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.

What to expect from me in the future.

Hey. I just thought I should write some detailed info here, because I'm getting bored. If you are reading this, congrats, because I hardly get any views here.

Well, everyone should know I do have plans to create games. None of them, (and I repeat, none.) have gotten past the concept stage, so in other words, development hasn't started yet on any of them. So please do not jump on the ban-wagon until I provide some preview screenshots and videos.

I generally have plans to create original games (i.e. Aozora Jitsuwa) that are somewhat based on and will be treated as tributes to other games, like Super Mario and Mega Man.

Alongside that, I also would like to remake older games (mostly obscure puzzle games), such as Diamonds, Fire 'n Ice, Pajama Sam's Sock Works, Jumpman, and Armadillo. This series of fan- remakes will be titled the "REVIVAL!!" project, featuring new elements, new levels, and more. Just for the heck of it, here's a preview of the Diamonds remake, showing a sample sprite sheet.

And I should also mention, Since Pajama Sam's Sock Works is more of a little kid's game. (aimed at 3-8 year olds), I will be removing all references (but still give credit) to Humongous' different series. Instead, It'll be themed after my own series, Aozora Jitsuwa.

And since we're here, why not I show a preview of that game too?

Aside from the games, I also have plans to construct several of my own sites. One which will be an official Aozora Jitsuwa site, both in English and Japanese language, (I'll need some help with the Japanese, though!) a site where I'll provide in-depth information on all the games I happen to own or played in my lifetime, and a main HUB site that will link to those two sites, as well as this blog.

Well, that's all for now.

Some few words.

Hey everyone. I just thought I should write something decent on my blog. Normally, I don't write much here because this blog lacks the popularity of my deviantART account. I expect to maybe get some more comments and followers here once I make a game/upload something that's an actual video on Youtube. Regardless, It'll probably be a long time before this blog gets the same amount of attention as my dA.

First off, I e-mailed [erka:es], the doujin circle responsible for the Rosenkreuzstilette series, to see if I could get one last shot at apologizing to them. I didn't e-mail them through the site's "MAIL" section, I did it through the e-mail address attached in the manual attached to the game. As of this moment, they have yet to send a reply and/or accept the apology, but I'll give it a couple of weeks. And if they don't, I'll just have to throw in the towel and accept the fact [erka:es] does not like me, despite the fact I consider myself as a very big fan of their series, even though some would disagree. /(-_-)\

And now that we got that aside, let's move on. Well, Believe it or not, there is this one kid in my gym class who is a grade lower than me is pretty annoying towards me, and to this date, no matter what I try to do or say to him, I can't get him to act nicely or get a change in heart. And it's not just me, he refers to half of the students in his class as "stupid" or "idiots" and even told me "you need help" as if I'm a person with a very low I.Q.. Just to let you all know, I have great grades in my school, as I received a 95% average in my math class. So how can a person described as "retarded" get an average that high? And if that wasn't enough, this boy also thinks he can defeat me in a fight, even though he is smaller and much weaker than me. I'm not going to specify what his name, appearance and other stuff is like.

I'll conclude this update here.

For those of you concerned,...

No. I haven't given up drawing. It's just that as I have many other things I want to do besides draw fanart, I haven't been able to complete many in the past few weeks. To word it simply, I'm not stopping or quitting art, but I'm quite busy. At least some of you should be proud of the fact I'm not uploading something every day, which was one major problem that a good number had with me. Everything back then was rushed, making them look terrible. But now they're not as rushed as they were. I put a bit more time and effort in my artwork, which explains why everything looks more detailed and superior to my old stuff. I know by heart it will probably take a long time for me before I "nearly" perfect my art, but we'll see what happens.

And for the haters, please drop those grudges you may have against me. You have no reason to hate and/or ignore me anymore, even if you dislike my artwork. If you were a victim of my terrible troll-like attitude, I made a full-length apology a while ago stating my changes.

Salary Man Champ Tatakau Salary Man, an Unknown Japanese Game

Look at this. I actually tried chopping off characters from the back of a Japanese Playstation Game.

^not my art.

Who are these three men? They're the main characters from Salary Man Champ Tatakau Salary Man, a Japanese game originally released in 2000 by Success and Konami. (the later famous for the Castlevania series) for the Playstation. (and after further research, arcades.) It's a "minigame compilation" where these three men compete in several minigames very much like in Mario Party, to prove who's the best.

Don't believe me? here's a TAS that shows the entire game.

This is not my video. I'm just showcasing the only gameplay video that is currently up on Youtube.

Hey.

Hello everyone. Since tomorrow is Easter, in my area, I should make a small update.

First off, I have been given permission to re-join a popular Mega Man fansite known as Rockman Perfect Memories, after I was previously banned late July 2009. The first day went a little rough, so because of that, I would only be replying to existing posts until I became more used to the system, and from there I would create my own topics. Overall, this alone is causing me to get slightly interested in the series again. Not long before I download and try out Mega Man 10. (well, my Wii's memory is running very low, unfortunately.)

About my SMW Hack. It is true it is longer available for download. Work has begun on a newer version which will feature newer content. If you are however, still interested in playing the first version of the hack, shoot me an email, and I'll send you the IPS patch.

Mario hack Done???

Oh yea. My first Mario World Hack is finally complete.

But unfortently, they took the hack down, and it is no longer available for download, sadly...

Viacom Strikes

Watch this video from Mike Mozart of Jeepersmedia to get the full story. If you have a Youtube account, pay urgent attention to this video, because it is highly recommended you watch this to see what Viacom is currently doing.

Final(?) update for March

Since the month is coming to an end real soon, I might as well mention a few new things.

First off, Nintendo has recently announced a new model of their DS line, entitled the "Nintendo 3DS", which is said to have 3D effects without the usage of special glasses. (such as the ones that you get from theaters) As of now, there is not much to say about this, until E3 2010.

And up second, I'm thinking of going back to playing Roller Coaster Tycoon 2, because it has been a long time since I last tried out that game, and also since there are a few nice-looking scenarios up for download on a specific site, and also since that was one of my all time favorite games when I was younger. (But too bad the series wend downhill with the third installment. Thank you Frontier Developments, for destroying a great series of games.)

Apparently, I'm also taking a small break from drawing artwork. I'm not stopping entirely, but I want to spend some quality time doing other things, so I'll put that on hold. (although I am planning Zorne Sepperin and Trauare Wrede fanart before the end of this month)

Hey... everyone...

Happy St Patricks Day!

Sorry for not updating this blog in so long. It's just that as I stated before, there isn't much that I can really talk about. While I do have a number of characters I'd like to give a shot at drawing, I just hadn't had time, sadly, though I have been doing a couple of things to keep myself entertained, so that could possibly be why I hadn't been working on anything lately.

Just wanted to let you know I'm still here.

A small "interview".

UPDATE: now with new content! (and now with even more)

NOTE: this post is only intended for haters and semi-haters, who hold grudges against me.

Hello there. Since there are still some things that bug me to this very day, I decided to do up some sort of fake interview with myself asking questions to, well, myself.

Take note I am going to mention Super Justin here, for specific purposes, because it's somewhat crucial to this post. (and if you're wondering, I'm NOT going to bring that series back.)

And so we begin...

"What is Super Justin and why did you cancel it?"

The Super Justin series (which for some time, I referred to as a "franchise") was intended to be a series of Super Mario/Sonic the Hedgehog hybrids staring myself, as a japanese fourteen year-old boy dressed mostly in blue defending the world against various different enemies. The two main reasons why it was cancelled was because 1. to avoid copyright issues with the characters I had stolen, such as Grolla Seyfarth from Rosenkreuzstilette and Roark from Pokemon, and 2. because I couldn't take anymore negative criticism, as it was driving me to insanity.

"Are you going to bring the "franchise" back?"

As I have stated, no. (and I'm serious when I say this)

"Why did you go around telling everyone that Rosenkreuzstilette was worse than your "franchise" and insulated [erka:es]?"

This is somewhat difficult to explain in full detail, but if you want to know, I can spare some details on what was going on.

Personally, while I do like playing the Mega Man games a lot, I prefer the Super Mario and Sonic the Hedgehog series over Mega Man, which is possibly why I said my "franchise" would surpass Rosenkreuzstilette, but that turned out to be a big mistake, since for one thing, I didn't even make a game for that "franchise", so there was absolutely nothing to compare RKS to. Plus, to add to all this ruckus, I even said it was "too scary," saying the game's colors weren't that colorful. Looking back, I can see this game was intended for a older audience than I had expected, so I withdrew that useless complaint, seeing how a good game doesn't have to be colorful, and have practically every stage take place in a dungeon/castle/fortress/tower. (and let's not forget the religious symbols.)

For the insulating [erka:es] part, the prime thing I said was they were "uncreative", due to many of the elements, characters, and enemies from the original RKS being based on or inspired by various things from other popular video game series. After some time, I soon released what I had said was wrong, as [erka:es] does in fact have a good amount of creativity that they're able to create something that's worth playing for the fun, and of course, the nostalgic factor. I have tried apologizing to them, but they have yet to respond.

(Yes, I'm willing to admit I made many mistakes back then, and I'm sure I will never again.)

"Why did you attempt to bash Spiritia Rosenberg?"

If you recalled the roster of the "franchise", there were nine characters, four taken directly and edited from RKS, four my shameful male counterparts, and my even more shameful uh... "myself." Truth be told, the reason is because Spiritia wasn't in the "franchise" to begin with, as I was in her place. Another thing to add was I originally didn't like her design, because I thought her design was inferior to the other characters, such as Grolla's and Eifer's. Upon further thought, I soon changed my opinions about Spiritia, and soon wished I never said that in the first place, because I find Spiritia to have a very decent design, probably one of the best I've ever seen.

"Why did some of your earlier artworks of Sichte Meister include her with massive breasts and buttocks?"

I don't know how to explain this one. It's just I had a passion for dark-skinned people with enlarged boobs and a big butt to go with it. (I'm not trying to offend anyone when I say this. If I do, then I'm sorry.) Since Sichte Meister has the darkest skin of any of the Rosenkreuzstilette characters as of this date, I'd thought I should try the concept on her, but unfortently, it didn't work, at all. In fact, it was a big mistake. Sometimes, I wonder to myself "why".

"I heard you used to act like a troll. Is that true?"

Yes, I will admit I was once a terrible troll. But now I have been maturing, and I know better not to troll. But the reason I was is because I wanted to get popular by telling people to "check out my gallery" as well as "I drew him/her too". If you were to look at some of the really bad troll-comments on dA I had made, you would see a reply from me saying something like "Why did I say that?".

"Some people say you and your artwork are bad, right?"

Yep. I'm highly aware that there are several people online that dislike and wish to show no respect to me, and I'll accept that, since lots of people, both in real life and in the online community have enemies. As for the artwork part, I can agree and say for one thing, My artwork isn't, and possibly will never be, top-notch, but my artwork has gotten better as time passed. And allow me to compare two different artworks done several months apart.

Take this fanart of Neuro from Yusei Matsui's Majin Tentei Nogami Neuro series, which was done on June 6th, 2009. As you'd probably expect, this was something done during my first few months of activity on deviantART, and, as you'd also expect, it's not worth looking at. His head is too large, his legs seem to be too short, and well, the proportions are way off. But... if you were to compare it to...

this, which was done on Febuary 12, 2010, you'd see a major improvement. I'm not ging to discuss what looks and appears better, but you should get the idea of what I'm trying to say.

"Bad Character Design?"

Believe it or not, yes. Some people claim the characters I design, like Aozora from my new series, as either cruddy or something the opposite sex would wear. I do accept critiques on the characters that I designed for Aozora Jistuwa, so hopefully if I can get some good ones, I may be able to get better at designing them.

"Were you once an art thief?"

During my first few weeks of activity on deviantART, yes. As I spent gradually more time, I started doing it less until the content of my artwork became entirely original work hand-drawn by me. (even if it's fanart of someone else's character.) Although I was still pretty much stealing when it comes to the Super Justin Wiki, which had all of its content entirely removed by me not long ago. At first, I thought I could easily get away with it, as I have seen multiple people on deviantART upload stuff with copyrighted material, (I guess since nobody reported them) but after thinking it out for a bit, I soon took action and removed the stolen content immediately, making it something I no longer have to worry about. Bottom line, I stopped stealing artwork, and never will again.

"I heard there was fanart of characters from the "franchise" not made by you, right?"

Believe it or not, yes. And I feel ashamed of myself for doing that. If you happened to be a victim of this and hadn't taken down your Super Justin fanart, please do so.

Well, this is all I have to say, for now, I hope you understand, and to the majority of my haters, I'm very sorry for all the trouble I had caused.