For years now, I've been a devout Firefox user for a number of reasons, it's improved speed, it's superior interface, and importantly it's customisability.

Using Firefox instead of Internet Explorer is a nice fresh feeling and even adds a little excitement to the internet, it's a useful tool and has a lot of features IE will never have because of it's ever expanding library of extensions and themes, I love it.

So, are you a Firefox user? Or maybe you still use IE? Maybe you even use Opera or Safari!

Personally, I use Firefox so much that I even bring a USB pen with me to college with a personalised portable version of Firefox, with all my settings and extensions ready.
My Firefox is set up to easily upload images to imageshack, notify me of new Gmail, enhance tab usage, download videos from youtube, block adverts, tell me the weather and a lot more, GOD I love this all.

If you're not using Firefox I recommend you give it a try, even the bare bones of the program surpasses internet explorer.

The monthly awards for August 2007 have been announced, and I can't believe it, I WON MONTHLY 5TH.

I have to say, THANK YOU for supporting my works, I was never expecting this, to both the clock crew and the fans who support me (and I often lose my temper with in reviews...) I could not have won this without you.

I'm sincerely enthralled you enjoyed my flash animation, and I hope to make more in the same frame by frame style in the future, I already have something planned and I dare say I shall start it soon.

Now what to do about the t-shirt, I already have the Tank shirt, both Clock shirts and the Angry Face shirt...
I dare say, I wonder if I can get that forest green NG tank.

(I'll post a picture of the certificate as soon as I get it.)

How the fuck can someone be so stupid?
Please, someone explain this one to me.
Who the hell gets this sort of idea from watching a sprite movie like this.

Granted, we didn't exactly have a spectacular summer this year in the UK, but I've never enjoyed summer, the blinding sun, the muggy heat, the buzzing insects, the longer daylight, I hate all of it.
Oh why can't I get more of that cold, fresh air and dark nights? I find it so much more comfortable!

It seems that all of a sudden, nice sunny days are coming out instead of rainy days, I LIKED all those rainy days! At least it's getting darker earlier now.

I've always preferred winter because it's easier to protect against the cold than it is to avoid the heat, and if neither can be avoided I'd still choose the cold just so I don't have to put up with being so sweaty.

Well it shouldn't be too much longer anyway, then we can finally get into Autumn, a definite improvement...

I feel like posting that picture of Lucario again, I dunno, I feel like it has a place on my news posts now. (I'm still hoping he gets in Brawl, maybe he'll be announced soon?)

Just recently, I've completed a game known as The Legend of Zelda: Parallel Worlds.

The game is a ROM hack of the popular Zelda 3: A link to the past for the SNES, the hack changes MANY, many aspects of the game, there are new graphics, harder enemies, new effects, new overworld, new music, new dungeons, new story and much more!

The story of the game is that there was a war for the triforce, and a parallel world was created as a result, there's 7 maidens who know clues to climbing the parallel tower where the Triforce resides and they seek to make their homeworld better by using the power, however when they get to the other world they get kidnapped by a king called Draegor who wants the power for himself.
The king Draegor used to be the King's assistant, but killed him and took over the throne, so a resistance is formed to take down Draegor, that's where the game starts off, with you and your friend trying to rescue the last surviving Maiden and to over-throw Draegor.

The story is a bit weird, obviously limited to what it can be about by the fact that it's a rom hack, but it works, what really matters is the gameplay.

The difficulty of this game can be especially cruel even to Zelda experts, you'll need to take advantage of MANY tricks you've learnt from the original game just to survive, and some just to progress!
The first dungeon itself requires you to go through half of it WITHOUT your sword! This wouldn't be so much of a problem if it weren't for the fact that you cannot save until you get it!
As if that wasn't enough, the first of the 3 main light-world dungeons has an insane mini-boss, it's the Armos knights! Just look at the screenshot below, you have to take these guys on with no arrows which means they take a long time to kill, you do it with the weakest sword, minimal health and a huge hole in the centre, it's not easy. (As a matter of fact, many dungeons take later bosses, give them a difficult surrounding and make them a mini-boss!)

Thankfully, if you play around a while before going to the first dungeon, you can actually beat this mini-boss quite easily, let me explain.

First off, you need to play around a bit and get some cash, if you look around you can find a mini-game to really rake in the Rupees.
After you get enough, you need to find the Zora scale so you can swim.
Next you need to go and find some mysterious arrows somewhere and memorise them.
Then you have to go an endless beach and make use of these directions to find an ancient pyramid.
After looking around a bit, you find a fairy fountain, you use your rupees to get 99 bombs and 99 arrows, you'll need them.
Next you goto the Misty forest and get a bottle, then you travel deep in there and through the lost woods, you have to figure out a combination that isn't anywhere in the game!
You then find a secret meadow, you get another bottle here.
After that you goto the village and get a bug catching net.
Next you goto get your bottles filled with fairies.
Then you goto the secret meadow AGAIN and enter a place called the halls of pain.
This is the cruel part, you have to use your bombs to hurt yourself, and propel yourself over holes, ouch.
If you're successful, you find an extremely useful treasure called the cane of Bryna.
Next you have to go look around for the Potion shop and buy 2 green potions.

...THEN, you finally go and fight the Armos Knights mini-boss, you use the cane of bryna to make yourself invulnerable, and run into them whilst the cane does a lot of damage one hit after another, that way you end up hitting 3-4 of them at a time without getting hurt, you use the magic potions to use the cane at least 3 times and if you're lucky you'll beat those bastards.

...Believe me, this long and winded process of fighting this boss like this, really pays off later in the game, the cane of bryna will be a critical item in the game.

Anyhow, the game is EXTREMELY challenging, there's even a second quest for the best players! Good luck beating this beast of a game if you get a chance to play it! (Because I ain't giving you a ROM to patch!)

Gyakuten Saiban 3, otherwise known as Phoenix Wright Ace Attorney, Trials and Tribulations is the long awaited sequel to the popular series for the Nintendo DS, just yesterday the game was released in japan complete with an english option.

Needless to say, I obtained a copy ASAP since I loved the previous two games, and I've been playing it non-stop.

As usual, the game succeeds to complement it's predecessors with the humorous characters, interesting twists and interesting cultural references.
Whilst, like many capcom games (especially when looking at the megaman series), the game recycles much of the music, engine and graphics, but frankly I don't care because the core gameplay is exactly the same, and it was great before.
Really, it does feel like not one bit of the gameplay as changed, but I could care less since the actual plotline so far has failed to dissapoint.

Asides from the whole scenario of murder cases and cross examinations, there has always been odd interesting bits included during investigation, if you are a Phoenix Wright fan, get a copy as soon as you can. :)
If you aren't, try it out! But start from the first game, Ace Attorney, otherwise games 2 and 3 won't make much sense.

Now before I finish off this post, three things.

1: I do plan to make another short FBF movie soon, maybe.
2: I hate Phoenix Wrong, it holds no relevance to Phoenix Wright, it's just lipsyncing downloaded audio.
3: Noooo! 1337aZnPrInceeeeeSz!!

Edit: Hah, I've already completed the game, it was simply superb.

I'm flattered, really, right next to my favourite buttons and all.

THANK YOU JOHNNYUTAAAAAAAAH AND TOMFULLLLLLLLLP

What's up with the duplicate cheese, basketball and baseball clocks anyway? That's weird.

...Anyhow, my clockday submission, SleepEasy is finally available! I hope you enjoy it.

And have yourself a happy Clock Day 07!

Today's blog post is a two for one special offer, first off I've felt like constructing a move set for a character I hope will make it into Super Smash Brothers Brawl, Lucario! Secondly, I'll be explaining a little about my upcoming Clockday movie called SleepEasy.

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LUCARIO MOVESET

As you may know, Lucario is one of the more popular pokémon of the 4th generation, Diamond and Pearl, he was one of the few pokemon to be announced early and even features his own movie, along with telepathy and unique powers, as such I've taken some of these qualities into consideration, and designed a quick moveset for him.
A moveset, simply put is a set of actions and attacks that characters can do in a fighting game.

B - Aura sphere attack, charges like Mewtwo's Shadow ball, can be launched and then directed slightly with the control stick.
(This is Lucario's signature move, it features predominantly in his movie and he learns it at level 37. Mewtwo can also learn it at level 100.)

Forward B - Force Palm, hard to hit enemies with bunch successful hits leave opponents temporarily stunned, use to advantage, grab then, combo them, smash them, etc.
(A simple fighting type move from the game that can cause paralysis.)

Down B - Counter, blocks enemy attack with aura powers and repel it back at them, doubles % damage
(Another simple in game move)

Up B - Quick Attack, just like Pikachu's quick attack (but obviously, not an electric attack as mistakenly done in Melee)
(ANOTHER simple in game move that has already been translated for Smash bros)

Final Smash - Lucario manipulates aura to heighten his senses, which slows down gameplay for everyone except Lucario, doing so allows Lucario to make easy hits until he tires from using aura for the rest of the match.
(Watching the movie, the power of Aura makes Lucario extremely good at dodging enemies and landing attacks, he can see beyond greater distances that with his eyes and sense people quite easily.)

Throw Forward - Strongly jumps forward and throws enemy whilst in mid-air
Throw Backward - Flips over his shoulders and fires two small Aura spheres from his hands
Throw Down - Strongly jumps up, flips and kicks down with legs
Throw Up - Simply throw into air
Grab attack - Slaps foe with back of hand (given the large spike, that would hurt.)
(The throwing attacks take into consideration that Lucario shows extremely skilled jumping techniques in the movie, and according to Riolu's pokédex entry, which is his pre-evolution, they can easily scale mountains.)

So, what do you people think of my moveset for Lucario? I think it could be pretty good, additionally, Lucario is a sweeper in the games, meaning he has high offence and speed, but low defence, this would work in Melee was being able to move and jump fast, and being able to damage pretty easily but additionally be knocked away pretty easily.

And with that, this is why I think Lucario could be an ideal fighter for brawl, in addition to my 10 reasons which I posted in a previous news post of mine.

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SLEEPEASY

Ah, clockday, in celebration of the submission of B and how it started the clock crew.
As I did for clockday 2005 and 2006, I have made another movie for the event this year, this time I've decided to try and take a different angle on the animation.

This time, the movie is unrelated to clockday entirely, this is actually because the project was started several months ago but got put on hold because of personal life, it was never intended for clockday, but now I'm glad it did for a few reasons.

First off, this is one of my longest movies to date ranking in at over 7 and a half minutes! Whilst Tails and his GBA 3 is technically longer if you watch both optional scenes, SleepEasy will be a single uninterrupted playback.

Secondly, the movie takes a whole new style of animation for myself, I've decided to switch between my usual tweened animation style, and go for an attempt at Frame by frame animation, this means that a great deal of the animation is redrawn for each frame! :D
Not the entire movie is in FBF, there are parts that are just tweens, and just FBF, even then the FBF is tweened when appropriate.

Thirdly, I feel this is a great improvement in actual developmental story writing for myself, as opposed to being in the same damn location for the entire movie, which was the case for my clockday 06 movie, the location of the movie continuously changes for numerous reasons.

With that being said, I'm sure you're wondering what on earth this movie is about huh?
Alright then!

The basic premise of the movie is that RupeeClock is just sleeping as per normal like he would do any night, at home in his bed room, but whilst he sleeps, someone intrudes his abode, this mysterious person and his mystery accomplice do something to him as he sleeps, and at this time, we get to see inside Rupee's mind and watch as he dreams, and see what on earth these mystery people are doing.
The movie makes a lot of twists, I'm afraid to post anything about it otherwise I may end up spoiling some of the jokes!

As such, I feel this is one of my best works to date, I put a lot of effort into it and I hope you will enjoy it a great deal when I finally submit it on Clockday, August 15th!

In the mean time, you can view the alpha for this submission here. There's no flash demos, just some screen shots.

By the way, whilst I'm submitting this to NG, I've already uploaded the movie to youtube as well, currently the video is set to private on youtube and will be made public at the very beginning of clockday, the flash version will come sometime later in the day.

Now, i'ma end this post with a picture of Lucario, since I like him so much.

This, is kinda sad really, I just can't get the hell over Lucario already.
I still want Lucario in brawl, the ending of Lucario and the mystery of Mew still gets to me and I'm putting a Lucario on my team on Pokémon diamond.

Seriously, kick ass pokémon, why did he have to die at the end of his own movie?
Well, maybe not actually die, that's debatable.
Regardless, I hope that Nintendo actually consider reviving Lucario somehow in a future pokémon movie, Lucario is just too kick ass. :\

Have you seen this?! It's absolutely amazing!

1: New mode explained in great depth
2: Apparently each character has unique storylines based on their history (right down to Pit finding the queen)
3: Peach confirmed!
4: Nice movie sequences!
5: Downloadable content hinted with "Included in disc" comment!
6: Unique roster of enemies for brawl, including the robots!
7: Fully appreciates single player this time around!
8: Amazing cameo possibilities!
9: Opponents in battle may assist or hinder you?
10: An ACTUAL full fledged update!

This leaves the door open to so many possibilities now, simply astounding.

http://rupeeclock.googlepages.com/Smas hVideo.swf
The video (link if you're having trouble viewing it) is astounding, though short, the graphics are beautifully well done and shows us that characters will often assist you in the adventure mode. :)

SO looking forward to this.