Saturday, April 13, 2013

NERDCULTURE SMACKDOWN! POKÉMON OF THE WEEK! APR 13-APR 19/13!

#209 SNUBBULL & #210 GRANBULL

Oh boy! This week is all about this pugnificent and pugnacious creatures known as Snubbull and Granbull; two of the so cute they're ugly second generation abominadorablinations based on the Bull Dog breed and, specifically, those old Tom and Jerry cartoon bull dogs. Spike and Tyke? I think those were their names? *googles* I watched too many cartoons growing up... I should read more. Anyways....


WORD OF THE DAY! 4/13/13!

pika [pee-kah]
noun
1.The Japanese sound-effect in manga and anime that represents electricity

chu [choo]
noun
1. The Japanese sound-effect for a mouse.

EX. Pikachu's name in Japanese is "Pikachu". It is compromised of the sound effects "pika" and "chuu".

Friday, April 12, 2013

WORD OF THE DAY! 4/12/13!

om nom nom [awm-nawm-nawm]
noun
1. The sound of loud, often obnoxious, biting, chewing, and swallowing of food.

EX. I think my favorite League of Legends character has gotta be Kog'Maw (ha, you thought this was gonna be about Bioshock Infinite! FOOLED YOU!).

Kog'Maw, the Mouth of the Abyss, is a living embodiment of hunger-- part Pet T-Rex and part Hungry Caterpillar, this AD Ranged Carry specializes in the art of spewing out of his maw to stun and dissolve his prey... FOR DIGESTION1 Kog'Maw isn't just the embodiment of hunger; he is the embodiment of OM NOM NOM!


Thursday, April 11, 2013

WORD OF THE DAY! 4/11/13!

wham [wam, hwam]
noun
1. A loud sound produced by an explosion or sharp impact.
2. A forcible impact.
interjection
3. (used as an exclamation suggestive of a loud slam, blow, or the like).
verb (used with object) 
4. to hit or make a forcible impact, especially one producing a loud sound.

EX.For examples of "wham" watch the following clip and listen as Superman lets loose and show Darkseid just how powerful he really is...



Wednesday, April 10, 2013

WTF WED! CHIN-CHIN (ちんちん) CATCHES ST. BERNARDS WITH POKÉBALLZ!


Frank: I'll have you know, if you come any closer, I'm going to call Chin-Chin.
Dude: Not Chin-Chin. No. No! Not Chin-Chin! No!
Frank: It's too late my brother from another mother. I've already summoned the gods! (groans)
Dude:  Chin-Chin! No!
Frank: (more groans)
[Chin-Chin appears]

Frank: Oh boy, dude! You're so f***ed. You're like so f***ed right now! I don't even like calling on this guy. He's nasty!



Does anybody else remember the trouble that Beethoven gave his family in the family movie classic? No? Okay...


Someone decided to animate the awkward level of similarities between Dragon Ball Z's Mr. Popo and Pokémon's Jynx, but, rather than making the obvious jokes that they could make, the just focused on the weirdness of their design. Good job.

WORD OF THE DAY! 4/10/13!

self-inflicted agoraphobia [self-in-flik-tid-uh-gohr-uh-foh-bee-uh]
noun
1. A popular affliction of the modern times where a person chooses to stay inside with the electronic comfort of air conditioning, television, video games, and internet. This affliction rarely has anything to do with fear but, when it does, it has more to do with social phobias than actual fear of wide open spaces or crowds.

EX. Thanks to the conveniences of modern technology and the ability to work from home/order all supplies online, more and more people are finding themselves victims of self-inflicted agoraphobia for days, weeks, and months on end. Heck, I went a few weeks without leaving the house in the winter, perhaps only stepping outside onto the porch. Luckily, in warmer months, I find it a lot easier to keep my self-inflicted agoraphobia in check, but have to take allergies into account (currently, I'm suffering from a sore throat and headache after spending thirty minutes cleaning the pool yesterday).

Tuesday, April 9, 2013

WEEKLY ROUND-UP! 4/1-4/7/13!

WEEKLY ROUND-UP PRESENTS

7. WORD OF THE DAY! 4/7/13! Mind games.

So, does anybody have a theory about the identity of this new Pokémon? Personally, I think he is a completely new Pokémon--possibly a clone of Mew or Mewtwo (and will probably be quite OP) and maybe, just maybe, might have that Light typing we've all been waiting for since Generation II to have more diversity in our meta-game strategy and to serve as another counterweight to Dark and Psychic.

6. POKÉMON OF THE WEEK! #318 CAVANHA & #319 SHARPEDO

Sometimes I write too many Pokémon articles...

5. WTF WED! GRANT KIRKHOPE'S KOOKY AND CRAZY PAC-MAN CABLE COMPANY!

I actually had to write this article twice...

4. APRIL FOOLS: "SORRY FOLKS! TECHNICAL DIFFICULTIES!"

For stress-related problems, I began writing an article that turned into this year's April Fools theme...OPOSSUMS!

3. WORD OF THE DAY! 4/5/13! Virtual storage.

Another chance for me to talk about the horrors of the Pokémon universe is always fun...

2. MIXED BAG. ASURA'S WRATH REVIEW!

This review isn't one of my favorite and was a tricky one to nail down because of the unique nature of Asura's Wrath.

1. APRIL FOOLS! WORD OF THE DAY! 4/1/13! "Best Movie Ever"

Fun Fact: 9/10 Opossums have no opinion on the Star Wars prequels.

WORD OF THE DAY! 4/9/13!

game time [geym-tahym]
noun
1. Time to go do what has to be done; time to go to work.

EX. What time is it in LoL? IT'S GAME TIME! WHAT TIME IS IT!? GAME TIME!!

Monday, April 8, 2013

MUSICAL MON! LEAGUE OF LEGENDARY METAL GEAR SOLID PLASTIC ROCK BANDS!


This week our Musical Monday is all about video games and first up I've gotta confess my newest gaming obsession, League of Legends. I started playing about three weeks ago after seeing some friends were playing it. I love playing multiplayer games and teamwork, especially with friends, so I hopped on the bandwagon. So far, my favorite champions to play are Support Alistar, Hybrid Carry-Mage Kog'Maw, and Tanky Garen. I hope that I can live up to my friend's expectations on the Fields of Justice.


"V is awake." Hideo "Frickin'" Kojima is a master game maker and loves to play with his audience's expectations. This is the first time that I can truly appreciate his mind games, because this is the first time I can really, really call myself a Metal Gear Solid fan awaiting the announcement of a new Metal Gear Solid. Phantom Pain has been teased for a while, but it wasn't revealed until recently that it is, in fact, Metal Gear Solid 5.

The mystery surrounding the game is palpable, the new game engine is pretty impressive, but the first question I want answered is..."if not David Hayter, than who?"


This would be time to get a little nostalgic and teary-eyed if I hadn't already accepted the downfall of music gaming with plastic instruments a couple of years ago. I suppose I need to explain my relationship with the biggest rise and fall of a subgenre in the last generation.

It started with getting my sister Guitar Hero 2 for her birthday. It didn't take long for us to bond over the game. The game that cinched our relationship with the subgenre was Rock Band. The guys who made Guitar Hero 1 and 2 possible, Harmonix, split off and began making their own games-- and not only were they awesome, they created a party game experience that couldn't be topped. With a singer, two guitars (one for guitar/one for base) and a drumset allowed you to simulate the band experience. Anybody could try Rock Band and everyone I could get to try it...did. Even my Grandpa.

Rock Band became an innovative series, adding instruments, adding more and more downloadable tracks, and finally allowing users to upload their own songs. Guitar Hero was still around and the genre became crowded by copycats that, blatantly, sucked. It was only a matter of time before people grew tired and moved onto the next thing. Rock Band hung around, releasing content, despite their last big release being way back in 2010.

But after a few years, Rock Band saw less and less attention as my sister seemed more and more busy. The plastic instruments lie in a corner of our entertainment room and, occasionally, I glance at them with nostalgic desire to return to a time when I could belt out hits (yes, I was the guy who sang), with my sister on bass/guitar, and two other friends picking up the pieces as we rocked for hours and hours.

It's been over 5 years since Rock Band 1 hit the shelves and, as of March 31, they released their last song to the Rock Band network, "American Pie". Time will tell the future of this subgenre and the giant that really made up the backbone of this party ain't going now where. Now, enjoy a picture of my dog sitting in front of my rockband stuff from a few Christmases ago...

WORD OF THE DAY! 4/8/13!

context [kahn-tehxt]
noun
1. The parts of a written or spoken statement that surround or follow a word or passage that help give the word or passage meaning.
2. The circumstances that surround a situation, event, something that happens, something has been said/written, etc.

EX. This is a great example of how the internet can take anything out of context; what started as a joke between two friends, one of whom was an important employee at Microsoft, escaped it's bounds and the sarcastic words of the employee were taken as serious statements (rather than the trolling that they appeared to be by the language and lack of logic) by a great number of gamers.


Within hours of this hitting the net like a sack full of bricks through the glasshouse gamers are constantly rebuilding (after smashing it down themselves over some perceived slight), many a gamer was declaring Microsoft dead and that they would be buying a PS4. The sad part? Even if the rumors about "always online" aren't true (and I hope they are), many gamers will hold to the story until it is beaten to death with advertising by Microsoft. People need to be a little more skeptical and patient when it comes to stuff they find out about online. Last time I checked, Twitter wasn't a forum for anything other than mindless nonsense anyway...

Sunday, April 7, 2013

WORD OF THE DAY! 4/7/13!

mind games [mahynd-geyms]
noun
1. Psychological and emotional manipulation, strategy, and tactics used to gain advantage, intimidate, or control an individual or group.

EX. Okay, Nintendo, The Pokémon Company, and Gamefreak are just playing mind games without nostalgia and expectations. They're only spoiling like one Pokémon a month, so far, and the spoilers have been very lacking in details. We know little about the starters and practically nothing about the two legendaries, Sylveon, and now this "new Pokémon" that they won't even confirm whether it is a new Mew/Mewtwo form, a new Pokémon altogether, or an evolution of Mew/Mewtwo. We don't even know it's name.

Still, I do actually like this design. To check out the trailer, hit the link below.