June 2016 Update: Liebster Award and Gratitude

Appreciation and Thanks

In place of the usual review this week, I wanted to focus on giving some updates. The first big celebratory update is that my wife and I just celebrated our 2^nd wedding anniversary! Hopefully, that satisfactorily explains why we took a vacation this past week!

The next update is that The Well-Red Mage and Retr0pia75 have nominated me for the Liebster Award! I’ll get to more of that later in my post, but I just wanted to make sure you all knew how incredibly grateful I am for your readership and support! I started this blog during a time when I needed a getaway. As people who know me very well (and probably anyone who reads this) can attest, I am a huge fan of video games, especially Nintendo titles. The one thing I almost love more than video games is talking about them. Writing video game reviews has been a great way for me to compose my thoughts and inform others about the merits and demerits of games that I’ve been playing. Being able to share what a game is about and whether it’s worth looking into fills me with joy, and being able to engage in related discussion with you in the comments has been just as rewarding.

I have dreams related to the games industry, and everyone’s support and encouragement have consistently made me feel like I am making meaningful steps towards achieving my dreams. Even though I just started a few months ago, I have been incredibly blessed to be working with Miketendo64, contributing my content to this excellent site. I have also been so grateful by everyone’s support through your likes, comments, responses, and encouragements. My first review, Mario & Luigi: Paper Jam, was simply something I put up in an effort to jumpstart my entry into games journalism. My latest review of Banjo-Kazooie was met with many likes and comments that made me feel like it was all worth it. My Pokemon Sun and Moon Analysis garnered in the most views I have ever had, and I absolutely loved working on it and talking about the next generation with you all! Because of all of you, I have managed to get over 1000 views, which is beyond my wildest dreams! Please know that I’m not saying any of this to brag, but rather to show how absolutely humbled I am that you would read and discuss video games with me. It means so much to me, and I just have to say a resounding, “Thank you!”

I am happy to announce that I have written my first review for Darkstation.com. It’s for a game called Paranautical Activity for the Wii U, and you can find it here. This step in my life is significant as I’ve always wanted to write professionally and have my reviews be a part of GameRankings and Metacritic. It’s thanks to the support you have shown me during these past few months. Don’t worry though, as I will still be updating this site and Miketendo64 following the same schedule of bringing you high-quality informed reviews on a weekly basis. In fact, with E3 happening just next week, I look forward to writing up previews and analysis of what Nintendo has to offer (which is now more than Zelda U!).

I also wanted to promote my brand new Facebook page, which you can find here and on the left sidebar. Please feel free to like, comment, and share anything on there. You can also follow me @MrPanda2002 on Twitter, which you may have seen on my sidebar. I like to update mostly with news and insights on video games, anime, and nerdy anime/comic conventions. Your help will always be appreciated! I want to continue building my network of supportive writers, gamers, and all-around awesome people like yourselves. Likewise, please let me know how I can support you!

Thank you again, everyone! Thank you to my wonderful wife for supporting me every step of the way. Thank you to Miketendo64 for taking a new writer like myself in. Thank you to Darkstation for believing in my skills. Please make sure you check out both of these sites for high-quality gaming news, features, and reviews! Finally, thank you all who have ever liked and commented on my posts and to those of you without WordPress accounts who have supported me with encouragement and affirmation!

Thank you from Mr. Pancham and me!

Liebster Award

This brings me to the second half of my post. It means a lot to me that The Well-Red Mage and Retr0pia75 would even consider nominating me for the Liebster Award, and I wanted to give a shoutout to both of them. The Well-Red Mage (and the rest of the mage team) runs an excellent site full of quality gaming news and reviews. They’re great sources of knowledge, and The Well-Red Mage has been very supportive of me since I started, which means a lot and has gone a long way. Retr0pia75 runs an excellent site featuring some of the best reviews of obscure games. Seriously, it’s impressive to see so many forgotten games make a comeback through this site. Please check them out! If there was anyone else who had previously nominated me, and I didn’t acknowledge you, please let me know. I may have just missed you (I only found out about these awards because I was told).

That said, the Liebster Award is a special one that recognizes bloggers, bringing them together with the focus of helping others discover new blogs.

Here are the rules:

1. Thank the person who nominated you and answer the 11 questions they’ve written for you.
2. Nominate 11 people and give them 11 different questions to answer.

Since I have 2 different nominations, I’ll just answer both sets, for an even 22 questions.

1. DC or Marvel? Marvel, mostly because of the excellent Marvel Cinematic Universe movies
2. Favorite superhero? Somewhat of a cop-out answer, but Goku from Dragon Ball Z. Hey, I believe he’s a superhero of sorts.
3. Favorite console? Nintendo 64
4. Favorite video game? Super Mario World, which I reviewed for this site!
5. Favorite video game character? Link
6. Favorite film? Scott Pilgrim vs. the World
7. Favorite book? Another cop-out, but the manga Death Note. Nothing beats the cat-and-mouse detective thriller coupled with its amazing artwork!
8. Favorite non-gaming pasttime? Anime
9. Favorite thing about blogging and your blogging goals? I have particular personal goals that I’d rather divulge to those I know, but as far as my favorite thing about blogging, see the entire first 5 paragraphs above!
10. Favorite thing you find most inspirational in life? The support of my wife and friends
11. Favorite thing about The Well-Red Mage? The Well-Red Mage is a great individual, willing to lift others up and promote them. Hats off to you, Well-Red Mage!
12. Favorite plant? Bulbasaur
13. Crash Bandicoot or Spyro the Dragon? Probably Crash Bandicoot, though I didn’t play these games when I was younger, to be honest.
14. Most disappointing game in recent memory? Final Fantasy Explorers
15. Favorite flavor? Lime
16. Best E3 ever? 2005, in which Shigeru Miyamoto donned a sword and shield in front of a crowd to promote the brand new trailer of The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess
17. Most overrated TV show? I’m not too big on non-anime TV, so I don’t know if I can accurately answer this one…
18. Favorite Nintendo character? Link
19. Worst movie you’ve ever seen? Tommy Wiseau’s The Room, in a hilarious way.
20. Best video game soundtrack? I could cop-out and say Super Smash Bros. for Wii U, but I’ll be fair and say Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy’s Kong Quest.
21. Most tragic downfall of a video game company/franchise? Sega
22. Least awful Michael Bay film? The first Transformers

Here are my 11 nominations for the Liebster Award. Please feel free to do with it what you will. Even if you don’t want to participate, know that I respect your work and encourage others to check out your sites! I’m sorry if you were already previously nominated. For those not nominated, know that you’re still doing a great job, and that’s why I’m following you!

1. Kuribo of NintendoFigures.com
2. Matt of Nintendobound
3. themancalledscott of Wizard Dojo
4. mrluvvaluvva of mrluvvaluvva
5. Kris P of Double Jump
6. Rachel of Double Jump
7. The Otaku Judge of The Otaku Judge
8. pokeninja90 of Nice Job Breaking It, Hero
9. Sam Lilly of Hub World HQ
10. Mariko Roze of Gera-Gera Gaming
11. Yvonne/YvoCaro of A Lady and Gaming Plus

Here are 11 questions for you:

1. Nintendo or Sega?
2. Favorite video game console?
3. Favorite video game?
4. Favorite video game soundtrack?
5. Favorite song from a video game?
6. Favorite genre of game?
7. Favorite non-gaming-related hobby?
8. Person you look most up to?
9. Favorite quote?
10. Favorite place to visit?
11. Where you would most like to visit someday?

Thank you everyone!