other or vice versa, both watching each other. Even if you dislike the person's artwork, you can always cancel out receiving updates on the person's artwork, or his/her journal updates.

If I need to add anymore questions, I shall.

Super Mario World Hack: Mario & Luigi DOS remake

Hi everyone, I'd just thought I'd drop in and mention something real quick about a brand-new Super Mario World hack that I submitted onto SMW Central a few days ago. Unlike the previous time, the hack has been successfully accepted and the IPS patch can now be downloaded from the site.

This hack is a remake of Mike Wiering's "Mario & Luigi" game released for DOS operating systems in 1994, which was not licensed by Nintendo. The original game, plus this hack, is six levels long, with the fourth and fifth levels removed in some versions of the game. This hack is based on the original six level version that is available for download from multiple sites, recreated using Lunar Magic, a utility for creating hacks of Super Mario World. Since the original game itself used multiple features from Super Mario World, I decided to hack that game to make it as accurate to Mike Wiering's original game. But unfortunately, It's isn't an exact duplicate of the original game, as you can carry Koopas, there are no Poison mushrooms, and there is an overworld map that you can use to replay any of the levels you've completed. Rather than replaying the game again with faster speed and higher jump height when you complete the game for the first time, you are instead sent to a bonus area where you can hit message blocks that contain the game's credits.

But enough talk! Head over to SMW Central and download it now!

or... se a full run of the original DOS game by Mike himself.

Oh my god.

Really. I'm speechless. I got back from watching Toy Story 3, and it was DA BAWMB. I was nice to see after pretty much 11 years another film featuring Buzz, Woody and friends. It was exciting, but also epic as hell, especially about halfway through the movie when... I'm not going to spoil the movie for ya, but if you want to go see it, take my advice; you will love it, but be warned, make sure your kids (if you got some) are prepared for what happens in the last quarter of the film, things do get a bit serious.

As for what I think about the third entry in the Toy Story trilogy, it's a good sequel. Although my hands still set on Toy Story 2 as my favorite.

And now, let's break away from Toy Story and talk about a couple other things. As you may have noticed, I am now off from school for the rest of the summer, so that gives me much more time to work on artwork and other stuff and keep myself entertained. I got the pool open, but right now, my family is trying to clear up the pool so it's not green nor foggy. (I don't like pools when they're green, or foggy.) I'm currently working on something right now, and it will probably be done very soon, then after that, I would like to try a few art trades with a couple of my good friends, since I'd really be up to drawing one of their characters.

Updates for mid-June.

Hi SJTB readers. Good to be here. As usual, there's nothing going on, I'm just sitting in front of my Macintosh browsing the Internet, sipping on some Pepsi. Nothing all important. I'm just very bummed out with nothing to do. Tomorrow is my birthday, but I highly doubt it will cheer me up, since it just so happens to be on the last day of classes for me. After that day, I have to do three regions that fall on the same week, which means I have to study a lot. I hope that during the summer, I get to resolve a few friendships and improve on my artwork. Today I was browsing ebay for a couple of items for my birthday, but since my family's account was banned from the site, all because we refused to purchase an item we never received. In fact, the last special event where I actually got items from ebay (not counting last Christmas) was December 2008 for Christmas. (Which, ironically, is around the same time I got Jump Ultimate Stars, which I don't seem to be enjoying as much as I used to, probably because the fun factor died out since I played it so long. If they made a racing game featuring a similar roster, that would be something that would keep me occupied for a while.

If any of you out there happens to like or be a fan of my Aozora Jitsuwa series, I have created a entirely brand-spankin' new blog exclusively for the series. I was just founded last week, so there is only a single post, but feel free to check out how it's doing right now by going here.

If any of you are still wondering about what Kiora's quote "Use copy" meant all this time, forget it. I guess me just saying "I'm fine with the Japanese version that I burned to a disc and encased in an old DVD case with the RKS cover art" without realizing it was only intended for private use only got him upset at me.

Kiora's Words of Wisdom

NOTE: This blog entry is not an anti-Kiora post. I show great respect to Kiora, but it's just that I wanted to let everyone know about what was going on the past few days. Again, this is NOT a hate-Kiora post. This is also not meant to cause any rage to Kiora, or anyone else for that mater. I am not posting this to get help from the community in any way.

Hello everyone. Apparently I've gotten through another week of school, and believe it or not, that was the last week before regions, so I'm at least glad I only got a single full day left, then after that I just have to come back for three finals, and Sophomore year is finished, giving me two complete months of relaxation until September.

But the reason I'm here now, is that I finally got into contact with Kiora, well known for his Rosenkreuzstilette fanart and his RKS fan-fiction, Rosenkreuzstilette Unoffical Afterstory. He is also great friends with [erka:es], the original doujin circle behind Rosenkreuzstilette, which explains why a link to his website is present. Not to mention, Kiora is also on my list of "people from Pixiv that have to go to dA if they want to help out with our little situation" described on the previous post here on Super Justin: the Blog.

So the other day, ShivaDF (also known as Puistink) suggested I try contacting Kiora, now that I knew how to send private messages on Pixiv, and simply wrote to Kiora a simple "Hello." and "How are you doing?" The next morning, I received his reply, and wasn't too pleased (and a bit confused) with what he said...

Yes, Kiora just flat out said he was angry about me using "copy" and that he didn't want to talk to me. For one thing, I couldn't tell what Kiora actually meant when he said "using copy", so I contacted him back asking what were his main intentions when he said that I was "using copy", and sure enough, I have yet to receive a reply back from him.

So I came down to three different solution as to what message Kiora was trying to get to me, but I'm only focused on one of them, the other two being my obsession of drawing fanart of characters I didn't design, and me using Copy & Paste in some instances for my art.

The main solution that I think fits best is the fact that the poses the characters strike in my art are mostly un-original. And if everyone should probably remember, anatomy and proportions are probably the absolute worst category I suffer in when it comes to art, so to help, someone over at Rockman Perfect Memories suggested I look at Posemanics for great anatomy refrences, so I followed his advice and went over to Posemaniacs for some guidance. Apparently, it helped, but for Kiora (and maybe a couple others), it seemed to upset him that I was copying off poses from a site that exists solely to help those who have trouble drawing the human body. But believe it or not, I don't copy the poses down precisely down to the last detail, as I don't trace the bodies on Posemaniacs, I instead try to make similar ones via pencil or on Photoshop.

So just to compare, here's the original pose I used for my recent Trauare Wrede fanart, comparing it to the original pose straight from Posemainacs.

As usual, if I get any update of any kind, it'll appear right here.

RKS: deviantART Improvement

Well, I'm back. and boy oh boy, do I have a lot to say. First off, it's official. I now have both Facebook and twitter accounts, so if you have one of those, feel free to add/follow me.

But enough talk, time to get serious.

Yes... I just referenced SonSon.

As you can tell, yes, this does have to do with Rosenkreuzstilette, and it's something that I

really have to mention. Now be warned, Super Justin is going to get a couple of quick mentions

here. But like before, its for important reasons.

This is sort of my own personal followup to a recent post written on Schwer and Schwer alike by an okay friend of mine named ViperAcidZX., were he said "I'm not seeing any improvements that's going to change deviantArt's already terrible reputation of "bad" Rosenkreuzstilette fan-art," and "I get the feeling that deviantArt is never going to have its share of quality fan-art for Rosenkreuzstilette as Pixiv."

Now to be fair, there are a few "good" images that pop up on the site every once in a while, not counting the ones I do, but unlike Pixiv (which, JTLYK, is an art-sharing site like dA, but it's all in Japanese.), it happens much more rarely. One of the main situations, is that many of the "good artists," (or as I like to call them, art gods) do not know about Rosenkreuzstilette and are simply unwilling to draw RKS fanart just for the heck of it. So from my own personal point of view, one of the best ways to help get RKS more well-known on dA and increase it's quality of decent/great fanart, is to get these "art gods" to draw Rosenkreuzstilette fanart. And it seems the only way to do that, is by a very hard task; commissioning them.

You heard me correctly, commissioning them. I have no ways of causing any struggle or hurt anyone's feelings, but apparently, that's only what they accept. They will not do requests, art trades, or collabs. Commissions are the only thing that will work. So if that's all they accept, then that's the only way to get these great artists to draw RKS fanart and help spread the word about my personal favorite doujin series. (And not to mention they're probably being watched by a ton of people, so hopefully the watchers of these "art gods" may also buy into it, and attempt some RKS fanart of their own as well. I can't guarantee they will be as good as what the original commissioned artist can make, but at least it'll maybe increase the overall RKS fanbase and it's popularity.) I'm not forcing anyone to commission these artists, so you do not have to take part here. I'm fine just doing it myself.

And now let's move on to the second way we can try to do to help improve deviantART's quality of RKS artwork: getting the Japanese responsible for making the great RKS artwork on Pixiv to come to deviantART and do the same there.

Now that was something that I had repeatedly mentioned on deviantART several times. And the reason was that the majority of Pixiv's selection of Rosenkreuzstilette fanart is (again, no offense) much better than a handful of the artwork the English side of the fanbase could make. And just to further my point, take a look at this brutal and epic fanart of Freudia Neuwahl that's currently available for view only on Pixiv.

Now tell me, Would you like this, alongside a great number of amazing Rosenkreuzstilette artwork done by the people over at Pixiv without deviantART accounts, to be uploaded somewhare onto deviantART so that it's much simpler to find and view them in English? Well, that's one goal I want to accomplish in my life. Well, we already got Hissatsukunn, Dolis Warmind's designer onto deviantART, and he uploaded a great number of his fantastic works, but that's not enough. We need a greater amount of Rosenkreuzstilette artwork done by the people that live in the same region RKS originated. So I'm asking this. If any of you have Pixiv accounts, or have contact information of the users, please try to get in touch with these Japanese RKS artists and invite them onto deviantART so we, the English fans, can experience these great works of art and help out on improving the popularity of the series, as well as the quality of good fan-art on dA. (The one that's most wanted right at this moment is WOMI, the series' offical artist, illustrator, spriter, and character designer, but I'd like the entire pack. (zaku6 and Shizuku, just to name a few of them.)) Like with the commissions, I'm not forcing anyone to help out or join dA, but one very simple thing you can do to help out on deviantART, incase you haven't already, is to remove your Super Justin "fanart" if it's still up. All content containing Super Justin MUST go first before the Japanese can get to dA. So I'll say this one more time. If you ever drew/made something that contains any of my rejects of a characters (the blue-haired myself for example), or my lame RKS censorship BS, GET IT OFF AS SOON AS YOU CAN. The amount of SJ "fanart" has declined over the past few days, but I would like it all gone.

Unfortunately, with every great thing that happens, there are expected consequences.

The first of these, is that it may be difficult for the Japanese to browse, comment, and submit artwork onto deviantART, as the site isn't, and will never be in Japanese. Second, I should take the time to mention, there are loads of pure adult material over at Pixiv, which dA doesn't allow. So they may get into trouble or get banned if they attempt to submit those without realizing that content like that is prohibited on dA but not on Pixiv. Nudity or erotic poses are fine, but anything that's severe adult content cannot be uploaded.

Feel free to do whatever you like to help out. If I need to update/make changes to this post, I'll do so.

New Aozora Jitsuwa concept artwork

Well, here it is. Designed by one of my good friends on deviantART, here is official concept artwork of Keisha from my series, Aozora Jitsuwa.

SJB Review: Jump Ultimate Stars

Well, the time has finally come. Time to review with my most honest thoughts, a game that has been in my possession for almost a year and a half. What is this game? Well, I'm proud to present, the Japanese-only crossover fighting game, Jump Ultimate Stars.

Well, interesting to say, I have never played this game's predecessor, Jump Super Stars, as I was told the second game had much more features to offer. And believe it or not, despite there being no official English release, I found this game on the shelves of an American store.

So now we move onto the game itself. Before starting, I should mention this game was made by the big mother-you know what of videogames, Nintendo. Yes. Nintendo, the same exact company that made Super Mario and The Legend of Zelda worked on this game, But they only published it. The real developers were Ganbarion, more famous for the boat-load of their many One Piece games.

And, we get to what the game actually contains. As stated by the back of the game's package, it has 41 Weekly Shonen Jump series and a total of over 300 characters. At first, I can guarantee you would probably be thinking that this game has over 300 playable characters. But unfortunately, only 27 of these represented series actually contain at least one playable character, and if you were to add all of then up, the game has only around 50 characters you can actually control. I consider that a major disappointment, seeing as only one-sixth of the characters can be controlled by the player. (Nearly) Everyone else only appears as "Support characters" that you can call in for a short time to assist you during battle. At least you can play as classic Jump heroes like Goku, Ichigo, Luffy, and the dreaded Naruto. At least the good thing is, you can have everyone beat the living s#$@ out of Naruto, and enjoy it 100% of the time.

Now, we go onto the game's main story. From all the information I'm aware of, from my first playthrough (be warned, I am going to spoil a bit of the plot here), there is a land far away in space, known as the Jump World, where all the characters and their respective series' universes reside, until a mysterious character, later revealed near the end of the game as Dr. Mashirito, the evil mad scientist of Akira Toriyama's Dr. Slump, has shot all of the series deep into space, and sent the Jump World plummeting down a black hole (the Jump Blackhole to be precise.). Five lucky survivors, which consist of Son Goku (Dragon Ball), Gintoki Sakata (Gin Tama), Monkey D. Luffy (One Piece), Toru Muhyo (Muhyo & Roji's Bureau of Supernatural Investigation), and *sigh...* Naruto Uzumaki (Naruto), jump out of the Jump World as it is sucked into the black hole. The Jump Pirate (the name I give to the floating pirate head, the mascot of Weekly Shonen Jump) finds these five characters, and sends them to Earth (and a nearby asteroid) to train for their big adventure. As you advance further through the game, you'll encounter other worlds (located in the Jump Space, Jump Galaxy, and Jump Blackhole), recruit other characters that decide to help you on your journey, and soon, face the dreaded Doctor.

The gameplay first begins with you assembling a deck made up of "koma" (the Japanese word for Panel.), which is generally the team you will bring into the different battles, which consist of Battle (the characters you control), Support (the characters you can summon to assist you), and Help (characters that "attach" to Battle Komas to boost their power or give them new abilities, like a triple jump or wall jump. After your team is ready, your are sent into a page of Weekly Shonen Jump to fight one to three other teams that have one simple goal: Making sure you don't come out alive. If you win (in Story mode, that is), you will receive additional Komas and gems (the general currency of the game, consisting of Rubies, Topazes, Emeralds, Sapphires, Amethysts, and Diamonds, the last 3 being harder to find than the first.), which you use to upgrade the characters you receive, unlocking new Support and Battle Komas, as well as a couple other bonus content here and there, stuff you can (hopefully) enjoy, even without understanding Japanese.

Now comes the flaws. Yea, Every game is bound to have some sort of minor/major flaws, and this definitely has a few. Obviously, the game does not exist in any language other than Japanese (although I heard an un-official English translation patch was released a while ago), you probably have a bit of trouble navigating through the menus and beating the different missions without using a online walkthrough. But after a while, you'll begin to get used to the menus, you can get through them with little to no problem. Second, is the fighting themselves. I must ask this, Why doesn't this game have combo attacks that involve multiple pushes of the buttons to perform different attacks? I don't know why this game would lack a common feature in fighting games, but I have absolutely nothing to do about it. I can't really find anything else that pisses me off for now, so I'll stop here. (other than the fact I must address there are no alternative colors when two players control the same character.)

In conclusion, I don't recommended Jump Ultimate Stars that much to anyone that doesn't like Shonen Jump and/or fighting games in general, but if you can somehow find a copy of it, whenever it be online or in a retail store, I'd say check out. Otherwise, stay away.

Jump Ultimate Stars receives a 8.7/10.

JTLYK...

Hello everyone. Just thought I should mention, I do have plans to create Facebook and Twitter accounts. I don't know why, I'm guessing since a few amount of my friends have accounts on those sites, I thought I should join them, and all the other many users that are on the site. Once I do so, links to them will pop up in the Links section. on the right.

An epic flash game that you all should check out.

Since one of my favorite internet idols mentioned this on his website, I should take the time to tell you about the absolutely epic Super Mario Bros. Crossover flash game created by Exploding-Rabbit.

What is this, you ask? Well, if you have ever played the original Super Mario Bros. or any of its ports, this should be a no brainer. This flash game is a near-perfect replica of Nintendo's flagship game, except this version throws in five additional playable characters form The Legend of Zelda, Contra, Castlevania, Mega Man, and Metroid, which all play like the games they originated from, but adjusted very slightly to fit the Mario style.

I'm not going to discuss this game any further, so you can head over to Newgrounds and give it a shot, or visit the official page for more information.

A new piece of fanart

Well, it's time to make a post about one thing, my very own art, and this time, I've decided to showcase my recent and possibly most successful of all the ones I've done in my lifetime. And that would be: *drumroll*

This:

If anyone doesn't know who this is, this is Neku Sakuraba, the main protagonist from the 2007-08 RPG known as The World Ends with You. Shouldn't be any harder to explain than that.