Weekly Panda Roundup – Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, Snipperclips, and Free Comics

Hi everyone! Mr. Panda here with a new edition of Weekly Panda Roundup! Hope you all had a fantastic weekend! I’ve got some great videos and stories to share, so please enjoy your stay as we round ‘em up!

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Our new banner!

Video Roundup

We can’t stress enough how grateful we are for your support for our YouTube channel! Seriously, thank you all! It warms our hearts every time you share our videos and leave such awesome comments!

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The intro is worth watching, trust us.

Top 10 Mario Kart 8 Deluxe Tracks

In our latest video (and also my 50th post here on WordPress, yay!), my wife Crystal Dragon and I ranked our Top 10 favorite tracks in Mario Kart 8 Deluxe. There are so many great ones, and it was hard to choose. But we think you’ll enjoy the 10 amazing ones we picked out. Please let us know what your favorite tracks are too! We’d love to know what you think!

Snipperclips Co-Op Part 6 – Sleeping with the Fishes

Part 6 our co-op playthrough of Snipperclips is up! In this episode, we continue the second world, Retro Reboot! In this episode of our co-op playthrough of Snipperclips, we solve more puzzles hook, line, and sinker, while making bad jokes! It’s probably why we ended up sleeping with the fishes. Check out the fun below! As always, you can start with this video or from the first episode here.

Please be sure to check it out! CrystalDragon did an excellent job helping me edit this one, so be sure to show her your support. She truly is wonderful!

You can find the full playlist starting at Part 1 – Stabby Sticks here: http://bit.ly/2nFmc5v

Snake Pass Co-Op – Playing with Separate Joy-Cons

Unfortunately, we hit a snag with some of the videos or the series, and we weren’t able to upload an episode of our Snake Pass series, in which we play together while holding separate Joy-Cons. As it turns out, using a webcam and recording Snake Pass was deemed too ridiculous for our computer to handle. While we are figuring things out, we are going to be changing the schedule for our Snake Pass series to every other Saturday. Please understand.

Until then, please enjoy our latest episode, where we struggle to coordinate our shared controls to the point where we were able to include a death montage! You can see our hilarious faces on camera, so enjoy!

You can find the full playlist starting with the first episode here – http://bit.ly/2pezKUq

What I’ve Been Playing

I’m still playing through Mario Kart 8 Deluxe! I was finally able to unlock Gold Mario by getting the gold in every cup at 200cc. And let me tell you, it’s quite hard! If you thought 150cc was fast, 200cc is ridiculously lightning-quick, and braking is a MUST. That’s not even mentioning the cruelty of items and the crazy computer players constantly ganging up on me with blue and red shells. Is it worth it to get the Gold? The character of Gold Mario is a fun novelty, but don’t lose your mind over it! He’s only a palette swap!

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Take that Pink Gold Peach!

I wanted to extend an invitation to play together! My Nintendo Switch friend code is SW-3611-4684-6706. Please feel free to add me and we can race or try out the improved Battle Mode together online! We can also play other games online if you wish!

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Add me for fun Switch multiplayer! SW-3611-4684-6706

Free Comic Book Day

Free Comic Book Day was this past weekend! As the name suggests, you can walk into comic book shops and pick up free comic books. The idea is to get customers into their local shops, and shops have been packed the last few years I’ve gone.

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Our Free Comic Book Day haul!

This was our haul this year. Neither of us are actually huge into comic books, but we love several things, represented here. First of all, as you may already know, we’re huge fans of anime and manga (Japanese comics). And as Nintendo fans, we’re obviously fans of The Legend of Zelda. Naturally, when we saw the free sampler for The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess manga, we had to snatch it! I own the original Ocarina of Time manga and am glad to see the series is still going strong with Twilight Princess. Our highlights so far are Midna’s wonderful manga form and Link’s handsome boy look. Plus, he talks in the manga!

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Ok, Link looks really cute here…

Then, there’s Attack on Titan, whose mainstream popularity has exceeded what we could have expected from modern anime nowadays. This particular anthology collects western artists’ fan comics based on the franchise, and it’s interesting to see a different take. For instance, the stories deal more with life circumstances or personal stories as opposed to the high-stakes Titan fights from the original. Besides that, we also like Avatar (James Cameron’s giant smurf version, though we also enjoy The Last Airbender) and The Simpsons. In fact, I’ve recently been introducing old seasons of The Simpsons to my wife who had never seen it! It’s such a rush laughing out loud to all the classics!

We’re also fans of Marvel, although we aren’t very familiar with the comics. We, like many of the moviegoing public, are fans of the Marvel Cinematic Universe films like The Avengers, Captain America, and most recently, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 (pictured below). I’m not a big movie person at all, unless it’s an anime movie. But I will sit through and actually enjoy Marvel movies. I know they’re all practically the same movie, but I feel comfortable watching their trademark blend of action and quippy comedy. I also like the idea of having a serial timeline between different movies. It makes it more epic when they come together for the group Avengers films.

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Had a fun time watching this last weekend! What did you think?

Though we only have a casual fandom to Marvel’s actual comics, we want to try getting into them sometime, especially since we already watch the movies and play board games dedicated to those classic heroes. The comic we got for FCBD, Secret Empire, features a juicy storyline about Captain America and his possibly suspicious allegiances. Color us intrigued. Assuming they don’t adapt any of these storylines to the separate film universe, we’d love to get more into western superhero comics in general. If you are into Marvel or DC, let us know what you think are good, recent storylines to get into!

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The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Racetrack

Next Time…!

Thank you so much for reading this issue Weekly Panda Roundup! On Thursday, I’ll be posting my latest video review! And look forward to the latest hilarious episode of our co-op Snake Pass Separate Joy-Cons playthrough on Saturday! Until then, see you next time!

How was your weekend? What games are you playing? What did you think of the videos? What are your favorite and least favorite tracks in Mario Kart 8 Deluxe? What are your favorite comics, manga, or superhero movies? Thanks for reading and watching!

33 thoughts on “Weekly Panda Roundup – Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, Snipperclips, and Free Comics

  1. Great job on today’s Weekly Panda Roundup! I hope you all enjoy our next episodes of Snipperclips and Snake Pass. I’m learning some basic video editing skills and helped to edit Snipperclips this week! And please check out our Mario Kart 8 Deluxe track rankings!

    I’m a big fan of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. I had a great time seeing Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2! I’m interested in learning more about the comics themselves. Mr. Panda and I play the Marvel Legendary deck building game a lot, and I sometimes find myself scratching my head over the more obscure heroes. I felt a little more inspired after getting some free comic books on Free Comic Book Day (only 1 week after Table Top Day). We would appreciate any recommendations of which comics to check out.

    Liked by 1 person

    1. Thank you! And thanks so much for all your help this week! You did an amazing job on the Snipperclips video, and you deserve any praise you get!

      I’m loving all these nerdy “holidays” one after another. It’s funny that we celebrated similarly by playing tabletop games on both Tabletop Day and Free Comic Book Day, but I guess that’s how it works when we play a comic book-related tabletop game, haha. I want to know more about some great comics, especially recent storylines that do cool things with beloved characters or even new superheroes. There’s so much that’s being done now in the comic world!

      Liked by 1 person

    1. Awww! I take it you’ve participated in Free Comic Book Day before? If it makes you feel better, as fun as these comics are, they’re rarely ever complete. They’re nice to have, but since they’re usually samplers, it’s nothing like having the full thing. That said, maybe if you go back to the comic book shop, you may be able to get any extras they have? I’m sure they’re willing to get rid of any extra free stock they have!

      Liked by 1 person

      1. I’ve participated once before. Sometimes just my husband goes and gets them because I happen to be working. That’s a good point though about going back and seeing if they have any left over stuff. 🙂

        Liked by 1 person

  2. Nice roundup! I have the full volume 1 of Twilight Princess and can safely say it’s worth it! I like the new version of its story.

    Liked by 1 person

    1. Awesome, thanks so much for checking out the roundup! I was this close to picking volume 1 of the Twilight Princess manga up at the bookstore the other day. Although I didn’t get it, I looked at some of the art and it looks amazing. I’d definitely consider picking it up soon! Twilight Princess is my wife’s favorite anyway, haha.

      Liked by 1 person

  3. I worked my job Saturday, but Sunday afternoon, and evening I was able to turn on my recently repaired Commodore 64. So I fired up a bunch of classic C64 staples, and gems. All while enjoying the power of Avery Maharaja Double IPA. Definitely a winning combination.

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    1. The bookstore! I saw it the other day and was to tempted to pick it up! I took a peek and Midna looks gorgeous in it! Most Zelda games have actually received a manga at this point. I only ever picked up OoT back in the day, but they all look good and are all illustrated by the same awesome artist!

      Liked by 1 person

  4. You’ll definitely want to check out Hawkeye if you wish to get into monthly Marvel comics. It’s only six issues in, and the first graphic novel comes out 5/31. If you loved it, you can pick up the next issue a week later and go from there. If you don’t want to get into monthly comic collecting, you can check out any of the graphic novels of Vision, Unbeatable Squirrel Girl, Ms. Marvel, Daredevil, Jessica Jones (Out Wed.), Doctor Strange, Black Panther, or Moon Knight. All series are great. One graphic novel I can’t recommend enough outside of Marvel’s ongoing comics is Thor: God of Thunder Vol. 1. When I started reading four years ago, this was one of the first series I read and is still considered to be one of the best stories during the Marvel Now era. It’s eleven issues long, but it’s fantastic! I need to get back to playing Mario Kart 8 Deluxe on a regular basis. That game’s incredible! I’ll watch your video once I play more.

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    1. I love this! You’ve come through again with some great choices! I’m surprised about Hawkeye because he’s always been my least favorite from the movies, but I’ll have to take your word that he’s a hot hero to look for. I’m definitely interested in graphic novels, and one about Vision or Doctor Strange sounds like it’d be up my alley. I’ve been watching the Netflix Defenders shows lately so I might even be interested in Daredevil or Jessica Jones. And of course, Ms. Marvel is intriguing. I’ll have to look into Thor if you recommend it! Thanks for all of your recommendations! It’s good to have such a knowledgable comic friend! 🙂 Would you happen to know anything about Secret Empire?

      And yay, thanks! We should definitely play together sometime! I hope you enjoy the Mario Kart 8 video! I’ll be putting up another very soon! 🙂

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      1. I haven’t looked into Secret Empire. It sounds like one of Marvel’s events, I never pick those up as I try to leave money available for games and movies.

        Liked by 1 person

      2. The cool thing about this Hawkeye comic is it focuses on a female Hawkeye called Kate Bishop. She’s a great character and more interesting than the Hawkeye that’s portrayed in the MCU.

        Liked by 1 person

      3. Neat! I didn’t even know that it was a female Hawkeye. That’s certainly different from the bland Hawkeye we have in the MCU. Thanks for your input!

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    1. I got a peek at the Zelda manga at the bookstore the other day and it looks as pretty as it is! I was very tempted to buy it though I didn’t… for now. Yay Mario Kart! Oops, we didn’t end up playing last weekend, but we can certainly make up for that in the future!

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  5. Good stuff! I didn’t even know they made Zelda manga’s. That’s awesome! I’d be interested to check out the Majora’s Mask one.

    Liked by 2 people

    1. I recommend checking them out at the bookstore sometime! I’ve definitely seen the Majora’s Mask one before. If memory serves me, they’re also making a collection that includes a large chunk of the different games’ manga.

      Liked by 1 person

  6. Wow, congrats on unlocking Gold Mario! That’s really tough to do! In the Wii U version I’ve only dabbled in the 200cc races… they are super hard! I figured when I get a Switch and MK8Deluxe, Gold Mario would probably be a character I would never unlock lol!!

    Liked by 1 person

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