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The End of an Era (Super Best Friends Play)

Have you ever thought about something that may happen, but never thought or worried too much about it because you knew it wouldn’t happen yet, but find out a few days or so later that the thing you thought wouldn’t happen actually happened? It wasn’t the exact reason why it happened, but the outcome was the same. Well, when I woke up this morning to get ready to do laundry, this happened...

So for those who haven’t heard by now, or don’t care depending on what side fo the spectrum of YouTube content you’re on, Matt Kowalewski, Patrick Boivin and Woolie Madden, Youtubers of the channel “Super Best Friends Play”, is disbanding the channel. The reason being, mentioned by Woolie, is the fact that “Matt and Pat are no longer friends”. He didn’t go into detail, but he said it was getting “less and less fun” to make content.

They posted a video this morning, each at their own home, explaining what will be the fate of the channel as well as what are each individual’s plans for the future, which is continuing on their separate channels and leaving the main channel as an archive of their videos. The video itself is sad to hear, but watching it tells another story.

As Woolie has mentioned, it would seem that the business side of things has eroded the friendship Matt and Pat had. This is a common thing with some YouTubers, or pretty much any partnership that’s based on a friendship in general. Once business gets in the way, there are bound to be disagreements among those involved and tend to make things difficult once relationships are in the mix (look at how “The Creatures” ended).

You can tell it has taken a toll on both Woolie and Matt, however, Pat doesn’t seemed too affected.

Woolie, who first shows up in the video, looks tired and frustrated. It seems that he has been in the middle of whatever has been happening for a while and if anything, he looks more upset than both Matt and Pat. Mind you, Super Best Friends started with just Matt and Pat, with Woolie coming in later and becoming the host of their “Super Best Friendcast” podcast. Woolie is a mutual friend between the two. Another part of the team was Liam Allen-Miller, who left two years ago.

The next person to show up is Matt, who was pretty much the boss of the entire channel, the leader of the “Best Friends Zaibatsu”, as he called it. As he tries to give thanks and explain the future of the channel, you can tell he’s swelling up in his voice and trying hard to hold back tears and to keep his voice from breaking.

Last to show is Patrick. Unlike the other two, Pat seems more calm about what has happened. I wouldn’t say it’s safe to assume he’s relieved that the break up has happened, but more the fact that things will be much easier for him. However, this is at the cost of his friendship with Matt.

As a former YouTuber and a fan of these guys since their beginnings on Machinima, it sucks seeing a channel you like being suddenly ended. What really sucks is this is one of the few channels that I can relate to the creators and actually enjoy.

I just turned 30 a few months ago and my taste in YouTube content has changed. Yes, I know there are YouTubers in or over my age range that produce video game content, but Super Best Friends Play became something I can relate to. I wasn’t a big fan of gaming YouTubers who would just yell or scream, always playing the same game over and over, and who’s humor was nothing more than dick jokes and toilet humor (looking at you, Game Grumps!). SBFP was just a bunch of guys playing video games, joking around and making fun of how each other played the game, mixed with random stories from their pasts and experiences, giving some tip or trivia of the game and its developers, producers and testers, and even giving some insight on the gaming industry itself as well as comedy that, granted not the best, was beyond better than what other gaming YouTubers would do, which is just being loud and jokes only 12 year olds would laugh hard at.

And it’s not even just these three that made the brand better, not even just the fans. These guys created bridges to other content creators through art, music, culture, entertainment and gaming, all through the years.

As a brand, Super Best Friends Play brought that mixture of different fandoms, gaming, music, anime, movies, comics, wrestling, tv, etc., and brought them all together. There have been collaborations with other content creators, those who do their channel and video intro arts and animations, those who visit them in Canada and join them on their podcast shows, people who hosted their streams and have had their streams hosted by them and then there are those who they are fans of and would visit their YouTube channels, or better yet meet them at their shows or events. Some even were just fans of the channel and vice versa. It was great to see a channel that wasn’t just about video games, but about connecting with fans, being fans of the things they liked and connecting that bridge to show people what other things they may like. The Super Best Friends were like literal Super Friends who had the power to connect so many people and brings so many different types of people together, regardless of differences.

And there have been so many moments from these guys, I can’t think of all of them. Thankfully, there are fans who make compilations of their Lets Plays and streams and compile it all together to give us all the funny and crazy experiences these guys provide us almost daily. But there are a few that stand out in my mind when I think of these guys.

There has been a running gag about how Matt “enjoys” the Japanese adult actress Hitomi Tanaka, or “Hitomi J-Cup” as he commonly refers her as. Now, you’d think someone like her wouldn’t even give Matt the time of day, just thinking of him as another pervy fan. But no! Recently, she bought a Nintendo Switch and has started streaming and even asked Matt to a game of Mario Kart 8 Deluxe. To me, it was a win for Matt as he finally got to do something with Hitomi Tanaka and I was actually proud of him to feature her in a video with him.

Another running gag is how wrong Pat is. During any time he’s explaining a game or saying that something will or won’t happen in the game, the opposite would happen. This leads to him being frustrated, however, there are times his “Crazy Talk” would help him.

Another moment that’s infamous is Woolie’s decision on whether getting his copy of Marvel vs Capcom 3 or have a threesome with two girls he met while waiting for his copy. I’ll let you all guess which one he picked.

The Super Best Friends has brought us viewers a mixture of pop culture references, insane moments, hilarious nerd arguments and overall hype that I feel only this channel could bring. I never thought that watching a bunch of guys playing video games on Youtube would bring so much fun and joy, knowing that there are people out there who enjoy some of the same things I grew up with and can still talk about it years later, then bring other people together and laugh and joke with while enjoying other culture and experiences. Its sad it has all come to and end, but here’s to hoping that whatever fall out the two main staples of the channel had will eventually be destroyed and the Zaibatsu can come back stronger than ever!

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Sonic Mania Plus: The Encore We Deserve???

So I’ve played Sonic Mania on Xbox One shortly after it came out back in Fall of 2017. It was a fun, nostalgic revisit to the 16-bit era of Sonic and his friends. Not only was there re-imagined versions of past levels, but new levels as well. The game made by Sega as well as models Chris Whitehead and HeadCannon as well as others who pretty much shown Sega how to make a good 2D Sonic game. Needless to say, anyone who is or was a Sonic the Hedgehog fan enjoyed the game.

The Plus version of the game includes two new characters, Mighty the Armadillo and Ray the Flying Squirrel. Anyone who are fan of old school obscure Sonic games, Mighty and Ray are from the Japanese-only Sega arcade game, SegaSonic the Hedgehog. Both Mighty and Ray have their own abilities. Mighty is immune to projectiles and spikes (only when jumping and only once per jump, of course) and has the ability to smash into the ground, shaking it. This causes enemies who are in trees to fall as well as the player to smash through certain floors. Ray flies in the air just like Mario would with his cape in Super Mario World, with even the ability to gain altitude if timed correctly.So imagine my excitement when I was told that an Encore mode was being added as DLC for the game. Ok, actually I wasn’t really excited. In fact, I was kinda on the fence about wanting to buy the DLC for the game, especially my feeling about DLCs already. Thankfully, it was announced that those who already owned the game will only need to pay $5 for Plus and those who didn’t owned the game could get a physical copy of the game (which, I kinda wish I knew they would make a physical version of the game, the Genesis reverse sleeve for the box is dope). In the end, I’m happy for the $5 dollar upgrade, which is which I feel should be the price for ALL DLCs for future games. I feel like paying full price for a DLC where I already pay $60+ for a “full game” is bullshit.

There’s also a new mode called Encore Mode. In it, the game plays the same, with some big differences. One is the level design for each Zone. Some backgrounds will have different times of day than their original (Green Hill Zone will take place at sunset, Chemical Plant Zone at night, etc.). As well as background differences, the level layouts are rearranged from their Mania counterparts, as well as the enemy layouts. This makes the game a little harder as well, but the objective is still the same, make it to the end of the level, defeat the boss at the end, then continue. There’s no brand new levels or zones, with the exception of Angel Island, but its just an intro stage with only one Act. The others are just re-imagining of the current levels, but they’re more challenging, so if you need a reason to re-collect the Chaos Emeralds, this is it.

Instead of just playing as Sonic in Encore Mode, you also play as Tails, Knuckles, Mighty and Ray. However, you do not have extra lives.  As you play through the levels, you gain the other characters through either bonus stages or inside the items boxes throughout the Zones. You start with Sonic, then have a choice to pick either Mighty or Ray as your partner, then you start collecting the other characters as you play, but you can only play with two on the screen at a time (like you would with Sonic as Tail follows you). Once the one you are controlling dies, you immediately take control of the one that has been following you up to that point. You do have the ability to switch between the on screen characters you have available with you, but only between the two on screen. The team is your extra lives, so you have up to 5 chances to beat the zone you are in. There are checkpoints, but I’m not too sure how the checkpoints work as you immediately take control of the second character on your team, but if you lose everyone, its game over. I’m guessing its for when you get smashed or just simply for the bonus stages.

Any additional character you collect after the two, they are in reserve and can not come out unless one of your on screen characters die or you hit an item box that forces you to switch through one or both of them. So if you have Sonic and Mighty on your screen, you can only switch between those two, even if you have Knuckles, Tails or Ray in reserve, but if you hit the new Switch item box, you will either switch Sonic with someone, or I believe both Sonic and Mighty with two other characters. I believe it depends on how many people you have on your team, but because I don’t like to randomly switch my characters around, I try to avoid the Switch item box, so I’m not too sure on how the Switch box exactly works.  This is annoying as if you are in a spot in the zone where you need rings or a barrier and you see the box, you want to hope its the item you need. However, if you are in a spot where you need a certain character, let’s say Knuckles to climb a wall and you hit the box and all of a sudden you are switched to Sonic, your entire strategy is now changed. 

In addition to the Switch item box, there are two other boxes that randomized items or a character to add on your team, depending on who’s not already on your team. This one is often found hidden throughout the levels, with the images of the character or item shown on the screen, however, the item changes every half second (if its a character, it’ll switch between the characters currently not in your party).

The question mark boxes are annoying, as there might as well not be a question mark in the box if there are boxes that shows whats in it, but changes every half second. It becomes a game a chance instead and could hinders the gameplay if you are trying to collect the Emeralds. However, that’s just my opinion on the new boxes, but like I said, you can just avoid them if you don’t feel like messing with them.

In addition to level design changes, the bonus stages are different as well. Just like the changes to the levels, the bonus stage to collect the Chaos Emeralds is different, however, its the same formula. Collect orbs to go faster and rings to stay in the bonus stage longer, all while avoiding traps and from falling off the stage to chase the UFO that has the Emerald. However, instead of the Collect the Blue Orbs bonus stage, you now have a pinball bonus stage. In this bonus stage, the only thing its for is to stock up on rings as well as building up your team and gaining continues. Its really simple if you’re good at pinball, as there are three stages of the pinball field, starting at level one and raising up to three as you gain points. The points are used to gain continues, which is pretty simple to get, but once you reach the top of the field, you’re sent to a small claw machine where you pick either a team member, rings, a barrier (original, bubble, fire or electric), or to reset the bumpers and rings in the pinball field as well as a bomb that I honestly do not know what exactly happens as I did not pick it, but I would imagine it would probably end the bonus stage. The pinball is really simple, but its the claw machine that is annoying as you can control the claw by pressing the D-Pad left or right to move, but if you press it too early (before the items to pick are moving) the claw moves slower, so you have to double-tap to get it back to the correct speed. Not only that, you have a very small time limit to pick what you want and the claw moves on its own. You can select what you want by pressing down, but if you take too long in the three-ish seconds you have to select an item, the claw will select for you. You’re not guaranteed to get an item as sometimes the claw will pick in between the items, getting you nothing. (Trivia: Eggman’s image in the pinball bonus stage is the same in the SegaSonic Arcade game)

There are other minor additions to the game such as Mirage Saloon’s first stage music is Knuckle’s version, even if you play as Sonic and Stardust Speedway’s boss fight with Metal Sonic is different in the second round as you fight his original Sonic and Knuckles form, but much bigger. As well as instead of going all the way back to the title screen when you quit the game, it’ll send you to the file select instead.

In conclusion, this updated version of Sonic Mania is pretty much what it is, an update. Its a paid update, but I do believe the inclusion of Mighty and Ray to play in both Mania and Encore as well as Encore mode is worth the $5. I was hoping for more than just half a Zone of Angel Island as well as additional levels, some new and some classic ones (Casino Night Zone and Spring Yard Zone, anyone?) I wasn’t able to try the Competition Mode as it seems as its local only and not online (forever alone), but with up to four players, I would imagine it would be fun to have four people to play old school Sonic the Hedgehog with. I recommend getting the game if you’re either a huge Sonic fan or you miss playing old school Sonic games. Even if you already have Sonic Mania, I do recommend upgrading to the Plus version as you will definitely get more out of it now that there’s more. I hope now that we have a group of people who truly knows how a Sonic game should be and Sega backed them with their most trusted IP, I can not wait to see if Whitehead and his crew will continue to provide us with more classic Sonic games to come. 

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LowClassCam Blogs Start

Ok, so I actually forgot I made a blog before. I know I originally made it for my failed YouTube channel. Now that I’m going back to to old fashion of communicating with others online now (Twitter), it seems more fitting to just use Tumblr for my blogs.

So from now on, if there’s anything I want to blog about, which will mostly be about video games, but I will change it up from time to time, I will post it here. If you’re a fan of what I have to say, feel free to follow me on here. I will also post a link to all my blog posts on Twitter, so if you follow me on Twitter, you’ll se my posts on there as well.

Anyway, that’s enough for two blog posts about what I plan to do with this blog....let’s start blogging!