#the other thing people are arguing about on Louis' merch | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

fff777 · 5 months

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Watched WayV's live from 231110

They set this up to be like a press conference and then the first question was what job would they have if they weren't celebrities ^^;; Sorry that took me out.

Dejun thinks he would have been a musical actor! Actually that would suit him a lot, hope he gets some chances to do musical acting :D

They were getting a question from another interviewer and the moderator asked Kun to use the other mic lol. I think this feels a bit makeshift because it's a livestream so these practical bits aren't edited out.

OK this second question from Sohu was more in line with the first questions you'd ask for a press conference about a new album lol. They asked whether WayV's mentality had changed with this new album.

Sicheng joined Kun in answering the question which surprised me lol. I'm not used to him being as chatty in a semi-formal environment like this.

I'm wondering if the guys actually have microphones clipped onto their shirts and that the microphones that Winwin, Kun, and Ten are holding might be 'fake' microphones.

Kun being like 'hey you kids who haven't spoken, answer the question'

Kun addressed fans as 公主們 lol, telling them not to be sad that they couldn't get tickets because there would be opportunities in the future.

Sorry I have to fast forward through a lot of the fanservice-y parts, I just can't watch it lol.

Sicheng is helping Kun more with the answers. I'm guessing he's stepping up because this is more of a question-and-answer interview (and a livestream), whereas Ten is normally the second-in-command for variety content or recorded interviews.

Yeah! Hendery really got into his role during their mini drama haha.

Lol Sicheng caught off guard having to do promo for his own drama lel.

Ten is still nodding along to the questions though, like we know he understands way more than he lets in on lol.

Hendery being a lifestyle blogger feels right. He said he likes sharing things about his everyday life. I don't have bubble but I've heard that his bubble is like that.

Yangyang said he'd do pets or fashion blogging. Yangyang as a fashion blogger would be very fitting.

Dejun said he'd be a science blogger, and clarified that he'd blog about the universe? Is he joining Renjun and Jisung as universe enthusiasts? :P

Ten would be a 'fun stuff and travel' blogger

LMAO Kun would do travel and electronics reviews XD The others argue that he'd also do food blogging but Kun said he wasn't as focused on food anymore *o* No longer the group foodie?! Electronics reviews seems like it could sustain him though, smart economical choice lol.

Sicheng said he'd be a travel blogger for the sina building and just visit people in the building XD Office pet

Kun vs slipback challenge

Dejun felt like he was in the titanic when in the car that was being flooded in the On My Youth MV

Hendery and Kun singing Happy Birthday party ver. to Yangyang while everyone else was just focused on the shoot

Omg Dejun gifted a pair of Astro Boy shoes to Hendery?! Great gift for an anime fan :P

Aw, Louis, Leon, and Levy never fight :3 I have seen pics of them being very affectionate, I don't doubt it

Ten leading the live unboxing

Lol they keep selling their album like livestreamers sell merch

They were being asked to share their feelings about visiting the sina building and Sicheng was just smiling like this :3

Apparently there are a lot of Wayzennies among the staff at sina :3

Dejun learned to turn off beauty filters? I feel like there's a story here that I don't know about

Hendery stuck his hand out and Sicheng thought he was asking for a high five so he high fived him, but Hendery kept sticking his hand out and Sicheng was trying to put it down. But it turns out Hendery was trying to gesture inwards towards Sicheng (?) as the dance instructor lol.

Sicheng and Ten were voluntold to teach the dance to some staff at Sina

Ohhh turns out the staff that went up already know some of the dance

The guys criticizing Sicheng for being a lousy teacher lol

Lol Dejun and Yangyang describing this part of the dance as playing mahjong (when you have to shuffle the tiles lol)

Random play dance coming up

At one point the moderator called Sicheng "Sicheng-laoshi" and he was like "just Sicheng is fine" :P

The guys asking Sicheng if he knew the dance for Hype Boy and he was like "I know a bit" and the guys were like "oooooh!!!!!!"

There is definitely not enough open space for them to do all of these activities, a lot of the staff had to walk around them and dodge the cameras to clean up and get good angles. Moderator lady had to read from her sheet WHILE walking around the set and dodging the cameras T_T

Sicheng was dancing along well enough in the first part of the song and the guys were like "When did Sicheng learn this?!?!?!?!?!" Sicheng just doesn't seem like a guy who follows trends too much so I think that's why the guys are so surprised :3 It's cute

While preparing for Poppin Love the guys were still hung up on Winwin dancing Hype Boy <3 They think it's so cute X3

Yeah they did not have the clips ready so they had to find the part of the song to dance too :S

Snack time

All of them focused on the 豆汁兒 lol

RIP Sicheng was describing the 豆汁兒 a particular way and Hendery panicked so bad x.x the staff on set laughed but Kun and someone else (possibly the moderator) were like err we're on a livestream dude x.x

I do feel like the 豆汁兒 bit was a bit too extended. Like we get it, it's a food that some people really don't like. I'd rather they just move on to more enjoyable things.

Sicheng said that the entire group wanted to go yum cha <3

And then WayV went to visit the employees in the office while passing out gifts

#screencaps & commentaries #nct #wayv

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1ddotdhq · 4 years

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🎤 Sat Aug 29 🧬

LP Act 2!!! How well did LIAM do?? He KILLED IT!! Once it was finally able to start, that is! The Veeps website crashed about an hour before the show started, and was not able to start running again until over an hour after it was supposed to start. I don’t know about you guys, but I’m having flashbacks to the anniversary website (as well as every other website the One Direction curse seems to have contact with).

Highlights of the show include him performing What a Feeling, which is the first time anyone from One Direction has ever performed it, ever! There were also pictures of his band (One Direction? Maybe you’ve heard of them?) in onesies and dressed as Mario Kart characters (in case you’re wondering, this would have been from that one Mario Kart interview, yes). Some ~ super fun (old) behind the scenes facts ~ include that the boys got in trouble for the onesie picture because “a cool band - like Westlife - would never have done that”. Uh, fuck you, said Westlife, who promptly took a picture in onesies one week later. Love that for them.

Say what you will about these guys, they do really listen to their fans and deliver. Louis was clearly taking careful notes on our merch requests, and is delivering, and Liam really came through with the song selections, opening with the seemingly forgotten songs from his EP, to singing more One Direction songs - I’m not over the What A Feeling performance, and I never will be. The chat, meanwhile, “play Little Things!”. Seriously, what the fuck guys?

Other notable moments from the show include Liam singing Night Changes and Best Song Ever (I love this song!), and his opening act Mae Muller, who sang her newest single, as well as a song called “Therapist”, in which she crooned “you don’t need a girlfriend, you need a therapist”. Also, on the topic of One Direction (were we on that topic? We are now.), he said, “wow, ten years, so much has happened, I’ve got a mustache now!” (Harry can relate :{D!). He mentioned that it was hard to play these old songs without the boys (“I did ask, though!”). And, perhaps most surprisingly, his show did feature ...cage dancers? I wasn’t expecting that one either, to be honest.

Following the show came Afterparty. This was, in a word, awkward. There were some zoom games that mostly consisted of technical difficulties, Liam standing around awkwardly, and participants who mostly failed to answer the questions correctly. The prizes for participating in this game consisted solely of Liam’s used shirts, which he joked were from his depop store! There were also video messages wishing Liam a happy birthday, notably from artists he’s worked with including Niall (!!!!).

The funniest moment of the show was definitely the costume of a cow he promptly put on because “why not? It’s not the worst thing I’ve put on during a show”. It’s no banana suit, but it did give him the opportunity to make penis jokes. And, guys, he took it! The second funniest moment was when asked what his favorite part of going solo was, he promptly replied, “finding out that people don’t know my middle name”, in reference to a failed zoom answer.

If you were looking for an update to YESTERDAY’s headline story, well, so was I, to be honest, but, as Liam said (when talking about birthday wishes), “I’m sorry, I’m going to have to keep some information close to the chest”. I think that’s that about that, to be honest. But Liam did have special guests on hand: childhood friends - Not Maya.

None of the other boys had any notable events today, but Harry made Daily Mail headlines for, uh, making a friend? Someone call the press! Oh, wait - Someone already did! Emma Corrin, the “pal” he seems to have made, will be playing Princess Diana in the upcoming season of the Crown. So, you know, some queens do need a crown (not Harry, though, obviously). Most notably, though, the article makes a point of explicitly telling us that they are not romantically involved.

Louis continues to be making fandom rounds for his merch, which is a topic of heated debate. What is behind the DNA strand? Yesterday, I called it a wall, but some have said that it looks more like a baby gate, while others brought their professional medical opinions to bear to tell us that it was in fact an artery wall. Which is it? Place your bets now!

#the other thing people are arguing about on Louis' merch #are the fact that crosshairs seem to spell out *** **#what do i think of this?#i...don't know #could be? maybe?#they do seem quite out of place there #but also #how likely is it?#who knows #i DO think that the gate thing is more likely #because since we're taking anecdotal evidence #i would like to share that the one medical professional I spoke to #did not immeadiately recognize it as an artery wall #nor did they mention that the second third or fourth time they saw the design #so i feel more comfortable calling that a fence or a gate of some kind #also #i do think that Louis is very much aware of what DNA means within his fandom #and that this whole design was very much on purpose #so yeah #liam said on instagram that his karaoke song was elton john and george michael's Don't Let the Sun Go Down On Me #and niall posted on instagram about chadwick boseman #and actually #my song rec of the day is for chadwick boseman #who was such a light in the world #and in the indutry #the song is Glitter by Patrick Droney #lp #lt #hs #emma corrin

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hshouse · 3 years

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Hi and thank you for your explanation of blockchain and tokens and NFTs. It helped me get a bit of understanding. I have a question about how Louis could be looking at NFTs. From my limited understanding, selling copies of an album to a large number of people is possible, and not much different from buying an mp3 dowload of an album, that is, there's nothing tangible other than a set of music e-files received by the consumer. There's little upfront cost for the label or artist with mp3 download sales, and the same would be true of an NFT download (would they still be mp3 files? I'm unclear). If Louis is looking at releasing an album independent of any label, and I'm not saying he is, only that it's an option I see right now (that is, with no information about a label from him), could he do it with one set of original music files and one set of original artwork, offering copies (limited or unlimited in number) for a set price? Can the seller indicate a not-to-exceed price, and reorder at a lower number of tokens if the price gets too high? I'm spitballing here, but is something like this possible? Thanks!

Hi bby,

So let’s break down what is expensive for a label and what isn’t (for someone as rich and successful as Louis)

- Recording: for smaller artists expensive so label needs to cover it but Louis probably even has his own studio.

- Producers/Mixers/Engineers: all need to be paid usually by the label. Louis can pay them easily.

- Actual procedural things of getting a song into spotify/itunes: almost non-existent. Louis does not need a label to do this.

- Artwork/Promo design: again Louis can pay someone to do this easily.

- Commercial Strategy: I’d argue that the label has the best people to do this and doing it without it will be tough. Of course if he has connections he can hire like a former label person.

- Promotion and Physical copies: here is where the label’s usefulness for Louis really comes. Label has this all streamlined: getting the song to the right people to make it explode. Also very hard for Louis to decide to physically produce his own album and distribute it around the world (expensive logistical thing)

All of this to say: in a scenario where Louis is dropped/contract ends he absolutely is capable of doing a no label album and selling it online. He does not need a complicated NFT thing to do that. Will he do this? Hiiiiiiiiighly doubt it. To begin with why would he want to pay all this shit that the label pays usually? No way he can’t find a single label willing to do exactly his plans.

Back to NFTs I don’t think NFTs for music make sense cause 1) you are not gonna ever actually own the song cause Louis ain’t selling you the rights to his song 2) if you don’t own the original then that’s just itunes lol. What he can do is sell any kind of image (like photos from a photoshoot) where people would buy and say I actually own this picture of Louis. I think it is shady as hell cause I’m fine not owning a picture just having a copy on my phone??? The limits of NFTs are not fully explored yet and who knows, he can sell autographs? video msgs? Anything? But then again he already can do that (just add it to the merch store) but doesn’t cause it is goddamn weird.

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1ddiscourseoftheday · 4 years

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Sat 30 Nov

Louis played Nashville! There was a rushed meet and greet, but not so rushed as to deprive us and him of the joy of him reacting to a tattoo of him and Harry's faces on a fans thigh ("that's sick!!!") LOL amazing. Legends indeed. Fast forward to his set, he sounded really strong and good and while he didn't choose to wave any flags he definitely had the opportunity and I'm sure he appreciated the display, it was incredible. I'd very much like a gifset of that torrential rain of flags during KMM if anyone's taking requests! Beautiful. The show was a benefit for a suicide prevention organization and they had Louis add to their inspirational wall: he wrote, "you mean everything to someone so do not give up" and "find something that helps you get out of bed in the morning."

Eroda/ Adore You street advertising posters are up with a single release date! Adore You, Dec 6. The lovely art deco posters (merch of this please) have religious and tarot stylings and feature the official Eroda fish. The Erodan tourism board today gave us advice about what do when you see a minister (go home), as well as many tweets about the local perpetual cloud cover ("for as long as anyone can remember"). We see that Harry's character in the trailer has some kind of laser eye issue and wonder if he'll be able to help burn off that cloud cover. The projectionist from the Scottish film lorry tweeted about the Eroda trailer. From the thousands of tweets available to reply to, Eroda choose, among others, to let us know that yes, people do mutually respect one another on Eroda, and to shade @HSD, nice always a good choice ("everyone is welcome in Eroda.") The island has TV ads now (in our world that is), and tourism brochures were handed out in Paris. Some excitement about a fish in a ring on the poster but it turns out that fish really Don't wear rings (well maybe the Jewel Fish do, but we'll have to wait til the migration arrives to know.)

Liam last night posted a number of snaps of himself out to a karaoke night with Maya and family followed by one late night missive saying he was jumped by bouncers and "I'll see you in court assholes." The tabloids reported on it but were very restrained and polite, a post on Liam's Instagram told us he had left Texas and headed home, and it seemed like maybe the mysterious unsourced picture of LP1 on a store shelf ahead of schedule that appeared would be enough to distract but unfortunately, no. TMZ picked up video of the incident (Liam arguing with the bouncers) and it's not good. If that wasn't bad enough, he is engaging with the situation on twitter; he liked a post (from a stan account) saying things went down differently than TMZ reports. They won't share their version publicly though. I'm crossing my fingers an LP1 audio leak is coming, TBH: (warning, UO coming through here) I think it might be a good tactic to build hype ahead of a release that's scheduled for a busy day, while placing minimal demands on Liam himself and frankly anything that gets Liam press that isn't this would be very good right now. LATE BREAKING ADDITION: a leak claiming to be LP1 is out there now I cannot confirm or deny that it's real but guess what, I hope it is and I think we should all listen to it and talk about that a lot rather than... other things.

#listen Louis might not ever pick up a flag and that is 100% fine. like seriously. tbh I'm glad we got that settled for now #and i can fucking chill until tour that shit was taking years off my life #but i connected a couple dots i probably shouldn't have today and I'm gonna share cause i know you guys will die #you know how he keeps saying OVER AND OVER that it doesn't really start until the first tour show #that that's when it all really begins #..... I'm just saying if he picks up a flag at that show i will fucking kill him #but anyway regardless I'm so proud of everyone for making a gorgeous gay space of support and safety #it's beautiful and you know I'll be taking a flag to my shows #Louis Tomlinson #Harry Styles #Eroda #Liam #Harry #Louis #Niall if you wanna be in these did something besides telling me to stream you are trying my patience #live life love #maya henry #laya #stunts #30 Nov 19

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louehvolution · 5 years

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Is there anything about Louis not performing on the finale giving you reason to hope good things are on the horizon for him? I really want to be wrong, but to me it’s just more erasure. They’re not even letting him duet with his acts. It would have even been logical for him to duet with Robbie, but nothing. Again I hope I’m wrong, but it seems so blatant and obvious this time. I think nothing will change for Louis post xfactor and a lot of people are in for a huge disappointment.

Hi, anon, to be honest, I don’t know. Not especially, or not necessarily, let us say.

Releasing a single now would not have been in Louis’ interest. So we can see something good in that. But one could argue that there was no benefit for XF in having Louis perform or release music, since he brought in all the engagement possible as a judge—no need to highlight him as an artist when they can erase him instead, as they have been doing from the start. And a single might even have competed with that of the XF winner? [Which coincidentally is a duet with James Arthur, who has label support.]

An article in The Mirror explained him not performing—since there is a certain expectation for judges who are singers to do so—with the fact that he had two contestants in the final. But it still… sends a message to have him sit with Ayda and Simon while Robbie performed several times? Especially to an audience who has seen and heard nothing of Louis as an artist in all this time.

On the other hand, I think it would have been degrading to have his return to stage be with XF contestants. It’s not the same for Robbie coming back from touring, with decades as a solo artist, and a finale weekend that revolved around him. Even throughout the show his songs have been played, and the fact that he is a singer—not just once a member of a big, famous boyband—has been in focus. Unlike for Louis. I think Robbie wanted to be the center of attention, and a duet with Louis would have meant sharing the spotlight—and would have made them more equal to the public as artists, which goes against what XF has been doing from the start.

On the one year anniversary of Miss You Louis was sitting on the XF panel next to Simon Cowell watching other artists perform. One year with four studio pics, a string of soon’s, and an assurance that XF would not affect his music and had changed nothing. Hypothetical merch, a splash page for an official website that has been minimally updated, cross platform activity on his social media to promote XF. What changes for the better has this year brought for him or his situation?

Months in a toxic, abusive environment, and further erasure of him as an artist. XF has not raised his profile, except maybe as a TV personality in the UK—which does not translate into either credibility or interest in him as an artist, or as anything but a judge on the show, if that. DW isn’t saying nice things when he insinuates Louis’ post-1D career has only solidified now, that this has proved something to people—instead of Louis being able to prove himself as an artist like he himself said he wanted to more than once.

He didn’t need to go through this ordeal to prove his character. Why is there no expectation or demand for the other boys to give and give and always support others? Why do they get to receive support for themselves?

And Louis not being torn apart in the press about XF—but still being presented as talentless—benefitted the show, so it may or may not mean anything. He was at the Walk of Fame for Simon, and at Pride of Britain, but no more than that, though, which might mean something.

Meanwhile, the stunts are still there. It’s curious how low standards can fall, when Eleanor following Louis around everywhere and back to London—they were papped together in September, for the record, even if she isn’t mentioned in the article—and even him having to kiss her, wearing his merch during auditions, is seen as ‘minimal’… It’s something else to see Eleanor being backstage tonight (?) compared to Danielle in 2016 and some people not finding anything wrong with that picture—that two years later it’s still like this for Louis, nothing changed, except one beard instead of another!? And Freddie… is still there. No posts or direct interaction, fortunately, but Simon has mentioned him, as have Fizzy and Niall, and there have been articles… Louis deserves more than for that to be considered good and normal.

This can all change tomorrow, of course. (Hoping beyond hope.) But it seems weird to me to celebrate something that hasn’t happened yet. Optimism is good, but I think it’s important to stay grounded in reality.

To come to this point of 2018 and… does no one see the irony of being in the same situation as last year? Waiting and hoping that something will start in January? Louis was desperate—in his own words—to have his album out this time last year. There was a timeline for the album then… now there is literally nothing—as far as has reached us. Besides new management, whose names—if not their actions from what we have seen yet—give some reason for hope.

But this lost year matters. The devaluing of his brand, the decline in his numbers of streams and SM engagement, disappearing from the music scene. And for him, as a person and an artist, not being allowed to perform or release music, having a part of him stamped down and erased? It matters.

I just can’t relate to the jubilation on my dash. Everything is still too uncertain. It’s the sense of triumph, I suppose, that escapes me. Louis was forced to abandon his race and thrust into running a marathon with weight upon weight on his back to secure a win for others—he has driven himself into the ground for months for others—while he falls even farther behind in his own race. I will celebrate when Louis gets something for him.

He has gone above and beyond helping others, again and again, while he is held back and used. I hope he knows that he deserves the same level of effort put into him and his dreams. He deserves to be put first, to receive the support he needs, and be shown all the appreciation and recognition as a person and an artist.

All we have is hope that he will get what he deserves soon, anon.

#anon #this is very long. as usual #and. warning. not wildly optimistic

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bomber-base · 7 years

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Sora Says: Super Bomberman R Sure is a Thing

Bomberlovelies! It’s your fruit-snack-loving neighborhood Sora here with some SBR stuff.

First off, I’m not sure how many people this matters to, and I suppose technically I’m practically a month late on this, but! I’ve been striving to keep the Base as spoiler-free as possible for those unable to play SBR for the time being. So, as you may have noticed, spoilers are noted and/or cut in the posts that they happen to appear in. I’m not sure how long to keep this up for; maybe six months to a year? What do y’all think? This is the first time I’ve ever had to be cautious about spoilers for a general audience, so I’m a little unsure on the etiquette.

Secondly, I’ve tested out the recent patch for SBR, and the controls are definitely improved. I had to use the not-quite-a-d-pad on the Joy-Cons the first time through, but now I can comfortably use the joystick to get around. I’ve been lost in the fields of Hyrule for the time being, though, so I haven’t yet had too much occasion yet to fully enjoy this update.

Thirdly, to the surprise of absolutely no one, I have Thoughts™ about this game. Not comprehensive ones, not coherent ones, and probably not even particularly interesting or unique ones, but Thoughts™ regardless. So here they are, spoiler-free: not so much a proper game review as it is me just bomberblathering into the void.

***

Super Bomberman R appears to be the result of what Bomberman used to be trying to score with what Bomberman could be. Unfortunately, they barely make it to first base, and on the way to second base they fall into a sudden rift in space-time that leads to the universe of Normal End TSA, a universe which could ultimately be considered responsible for that other reboot everyone knows about. This is a terrible metaphor from a terrible fan with terrible crack theories. That is to say, SBR should have been a triumphant return to form for the Bomberman series, but ends up being...a little less so.

For a loser like me, who properly came in during the Nintendo 64 era and had been super-stoked about the apparent return to that style of gameplay with the now-canceled Bomberman 3DS, the reality of SBR is once a golden promise and twice a leaden disappointment, a description which really shortchanges lead in its ability to shield us from bone-frying radiation. While obviously I was -- and still am -- relieved that Konami is actually making good-faith efforts to bring Bomberman to life again and save him from the nothing he’s become, I was much less thrilled with what they threw back to, and wholly unimpressed by the result from a gameplay standpoint. With mechanics that are pared down even compared to the game that inspired them, SBR completely failed to sell me on the old-school formula. It’s more impressive in terms of the rebooted aesthetics, with stronger visuals and writing, but the general execution of the reboot arguably comes at the cost of some of the nostalgic power that Konami wanted to harness.

Fans who lit their fuses with the SuperBomb games might feel differently than I do, of course. It’s entirely possible that maybe this game isn’t “for me,” that there’s something I’m missing about SBR that would trip the nostalgia wire in someone else. As a childhood fan of the Bomberman games for Nintendo consoles around the late 90s and early 00s, it’s difficult to talk about the flaws of SBR without making it sound like I’m just bitter that it’s not Bomberman 64 R(edux). I mean, I am, but that’s beside the point. Also I have yet to properly play Bomberman 64 so I’m probably not even a real N64 fan. In the cascade of sentiments that follows, though, I've done what I can to meet SBR on its own terms in order to argue that, even by the retro standards it draws from, it doesn’t live up to what it could or should have been. Conversely, there were things I quite liked about the game! And I’ve made my best effort to give credit where credit is due. Make no mistake: SBR had more pressure than other games I could name (like a certain legendary one...) to pull off a perfect 10 on balancing tradition with innovation. Both directions come with their high points and pitfalls, and fans will have differing opinions about how well Konami scored on either.

Personal grievances aside, I ultimately think it was important for Konami to first prove that they still had a handle on the bomberbasics, especially given the quirkier entries that got released in the lead-up to Hudson Soft being assimilated into the Konamiborg. (I mean, I liked Custom Battler Bomberman and think more people should check it out, but how did they even decide it was a good idea?) While I’ll contend that this game is maybe too basic, the overall choice to reference the SuperBomb series makes sense considering that Bomberman’s heyday was during his Super Nintendo days. (My gosh, have you seen the merch? The merch!!!) So in the end I can’t really blame Konami for using it as a springboard. I can only wish that they’d stuck the landing a little better.

The takeaway: Super Bomberman R is a more of a gilded lead pebble than a 24-karat star, but, like lead, it still has its uses and strengths. It’s a relatively decent effort by Konami to reintroduce him back into console gaming, a distinctive entry in Bomberman’s history up to this point, and a solid choice to start a revival with -- almost in spite of itself.

Hate the Game, Not the Player (The Game Already Hates the Player)

(I should note that I’m saying all this from the standpoint of having beat single-player once on Beginner mode. Aside from being a terrible fan with terrible metaphors and terrible theories, it also turns out I’m also a terrible gamer. The Terrible Tyrantress of Bomber Base: that’s me. So it’s entirely possible that some of my beefs with the gameplay are rectified in the two other difficulties, or in some other unlockable thing I haven’t done or heard of yet.)

How “pared down” are we talking, in regards to this game’s mechanics? When I began the initial round of wordbarfing, I initially wrote that Super Bomberman R was such a throwback that remote bombs don’t exist in it. Turns out that both Super Bomberman 3 (which appears to be the primary inspiration for SBR, considering that they share the same basic plot premise) and the original Bomberman game for NES featured them. Whoops. No Hearts or Louies/Tirras either, which means that Bomberman is back to the good ol’ days of being a one-hit wonder. Fair enough: that’s pretty old-school, right? We don’t need no stinkin’ heart meter in these parts. But let’s take a closer look at the powerups. SBR has a functional enough set comprised of Bomb Up, Fire Up, Fire Down, Speed Up, Power Glove, Boxing Glove, Pierce Bombs, and Rubber Bombs. But it’s quite clearly lacking when you compare it with SB3′s offerings. And for a game which actually translates your score into in-game currency for continues and unlocking multiplayer options (a.k.a the shit that 99.5% of bomberfandom cares about), it’s unfortunate that Konami decided not to include bonus items (which, again, were featured in both the original Bomberman for NES and Super Bomberman 3) to help boost your numbers. Additionally, the lack of Bomb Downs and Speed Downs/Sandals lowers some of the stakes of the gameplay. You gain points for every power-up you collect, so it’s not inconceivable to theorize that running into a Bomb Down or a Speed Down would result in you losing those points. (Admittedly, I’m not sure at the moment how Fire Downs function in the game from a score standpoint, since I’ve avoided them thus far.)

I can’t believe I had to satisfy my thirst for remote bombs with BotW. Unexpected perk of a Zelda game is unexpected.

The lack of item variety might not grate so much if the overall context of the gameplay were more diverse and/or expanded. SBR does a little better than its predecessors in introducing alternate stage objectives for each world, but I found that the ones for world 1 and world 5 were too similar, which is fairly glaring when you’re only looking at five worlds in total. Additionally, the objectives that requires you to find a set amount of certain objects don’t randomize their location, removing an element of challenge from the gameplay. The field enemies are generic and monotonous, with what seem to be only aesthetic variations across worlds (and movement speed across difficulties, as I understand it). You can sometimes take them out via bombing a support structure that collapses on top of them, which can be fun when it happens, but there aren’t too many opportunities to pull that off and not much incentive to do so other than personal validation. The Baroms/Balloms/Valcoms/no-one-cares-about-localization-consistency-with-Bomberman highlight my earlier point about SBR’s innovation at the cost of nostalgia: their flipped design is an interesting twist, but I admit I didn’t even realize what they were until someone pointed out their balloony nature. On the other hand, at least SBR also gave us the Hige Hige Bandits (technically they’re from the Saturn iteration of the games, but it was around the same era and they’re cute so I’ll let it pass), and you get the impression that the mecha forms of the Dastardly Bombers were absolutely made for 3D. Their arena fights feature some really smart AI as well, even on Beginner mode. (Though there are still sometimes...mishaps...) However, I’ve seen less-than-impressed comments about the rinse-and-repeat nature of their mecha fights, which further reinforce the dull repetitiveness that appears to be endemic to this game as a whole. At this point I would almost welcome a bonus stage of Pontans armed with just 1 Bomb, 1 Fire, and 1 Speed. While there are over 50 stages in the game, 1/5th of those are boss battles (if you count the arena battle and the mecha battle as two separate stages) and they overall go by quite fast.

Comments about the disparity between the dearth of game content with the game’s full retail price are further underscored when you consider that story mode’s main replay value appears to solely be in earning currency to unlock all the multiplayer goodies and custom antenna attachments. Not that replaying story mode for battle mode booty is anything new, of course. But at least something like Bomberman 64 also featured a way to unlock additional story mode content, and you were able to customize the full character instead of just the antenna. The setup reads like Konami trying to Stockholm players into liking a half-assed single-player misadventure. I’m a little concerned that SBR potentially demonstrates the modern limitations of Bomberman’s original arcade-based formula, i.e., the gridded, linearly-progressing stages. With the chance to reboot Bomberman for a new generation of gaming, Konami needs to do what the Zelda team did for BotW and sit down to figure out what is actually a legitimate convention of bombercanon, and what is a convention only because “that’s how it’s always been,” especially if it grew out of the technical limitations of the past.

I’m not gonna shut up about Zelda, okay. I was Zeldatrash before I was bombertrash.

In terms of multiplayer, well, we already know that Konami sorta bombed it a little out of the gate, given the lag issues for online play. But even at its core, the multiplayer experience doesn’t make the grade -- or at least as high of a grade as it should have for a series that has such a huge reputation as a party game. You can’t even argue that it’s just “going back to basics,” as SB3 at least let you choose whether you wanted to do an all-out Battle Royale or a Tag Match, along with offering item minigames to let players have a chance to start the following match at an advantage. On the other end of the spectrum, one of the selling points of the Switch is its ability to adapt to multiple setups for on-the-go or at home. It’s not hard to surmise that Konami wanted to get hitched to the Switch in order to promote Bomberman’s multiplayer capabilities. So why are the battle mode options aside from the stage selection so bare? Obviously we don’t yet have any sort of insight into the development process and timeline of SBR, but it seems like they should have at least blown battle mode out of the water given 1) the price they charged for the game and 2) how much downtime the franchise had. It’s not like they didn’t have any inspiration for it, either: all they had to do was look at Bomberman Generation and they’d be set to start the party. Online play does host some interesting features, such as ranked match-ups and the ability to create individual battle rooms for yourself and whoever you invite to fight things out with, but I’m not sure how this compares with something like, say, Bomberman Live. Someone more informed is going to have to pick up the slack. The point is, where’s my Reversi Battle, dammit?!

Even the Way I Do Subsection Headings is Cool (Spoilers: It’s Not)

The first surprising thing Konami did for the franchise this year was to announce an actual console game for it. The second surprising thing they did was to upgrade the aesthetics of the original in both visuals and storytelling. The third surprising thing they did was Bombergirl. That they bothered to introduce no less than eight protagonist characters, animate cutscenes with those characters in them, and have those characters voiced with (at least in Japanese) some all-star talent continues to astonish me, not to mention some of the little spoilery details they threw in. While I generally agree about how short the cutscenes are, the writers still managed to make the most of what they were given to work with. Each sibling gets their fifteen seconds of fame not by hogging the spotlight and leaving the rest of their siblings in the dark, but by sharing it and letting the personality dominoes fall where they may; notable moments for me are the ending cutscenes for world 1 and world 3. In this way, in spite of the large cast and the decidedly-less-large narrative space, no character feels too neglected. We’re not talking JRPG levels of writing depth here, not by a longshot, but it’s probably the most consistently entertaining writing I’ve seen from a Bomberman game.

(Granted, the Bomberman series likes its writing the way Zoniha likes her men, i.e. barely there. So it’s not like SBR had a high bar to clear.)

The colorful cutscenes directed by Poeyama and illustrated by Hideyuki Takenami burst with expressiveness and fun, and the redesigns for Bagular/Buggler and the Dastardlies are delightful extrapolations of their older looks. So it’s a mystery to me why Konami didn’t extend any of that good stuff to the actual gameplay graphics. I said in a previous post that the contrast between the realistic environments and the cartoony vibe of the characters would probably help with navigating the game world, but in actuality I found the environmental details too overwhelming and distracting, which when combined with the then-iffy controls led to more than a few deaths for me. (World 3, I would say I’ve got my eye on you, but I need to keep what’s left of my poor eyesight.) Additionally, while they’re well-rendered, they’re also on the generic side, which is doubly disappointing given the distinct nature of the cutscene visuals and the character designs. It’s not like there hasn’t been a 3D Bomberman game with overly-stylized gameplay graphics before (see again: Bomberman Generation, and to a lesser degree Bomberman Jetters), so why so standard? Especially since such a direction, again, arguably neutralizes some of the nostalgic charm of SBR. Who the hell hails the Bomberman games, especially the Super Bomberman ones, for their ultra-realistic graphics?

The animation only kinda makes up for the uninspired environments. Konami gets my applause for the unique walk cycles, victory poses, and idle stances, any one of which would have been more effort than I would have expected out of them. But they all have the same bomb-throwing animation that honestly barely qualifies as an animation considering how it feels like it lasts half a frame. I wouldn’t normally harp on something so nitpicky except that Konami’s own promotional efforts for the game made such a big deal of the UNIQUE PERSONALITIES!!! of each bombersib. If they were already going as far as to customize each character’s idle stance, it seems like such a gross oversight to not also customize the other basic movement associated with a Bomberman character, or at least give it a little more flair and presence. The enemies also just flop over and blip out of existence when they die, which aside from being unsatisfying in general also doesn’t do justice to the source material. I’m not asking for bloody gibs splattered across the scenery here (although that could be kind of funny if handled in just the right tongue-in-cheek sort of way), but watch a couple of minutes of gameplay from SB3 and you’ll see that along with featuring death animations in general, different enemies even have different ones. In short, despite some genuinely nice attention to detail -- let me reiterate that the designs for the Dastardlies’ mechas are pretty awesome -- the gameplay visuals generally don’t match up to the fun factor of the cutscenes, resulting in a slightly inconsistent feel for the game and (more importantly) some missed shots at recapturing the charms of the original.

Given the effort Konami has put into the upgraded aesthetics and narrative and the subsequent promotion focusing around that (yes, I’ve seen episode 2 of Bomberman TV and me and BDR are working on summarizing that; well, mostly BDR, really), it’s hard not to think that Konami was trying to cover up a manure mound with sheets of rainbow gold. Nevertheless, that same effort, along with some spoilery stuff, suggests the possibility of follow-ups in this particular iteration of the canon, which can hopefully only be a good thing. I’d still prefer a return to the more traditional Bomberman lore, but I don’t mind riding shotgun for this. I mean, shit, the scenery’s great.

The Rest is Still Unwritten (Because My Pen Ran Out of Ink and Pommy Ate My Spare One)

There are some other things I could kvetch about in this game (things I didn’t touch upon here: the English voice-acting and the music, particularly the menu tracks), but in the end, I’m still happy SBR exists, and I don’t regret shelling out full price for it. The awesome thing about modern gaming is that Konami is able to fix parts of SBR according to player demand via online patches, as mentioned at the top of this post, which also means that, theoretically, there’s room for DLC to address the lack of content. The recent releases of Bomberman games of VC indicates more official interest in the series again, while the direction displayed by SBR show promising experimentation and expansion of the canon. And the scale of the promotional efforts for SBR is clearly Konami putting on some serious gameface in the matter of making Bomberman relevant again. It’s like seeing the signs of the apocalypse on Opposite Day.

As of the time of posting, the third week of numbers is in for SBR, from both Media Create and Famitsu (via Game Data Library). No matter which metric you go by, SBR has broken over 50,000 copies sold in less than a month, which is on par with or beyond the lifetime numbers of many other Bomberman games. Super Bomberman R might be far from a perfect game, with some circumstances mitigating its impressive numbers, but it’s still one to respect.

#bomberman #super bomberman r #news #review #even though i said this wasn't really a review #sora says #but seriously #don't let me do a comparison of botw's throwback approach versus sbr's #it's only going to lead to kool-aid tears #and more terrible tsa references #also i'm old enough to eat mario kart fruit snacks whenever i want

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1ddotdhq · 4 years

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👁 Sun 01 Nov ‘20 🍼

After yesterday’s amazing show (the timey wimey of which was even more wibbly wobbly than we thought- it was only an hour late in SOME markets, there was just a big confusing daylight savings time fail in the announcements), today Liam’s Halloween merch is making quite a splash! There's a mask with his name in a spooky gothic font with classic flash tattoo style doodles, including swallows, a microphone, an eye, several skulls, a weird tongue looking thing, and some lyrics! His T-shirt design is also Halloween themed (or, like - Dia de los Muertos themed, which is different) and has a large skull covered in purple and yellow roses (and patterns), his name, another eye, cobwebs, lightning bolts, and some more swallows. There are indeed designs on the merch that match up with many of Zayn's tattoos but honestly that line art eye looks as much like MY eye as it does Zayn's. I feel like a comparison to Zayn's eye TATTOO would have been more convincing, but that wasn't the conjecture! Meanwhile Zayn and all six of his eyes (tattooed, real, and glasses) were seen again! Twice in ONE DAY, truly a holiday! Late in the day yesterday we got one last treat (or trick, depending on your perspective) from Gigi: a family zelfie of her, Zayn and zaby X in their family-of-geeks costume...oh wait no that's their actual identities! Their costumes were Gigi as not just a videogame character but a specific variant suit (Zero Suit Samus? I guess? *shrugs as if I know what I'm talking about*), and Zayn in his full Slytherin uniform including a jumper and thick glasses he'd left out of his earlier post, smiling down at the zaby in his arms (tiny hulk!! uwu) with a soft happy face. You'd think this would generate discourse, and it has, but mostly people are busy arguing about whether Z is a Slytherin! Messing with peoples' sorting headcanons is no joke, it's an even more surefire way to get the fandom fired up than babies and girlfriends.

A receipt has circulated wildly from an Kuwaiti man who describes an encounter with Louis from Vegas in like 2016 or '17 it seems like. He says Louis walked up to him randomly, touched him and complimented his beard (lol), and then walked away again. A few days later they ran into each other again and Louis (and Oli!) passed by him and - yup! Louis touched his shoulder, complimented him again, and asked if the man remembered him. The guy was like, ‘uh, yeah dude, it's been like a day,’ and then Louis disappeared into the party once more like the vision he is. Our hero was then like, ‘who WAS that man’, googled him, and figured out that yes, he'd been hit on TWICE by an international superstar. In my head, I imagine Louis flitting around being very charming, capturing people’s attention, then leaving just as quickly as he came, leaving Oli standing there smiling awkwardly. Anyway in slightly more professional Louis news: Lyric Drop 2 has been pulled from Louis’ merch store (that was REALLY limited edition, huh?). This means the next single for release is We Made It, and we’re keeping our fingers crossed for rainbows! An A&R Sony manager (Micheala Lundin, who previously worked on Louis’ team at Syco) celebrated Two Of Us’ milestone - it reached 100 million streams on Spotify! Her instagram story tags the people involved with the making of the song and says, “This little baby reached 100 million! 🌟...Will always be a special one! Pop perfection by my favorite legends”. Same, though it always makes me cry! And, in other Louis things that make me cry, Reverse Rett (a charity that works to improve the lives of those touched by Rett syndrome) - which Louis donated thousands of pounds through an art fundraiser in 2016 - has revealed that he has quietly been supporting them by donating auction prizes ever since. I have a lot of feelings about this, and I’m always floored by his consistent and continued kindness, though I definitely shouldn’t be at this point.

Drip, drip drip it goes - the news, I mean, but I can see why you might think it would be milk! GQ posted a Golden picture of Harry on instagram (from the video, but also a good description of the picture itself), and the comments are really something else! “Didn’t know my dude was a C cup,” said one guy. “Is my dude lactating,” asked another one. And the band Cannon announced that they would start their “Covers by Cannon” series with a cover of Golden, and Harry, apparently lurking around insta, liked the post: I hope this means he's seeing the GQ comments too cause that's the real entertainment of the day! And finally, Instagram Issues Curse strikes again: “did Niall just post something on ig and deleted it?” and to which Niall - always creeping around in his mentions - replied, “Yeh I think so...I can’t see it on my story”. Well, neither can I, so I can’t tell you what it was (:/), but I’m gonna be keeping a closer eye on his insta in the week leading up to the show!

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