Blog: Favourite YouTube Videos (Volume 115)

In this volume of my favourite YouTube videos, we go to school, learn some chemistry and get our axe ready for dancing.

• First, Laura Shigihara is ready for her first day of high school, singing the theme she wrote for the game High School Story.
• Next, we get a chance to watch 500 videos of Periodic Videos ... or at least to celebrate them.
• Finally, we get to listen to an instrumental piece created by the one and only Brentalfloss.

Blog: Favourite YouTube Videos (Volume 114)

In this volume of my favourite YouTube videos, we take the day to give our cats the best and worst presents ever.

• First, Simon's Cat meets a spirit of Christmas terror, deals with it appropriately (I think) and then gets a prize! 
• Second, he puts his new found powers to less ... kind purposes.
• Third, he gets hold of the very best cat toy ever!

Blog: Favourite YouTube Videos(Volume 113)

In this volume of my favourite YouTube videos, we mash, we rant and we sooth!

• First, Pomplamoose mashes their way into our hearts playing with Tupac, Lorde, Beck and themselves all at the same time.
• Next, Emma Blackery has some strong words to sing about one of Google's many failures to make us like using Google products ... or let us use to Google products that we like ... or just put the freaking videos in the subboxes ... ... ... (For the record this was the one where they forced everyone to sign up for Google+ to use YouTube, which managed to single-handedly double the number of YouTube accounts everyone needed and to this day freaks me out about once a quarter by logging me into that OTHER account...). Issues ... what issues?
• Finally, Laura Shigihara and Britaney Gaither calm things down with "Kaze no Toori Michi" from My Neighbour Totoro. Giant, furry forest spirits help make everything better. (As do awesome artists.)

Blog: Favourite YouTube Videos (Volume 112)

In this volume of my favourite YouTube videos, we look ourselves, and death in the face. Then we lighten up and vlog, then think about the most effective way to hit people with iron sticks.

• First, VSauce videos are always amazing, but this one leaves me stunned and speechless every time I watch it. Here, Michael looks at the immense power we are able to wield and how we wield it. It makes me want to be a better ape.
• Next, in a slightly lighter vein, Kevin Gisi returns. You may not have noticed he left, but that's mostly a side effect due to the time travel I'm making you do. Also don't worry about the bacon, thanks to the general effect of us travelling forward at one second per second we should be able to skip directly by the past that already happened... I think.
• Finally, Lindybeige has a point about sword pommels that we need to be aware of.

Blog: Favourite YouTube Videos (Volume 111)

In this volume of my favourite YouTube videos, we meet the very interesting Lloyd "Lindybeige", so named because he's terribly fond of beige and the Lindy Hop. Beyond this he spends an awful lot of time thinking about things and also doing things. I don't always agree with the thoughts he thinks, but most are pretty interesting. Here are some of the things he's thought about:

• First, he has some thoughts about cloaks. Largely that they're terribly useful and possibly there is some reason that people used them for the most of human history.
• Next, he thinks about leg hold traps and how it's fairly likely that historians keep holding them upside down. I don't have any expertise to assess his theory, but I do have to say that it looks to me like Occam's Razor applies well here, what's the simplest way to use the object that doesn't require us to make up anything else to make it work.
• Finally, Lloyd thinks about quick draw bazookas ... or what people actually did with two-handed swords, when they actually used them.

Blog: Favourite YouTube Videos (Volume 110)

In this volume of my favourite YouTube videos, we talk technology and learning, spiders and raindrops.

• First, on SciShow Talk Show, Hank Green talks to Professor Rick Hughes about education and technology. I particularly like the concept of the "Comfortable Consumer vs Competent Creator". I think it's difficult for students in Computer Science to distinguish between the things that are part of the underlying mathematics and logic of computation and the things that are part of the computational structure's people have created. It's also difficult then for students to know when they need to create new things for themselves and when they should use the tools that already exist.
• Next Simon's Cat encounters a spider, and comes out quite a bit better than Simon ... or the spider.
• Finally, Nataly Dawn does a beautiful cover of "Raindrops Keep Falling on My Head." I think the cover is beautiful, but as a Calgarian, I'm a little confused by the song. Usually raindrops are hurled at my face by powerful wind or are snow. Still, this one makes me happy to listen (and makes me think of lemonade). 

Blog: Favourite YouTube Videos (Volume 109)

In this volume of my favourite YouTube videos, we sing our victory, answer questions and then absolutely nothing creepy happens at all.

• First, let's celebrate our victories with Mr. Smooth McGroove singing the victory fanfare from Final Fantasy VII.
• Next, remember when John Green made a movie? No, not that movie. No, not that one either (I'm not even sure that one's real). Yeah, that's the one. Anyway, here he answers questions about it.
• Finally, Scott Tumilty talks about some good Halloween video games on Geek and Sundry Vlogs. Nothing to worry about here ... no ... not at all ...

Blog: Favourite YouTube Videos (Volume 108)

In this volume of my favourite YouTube videos, we face life and death, obsession and the limited resources of language.

• First, we have Brentalfloss's Zidane to Vivi original song. I was going to say that I don't remember liking the music to Final Fantasy IX so much, but then I realized that (I'm pretty sure) this is 100% original Brentalfloss composition. Yay 100% Brentalfloss composition.
• Next, Kevin Gisi talks about his obsessions and then invents a British person to read the news... 
• Finally, Gunarolla was asked to sing a song without repeating words, which he could do without any detectable problem at all...

Blog: Favourite YouTube Videos (Volume 107)

In this volume of my favourite YouTube videos, we accidentally the whole ... food!

• First, Kevin Gisi tackles the dreaded, I don't know what to make a video about video. As it turns out most issues are complex and there are a lot of ways to look at them. I like the idea of sticking to a schedule (he said as all his deadlines sailed past) because it forces you to keep going and not to get stuck on things, but there's also something to be said for getting things done as well as you can when you get them done. I guess that's why there are two models of Patreon funding.
• Next a squirrel discusses why there aren't that many squirrel super heroes.
• Finally, we recently watched AcapellaScience set string theory to Bohemian Rhapsody, but in case you're still looking for nerdy content in the from of incredibly long rock songs, here Pat the NES Punk and Brentalfloss present us with: Nintendohemian Rhapsody.

Blog: Favourite YouTube Videos (Volume 106)

In this volume of my favourite YouTube videos, we get excited about Mars, Star Wars and the Internet!

• First, on Sci Show, Hank Green gets excited about finding water in the soil of Mars. It's funny then that as I'm posting this, we just discovered that there are flows of liquid water across the surface of Mars. (So you can watch Hank get excited about water on mars again in about 75 more favourites posts. 
• Next the people at Sincerely Truman, lay down some rules for Mr. Abrams on what's essential to make Star Wars good. I think the rules are pretty good ones, and I'm cautiously optimistic that the new movies will follow these. 
• Finally, Lauren Fairweather reminds us that the Internet can be really awesome.

Blog: Favourite YouTube Videos (Volume 105)

In this volume of my favourite YouTube videos, we find out how the world works and then choose to ignore it anyway.

• First Henry from MinutePhysics and Derek from Veritasium team up to explain what's really going on with magnets. 
• And then, Mr. Smooth McGroove defies all laws of physics to bring us the sounds of Sonic speeding across a glacier.

Blog: Favourite YouTube Videos (Volume 104)

In this volume of my favourite YouTube videos, fight bugs and we look at how to come together, both online and offline.

• First, in a follow up to a video his about what to do with YouTube, Kevin Gisi, takes a more serious look at what the options are to replace YouTube. He may not have had what he needed in pocket, but I am glad (as I said last time) that Subbable and Patreon came to exist and while they haven't solved all of the problems I think it's better for creators and fans today than it was back then.
• Next, Adam Savage shows off his favourite video game and discovers that as soon as anyone films you playing a game your skill immediately drops off by about 90%.
• Finally, The City of Calgary, put together a video to thank all of the volunteers and the city that came out to help put peoples homes and the city back together after the flood here in 2013.  Not going to lie, I may have cried into my coffee cup rewatching this one.

Blog: Favourite YouTube Videos (Volume 103)

In this volume of my favourite YouTube videos, we have to move, have to run and have to sing!

• First, on Periodic Videos we watch as Prof. Poliakoff prepares to leave one of the labs his group has used for a very long time. As a person who gets very attached to places and things I understand his feelings. Even when it's the right thing to do sometimes moving on is hard.
• Next,  let Mr. Smooth McGroove pick up your spirits as he races to eat everything he can see.
• Finally,  because doing largely unrelated projects when you should be working on your thesis, is totally foreign to me *cough cough*, I'd like to present AcapellaScience singing about String Theory to the tune of Bohemian Rhapsody. 

Blog: Favourite YouTube Videos (Volume 102)

In this volume of my favourite YouTube videos, we go to a dark place, a duck place and a community place.

• First, Mr. Smooth McGroove takes us to the dark world. It's a dark place and menacing.
• Next, Kevin Gisi, tells the old programmer's parable about the rubber duck. Rubber duck debugging is important and I think he make a good point that it's worth employing in other parts of life.
• Finally, Kevin talks about how the "YouTube Community" needs to think about YouTube, not itself a community, but simply as a platform. Hank Green's Subbable approached this although didn't quite get the traction I think it deserved. I still think this is a problem on the Internet, too many people are relying on companies to form their communities rather than taking that control themselves.

Blog: Favourite YouTube Videos (Volume 101)

In this volume of my favourite YouTube videos, we say the words that we know, stompa our feet and play crazy songs at all hours of the night.

• First, John Green, illustrates the United State's inability to understand hats. I'd say more, but I need to go get the car out of the parkade.
• Next, it's time to get up and Stompa Your Feet along with Serena Ryder.
• Finally, Hank Green and friends prove that 3AM is definitely the best time of day to play Louie Louie. 

Blog: Favourite YouTube Videos (Volume 100)

In this volume of my favourite YouTube videos, we invent colour, eat cereal and follow the whims of Nerdfighteria.

• First, Mr. Smooth McGroove brings vibrancy and colour to a black and white (yellow?) world, singing the Muda Kingdom Theme from Super Mario Land.
• Next, Mr. Charlie McDonnell talk about whether or not it's worth it to spend ten minutes of your life watching him eat cereal. Well that and the worth of how we spend our time doing anything.
• Finally, Mr. Hank Green, does... things...

Blog: Favourite YouTube Videos (Volume 99)

In this volume of my favourite YouTube videos, we find out what the Ze Frank do, get reflective on sea and fire and then do our very best not to drop our punch cards.

• First, the question comes up from time to time: What is the Ze Frank? Fortunetly there is a video from the Super Carlin Brothers that answers.
• Next, CalebElijah continues through Xenogears, now playing Bonds of Sea and Fire.
• Finally, from Computerphile, Professor Brailsford talks about the exciting days of programming on punch cards.

August 2015 Project Update Post

Once again I've been slow getting things done, although I did at least manage to take a vacation and am now involved in "serious business" redeveloping a course for my department. That's taken up quite a bit of time from everything in the last little while. So taking that into account it's time to reset the project goals and see where things stand. Mostly right now, I'm trying to keep my energy up and get excited and make things.

• Project 5 - SNES Coasters
• I still haven't put the backing on on the new, larger, test coaster. Once I get that done then it's just a matter of testing it out and seeing how it compares to the older ones. Getting the backing on will be a little effort but once that's done it's just a matter of using the thing for a while. Hopefully I'll be able to post a full update on October 2, 2015.
• Project 12 - Chrono Trigger Sprites
• I've done most of the planning for my next sprite. I need to check I have enough beads, and then it's just a matter of putting those beads together. Hopefully will be done the next phase on September 18, 2015.
• Project 14 - Sketch Fiction
• I haven't written much in the past couple of months. I'm going to try to push myself to write a little each day which should make it easy to push through 5 more quick sketches. Hopefully I'll have all five up by, October 30, 2015.

Blog: Favourite YouTube Videos (Volume 98)

In this volume of my favourite YouTube videos, we creep and crawl, travel far away and have an idea about what we know.

• First, Kiri Callaghan gets curious about why we're freaked out by spiders. I have to say, I think my fear of spiders has a lot to do with how alien they are, as opposed to the spideryness. (Maybe.) Anyway if you are scared of spiders I think this video isn't going to bother you too much and may give you something to think about.
• Next CalebElijah playe Dazil, City of Burning Sands from Xenogears. Given the music in this game I think I may need to track it down and play it some time.
• Finally, on Idea Channel, Mike Rugnetta asks if Google is Knowledge. I have to say that primarily I think that Google is information that we synthesize in to knowlege. Furthermore I think accepting that Google is knowledge requires further consideration of how much you trust your knowledge.

Blog: Favourite YouTube Videos (Volume 97)

In this volume of my favourite YouTube videos, we find the future we live in, live gloriously in the past through music and go a long, long time ago to a place far, far away where things were better.

 

• First, on Computerphile, Professor Brailsford, talks about the history of computing in the 1960s and 70s and how this crazy UNIX came to exist and make life better.
• Next, Laura Shigihara and Meine Meinung take your breath away covering music from Chrono Cross / Radical Dreamers. It may just be my nostalgia talking but as they play the bridge where it references Chrono Trigger, the hair on my arms stands up every time.
• Finally,  Belated Media once asked What if Episode One was good, like, really good? Well now he's asking about Episode Two. And seriously, how great would it be to watch this movie!?

Project 1: A Fifth Season of Blogging!?

Happy (belated*) Blog End and Start Day!

Apparently, I've been at this for a while now. As a quick reminder this blog is actually a blog in two parts. There's the "Blog as Project Discussion", which is actually the "point" of the blog and there's the "Blog as Blog", which is a project in the blog (Project 1 in fact). (And yes, that it's the most times I've written the word "blog" in a single paragraph.)

For the fourth season (from August 2014, to July 2015), I mostly posted blogs about YouTube. I've posted them because I'm excited to share the cool things I've found on YouTube over the years and it's fun to see old videos again. They're also quick and easy to produce, so they allow me to get a feeling of accomplishment. I also just want to see if I can "finish" the project now, we're down to about a 2 year gap and it is slowly shrinking.

Thoughts about video games, are also fun to make but they take me a lot longer to write and produce. I also like the practice of thinking about how a game works while I'm playing it, although it's taken a little effort to make sure that I'm still actually having fun while I play.

I've wanted to look more at the history of video game making from both a historical and technical point of view. So, if I can spend more time blogging, then you can expect to see something that looks more like that, although those will also take some time to produce.

Right at the moment my PhD work, both the research and the other things I've been hired to do while I finish my PhD are taking up quite a bit of time (it's like it's a job or something). I've also hit a point where I'm ready to get my things in order and finish. So above all of my projects, for the next year, my focus will be on finishing my PhD.

So there will be a fifth season of the blog. It may be sparse or it may be dense, depending on my focus, productivity and how creatively I can procrastinate. In the few months I've decided to try for two posts a week (Tuesday and Friday) even if they're both "Favourite YouTube Video" posts and I will try to keep that up.

Thanks for reading!

* Good work automatically posting Blogger. And actually I, rewrote this post just now and like it better so, thanks for not posting my post Blogger! But seriously, I need to figure out how the scheduler works for any future trips away from the Internet.

Project 12: Chrono Trigger Sprites Update

I'm making progress on the Chrono Trigger Sprites!

He exists!

The first stage of the project I've been working on is to make all the sprites at 1x1 scale to see what they look like and how to build them. As you can see above I've made a 1x1 Chrono and I thought I would devote this post to talking about how I put it together.

Planning the Sprite

One of the things I was unsure about at the beginning of the project (and some of what slowed me down putting things together) was how to make sure that I had reasonable bead colours for all of the colours in the sprite.

I started working on colour matching by separating out all the colours into big visible blocks and then making a spreadsheet with the names of the Perler beads I thought would best match. I separated the colours of the original sprite using GIMP, since I've never used photoshop, but basically any utility that lets you select by colour will do. I picked a colour from the sprite, drew a box of it in another picture then blanked out all the pixels of that colour.

I did the matching in what is probably a dumb way. I basically held beads up to the screen until I thought they were about right. As I mentioned, I've purchased most (it turns out) of the bead colours currently offered by Perler, so I felt I had a pretty good ability to match things.

This is the colour block I used, although I given how much time I spent switching between the colours and the spreadsheet, I've labeled each of the blocks right on the picture. (I'm keeping that in mind for the future).

Why do purple and brown get double the space? I have no idea, sometimes past!me just doesn't leave good enough notes.

To help sort out which beads are which colour I have created colour separated sprites. I've also thrown in the hex code for the sprite colour, the bead colour I matched that to and included some notes on how good the match is.

I didn't do this originally, but I think it may prove helpful in the future. If I were to produce these on a large scale, it might help to create templates for beading. To produce these sprites, I took each colour in the sprite and then blanked out all other sprites. (The sprites should all align to go back together again, but it took me a little while to get the process in, so take them with a grain of salt).

Sprite Part	Hex Colour	Perler Colour	Notes
	The Original!	---	---
	#402038	Purple	This colour is purple, even thought it's basically used as dark grey. I thought it might look odd, but in the end it looks good in the finished sprite.
	#281820	Black	This is close enough to being black that black looks just fine.
	#b80038	Rust	Rust is a little darker and a little browner than the true colour, but it seems to be a pretty reasonable substitution in the finished sprite.
	#580000	Brown	Brown is a good match here.
	#f88800	Butterscotch	Butterscotch is maybe a touch dull, but seems to be a pretty good match.
	#a8a870	Crema	Crema seems to match the beige colour used here.
	#f88068	Peach	Peach is a little lighter than the colour in the sprite, but seems to be close enough.
	#083838	Parrot Green	This is a bad match really(Parrot Green is much much brighter than the colour), but a good colour I think. I especially like it as Chrono's eyes.
	#f8c898	Sand	In the finished sprite this looks a little bit too close to the peach skin tone. I might go for something a little lighter.
	#307070	Dark Grey	The sprite colour is much more green than the grey, but I think this balances the brightness of the parrot green as the main body of Chrono's clothes.
	#50d0e8	Turquoise	This looks like a great match to me.
	#50f8b8	Toothpaste	This one also looks like a good match.
	#ffffff	White	And white of course matches the white, I've shown all the white pixels here in purple.

Once I got that done, I got distracted. I actually finished that part of this job more than a year ago, but then didn't get around to actually putting things together until recently. This has made a few things more complicated and I'm especially short on justification for the colour matching.

Anyway after letting most of a year pass, I finally got on to...

Building the Sprite

So a little while ago I sat down to see how to actually put together the sprite.

 

The first day of work was quite slow. I'm used to the the big fields of the Super Mario Exclamation Blocks, which simply need you to figure out where your edges are and then you can turn your brain off and lay out beads. Here each line has a lot of different colours. I tried to find trails of colour to put in,  so that I'd find landmarks to construct around so that I didn't get lost.

I found while working on it it was also very hard to see any of the pattern emerging. I had to sit back and cross my eyes. In the second and third images you can pretty clearly see Chrono's head and arm, but as I was putting it together it was tough to see. (Why does he have three eyes? Oh, that's his sleeve.)

I ended off the first day about here. With his head and upper body done. The second day's progress went a little faster because there was less colour variation and the sword makes a good landmark to be able to figure out how far down the sprite you are. The harrowing part was adding the second board to bead from and then not messing things up as I went over the gap (which is really not a problem, but I'd never done it before.

Overall it took me two days (maybe 4 or 5 hours total) to bead out the sprite. It was definitely hard than the coasters, but it wasn't awful.

Next it was time to fuse the beads, although I ended up having a small problem first. It turns out its probably safest move the two halves separately, or better yet to put down a board for both halves to sit on.

Fixing the sprite was a little bit of an ordeal because I had to figure out which parts of the pattern were messed up. Fortunately I managed to keep all the beads in the same place, so everything I had had to go back somewhere in the sprite.

Before fusing I also noticed that there were a couple of spots where there was a bead by itself (with only one neighbour. I figured these would be hard to fuse properly, so in each of these three places I added a black bead to support.

Finally I was able to fuse. Unfortunately my iron doesn't have a temperature setting, just a cloth setting, so I can't tell you how hot the iron was other than "cotton". I still don't have a great intuition for fusing, knowing how long it's going to take for the beads to melt and how long the beads should melt to stick together and look their best.

The fuse was ok, although not all I could have wished for. Structurally I'm happy, the sprite is strong and doesn't flex, wobble or feel weak anywhere. I think it could look a little better in the evenness of the melt, but that's not the end of the world. More practice will probably help.

Success of the Sprite

So generally I'm really happy with the sprite. It came out strong and I think it looks really good. My primary concern with the colour plan was that the purple around the outside would be too extreme, but I think your brain automatically ignores it when you see it against a back ground. Alternatively you could easily make the purple parts of the outline dark grey or black.

As you'll notice there's one major problem with the Chrono sprite. He's not that flat on the bottom. I knew this would be trouble while I was putting the sprite together and I thought about building a shadow under his left leg to make him level. Two other options were to make a background for him to stand level on or to make a stand that can hold him up this way. I'm going to stick with the given sprites for the rest of this experiment, but when I get onto stage two I'll revisit and think about how to make them stand better.

Anyway, in the end, I'm happy. I have a good looking sprite kicking around and every time I see it I'm pleased. From here I'm going to make all of the PCs at this 1x1 scale before moving on to bigger ones in phase 2. I've started work on the next one, as I hinted to twitter and I'm happy with the project.

Blog: Favourite YouTube Videos (Volume 96)

In this volume of my favourite YouTube videos, it's time to learn, celebrate and totally creep ourselves out.

• First, Hank Green takes some time to tell us what he learned at VidCon 2013.
• Next, Geek and Sundry celebreates some awesome cosplay at AnimeExpo 2013.
• Finally, to get the hair on your arms a little exercise, Mr. Smooth McGroove covers the Super Metroid Prologue Theme. 

Blog: Favourite YouTube Videos (Volume 95)

In this volume of my favourite YouTube videos, we take a ride, think some thoughts and forge a sword.

• First, hop on your dinosaur as Mr. Smooth McGroove takes you back to Super Mario World.
• Next, on PBS Idea Channel, Mike Rugnetta tackles what Neon Genesis Evangelion tells us about authorship and reading.
• Finally, you might want to hide your pottery because Man at Arms has actually made the Master Sword in real life.

Blog: Favourite YouTube Videos (Volume 94)

In this volume of my favourite YouTube videos, we face the the distant past, travel and the love we hold for our family and friends.

• First, Bryan Cranston reads Shelley's "Ozymandias". I've never seen Breaking Bad, but I assume it's a pretty nifty ad, but mostly I'm into it because it's Bryan Cranston reading "Ozymandias". Nothing besides remains...
• Next, Simon's Cat encounters the dreaded suitcase.
• Finally, Hank and John celebrate Esther Day 2013.

Blog: Favourite YouTube Videos (Volume 93)

In this volume of my favourite YouTube videos, we geek out about stuff! (I know right, what a surprise!)

• It's Comic-Con time, at least it was back in 2013 when I favourited these two videos from tested.com. First we have Adam and Jamie's panel from SDCC (hosted by Wil Wheaton) where they talk for an hour about what keeps them interested and what they want to do.
• Next Adam talks to Will and Norm on Still Untiled about how SDCC 2013 was for them all.
• Finally, not from tested but still super cool, Laura Shigihara sings the "Lament of the Highborne" from World of Warcraft.

Blog: Favourite YouTube Videos (Volume 92)

In this volume of my favourite YouTube videos, we defeat Gannon through the power of "HEY LISTEN", learn how much it costs to know what the weather in San Fransisco and make cool ideas real.

• First, AttackingTucans and Josh Jepson, together as Versus, present the (Abridged) story of The Legend of Zelda, Ocarina of Time. It's a little ... rude, but it's entertaining. Also, beware spoilers for Ocarina of Time, but on the plus side I don't need to replay OoT now.
• Next, on Computerphile, Professor Brailsford takes time to explain how much you can compress information when you absolutely positively need to know what the weather in San Fransisco is, but it's terribly expensive to send each bit.
• Finally, Hank Green talks about four real-world advancements made based on works of science fiction on SciShow.

Blog: Thoughts on The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess

I had so much fun playing The Wind Waker, that I started playing The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess right afterwards. Unfortunately  I didn't find it to have quite the fun and the charm of it's predecessor. It's a good game, but I think it's a bit of a reactionary swing to try to make a game that was darker and "more like Ocarina".

From GameFAQs user Tropicon

As always with my thoughts on video games, there will be spoilers for The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess below. Also note that I played the Wii version, so I will be grumbling about motion controls.

Things I Liked

Sadly, while the game was fun, there were not a lot of things I really liked while playing Twilight Princess. I'm not sure how much of that is that I feel like it's a low point between Wind Waker and Skyward Sword (maybe it needed an alliterative title...).

Though it's a little silly, one of my favourite parts of the game was canoeing. It's not a mechanic that's used very much, once in the main story and after that only in a side quest, but it feels surprising intuitive and fun. I think I also like the idea of Link having to take more and different modes of transportation as he travels around the world.

The game was effective at conveying a sense of being lost in the Lost Woods. Simply taking away the map you've been relying on for the majority of the game and then connecting the areas in the woods using paths at different altitudes (you always have to go up or down) makes it much harder to track where you are. You're also kept distracted by a constant enemy that follows you rather than is tied to the rooms of the dungeon. I thought it was effective and a good idea.

The final boss fight of the game was good and was probably the strongest fight in the game. The phase where you fight Puppet!Zelda is a little cumbersome, but generally feels like you're being given a fair chance (although it's a lot slower than other Zelda games because of the motion controls).

The fight against Boar!Gannon is pretty good. I like using the bow to stun him, but I found that there were a couple of problems with the camera during this part of the fight. I also found that they might have changed up the fight mechanics a little too quickly since I usually figured out what was going on just as they changed to the next things.

The horseback fight was epic but was frustrating to play.  The one-on-one sword fight against Gannondorf was very good and felt like the best fight in the game. I felt like I was matched against an opponent as strong as I was and I felt like there was a genuine, uncheated challenge.

This Link, is ready for business - From GameFAQs user Sitchey

Things I Didn't Like

The motion controls were the thing I most consistently didn't like in Twilight Princess. Everything feels wrong and feels like it's the motion controls were bolted on (which they were, since this was supposed to be a Game Cube game). The "swing as button press" problem was prevalent throughout the early Wii era and generally makes the game feel like you might or might not have made the right motion at the right time.

Even the pointing controls are not that good. I found a lot of the time it was very difficult to actually point at the thing I wanted to point at. Sometimes it felt awesome and I was able to hit an enemy with the bow and arrow from a great distance, but often enough I just tried to aim while my reticule bounced around the screen. I may also have gotten used to being able to move and shoot while playing the HD remake of Wind Waker, so having to stop and aim also annoyed me.

I also found that the Z-targeting still doesn't work that well. The game and I seem to disagree on what was the most threatening things were and which one I should fight first. I think the game's reliance on swarms of enemies also caused this since you'd have to Z-target through a lot of little things to get to the one big one that you might want to fight.

I think the "special attacks" were also not as well implemented as they were in Wind Waker (or at least as they were in the HD remake). In the attack where you roll behind the enemy in Wind Waker you automatically stopped right behind the enemy, in Twilight Princess you often end up rolling most of the way around the side and out of the range where you can attack the enemy from behind. I think this was an effort to give the player more control, but it ends up making it harder to play the game.

Of course the smartest creature in the Zelda universe is part chicken. - From GameFAQs user BlueGunstarHero

The other place where a little assist from the game would have been nice is in jumping off edges. There were several times where I was trying to jump from one platform to another or to step out onto a rope and I was angled wrong and fell to my death. A little assist from the game would have been nice, even if the Wii (or I guess the GameCube) wasn't powerful enough to animate the little steps I loved in Ni No Kuni.

Aside from the control problems, Twilight Princess is really really padded out. The game took me around 50 hours to complete and I don't think that the game has enough real content to justify that time. Fighting is slow, especially when you're a wolf. They send in swarms of enemies. There are enemies that have to be killed using two different weapons. They put big chest full of tiny amounts of Rupies at the end of long dead ends in dungeons. Set pieces respawn when you leave and return to an area. They insist on tell you every time you start the game how much the different colours of Rupies are worth (bug or feature, you be the judge). Even the most basic part of a Zelda game is stretched out: you find five pieces of heart instead of four.

The padding got so bad during the Sky Temple that I just about quit playing the game. It took me three evenings to get through because the design required so much switching between items and so much mindless busy work going from one area to another. I also ended up going back though the temple to make sure that I didn't leave any pieces of heart behind only to discover that the hard to reach chests held Rupies that I couldn't use.

Zelda games, in general, have a problem with knowing when and how to end. You can usually defeat the last boss 15 hearts and 3/4s of the bottles. Is it worth it to get 100%? Sometimes that can be the fun, but I found especially with Twilight Princess it just never felt rewarding to try. Do I need 120 bombs? Probably not.

Things I Noticed

The biggest thing I noticed about Twilight Princess is that it really needs an HD remake. There are some places in the game where you're shown the beautiful vistas (especially in the desert and the mountains) but then everything else looks blurry and aliased. Similarly I think switching to full dual-stick control, like in Wind Waker, would make a lot of the play more pleasant. The palette of the game is also quite dull ("Call of Duty: Hyrule" brown) in a lot of places, and a little more vibrancy to the world would also improve the game.

It's just a little muddy, it's still good! - From GameFAQs user Casoonie

Another thing that an HD remake might help with is the animation. Link and Gannondorf are really well animated in the game play and the cutscenes at the end of the game, but Zelda isn't. Link and Gannondorf will have an interesting interaction and then Zelda will get a gasp of dull surprise. Simillarly in other parts of the game, Link looks great and moves fairly smoothly through the environment, but the NPCs look blocky and uncoordinated. If there ever is an HD remake I hope they brighten everyone up.

The game also has a problem with how power strong Link is. Basically Link is too strong for most of the enemies in the game. To compensate for this they add more enemies to the fights, which is either not challenging, or becomes unfairly challenging since one enemy's unbreakable block animation will protect another and there's nothing Link can do to fight back. This shows up particularly with the Darknuts where fighting two or three or five of them gets unfairly difficult. It also shows up in the horse combat sections, where the challenge comes from dealing with so many attackers that you can't see hot to defend yourself.  They were much better at handling combat difficulty in Skyward Sword.

I think it's interesting that this is the "darkest" Zelda. There's a lot more explicit death than in most of the other games (The Zora Queen actually tells you "I was executed"). I think a lot of this was to combat the feeling some people had to Wind Waker being too "kiddy". On the one hand I think it's interesting to see slightly more adult themes taken on in a Zelda game, but honestly I think it's the kind of things where you could split into two IPs, retaining lightness in Zelda and handling more complex or adult themes in a new IP. That being said, I don't think Nintendo is actually that interested in making games for grown-ups.

One part of the game that doesn't feel either for kids or for grown-ups, is the way gender and sexuality are handled in the game. I was particularly bothered by one scene in the game where Renaldo confides in Link that he's terrified of Temla because she flirts with him. If there were any other references to flirting or sexuality in the game, this could just a reaction by a religious man to a flirtatious woman, but it is pretty much the game's only reference to sexuality.

Beyond this, a lot of the female character's designs seem to be more for the sake of teenaged male interested than driven by character. The two instances that particularly bother me were the Great Fairy and Adult Midna. In the case of the Great Fairy, we're usually (in other games) expected to understand that her power and her magic and her strength of personality are so strong that Link is simply in awe of her. Here, the way she's portrayed feels significantly less powerful and I was left feeling that the whole depiction of her was very juvenile. In the same was Adult Midna is revealed with a pan up her body, which again feels juvenile when compared to her story and why she's able to transform from her imp form back into her "true" self. (Also interesting that no other Twili seem to have breasts, or any other distinctive body parts, for that mater).

I did think that the character of Zelda was handled very well here. Generally Nintendo is pretty good about having Zelda be at least a somewhat active participant in the world (since Ocarina of Time), but often at some point in the game she gets captured through some moment of weakness. Here, that still happens, but it's part of an active choice on her part. She gives up her powers to restore Midna's. That being said, Zelda could still be a much more active protagonist of the game, but at least her absence isn't strictly due to the need to find a maiden to rescue.

While we're looking for protagonists of the game, I'm left with a question: Why isn't Midna the protagonist of the game? You can probably actually categorize her as the protagonist since she's the one who drives the plot and makes all the important decisions. Link is just along for the ride.

Our Hero. - From GameFAQs user Tropicon

Consider the same game as presented, but shown from Midna's point of view. The Queen, cast out of her kingdom, struggling to save another kingdom, while gaining the power she needs to fight off the evil invaders. That just sounds like a more interesting game to me. I think that couples with the feeling that you could split this and have a new, more grown up IP.

Finally I've decided that Link needs a pet cat. This came to me while I was standing in Link's house early in the game (and I think for the last time). Link tends to be an outsider in the Zelda games and while I understand the appeal of the orphan on the hero's journey, I think the games could all be improved by giving him a reason to care about the world. 

Things I'd Include in a Game

The biggest thing I'd take from Twilight Princess in canoeing, or at least I'd like to take different modes of transportation that break up the game in interesting ways. Still I think the most fun I had playing Twilight Princess was falling down that river. Maybe I need to get out more.

Beyond that I like the amount of space you get in Twilight Princess. I like that going from one place to another is a significant journey. I'm not sure you need to implement it in quite the way they have. I occasionally felt frustrated when I was sent back and fourth across country and I think a lot of that had to do with the little fights they put in to "keep it interesting". I think you don't need quite as much physical space as they used nor as much "interest", but I do like having significant journeys in a game.

Final Thoughts

Twilight Princess is fun.  I think compared to some of the other Zelda games, it makes you work too hard to get at that fun. I also think it's a game where they tried to make something more mature and ended up splitting the direction of the game. For now, at least, it's the Zelda game I'd least like to go back and replay.

Blog: Favourite YouTube Videos (Volume 91)

In this volume of my favourite YouTube videos, we can have a dream, a laugh and a journey!

• First, Brentalfloss shares an original composition with us. 
• Next, Wil Wheaton's son Ryan Wheaton was on an episode of Table Top. His interview is good and it's nice to see such a great family dynamic, but mostly ... well you really should just watch it.
• Finally, if you need music to walk over green hills to, CalebElijah covers Colour of the Summer Sky from Secret of Mana. Now if you'll excuse me it's time to go get too hot working in the garden, then go hide in the basement and play Secret of Mana.

Blog: Favourite YouTube Videos (Volume 90)

In this volume of my favourite YouTube videos, now that we're started, maybe it's time to start.

• First, take a second to relax, and take dip in the ocean with Mr. Smooth McGroove, covering Aquatic Ambiance from Donkey Kong Country.
• Next, let your drive build, with CalebElijah covering Powel from Seiken Densetsu 3.
• Now, it's time to begin with Ze Frank's Invocation for Beginnings. As I mentioned before, I'm not sure how I didn't start here, but here we are now. Are you all seated comfortably? Then, let's begin. Your pencils are sharp enough.

Blog: Favourite YouTube Videos (Volume 89)

In this volume of my favourite YouTube videos, we push through all our barriers!

• First, we can fight through anything, so long as we have Mr. Smooth McGroove preforming Decisive Battle from Final Fantasy VI behind us. This one gives me chills and I think that's a mix between my own Super Nintendo memories and just how nicely 16-bit music fits Mr.McGroove's style. 
• Next, we can journey anywhere, so long as we have Mr. CalebElijah preforming Diddle's Organ from Legend of Mana behind us.
• Finally, we can do anything so long as we work together. This video is from the Calgary Stampede and shows a little of the work that had to be done to get the Stampede back up and running in less than a month after the flood of June 2013. 

Blog: Favourite YouTube Videos (Volume 88)

In this volume of my favourite YouTube videos, we learn about ourselves, listen to some beautiful music and then set out on an epic quest.

• First, Charlie shares some revelations he's had about how to have fun at parties (and other things).
• Next, CalebElijah covers a very beautiful song from The Legend of Mana.
• Finally, we have Lucahjin's Let's Play of Suikoden II. I missed the Suikoden games when I was younger, so I was fascinated by this game that had most of everything I wanted in an RPG. So now, inspired by this Let's Play, I've started down the path of playing these games (in order, which becomes FREAKING EXPENSIVE if you want the disks ... which I do).
  As always with her "serious" Let's Plays, Lucah is very informative and fun and I always find her "serious RPG voice" soothing. If you have the time, or need something for the background I really recommend watching this series.

Blog: Favourite YouTube Videos (Volume 87)

In this volume of my favourite YouTube videos, we check for the edges of the world, the edges of our hearts and think the very deepest of very tired thoughts.

• Ever wonder if the universe was a simulation? Well, keep your eye out for the edges... as Mr. Safety demonstrates here.
• Next, Cory (Mr. Safety) hangs out with his niece and gives us all the warm fuzzies!
• Finally, Hank Green is very tired, but he has thought thoughts. 

Project 14: A Walk Through the Station

This is the first of 6 sketch stories, where I write a very short story that briefly describes a scene or a feeling. It's the first time in a very long time that I've published any writing, so please be kind.

Project Update Post

As always I seem to get behind on projects, but in the last few months I've managed to start picking things up again. So I'm going to reorganize my deadlines again today and reorganize a few of the projects.

• Project 5 - SNES Coasters
• I have actually gotten as far as beading and fusing my new larger format test coaster. Now it needs a backing and then I'll give it a test for a little while to see if it develops the same cupping that the smaller ones. 
• I'm going to try to get the backing on in the next week and then I'll test it for a month or so.  I'm going to set the deadline to see if I make more / bigger ones on July 17, 2015.

• Project 12 - Chrono Trigger Sprites
• I've finally made some progress. Last night in fact I actually spent about 2 hours beading the beginning of a 1x1 Chrono sprite. This is giving me a chance to see what works and how the colours look (little problem there, but I'll give a longer update once I get everything done).

Coming together.

• Progress is happening so I hope to have the 1x1 sprite and update done by June 23, 2015.

• Project 13 - Bubble Puzzle
• I'll get back to it and I'm putting it on hold for the time being.

• Project 14 - Sketch Fiction
• I originally was calling this flash fiction, but based on the lack of ... plot in the stuff I've been writing I wasn't sure if flash fiction counted. I ran across an article on "sketch fiction" which I'm repurposing as a term for what I'm turning out.
• As you might have guess from the above, I have actually written a bit. I have one sketch done and ready to go an others "in the pipeline". I'm going to try to do six sketches in the next little while, rather than one a month like I'd originally posted. I'd like to try to have all six posted by August 1, 2015.

• New Projects
• I have two (and a half) new projects I've either started or would like to start. I'll put up proper posts for them soon. 

Blog: Favourite YouTube Videos (Volume 86)

In this volume of my favourite YouTube videos, we spend some time making films.

• First, we see Jenny Bingham's slightly dangerous method for learning lines. Anything to keep us from having to memorize King Lear.
• Next, I think it's time for a spot of tea, with The Tea Chronicles, Charlie McDonnell's first short film. Charlie set off to make five short films (this, OFFLINE, Strangers in a Bed, and Our Brother (1 & 2)) in 2013 and this is where he started. 
• And since that is a touch intense, let's end with Charlie's making of for the Tea Chronicles to cool off a bit.