Writing For LadiesGamers!

Hey everyone! Just wanted to write a quick little post to announce something new I’ll be doing in 2019 😉 As you may remember, back in November I posted an article I wrote for my friend Yvonne’s site, LadiesGamers, about my Animal Crossing Memories. I thought it was pretty neat of her to feature me on her site!

Now, Yvonne has reached out to me and asked if I wanted to become a permanent writer for her site! I think this is a great opportunity for me because not only are there a lot of really great people writing for her site, but I’ll be getting a chance to play and review some indie Switch titles, which I think is awesome!

My introduction was posted this morning on her site, yay! Here’s the link to the post so you can see it on her site, but I’m going to repost it here, just for fun. Most of you know who I am and this information about me may be things you already know, but I just wanted to share what I wrote!

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Hey everyone! My name is Brandi- you may have already seen an article on LadiesGamers by me featuring my Animal Crossing Memories. Yvonne recently asked me if I wanted to join the team full-time, so here I am! 🙂

Kirby is my favorite character!

I’ve been a gamer pretty much as far back as I can remember. I was born in 1986, so I’ve seen many generations of consoles come and go- and I’ve enjoyed all of them! Though I am partial to Nintendo games and consoles, I do play and enjoy everything else as well. My husband and I own an Atari 2600, a Nintendo Switch, and a lot of consoles in between! That means we have a ton of games, and a hefty backlog that will probably never be cleared!

I enjoy many different types of games. Some of my favorite series include Animal Crossing, Kirby, and Donkey Kong Country. My favorite game of all time is Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars for the Super Nintendo- which happens to be my favorite system! For me, the SNES brings back so many wonderful childhood memories.

This game never gets old for me!

For my day job, I’m a psychometrist. That’s fancy way of saying I test people! I work mainly with the elderly population testing for indicators of Alzheimer’s/dementia and other memory loss problems; I also test brain injury patients, Parkinson’s disease patients, and depressed patients, among others. It’s a good job, but can be sad sometimes. That’s where video games come in handy! There is nothing like relaxing with a game after a long day at work. When I was a kid, video games used to be my respite from school work, and now they offer respite in my adult life as well!

The Animal Crossing series is so relaxing!

I’m excited to join the team at LadiesGamers. I feel like there’s a nice little community of people here! I have my own blog as well, Walk Away From The Sun, which is where I ramble on about video games I’ve played, gaming goodies I’ve purchased, and pretty much anything else gaming related! On my site, I write under the name DefyTheMajority 😉 Thanks for reading!

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There ya have it! I’m so grateful for this opportunity and it’s very flattering to be asked to join Yvonne’s team! Of course, I will still be posting on my blog, so don’t worry about that. And when I do a game review, I’ll post it here as well!

Anyway, just wanted to share that exciting little tidbit with everyone. The year is almost over (!!) so I hope everyone enjoys their end of the year celebrations!! See ya in 2019! 😉

Cute Kirby Goodies!

Hey everyone! Can you believe 2018 is almost over?! Hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas, or whatever holiday you choose to celebrate 🙂 Mine was busy and fun and I’m sad it’s over! At least I still have a few days left to enjoy before having to get back to the grind. Anyway, on to the post!

Everyone who knows me knows that I can be a sucker for cute things. I can’t help it! And when Kirby is involved… my willpower almost disintegrates (Almost. I’m still a cheapskate after all!). So a couple months ago, I discovered some cute Kirby stuff that I couldn’t pass up!

The first thing I found was something called a Squishme. I found this totally by accident when I was shopping at Target. I don’t know how I even saw it- it was on the bottom shelf of one of the toy aisles that I normally never even look down. Anyway, LOOK AT THIS!

The best part is, this isn’t one of those shitty blind bags where you can only hope you get what you want- the item inside the bag is fully visible. Yes, on the packaging it says there are 8 to collect… but I have some restraint, you know! I settled for picking my favorite pose, where it looks like Kirby is puffed up and flying!

So cute! He is super squishy and smells like strawberries for some reason? Now, I try not to squish him too much because I don’t want to ruin it! He just chills on my desk for right now.

Then, I was browsing on Amazon and I came across these insanely adorable Kirby Terrariums! There were six of them and well, they were a much better value if I bought all six 😉

I did kind of freak out for a minute when I opened the box, though, because they all looked the same! I was really going to kick myself in the ass if I wasn’t paying attention and bought six of the same item.

Luckily, that wasn’t the case! Anyway, each little terrarium has a small scene for you to put together. And these pieces are TINY!

Here is each terrarium all set up:

I am so glad I bought these. They are SO CUTE and unique! I think my favorite one is the one with the snowmen 😉

So there you have it! And since I got a couple Amazon gift cards for Christmas, who knows what kind of fun stuff I’ll find next!

Book Review: Rising of Three by Ashley McCleo!

Rising of Three is the final book in The Starseed Trilogy by Ashley McCleo. I posted my review of it on Goodreads back in September, but I’m re-posting it on my blog so I can give the series some extra exposure!

Here’s the blurb from Rising of Three:

Mysterious claimings, kidnappings, and disasters are occurring the world over. Sara McKay knows that can only mean one thing–the fata, magical beings from the planet Hecate intent on ruling Earth, are growing stronger.

With the help of their pneumas, benevolent fata souls residing inside Sara and her sisters Lily and Evelyn, the McKay witches of Ireland prepare for war.

However, with Sara no longer playing peacekeeper between Lily and Evelyn, strong insecurities stemming from Sara’s past make a reappearance in her life. Once the most powerful triplet, she struggles to master the lifesaving skills the pneumas introduce and fully integrate with the supernatural soldiers flocking to Fern Cottage.

Will Sara’s instability help Noro and King Dimia drive a wedge between the triplets the fata forces can exploit? Or will Sara’s issues be just the thing the Triplet Army needs to win an otherworldly war?

And the beautiful cover:

Here’s what I said in my review on Goodreads:

I received a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. 🙂

The final book in the Starseed Trilogy did not disappoint! In Rising of Three, Lily, Evelyn, Sara and the rest of their family and friends embarked on the final leg of their journey to defeat Noro and save the Earth from the fata. The sisters have come into their own as far as magic is concerned, and they train hard to be ready for the battle. Because they are starseeds (that is, they have a pneuma living inside them from another time and planet), the fate of the world rests on their shoulders. I don’t want to spoil too much, so I won’t say much more about the pneumas. They are very… weird but interesting!

Rising of Three is told from multiple viewpoints, though we get an extra look inside Sara’s mind this time around. I have to say, I actually did not enjoy her segments very much. She was, for the most part, a complete downer and also a martyr. More than once she either put herself in danger or did things at questionable times because she felt like she needed to. I felt more annoyed by her than anything.

Regardless, I love the way the triplets band together and always have each others’ back, especially considering they did not grow up together. This made me happy because they are three completely different people, but they stick together because they are family.

The final battle was pretty long and intense, and there were a couple deaths that really bothered me. The aftermath of the battle is pretty unique, but again, I don’t want to spoil anything. Let’s just say that the way traitors are dealt with is extremely satisfying!

I’m sad that this book marks the end of the Starseed Trilogy. I really enjoyed this series and can’t wait to see what Ashley McLeo comes up with next!

I gave Rising of Three 5/5 stars on Goodreads!

Birthday Goodies (Extremely Belated Post)!

Well, my birthday was way back in July, and I’m just getting around to posting the video game goodies I received… better late than never I suppose! I’m the master of putting shit off, what can I say!

Anyway, I got some neat game-related goodies! First of all, I got some super cute plushies of Toad, Goomba, Parakoopa, and Pikachu!

And while Patrick from SpongeBob Squarepants isn’t explicitly video game related, he fits in with the rest of them! 😉

I also got the Mario amiibo from Super Mario Odyssey. He looks fabulous all dressed up!

And just look at these very cute Pokemon figurines!

Next, I got three games for the Nintendo Switch: Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze, Hyrule Warriors: Definitive Edition, and Mario Tennis Aces!

My extremely talented cousin painted me this amazing picture of one of my favorite Animal Crossing characters, K.K. Slider!

Last but certainly not least, I got an NES Classic Edition as well as a Sega Genesis Flashback Deluxe!

So yeah, I got some pretty cool stuff for my birthday. I’m especially happy to have an NES Classic, since it wasn’t exactly widely available when it first came out. I’m glad I was able to post this entry before Christmas, haha!

End Game Thoughts: The Legendary Starfy!

Game Title: The Legendary Starfy
Platform: Nintendo DS
Hours Played: Approximately 8-10

About the Game

The Legendary Starfy was released in North America in 2009 for the Nintendo DS. Though Starfy (or Stafy, as he’s called in Japan) had been around for a few years, this is actually the first game in the series to be released outside of Japan. After playing this annoying ass game, that’s fine with me!

Anyway, the premise of the game revolves around the absolutely adorable little star named…. um, Starfy. Some damn rabbit falls on top of him while he’s sleeping and says he lost his memory and he needs help to get home. Some dudes keep trying to kidnap the rabbit and as the game goes on, more about who the rabbit actually is will be revealed to you. But by that time, you’ll be trying so hard not to throw your fucking DS up against the wall, you don’t care who the rabbit is, or why he’s such a hot commodity.

What I Liked

Starfy is one of the CUTEST lil characters that I ever did see. His design is simple… I mean, he’s a star lol. I love the fact that even when shit is going down, he is there with a smile on his face. Throughout the game, I found some cute outfits for him, which made me want to hug and squeeze him even more.

Starfy’s friends are pretty cool too… Moe in particular. He’s grumpy but lovable.

Also, the cutscenes in this game were presented like they were panels in a comic book, which I thought was pretty cool!

What I Didn’t Like

This sums up how I felt playing this game…

I DIDN’T LIKE THIS GAME. There. I said it. I wanted to love it. It was cute and colorful and ANNOYING AS FUCK. It started out simple enough, then got difficult in a very annoying way.

I don’t mind when games are difficult. I welcome the challenge in most cases. The Legendary Starfy is not a game that is “difficult”, but it is a game that you will die many times in because of the incredibly cheap deaths. There is a huge difference between a game being difficult in a good way and a game being difficult in a cheap, aggravating way. Starfy falls in the latter category. Some of the levels shouldn’t have been hard, but they were simply because they relied on really cheap mechanics.

There are many examples I could give to explain my aggravation, but one thing that pissed me off time and time again were levels that had long gap jumps in them. They were almost impossible to time right, and it’s like they were totally luck based. Sometimes you’d make it, sometimes you wouldn’t. It was enough to make me want to scream!

Closing Thoughts

This made me laugh way more than it should have!

On the exterior, The Legendary Starfy has many things I love: cute characters, cute graphics, catchy music. The gameplay mechanics literally ruin the game for me, though. I don’t want to play a game that constantly pisses me off! I hate to be so harsh, especially because I’ve seen many positive reviews for this game. Maybe I just suck at playing games! Regardless, by the end of this game I was not having fun at all and I couldn’t wait for it to be over.

PS: Why does WordPress randomly unfollow people sometimes?!? Uggh!!! On more than one occasion, I’ll notice that I’m no longer following someone. I don’t always catch it right away, either. Pain in the ass!