Blogger Archive: koola6 
Hello. I am koola, and . . . I think it's fair to say that I am a fan of the Everhood series, despite some big issues I have with both games.
I hear a lot of people comparing the first Everhood to UNDERTALE, but that makes about as much sense as a comparison to me as does another comparison I've heard: Wii Music and Trombone Champ. I described my thoughts on this comparison at length in my article specifically devoted to Trombone Champ, but Wii Music is what i have since began to call a "strict" rhythm game (in the vein of games like Rhythm Heaven, MUSYNX, Rock Band, or even something like Melatonin, while Trombone Champ is more of a music game in the same vein as something like Geometry Dash, BIT.TRIP FLUX, or games like Taiko no Tatsujin or Fairhythm on easy mode. Everhood is a game in this genre I would consider to be "music games" that are specifically focused on rhythm, while UNDERTALE is more of an RPG (albeit one with bullet-hell battles) than anything.
. . . I got the first Everhood as a gift for a friend back in September 2024. I had seen the store page once or twice and thought, "Hey, this game looks pretty interesting." Also, I had a vague memory of some people saying that it was kind of like UNDERTALE and that it was pretty good. He liked UNDERTALE to an extent, and so I figured he'd enjoy it. I also figured that since, at the time, this friend and I had recently made a Steam Family group together, if he didn't enjoy it, I could go through it.
That friend does cyberschool and attends Civil Air Patrol, but when he's not busy with either, he has a fair amount of free time. As such, because he wasn't busy with a whole lot around September, he was able to knock out the 6-hour game in about three weeks. He and I talk often at our youth group, and so I asked him without spoilers how the game was. He said that he liked it, but that it was harder than other games he had played.
. . .I was not aware at the time how much he was withholding from me based on me asking for him to describe it to me without spoilers. As such, if you want to not be spoiled, please do not continue reading this article.
MAJOR SPOILERS FOR EVERHOOD AND EVERHOOD 2 BELOW
I played Everhood for a bit while he was still going through it, got stuck, abandoned it, and came back to it several months later. This is now a pretty common occurrence for me. When I came back to the game, I started to really enjoy the characters and story. I beat it rather quickly because of that.
. . . I was not ready for everything that Everhood threw at me at the end. I really liked the first half of the game, and if they credits rolled at the point when you get your arm, I'd probably put the game in as something that's close to DELTARUNE or Pizza Tower mentally, in terms of how much I liked the game. However, the fact that you are tasked with killing everyone "to free them from their eternal suffering" even though they just get reincarnated and sent to a different location in Everhood does not make sense to me. I also . . . really did not like having to murder some of my favorite characters. . . .
However, as I previously stated, I did enjoy the characters and the storytelling in the content of the game that doesn't involve, uh, killing everybody. I beat Everhood (well, I didn't really finish it, I just killed Flan and then cried and realized I kind of don't really care about finishing the game anymore so I looked up the endings and lore online) around February 26. Liking the characters and the overall game design, I was excited for a sequel, especially one that wouldn't have the same issues with the ending as the first one did.
. . . What made me think that the second one wouldn't have the same issues as the first? Well, essentially confirmation bias: the fact that many things were improved. The art style, user interface, and overall production value of the game were all leaps and bounds above the first one, and I noticed that many complaints of the original were addressed in this release.
Prerelease, all that I had heard about Everhood 2 (besides what was contained in the trailer) was that the ending was a bit of a letdown. I learned about this from Steam discussions. Now, I had found that from a specific Steam discussion thread that was talking about the ending, noting that "you just killed R" (that was all I remembered) and "that was it?" Foreshadowing. . .
Opening the game, I immediately recognized several grammar mistakes. The game is 10-12 hours long (according to the developers. My Switch says that I have at least 15 hours on the game), and as such, I was concerned that this would be a theme throughout. It . . . was. I'll be the first to admit that I'm not the best at grammar, but I could tell that this game needed a good proofread. From what I hear, this was the same with the first Everhood at launch, so hopefully this aspect of the game will get better with time. Many people online don't seem to talk about the fact that this game is riddled with typos; I think a big reason why is because most of them are so small to the point where your brain will auto-correct them and you will be easily able to understand what's being said.
Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed the music. As I have described in previous articles, most of the time after I complete a game, I will add some of my favorite songs from its soundtrack to my big general playlist (I don't really have any other playlists that I listen to.) Everhood 2's soundtrack takes up over 30 songs of that playlist. (Most other games will get up to only half of that.) It is by far one of my favorite soundtracks to listen to, joining the likes of UNDERTALE and Pizza Tower. I believe this is mostly because of the soundtrack's switch in direction from the composer Chris Nordgren to the composer Cazok. Cazok has much more of a rock style of music, and uh, being a teenager, I like that. That's not to say that Everhood has a lack of good songs (I like "Frogs are Friends", "Space Dub Town - Dub", and "Flower Shop" and love "Suspense"); I just happen to be a bigger fan of Cazok's music style.
Another thing I heavily enjoyed would be the combat. Reviewers of Everhood 2 will commonly say that the updated combat was their favorite part of the game; I don't necessarily agree with that, but I will say it is one of my favorite parts of the game. I really look fdorward to every opportunity for combat, including the random encounters (except for the "defend this person sequences").
Overall, I enjoyed the writing despite the typos. Unfortunately, despite the fact that the ESRB rating does not mention this and despite the fact that it was absent was from the first game, Everhood has a few uses of profanity. Other than that, the writing was fun, and I especially enjoyed the characters of both Riley and Sam. Unfortunately, as many before me have pointed out, the ending leaves much to be desired. You kinda just . . . kill Riley . . . and the game ends, with a fake win screen . . . that transitions into the real credits, and then you get told by Shade how nothing really matters. (Which is also said by the fake Riley in effect with "All is vanity", but I feel like that's more referring to the New Spiritualist idea that life is an illusion and consciousness and all that jazz.)
. . . The general sentiment I see surrounding both games' endings (among those that enjoy them and don't share my critiques) are that they are meant to be art, not consumed as products, but rather to be reflected upon and added to your, uh, brain . . . catalogue? (I don't know how to phrase this.) I don't really agree with this idea. Everhood's ending definitely seemed like the developers were trying to go that route, especially with the multiple times it asks you if you want to stop killing, the fact that you cannot play the game on that save after you kill everyone, and the fact that the doors are encouraging you to go through with it, but I feel like if they were trying to put that philosophy out there, that they should have thought about it more. If the whole idea is "life is suffering", and "immortality is bad", then why would being killed and being reincarnated in a different location with the same problems solve that issue? With Everhood 2, the "games as art" mentality starts to fall apart for me. Given the many typos, the several bugs at launch, and the weird . . . bad ending, it makes me definitely feel like the game was rushed. This is only aided by the fact that the writers create several setups that simply do not have payoffs, and that weekly battles are a thing. The idea that many of the ending's defenders are saying is that "it was mean to to be a statement about how nothing really matters, and fiction is pointless, so why don't we end it in such a way that seems horrible? It's just a game. It's a statement that nothing in fiction really matters. Entertainment sucks." . . . and yet they have weekly battles? This just feels like an excuse for a bad ending to me.
I am not meaning to say that you should not play Everhood or Everhood 2. Like I said, I did enjoy both games, and I quite often go back to Everhood 2 and play a few battles. The games are well-designed, and I'd recommend them to people. Just . . . don't turn to them for escapism, or get too emotionally invested in them, like I did. I recommend them, and as I stated at the beginning, I think it's fair to say that I am a fan of the Everhood series. That's all.
I've been koola, and I've never seen a game have as many random and real characters as Everhood 2.
(Everyone from Genghis Khan to videogamedunkey . . .)
Well, gang, we made it -- 2025. (Again.)
RF Generation is old, make new content for it, site refresh, yadda yadda...
I'll skip the pleasantries. I'm planning on returning to one article per month again, depending on what my time schedule allows. As such, I was wondering and wondering about what my first article for this month would be. Several ideas floated around in my head -- a Nintendo Switch retrospective, an article about ANTONBLAST, another article about Animal Crossing: New Horizons...
What I landed on today, the day before the month's end, was to spend some time talking about one of my favorite little toys to play around with this month: SmileBASIC 4.
So what makes SmileBASIC 4 special? Its story? The captivating gameplay? The music? (Well, I do quite like the music present in the app...)
...SmileBASIC 4 is a programming app for the Nintendo Switch. It is essentially a closed-off simplified BASIC IDE, (with some pre-built limitations that clever souls have found out a workaround for) with the ability to save your projects as a file and upload them to a server full of programs.
In other words, it's programming Super Mario Maker. Back when I was in my young "let's code! I wanna code now! LEMME HAVE AT IT!! AAAAAAA" phase, I quite often checked around certain quarters to try and find any sort of simple coding app. One of these ended up being the Nintendo Switch's eShop. Sure enough, I did find what I was looking for -- two coding apps were present on the eShop: the aforementioned SmileBASIC 4 as well as an app titled FUZE4 Nintendo Switch. (I may get back to FUZE in a later article.) SmileBASIC 4 seemed right up my alley, so I peer-pressured slackur into buying it for me. I tried it out, and I was able to learn some simple commands and have extremely simple projects going on, but after a couple of weeks I abandoned it. I was also interested in the online functionality, but when being hit with the fact that you can only download one program without a Server Ticket (which to me at the time sounded like the Server Tickets were scummy mobile game microtransactions making it into My Nintendo Console), i abandoned it and didn't return to it for several years.
Fast-forward to the Christmas season of 2024. I am in the Christmas spirit, i.e. actively checking the eShop to see what I may buy if I receive a Nintendo eShop gift card (as one does, right? This is normal, right? Right? Right?!) when I decided to look through my list of deleted games. Sure enough, good ol' SmileBASIC shows up there and I decide, "You know what? It's been several years. My own game has gone through several iterations and has received a final released version since then, and I am currently working on a second game. plane I'm going to try and figure out this program."
I went to the coding tutorials section again, viewed one, and decided, "I'll get back to coding later; I want to check out the games, even if I have to download them one at a time." Download them one at a time, I did, for around two weeks. In that time, I was able to pick out several games that I thoroughly enjoy that I shall now list:
Tiny Huge World: Although this may at first sound like that one Super Mario Galaxy level or like a game jam game in which you manipulate object sizes, this is actually a very simple, extremely floaty platformer about a white block. The entire game feels very tech-demo-y, and is very buggy, but is pretty fun. This was also the first time that I saw any sort of 3D in SmileBASIC (it's presented in a 2.5D sort of view), a technique I am very fond of. It has a lot of levels and even a level editor. Go give this one a try using the access code 4PKKE8VHV.
CELESTE Classic: A full port of the original PICO-8 game. I don't think I need to go into more detail about this one to explain how cool it is. Its access code is 45KYV334J.
Finiti - 3D Engine: A simple, efficient 3D basis for making games. Its project file comes with several cool tech demos. You can find it at 4ANXXXX.
RALLY500 PARA4: A simple elimination rally game. The game is split up into several checkpoints wherein you need to have passed enough cars to pass. There are wide turns, and avoiding the cars is fun. I've found it helpful as one of those games that you can just turn your brain off and play. You can find this one at 4N3S33EXY.
MARBLE RUN 3D DEMO: This game reminds me of one I saw in Dreams, named Ball World Adventures. This one has less expansive, yet more creative levels in my opinion. The access code for this one is 4K28XW3KE.
Fairhythm: A very fun, simple rhythm game. This game has the highest production quality overall among all of the SmileBASIC games I've played, the most features, and is one of the most fun ones. I'd highly recommend the app for this game alone. Check it out using its access code4C44EX394.
Neon Driftway: This is the one I was the most impressed with. This is essentially, neon-infused vector graphics Mario Kart, and it plays exactly like it. I'd recommend this one to just about anybody. The whole thing is super polished, and my only issue with it is that there is only one track. Its code is 4TAMVE3QJ.
Overall, I'd very much recommend SmileBASIC 4. It truly shows what creative people can do with even the most simple of items and commands.
(I just got back into this because I ran out of Nintendo Switch Online...)
Link: https://www.rfgeneration....20462.msg290824#msg290824
Hey, so RFGeneration, am I right?
This site has been decrepit for... a while now. I'll not waste my time going into the specifics, like how the copyright banner said "2008" for the longest time, how the latest episode of the Press Playcast will be two years old relatively soon, how there are many relics of the just-starting Web2.0 still found here, and the code that just keeps breaking, especially the images... oh wait. I just wasted my time going into specifics.
Let's not get ourselves down about the whole thing, though. slackur and some helpful tech-minded people have been working at giving the site a nice refresh (some of the aspects of which you can already see, such as HTTPS support, some fixed image code, and the removal of the "2008" in the copyright notice, among plenty of things going on under the hood). In the meantime (and hopefully continuing on into the refresh!) we need to breathe new air into the dust to get it living again. This breath happens to be video game flavored, due to how things work around here.
slackur put me on content creation duty when it comes to the refresh, and while I can certainly help with other things necessary (such as graphic design drafts; I am Gen Z), creating content is where I've found my best skillset for this website. This shows, since it's been a while since one of my articles HASN'T been on the Hot Community Entries list.
What better idea to both have new RFGen content and have something to do all year gaming-wise then stepping back in time to a console with a lot of very fun games known as the Super Nintendo Entertainment System, and trying to beat all of its (North American, officially-licensed) games?
What started as a couple of jokes on the #nes2019 channel in the RFGen Discord has now become a full community challenge that hopefully will have several interested people and a lot of fun to be had.
As previously stated, our goal is to beat all of the officially-licensed North American SNES games on official hardware. A secondary goal is to use the forums as much as possible, because the best way to drum up interest in a site is to use it.
If you don't have official hardware, that's okay! Emulators are fine, as long as you don't use save states or abuse emulator-specific functions.
I really think that this will be a fun event and will help drum up interest in RFGen. Signing up isn't necessary - you only need to be an RFGeneration forum member, and have the ability to play SNES games, and considering that most of us are collectors, we probably have an SNES or two lying around (...or a computer that can emulate it...)
If you want to contribute to the refresh but aren't able to code or anything that Those Tech Wizards can do, then beating them SNES games this year and using the forum while doing it is a great way to contribute. It drums up interest in RFGen, and you're actively doing things for the site on the site, something that hasn't been done in many a year. With this goal, I really think many people would be interested in RFGen, give it a try, enjoy it, become lasting members, and then we can have a bigger community of collectors. Let's get this site out of the grave. Clear out the cobwebs! Refresh the site! having actual content is a great way to contribute. SNES games for the win, baby!
(Maybe I got a bit too excited there...)
...so what are you waiting for? Go out and join us! Play some SNES games! Go conquer the world (of the Super Nintendo Entertainment System...)
...oh, uh, claiming games? Yeah. That's fair. Claiming games starts on the the 12th (1/12/2025 if you're from the US, or 12/1/2025 if you're from a reasonable country that doesn't use a different system of measurement from the rest of the world. I'm an American...)
Let's beat some SNES games, RFGen!
Link: https://www.rfgeneration....20462.msg290824#msg290824
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