BARBIE THE LOST EPISODE: Hi there, I'm Barbie! What's up?

I recently found a new Barbie episode, Send in the Clones and- Hi there, I'm Barbie! What's up? Hi there, I'm Barbie! What's up? Hi there, I'm Barbie! What's up? 

Hi there, I'm Barbie! What's up?

Hi there, I'm Barbie! What's up? Hi there, I'm Barbie! What's up? Hi there, I'm Barbie! What's up? Hi there, I'm Barbie! What's up? Hi there, I'm Barbie! What's up?

Hi there, I'm Barbie! What's up?

Hi there, I'm Barbie! What's up? Hi there, I'm Barbie! What's up?

Hi there, I'm Barbie! What's up?

Hi there, I'm Barbie! What's up? Hi there, I'm Barbie! What's up? Hi there, I'm Barbie! What's up? Hi there, I'm Barbie! What's up? Hi there, I'm Barbie! What's up? Hi there, I'm Barbie! What's up? Hi there, I'm Barbie! What's up?

Hi there, I'm Barbie! What's up?

Hi there, I'm Barbie! What's up? Hi there, I'm Barbie! What's up? Hi there, I'm Barbie! What's up?  Hi there, I'm Barbie! What's up? Hi there, I'm Barbie! What's up? Hi there, I'm Barbie! What's up? Hi there, I'm Barbie! What's up? Hi there, I'm Barbie! What's up?

Hi there, I'm Barbie! What's up?

 Hi there, I'm Barbie! What's up? Hi there, I'm Barbie! What's up?

Hi there, I'm Barbie! What's up?

Hi there, I'm Barbie! What's up? Hi there, I'm Barbie! What's up? Hi there, I'm Barbie! What's up?  Hi there, I'm Barbie! What's up? Hi there, I'm Barbie! What's up? Hi there, I'm Barbie! What's up?

Hi there, I'm Barbie! What's up?

 Hi there, I'm Barbie! What's up? Hi there, I'm Barbie! What's up?

Hi there, I'm Barbie! What's up?

 Hi there, I'm Barbie! What's up?

Hi there, I'm Barbie! What's up?

Hi there, I'm Barbie! What's up? Hi there, I'm Barbie! What's up? Hi there, I'm Barbie! What's up?  Hi there, I'm Barbie! What's up? Hi there, I'm Barbie! What's up?

Hi there, I'm Barbie! What's up?

 Hi there, I'm Barbie! What's up? Hi there, I'm Barbie! What's up?

Hi there, I'm Barbie! What's up?

 Hi there, I'm Barbie! What's up?

Hi there, I'm Barbie! What's up?

Hi there, I'm Barbie! What's up? Hi there, I'm Barbie! What's up? Hi there, I'm Barbie! What's up? 

Hi there, I'm Barbie! What's up?

Hi there, I'm Barbie! What's up? Hi there, I'm Barbie! What's up? Hi there, I'm Barbie! What's up?  Hi there, I'm Barbie! What's up? 

Hi there, I'm Barbie! What's up? Hi there, I'm Barbie! What's up? Hi there, I'm Barbie! What's up?  Hi there, I'm Barbie! What's up? Hi there, I'm Barbie! What's up? Hi there, I'm Barbie! What's up? Hi there, I'm Barbie! What's up? Hi there, I'm Barbie! What's up? Hi there, I'm Barbie! What's up?  Hi there, I'm Barbie! What's up? Hi there, I'm Barbie! What's up? Hi there, I'm Barbie! What's up? Hi there, I'm Barbie! What's up? Hi there, I'm Barbie! What's up? Hi there, I'm Barbie! What's up?  Hi there, I'm Barbie! What's up? Hi there, I'm Barbie! What's up? Hi there, I'm Barbie! What's up? Hi there, I'm Barbie! What's up? Hi there, I'm Barbie! What's up? Hi there, I'm Barbie! What's up?  Hi there, I'm Barbie! What's up? Hi there, I'm Barbie! What's up? Hi there, I'm Barbie! What's up?  Hi there, I'm Barbie! What's up? Hi there, I'm Barbie! What's up? Hi there, I'm Barbie! What's up? Hi there, I'm Barbie! What's up? Hi there, I'm Barbie! What's up? Hi there, I'm Barbie! What's up?  Hi there, I'm Barbie! What's up? Hi there, I'm Barbie! What's up? Hi there, I'm Barbie! What's up? Hi there, I'm Barbie! What's up? Hi there, I'm Barbie! What's up? Hi there, I'm Barbie! What's up?  Hi there, I'm Barbie! What's up? Hi there, I'm Barbie! What's up? Hi there, I'm Barbie! What's up? Hi there, I'm Barbie! What's up? Hi there, I'm Barbie! What's up? Hi there, I'm Barbie! What's up?  Hi there, I'm Barbie! What's up? Hi there, I'm Barbie! What's up? Hi there, I'm Barbie! What's up? Hi there, I'm Barbie! What's up? Hi there, I'm Barbie! What's up? Hi there, I'm Barbie! What's up?  Hi there, I'm Barbie! What's up? Hi there, I'm Barbie! What's up? Hi there, I'm Barbie! What's up? Hi there, I'm Barbie! What's up? Hi there, I'm Barbie! What's up? Hi there, I'm Barbie! What's up?  Hi there, I'm Barbie! What's up? Hi there, I'm Barbie! What's up? Hi there, I'm Barbie! What's up? Hi there, I'm Barbie! What's up? Hi there, I'm Barbie! What's up? Hi there, I'm Barbie! What's up?  Hi there, I'm Barbie! What's up? Hi there, I'm Barbie! What's up? Hi there, I'm Barbie! What's up? Hi there, I'm Barbie! What's up? Hi there, I'm Barbie! What's up? Hi there, I'm Barbie! What's up?  Hi there, I'm Barbie! What's up? Hi there, I'm Barbie! What's up? Hi there, I'm Barbie! What's up? Hi there, I'm Barbie! What's up? Hi there, I'm Barbie! What's up? Hi there, I'm Barbie! What's up?  Hi there, I'm Barbie! What's up? Hi there, I'm Barbie! What's up? Hi there, I'm Barbie! What's up? 

Mr. Triangle's Adventure Retrospective

It has been over a week since I last wrote a blog about Mr. Triangle, which you can read here: http://maniafig.blogspot.nl/2015/08/mr-triangles-amazing-adventure.html

35 hours! That's a lot.

I've beaten the game since and though my initial impression was already positive, the game still exceeded my expectations in several areas! In many ways this only makes sense, Mr. Triangle's Adventure is a game that was made over the span of four years, and a person can develop many skills and grow a lot as a person in such a span of time. While Mr. Triangle's Adventure begins as what looks like a juvenile game about beating up evil vegetables, by the end there's a much more serious plot that actually justifies and explains a lot of the elements that seem goofy on the surface.

Just a little bit goofy.

The game starts off in a pretty typical way, with the hero being assaulted by mooks from Team Onion and receiving a letter from a mysterious man, Mastermind, claiming he seeks to take control of the world for whatever purpose. What follows is the first act of the game in which the main goal is putting a stop to Team Onion schemes and stopping Mastermind while braving dungeons and crashing castles. In many ways it's the first act of a roughly three-act plot.

Why, that devious Mastermind!

It becomes much clearer though that there is a lot more going on behind the scenes and that a lot of the strange elements of the game that you might take for granted have reasons for existing, and those reasons are not always as whimsical as the nature of sentient and amicable vegetables would suggest. This is where the game goes into its second act and your goals become a lot more defined and tangible, going across the land amassing both the power and allies you need to stop the menace that plagues the planet.

Could it be... Louis the Goose?! 

Of course every game must have a final act, and boy does this game deliver! The final part of the game is where the expectations are the highest, yet I was still blown away by the things that transpired once the second act was over. I obviously do not want to spoil or even hint as to what happens, but suffice to say it's suitably epic! Much more than you'd think a game about a shape fighting vegetables would be, for certain.

We've come quite far from fighting evil turnips and wheat.

While all of these events happen, the game does take the time during certain scenes to develop its characters as well, both having arcs for each character dealing with their past and their future, but also just having some scenes of the party talking with each other trying to figure out what is happening or just about how that Green Gorilla guy would be the perfect match for Jojo the Gorilla. Some of these scenes can be quite extended and come with unique sprites as well. And of course the game maintains a sense of lighthearted humour throughout all of this!

Gorillas dating at a rock concert? Sign me right up!

Just as the game seemed to get better as it went along plotwise, so it did artwise. Although the first few areas are not exactly much to look at, the first dungeon in the game is simply a large corn maze with few landmarks, the further you get into the game the more diverse and well-designed the towns and dungeons become. The first town you find might just be a plain, pleasant little grassy town inhabited by fungi who live in giant toadstools, later on there's a magnificent city in the sky, a lost city in the depths of the ocean and a city straight out of the future to explore at your leisure. The dungeons get similarly more interesting, going from wheat fields and caves to cyberspace, bizarre realms and whatever the final area is supposed to be.

In cyberspace nobody can hear you scream... with JOY!

Even the music only gets better as the game keeps going. The first volume of the OST is already solid, but the second volume is definitely my favourite! The game really expands its scope in many ways as it keeps going on, and the music does a great job of keeping up, strongly adding to the scenes. I urge people to play the game with the music on since it's definitely tailor-made for this game.

They're not kidding.

The one part of the game that feels like it's on a solidly even level all throughout the game is its core gameplay. I already went over it in my past blog, but as you keep playing the game keeps throwing interesting new enemies and bosses at you, as well as a ton of optional content and sidequests to do! This is definitely a game you'd want to 100% as the sidequests give some truly great items for their completion, some of which are in fact so good that they make the final stretch of the game seem like one of the easier parts, which considering the difficulty of some of these sidequests is a suitable reward. That said, it does feel like the player gets access to a variety of equipment that raises HP after a certain point which makes the survivability of the game in general less of an issue which was a shame.

Good luck taking down Mr. Triangle, Mastermind. You'll need it.

The game is not just purely about fighting and stats, though! There are two full-fledged minigames to partake in, both wildly different. The first minigame has Mr. Triangle assume the role of Noodle Chef and tailor dishes to the wishes of customers, as soon as he can figure out how to make the dishes, that is! There's up to 50 recipes and a variety of customers with wildly varying tastes, meaning you'll either need a lot of knowledge on noodles or keep a sizable Excel file of recipes and a notepad to analyze just what customers want. It's all worth it if you can get that perfect score and learn that final recipe though...

Gimme my Golden Spatula!

On the other side of the spectrum there is a musical minigame! Throughout your quest you not only put a halt to Mastermind's evil forces, you can also retrieve the instruments stolen by several obsessive Mr. Triangle fanatics and their curious monstrosities. Once you finally get all of them, not only does Mr. Triangle get to swing his guitar in battle, he can also record and perform his own music with his band in Rock 'n Roll city! With Gary on the bass, Marvin on the keyboard and Jojo manning the drums, you can put together your own music using over 150 soundbites! I'm as far from a virtuoso as one can be, but I still had fun putting this little thing together in about an hour: http://vocaroo.com/i/s1UYCYTDZPku (music starts at around 20 seconds)

Of course you also get to see your band perform your song!

All-in-all Mr. Triangle's Adventure was a really enjoyable experience and it certainly was worth checking out and spending those 35 hours on! It is really a shame that I've not seen more exposure of this game, since it's legitimately and sincerely good, but people only really judge the game to be some silly game and never bother checking it out beyond one hour... There's just so much heart and spirit to this game, and I love the way how it's just so stuffed with content and how it doesn't just take the lazy route where it would have been so easy to. There's a ton of unique sprites for all the townsfolk, there's interesting minigames, there's even a dungeon with a whole separate artstyle and retro music! The game could have omitted most of these features and it'd still be a complete game, but then it'd not be the Mr. Triangle's Adventure I grew to love! I would honestly recommend this game to anyone who is into RPGs like Final Fantasy or just anyone looking for a fun game in general, it's definitely an accessible game and I really hope people will see it for that rather than judge it for daring to be goofy!

The game can be found here for PC http://www.slimesalad.com/forum/viewgame.php?p=110453 and here for Mobile http://redtrianglegames.com/trianglerpg.html

Barbie Life in the Dreamhouse: A review by Mania Fig

It is time for Barbie. It is time for a review. A Barbie review by me. I am really very excited.

This here is today's episode.

 I really liked the intro. It was the usual intro. I like the usual things.

Skipper has a retractable tent

Skipper is visiting a signing. Autographs will be signed there. Not Bieber will sign them. So she has a tent. She will sleep in it. Then she can be first.

Monologue towards my outwards appendage

Skipper does not want Barbie. Barbie would cramp her style. Style must not be cramped.

The Barbie sisters experience joy

Barbie and sisters still insist. Sticking together and having fun. This is what they promise. Skipper remains unswayed by them.

Chelsea really likes Speed Metal

Chelsea really likes Speed Metal.

Allegra is this girl's name

Allegra looks quite like Skipper. That is an odd fact. Together they visit the signing. Then time passes until daybreak.

The sun shines upon them

You can see a magazine. Not Bieber is the topic. I do not like Bieber. I do like Not Bieber.

Barbie came here by car

Barbie's van cramps Skipper's style. Barbie and sisters are inside. It looks like the mansion.

A bear on the toilet

Bears poop in the woods? They do not do that. They use Barbie's luxury van.

Allegra questions the uncanny resemblance

Allegra is suspicious of Skipper. "What might Skipper be hiding?" That is what she thinks.  Skipper reluctantly reveals the truth.

The fans around the van

Everyone is a Barbie fan. Barbie's fandom eclipses Not Bieber's. Skipper does not like this.

Not Bieber blinks in fog

Not Bieber arrives within fog. He summoned the fog somehow. This is really very odd. Nobody cares about Not Bieber. I am sorry I lied. Skipper does care a lot.

Not Bieber has swiggity swag

Not Bieber craves fan attention. He becomes really very desperate. He uses a foul tactic. The swag has been unleashed. Nobody cares about Not Bieber. I am sorry I lied. Skipper does care a lot.

Not Bieber cannot sing well

Not Bieber sings a song. Nobody cares about Not Bieber. I am sorry I lied. Skipper does care a lot.

Not Bieber has a monkey

Not Bieber reveals his weapon. It is the cute monkey. Nobody cares about Not Bieber. I am sorry I lied. Skipper does care a lot.

But Barbie has a bear

The bear comes back unexpectedly. Barbie fans do love bears. More than they love monkeys. More than even Not Bieber. Barbie is just so amazing.

Skipper tires of Not Bieber

Not Bieber is exposed fully. Skipper saw his bad side. Now he lost his fan. Barbie is the Sidewalk Superstar.

Barbie and Skipper make amends

The Status Quo is restored. I like the Status Quo. I do not like STATQUO. That is from Laser Lords. I hope Corelis is angry.

The bear drives the van

Bears cannot drive vans legally. This is against the law. Chelsea shares the front row. She chooses the radio channel. She chooses Speed Metal radio. The episode ends here.


I really liked this episode. It was lots of fun. I laughed so very much. Not Bieber was a satire. I do not like Bieber. Thus I like Not Bieber. I want more Barbie episodes. Do you want more blogs? I bet you really do. I very much hope so.

Mr. Triangle's Amazing Adventure

Do you ever see a game that makes you balk in amusement, the sort of game that just looks like it's So Bad it's Good at best but probably just so Bad it's Bad? But then you look at it more and more, and you realize that even though it's obviously not some Quadruple-A+ production, it's still lovingly crafted by a person who put in tons of honest effort and the points that look bad actually wind up working in its favour?

Yeah, this is that sort of game.

By all means a game about a living triangle, a gorilla with a bow on her head, a magical swamp crocodile and an onion wearing a manatee costume wearing a battle suit fighting against an oppressive invader whose army is made of vegetables should be a game that doesn't take itself seriously and is probably just some 10-year old's first step into the world of game-making. 

I'm not kidding.

But then what if that person actually has actual talent and honestly believes in this concept? What if it's not the millionth game that's trying to be all wacky and weird and self-aware, but actually plays it plot seriously, while still having the usual goofiness you'd expect from pretty much any RPG that's not completely pretentious? Then you get something like this, and I love it, but it feels like few others do because honestly why would anyone think this is good at a glance? And that's awful! 

We should all try to be as enthusiastic as Stuart. 

So what makes this game actually good? What makes it enjoyable aside from some kind of novelty factor? Honestly, the game just seems very solid to me. As far as RPGs go, this one actually just seems like it has a lot of design sensibilities that just resonate with me. Your player characters all start with an easily defined role, for example.

Our heroes, everyone!

As you can see, every character has a very small skillpool. In most RPGs you amass a ton of skills, but you end up not using a lot of them. But in this game pretty much every skill is useful. And the reason for that is because the game is designed around these characters! Bosses all have complex and unique patterns which you must adapt to, and often the bosses in turn react to what moves you choose. This means that every character has their place, they all feel useful and they all serve a role, but it's not like you can just spam the same action over thoughtlessly to win, you can't just have your healer spam party-wide heals like most RPGs because you only get to heal one person at a time, so you need to think who needs healing more, or whether you want to raise Mr Triangle's or maybe Marvin's attack instead?

Louis, the wannabe tutorial guy.

Even the first boss battle against an Evil Farmer and his Manic Wheat Monster is rather complex, and it only gets more complex as you keep playing. You can't hurt either foe, but like the duck here says, you need to steal from the Farmer in order to get the item needed to turn the Wheat Monster vulnerable. As soon as you get that item, though, the Farmer Poisons you in return and when you use the item he flees as the Wheat Monster goes insane. 

Mr/ Triangle and Jojo are in a tight spot now!

Then you need to choose quickly between healing Poison or between healing HP, and you can't win by just spamming healing and attacking because then you get overwhelmed! The boss uses both regular attacks and inflicts more of the nasty poison, so each turn you need to consider whether Jojo heals HP or status, and whether Mr. Triangle should use an item. Yes. use an item. This game is one of the rare RPGs that actually encourages you to use items liberally! 

Banana Peel Smoothies? Banana Peel Rehab??

Every time you heal, you actually get an item called Banana Peel, which can be used to create more healing items! There's the basic 30 HP Potion, "Smoothie" in this game, the item that heals your party out of combat which is called "Party Drinks", but interestingly enough, one of the items you can make is a Phoenix Down-like item that heals 50 HP and cures being KOed and is called "Rehab" for some reason?? Because the game is so merciful in giving you items and ways to keep yourself alive while facing opponents, it also means they can get away with upping the stakes in combat and making enemies powerful enough that you'll actually want and even need to use many of those items! It adds a whole new layer of depth to the game where most games are content to have items be those things you save only to never really use because you can just have your Healer fully heal everyone in one action on auto-pilot.

What an odd cast of characters.

Of course, and RPG is not just fights, fights and more fights! An RPG needs to have a plot! And despite what the game may sound and look like, Mr. Triangle's plot actually seems like it's your traditional JRPG plot, except the dunce hero is a no-nonsense Triangle, the annoyingly Perky/Shy White Mage is a Gorilla with a speech impediment, the mysterious Black Mage is a cool and collected Swamp Crocodile and of course the final character is the one who has ties with the villain and has to choose between the sides of Good and Evil. I honestly like that there's no humans in the main party for once, or how they are uncommon in general, really. 

Man this battle was awesome. The bosses are really memorable.

Meanwhile the distinctly humanoid Mastermind, an alien from another planet, wishes to harvest the planet's vegetables since he can literally grow them into an army, as well as find out what part of the 'red substance' (blood) makes non-vegetables so resistant. Meanwhile, there's a mysterious duo of a masked hero and a slime with a huge nose who'll assist our heroes and try to stop the evil Mastermind's plans from awakening what seems like an even larger evil...

Gordon the Gargoyle, Gary's peer and nemesis.

Obviously there's more going on here than it first seems, and the game has plenty of villains and allies acting independently from the main plot, just like you'd expect any RPG to, really. There's also a healthy dose of little sidequests which vary from bounty-hunting to exploring a Mr. Triangle Superfan's basement to find out his obsession is more disturbing than it first seems. I'd hardly call the plot ground-breaking, but it's not just an incoherent mess either, as much as you'd think a game like this would have such an incoherent plot. I do actually find myself oddly drawn into this plot of shapes and vegetables.

Lovely clay models and lovely music?!

Did I mention the game's soundtrack yet? No? Well I should have! The game has an extensive soundtrack, 62 tracks! The music is really top-notch, and there's a lot of variety in the music, just as the areas you visit are so varied and unique. Honestly, music should speak for itself, so I'll link to some tracks I'm personally very fond of, though I like pretty much the whole OST.

https://sodapiggy.bandcamp.com/track/back-for-seconds - Suitably epic Boss Battle.

https://sodapiggy.bandcamp.com/track/overworld - Wondrous and Adventuresome, the Overworld

http://sodapiggy.bandcamp.com/track/future-city-off Technologic Despair, Future City 

https://sodapiggy.bandcamp.com/track/from-another-world Otherworldly Spacecraft

https://sodapiggy.bandcamp.com/track/squash-city Pleasant and Sunny, Squash City

https://sodapiggy.bandcamp.com/track/produce-promenade Vegetable Villas, Produce Promenades

I really love the music. Kudos to Soda Piggy, who made the OST and whose name fits this game all too well.

"But Mania, these graphics are terrible!"

I think by far the biggest hurdle to the game is how crude it looks and... Well, yeah. I can't honestly argue with that, just as I can't argue that the clay models in Laser Lords do not look incredibly goofy or that Deadly Premonition's graphics and animations are not up to par for the console it's on. For me, though, the game's art style adds some sort of campy and almost child-like charm to the game. I suppose you could say it's So Bad It's Good but I don't even want to quality it as Bad, it's not a style that is unappealing to me, and a game can look oh so Good and still have an art style that puts me way off. I'd rather take something like Mr. Triangle's art since at least this manages to be memorable and stand out. Once you start to like a game, it seems like things like the art not being Good stop mattering as you become attached to it in a way that is so much more subjective than objective. Aside from that, the actual ideas and content being portrayed are generally just so bizarre and weird, I just love it! It's certainly more than I could every do with evil vegetables and animate triangles.

Honestly, I think in the end the biggest reason why I like this game so much is just the whole way the game feels. There's an inexplicable charm to a bizarre game made in some ancient engine that uses a marketing campaign that uses clay models of the protagonists. It's a sort of game that is mostly someone's personal pet project, and it just shines through for me. It just feels like there's so much heart to the game, and just finding out that something this ridiculous exists and is actually legitimately enjoyable just gives me a sort of happy tingly feeling. You just can't explain feelings like that, it's the sort of feeling that drew me to games like Laser Lords and Deadly Premonition too, and what made me interested in Goblin Quest.

The sort of feeling that just makes you want to write a blog like this, you know?

The game can be found here for PC http://www.slimesalad.com/forum/viewgame.php?p=110453 and here for Mobile http://redtrianglegames.com/trianglerpg.html