How 2022 Became the Best Year

Well, everyone, this year is starting to be the best and we are nearing the end of 2022 before we get to 2023. So before we get to how 2022 became the best year, we'll talk about the past years.

2020:

It has become a dreadful year because of the pandemic of the virus called COVID-19 (Coronavirus Disease 2019). It started this late 2019. We all know that it has an origin to what caused the pandemic. There was an animal being sold at the Wuhan seafood market or whatever the heck that is and it caused the virus to spread across the world. That's when every place closes, we were locked up in the house, had to practice social distancing and wear masks. I was able to watch Sonic the Hedgehog 1 at my local movie theater that makes me think of Skullgirls before the pandemic started. Great video game movie, by the way.

On that year, we went digital and organizers had to start their big fighting game tournaments in an online format to have games with rollback netcode to produce a good and smooth online experience without all that lag. But one good thing has happened that year. The PS5 and Xbox Series X/S came out, but they started out rocky because they were immediately sold out.

2021:

The previous year is when vaccines start to roll out across the globe. They usually take years, but global teamwork is how vaccines get finished in record time. They are an important tool to end the COVID-19 pandemic and create a light at the end of the tunnel. Then all of a sudden, variants pop out of the wazoo to prolong the pandemic. Then there are booster shots that can target the dreaded Omicron variant. Weird, we got Transformers up in this.

While people are getting vaccinated, the virus circulated until enough people get immunized to trigger herd immunity, which couldn't be reached because of the variants. It was an alright year that they announced that they are getting their tournaments back to their offline tournaments in 2022.

It is also the year when Joe Biden became President of the United States and his first order was to get millions of people vaccinated and his goal was reached. I am giving props to him for such remark. While we couldn't hit herd immunity, there has been some developments, like working towards the return to our normal activities, That development turned out well and pandemics usually last two years. We do know that there won't be a permanent pandemic and that's a good thing. All I care about is wanting the pandemic to end.

2022:

Now, this year became the best year. Not only we recovered from the pandemic after two years. But there are a lot of good things that happened below.

The Launch of the New PlayStation Plus:

I'm gonna start with the elephant in the room, the all new PlayStation Plus. Since the PS4 came out, it introduced PSNow, a streaming service that has a limited amount of games across the PlayStation family and no more classic games have not been added. Nine years later, PSNow is retired in favor of the all new PlayStation Plus to have three tiers, Essential, Extra and Premium. The Premium tier is something special. It has access to streaming, trials and playing classic games released on the PS1, PS2, PSP and PS3. That caught mine and other players' eye that we can celebrate the legacy with the PS Plus Premium tier.

The PS3 library is huge and has a lot of games, but they are only available for streaming since the PS3 console is a hurdle. The library of PS1, PS2 and PSP games started out small, but more games are being added monthly. Even the PS3 games. I'm looking for the ones that are on my wish list and so far, more PS3 games have been added this month, though it has a big library.

I got a couple of PS2 games and one PS1 game on my library at the moment and I felt reunited with them after years. What really hit me is when I get ready to play some Jak X: Combat Racing the first time in a while, the Dolby Surround Pro Logic II logo appears and then comes the Science of Sensation and the THX logo. Man, oh, man, it feels good to be reunited with my favorite PS2 and PS1 games and I felt that emotional. December is around the corner and I hope they added more PS2 and PS1 games on that month and not just PS3 games because they are only available for streaming and there are plenty to choose from. Even if they do, it has to be at least the ones in my wish list.

The Return to Offline Events:

Ever since the pandemic has hit, fighting game tournaments have been relegated to their online format to have games with rollback netcode. But this year, it is not the case. Offline tournaments are back and better than ever. But this time, they had to wear masks as a safety precaution.

You know that episode in South Park where the boys watch the Russell Crowe Show for the Terrance and Phillip movie trailer in one of the commercial breaks? Well, it inspired me to do the same, by watching events for reveals, like EVO for example. It's the biggest event that has reveals. That's why they called EVO the "Super Bowl" of the FGC and we are so glad the biggest thrill ride of the year is back in Vegas. So does the Japanese venue of EVO, returning early 2023 with seven games on the lineup.

The lineup reveal show was amazing. It had exhibitions and became a celebration. When they mentioned the word "sharpie", I was like "Sharpie? *gasp* That means... It's officially happening! Skullgirls is making its mainstage debut at this year's EVO!" That's the moment that made me feel so emotional that Skullgirls has finally made its mainstage debut at EVO as the mainstage game after ten years. That's how I feel when I was watching the Hi-Rez Presents keynote. That's how the New Terrance and Phillip Movie Trailer episode inspired me to do the same.

It's too bad Smash couldn't make it at EVO this year because Nintendo has announced that they won't be joining the party to mean that any of their Smash games won't be in the lineup. Since 2007, Smash has been a great starting point for EVO and Nintendo has decided not to continue the tradition after 15 years. For the record, it's Nintendo's fault that Smash couldn't make it, not Sony's fault for purchasing EVO.

Back in 2020, before the pandemic raged, Smash Ultimate was announced to be in that year's lineup. Later, the COVID-19, pandemic came to be and EVO Online was announced to have fewer games, but with rollback netcode to produce a smooth and lag-free netplay and Smash isn't one of them due to its terrible netcode. EVO Online 2020 was cancelled due to the expected controversy that was caused by allegations of sexual misconduct against former CEO.

15 years later, Nintendo has announced that they won't be attending at EVO this year, but they'll continue to assess EVO and other opportunities as they plan future online and offline Smash tournaments. It's okay. I don't blame Nintendo for their decision. Smash is usually limited to tournament legal stages, like Pokemon Coliseum and Final Smashes are banned in official tournaments anyway. If they made the Final Smash meter legal in official tournaments, that would make it feel like they are playing a traditional fighting game because you know, super meters in fighting games.

Smash may not be at EVO since Nintendo made a decision following Sony's purchase, but that didn't stop Smash players from attending. There is one Smash player named Leffen, who attended to sign up for Guilty Gear Strive, which had the most sign ups to be played last at the arena where the top four games with the highest signups are played at. That's what also makes EVO the biggest thrill ride of the year. EVO 2022 had the same moments I experienced on Hi-Expo, which is the Super Bowl of the Hi-Rez community but back in 2018 when the event moved to Dreamhack Atlanta and it deserved the Team Sonic Racing seal of approval. What made it so are Sony's purchase of EVO, A Smash-less EVO after 15 years since 2007, the return to Las Vegas and Skullgirls' main stage debut. These are the four things that made it so.

Keef has an EVO 2022 skit up on YouTube. Go check it out. I do feel bad about Smash not being in EVO this year since Nintendo does not want to work with Sony following their purchase. Just because Sony bought EVO doesn't mean they are restricted to bringing only Sony consoles. Nintendo actually removed their games from the lineup and I don't blame them. That's what the "it's not me, it's you" slang is for. I fear that the future of EVO won't have any of the Smash games ever again. We'll find out as we get closer to the point.

EVO is back and better than ever. Here's to EVO 2023 and EVO Japan 2023 and the possibility of watching more reveals while being inspired by the South Park episode, the New Terrance and Phillip Movie Trailer. I have a couple of things to improve my experience with watching EVO.

• Less frequent commercial breaks
• Lineup announcement shows without exhibitions

The Return of Nevercake:

My favorite YouTuber is back after a hiatus of three and a half years. There is the return of the SMITE Lore series with Yu Huang and the return of the Nevercake Twins with the first OH! So Spooky Show episode. It has been a good moment and we are glad he's back, though I noticed some of his videos were deleted. It is indeed hopeful that Nevercake is back and that's what made this a good thing that happened this year.

Modus Games' Acquisition with MANE6:

This is the second to best thing that happened and it's big too. Before I get to the point, I start with the past.

Back in February 22, 2018, Them's Fightin' Herds was released on Steam. It's developed by MANE6 and was published by Humble Games.

Before the name "Them's Fightin' Herds" was announced, the game was previously named "My Little Pony: Fighting is Magic" and it was developed by a developer that is named after a group in My Little Pony, MANE6. But Hasbro has witnessed that they are infringing their copyright and dropped a cease and desist order on them. So MANE6 started developing their project from scratch and this time, they are renaming it to "Them's Fightin' Herds" and redoing characters from their My Little Pony bodies into their original bodies to avoid copyright infringement. But one pony character is still there but for totally different reasons.

The name "MANE6" applies to a six pony group in My Little Pony, so the game started out with six playable characters that are all female to stay true to their name. Whereas Arizona is inspired by Applejack for example.

Over two and a half years later since release, they cut ties with Humble Games. I know cut ties usually means no longer supporting the individuals after they did bad stuff that aren't excusable, like Kanye West's antisemitism comments that caused department stores to stop seeling Yeezys. But Humble didn't do anything wrong, so it's more like part ways. Since late 2017, MANE6 and Humble worked together to support Them's Fightin' Herds through the Early Access phase into their 1.0 and 2.0 releases. Going forward, they are gonna not only part ways with Humble, but wish them the best of luck. But the game is still up on Humble Bundle.

The game's development turned out well, even without Humble. But several problems have hit, like crowdfund rewards being in limbo for a long time and development on the Astral Heat-style lv. 3 supers turning out well, but going a bit slow.

But over three and a half years later since release, Modus Games, the publisher of Cris Tales and other projects came to be to acquire MANE6 to benefit the significant growth of their team back in January 20th of this year finishing what Humble Games could not. It benefitted a lot of resources MANE6 needs to make their game successful. Them's Fightin' Herds is going into higher acclaim and greater heights as development is speeding up and getting a ton of improvements and resources thanks to Modus.

Modus Games did this because certain crowdfund rewards have been stuck in limbo, they wouldn't develop the 8th character until Chapter 2 starring Velvet is finished and console ports are time-consuming and expensive projects. Their power made everything happen. I'm gonna go over the two things that happened thanks to Modus; the console ports and new characters.

First off, the most requested one, console ports. When Them's Fightin' Herds first released on Steam, we requested console ports and we dreamed of them. In previous updates, MANE6 said that they needed to make the Mac and Linux ports go through in development. The Mac and Linux builds have been finished and they were giving development of console ports a go, but unfortunately, they hit a snag. They are not that simple to work on because they are time-consuming and expensive. That meant that our dream will not become a reality.

But a year later since the development update, they came to Them's Fightin' Herds October 18 with crossplay thanks to the help of Modus, who are a much bigger and much richer publisher than Humble should've been and their power made them possible. It benefitted an ESRB rating of E10+ for Fantasy Violence, Use of Tobacco and Alcohol Reference and localization. And we're getting ingame subtitles that other 2D fighting games like BBTAG and Melty Blood: Type Lumina have so players can understand the smack talking too.

Seeing that has given me the courage to announce that I'll be adding a TFH character to my BBTAG 3.0 Character Pack wish list divided into six waves as a cherry on top in honor of console ports being inevitable thanks to Modus' help and I did.

Annie from Skullgirls is in Wave 5 of my wish list, so I added Tianhuo to Wave 6 of my wish list to have all six waves of four characters and they would be freaking dope in BBTAG. It's like saying Static Shock would be awesome in MultiVersus and I agree because I want him in the game and his live action movie is in the works too. Sound Stage 15 and Huoshan Capital are their stages they'll come with. And I written them a moveset to show how they perform in BBTAG.

You know that Annie will have her Japanese voice at the end of the Season 1 Pass period and it'll sound the same in BBTAG, so while MANE6 has no plans for Japanese voices, Tianuho will have hers in BBTAG.

Before Arc System Works starts adding Annie and Tianhuo to BBTAG with their stages and character themes, they need permission from not Autumn and Modus, but from Hidden Variable and MANE6. You just need to understand the concept of the Canopy Kingdom's brave TV hero and Foenum's fiery dragon teaming up with each other, but they can't escape from crossing fate.

Anyway, console ports wouldn't come to Them's Fightin' Herds without Modus' power and help. If I recall correctly, those players were having trouble setting up their controls when I was watching Combo Breaker. That's because they were playing the Steam version, which became a pain to deal with when it comes with button setups in offline tournaments. But with the console ports, players will no longer play the Steam version, but they will play the PS4 version on offline tournaments without any hassle going forward.

If Them's Fightin' Herds makes their mainstage debut at EVO 2023, I'll be ready for a Keef video about that. And console players, a paid subscription is required to play online.

Now let's go on to the second to the most requested one, the new characters. Since release, the game starts out with six characters and later, Shanty was added as the 7th playable character. The 8th character is coming, but they got to work on Chapter 2 starring Velvet first before developing the next new character and that's a snag there.

Fortunately, Modus' acquisition benefitted more than one combat developer on their team. It means the Story Mode chapters and the new characters are being developed simultaneously, as well as the lv. 3 supers that they had to finish before developing the new characters. However, Story Mode won't be finished this year because working on console ports and localization demanded more time from engineers and writers. And now that they are complete, production on Story Mode can be their top priority again.

At the end of Top 8 at Combo Breaker, they have announced a Season 1 Pass. Like Skullgirls 2nd Encore's Season 1 Pass, Them's Fightin' Herds' Season 1 Pass has four new characters with their stages and a palette pack for those who bought the Season 1 Pass. It comes with exclusive content, like lobby avatars each new character has and exclusive content. It's good enough with Skullgirls 2nd Encore getting four new characters through its Season 1 Pass to expand the roster to 18. Now it's with Them's Fightin' Herds getting four new characters through its Season 1 Pass to expand the roster to 11. That's a good thing because both fighting games with Otter UI deserved a Season Pass to join other fighting games that have them.

After Top 8 at Summer Jam, Texas was revealed as the first Season 1 Pass character and his development turned out well. He was supposed to release in November, but apparently, he is so large that he has hit a bit of a snag there. It's likely that he'll be released in December. Texas' Astral Heat remains a mystery until he is at the final stage of development. The second character, however, is not the case because production on them has made much further progress. It's because they are not large like Texas.

A before and after regarding Modus' acquisition is clear.

Before Modus' acquisition:

• The 8th character is coming, but Chapter 2 starring Velvet must be finished first.
• Since the reveal of the mockups, crowdfunding rewards been in limbo for over a year.
• No plans for console ports because they are time consuming, expensive projects. They aren't that simple, even with Humble. Because of that, our dream will not be a reality.
• Astral Heat-style lv. 3s are developing well, but being a bit slow since Chapter 1 starring Arizona was released.

After Modus' acquisition:

• Story Mode and the new characters are being developed simultaneously and faster than before. Modus' acquisition benefitted more than one combat dev to make things faster and the announcement of a Season 1 Pass is the cherry on top.
• Progression on the crowdfunding rewards are finally being made after being in limbo. Being a part of Modus gave MANE6 the power to get the rest of the crowdfund rewards fulfilled.
• Console ports being inevitable. We requested them and they aren't that simple. But thanks to their new partners Modus, our dream is becoming a reality as console ports have happened and crossplay and adding a Them's Fightin' Herds character to my BBTAG 3.0 Character Pack wish list would be the cherry on top to even out the waves so Annie wouldn't be the only character from a fighting game that uses Otter UI in my wish list. That even benefitted the possibility of shifting from playing the Steam version to the PS4 version on offline tournaments going forward.
• Development on the Astral Heat-style supers getting a boost. Their new talent helped them get to the finish line faster.

With Modus' power, the development of Them's Fightin' Herds can continue well going forward.

10 Years of Skullgirls:

This is the best thing happened this year. The only fighting game that couldn't catch a break despite previous setbacks and my local movie theater makes me think of at night because of its art deco structure. Skullgirls has turned a decade old with its debut to EVO as a mainstage game as a cherry on top. It first came out April 10th, 2012 on the PS3. Ten years later, boom, Skullgirls has stayed alive for ten years and Valentine is getting reworked and a lot of other things are coming and the release of Umbrella was just the beginning and Active Angel would be the cherry on top to fit perfectly with her so that Dolby Surround wouldn't backfire on me and I had to make a Platinum the Trinity palette out of her. With Mike Zaimont and Joey Cuellar not being a part of the party, Skullgirls' mainstage debut at EVO became so big that THX is grand there since Gormiti hadn't got a live action film adaptation yet knowing it deserved the Team Sonic Racing seal of approval.

I had to say that because first comes Joey Cuellar not being at EVO following the pedophilia allegations consisting of paying young boys tokens to take off their clothes and paying the accuser to show his penis while he was 17 years old. And then comes Mike Zaimont not being a part of the Skullgirls development following the part where he sexually harassed his employees and they had to leave Lab Zero and Skullgirls' mainstage debut at EVO 2022 would be the cherry on top. I understand sexually harassing his employees who are adults to make Lab Zero Games unsafe is not a crime and not unlawful, but pedophilia; it is not something to joke about. So long to those guys that got accused right in the palm of my hand.

Look, I know I shouldn't mention the names of those who became despicable after conducting sexual actions, but I just want to inform you on what's going on if you don't know what happened to them and what did they do and it was no different than the situation surrounding Jesse McCree, who was sent to hate city.

Black Dahlia is almost here in Mobile as they give us a first gameplay trailer on Mobile to represent that all of her animations are complete. From what I noticed, she has a special not yet seen on 2nd Encore. I'm gonna keep hoarding my standard relics until 5.3 and that's where Black Dahlia gets fully available in all standard relics because if I open them when 5.2 releases, I won't be getting her variants from standard relics until 5.3.

Mariel Cartwright is working on an illustration of Black Dahlia on stream. Two parts are done, but it's not yet finished. I am hopfeul that part three might be the final part.

Once she is released on Mobile, her stuff will be added to the palette editor and that's where I come in to make changes to her Nine the Phantom palette in one of her final poses under her stuff. And we'll soon get info about her release on 2nd Encore soon. Once she is in Beta, more of her palettes will be added and that's where I come in to find out if Black Dahlia got her Nine the Phantom palette during development or not. If not, then it stays in my palette pack because it is intended to have characters that don't have palettes of BBTAG characters based on BBTAG character themes fitting well with their personality. Then it's off to the wait for Marie where I make an Orie palette out of her since Purity & Strictly is a perfect theme for her. She is a goth, but notably, her maid suit seals the deal. If she doesn't get it during development, it stays.

They are also working on the networking refactors to greatly improve online stability and fix long standing issues that have been a thorn on our side since lobbies came to consoles and add new online features. Some of the issues were fixed, but sometimes new bugs come up and that's why they are in the Beta version on Steam so they can fix many critical bugs as they can. The article has that paragraph that caught my eye.

It said that the codebase upgrades are gonna make console development easier going forward and not just on PS4. It indicated that 2nd Encore and the Season 1 Pass are being actively developed as an update for the Switch to be in parity with the Steam and PS4 versions and as a new release for Xbox. The Switch and the Xbox players are joining the Season 1 Pass period and beyond.

For the Xbox side of things, since Skullgirls 2nd Encore first came out on the PS4 and as a separate pack on Steam, the Xbox One couldn't get it and had to play the outdated Xbox 360 version. It's because they been suffering through headaches trying to release it on it. Then nine years later, Skullgirls is back on the Xbox scene, thanks to the rewrite of the codebase that makes console development much easier. Please understand that the Xbox development of Skullgirls only covers the Xbox One and it won't be the only Microsoft console getting it because the Xbox Series X|S is also getting the 2nd Encore release. The Xbox 360 version will most likely remain left in the dust forever as it will not be updated and will not have lobbies.

For the Switch side of things, since the announcement of Annie and the Season 1 Pass, Hidden Variable and Future Club tried giving developing it for the Switch a go, but there has been some snags that technical issues have been hit. It's not because Skybound is behind the publishing of the Nintendo Switch version of 2nd Encore. Thankfully, with the rewrite of the codebase that makes console development much easier going forward, the update for the Switch is being actively developed without hitting any snags. 

Eighty Sixed has a Skullgirls 10th Anniversary t-shirt and I snagged me one along with the sweet Annie t-shirt. I think I'll pull a Cas from Fextralife by wearing my 10th Anniversary t-shirt while playing Skullgirls on both PC and console either when Black Dahlia is fully released or after I get my new 4K TV or after Marie hits Alpha on PC. We'll see.

A Webtoon comic adaptation for Skullgirls came out and I enjoyed every second of it. That's why I used the "I know the moves. Now I understand the story" tagline. Even Canopolis is up high at the beginning of the chapter released yesterday. New chapters come out every Friday.

A Webtoon adaptation is awesome, but you know what will also be awesome? A Skullgirls anime adaptation. With all of the awesomeness that would be Johnny Test, Bob's Burgers, League of Super Evil, Super Mario Bros. Z, BlazBlue: Alter Memory, Sonic the Hedgehog and Naruto, I think we need a Skullgirls anime. Originally, I wanted a movie adaptation, but I learned that it is not enough filler, so I wanted a TV show adaptation instead.

I really thought that it's gonna be rated TV-14 LSV because the game has a lot of blood and partial nudity consisting of panty shots according to the ESRB rating and there is some swearing. TV-PG rated shows don't have that much blood, use a little sex and use infrequent swearing since the rest of the Futurama episodes are rated TV-14 going forward after Season 6.

So far, besides the release of Black Dahlia, the networking refactors, a Valentine rework, the Season 1 Pass for the Switch, modern Xbox console ports for 2nd Encore and a Webtoon adaptation are happening this year. All of them are great. But the most awesome thing I wanted in Skullgirls are the cinematic lv. 5 Blockbuster Finales. I even thought of one for Black Dahlia as her development marched on too. I'll think of one for Marie once her development rages on.

Two years passed since the Regime fell. Mike Z is behind bars in the graveyard. Mr. Wiz is there with him. But we can't hold on to how they became so despicable after allegations of sexual misconduct against them. We must move on.

Sonic Frontiers:

Probably one of the best Sonic games in ages I ever played did well and couldn't flop. It is the first Sonic game that is open world. Well, open zone. What makes it so special is that it's basically Spyro the Dragon, but with Sonic since it's open zone and bigger. But it's mostly basically Year of the Dragon in terms of the story. I'll do a comparison later on. I enjoyed every second and the plot became so incredible that I felt a lot of Redakai vibes when fighting Guardians and Titans.

I can understand how some of his games had to be crappy. Especially Sonic 06, which had glitches, bad camera angle and unbearable load times. But it has great music, though. If SEGA plans to remake Sonic 06, they must fix the glitches, make load times much shorter and fix the camera angle.

Here's hoping a direct sequel gets announced, but it has to be open zone and I want to play as not just Sonic, but also his friends, like in Rise of Lyric, which I heard it played poorly, the Teen Titans video game, which is in my wish list of PS2 games I want on the PS Plus Premium catalog and Gotham Knights, which I heard bombed real hard because the console version has 30 FPS while the Steam version has 60 FPS. That's just unfair.

Now for the comparison between those two games. In Spyro: Year of the Dragon, while on a Dragon Egg hunt across the four worlds, Spyro has four of his new friends to save, such as Sheila, Sgt. Byrd, Bentley and Agent 9. To do that, he must get enough gems to free his friends trapped in cages by the Sorceress. And then, Bianca McRabbitface came along and was like "Turn back." That is until in the later stage where Bianca was wrong to doubt Spyro. Nice.

It is only a matter of time before Spyro 4 is confirmed. I hope they announce it the Game Awards, which is around the corner or somehow because Crash Bandicoot 4 picked up where Warped left off, so I think Spyro 4 should happen.

In Sonic Frontiers, while on a Chaos Emerald hunt across the five Starfall Islands, Sonic must save three of his friends who are stuck in Cyberspace, such as Tails, Knuckles and Amy. To do that, he must collect memory tokens of his friends to stabilize his friends' memory. Up until Sage came along to undermine him. Geez, passive-aggresive much? But the later stages changed everything and Sage was wrong to doubt Sonic. So far, the friend department has a one friend difference.

SEGA has created a Sonic game that is open zone and basically Spyro: Year of the Dragon in terms of the story. If Nintendo makes a Super Mario game that is a platformer and basically Crash Bandicoot: Warped in terms of the story, it could be named "Super Mario Temporal" and the story could entail Mario gathering Time Stones to restore time to the Mushroom Kingdom.

These are the things that made 2022 the best year ever. This year is not perfect, but this is a good year because a lot of good things have happened. Here's to 2023.

BBTAG Music to SG Update 4.1.1

I wouldn't post another update yet, but I guess it wouldn't hurt to throw out a small update that should hopefully be the last before part two.

In this small update, I'm gonna introduce and talk about the new icon in the legend key. The new marking represents eligibility for the special online casual called Skullgirls X BBTAG and their BBTAG palettes. Both for the palette pack and for the collection. I was gonna use with the asterisk or bring back the checkmark, but the new marking is more ideal.

It goes like this. If -insert character here- is assigned to a BBTAG character theme that doesn't fit perfectly well with their personality, they don't carry the [💠] next to their name. It means that they won't be eligible for their BBTAG palette and they will be banned from my special online casual. But if -insert character here- is assigned to a BBTAG character theme that is a perfect fit with their personality, they carry the [💠] next to their name and they will be eligible for their BBTAG palette and a ticket to the special online casual. It makes it easier to tell who are eligible or not going forward.

Alright, this concludes the introduction. It's time to move on to see how many characters carry the new marking to represent eligibility.

10 out of 15 characters assigned to BlazBlue themes carry the icon with the difference of five characters not carrying the icon.

Five characters may be banned, but the BlazBlue theme department did well with a good number of ten eligible characters out of 15 that carry the new icon.

10 out of 12 characters assigned to Persona 4 Arena themes carry the new icon with the difference of two characters not eligible.

Since my inception of assigning the characters to their BBTAG themes, the section of characters in the Persona 4 Arena theme department did well with a number of ten characters who are eligible for their BBTAG palette and a ticket to Skullgirls X BBTAG after carrying the icon out of twelve, including Mrs. Victoria, who is not on my wish list, but Battle Hymn of the Soul is a perfect fit to indicate that she's eligible for a BBTAG palette and a ticket to a special online casual and that's what matters.

6 out of 12 characters assigned to Under Night In-Birth themes carry the new icon with the difference of six characters not eligible.

Half of the characters assigned to their Under Night In-Birth themes carry the benew icon to  eligible for their BBTAG palette and a ticket to the special online casual. The department does alright. After all, six eligible characters under the UNI department is perfect since Skullgirls has 3v3 battles and now that we're getting Marie as the fourth playable character under the UNI department that is eligible for a BBTAG palette and a ticket to Skullgirls X BBTAG, it is likely to happen more than ever, but only if it's 2v2 in a BBTAG-style tradition.

No characters assigned to the EX Universe themes carry the icon because the palette pack will only have characters who don't have palettes of BlazBlue, Persona 4 Arena and Under Night In-Birth characters in BBTAG in the game.

Here are all of the 43 characters in total and the ones that carry the new icon are eligible for their ticket to my very special online casual and their BBTAG palette. The character section is still cemented for the BBTAG 2.0 period without any theme changes. In total, there are 26 eligible characters out of 43 with the difference of 17 characters that don't have the new marking will be banned from my special online casual and ineligible for their BBTAG palette. It's all the resources I currently have during the BBTAG 2.0 period. Practically speaking, the BBTAG 3.0 period comes with resources I need to make theme changes to get more characters eligible if you look at my wish list of characters I want for the BBTAG 3.0 Character Pack.

Now, for the fun stuff.

All ten characters shown on the PS4 theme carry the new icon and they not only playable, but also eligible for their BBTAG palettes.

These are the ten characters who are all eligible shown on the PS4 theme compiled into this collage below as a treat.

5 out of 6 Cirque des Cartes members carry the new icon with the difference of one Cirque des Cartes member not eligible.

The Cirque des Cartes department did well because it has a good number of characters who are eligible for their BBTAG palettes and a ticket to Skullgirls X BBTAG since their themes fit well with them. One of them isn't eligible because the BBTAG 2.0 period has the resources I have. But five out of six is really good, though. It's highly likely that Cerebella will forever remain the only Cirque des Cartes member assigned to an Under Night In-Birth theme once the BBTAG 3.0 Character Pack is announced since Forceful Step became a perfect fit for her.

2 out of 5 Black Egrets members carry the new icon with the difference of three Black Egrets members not eligible.

3 out of 6 Lab 8 members carry the new icon with the difference of three Lab 8 members not eligible.

11 out of 12 characters under the Hero and Sidekick section carry the new icon with the difference of one ineligible character to be banned.

Here is the list of all 26 eligible characters that carry the new marking next to their name during the BBTAG 2.0 period. The shift to BBTAG music has given me the opportunity to make palettes out of these characters who are assigned to their BBTAG character themes that fit perfectly with them and start my own online casual that restricts to playing as these characters above.

The BlazBlue and Persona 4 Arena theme departments have the same number of characters that carry the new marking that represents eligibility while the Under Night In-Birth theme department has six eligible characters. Not bad, though. The only theme I can still agree with on this list is Forceful Step and that is because of Cerebella's forte of punching and grabbing with her hat with living arms. So here.

MOTOR HEAD = Technology
Alexandrite = Squirrel
Active Angel = Ice cream

Now, let's go over the playable characters.

14 out of 18 playable characters carry the new icon with the difference of four ineligible playable characters that will be banned from my special online casual. It has nine characters assigned to BlazBlue themes, five characters assigned to Persona 4 Arena themes and four characters assigned to Under Night In-Birth themes.

These are the current 14 playable characters that carry the new icon, with five BlazBlue-theme characters, five P4A-themed characters and four UNI-themed characters. Here's a fun fact regarding fighting games with a 14-character roster. Niche anime fighting games, like Aquapazza and Dengeki Bunko: Fighting Climax have a 14-character roster. They aren't that hype as Arc System Works' anime fighting games. And sales for them aren't that hype either.

Here's another Skullgirls X BBTAG graphic listed in cards from Skullgirls Mobile. Each of their palette has a name and updated Black Dahlia's picture now that her sprites are on the palette editor. I left a temporary blank card for Justice Maid and that's gonna the name of Marie's Orie palette. If she does get one during development, that won't affect my work. The ony interesting thing about this list of cards is that the characters that are assigned to Under Night In-Birth themes are dark elemental fighters. Darkness blankets the sky, hence "night" in Under Night In-Birth.

Soon, Marie's picture in her Orie palette will be mine and be on there once her sprites are added to the Palette Editor. Once she is, I'll be showing everyone how fly the 14 Skullgirls characters look in their BBTAG palettes.

I just wanted to give you some pointers that if a character is assigned to a BBTAG character theme that fits perfectly well with their personality, they get a new marking to represent a ticket to my special online casual and eligibility for a BBTAG palette for the palette pack if it's not in the game. This should definetely be the last small revision before part 2.

Joe's Segues - 10/25/22

Ladies and gentlemen, we are inching close to the end of October to get to November and next Monday is Halloween, so be sure to grab your gear and go trick-or-treating and get your Halloween blockbuster ready as today's Joe's Segues is on your way. So far, 2022 is becoming the best year and a ton of things have happened, but there is one bad thing that recently happened. I'll get to that later on. Now, on to the segues.

To start things off, I have changed my display name to KnockDownJoe. But that's okay. I now have a new name, but the same old me. I'm sure you'll get used to it.

With that out of the way, the ungulate based fighting game Them's Fightin' Herds came out on consoles one week ago and I wanted to get the physical version since it comes with the Season 1 Pass, but I decided to buy the game and the Season 1 Pass digitally. I have a 4 TB game drive that holds up to 100+ PS4 and PS5 games for a reason. Anyway, the game is great. Four legged creatures are cute, but deadly. It has a dynamic music system that adds unique character themes and intense flow to the infight music. The console release became a huge milestone, courtesy of Modus Games, who made console ports of Them's Fightin' Herds possible so that they don't have to play the Steam version on offline tournaments.

The reason why is because the Steam version of Them's Fightin' Herds is a pain to deal with on offline tournaments when it comes to issues with setting up the buttons. That happened at Combo Breaker. But with the console ports being inevitable thanks to Modus Games and once they are complete and released, they will no longer have to play the Steam version on offline tournaments and they are shifting to playing the PS4 version to greatly relieve button setting issues. Frosty Faustings is around the corner and Them's Fightin' Herds are gonna be played there, but this time, players are shifting to the PS4 version. Maybe we'll get a trailer for the next Season 1 Pass character there.

Isn't it wild that Them's Fightin' Herds is able to get console ports thanks to Modus? Even with Humble Games, console ports aren't simple and that's why they currently had no plans. And now that Modus Games acquired MANE6, boom, console ports and localization have happened and released with the Astral Heat-esque lv. 3s. It was worth yelling out "Astral Finish!".

They had to release the console ports and localization with the unfinished Story Mode because they demanded more time. And now that they are complete and released, they can get back to finishing up the Story Mode, which I won't play on until it is finished. In fact, playing Them's Fightin' Herds on console is gonna hold me off until Black Dahlia is fully released. Same with Marie and future characters (preferrably the ones who are eligible for a BBTAG palette and a ticket to my special online casual).

And the Astral Heat-esque lv. 3s; they are savage. I'm even working on a tier list that determines the ranking of the lv. 3 supers, which I'll probably tell you more about it in the next one. I think the dynamic music system needs unique character themes that play during their lv. 3 with a post-KO theme that plays when lv. 3s KOed an opponent while on match point. That's where I come in to yell out "Astral Finish!".

Originally, they wouldn't develop new characters until Chapter 2 starring Velvet is finished, but with Modus' help benefitting more than one combat developer and now that the console ports are completed, Chapter 2 is now continuing production. So is the first new character in the Season 1 Pass, Texas. No, not the Lone Star State. But rather, a bull named after the Lone Star State.

You see, Texas is the father of Arizona. That means his wife is Minnesota. He is first seen on Chapter 1 starring Arizona and he's the first male character to join the roster voiced by the talented fighting game voice actor, Patrick Seitz. You don't want to get ran over by him. Nappy's dream of wanting a true grappler into the game is becoming a reality and Texas is that true grappler.

After all, he is a character in the Prairie area of Foenum where characters named after US States live at, which I know it's interesting. Texas' Astral Heat remains a mystery until sometime in November when he is released. I'm sure other Season 1 Pass characters will have theirs. After Texas is the next character that is probably one of the characters in the Tundra area judging by the winter theme. The first two characters in the Season 1 Pass have a background of their new stages as a hint to make guessing easy. The last two, however, may be characters in the new areas. Great fighting game. I recommend trying it out.

And that brings down to the next topic that entails the declining of the most popular rapper known as Kanye West, a.k.a. Ye. He made and published shoes associated with himself called Yeezys. I know I'm not a big fan of rap music, but it is what it is. He became famous, until the situation that happened recently. Ye is getting cancelled and facing declines as several organizations and star athletes have cut ties with him because of his antisemitic comments. I'll go over the most obvious one, Gap.

Gap, Inc. opened a contract with Ye to sell Yeezys. The brand has surged in demand and going places, until Gap has terminated their contract with Kanye following that antisemitic rant. It means that they will no longer sell Yeezys and the website where it only had them is shut down. Adidas is following suit in light of Ye's antisemitic remarks. A petition to urge Adidas to cut ties with him is created and over 180,000 people have signed.

That is a big L for him as he is facing a big decline after he made antisemitic remarks and he becoming a low, declined rapper because of the situation. That's not good. None of this would have happened if that rapper hadn't said any antisemitic comments. It is even worse than the part where Mike Z said sexual comments to his employees. That's following the part where he falsely claimed the drug killed George Floyd, not the police officer's knee. This is why they said antisemitic remarks have no place in their environment. What made the situation even worse is that he is no longer a billionaire after Adidas has cut ties with him. It hurts so bad. My condolences as this is the end of Kanye West and his popular shoes. I'm sorry it had to end like this because of his antisemitic remarks that caused brands and associations to terminate their contract with him.

It was no different than the situation with Indivisible regarding the guest characters and the two missing characters that are cancelled because of Mike Z's actions that exploded a perfectly good indie studio. Wow. First sexual abuse, then sexual harassment and now antisemitsm? No other scandal from people who make an unsafe environment should happen.

There is more stuff that I want to go over, but I'll have to end this because the situation is getting me down. Now, the moral of the story is, don't make any antisemitic comments because their environment has no place for antisemitism. You guys have a wonderful day.

Joe's Segues - 10/2/22

Hello, everyone, and welcome back to yet another episode of Joe's Segues. It has been a while since my previous episode. What makes it interesting is that I wanted both Annie from Skullgirls and Tianhuo from Them's Fightin' Herds to be in BBTAG, so I written them a moveset in a BBTAG format with an Astral Heat as a cherry on top. Neat stuff. So what's on the docket? Before we get into them, October is here and this is the month when spooky stuff are happening and spooky bone chilling Halloween blockbusters are coming at you.

First off, we'll start with the elephant in the room, a popular hero shooter that is gonna come out soon; Overwatch 2. Now, in case you didn't know, Overwatch 2 is in two days. PC players, have you pre-loaded Overwatch 2? If you have, then you can wait until October 4, and that's when it comes out and when console players can pre-load it. The best part to this is that it's gonna be free-to-play. That means you console players no longer need a PS Plus, Xbox Live Gold or a Nintendo Switch Online membership to play Overwatch 2 as it is gonna be completely free-to-play.

The update cadence for Overwatch 2 is how it goes. Every nine weeks, a new Season launches. Season 1 offers new maps and three new female heroes Sojourn, Junkerqueen and Kiriko. It's kind of crazy for Season 1 to give us three new female heroes, but it's fair. It needs more female characters anyway. For existing Overwatch 1 players, you will automatically earn access to all of the 32 heroes. But for new players, however, they must play 100 matches to unlock the rest of the cast. Good thing I am an existing Overwatch 1 player so I can have access to all 32 original characters. To unlock Kiriko, you must purchase the Battle Pass. If not, you'll have to buy her directly.

As I was saying, Season 1 offers new maps and three new heroes. Season 2 offers a new hero while Season 3 offers a new map. Going forward, after Season 1, even number seasons give us a new hero, starting at Season 2 while odd numbers seaons give us new maps starting at Season 3. Each season has a new battle pass. Oh and by the way, be sure to watch out for that fat bearded piece of crap Torbjorn when Overwatch 2 drops. That's what Torbjorn is. A fat bearded piece of crap, like Barik from Paladins. I find it hilarious like I did when watching the Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy for that craziness and experiencing the part in GameSpot where one user trash talked at that moderator real hard.

Be sure to play Overwatch 1 while you can because today is the last day of Overwatch 1's life cycle before the shift to Overwatch 2. The Overwatch servers will be taken down for maintenance that will last all day in preparation of Overwatch 2 tomorrow. And beware. Since Overwatch 2 is gonna be free to play, there will be microtransactions because you can't have a free to play game without microtransactions.

Speaking of microtransactions, a lot of you have known that microtransactions are required to have a free to play game and they aren't that bad if you just keep your purchases small. We've been going through a lot of shenangans about platform fighting games. Super Smash Bros. was the first platform fighting game to be developed in '99. But then, another platform fighter was announced and it has iconic characters from Warner Bros. That free-to-play platform fighter is MultiVersus.

You guys heard of MultiVersus, right? It is a free to play platform fighting game that has your favorite iconic WB characters from Looney Tunes, DC, Scooby-Doo and more. Since the open beta came out, I enjoyed MultiVersus to death. The voice lines are off the chain like in Team Sonic Racing and BBTAG.

Mightykeef has a couple videos dedicated to it. Critics said that MultiVersus is a Smash Bros. clone with WB characters. Nintendo was ticked that Warner Bros. is gonna rise up against them. The characters are off the chain and Arya Stark is freaking legit crazy and dope as heck. I wouldn't want to consider her the Lucina of MultiVersus, yet Black Dahlia is considered the Nine the Phantom of Skullgirls that Walpurgisnacht would be a perfect fit benefitted by her elemental rounds. People cared about this game. I never felt that emotion in years. Even the one and only NBA superstar LeBron James is on there because he is the main character in Space Jam: A New Legacy. Great movie, by the way.

What makes it even crazier is that Rick and Morty are on there. Let's just pretend that it's NOT weird. It IS crazy that Rick and Morty made their debut to MultiVersus. After all, Cartoon Network is under the Warner Bros. umbrella. That's why they had to put Rick and Morty into the game. Now that's the crazy thing that gets the Team Sonic Racing seal of approval. I actually watch Rick and Morty sometimes. So far in Season 1, they added Morty, Gizmo and Rick. Who's next?

Here's to seeing more iconic characters being added. I'm thinking of a character that will make MultiVersus even crazier, like Godzilla, Kong, a Lord of the Rings character, a Dune character, or something even crazier. If Warner Bros. developed a live action Sailor Moon movie that is probably rated PG-13 for sequences of violence, action and suggestive content, a Sailor Moon character would be crazy awesome in MultiVersus.

But you know what else would be great? If they given us some sort of pack that unlocks both current and future characters so we don't have to keep grinding enough gold or spending real money to buy Gleamium and probably make some fixes and improvements to the subtitles, which have an issue for when a character dies, the subtitles display the character's voice line for two seconds.

But I had one problem while playing MultiVersus. The game has rollback netcode, but sometimes, there are some lag spikes that ruin the experience. That's when I was playing with bots and I'm not ready to play with real players yet. Thankfully, the devs are working on mitigating lag spikes so that our experience will be smooth and stable. What are you waiting for? Jump into MultiVersus today. I mean, what else are you gonna do? Travel to a real life Westeros? Yeah, that's what I thought.

Any of you YouTubers out there. The Nevercake twins are back and they have posted a first OH! So Spooky Show episode over on their own YouTube channel. It started when one mysterious man was searching in the woods to the rickety house looking for something. A VHS tape with LED lights, wrapping and a Nevercake icon was found and he picked it up and put it in a small TV with a VHS player built in.

I watched the whole thing and it has one of the parts that given me some PBS vibes because you know, PBS has viewers like you bumpers and that's the only thing I like the most. The twins are back, but that's just the beginning. More Oh! So Spooky Show episodes are coming your way. The future of Nevercake is no doubt bright and the SMITE Lore series is going back strong. Even the 100th episode celebrates the series' 100th episode milestone with a song. Crap's getting crazier and crazier with Nevercake coming back after years of their hiatus since the pandemic.

What I like about the OH! So Spooky Show is that it has a warning message at the beginning read by a deep scary voice. But content for the astute? Lamentable goofs? That's ridiculous.

That about wraps this up. I'll see you next time. Remember, today is the last day of Overwatch 1's life cycle, so enjoy it while you can before tomorrow when the servers enter an all day long maintenance. Remember, try that on my Arya Stark or suffer the consequences.

Why PS Plus Premium is Important to Me

I just want to tell you about PS Plus Premium and why is it important. To start things off, since the new PS Plus came out, I automatically earned my PS Plus Essential membership for remaining an active user. The Essential tier offers online multiplayer, monthly games and exclusive discounts. Then I spent a couple of dollars to upgrade myself to the Premium tier to gain access to trials, streaming and classic games.

When the PS4 first came out, it introduced PSNow, a streaming service that had games across the PlayStation family you can stream. It doesn't have the PS1 game catalog and they aren't adding any more classic games. Nine and a half years later, PSNow is folded into the PS Plus Premium tier to offer a catalog of classic games released on the PS3, PSP, PS2 and PS1. In fact, it is an obvious solution to make up for the lack of full PlayStation backwards compatibility. Who needs it when you have the Premium tier? I'll go into detail on each platform, starting with the general section.

General:

All of the four classic systems across the PlayStation family have been invited to the PlayStation Plus Premium tier, which granted access to playing PS3, PSP, PS2 and PS1 games. They have games that were released by the defunct video game companies, such as Midway, Acclaim, THQ, Neversoft, 3DO, Universal Interactive, Inc., Hudson Soft, etc. Each of them get defunct by liquidation, dissolution, consolidation, bankruptcy, merging and other fates, as well as games that were released by the still existing companies that had defunct logos.

When the PS4 first came out, PS3, PS2 and PS1 game discs couldn't work. That's how the PS3 became a hurdle. But thanks to the Premium tier that PSNow is folded into, they can be played. Physically, the classic game discs won't work, but they can be played digitally while on the Premium tier. They can also be bought because if you buy them, you can play them 24/7 without your PS Plus Premium membership. Even the PSP games. PS3 games, however, are only available to stream. I'll tell you what made the PS3 a hurdle later on.

PS1:

Sony's very first generation console and also the 5th generation console is the very first console that uses 3D models. All of its games use polygon models, including the first three Tekken games, which have arcade versions ported into home versions. At the start, PS1 games were released by the defunct companies and have third-party games that behave differently than the N64 version, like Tarzan as an example, whereas the PS1 version has game over cutscenes while the N64 version doesn't. So far, the PS1 version is better than the N64 version. It's because that the N64 didn't get enough third-party support due to memory limits on the system.

There are compilations on the PS1, but they won't be added into the catalog. First party games like Crash Bandicoot and Spyro the Dragon consist of a charming take like Super Mario and Sonic the Hedgehog in terms of their gameplay and they were released by Universal Interactive, Inc. They have remasters released by Activision, but I'm not sure if they are gonna add the original releases by Universal Interactive to the catalog. I think they probably should because remasters killed a lot of charm original releases have and it's to support the film adaptations I want for Crash and Spyro.

I'll go into detail here. For the Crash Bandicoot movie, it must be CGI animated to reflect on their designs used on the remasters released on the 8th-generation consoles and they'll get to see the Wumpa Islands on the big screen and it can be likely be rated PG for action, rude humor, and mild violence. Crash never talks in games, but he will because he's gonna be voiced by James Arnold Taylor. Best of all, it'll have an original story that have not been experienced in Crash Bandicoot games. Let's not forget about his sister, Coco Bandicoot, to be voiced by Anya Taylor-Joy. I really thought it would be great if Universal and Illumination made this.

But not to mention that your community can get weird at times. When Crash Bandicoot 4 came out, you guys had to just lust over Tawna's butt. And that's not right. We don't want to have a community of gamers here that lust over fictional women's butts in video games. It's weird, it's strange. In fact, it is weird as what Street Fighter V saying is true on that EVO 2022 skit that they just wanted to lust over Pyra and Mythra's big breasts when they came out on Smash Ultimate.

The Spyro the Dragon movie, however, will be live action and be a different story because it'll have that part where Spyro leaves his world to travel to Earth in light of the situation. To make it interesting, it'll have two blonde-haired twins of the same age that have a close resemblance to Handel and Greta voiced by Nico Parker and Finley Hobbins, who are spending their summer break at their grandparents' house. That's one automatic easter egg. Chris Pratt would be a perfect voice actor for Spyro and that would be cool. I feel like that the post credits scene is gonna show Elora the Faun, to be voiced by Brie Larson, entering the forest in Earth to create a cliffhanger that the sequel will resolve. Get Paramount to make this.

What I'm trying to say is film adaptations for Crash and Spyro are gonna be awesome. If Activision ever makes a Crash and Spyro crossover game, I'll be ready for that.

Since the announcement of the new PS Plus, the PS1 games finally get their spotlight and they are both available to download and streaming and some of them are purchasable so you won't require the Premium tier. The PS1 holds up to two controllers, uses memory cards and its controls have start and select buttons. But if you're playing a PS1 game on the PS5 or PS4, memory cards aren't required and pressing the left side of the touch pad is the select button while the right side is the start button. I have a lot of PS1 games in my wish list that I hope Sony adds. They have a new feature, which is the rewind feature that is useful for when you made a mistake.

PS2:

One of my most favorite Sony consoles of all time. Most of its games were released by the defunct video game companies like the PS1 games. I have a couple of PS2 games and I felt reunited with them after years. I even forgot that I press the triangle button to go back when playing a PS2 game. PlayStation backwards compatibility has been a success when the PS2 first came out as it plays PS1 games.

The PS2 has been a great console. Its logo looks futuristic and I don't even know what it made me think of. But we do know one thing's for sure. There isn't that much PS2 games right now, but more of them will eventually be added (Preferably the third-party ones and the ones released by the defunct companies). My wish list has a ton of games under the PS2 section. I seem to have a few sports games on there, but the ones with cool special effects because I always loved seing special effects you seen on planetariums. And its startup screen is what I like the best. It shows towers when game data is saved on your memory card.

My most favorite Sony console is easy to emulate. Like the PS1 games, the PS2 games are available for both downloading and streaming. They have a lot of charming assets as the original Xbox and GameCube games. Charming assets include (but not limited to) two men going on an adventure, charming music, the way copyright screens and video game logos flow, racing/driving games with a charming gameplay, games with charming fluidity (e.g. Crash Bandicoot: The Wrath of Cortex) and nighttime goodness (e.g. RPG games by NIS America). And these are the assets you'd see in browser games on various websites (e.g. Nabisco World, Candystand, Primary Games, etc.).

Speaking of fluidity, I have several Sonic games on my wish list under the PS2 section I hope they add. There is some flaws on them. You fall down unexpectedly, but they have great music. You just got to play them carefully to avoid falling down. In fact, they aren't that bad if you carefully play them. But with Sonic Frontiers coming out soon, it is only a matter of time.

The PS2 holds up to two controllers and uses memory cards like the PS1, but you even don't need a memory card. The PS4 and PS5 use an internal storage and they are totally capable of storing your PS2 games' save data. When playing a PS2 game on the modern day consoles, your touch pad is your start and select buttons like on the PS1 games. I forgot to mention that some of them had online features that required a network adaptor on original models, but not on slim models because they already come with it. Games like Jak X: Combat Racing use online features, and since PS2 games with online features are being played on the PS4 and PS5, PSN features should be added to them.

Since the PS2 games are being played on the PS4 and PS5, I plan to record clips of copyright screens and logos.

PSP:

Sony's first handheld console. The PSP is known for its games being played on the go and uses memory sticks. But since the Premium tier gives access to playing PSP games on the PS4 and PS5, they will be played on the big screen and memory sticks won't be required. PSP games also have charming assets like the PS1 and PS2 games and we are likely to experience them on the big screen. Like the PS1 games, they are only available for download since the PSP is easy to emulate like the PS1 and PS2.

Since PSP games are being played on the big screen through the modern consoles, as with the PS1 and PS2 games, your touch pad is used as start and select buttons. While a portable console, some PSP games are streamable while all of them are downloadable.

PS3:

This 7th generation system that is the first of Sony's home console that marks the launch of an online initiative called PlayStation Network, defines a generation of gaming and uses wireless controllers and an internal storage device rather than memory cards. Some of the PS3 games were released under the defunct video game company umbrellas until later in the cycle when latter games get released by the existing game companies that defunct game companies were brought out by, including Midway Games, which was liquidated and bought out by WB Games and the studio in Chicago was rebranded into NetherRealm Studios.

What makes it the worst thing about the PS3 is that unlike its rival, the Xbox 360, it beared a architecture that makes it hard to emulate. It created a hurdle that prevents the PS4 and PS5 from achieving full backwards compatibility. It means that they are only available to stream and it requires internet connection. Without internet, you can't stream games. Now, if they added Sonic 06 and imagine while you're streaming it, you'll have trouble S-ranking levels and it's not just because of the glitches. It's also because of the lag spikes that sometimes happen. That game was a mess since SEGA rushed it, but the music is S-tier. Maybe SEGA could remake Sonic 06 and fix boo-boos on it?

If the PS3 was easy to emulate and it beared a better and easier architecture, all of its games would've been also available to download and the PS5 and PS4 would've achieved full PlayStation backwards compatibility like the Xbox Series X and the Xbox One, which achieved full Xbox backwards compatibility since the Xbox 360's architecture is so easy so they can play Banjo-Kazooie, Fusion Frenzy, Whacked! or whatever. Even the Xbox 360 version of Sonic 06. The PS3's backwards compatibility system is horrible because some of them can play PS1 games while some of them can play PS2 games. But none of them can play both PS1 and PS2 games. It's due to the fact that its architecture is hard to emulate.

Since the new PS Plus launched, the PS3 library has a lot of games and we are getting more of them this month. That's why I have a few of them in my wish list. Several Sly Cooper games are getting added this month. One is a compilation of his games originally released on the PS2, a spin-off and the one that is in my wish list. Sucker Punch confirmed that they have no plans to develop a new Sly Cooper game, yet they are adding their games to the Premium catalog, which is cool and all, but I think they should also add his games originally released on the PS2 to the catalog.

When I was browsing through the PS3 library, the original Skullgirls Encore is on there at launch. But the PS3 version won't get the Season 1 Pass and be updated to match with other platforms and will likely remain left in the dust forever with the Xbox 360 and Vita versions. I can give listening to BBTAG music while playing the PS3 version a go, but Justice Sword, Active Angel, Walpurgisnacht and Purity & Strictly, the themes the Season 1 Pass characters are assigned to are gonna be disabled.

My Skullgirls X BlazBlue Cross Tag Battle Palette Pack idea is intended to have both current and future characters that are eligible for their BBTAG palettes and tickets to my special online casual and can be available not just on Steam and PlayStation, but also on Switch and Xbox because Skullgirls 2nd Encore and the Season 1 Pass are sunrising as an update for the Nintendo Switch and as a new release on Xbox. Development on them is continuing along nicely and smoothly without hitting a single hurdle. What makes it so is the codebase upgrades that make console development easier and produces more flexibility on how they deliver updates.

Once they are released, the launch party can truly begin, the Season 1 Pass and my Skullgirls X BBTAG Palette Pack idea are gonna be available on all four digital storefronts and the blue, red and green certificates are gonna be processed for all three major console companies to greenlight. I am so proud that Switch and Xbox players are finally joining the Season 1 Pass period and onwards so that the launch party wouldn't be restricted to Steam and PS4 players any longer.

The Verdict:

PS Plus Premium is the way if you want to play your favorite classics you missed playing or the ones you never played before. So far, in my opinion, the PS2 is the best console, thanks to its games' charming assets. I have a lot of them in my wish list. Practically speaking, like other 6th gen consoles, PS2 games have a lot of charm that browser games on various websites have. You go golfing, shooting bottles and stuff, driving dune buggies, snowboarding, etc. Since Flash Player has discontinued, they are now unplayable.

Forgot to mention that the PS2 has two fighting games with charm. Marvel vs. Capcom 2 and Capcom vs. SNK 2 -- these are the two vs. Capcom fighting games that have a lot of charm. What makes those two charming is simple. The music, stages, the 2D sprites 3v3 format and the dynamic flow. You traipse around the swamp and the volcano. Stuff like that.

I'll just mention some of the stuff here. Marvel vs. Capcom 2 was a great game. The 3v3 battles and the characters were designed well. Even the stages and their music. You have fun in the carnival, cross the bridge in the swamp, explore the cave. The game was removed from the PlayStation Store and Xbox Marketplace and we need to do something about this. We must start a petition to bring it back.

Then there is something called Capcom vs. SNK 2, which is charming as Marvel vs. Capcom 2 with the 2D sprites, stages and music. Great vs. Capcom game. If Capcom ever develops Capcom vs. SNK 3 to have 3D models for characters across the fighting games with 3D models, I'll be down for that.

I am planning to buy the 1 year PS Plus Premium membership with my backup debit card so I can enjoy playing classics for a while. I don't care about the graphics. I only care about the nostalgia and how charming they are. Why be one thing when you can be anything? That's the tagline for the new PS Plus.

I even had an idea for a new Mightykeef skit where PS Plus welcomes PS5, PS4, PS3, PSP, PS2 and PS1 to the club in honor of its Extra tier's catalog of modern games and Premium tier's catalog of classic games. PSVita, however, isn't welcome. I think it's called "How PLAYSTATION FANS Reacted to the All New PS Plus!" and I think it probably goes like this.

PS Plus Club

PS Plus: Alright, that's everybody. Hey, welcome to my club, everybody. We're gonna celebrate the legacy of PlayStation.

PS1: Hey, man, congrats getting an upgrade to your service.

PS2: We're honored for our fans to play our classic games again because you got a third tier.

PS Plus: And PSP, it's good to have you in here, even though you no longer have PSN.

PSP: It's been an honor. Fans are happy to play my games on the big screen.

PS Plus: That's right, and we're gonna make this the best it can be. PS3? Are you feeling alright?

PS3: Yes, I am. It's just that all of my games in a huge library are only available for streaming. It's because I am the only console hard to emulate.

PS4: He does have a point, though. That's explains why PS5 and I can't play a single PS3 game.

PS5: And that's why I can only play my modern brother's games and they have to stick with playing remasters.

PS2: Hey, PS1. Why you don't have a boot up screen when fans launched one of your games like I do?

PS1: Well, because all of my games have a rewind feature.

PSP: I have a rewind feature too. It came in handy when people makes mistakes.

PS2: But me and PS1 use memory cards.

PSP: It sucks being the only portable console being in this because my portable brother PSVita won't make it. He even have my games on his store

PS Plus: Instead of holding on to your portable brother not being in it, how about you focus on what's really important like people playing your games on the big screen?

PS2: It's tough being the only portable console and I know you're disappointed that your brother won't make it, but don't be.

PS1: Not to mention that he no longer has PSN. But it's fair. Nobody plays him that much anyway. I remember when he has my games on his store.

PS2: Me and PS1 have games playable on the PS3. Besides, what can possibly go wrong among the fanbase?

PS1: Ya'll should be praising my Crash Bandicoot and Spyro the Dragon games, because I am the only console that started it all.

PS4: True, but all of your games got fully remastered to have better visuals to work on me and PS5. People do adore them that everything looks insane.

PS Plus: And who knows? Maybe I can add your original releases that got remastered to your library eventually. Besides, I intend to add more classics every month.

PS2: Not to mention that me and PS1 have trophy support on our games. That's a first for us in the community.

PS3: Don't forget that one of your Crash Bandicoot games turned out to be a fail. You were the first to have it before other systems do. Your cadence sucks!

PS2: How dare you mock me! I am the best system in the world!

PS3: Some of your games have cops and you have an adaptor required to play certain games that use online! You suck!

PS2: Someone is jealous because while our classic games are available to download and stream, all of his games are gonna be only available to stream in his own fantastic library of his games. It's because he is hard to emulate.

PS4: It's true that some of PS2's games were sort of slacking in content.

PS2: Content? You and PS5 can't even play my games, PS3's and PS1's through backwards compatibility and fans had to stick with playing remasters of our games!

PS Plus: Can you guys stop arguing? We are here to celebrate the PlayStation community we all know love for years, okay? All of this bickering is getting out of hand! We are doing really well today. We got PS1, PS2, PS3 and PSP together. All in this club. What makes it exciting is that PS1 and PSP have a rewind feature. Let's all get along.

PS3: Yeah, he has a point. Arguing is not the way to celebrate our community.

PS2: It'll be a waste arguing against each other over what we have.

PS Plus: Thank you.

BBTAG Music to SG Update 4.1

Alright, everyone, this update is gonna be split into two parts like last update. Part one talks about the fourth and final Season 1 Pass character revealed at EVO, a new section, updates on the stage section, a status update on Skullgirls X BBTAG and two upcoming Skullgirls Lores while part two talks about the stage of the final Season 1 Pass character, another status update on Skullgirls X BBTAG, the canon solo match section, three more Skullgirls Lores and two announcements; one is for another palette pack already complete while the other entails a celebration of the announcement of Skullgirls' very first Season Pass with the shift to BBTAG music as a cherry on top. Here goes.

Alright, so you know how BBTAG music is the most unprecedented, but three characters that are assigned to Under Night In-Birth themes just isn't enough? Well, that's where Marie comes in. Assigned to Purity & Strictly.

You guessed it right. Marie is coming to Skullgirls as the fourth character assigned to an Under Night In-Birth theme and the final Season 1 Pass character revealed at EVO yesterday. I knew it was Marie because Alex said that to make the story canon, they need Umbrella, Black Dahlia and Marie to be playable and so far, all three characters after Annie in the Season 1 Pass are the ones required for the canon story mode, so I called it.

Marie's name has a [-] after it to indicate that she is not yet in development as they are busy developing Black Dahlia. That now makes it four characters assigned to Under Night In-Birth themes. Her gameplay outline remains hush-hush until Black Dahlia is fully released knowing that I am still finding out if she is gonna get her Nine palette during development or not, so we don't know what will she bring to the table yet.

Now, because Marie is assigned to an Under Night In-Birth theme, please note that this is a BBTAG music period exclusive.

Are you wondering what's the new section is? I'm glad you are. Here's the new section below.

This new section above contains the original themes. In order for them to work, it must be 2v2, 3v3 and 2v3 and must have characters that are eligible for their BBTAG palettes and my online casual. Turning Fate will be a different story. Confusing? I'll give you clarifications as to how they work.

Crossing Fate:

Must have...

3 BlazBlue-themed characters vs. 3 BlazBlue-themed characters in game
3 BlazBlue-themed characters vs. 2 BlazBlue-themed characters and vice versa in game
2 BlazBlue-themed characters vs. 2 BlazBlue-themed characters in game

Crossing Fate ft. P4A:

Must have...

3 P4A-themed characters vs. 3 P4A-themed characters in game
3 P4A-themed characters vs. 2 P4A-themed characters and vice versa in game
2 P4A-themed characters vs. 2 P4A-themed characters in game

Crossing Fate ft. UNI:

Must have...

3 UNI-themed characters vs. 3 UNI-themed characters in game
3 UNI-themed characters vs. 2 UNI-themed characters and vice versa in game
2 UNI-themed characters vs. 2 UNI-themed characters in game

Turning Fate:

Must have...

3 BlazBlue-themed characters vs. 3 P4A-themed characters and vice versa in game
3 BlazBlue-themed characters vs. 3 UNI-themed characters and vice versa in game
3 P4A-themed characters vs. 3 UNI-themed characters and vice versa in game
2 BlazBlue-themed characters vs. 2 P4A-themed characters and vice versa in game
2 BlazBlue-themed characters vs. 2 UNI-themed characters and vice versa in game
2 P4A-themed characters vs. 2 UNI-themed characters and vice versa in game

A small update on the stage section is clear. Marie's stage remains a mystery as they haven't given us info about her yet, so I put in "Theme Pending".

Have you heard of the ESRB's Rating Pending icon? I used the Theme Pending term with a gray dot before it as a temporary placeholder to represent that Marie's stage is not yet assigned to a BBTAG theme like the ESRB's Rating Pending icon used as a temporary placeholder that is replaced by a final ESRB rating once it has been assigned.

Once they revealed Marie's gameplay outline where it has an early look of her stage, the name of the BBTAG theme will replace the Theme Pending term once it has been assigned and the gray dot will either be colored blue, yellow, purple or green. We know Marie already has her stage when she is a boss character, but her playable version comes with her stage. And once they revealed the name of her stage, it will replace Marie's Stage.

I'm gonna announce in advance that there is one more change to the stage section that I'll announce in part 2 of this update before it is cemented for real.

The 14th character for Skullgirls X BlazBlue Cross Tag Battle during the BBTAG 2.0 period is something I really want and since Purity & Strictly is a perfect theme for Marie, a blank purple spot before Double's Merkava palette is now reserved for her Orie palette to match the order of introduction because Orie was first introduced before the rest of the cast if she doesn't get it during development and she is gonna be one of the characters to be legal in my special online casual. From Orie to Mika comes from Marie to Cerebella.

As a bonus, the time to play Crossing Fate feat. UNI is highly likely to happen more than ever thanks to Marie making her way to the roster as the fourth eligible Under Night In-Birth-themed character. I need at least four of them, but must be 2v2.

How Purity & Strictly is a perfect theme for Marie is that she wears her maid's outfit and since she is the Skullgirl, she will bring skeletons with her to the battlefield like her boss version, but they will play differently. Some of her moves will involve skeletons and she might play like Orie despite having her vacuum.

Fun fact: When Skullgirls first came out on the PS3 and Xbox 360, the 7th generation consoles, Marie is the game's boss character. She made a wish on the Skull Heart, but she eventually has transformed into an undead twisted being of destruction called the Skullgirl. That happened when she is impure of heart. Marie's boss version holds the Skull Heart, stays afloat and is indestructible.

Since the shift to BBTAG music, her boss version is unassigned, meaning that she is not assigned to a BBTAG theme, so Awakening the Chaos is played during the Marie boss fight, on Final Atrium, while playing her boss version in a couple of challenges and on Marie 300%. When defeated, she left the Skull Heart behind to be either destroyed or for wish making.

After the Skull Heart is destroyed, one shard burns brightly and Marie is reborn as a regular fighter. Unlike her boss version, her playable version always takes a beating and comes with basic movement, normals, specials, Distortion Skills and an NMO Arena banner.

In my exclusivity, her playable version is assigned to a BBTAG character theme, Purity & Strictly, as a cherry on top because every regular fighter is assigned to a BBTAG character theme. And since Purity & Strictly is a perfect theme for her playable version, thanks to her maid's outfit, she will be legal in my special online casual and will be eligible for her Orie palette. If she doesn't get it during development, it will stay on my palette pack idea along with those who don't have theirs in the game. I could consider Marie an "undead" version of Orie.

Here's the trick. Pick Marie on the Player 2 side and go to Final Atrium to make it feel like you are fighting her boss version, but with her playable version and Purity & Strictly plays.

In this graphic, I left a blank purple square below Big Band's Iron Tager palette and after Robo-Fortune's Aigis palette now reserved for Marie's Orie palette on it since she is assigned to an Under Night In-Birth theme that fits perfectly well. Also did some editing on a couple of characters to correct some errors.

As a special occasion of 10 Years of Skullgirls, I made this graphic that contains the fourteen vertical slots for the portraits of Skullgirls characters in their BBTAG palettes sorted by introduction. What makes it interesting is that the TV duo, the Renoir sisters of the Canopy Kingdom, Lab 8 specialists, the Fortunes, the male characters and the Parasite users are all a part of this graphic and they are something that we'll get to experience in my special online casual.

It's WIP because the picture of Black Dahlia in her Nine the Phantom palette will be replaced with a final one once her sprites are added to the palette editor after her Mobile release and I left a blank purple background on the slot to represent Under Night In-Birth as a temporary placeholder to indicate that Marie's Orie palette is in the works.

These quick references now have Marie as she is eligible for a ticket to my very special Skullgirls X BBTAG online casual that restricts to these characters above during the BBTAG 2.0 period.

As a result, all four Season 1 Pass characters are assigned to their BBTAG themes that fit perfectly well with their personality to be eligible for their BBTAG palettes and tickets to my special online casual. Izayoi, Platinum, Nine and Orie, that's four out of four. Three assigned to BlazBlue themes and one assigned to an Under Night In-Birth theme and all of them are eligible.

So I got another fun fact. You know how Alex Ahad said that he needs Umbrella, Black Dahlia and Marie playable to make the story canon? Well, these characters are in the Season 1 Pass and they are also eligible for their Platinum, Nine and Orie palettes. Annie, however, is not a required character, but she is eligible for her Izayoi palette.

Now, what are the required conditions, you ask? I'll tell you. In order for a Skullgirls character to be eligible for a palette that depicts a BBTAG character and a ticket to my special online casual, they must meet the following conditions below.

• Must be assigned to a BBTAG character theme that fits perfectly well with a character's personality.
• Must be in the current period.

These are the two conditions that a future Skullgirls character must meet to be made a BBTAG palette out of and be allowed in my special online casual. By the way, if the Season 1 Pass sells well, a bonus fifth character will be confirmed. If the bonus fifth character is the fifth Under Night In-Birth themed-character that met these required conditions, that would make it five eligible characters on each department, similar to Team Sonic Racing. But if the bonus fifth character is the sixth BlazBlue or Persona 4 Arena-themed character that met these required conditions, that would make it extraordinary. I rather for the bonus fifth character to be a fifth Under Night In-Birth-themed character that is eligible for a BBTAG palette so it can be five eligible characters on each department.

For those of you asking what characters do I need to complete the palette pack, good news, I'll make a list of future characters that are eligible for their BBTAG palettes required to complete the palette pack that will also include the ones that are eligible for a palette that depicts non-BBTAG characters in my 3.0 Character Pack wish list, but will stay banned from my casual until it is confirmed and released.

Required characters:

Regina - Jin Kisaragi palette
Ottomo - Valkenhayn R. Hellsing palette*
Hubrecht - Azrael palette

Molly - Kokonoe palette*
Minette - Celica A. Mercury palette
Leduc - Naoto Kurogane palette
Hive - Izanami palette*
Yu Wan - Jubei palette
Feng - Chie Satonaka palette
Roxie - Naoto Shirogane palette
Isaac - Akihiko Sanada palette

Mrs. Victoria - Elizabeth palette
Beatrix - Yukari Takeba palette*
Taliesin - Tohru Adachi palette
Venus - Linne palette 
Aeon - Vatista palette
Adam - Akatsuki palette

*BBTAG 3.0 period is required for characters to be allowed in my special online casual.

These are the characters I need to complete the Skullgirls X BBTAG Palette Pack that met certain conditions. The two characters are not in my wish list, but Ottomo is eligible to be made a Valkenhayn palette out of. Sadly, he will be banned from my online casual until the 3.0 Character Pack is confirmed. Mrs. Victoria, on the other hand is eligible for an Elizabeth palette, which Eliza already has and she is likely to be allowed in my online casual. Both Skullgirls and BBTAG have rollback netcode, so no lag will be experienced no matter what stage and the distance between our opponents. I'm gonna provide you with the full list of characters eligible for their BBTAG palette and ticket to the special online casual in the current period.

That covers up everything I mentioned for part one of this update. After part two of this update, there will be no more updates during the BBTAG 2.0 period. But I plan to give you a before and after comparison that has the planned changes that take place before and after BBTAG 3.0 in the future. Part two of this update is gonna be big because it's gonna have an announcement regarding another palette pack idea already complete.

It is now time for two Skullgirls Lores as I'm about to get my Nevercake impression. Here goes. *ahem*

Alright, so... you know how LeBron James had a cartoon companion? Well, that's where Peacock comes in. Assigned to Kuma Kuma Circus!. You see, Peacock wasn't always a cartoon machine with lines you hear on classic WB cartoons. She was originally a normal girl at the Orphanage named Patricia and she had her best friend named Marie who was human. Patricia and Marie live together as maids of New Meridian and play a little game of Pitz, which is better than a barrel of bombs.

Well, the maids of the Orphanage are somewhat special, but Patricia has ended up in an accident. Meanwhile, at Lab 8, the scientist, Dr. Avian takes a demoralized Patricia. Her eyes have been taken out and been manipulated into a killing machine. After some editing, equipped with the Argus Unit, Patricia has became Peacock, a machine made to beat Skullgirls and considered a circus full of bombs. That's how Kuma Kuma Circus! fits well with a circus of bombs. But what is it better to be given than a bear-y special something, a Teddie palette?

But Peacock isn't alone. She had several of her friends, Tommy, Andy, Avery and George. Together, they embark on a journey to fight the Skullgirl. For you see, when Peacock became a Looney Tunes character, she is all about cartoon violence to randomly call forth items to drop from the sky while making a whistling sound. Now that's cartoon city right there. And she is one of the characters that offers a feel when you look at the popcorn machine.

Anyway, Dr. Avian has been taken down by Lab 0 and Valentine was the cause of it. Not only Peacock and her friends fight the Skullgirl, which is Marie. They are headed to fight Valentine and make her pay for her crimes of betraying Lab 8. But upon doing so, Peacock used a voice line from Animaniacs for when she sees Valentine because she is a nurse.

Cartoons are funny and everything. Especially the Dolby integrated ones and Peacock likes to watch TV. What better to watch than the one and only Annie of the Stars? After all, Annie knows a single thing about fighting Skullgirls and she sets out to save her TV show from being cancelled and probably create her spin-off that is rated TV-Y7-FV and fueled with intense action and violence you'd experience on Sonic X ever made - Annie X! Huh. Well, Peacock was totes jelly of her pretending to be a hero on TV, so she plans to make her own TV show that has action and cartoons and will be better than hers and join MultiVersus, probably.

But how will they save Lab 8? Well, you'll have to find out next time on Skullgirls Lore! Or just go to website. It's what I do.