Wednesday, June 12, 2024

PlayStation Plus Premium Revived the PlayStation Legacy

For the record, I think PlayStation Plus Premium revived the PlayStation Legacy. And I'm dead serious. I know that there are a bunch of naysayers that would say that full backwards compatibility would've been better, but I know that PS Plus Premium is the hero. Sure, we get three classic games monthly and some additions can be disappointing, but it became an obvious solution to revive the PlayStation Legacy with emulation of older titles released on older PlayStation consoles on PS4 or PS5. I'm gonna explain on how PS Plus Premium became the hero of reviving retro gaming, so let's talk about it.

Retro gaming became the golden age of gaming since the 3rd generation era of gaming when Nintendo and SEGA created their consoles and made all time classics like Super Mario and Sonic the Hedgehog. And I know that you don't want to think about the past and focus on the future. Well, it is great, but retro gaming is the golden standard of gaming and it's something people want to do. Now, before we get to the point, I'm gonna go back to the very beginning.

The PlayStation brand was established in December 3, 1994 when Sony's first console came out first in Japan. The PS1 era is the community's most favorite era. It's believed to have a lot of charm. What makes it so are the polygon models, Crash and Spyro games and more. Sony had brought on Exact and Ultra and were impressed by their first PS1 game, Jumping Flash!. It's the first 3D platformer where you control Robbit and stop Baron Aloha's evil plans. It was showcased in 1994 to showcase the PS1's peripherals.

Sony was impressed by the production of the PS3, which marks the start of PSN, wireless controllers, internal storage and patches to games. Certain models are backwards compatible to PS1 games, while some are backwards compatible to PS2 games. The PS1 and PS2 titles are also available on the PS3's storefront. The slim model comes out, the backwards compatibility feature was lost, but retro titles are still available on the storefront. And sadly, there is one thing that given fans no hope of revisiting retro titles.

After the PS4 came out, all classic titles we know and love were gone, so they had to develop a separate service called PlayStation Now, which pretty much flopped because of its limited selection of PS2 games and the lack of a PS1 catalog. The specs for the PS4 show that it uses a Jaguar component incapable of emulating PS3 games. It's because the PS3's architecture is hard to develop for. That's why the PS5 couldn't achieve full backwards compatibility while the PS4 lacked the feature and people need to understand that. The celebration of PlayStation's 25th Anniversary couldn't be bigger for the same reason, until a calvary has came to please retro game fans.

Bloomberg reported that Sony was actually developing a new service codenamed "Spartacus" to have three tiers and compete with Xbox Game Pass. The first tier offers all benefits original PS Plus offers, like online multiplayer on paid games, monthly free games and discounts. The second tier offers access to a catalog of PS4 and PS5 games. The third tier offers game trials, streaming and a library of PS1, PS2, PSP and PS3 games. The third tier is believed to be the hero to revive retro gaming.

When the developers intend to keep the Plus branding, they confirmed that PS Plus and PS Now have merged together to establish PS Plus 2.0. It uses two additional tiers Extra and Premium. These tiers offer catalogs of both modern and classic games on both modern consoles and they add them monthly. This is when PS Plus Premium revived the PlayStation Legacy as they require the Premium tier to play the retro titles. It offered a catalog of classic games and new ones get released every month.

But there is a conflict to this. The separate library of PS3 games is on there, but they are only available to stream due to the PS3's structure that is hard to develop for. And it's gonna be like this forever. If you really want to download PS3 games, you'll have to dust off your PS3 and hook it up. And you'll have to play remasters and ports of PS3 games, like the upcoming Sonic X Shadow Generations. But it's fine. PS3 games are not that important to me anyway. But there are a couple of exceptions, so I'll get to that later.

The fact of the matter to this is that the Xbox 360 version of games that were also released on the PS3 are playable through backwards compatibility on the Xbox. If you want to know how Microsoft was able to achieve full Xbox backwards compatibility to become the winner, the Xbox 360's structure is very easy to develop for unlike the PS3's.

As for the PS1, PS2 and PSP games, they are available to both download and for cloud streaming. These systems are easy to emulate unlike the PS3. Each of them have rewinds, saves, up rendering and video filters. As stated before, the PS4's Jaguar component is incapable of emulating PS3 games, but it is capable of emulating PS1, PS2 and PSP games. You don't have to dust off your PS1, PS2 and PSP. The games of these systems are available to download and they can also be purchased so that you can play them 24/7 without a PS Plus membership in the Premium tier.

And the only thing about this is that we can play PSP games on the big screen. But if Sony has confirmed a new handheld console, it can apply to the upgrade PS Plus has gotten and we can play PS1 and PS2 games on the go.

I livestreamed one of the decent PS1 games, being Ape Escape 1 as the first PlayStation Rewind. It is a great throwback game of mine. I was able to unlock the true ending by capturing every single monkey and have caught Specter. I got all of that on stream for the finale. The second game of the franchise released on the PS2 is currently on the catalog, but that's the European version as I can tell from the logo and it's on the PS Now era.

Since the launch of the new PS Plus, the process of releasing new classics monthly is turning out to come along smoothly. The original MediEvil is on the catalog. But there wasn't a single new PS2 game yet and we are still seeing new PS1 and PSP games added monthly and it turned out smooth. The PS2 games have been a recurring demand since the revamp of PS Plus. The ones in the catalog now are in the outdated PS Now era where PS2 games only have up-rendering on PS4. They were supposed to add a PS2 game last year, but instead, they added a PSP version of the game. But Sony now has a brand new PS2 emulator to run PS2 games smoothly and have emulation features PS1 and PSP games have. It was leaked that Star Wars: The Clone Wars became the first new PS2 game that came out June 11.

Days of Play has returned bigger and better than ever, thanks to PS Plus Premium and other things that made the celebration even bigger. The article about it shown that Star Wars: The Clone Wars wasn't the only PS2 game. Favorites, like Tomb Raider: Legends and Sly Cooper and the Thievious Raccoonus were also confirmed and are now available on the catalog. However, outdated PS2 games like Fantavision and Ape Escape 2 remained on the PS Now era despite PS Plus Premium being present, so I added them to my wish list of PS2 games with two asterisks next to them to represent that an outdated PS2 game is on the PS Now era, wondering if it's gonna be possible for Sony to shift their outdated PS2 games from the PS Now era to the PS Plus Premium era where PS2 games have up-rendering, rewinds, save states and video filters like the PS1 and PSP games do on both PS4 and PS5.

But that was only the beginning. The regular lineup announcement for June is also announced and we got more of them. They are Ghosthunter, originally released on the PS2 exclusively, the PSP version of LEGO Star Wars II: The Original Trilogy, and one of the games I remember playing before, Daxter, originally released on the PSP exclusively.

As a treat, I started my next PlayStation rewind livestream to cover Sly Cooper and the Thievious Raccoonus yesterday. It became a decent PS2 game to livestream. I remember playing that game from back in the day when I was younger, but couldn't have the time to beat it because I rented it in my old stomping grounds. In the previous episode, I left off with Tide of Terror, got all of the treasure keys and clues and defeated Sir Raleigh, so I'm gonna go on to the next heist that takes place in Mesa City in Utah to kick Muggshot's butt. I wanted to livestream the whole thing, but I would get burned out if I do, so I'm gonna livestream one heist to avoid burnout.

I revisited Sly Cooper to celebrate the life of the franchise that brought joy to fans and has died with no hopes of Sucker Punch reviving the franchise. The master thief will always be in our hearts. Not only that. This is the starting point of revisiting more of my cherished PS2 games. More PS2 games are on their way.

I forgot to mention that besides Star Wars, video game adaptations of other media are not as common of retro gaming today in terms of licensing as largely dominated by THQ with their entry of their child-friendly video game adaptations of Nickelodeon cartoons. In fact, if I recall correctly, there is only one video game adaptation of a TV show in my wish list of PS1 games that is never listed on the storefronts of older Sony consoles that offer PS1 games, involves rescuing their best friend like Ape Escape where Spike rescues Jake from Specter's mind control and is not a Warner Bros. title or a first-party title published by Universal Interactive, and that is Xena: Warrior Princess, which is based on the TV show with the same name that became an overwhelming success, but never aired on a channel or available to stream on a single streaming service and never greenlit a reboot from NBC.

But if Warner Bros. Discovery owned Xena: Warrior Princess and all of its entirety, that can change everything to stream it on Max, formerly HBO Max and air it on TBS with a TV-14-V rating, pave the way for the reboot and put Xena into MultiVersus as an Assassin character. Who knows? If she actually does make it in, she could be acquired by purchasing the premium track of the Battle Pass. Maybe her neutral special would allow Xena to throw her beloved chakram. Maybe there could be a dialogue between her and Wonder Woman because they are based on Greek Mythology. Think of Spike from Ape Escape with his debut to PlayStation All-Stars: Battle Royale.

I have Xena: Warrior Princess on my wish list of PS1 games, so if it's released on the catalog, I will download it and showcase on how Xena would play and how she would make a perfect heroic Assassin fighter in MultiVersus, like I did to do a showcase on how Ty would play in Crash Team Rumble, which unexpectedly ceased active development, and submit my moveset idea to Player First Games.

So I believe that Xena is gonna be freaking dope in MultiVersus if Warner Bros. owned the show and all of its entirety. In fact, if I remember, that Warner Bros. Interactive Elements logo from 2000 made me think of why Warner Bros. Discovery should own Xena: Warrior Princess. I experienced it when I booted up Looney Tunes: Back in Action. Great game. And in this point of time, I experienced it again on one of Broken Saw's videos. It is only on 6th generation-era of gaming. If we do get a single PS2 game published by WB, that would be amazing, right?

It doesn't take a genius to understand that developers went through tough times during the development of retro titles based on movies and TV shows because if I am correct, the catalog currently has several retro titles based on movies by Disney, and they are Toy Story and UP. So picture this. Imagine starting a script when developing a video game based on a TV show or movie. I can hear them asking what about Star Wars. Sure, Star Wars games count. We got a lot of them on the catalog, and the Clone Wars is the latest retro Star Wars game released on the catalog.

The only video game adaptations of TV shows in the 6th generation-era that interest me are the ones based on the Simpsons, Hit and Run and Road Rage. Both of them institute driving. However, things have took a turn for the companies. When Road Rage came out, SEGA came along to sue companies that developed and published Road Rage. The lawsuit shows that Road Rage has gameplay similar to Crazy Taxi and it shows that Road Rage became a carbon copy of Crazy Taxi.

Video game adaptations of manga and anime are also not as common of retro gaming today, that the rights are owned by Bandai Namco with their entry of Dragon Ball, Naruto, One Piece, Bleach, Sword Art Online and Digimon. So far, there has been one anime fighting game that was released this year, and that is Naruto X Boruto: Ultimate Ninja Storm Connections. The only anime game coming out this year is Dragon Ball: Sparking! ZERO. So if a retro anime game is released on the catalog, we can revisit them.

Now, video game adaptations of other media may not be as common of retro gaming, but what is as common of retro gaming is the Sony Computer Entertainment America/Europe presents screen. It appears on every single PlayStation exclusive retro title until the point of time when the PS3 comes out to have the Sony Computer Entertainment presents screens on each first party PlayStation game until 2016 when the Sony Interactive Entertainment screens started appearing on each first party game. You have to remember that 2016 is when Sony Computer Entertainment was renamed to Sony Interactive Entertainment.

I am amazed and intrigued at Sony taking their job very seriously on bringing back their beloved classics. The first party games have the old Sony Computer Entertainment America/Europe presents line. But so far, there have not been a single game of the two franchises, Crash and Spyro. These franchises have fueled the charm in the PS1 era. Without the Crash and Spyro games on the Classics Catalog, there is no charm. And now that PS2 emulation is here, the PS2-era Crash and Spyro games may be released one day. If they do, that will double the charm. And I don't care if we got remasters because they use Unreal Engine to kill the charm with modern visuals.

In fact, I don't care about the graphics. The gameplay is the same as the original and remakes and remasters only puts them in a business of making money when fans paid $60 for games they already played years ago, not caring about fans. We just want to revisit the original games because I miss the old school charm in these games. But there is a pro about remakes and remasters. They prevent companies from going bankrupt.

I am going to explain why the games in the original Crash and Spyro trilogies should be released on the catalog anytime soon even though the remastered trilogies are available.


Here is a look at the average scores and sales of original Crash and Spyro trilogies. The fonts you see on the numbers screen are used in their remastered trilogies. Crash Bandicoot: N. Sane Trilogy uses the Yikes font while Spyro: Reignited Trilogy uses the Xaltier font. Both of these fonts are free to download on the internet.

Anyway, these franchises I believe fuel the charm and they are distinct as those of Super Mario and Sonic the Hedgehog, being kings of the PS1 in their original trilogies, although there are multiple antagonists in the original Spyro trilogy. But both original trilogies have the same purpose. They have companions that follow them around to protect them from damage, involve defeating most enemies with a single attack and have bosses at the end of each hub world. But what's the difference between them? Crash Bandicoot is known for linear levels, an arcade style of platforming. Spyro the Dragon is known for open levels.

So you tell me. Why aren't the Crash and Spyro games in the original trilogies released on the catalog yet? The original trilogies have reigned supreme in terms of both sales and review scores on one console and that's why they deserved to be remastered to call attention back to the two franchises. It's a charming deal. There's no reason to not release these games on the catalog anytime soon, even though we got remasters. Why wouldn't they release these games on the catalog while the original trilogies' numbers are excellent? It's a charming deal. You get companions that follow them around to protect them from damage. You get most enemies that are defeated with a single attack. And you get bosses at the end of each world. It's a charming deal. There's no purpose to this. The games in the original trilogies should be released on the catalog anytime soon.


And notice this? Once Universal passed them along to different studios to continue the franchises after Naughty Dog and Insomniac parted ways, they started releasing these games in multiple consoles with the exception of Crash Bash, which was not developed by Naughty Dog, and the racing games. But things have flopped with the Wrath of Cortex, except that it received a much larger audience than the original trilogy to piggyback off the success of the original trilogy as it returned to its roots of a platformer. That's how it received an accolade. And Enter the Dragonfly, which is the only third-party game has the most sales, but didn't come close to the sales of the original trilogy. That game's production was nothing but Looney Tunes and Scooby-Doo. That's why Elora was not in the game. But here's hoping Spyro 4 remedies that.

However, none of the games that came out after the original trilogies haven't come close to good performance, but Wrath of Cortex will get a pass. All of these games after the original trilogies have averaged on a score of 6.5. Twinsanity and Eternal Night didn't break one million units and they seen better days. But there is one obvious thing I like about Twinsanity besides it had to be open world. It's its charming environment Wrath of Cortex and Enter the Dragonfly have. Revisiting these games is something I wanted to do, and with the presence of the PS Plus Premium tier and with a brand new PS2 emulator Sony is using, it's likely to happen. I am aware Enter the Dragonfly's production was nothing but Looney Tunes and Twinsanity had cut content due to Universal not figuring out to be a publisher, but I want to revisit these games.

Excisting companies that have developed retro games also developed modern games. And then, the common thing among retro titles is the defunct video game companies. There has been some stories that companies behind the retro games went through an amount of stress during the development of their retro titles that are currently in the catalog because if you boot up the games that are by the companies that no longer exist, Alone in the Dark: The New Nightmare was published by Infogrames and developed by Darkworks. Star Wars: Demolition was developed by Luxoflux. And the latest, Star Wars: The Clone Wars was developed by Pandemic Studios. I am not counting Lucasarts because the company was rebranded into Lucasfilm Games.

We don't see existing third-party companies that worked on retro titles as a whole, like Activision, EA Games, SEGA, Capcom, Bandai Namco and Square Enix. We got several retro titles that use the Namco logo. That logo is no longer being used after the company merged with Bandai to establish Bandai Namco, so it's obvious that Namco counts as a defunct video game company, and so do Squaresoft and Enix. Both companies were defunct when they established Square Enix.

EA Games, though around longer and became a terrible company, had the Challenge Everything slogan on games in 2002 released on the 6th generation era of gaming and there is a good chance that we are gonna see a retro EA title with the Challenge Everything slogan we loved. And there was one big company whose death saddened fans across the nation.

After they faced a series of money losses, financial struggles and debt, THQ filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy with the intention of auctioning off their franchises to other companies. Judge Mary F. Walrath pretty much ultimately denied the auction, but the creditors approved it instead. The Warhammer franchise was sold to SEGA, the South Park games were sold to Ubisoft, the WWE game franchise was sold to Take Two Interactive and the UFC game franchise was sold to EA Sports.

THQ had remaining franchises, such as Darkstalkers, Red Faction, Saints Row, MX vs. ATV and Destroy All Humans! left over in a court approved bankruptcy auction. This is when Nordic Games acquired the remaining franchises. So Nordic Games intended to claim the remaining franchises and they were not a fan of their name. When the publishers purchased the THQ trademark as a way to publish THQ's remaining franchises in THQ's stead, two years later, they decided to rename themselves to a better name, THQ Nordic. That name makes more sense and it reflects the company using the THQ trademark.

But THQ wasn't the first big company to go bankrupt. If I am correct, there has been one big company that was founded way before THQ was and filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, and that is Midway Games. They filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in February 2009 before THQ does and sold most of their assets to Warner Bros Interactive Entertainment. It became known for arcade and console gaming, ranging from pinball machines to video games and for the Mortal Kombat series, until the point of time when the series shifted to being published by WB Games and developed by NetherRealm Studios. I am fine with Midway filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, though I want to revisit their games since we got emulation of retro titles on PS4 and PS5. But THQ filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, though? Nope! They should've kept going after making that money with their Humble Bundle.

Not only the defunct video game companies are common of retro gaming. Another thing that is also common of retro gaming is the use of Sofdec and ADX, basically used on third-party 6th generation-era games and they are under the CRI Middleware technology. The wiki said that ADX is used on Dreamcast, GameCube, PS2 and Wii games. The middleware is also used on original Xbox games like Jet Set Radio Future. 2006 is when the CRIWARE brand was introduced. That's when games start to use the CRIWARE logo.

And the Dolby Pro Logic II and Dolby Surround Pro Logic II logos. We've seen them on games released on the PS2, GameCube and Wii. That is a main and common degree to gaming today, and it's currently with Jak X: Combat Racing. Think about this. If they plan to release a game that uses the Dolby logo, would we see the logo again? Absolutely. But at present, we no longer see the current Dolby logo appearing on games.

Now let's talk about the couple of exceptions on the PS3 department. First off, ModNation Racers. So what makes this an exception on the PS3 department? Well, there are three reasons.

The first one is the ingame music. The game's ingame music is catchy to hear. The composers did a great job composing the music in game and it has multiple soundtracks and uses dynamic music. The music becomes clear when you are in 1st place, but when you're in 2nd place or worse, the music's clarity decreases. And the jingle specific to the current music playing is heard when a racer is hit with a weapon. The music in the game became so catchy as heck, if you like MoonScoop. However, there is a catch, the music changes every new race.

Secondly, creating your own character and their kart and the race track. ModNation Racers gave you the option to create any character and their kart and the race track. It doesn't have to be just your original creation. It can be from any works you like or dislike. To make Batman, his Batmobile and Gotham City is a creative idea. It's only a taste that San Diego Studio would publish their critically acclaimed racing game with user generated content. That applies to creating your own character, their kart and race tracks.

And thirdly, the best thing that made ModNation Racers so exciting to play is the ingame crew chief. You usually hear him in the one player exhibition race and in the Story Mode. In a one player exhibition race, you hear the crew chief's voice lines. He also had the best fun to hear voice lines when it comes to staying in 4th place or worse, getting passed, going the wrong way and driving off course. Especially the stopping for takeout and the pulling in for a snack lines. Hearing that made me hungry. These voice lines are fun to hear. Again, that's in a one player exhibition race.

So these are the three things on how ModNation Racers became an exception in the PS3 department. And this will be the only game I want released on the catalog, even though it will be only available to stream. If the PS3 hadn't gotten a structure that is hard to develop for, then the PS3 would've been easy to emulate and full PlayStation backwards compatibility would've been a reality.

You know about the Gran Turismo movie? I watched it at my local movie theater. It was a great movie based on one of PlayStation's racing game franchise since Johnny Test. So some fans wanted a ModNation Racers movie. Now, I strongly agree on wanting a video game film adaptation of ModNation Racers that would be CGI animated and rated PG for mild action and violence to involve racers using weapons and crashes against other racers. It can match some aspects in the Story Mode, with Espresso as the main villain of the movie. Sony Interactive Entertainment's Studio Business Group is led by Herman Hulst and his leadership can give us more film adaptations based on PlayStation games. We got Uncharted, Gran Turismo and a third movie to come to theaters.

Kart racing games have been common of the genre in the 7th generation era of gaming. The only fun kart racing games in the generation are ModNation Racers and Sonic and SEGA All-Stars Racing. There is literally an extravagant racing game the 7th generation era has. There is a PSP version of ModNation Racers, but there is no ingame crew chief in the version and it may likely be released on the catalog because the PSP is easy to emulate.

And now let's go on to another exception. That is Mortal Kombat. But what makes Mortal Kombat also an exception as ModNation Racers? I'm glad you asked. I have a couple of reasons for that, so let's take a look.

The first reason is the return to its roots of a traditional 2D fighting game. The 2011 reboot of Mortal Kombat piggybacked off the success of the first three Mortal Kombat games under the Midway umbrella as this was the comeback to the 2D fighting game genre after the 3D-era games and Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe, the final game under the Midway umbrella before their liquidation and the series' shift to being published by WB Games and developed by NetherRealm Studios. It became the 9th mainline title and that's why they called it Mortal Kombat 9 to distinguish things. If we see a Mortal Kombat character being put into MultiVersus, they won't have Fatalities, so they will be in line with Injustice games.

Secondly, my most favorite part of the story mode, which is when Raiden killed his champions over the battle against Outworld villain, Shao Kahn. What makes it so is that part of the story in Mortal Kombat became very insane. A padding to the story is that when Raiden killed his champions, they became revenants to serve Quan Chi and Shinnok in Mortal Kombat X. They've been together back in Mortal Kombat 4 and in Mortal Kombat X, so it's really canon.

Now, if you keep track of the incidents regarding killing champions, Shao Kahn snapped Kung Lao's neck, Liu Kang tried to defeat Shao Kahn, but Raiden stood in his way to kill him. And those are incidents I can remember when playing through the story mode. I know there are a lot more champions that became revenants.

These are two reasons why Mortal Kombat became the exception on the PS3 department with ModNation Racers. While PS3 games are only available to stream, Mortal Kombat is also available on Xbox 360 and the version can be played on the Xbox through backwards compatibility.

A padding we had with NetherRealm Studios is that their games have been released on years with odd numbers. 2011 was the reboot of Mortal Kombat, 2013 was Injustice: Gods Among Us, 2015 was Mortal Kombat X, 2017 was Injustice 2, 2019 was Mortal Kombat 11 and 2023 was Mortal Kombat 1, the newest game that took place in the new era crafted by Fire God Liu Kang. You have to remember that the 2011 reboot of Mortal Kombat returned the series to its roots of a 2D fighting game and is the first game published by WB Games and developed by NRS. 2021 didn't see an NRS game, so the producers had to put in an R-rated 2021 Mortal Kombat movie reboot as a buffer. Production on the 2021 reboot's sequel has wrapped up, but the trailer is not up yet.

There is another padding, which is listening to the stage's music in a Mortal Kombat game under the NetherRealm umbrella while thinking about Spyro's two best goddesses, Elora the Faun and Bianca the Rabbit. It's the fact that you don't mix child-friendly games with dark games nor allow an underage person to play Mature rated games albeit they have no sex in them. If I have a child, I will not allow them to play M-rated games. Not a single one until they are 17 years old and up and that is the age when you are allowed to play M-rated games.

The 3D-era MK games by Midway involve switching between three styles and I know we loved those. The original Xbox versions of these games are playable through backwards compatibility on the Xbox. But with the PS Plus Premium tier offering emulation of titles and PS2 emulation reopening, it is only a matter of time before they get released on the catalog.

If you rewind back to the point when PS Now was released, it was a standalone streaming service that was known for offering PS4, PS3 and PS2 games. The PS4 and PS2 games became available to download. Its reception became poor because of the lack of the PS1 catalog and a weak selection of PS2 games. With all that easier said as done, I have one main point to make.

So many people at Sony tried to figure out how to make a decent service that is borderline superior to PS Now, and they did by incorporating all of PS Now's assets into PS Plus Premium so that it can offer a vast catalog of their retro titles. Now, if and when the PS6 goes into production, they can keep the revamped PS Plus and carry their progress of releasing classics over to it.

In conclusion, because of the reasons alone, despite PS3 games being only available to stream as you have to hook up your PS3 to download the games and play current and future remasters and ports of games originally released on the PS3, PS Plus Premium is literally the hero to revive retro gaming. And I better not hear any of you naysayers to tell me otherwise. PS Plus Premium has literally revived the PlayStation Legacy, and I'm dead serious. It's the only way to revisit retro titles from back in the day and it has the "why can be one thing when you can be anything?" tagline. Your PS1, PS2 and PS3 game discs will not work on the PS4 or PS5 and more of them get added monthly.

I can't wait to see what July's and later months' additions have in store for me in the classics department. If they plan to pick up the pace, they must release six to nine new classics, sporting two to three PS1 games, two to three PS2 games and two to three PSP games monthly going forward. It's to follow Nintendo's footsteps. I will be expecting the ones in my wish list to get released, including the Crash and Spyro games.

PlayStation's 30th Anniversary is coming. You know why am I so excited for the celebration? Because PS Plus Premium is the hero that literally revived retro gaming unlike PS Now. Astro Bot is coming this year and this game is gonna have the ultimate PlayStation experience. Here's to later months' lineup of classic games.

Friday, June 7, 2024

How a Mario and Sonic Crossover Game Would Work

We know that Mario and Sonic are both platformers and they became kings of the gaming industry. They became rivals and friends, and they competed with each other in the Olympics. But what is really missing is a mainline crossover platforming game between Super Mario and Sonic the Hedgehog. But will it work? Let's jump right in for the answer.

There has been some requests for a crossover game between the two distinct decades long video game boyos, Nintendo's heroic red plumber, Super Mario and SEGA's anthropomorphic spiky blue mammal of speed, Sonic. Both of these guys have been mascots of their company for decades, being kings of their own consoles of their time in their 3rd, 4th, 5th and 6th generation era games. However, as soon as the Dreamcast was released, things took a turn for SEGA. The SEGA Dreamcast turned out to be a commercial failure, so they had to discontinue production of the Dreamcast and shift to being a third-party company to publish their games on multiple consoles.

Now, for those of you who would argue, yes, I know, we already had a crossover game, Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games. But I'm talking about a full-fledged mainline platforming crossover game that everybody, including me, wants. However, this is gonna be only on the Nintendo line of consoles since Mario is gonna be involved.

First off, when making a crossover game, you must find common denominators for the two franchises you're crossing over. A good denominator is useful when making crossover games and it's a fancy saying for what is similar between the two franchises. Let's get right into the specifics for common denominators between Mario and Sonic.

Mario and Sonic are both platformers that have things to protect them from damage, like Mario's powerups and Sonic's rings. They can defeat most enemies with a single attack and have bosses at the end of each world and the final boss involves defeating their main antagonists. They both have goals to beat levels. They can gain an extra life when they collected 100 collectibles or collectibles that gain an extra life.

So that's it. These are the common denominators between Mario and Sonic. They are both 2D and 3D platformers that involve getting from A to B and finishing at C and collectibles that help your score at the end. In terms of frustration, players would experience what caused them to not control their anger. The way that both of these games give you that amount of dopamine is also different.

Mario's dopamine rush happens when you reach the end of the level. You do an angry outburst and swear at the game because of its challenges and obstacles when it comes to getting a Mushroom to protect Mario from death. If Mario gets hit while he is small, he dies. But when you get to the end, you cheer and do a happy outburst because you finally overcame that challenge and it gives you that big sack of that severe dopamine rush.

Sonic on the other hand, has that mild dopamine rush and there are less obstacles and have less challenging moments. When Sonic collects a ring he loses from getting hit, that mild dopamine rush is slowly spread throughout the level. If Sonic gets hit while he has no rings, he dies and he must have at least one ring for protection. And when you get that checkpoint and experienced less obstacles in a Sonic game, you get the mild effects of dopamine.

So Sonic gives you a nice rush, small traces and the mild effects of dopamine throughout the level while Mario gives you one big lumpsum and the severe effects of dopamine. The flip of a coin gives you an understanding to this.

If you die in Mario, that lumpsum of happiness is converted into a lumpsum of anger. You know, like when I experienced while watching 1smash18's SSF2 Let's Play videos during the Team Frenzy scene and the time I threw a tantrum over losing. But I felt relaxed now and will never return to that state. The level when playing Super Mario 3D World involved a severe dopamine rush, thanks to its influx of obstacles and its linear levels Crash Bandicoot uses. To make a long story short, Super Mario 3D World gives you that severe rush of dopamine like Crash did, so it is a Mario game with a Crash mindset.

But if you die in Sonic, the frustration became mild and that level when playing Sonic Frontiers remained pretty much the same when you die in that game. If you played Sonic Frontiers, you'll know that it is basically half Spyro: Year of the Dragon in terms of saving friends and Sage cautioning Sonic to leave the Starfall Islands until the later stages, and half Spyro: A Hero's Tail in terms of open exploration, combos and enemies that are defeated with multiple attacks, but with Sonic. In short, Sonic Frontiers gives you a nice mild rush of dopamine like Spyro did because of its lengthy open exploration on islands. It's likely that they put in a Spyro mindset on a Sonic game on base worlds, not actual levels.

Making a crossover game is easy, but a good crossover game must have on par core aspects. It's basically balancing both games' DNA, so if SEGA owns Mario, he would be jacked and his rival would be Silhouette rather than Wario and his games would be published outside the Nintendo line of consoles. And if Nintendo owns Sonic, he can get his regular games, Paper Sonic, Sonic Kart and Sonic Party and his rival would be Wonic rather than Shadow and his game would be published inside Nintendo's line.

Dorkly has a couple of videos that star both Mario and Sonic. They involve switching places, sidekicks, villains, publishers and rivals. It's funny on how Mario was battling Dr. Robotnik while Sonic was battling King Koopa. This is entertainment right there. It's a reference to the Super Mario Blue: Robotnik's Rampage and Sonic Red: The Koopa Konspiracy joke. I came up with that joke after I heard of Crash Bandicoot Purple: Ripto's Rampage and Spyro Orange: The Cortex Conspiracy.

There are a lot of never before seen things and original ways. Imagine if Sonic gets a Fire Flower to become Fire Sonic to gain a fire elemental like Mario does and in Episode 8 of Super Mario Bros. Z, The Great Doomship Offensive. Maybe Mario can use the power of the Wisps from Sonic's arsenal to give him special powers. Like if he gets some sort of ghost powerup, he can float and go through walls like the Boos.

Plus, there is an influx of original ideas that could be incorporated into this dream crossover game. If I was to develop a good crossover game between Mario and Sonic, I'll highlight the aspects on how a crossover between two decades long mascots works below.

There would be seven home worlds that both Mario and Sonic can explore. There would be specifically Mario levels that have coins, blocks, powerups, Goombas, Koopas and more common enemies from the Mario universe, as well as new powers from Super Mario Bros. Wonder, and Sonic levels that have rings, Badniks, containers and power ups, as well as new powers from Sonic Superstars. In total, there would be seven levels on each home world; three for Sonic, three for Mario and one boss level. Some sections is Mario while other sections is Sonic. This can be done because they are both platformers.

Each home world has two sides, so World 1 would have three Mario levels on the Mushroom Kingdom side, three Sonic levels on the Green Hill Zone side and a boss battle between two sides that takes place in both the Mushroom Kingdom and Green Hill Zone. World 2 would have three Mario levels on the Good Egg Galaxy side, three Sonic levels on the Planet Wisp side and a boss level between the Good Egg Galaxy and Planet Wisp.

At the start, when you enter a world, there would be two active levels, a Sonic one and a Mario one. Example, if you beaten a Sonic level, the next Sonic level would unlock. And if you beaten a Mario level, the next Mario level would unlock. If all three Mario levels and all three Sonic levels are beaten, the boss level would be unlocked and they are where Mario and Sonic tag team together to defeat the bosses and it has sections for Mario and sections for Sonic. Think of it as Rush Hour in Crash Bandicoot 4 where you can switch between Tawna and Dingodile partway of the level.

If Mario has to defeat a Koopaling in a boss level and defeat Bowser in World 7, then Sonic would defeat a robot in a boss level and defeat Eggman in World 7. Once a boss level is beaten, you would have to move on to the next home world.

Now for the collectibles. Mario would get his collectibles if he clears a level without dying, collects 100 coins and collects all five red coins in a level. Sonic would get his collectibles if he clears a level without dying, collects 100 rings and collects all five red star rings in a level. Get all three collectibles on each level and that would unlock a skin for Mario or Sonic; whereas, getting all three collectibles in a Mario level unlocks a skin for Mario while getting all three collectibles in a Sonic level unlocks a skin for Sonic.

But what about Chaos Emeralds? People loved to collect them and they are gonna get thrown away, right? No, of course not! Chaos Emeralds and Crystal Stars would contribute to unlocking the true final boss of the game. They are in special stages that Mario and Sonic must explore to get the Crystal Stars and Chaos Emeralds. Each Crystal Star and Chaos Emerald are in any level in one world, so if Sonic must have at least 50 rings to enter the giant ring that leads to a special stage that hides the Chaos Emerald, then Mario would finish his level with at least 50 coins without dying to enter a special stage that hides the Crystal Star. Get all seven of them and the true final boss would unlock.

This is just an idea of how my dream crossover game would work. It might feel like one half of a Mario game is being stitched with one half of a Sonic game, but this crossover game I dreamt of will be similar to Sonic Generations and Sonic Forces to have three Mario levels on one side of the home world, three Sonic levels on the other side of the home world and a boss level between both sides of the home world. But I suppose it can be called uh... Mario and Sonic Generations? That was just for a platforming genre. What would also work is taking them both out of a platforming genre to a new genre.

We know Super Smash Bros. has two of the mascots, and we have the Olympic Games series that stars Mario and Sonic, but it has to be two different genres for the racing game and 2v2 fighting game genres.

First off, the racing game genre. We have the Mario Kart franchise and multiple Sonic kart racing games, so I think it's time that we get a crossover kart racing game where it has an even roster of Mario and Sonic characters, Mario tracks that have coins, Sonic tracks that have rings and two teams of six racers. Each character has a character-specific ultimate ability that can turn the race in their favor, like in Sonic and SEGA All-Stars Racing where they get an All-Star Move from an item box while they are in 5th place or worse. No, ultimate abilities would use a gauge that fills up when collecting coins and rings and using powerups and weapons.

Now for the 2v2 fighting game genre. We got Street Fighter X Tekken and it handled an even split of Street Fighter and Tekken characters. I believe that we get a crossover 2v2 fighting game where it has an even split of Mario and Sonic characters, an even roster of Mario and Sonic stages, a super gauge that goes up to three levels, 2XKO-style cinematic supers that burn all three levels of your super gauge and online lobbies and sessions that hold up to four players.

This year's Summer Game Fest is almost here. It's gonna fill out the gap created by E3's death and it's gonna be like this going forward. Sure, I know we want E3 back because it was the best expo of video games. But Summer of Gaming will have a ton of new game announcements like E3 did. What I like to see is a crossover Mario and Sonic game I suggested, as well as a ton of new games.

So, this concludes my post on how a Mario and Sonic crossover game would work. I made this post about wanting a dream crossover game between two main boys of the video game industry. I might make a future post on how a Super Mario game with linear levels and a Sonic the Hedgehog game with open levels would work.

Thursday, June 6, 2024

Jim Ryan Was Totally AWFUL to PlayStation

The brighter future of PlayStation to extend beyond the console industry to go to new heights is happening. Why am I so excited for that? Because Jim Ryan was obviously a terrible and abysmal CEO of Sony Interactive Entertainment and he had NO idea what he was doing, so this is something to get off my chest as to how this is gonna be interesting to talk about. Without further ado, let's talk about it.

Rumors started spreading as we hear about PlayStation's expansion from the console department and I am already excited for PlayStation to expand beyond the console department. But there's something about PlayStation's expansion beyond the console department that I am excited for. Why am I excited about anything I know nothing about? Well, there is one obvious detail we do know for sure. One that is obvious and unanimous is that Hideaki Nishino and Herman Hulst will be leading Sony Interactive Entertainment and maintaining all of PlayStation.

Now before you give me props and credit for being a Nishino and Hulst shill, let me explain myself on why am I excited for this. What makes this exciting? It's actually not the fact that Nishino and Hulst are leading the PlayStation brand. But better yet, it's who is NOT leading the PlayStation brand. That is Jim Ryan. But why is that important, you ask?

Well, you see, Ryan became president of Sony Interactive Entertainment as a whole in 2019. He did something nice with the launch of the PS5. This is where you'll argue and that say that the launch of the PS5 is considered to be the best, so what exactly is the meaning of this? Sure, Jim Ryan did something very nice about the PS5's launch despite its shortages that were caused by supply chain issues that spanned over the course of the pandemic. But he also did something very awful when the PS5 was released. His four year tenure was marred by a influx of flubs that caused PlayStation fans to hate him to the max.

During the Gran Turismo event, Ryan went for the record and said that PS1 and PS2 games looked ancient and asked why would anyone want to play this and straight up confirmed that the PS5 has backwards compatibility to a vast majority of PS4 games and rejecting the legacy trio of consoles. I mean, come on! He did not just say that! He went on to turn down the golden age that is retro gaming just by saying that!

This led to him addressing about what he said and had regretted saying that. It's because the he made it clear that they need to focus PS5's backwards compatibility support on PS4 games, not for older generations. It was reported that Jim Ryan doesn't hate old games this entire time and he also stated on what's really important is that time, engineering resources and money are finite when developing a new platform. Jim Ryan did something amazing and rare.

However, it's worth noting that the PS4 and PS5 bear the same structure while the PS3's structure is completely different and is hard to develop for, unlike the Xbox 360, which bears a straightforward structure relatively easy to develop for. That's how the Xbox Series X/S and the Xbox One X managed to achieve full backwards compatibility. It's clear that Microsoft is the big winner and Ryan stated that he had no intentions to follow on Xbox's footsteps, so this makes Xbox the leader in the backwards compatibility department and they would play Whacked! on the latest Xbox.

In response to the PS4 and the PS5 not being backwards compatible to previous generations, Bloomberg reported that Sony was actually working on an Xbox Game Pass-esque three tiered service codenamed "Spartacus." The reports from Bloomberg shown that the first tier would have the benefits the original PS Plus has while the second tier would offer a catalog of games on PS4 and PS5 and the third and final tier would offer streaming, game trials and a catalog of classic games released on PS1, PS2, PSP and PS3 that are added monthly.

When the developers intended to keep the Plus branding as a way to stay true to their brand, they confirmed that PS Plus and PS Now are gonna merge together to establish PS Plus 2.0 and give it three tiers, Essential, Extra and Premium on both the PS4 and PS5 and have discontinued the service on the PS3. The Premium tier is the way to revisit classics from back in the day.

However, there is a catch. The PS1, PS2 and PSP games are available to both stream and download. PS3 games however, are only available to stream due to the PS3's hard to work with structure that made it hard to emulate. But it's fair. The PS3 games are not that important to me anyway. For markets without cloud streaming, there is an alternative to the Premium tier called the Deluxe tier, which has benefits the Premium tier offers at a discounted price without cloud streaming.

The only thing about this is that we get to play PSP games on the big screen for the first time, like the old PlayStation TV days. I know that there are a vast majority of fans that adore playing PSP games on the big screen for the first time and we're revisiting PS1 and PS2 games thanks to PS Plus Premium, the hero that revived the PlayStation Legacy. It's only a taste as to how Jim Ryan would regret disrespecting the older platforms. 

After getting confirmation that the PS5 is backwards compatible to PS4 games and the PS4 is lacking backwards compatibility because of the PS3's structure that is hard to work with, PS Plus Premium is an obvious solution, right? Sure, it is the hero that revived the PlayStation Legacy, if you like Johnny Test, when you dreamed of a new console to be backwards compatible to all previous generations.

At present, the process of releasing new PS1 and PSP games is coming along nicely as Sony is very serious about bringing their beloved classics back, But turns out that we are not getting a new PS2 game, until there is good news that Sony now has a brand new PS2 emulator to light the way for new PS2 games to have rewinds, save states, up rendering and video filters like the PS1 and PSP games starting in June. Jim Ryan was seemingly embracing players revisiting games from back in the day. But he could not understand that in the first place.

Jim Ryan had affected Japan Studio. They were a great developer who developed the Ape Escape franchise and others. But it was merged with Team Asobi, founded in 2012 when they were with Japan Studio. Ryan did something awful just by letting their money go to waste. It's bad enough that Volition shut down on August 2023 and we were dishearted to experience that. London Studio was also closed down during that recent restructuring. It was reported that Jim Ryan has caused this situation. He just screwed it all up. Badly.

This is when the dead franchises come in. Franchises such as Killzone became dead. We've desired for the developers to revive franchises, but they are not getting revived. They did try reviving the franchises, but that didn't work out, so things got scrapped, rewritten, didn't work out, have shelved and they currently had no plans to revive them. Many difficulties and issues of reviving the franchises were reported based on Jim Ryan's antics. That's why there isn't a new game in the franchises. We've already seen the new Super Mario and Sonic games releasing for decades and these two distinct franchises are not dead.

Even though we got heavy hitters, like Stellar Blade and Rise of the Ronin, ones that beared high caliber and don't contain intense violence despite their M rating, Jim Ryan couldn't figure how to be a decent PlayStation CEO if it meant his life. It took years for Jim Ryan to actually know what he was doing, and even though he regretted spurning PS1 and PS2 games and embraced Xbox, he still struggled with trying to be a better CEO.

And even in the case of the Xbox v. FTC case over the Activision and Bethesda acquisition, Xbox has won the case to purchase Bethesda and Activision fair and square and the FTC did NOTHING. This was just a devilish mess of things that weren't even fully cooked because Jim Ryan let his guard down and couldn't figure out what tactics he wants to plan to keep Xbox from purchasing the companies. Right as Jim Ryan tried to be a better CEO, Hiroki Totoki has replaced him as temporary CEO and just undone some of the failures.

The only big takeaway from this is that Jim Ryan would succeed Shawn Layden, who was met with some love that he maintained the brand for the greater good. Layden made Ryan look amazing after he succeeed him. When Layden is no longer CEO, Jim Ryan had shown his true colors and his lack of skill as Sony's totally subpar fizzle of a CEO.

Hideaki Nishino and Herman Hulst are now two CEOs of Sony Interactive Entertainment, dividing the space into two sections, with Nishino leading the Platform Business Group and Hulst leading the Studio Business Group to change the industry to its core. They will hopefully pave the way for the greater good of PlayStation and the brighter future of the brand, revive franchises and undo failures Jim Ryan's antics have created. That's why I am so excited for the brighter future of PlayStation. And when the PS6 is revealed as Sony confirmed it, even though they wouldn't stop making new consoles as doing so is expensive, everything can change for the better.

So that's all I had to ramble about how Jim Ryan was totally awful to PlayStation. With Hideaki and Herman leading the way, the brighter future is upon us, so to heck with Jim Ryan. To heck with him. He can forever kiss my butt for all of the failures he caused with his antics. And I mean it. Here's to Hideaki Nishino and Herman Hulst for being better CEOs.

Tuesday, June 4, 2024

Low Content Post Penalty Rant

I'm going to get so much hate for this angry G-rated rant to ruffle your feathers and get few of you frazzled. But I don't mean it literally. And by G-rated, I mean that this rant will have little to no swearing and that's something my future rants will have.

Now, if you have been living under a freaking rock like Patrick Star from SpongeBob SquarePants, welcome to the modern world where we can get food with a press of a single button on our phones on DoorDash or any other food delivery app or some crap. Anyway, you know about how forums have strictness about staying on topic. Most of them have rules that they need to follow so that they can avoid penalties ranging from warnings to permanent bans and have a chance of being chosen to become a moderator and crap.

But I want to point out to the direction of the site, the Skullheart forums. It came back in 2021 when ongoing development of Skullgirls 2nd Encore was caused by Autumn Games being holders of the IP. It became a perfect place to discuss all things 2nd Encore. The old one was archived and it had a tracker that tracks channels that stream both Skullgirls and Indivisible and has threads that point out to the discussion of other games. But the current one no longer has that and I already missed that.

I really had a lot of fun talking in the Skullheart forums. But needs a lot more improvements, so I made a few posts on the topic where we suggest improvements. Improvements include a sigil of a shuriken Valentine now has in 2nd Encore to reflect her cross update Mobile will get later this year, a tracker that tracks live channels that livestream Skullgirls, missing sigils for the Season Pass characters and new prefixes.

There is a most active thread where we can discuss about Skullgirls 2nd Encore's Beta, which is now closed down since the balance patch dropped and wouldn't play on it since Annie is having an audio issue on PlayStation, which is why I wouldn't dare embrace Star Overdrive combos until then. But the hotfix will remedy that. I was inside the lines, my fancy way of saying on topic and following the rules. It's the only thread that became so active. I posted a lot of messages and kept them high key as possible. I assisted moderators too and it can be legitimate to make sure that no user colors outside the lines, which is my fancy way of saying break the rules and get off-topic. Now I'm here to get something off my chest. I have been talking about this in private many times. But it's finally time that I put my markdown on what has ticked me off and explain how did I get a bad day.

So here is this detailed warning message I was given for making a low value post; a low content post that associated with me being excited about the patch. This is especially since I have mentioned the same topics seveal times in other threads. Also, that warning message has a little bit of an error in grammar.

Those posts I made expressed my feelings on how excited I am for the hotfix that can fix issues I reported and the network improvements to the Steam version, which I wouldn't play until I get a gaming laptop. So I got warned for the first time for making a post about how excited I am for that patch. Second time is doing the same thing, but on a different thread. Then all of a sudden, I was issued a freaking timeout for a low content post? This is the biggest pile of absolute bullcrap I have ever experienced. I am NOT amused at the fact that this is literally the most retarded thing mods can do. None of the forums I signed up on involved a low content post penalty. I can hear them ask what about X. I'll get to that later.

How dare they suspend me for a low content post when I was on topic! I was given two warnings and a straight up two-day suspension a low content post? That was just a Frankenstein mess of things and a horrible experience that I don't even consider fair at all whatsoever!

I was gonna make a post about how a Mario and Sonic crossover platformer works. And then I was gonna make a post about MultiVersus, but apparently, I had to make this post talking about how mad I am about being penalized for low content post because mods are making a lampoon out of themselves like a brainless freaking ape on steroids! This wasn't the case with the situation over on GameSpot that was caused by one of the users' desire to post their desired vs. game thread over on System Wars and was no different than the part where THQ filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy after series of money losses, financial struggles and debt.

In a way, being excited for future stuff should not be deemed low content, so in an objective sense possible, what is legitimate is making a reply about being excited for future stuff. This is nothing low content about that and it's a margin for error. So if you don't agree with me in this rant, it's fine. Just don't hate me for ranting about this.



Since I am very angry that I won't be posting at the forums during my two day suspension for posting a low content reply and had a bad day, right off the hop, I'll share this here first, so here is Minette in her Elora palette. This is also in response to Spyro 4 getting in development by Toys for Bob independently from Activision. This is what her idle pose looks like and since she is coming as a Guest Star in Mobile along with Brain Drain and the third and final TBA Guest Star this year likely to be announced at EVO, her own set of sprites might be added to the palette editor and there is a good chance for her to make it to 2nd Encore as well because Guest Stars will always have their chance to be in 2nd Encore as full-fledged fighters.

They were tempted to dive right into a Season 2 Pass, but they have to stop and recalibrate their efforts a bit. And by that, the mean that they need to get the remaining content out of the way first. They are Annie's alternative voice pack, the Japanese voices for the Season Pass characters during combat and the English (and hopefully Japanese) voices for the Season Pass characters during Story Mode. That's why active development on 2nd Encore is going on hiatus after the hotfix until 2025 when the voice content get released while active development on Mobile is ongoing to release Guest Stars this year.



So we now have an interesting development to how virtually amazing they look in their Bianca and Elora palettes as they were able to add idle poses to the palette editor under the custom section for an HD view. Objectively, the best characters in the Spyro franchise are the two goddesses and they are two of the best girls like Sally Acorn and Bunnie Rabbot from Sonic SatAM.


Now before I get to the argument regarding posting posts about how angry we are about the patch, let's take a clearer and full HD look at the Renoir sisters in their Linda and Louise Belcher palettes. I believe that we now have a clear view for these two palettes now that the palette editor is having idle poses in the custom section.




So, I have compiled these four interesting palettes with a clearer insight and had to share them here becuase I got timed out for a low content post for two freaking days! This is bullcrap. It is NOT necessary to just warn or suspend those who make posts that associate how excited they are about upcoming patches! This is legitimate. So in a business sense, why the heck would a moderator intend to penalize users for low content posts when they were respectful and on topic? You need to understand that they are in the business of being retarded and making a lampoon out of themselves, not to appease them or take their job very seriously.

Users that I love on the internet are very excited about upcoming patches, but I know in the back of my mind that they shouldn't be penalized for low content posts as long as they stay inside the lines by a moderator or an admin for that matter. To penalize a user for posting a post about how excited they are about upcoming updates for a low content post would highly likely be operating at an utter loss and an unfair treatment. Plus, how can you penalize a user for a low content post after they posted a reply associated with future stuff? It wrecks the experience in general as meh. When the Skullgirls community is so small, you are basically ruining the fun and experience.

Now, they have argued that if we make a post about how angry we are about that patch. We know that the patch they pushed in back in June 2023 became so controversial that it has censored and removed the art and altered content to anger fans with the exception of removing arm bands from the Egret soldiers. So what if we make a post about how angry we are about that patch?

This doesn't seem like a good idea to me. We are still getting penalized for a low content post, even though it's an angry post. Is it possible that you posted a reply about how angry you are about that patch? Sure, that brings drama to the forums following that controversial patch. But to penalize users that posted a reply about how excited they are about the patch that brings Minette and Annie's Elora and Bianca palettes and the Renoir sisters' Linda and Louise Belcher palettes and a new mechanic from SEGA vs. Capcom: The Next Level or 2XKO to 2nd Encore and Mobile for a low content post is an awful choice whatsoever. It's like having a Reignited version of Enter the Dragonfly and calling it Enter the Dragonfly Reignited or some crap since Spyro vs. Mega Man. Even though that message was angry, they can also be penalized for a low content post.

This is exactly what I'm talking about. They are making a retarded lampoon out of themselves by warning or timing out a user after they posted a reply about excitement for future stuff for low content post. And even though it's low content or low value, just leave the reply alone as long as it points out to the topic of the thread. Think of this as a business. If you became a mod, should you cause this bullcrap and make a lampoon out of yourself just by simply timing a user out after they posted a post that associates with being excited for an upcoming update that has Linda and Louise Belcher palettes for the Renoir sisters of the Canopy Kingdom for a low content post? No, you shouldn't because all that does is not just hurt the experience, but also gives a user an unhappy bad time and wrecks the fun. Do you understand what I mean?

Now let's talk about the only thing that is dignified in this rant. That is X, formerly Twitter. So what makes X so dignified? There are three reasons.

The first reason is no involvement of moderators and admins and a penalty for a low content post. Everybody has the right to post low content messages that associate with being excited for future patches on X or whatever without worrying about getting a penalty for a low content post and it's considered dignified enough for users to not experience the bullcrap. None of the other forums I signed up to involved a low content post penalty like X.

Secondly, a good deal with X's Terms of Service is that they have serious stuff printed on there. Users need to abide by the Terms to have access to it once they sign up. Their account can be terminated for impersonating, bullying, harassment and other bad things under the zero tolerance policy that can cause the termination of their accounts. Especially child pornography, which can make them a pedophile and this is something you don't want to be because it's the worst criminal offense to send you to hate city forever and you'll have to be a registered sex offender or go to jail. And if you follow a user who was exposed a pedophile, immediately unfollow them and never reply to them. Ever.

And thirdly, a Terms of Service on social media is not as common as the ones in gaming websites with forums today, and it's largely dominated by GameSpot with its entry of its own Terms of Use. Something that would bring light to online users. If my words are correct, GameFAQs uses the same rule GameSpot has. And they have a karma system that determines what the user's karma is.

In fact, if this proves my theory correct, YouTube censors out bad words at moderate and severe levels to prevent them from showing on auto generated captions. That drew inspiration from one of Fox's American animated sitcom that's been a hit so far and has white characters that have jaundice, a yellow discoloration of the skin and no tongue moment when characters say words with an "L", even in later seasons that have a revamped animation, and that is The Simpsons. The other animated shows that have the same style of animation and have tongue movement when characters say words with an "L" and have no jaundice on white characters are Futurama and Disenchantment.

That's why the censorship policy is on YouTube's Terms of Service. Which means the low content post penality will never be involved and they will likely have a jolly good time. To not start the low content penalty bullcrap on YouTube and on X is a very smart business choice as the Terms didn't say anything about it at all for that matter and there is no sense of them making a lampoon out of themselves. But posting a video that contains copyrighted music on YouTube can cause copyright claims.

One final point to be made. We must follow the rules carefully so that we can avoid getting penalized and have a chance to be chosen to become a mod. A train that mods and admins have is that users need to make sure that they abide by the forum rules wisely to avoid penalties ranging from warnings to permanent bans. Some users were able to avoid breaking the rules. Especially me, until I got warned and timed out for a low content post.

Penalizing users for posting a post that associates with being excited for whatever for a low content post on the forums makes no dang sense at all. It's legitimate for us to be excited about future stuff and post low content posts as long as they are on topic and respectful. We need to follow the rules, per se, but it's not necessary to just Looney Tunes the whole darn thing, okay? We don't want a site that has the forums that involves a low content post penalty because we fans couldn't stop being excited. I am going to say this with great measure. If there is a post that associates with being excited about future things, just leave the user alone instead of penalizing those for a low content post as long as they are staying inside the lines. That's all I ask.

Sorry I got so worked up over this. Honestly, it's against Constitutional right and someone should do something about this. I'd be interested if I am the only one who did this crap.