For those of you waiting for something out of me besides homework (I know there aren't a lot of you, but whatever), I got some things in the works. I'll be doing a monthly animated series for a certain podcast (which podcast that is is your guess), and I hope to get the pilot done soon. Also, "Platypus Flu". You'll see that soon. Not sure what it is? Good. I just made it up.

Also, do the words "The Drifter" entice you? The gears are turning on that project again. The script is almost completely done (in my mind, mind you), and my good friend Rory (yes, Rory from TSAOMAC and such), wants to do music for the project, so it's getting closer and closer to starting.

*HYPERANIMAT!ON is still on hold, but I think once 2010 rolls around, I'll be ready to make the first episode (consider the one that I've already done the pilot.) Since I already wrote up 5 episodes' worth (including the pilot), there'll be some more fun to be had with Dack and Mr. Oven Mitts soon.

Also, just wanted to mention "Red Bull Stash", the coolest viral marketing scheme EVER. Basically, Red Bull is hiding a shit-ton of cases of Red Bull Energy Shots all over the US, and on their Facebook page, you'll find an app that lets you enter your zip code, then provides the closest unclaimed Stash location, as well as a clue to find it. Nick and I went looking for one in Temple the other day, only to find one that we weren't even looking for. We then found a ton hidden around the Art Institute campus (literally, since they were all hidden in AiPH-owned buildings). Each case comes with 12 e-shots, and they're damn tasty. (I'll admit it. I love Red Bull.) Those of you in the Philly area, though, will have to compete with me, especially if you're near Center City. I got this area damn-near locked down.

Might as well mention some shit I've played/listened to/watched. "Knights in the Nightmare". Damn good DS game. Combines elements of SRPGs, action-RPGs, and bullet hells. (Yes, bullet hells.) Basically, your CURSOR takes damage, not your units. You go around the screen equipping weapons to your "Wisp", and then to an eligible unit, which will let you charge up an attack. It gets WAY complicated from here (seriously, there's a bunch of tutorials the game encourages you to go through before you even start), so check out Atlus' YouTube page or the game's page on IGN for videos detailing the game if you're interested. Also, i'm re-playing TWEWY. And LOVING it all over again.

The roomies have been watching Lost on Netflix. I've been watching on and off. I'm kind of interested now. Also, District 9 and Zombieland were great fucking movies.

Protest the Hero is quickly becoming one of my favorite bands. Their singer is kind of whiny for my taste, but DAMN are their guitarists amazing. Thankfully, there's an instrumental version of their newer album. And it is AWESOME. Here's a sample: [link] Also, Between the Buried and Me's new album, "The Great Misdirect", comes out in a scant 10 days. Halle-fuckin'-lujah. The first two tracks popped up on YouTube. (The first transitions into the second, so you might wanna load both and pause the second at the beginning and play it right at the end of the first if you want the full effect.):

-Mirrors: [link]
-Obfuscation: [link]

I also wanna mention the VGXPO this year. There wasn't too much to do, but this was my first time cosplaying. And, MAN was it fun after I got over the initial shyness. and I were Nia and Simon, respectively, from Gurren Lagann. We actually won cosplay contests! She and I won for both Best Couple and Best Anime, and she tied with a girl dressed as Rebecca Chambers for Best Female. Plus, tons of people wanted to take our pictures. Oh, and we were part of a mass Caramelldansen. In fact, someone uploaded it to YouTube...

WARNING: The following link features plenty of costumed men and women dancing to an admittedly catchy song, and will therefore most likely cause your brain to implode from awkward: [link]

Other than that, we had some fun going around the freezing-ass city and seeing all of the sights. So yeah, last weekend was a blast. And, with that, I think I've made up for about 4 months of Journal-absence. And I spent most of it NOT talking about future projects. Weeeeeeei'mlazy.

To the three of you who still care, I PROMISE I've got some Flash stuff coming up. It's just that I have so much homework this quarter, what with the 2D AND 3D animation classes. But there are a few projects I want to get done, including a remake of an older Flash, which will be hitting its third anniversary this October. (You all know which one. It's one of my favorites and I really think it could use an upgrade. This time I swear I'll do it. Pinky swear.)

Here's a few things I've done, so you can keep up:

Eternal Darkness Review:
[link]

More of these will be coming soon. Klonoa fans, <COUGHTAZCOUGH> Klonoa 2 is my next review.

"Lights", an original song
[link]

Eeeeeyup. I made a song. Woot.

And, lastly...
[link]

Just... click this link and follow me on there if you even give a shit...
I feel so... dirty...

EDIT: I really could use some friends on my newly-created Last.fm account, so you all can mock my lack of musical taste:
[link]

And, I know I'm gonna regret this, but here's my Facebook. At least let me know you're from deviantART, okay?
[link]

Finally washed up on shore after being at the beach for a week and a half. This quarter in college was a huge bitch, with classes like 3-D Modeling (which I still don't get), and Art History (which I still think is a bunch of over-analyzed bullshit). Seriously, if I ever go down a serious art path, I'm just gonna paint a banana next to a crab and you people who over-analyze every single Goddamn painting are gonna lose sleep trying to find a connection. And when you ask me "What does it MEAN?!" I'll simply say: "Nothing. I felt like painting a crab next to a banana. Big whoop."

So. Never did that remake of a Flash that had its third birthday back in the beginning of June. If you're not totally acquainted with my gallery, it was gonna be "Your Guts (I Hate 'Em)" by Reel Big Fish. Still, I'm planning another re-make later this year, to a Flash I still really like. And it'll be THAT one's third anniversary, too.

There are some other Flashes I wanna do in the meantime, and they're gonna be music videos. Hell, one might be done before I go back to college in mid-July. The other one might be a good successor to "The Fuck You Song", but not done by Reel Big Fish, and not it's a little more clever with its humor. I really think this song has the potential to be hilarious when put to my sub-par animation.

I'm still working on a rough draft of "The Drifter". Not sure if I'll put it on here, since it's a little sketchy. But, I do plan on making it into a digital graphic novel, so you could see it soon. I also have plans to revive a certain team of crime-fighting rock stars...

There are some other projects in the works, but they're on hold for now, while I handle some of the aforementioned things. I'm also doing a new series of game reviews, done in a satirical manner, called "Just Another Game Review Show". I'm pretty sure my last journal was so fucking far back that I never even thought of it before I posted that one. Here are the current JAGRS episodes:

-Billy Hatcher: [link]
-MegaMan Legends: [link]

I plan on reviewing "Knights in the Nightmare", an insanely complicated and fun real-time SRPG/bullet-hell for DS next, and possibly a re-review of "The World Ends With You", because that game kicked so much ass. I'm also considering reviewing "Klonoa 2: Lunatea's Veil" and "Klonoa: Empire of Dreams", and a few other games. Some of these reviews will be parodying existing reviewers, such as Nostalgia Critic, Angry Video Game Nerd, The Spoony One, Angry Joe, and more. Best case scenario: ThatGuyWithTheGlasses picks me up as one of their reviewers. Worst case scenario: hard drive space wasted.

That's all I can think of for now. At least I'm on break, catching as many z's as I can.

...which is sure to deviate eventually. I mean, I'm a lazy bastard. Anyway.

Here's what to expect from me animation-wise in 2009. Expect. Hm. Don't rest too heavily on these expectations. The next Flash I want to do (and possibly have out by May) is a remake of a Flash I made almost 3 years ago. I want to release it near or on the original's 3-year-anniversary. I'm not gonna be updating just the graphics, I'm gonna do a full-blown re-imagining of the entire song, altogether. (Does that hint help? We'll see.) I'm also planning on remaking another Flash for its 3rd birthday, but that's not 'til later this year. (October, maybe. There's your hint.) So, yeah. You're going to be seeing possibly 2 remakes from me this year. (They were pretty popular Flashes back in their day. One was recently beaten on YouTube for my most viewed video.)

Take note that *HYPERANIMATION! is going to be under hiatus until further notice, because I want to re-work the character designs so that every character looks SOMEWHAT different. (a.k.a. Not all of the characters are going to have the big-eyed Dack look or the white-eyed Mr. Oven Mitts look.) I'm toying around with some character designs, and might post them soon. This means that you can also expect the first episode to be completely re-animated. What this means about my other potential animated series, "Spence and Company", I cannot say. That's still in development stages, and I haven't even worked out scripts for the first couple of episodes yet. Hell, I haven't even finalized character designs. "Spence and Company" might still be a long ways off.

Anyway. On to other animations. I very badly want to make some short films in Flash. By short, I mean a few minutes. Just some ideas cooking in my head that might translate well into short animated films. We'll have to see. I also planning on making a few Wreckless Media Radio animations, but ideas for those are still in the air. (Seriously, besides the sitcom thing I did and LazyMuffin's take on Brian Berris' Aristocrat Joke, there aren't too many good "clean" bits on the show... segments without a shitload of side comments from those who aren't talking, or segments that fit well into the format.)

Then, there's the return to form. I used to do a shitload of music-video-style Flashes back in the day, and I think I wanna bring that back. (Hence, the two remakes I want to do.) Other than that, the aforementioned short films would, most likely, revolve around music (much like "Where's My Homework?" did.) However, there's that whole "rights" thing, where putting Flashes on YouTube is dangerous, because they could just as easily be removed due to copyright claims or whatever. It seems kind of selfish to abandon perfectly good songs because I want to put them on YouTube, but if you go to my YouTube page and see my most-viewed video, it's "The Fuck You Song", a music video of "Another F.U. Song" by Reel Big Fish. Shit netted me about 70,000 views as of this posting. Second-most viewed? "Cheer Up!", with about 45,000 views as of this post. So, obviously, YouTube is a pretty good market to post these as well, and if I can't post them on there, then I'm only half-motivated. Seriously, I think "The Fuck You Song" alone has gotten me the majority of subscribers on there. Now, this could just as easily be related to the fact that everyone on YouTube appears to be a 12-year-old retard, which means the reason that "The Fuck You Song" is my most-viewed is pretty obvious. And, let's be honest: I'm never gonna top that video in pure offensive essence, mainly because I don't know a song quite as offensive as that (which, I guess Reel Big Fish should be proud of. Though, they have some other really fun, mean songs.)

The songs used in these music videos, though? Well, I could technically use Rory's music, because he's my friend and all (not to mention the exposure he'd get if it's good enough.) Maybe another Reel Big Fish video. (Maybe even "Dateless Losers", after all these years?) I also want to do a Between the Buried and Me song. Badly. They're slowly becoming my new favorite band (possibly toppling Reel Big Fish from that position.) Unfortunately, their songs would fit a very small niche, as they're progressive metal with screaming lyrics, and very deep lyrics at that. Most of the people on the internet would be too stupid to grasp the themes conveyed in the songs, myself included. (Their songs are flexible enough that you can walk away with your own meaning, rather than theirs.) There are a few songs from their album "Alaska" that I'd love to do, including the title track, but there's already an official music video for that song, and the ideas in my head for a Flash based on the song are highly inspired by the official video. If not that, there's another song I could do, and I understand the theme of the song well enough that I wouldn't create some piece-of-shit abortion that's totally missing the point. (The song I have in mind is one of those songs that has a very solid meaning, and it's a little difficult to deviate from it unless you take the lyrics too literally.)

I've also REALLY wanted to animate BTBAM's album "Colors" in its entirety. That's over an hour, split into 8 different tracks. Each of the tracks (well, the first two are technically the same song, so... 7) would tell a different story. For instance, the song "Sun of Nothing" is perfect for telling a story in this fashion, but I really don't think including JUST that song would do the album justice. You might see some "Colors" out of me, but possibly not in 2009. Still, the idea of me posting an hour-and-five-minute-long Flash animation to sites like deviantART and Newgrounds is pretty damn exciting. I think the thing that's stopping me, besides the sheer massive size of the project, is the fact that I might totally desecrate the meanings of the songs. Thankfully, the album's official website includes the band's meanings for each song, as well as some kick-ass wallpapers based on each. I have all 7.

There's also the fact that BTBAM is coming out with a new album sometime this year, and so is Reel Big Fish. If the timing is right, you could see music video Flashes based on some of the new songs later in the year. We'll have to see. I have NO idea what the tracklist is like for either of the new albums, nor do I know when exactly they're coming out. Reel Big Fish's is supposed to come out sometime "later this year", an I haven't heard ANY details on BTBAM's new album. Speaking of new albums, but completely unrelated to Flash animation (possibly), Dream Theater's 10th album is coming out June 23rd, and I'm pumped. Might have to splurge on that 3-CD deluxe edition...

Also, as much as I'd like to animate another huge, one-song album (Dream Theater's "Metropolis Part 2: Scenes from a Memory"), that one's even BIGGER than Colors, and it has MUCH more of a fan following, meaning any attempt to animate it might just be shut down altogether. However, we might be seeing it years down the road. Depends on whether I stop sucking at this "animation" thing.

So, there's a general idea of what's to come out of me in 2009. This isn't set in stone, but these are just ideas I'm tossing around. As for the actual content I produce... we'll have to see. Rant mode deactivated. Now, if you'll excuse me, I beat the Endless Setlist 2 on Rock Band 2 this morning, and my fingers are bleeding.

OK, I have a serious bone to pick with Namco Bandai. These guys seem to be bent on taking my childhood (and the childhood of many other fans) and raping it to the ground. Now, the first time, the fans had a rape whistle, and all was well. But this time, I fear there's nothing we can do to avoid being penetrated. I speak, of course, of the Klonoa re-make, coming out for the Wii.

Apparently, Namco Bandai seems to think that America is all about tough characters with deep voices. While that may be true on the most part, that doesn't mean you should disappoint your fans by completely changing the original designs that they've come to love. Many Klonoa fans <coughTazcough> were outraged when a survey popped up on Namco Bandai's website, offering a re-design of Klonoa for the North American release of the remake. This new Klonoa featured no hat, smaller ears, and pretty much looked like he belonged in a Sonic game. Here's a link to the infamous comparison, with the original Klonoa on the left, and the re-design idea on the right: [link]

Thankfully, either fans or actual newcomers to the series (or a combination of both) hated the re-design idea, so it was scrapped, and thus, we fans thought we were getting the Klonoa we all loved.

Cut to this afternoon, when I stumbled upon some gameplay videos of the American build of the remake on IGN. Everything looked beautiful, from the environments to the animation. And then, Klonoa spoke.

I had to pause the video. I couldn't believe what I had heard. Had they... had they... changed Klonoa's voice?

Well, it turns out, this is just another instance of the Japanese stereotyping us Americans as gung-ho, "Gears-of-War" playing bad-ass motherfuckers. While I don't mind having that image pinned to me, I do mind when my favorite childhood games suffer from it! By now, I'm sure fans and a few of you smart ones have a thought running through your head: "You mean, they kept the voice the same in the Japanese version?" Sad, but true: I watched a video of the Japanese version of the game, and lo, Klonoa's voice was the good old high-pitched one from the games of yesteryear. Here, have a listen for yourself. Here's the Japanese version: [link] and here's the American one: [link]

Now, some of you are going "Well, I don't really see what the big difference is." Meanwhile, the Klonoa fans are probably foaming at the mouth. For those of you who aren't Klonoa fans, the Japanese version has the voice that is featured in EVERY FUCKING GAME since it came out. (That includes some recently-released Game Boy Advance games.) For it to all suddenly change is just depressing.

Imagine, if you will, that they changed some familiar aspects of your favorite games. Imagine if Cole Train was white. Imagine if the Hellghast weren't British. Imagine if they put Hannah Montana in Guitar Hero. Yeah, these seem like small things, but overall, they would make the games seem like completely different games, altogether.

I'm sure some of you are still wondering why I'm bitching about something like this. Even though I'll probably get over my rage and just enjoy the Klonoa remake (and see if there's a Japanese audio option in the American release), it's still a sign that the Japanese think we Americans won't like what they originally gave us. This could be the gateway for future incidents of Japanese games we used to love, Americanized. Honestly, I'd rather that future not happen. What you end up losing there is your fanbase, which might be more important that newcomers to your franchise. Yeah, Klonoa's more of a cult hit in America, but I really don't think changing the character design or his voice is going to net you new players. New players come through word-of-mouth, or impulsive rentals. (Hell, I wouldn't even KNOW about Klonoa had I not randomly picked up Klonoa 2 for PS2 a few years back at my local Hollywood Video. Oh, and WHY did I pick that game rather than another Street Fighter or Final Fantasy? Because it looked different.) And, if you take away what the fans like, they're not going to buy it, NOR are they going to recommend it, because you've trashed their childhood memories. In fact, they'd probably just recommend the original PS1 game, or Klonoa 2, but since those games are rare as fuck, it's not worth it.

If this remake fails here, it could mean 1 of 2 things: either Namco Bandai will see their stupid mistake, and release the game as it should be, or they'll just give up on the Klonoa franchise in America altogether. I certainly hope it isn't the latter, because the Klonoa games are fun, puzzle-ridden platformers with plenty of colorful visuals, and great music. Hell, Klonoa 2 might be my favorite PS2 game.

Thankfully, after looking around, I found that there WILL be an option to toggle between different audio settings (there's even a fucking English setting. Like, instead of the made-up gibberish language for cut-scenes, he's going to be speaking plain English.) I'm not sure if that means that the old voice is still an option, but it gives me some hope.

This is a perfect example of why developers and studios need to listen to their fans: because, in all reality, the customer is always right. So, start listening to us, developers! (I'm looking at YOU, Sonic Team, you sack of shit.)