Introducing My YouTube Channel!

Pandas at Play!

It’s official! I am so excited to finally announce my new YouTube Channel – Pandas at Play! You can find it here! https://www.youtube.com/mrpanda2002

My awesome wife (Crystal Dragon) and I are co-running the channel, and we’ll be producing fun Nintendo video content, including:

• Reviews – Edited video review versions of the stuff I’m already doing here! Don’t worry, I’ll still be posting written reviews. My goal is to have the videos supplement my content here. The first review is posted below!

• Pandas at Play – A series where my wife and I play through Nintendo games together, letting our ridiculously silly personalities shine! Our first episode is posted below!

• Discussions – Podcast-like dialogues, sometimes with guests, in which we discuss games we’ve played, upcoming games, or anything else related to the pasttime we love!

• And more! Right now, the sky’s the limit for us! We’re looking to see what we can do and how we can better entertain and inform you with our fun Nintendo videos!

Mr. Panda’s YouTube Channel Trailer

Check out our official YouTube Channel Trailer below to see what the channel is all about! If you like what you see, it would be so awesome if you liked and subscribed!

 

 

 

The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild Video Review

Without further ado, I am proud to present the premiere video, one that I have worked hard on for the last few weeks. Here is my video review of The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild for the Nintendo Switch!

 

 

This is a spoiler-free review, and there is no video footage of any major plot points. Hope you enjoy it!

Pandas at Play – Snipperclips Co-Op Part 1 – Stabby Sticks

Also premiering today is our first episode of Pandas at Play, where my wife and I tackle the first few stages of the ridiculously goofy and fun Snipperclips for the Switch!

 

We’ll be playing through the whole 2-player campaign of Snipperclips and uploading episodes on Mondays. Our goal is to produce video content biweekly, ideally on Mondays and Thursdays. We’re planning to post Pandas at Play episodes on Mondays (starting April 10) and other additional content on Thursdays. In the future, we’re hoping to post three times a week (Mon-Wed-Fri). We actually have a second, equally fun Pandas at Play game that we’re playing through. It’s a much longer game, and we’re planning to use it as our third weekly video.

Please check out our videos and let us know what you think here or on the video comments section!

If you’ve watched and enjoyed the videos and would like to see more, please subscribe by clicking this link: http://bit.ly/2oaYX1r

Channel Origins

This YouTube Channel, as you have probably guessed, is the project I’ve been teasing for some time now. I’ve been hard at work developing this channel for the last few months, sometimes even losing sleep over it. There have been a lot of hardships during this process, and I’ve spent a lot of time developing new skills as a result of this endeavor. I’ve been especially antsy this week and am filled with glee that I’m finally sharing my videos!

I never planned on doing YouTube videos when I first started this blog. I’m a very shy, introverted person, and for my whole life, I’ve been convinced that my voice is secondary and generally unimportant. My wife, CrystalDragon, helped give me the courage and encouragement I needed to keep going both for this site and for the videos. I owe all of this to her, and I’m extremely glad that she will be a huge part of the channel. Thank you for showing me that my voice matters and helping me know that I matter. You’re the best!

Special Thanks

I also wanted to give a huge thanks to my close friend christianrob90 for all of his assistance in planning this channel and getting it ready! He was an instrumental part in both starting up this channel and for helping me learn how to do it. He’s also been a great friend and support, and you’ll hear him in some videos in the future. Couldn’t have done it without him!

And a tremendous debt of gratitude to another close friend, Cherry, who is playing a big part in giving the channel its personality. Thanks so much for your support and creative assistance! I can’t wait to show you what she has cooked up!

Thank you so much everyone who’s ever supported me by checking out what I’ve done and encouraging me through your messages and friendship. As I’ve said before, you truly are a wonderful community, and we want to invite you to our gaming lives. I hope you enjoy my newest foray, and as always, I hope you will continue to support me. You all rock!

Finally, I’ve been telling some of you that I would subscribe after watching your great videos too, and that I needed to get my account ready. Truth be told, it was a complicated route figuring out what kind of account I was going to use before I settled on my own personal Mr. Panda account. I’m very happy to say I can subscribe with the account I will watch them in, and I will do that as soon as possible. If you have a channel you’d like to share with me too, please let me know, and I’d be happy to check it out!

Thank you again from the bottom of my heart for your support, everyone! We’re not sure where this endeavor will take us, but we’re excited to get on board either way! I sincerely hope you check out our videos! Let us know what you think! And most importantly, enjoy!

Celebrating My 1st Pandaversary!

One Year Old

It’s official: Mr. Panda’s Video Game Reviews is one year old!

Yay!

I want to extend my sincerest thanks to you all for your readership and support throughout this year. I’ve been incredibly blessed with a wonderful community of kind, intelligent, and fun gamers, both online and offline. I wouldn’t have made it this long without you all. You’ve all been amazing, and I will be sure to give you proper recognition by the end of this post. But before I do, I wanted to share a brief timeline in review for the blog as well as a special announcement tease.

Not included in timeline: Creation of Triforce

Timeline

Era of the Blog’s Creation

I first started this blog during a tough time in my life when I just needed to get away. It was a time when I realized I needed big changes in my life, and I wanted to do something more. I wished to follow my dreams. My incredibly supportive wife walked with me every step of the way in my crazy endeavors. I decided to write video game reviews with hope in my pocket and a passion to discuss my favorite pastime.

Mario & Luigi: Paper Jam

 Final Fantasy Explorers

Yo-kai Watch

I already knew which three games to review first, the above 3DS games. Funny enough, I neither loved nor hated playing them. Rather, I had strong opinions about how average they were. As it turns out, though the games are just decent, I love where they brought me. Discussing them at length helped me develop my initial style and tone.

Era of Opportunity

I was happy to finally do something related to video games. Just having them available for others to see made me ecstatic, even if very few people noticed those early reviews. At least one notable person saw it though. None other than the wonderful Mike_Scorpio of Miketendo64 noticed and eventually gave me a big opportunity for collaboration. I am still very thankful for this partnership, and most importantly, that he cared to share my writing. Thank you very much, Miketendo!

Super Mario World

 Miitomo

Hyrule Warriors Legends

 Star Fox Zero

Fire Emblem Fates

 Mini Mario & Friends: amiibo Challenge

Banjo-Kazooie

Era of Adventure

Even though I love writing these reviews, I wanted to try something new. When Nintendo began making big announcements for upcoming games like Pokémon Sun & Moon and Breath of the Wild, I wanted to write about those, too. This led to some of my most exciting posts, previews, and analyses for these upcoming games. Both games have since released, but it was fun to speculate. Plus I guessed some things correctly, right? Maybe?

Pokémon Sun and Moon Preview

 The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild Preview

Pokémon GO Preview

 Mr. Panda Meets Mario – Charles Martinet

One of the most memorable moments of my life was meeting my childhood hero, the voice of Mario, Charles Martinet, whom I also wrote about. He’s such a fun guy, and it was a pleasure to see him.

Era of Experience

I soon found myself with even more prospects to write about games with DarkStation. I am very grateful to the site for giving me this amazing opportunity to review games beyond my usual scope. Although I haven’t posted many of them here yet (one day I will!), I wanted to share some of my favorite non-Nintendo reviews with you.

Atelier Sophie: The Alchemist of the Mysterious Book

Azure Striker Gunvolt (original)

Dragon Ball Xenoverse 2 (original)

 Mighty No. 9 (original)

Mutant Mudds Super Challenge (original)

 Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3

Era of Questions

There are many times when I post and feel like I’ve made a mistake. Truth be told, there were times when I felt like this wasn’t worth it. These are hard devils to avoid, and although I struggle, I’m grateful for those that support me. I do my best with these reviews, but in the end, I know that they don’t define me. And there are those who encourage me unconditionally.

Rhythm Heaven Megamix

 The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess HD

Pokémon GO

Era of Community

As I’ve said before, I owe so much of this blog to the fantastic community. It means a lot that you splendid people are willing to read and discuss video games with me. Even more, you’ve continued to encourage me, nominating me for awards. The internet can be a rough place, so I’m incredibly lucky to have met some of the kindest people on the web. I’m always flattered by the amazing things you say, and it is my hope that we can keep talking about this great hobby. And I hope I can share my own kind words with you all!

Liebster Award

 Blogger Recognition/Entertaining Blogger Awards

One Lovely Unique Versatile PANDA

Era of Development

I have since been trying to improve myself and my writing style. With each review, I have felt sufficiently challenged, either attempting something new or changing up the style ever so subtly. I could literally go into the most boring commentary about each individual review, but I’ll just summarize by saying that I am constantly learning. I’m thankful that for every hardship I have come across while doing this, I’ve emerged learning important lessons about life and about writing.

Zero Time Dilemma

 Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney – Spirit of Justice

Monster Hunter Generations

 Yo-kai Watch 2

Pokémon Sun and Moon

 Super Mario Run

Fire Emblem Heroes

Era of Travels

My wife and I took a break a couple of months ago to take a dream trip to Japan. We got to engage in lots of fun shopping, eating, and sightseeing. As huge fans of video games and anime, it was one of the best vacations we had ever taken. We love sharing our adventures here. They’re video game-related, right? I’m still in the process of getting future photo posts up, and I apologize to anyone who’s been waiting for them. I have more planned, so don’t worry!

Tales from Japan – Ikebukuro’s Pokémon Center, J-World, & More

Ikebukuro

Tales from Japan – Akihabara: Land of Video Games, Anime Shops, & Final Fantasy Cafés

Akihabara

Era of Switch

And finally, we’ve come to one of my favorite periods, a new Nintendo console launch! Having such a big system to write about has been a new source of invigoration, and I get giddy thinking about what surprises are in store for the Switch. Though I’m sure the system will have hardships, some of which I have noted in my articles, writing about it fills me with joy. The Switch has been an excellent system for me so far, and I’m happy to be able to write about it, whether hardware, games, or fun stories. This has culminated in one of my new favorite reviews that I’ve written: The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild.

Why I’m Excited for Nintendo Switch

 Nintendo’s Switch Presentation Highlights

Top 10 Anticipated Switch Games

 My Nintendo Switch Launch Horror Story

Nintendo Switch First Impressions

 The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild Review

From my first review of Mario & Luigi: Paper Jam to my latest review of the most epic Zelda experience to arrive on Nintendo’s newest console, I’ve had quite a year. It’s a very special journey, and one that I am glad to share with you. It hasn’t been the easiest, but it’s definitely been one of the greatest!

Special Announcement

To cap off my first year’s timeline, I wanted to tease a special announcement. Very soon, I will be unveiling my newest project, on which I have been hard at work for a few months now. My goal is to finish within the next week or two. I know I’ve been teasing it for a while, but it’s finally coming and I’m happy to share it. Though I won’t say much about it until then, I hope you all will enjoy it! Look forward to it!

Special Thanks

I want to extend a special thanks to the following people who have been amazing friends and supports for this site! You all mean a lot to me!

Thank you to:

• My wonderful wife, to whom I owe this all. She already knows this, but I want you all to know that this wouldn’t be possible without her support, love, encouragement, and editing. She is an amazing woman whom I am very blessed to have in my life. Thank you CrystalDragon, my Mrs. Panda!

• My friends outside WordPress, whom have not only supported me, but even helped me with various projects. Big thanks to gorgoalmighty, christianrob90, Cherry, ShadJV, Auradis, IsaMaLisa, for supporting my site directly with your readership and comments! Your encouragement and friendship never goes unnoticed, and I hope that I can show it outside of the site. Thank you for reading this!

• Mike and Jack of Miketendo64 for allowing me to collaborate and share my writing to a new audience. Thank you for believing in me and for being great partners!

• The awesome people at DarkStation for noticing me and giving me opportunities that I shall never regret. Truly grateful!

• Rachel and Kris of Double Jump, Kuribo of NintendoFigures, Matt of Nintendobound, and TheManCalledScott of the Wizard Dojo for being great supportive partners, consistent commenters, and active sharers of my reviews. Such regular support means a lot to me!

• The Well-Red Mage for being one of my first followers, for nominating me for several awards, and for being a great gaming friend to discuss the hobby with. Also for the Arcane Trophy for being a regular commenter!
  
• The Shameful Narcissist for consistently kind words and great gaming discussion, for nominating me as an Entertaining Blogger, and for a 1st Prize Ribbon for guessing characters correctly in her wonderful Final Fantasy Tarot series!
  
• Pokeninja90, Retr0pia75, benez256, Evil Wizard Esq, vahrkalla, Luvva, Sebby29, and lilsamueljones for your consistent encouragement and for nominating me for awards. I’m truly flattered whenever you think of me for these!

• Hungrygoriya, LightningEllen, defythemajority, YvoCaro, CheapBossAttack, Krystallina, Rich Meister, Athena | AmbiGaming, Shelby “Falcon509” Steiner, The Otaku Judge, Particlebit, iplayedthegame, Andrew Lokken, Jamie Wu, Red Metal, dreager1, retrostatuereviews, cary, Toby Saunders, SpeedySailor, Sam Lilly, Imtiaz Ahmed, Astro Adam, AfterStory, Drakulus, Mr. Gamer, veryverygaming, Geddy, United We Game, Gaming Picks, and Zain Moosa for consistently liking, commenting, and sharing my content! I want to let you all know that I acknowledge you and am very thankful for your support! I appreciate getting to discuss games with you!

• And to all you amazing followers and anyone else reading this! I know I missed some people, so apologies if I did. Please know that it means a lot already to me that you’re here!

Thank you again to everyone! If you’re a first time visitor, please follow me on Twitter @MrPanda2002 and on Facebook at Mr. Panda’s Video Game Reviews. Please feel free to support me by following me on those pages if you haven’t already!

My next post will be about my special project! Please look forward to it! Thanks again for reading!

November 2016 Update: One Lovely Unique Versatile Blogger and Introducing the PANDA Award!

Updates and Travels

Thank you so much to everyone reading this! As always, I am constantly encouraged by your support. I have several announcements, including awards from lovely people and a brand new award I’m giving out. First, I have some exciting news to share.

In a week, my wife and I will be traveling to Hong Kong and Japan for vacation! Anyone who knows me well can tell that I’m especially excited about going to Japan. We’re both huge anime and game fans and can’t wait to visit the country that produces much of what we love. I might share something here about our travels, and I’ll be sure to post some fun pictures on Facebook and Twitter when I can. Needless to say, I’ll be taking a short break from reviewing. But I’ll be back in December, and you can look forward to a review of the highly anticipated Pokémon Sun and Moon when I return.

Excited to return to Japan!

Finally, I want to give a sincere thank you to all my readers and followers! I can’t say this enough, but it means so much to me that you would read my reviews and share so many kind words. Whether you’re on WordPress or not, know that you mean so much to me. I love discussing video games with all of you, especially with the new Nintendo Switch on the horizon. As the rest of this post will show, I couldn’t do any of this without you. Thank you from the bottom of my heart.

I don’t get to share this much, but if you’re interested in my thoughts of non-Nintendo games, please feel free to check out my reviews on Darkstation. One of my most recent reviews is for Dragon Ball Xenoverse 2, a game based on one of the first anime I ever watched. And of course, please feel free to like my Facebook page and follow me on Twitter. I would definitely appreciate the support, and I would be more than happy to support you in your endeavors as well! Thank you so much, everyone!

Awards

Best Hands-On Collaborator

The wonderful Mike from Miketendo64 honored me with the Best Hands-On Collaborator as part of the Miketendo64 Blogger Awards, and I couldn’t be any more grateful. I’m so thankful that you even let me share what I have to give. Thank you Mike for recognizing me, and for continuing to do great things!

Versatile Blogger Award

Thank you so much to Evil Wizard Esquire, pokeninja90, Sebbie29, and lilsamueljones for the Versatile Blogger Award! All four of these wonderful people run great sites, and I recommend you check them out! I appreciate that you all would think of me as versatile, but I guess I do try to Switch it up a little (forgive the pun). Although there are rules, I’m actually going to use a cheat code and combine this with the following award since they have similar requirements.

One Lovely Blog Award

I love the word “lovely” and my gratitude goes out to the lovely individuals who nominated me for this award. Thank you to Benez256, vahrkalla, and lilsamueljones! I appreciate it as well as the great work you do! Check these lovely sites out!

Here are The Rules:

1. Write an article accepting the award.
2. Thank the person you nominated you and put a link to their blog.
3. Tell the reader seven facts about yourself.
4. Nominate other blogs for the award.
5. Let them know that you nominated them.
6. Post the rules to let your followers know how it works.

I certainly don’t enough facts to share for each individual who has nominated me, but I’ll gladly share seven facts!

1. My wife and I had a video game-themed wedding. We had video game music, themed invitations & programs, Pokémon card placecards, and a Hyrule Castle cake! I am so blessed to have a wonderful woman who loves the same things I do and would be willing to have a wedding like this. This was one of the biggest moments in my life.

   

   The cake was delicious!

2. I love amiibo and own most of them. At our wedding, we had centerpieces themed after Smash Bros. trophies. In other words, we placed video game figurines over clay moldings of the Smash logo. However, we did this before amiibo even existed! It remains a big deal to us that we had something like amiibo before Nintendo! If only we had pitched the idea ahead of time!

   

   Our centerpiece, our prototype amiibo

3. My wife and I will be going to Japan soon. This will be my wife’s first time, but I’ve actually gone quite a few years ago. It was an awesome time. I went to Akihabara, one of the big districts for anime and game fans. I also had the opportunity to climb up Mt. Fuji, which was a big adventure in and of itself.

4. You may remember that I wrote about meeting Charles Martinet, the voice of Mario. You may not know that one of my big hobbies is going to conventions and meeting voice actors. Ever since I was young, I’ve always been interested in the people behind the voices of beloved characters. My interest began with the voice actors from the Pokémon anime. After years of going to cons, I finally got to meet one of my childhood heroes, Veronica Taylor, the voice of Ash Ketchum. She is a kind and lovely person, and she even encouraged me to follow my dreams, which I’ve held to heart.

   

   The lovely Veronica Taylor, Mrs. Panda, and me!

5. My user name Mr. Panda comes from the anime Ranma ½. It’s an odd, old classic anime from Rumiko Takahashi, creator of Inuyasha. The show follows Ranma, a boy who is cursed to transform into a girl when splashed with cold water. Yes, it’s weird, but I love it. Ranma’s father turns into a panda when splashed with cold water, and he occasionally goes by the moniker of Mr. Panda. There you have it – I’m an anime character! I also like pandas in general. They just seem so huggable.

   

   Genma (Mr. Panda) from the anime Ranma 1/2

6. I grew up with the NES and the SNES, which is no surprise since I write about Nintendo games. However, the first game I remember beating was Super Mario World, which also happens to be one of my favorite games. I don’t know why I never beat NES games before then, but I’m guessing it’s because I played games like Mike Tyson’s Punch-Out!! when I was little.

7. Finally, I should probably have one fact unrelated to video games and anime (those are seriously two of my biggest passions). My favorite TV show is The Simpsons. I haven’t seen most of the show, which is no surprise anymore seeing that it has around 30 seasons at this point. That said, I’ve seen the first 10 seasons, which I consider to have some of the funniest jokes ever. I have seen more recent episodes and have even enjoyed some of them (which is blasphemy to most Simpsons fans). However, none of them have come close to the endless hours of entertainment I have from the classic seasons. D’oh!

Unique Blogger Award

I also received the Unique Blogger Award from the wonderful writer, Kris P. It’s an honor to accept this award from you. I respect you as a writer, both for your stories and your gaming articles!

The Rules:
1. Thank the blogger who nominated you and include a link to their blog.
2. Answer their 3 questions.
3. Include one meme and one quote you really like.
4. Nominate 8-13 bloggers to receive this award.
5. Ask your nominees 3 UNIQUE questions.
6. Add a link to the awards creator: Tara at Flower in Rainy Day.

Here are Kris P’s interesting questions:

1. How well equipped — both physically and mentally — are you to survive in the world of the last book you read? – Goodness no. The last book I read was the play script, Harry Potter and the Cursed Child. Last time I checked, I’m still not a wizard, although my wife and I pretend to be while playing the Harry Potter Deck-Building Game with our Universal Studios wands.
2. If you were in an RPG-style game, what character class would you be? – Summoner – Then I can use all of the Pokémon I’ve collected! I also generally enjoy monster-collecting games such as Pokémon, Yo-kai Watch, and Dragon Quest Monsters. It’s a no-brainer for me to summon my monsters!
3. If your favorite fictional character or world were a genre of music, what genre would they be? Hyrule would be an orchestral soundtrack to a fantasy film, just like the Symphony of the Goddesses, which I will have the opportunity to see for a fourth time!

As for meme and quote, I’ll just combine them into one with my new made-up award!

Introducing a New Award, The PANDA!

The last rule of most awards is usually to nominate others. For my nominations though, I wanted to do something special, perhaps something even serious, especially at this time. I want to focus on encouraging all of you who have made such a big impact on my own work. Regardless of your thoughts and beliefs, I want to promote a network of writers who not only discuss and share opinions on games and other things, but also support each other. Whether you are in need or could use a boost in your day, I hope you can feel encouraged for being who you are and writing about what you enjoy.

Therefore, I would like to introduce the Play A New Day Award, or PANDA. Yes, it has my user name in it, so feel free to change or alter my attempt at being clever. Hey, I think pandas are fun creatures. That’s not the point though. I want to encourage others to play for another day. No matter what is going on, whether in the world, your country, your home, or even in your mind, I want you to play for a new day. We’re all in this together, and we can make it together.

The award only has three rules:

Rules:

1. Thank the person who nominated you.
2. Nominate any number of people for the award.
3. Encourage them in any way, whether through thanking or complimenting them.

That’s it. No need to write facts or answer questions. In fact, you don’t even have to write up a post on it if you don’t want to. Feel free to tell them directly or on social media. I just want the emphasis to be on letting others know you care. I’ll start by nominating the following people for a PANDA and letting you know how much you matter.

Give a Panda!

Note: Everyone whom I list is a fellow blogger. For everyone else outside of the blogosphere who have supported me, know that I appreciate you so much and all you’ve done to support me. You already know I care about you. This is for those writers who can continue to give these awards.

1. Mike and Jack of Miketendo64 – Thank you so much for even letting me share what I have with you. It means a lot that you’d even consider me, especially back when I started out and had only written a single review. You are doing great work to further inform and entertain the Nintendo fanbase. Keep it up!
2. Kuribo of NintendoFigures – I have never read such detailed reviews of Nintendo figures as I have yours. As you know, I am a big amiibo fan and thus enjoy reading all of your articles on amiibo and the wide world of Nintendo figures.
3. Rachel and Kris of Double Jump – You two are both stellar writers. I am continuously encouraged that you not only write fun articles and lists about games, but also write stories of your own. That is some serious dedication that shouldn’t go unnoticed.
4. Themancalledscott of Wizard Dojo – You are a master of your craft. You’ve written so many reviews about a variety of topics, and continue to revise and improve. I’m floored by the sheer amount of what you do and how willing you are to go further. I respect your opinions as well as the fact that you stand by them.
5. Matt of Nintendobound – I love reading your reviews! They’re very detailed and of high-quality. I also appreciate how willing you are to engage with other bloggers. I enjoy discussing games with you whether on your, mine, or anyone else’s site. You know what you’re talking about, and you say it eloquently and with heart.
6. Retr0pia – You’re a person with dreams, and I respect that. You work truly hard to produce great content about classic games that may have been forgotten otherwise. I like the direction you’re going with creating games, and I wish you the best on your endeavors. Never give up!
7. The Shameful Narcissist – You’re one of the kindest bloggers I have come across. You’re also a spectacular writer with excellent ideas and passion. Your Final Fantasy VII stories are truly remarkable. Please keep the drive going and keep being the special writer you are.
8. Hungrygoriya – I don’t think I’ve ever met someone so devoted to collecting games at swap meets and game stores as you. What you bring to the table is unique and awesome. I’m flattered that you take my game recommendations and actually look for them too! I’m always cheering for you to get great deals on older games!
9. Benez256 of I Heart Old Games – I find it amazing that you write such great posts in a non-native language. I couldn’t imagine what kind of language skill you must have to do it so frequently, but I admire that about you. And of course, I appreciate that you love old games and remind us when a series’ birthday is.
10. Yvocaro of A Lady and Gaming Plus – Your posts about handheld games give me a heartwarming feeling, whether it’s a gaming cup of coffee or a game of the month. You really enjoy the games you play and want to share them with others. I find that wonderful about you.
11. Pokeninja90 of Nice Job Breaking It, Hero – As soon as you let me know how excited you were about Cing games like Hotel Dusk, I knew you had special tastes. Your site is fun to read, and it’s fun to talk to you about anime, games, and other things to geek about. Thanks for all of your support and excitement!
12. The Mages of The Well-Red Mage – How could I not mention the wonderful team summoned by The Well-Red Mage himself? I don’t even know what I could say. You run a great blog, and you’re constantly trying to build the network through wonderful ideas. Thanks for supporting me from the get-go and continuing to even today. You gave me my first award, and I hope you accept mine.

There you go! Anyone whom I’ve nominated can choose to accept the PANDA and share the love to others. Anyone else who’s reading this, please feel free to accept and share nominations with others too. If you do, let me know and I’d love to join in on appreciating you as well. Hopefully, the encouragement can permeate and reach others, especially many other sites I read, but didn’t mention here.

Again, don’t feel like you have to participate in any of this. I just thought I’d try to do something different. I enjoy getting these awards, and I also love being able to share how much I like what you do. If you’d prefer, you can write about the other awards as well. Everyone whom I’ve listed is definitely eligible for these awards, should you choose to accept them. Feel free to list seven facts and answer Kris’ excellent questions above. Whatever you do, consider those around you and spread the love.

Thank you so much everyone for reading this! I truly appreciate you. Play a new day!

Go ahead. Give a PANDA!

Thank you!

August 2016 Update: Blogger Recognition Award

New Business

Thank you to everyone reading this. I am constantly moved by your encouragement and readership. It means a lot to me, especially as I pursue my dreams. I wanted to give a quick update before getting to the meat of this post. First of all, I wanted to extend my sincerest gratitude to Miketendo64 and Darkstation for allowing me to write for their sites. I love being able to write video game reviews and share them with others. Miketendo64 remains an excellent source of news, features, reviews, and interviews, and I recommend checking it out for great Nintendo content. I don’t always post the reviews I write for Darkstation here, but I wanted them and everyone to know that I love being an editor for their site. It has been a great opportunity to write professional reviews for a wide range of games. Anyone interested in seeing the reviews I’ve written for games like Downwell, Drawful 2, and God Eater Resurrection can find them here.

I am happy to announce that I’ve also been writing for an anime news site for some time now and will be for a while. I won’t say much more, but anime fans may be familiar with the site. Regardless, I am very excited about this special opportunity, especially with regards to my passions and dreams. Although this takes up quite a bit of the time I previously allotted to blogging, I will keep writing here. During the busier time, I will probably be writing with a little less frequency than my previous weekly schedule (most likely biweekly). This actually works out better since I prefer quality than quantity, and putting in the time to make great articles for you to read. That said, when I am less busy and can devote more time to gaming reviews, I will do my best to post them with more frequency. Also, I know that there are a number of you who have made specific review requests. I apologize but it will likely take more time than I originally intended because of these new developments. When I do return to requests, I will get to yours first!

The last few months have been nothing short of fantastic! I was able to cover the brand new The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild for E3, meet one of childhood heroes Charles Martinet (voice of Super Mario), and write about one of my most unique and special gaming experiences, Pokémon GO. I am far from done and am excited to share more video game reviews starting next week!

Thank you for reading my update! If you would like to further support me, please “like” my Facebook page at www.facebook.com/MrPanda2002/ and follow me on Twitter at @MrPanda2002. Any and all support is always appreciated!

Blogger Recognition Award

I’d like to give a huge thank you to The Well-Red Mage, Retr0pia75, Luvva, and TheManCalledScott for nominating me for the Blogger Recognition Award. The Well-Red Mage (and the rest of the mage team) runs an excellent site full of quality gaming news and reviews. Most recently, the team took on the 31-Day Mage Challenge, in which the mages answered questions about video games, generating entertaining discussion. 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. It’s impressive to see so many forgotten games make a comeback through this site. Some great regular features include Retr0spectives, offering informative timelines of video game companies’ histories, and System Smack-Downs, in which Retr0pia75 compares a game or license among different console iterations. They’re quite entertaining reads!

Luvva of mrluvvaluvva has been an excellent support, promoting and helping me out when I was just starting. His video game-related musings are all honest and entertaining. He also supports those he believes, whether sharing videos of speedrunners or highlighting blog posts in his weekly MrLuvva’s Luv-In posts. Overall, he’s a great guy!

Finally, TheManCalledScott of The Wizard Dojo is an excellent reviewer, covering both the good and the bad of gaming history. It’s admirable how he seeks out some of these bad games, and the reviews always turn out great. Most recently, he has been covering Pixar movies for Pixar Month, including a review of Finding Dory!

Without further ado, here is how the Blogger Recognition Award works.

• Thank the blogger that nominated you.
• Attach the award to the post.
• Give a brief story of how your blog started.
• Give a piece of advice or two to new bloggers.
• Select 5 other bloggers you want to give the award to.

Blog Beginnings

I actually shared this in my June 2016 Update, but I’d love to share a brief version of it again here. 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. I decided that I wanted to write about video games and set up a page to keep a collection of my writing that I could also share to others. 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 information about a game fills me with joy, and engaging 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.

Advice for Bloggers

Remember that the blogosphere is a huge place. As you write up your own wonderful blog posts, don’t forget to check out others’, especially those who are writing about similar topics! You can make new acquaintances, find good gaming buddies, and gain more followers. Reach out to other bloggers, whether old or new. You’d be surprised how many people just want to know that someone has read their posts. Support, encourage, and promote each other because we all go through tough times. We’re all in this together!

Finally, love what you’re doing. Life gets stressful, but if you find that blogging doesn’t help or is actually something you dread, take a break. Use that time to unwind, focus on your life duties, and remember why you write. Hopefully, you will be refreshed upon returning and have the will to keep blogging. Don’t worry. We’ll be here when you return!

Nominations

The following are people who have previously nominated me for the Liebster Award. I responded to their questions but never got a chance to properly thank them on my site. Here is my opportunity to finally do that!

• Cary of Recollections of Play – Great blogger with an excellent Play or Pass series for evaluating video games.
• Chris Hodges of The Chi-Scroller – Excellent video game site with thought-provoking articles, well-crafted quizzes, and fun interactive polls.
• Benez256 of I ❤ Old Games! – Wonderful blogger who not only chronicles old games, but does so in a non-native tongue. Truly admirable!
• Matthew Stuber of Masters of the Fist – Filled with awesome video game news, insights, and articles!
• hungrygoriya of hungrygoriya – Impressive blog with numerous posts about an underrated hobby, retro game hunting. Fun reads for any gaming fan!

Thank you five for your Liebster Award Nominations! I appreciate it, and I hope you enjoy your newest award nomination!

The Entertaining Blogger Award

I also wanted to offer a huge thank you to The Shameful Narcissist for nominating me for The Entertaining Blogger Award (I know it’s called The Entertainer Blogger Award, but that confuses me!). She is a terrific writer who recently penned an extensive Final Fantasy VII story entitled Northern Lights. She’s a wonderful person, so check out her writing!

I’ll try to keep the rest of this short, but here are the rules of this award:

The Rules of The Entertainer Blogger Award:

• Write a post including the award picture.
• Nominate 12 other bloggers who are funny, inspiring, and most importantly ENTERTAINING!
• Add these rules to the post.
• Thank the person who nominated you and leave a link to their blog!
• Also, answer the questions down below.

1. Why did you start to blog in the first place?

I answered this earlier, but please feel free to check out my June 2016 Update for a longer explanation.

2. What is your favorite book?

I enjoy the Harry Potter series.

3. What do you dislike the most?

There are things I dislike, and trying to pick something I most dislike would be difficult. At the moment, it makes me sad to see when things are not accessible to people for whatever reason. I won’t go into much detail, but I think that we should be aware of others’ needs.

4. What’s your favorite food item from the mall?

I like cinnamon foods, like Cinnabon or cinnamon pretzels!

5. What is your favorite past time activity?

This one is easy for me: video games and anime! It’s not a coincidence that those are the two subjects I write about!

Nominations

I’ve nominated a bunch of people in this post already, so I’ll try to keep it brief to some bloggers I follow who I don’t think have gotten this award yet. Please feel free to do what you wish with the award nomination and know that I think you’re doing a great job!

• pokeninja90 of Nice Job Breaking It, Hero  – Representing more of my anime fan’s side, pokeninja90 does an excellent job covering visual novel/otome games, as well as providing quality anime-related posts, including tackling the 30-Day Anime Challenge!
• Kuribo of NintendoFigures – It should be no surprise that I love amiibo. Kuribo does a fantastic job providing regular reviews of amiibo, World of Nintendo figurines, and other fun Nintendo collectibles!
• Matt of Nintendobound –  An excellent video game reviewer with a great rating system! He also writes great pieces on his favorite music albums from each month!
• Kris P and Rachel of Double Jump – These sisters are spectacular writers who also regularly update their site with video game features including favorites lists, gaming conversations, and interesting game stories! They’re very entertaining!
• Yvonne/YvoCaro of A Lady and Gaming Plus – I enjoy reading her take on a variety of games, some of which go missed by many gamers. She has quality reviews, features, and a great outlook on life!
• The Gaming Bear of The Gaming Bear – He is not an actual bear, but he plays and writes about video games. He articles are on a wide range of game-related topics, and they’re all entertaining and well-informed! Check out his weekly bites!

Thank You!

Congratulations again to everyone, and a big thanks to everyone who has ever supported me! It means a lot to me, and I’m grateful for people like you!

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!