Hi I'm Bubbles! I go by a few names but Bubbles is the one I'm currently going by. I also go by Moo. Feel free to send me a friend request if you want! I don't usually decline them.
I only login once a day at most. I have a full time job and simply don't have time anymore. Please understand that when leaving messages.
In Progress
The Baseball Episode (Editing)
Steven Universe Plot Structure and Worldbuilding Analysis (Finalizing script)
Liar Mask: How Saul Goodman Re-Contextualizes Himself (Writing script)
Pending
SCP 2718 video (pending)
Toradora video idea (pending)
Naruto video idea (pending)
Hunter x Hunter video idea (pending)
Golden Wind video idea (pending)
Attack on Titan video idea (pending)
The Shining, American Psycho, The Thing (1982), 2001: A Space Odyssey, Audition, Psycho, Pulp Fiction, District 9, Raiders of the Lost Ark, Evangelion 1.0: You Are (Not) Alone, Evangelion 2.0: You Can (Not) Advance, End of Evangelion, Army of Darkness, Cowboy Bebop: Knockin' on Heaven's Door, Pan's Labyrinth, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, Whiplash, The Big Lebowski, La La Land, Princess Mononoke, Zootopia, Ed Wood, The Dark Knight, Guardians of the Galaxy, Zombieland, Martyrs, The Big Short, Rec, Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, Star Wars: A New Hope, The Empire Strikes Back, Get Out, Logan, Inglorious Basterds, No Country for Old Men, The Fantastic Mr. Fox, Perfect Blue, Paprika, Shaun of the Dead, Spider-Man: Into the Spider-verse, Isle of Dogs, Where the Wild Things Are, Punch Drunk Love, I Saw the Devil, The Wailing, Django Unchained, Only Yesterday (this is outdated)
Favorite Games: Pokemon Silver, Pokemon Platinum, Pokemon Sun/Moon, Sly Cooper, Crash Bandicoot 1-3, Spyro 3: Year of the Dragon, Spyro the Dragon, BioShock, Deltarune, Kingdom Hearts 2, EarthBound, Mother 3, Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater, Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker, Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance, Guitar Hero 2, Rock Band 3, Majora's Mask, The Wind Waker, Link's Awakening, Super Mario World, Animal Crossing: Wild World, Animal Crossing: New Leaf, Left 4 Dead, Portal, Fallout: New Vegas, Persona Q: Shadow of the Labyrinth, Undertale, Persona 4, Bloodborne, The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, Crash Bandicoot, Night in the Woods
(But action? They can't do action at all. Taboo Tattoo didn't work partially because the source material is garbage, but also because J.C. staff used terrible muddy sound effects during action scenes that ruined the fighting aspect of that show. The same is true of One Punch Man season 2. For one, the sound design in this show is horrendous. The same muddy, unfitting sound effects that I remember from Taboo Tattoo have returned in OPM. The punches lack the oomph needed to connect with the viewer, the building/concrete/rock destruction effects sound like someone tossing some pebbles, and the fire effects (Genos' engine boost sound effect especially) lack the necessary impact to feel satisfying.)
that isn't on the anime studio it's on the sound director which in the end it isn't his fault since the schedule was bad also j.c staff did worked on action shows before (even the first very anime they did was an action ova) a certain magical index , Shakugan no Shana and danmachi and even tabbo tattoo had good action in its first two episodes sadly it didn't keep up that because the schedule was tight as most modern anime that tries to work as fast as possible for streaming services since 2015 to now.
What was your MAL user name before you changed it to MooFC? We chatted for a bit back in 2019 and early 2020 but I can't remember what your old name was.
Yeah…………..it’s pretty clear Sunshine was rushed. I like being in the vibe of the game a lot more than actually doing the objectives. It holds well visually for an 18 year old game, the camera was definitely improved from 64 and the movement controls WITH FLUDD can be very fun to play around with. But I swear one of the hardest parts was literally just moving up on a rotating gear praying you won’t slip off into the death pits, or getting the chucksters to not throw you to the death pits.
I do get Galaxy being too easy (I died a lot as a kid but during a recent replay I got 99 lives before the halfway point), but I think the level design is excellent and a significant step up from Sunshine’s and for a new player like you, is constantly surprising. It’s a very zen game to play for me. So many levels have distinctive atmospheres and soundtracks while still tied to the general space theming.
Out of curiosity how many stars did you get in each game? When replaying 64 and Galaxy, I got every Star but for Sunshine I got to Corona Mountain, got 100 and that’s it. If you hate the game now imagine 100%-ing it. Two of the most busted sections (the Pachinko machine and the lily pad in poison water) are optional challenges. The Blue Coins, what with them being scattered in individual areas with no tracker of how many are in a particular level/mission, really inflate the Shine tally, and unlike Mario 64 where you can do almost any mission to gather the 100 coin star and still complete the level, some Sunshine missions don’t even have 100 coins to get so you can have 80 in your inventory with no choice but to exit the level, and even if you do get 100 you’re booted out of the level. Also Sunshine forcing you to do the first seven missions in every world to reach the end, rather than 64 and Galaxy letting the player choose which 60-70 stars you want, is a comparative sore spot. Galaxy lets you replay the game as Luigi if you do the final boss again with every star, but Sunshine just leaves you a shitty postcard. Intend to buy 3D World + Bowser's Fury? That game has a ton of content and I really doubt you played the original on Wii U.
Danganronpa 2 is my favorite of the series since I think as a whole it has the strongest individual characters and cases, but most fans agree that Case 3 is easily the worst one, just like in V3; thankfully the quality rises after that in the second half of the game. The Danganronpa 3 anime follows off of the first two games, in two series meant to be watched as they aired. The reception to this anime is……………….mixed to say the least, but V3 doesn’t directly follow off the endings of the first two games.
Breath of the Wild is a game that’s very much up to your own decision, presumably in response to Skyward Sword never letting your hand go for hours upon hours, but something that really helped make a statement. Health or Stamina, the sidequests, weapons, Shrines, Divine Beast storylines, the memories, whether you even want the Master Sword? So much of it is organic game design that lets you make choices and discover things with your eyes. The difficulty curve is in reverse for the most part aside from a few specific challenges but building yourself up to that point when you’re ready to tackle Hyrule Castle will still take work and involve getting into risky battles for high tier equipment.
Still in college for two more semesters. Over the summer I’m potentially getting an internship at a company my uncle holds a high position in, so right now I’m just trying to finish it off.
That's a fair point to make. I mean, I don't intend to stop recommending She-Ra to people, since I personally found a lot to admire in it, it lacks the easily seeable acclaim as something like Avatar or Gravity Falls (as in I love those too, but most people know those) and I think some of my other friends I’m suggesting it to might like it more than you. But just because it stuck to me doesn’t mean it’ll stick to everyone. While I've seen more than enough genuinely awful anime I have contempt for, there are numerous anime series I’ve watched that I can acknowledge are generally well-made, well-plotted and accomplished the goals they sought out to do, but they didn’t stick with me. I even acknowledge on Anilist that a couple of the shows I gave really high scores to aren’t in my favorites because they didn’t stick with me as much as the ones I chose, but they are well-made enough to give them props. At least you found things to like and could appreciate. It's not like I pushed say, RWBY on you. You'd probably find loads of things to object to there, even beyond the animation quality, and many things that last the entire series.
Good luck getting a Switch back in order. Hope for the best.
I only had very vague memories of seeing a few episodes of Teen Titans on Cartoon Network as a kid, but given how it’s still in conversation years after, I thought I’d buy the complete series to see, and the results for the most part were mostly pretty good and occasionally real great.
Followed now!
PS: When you said Hordak in the last message did you mean to say Horde Prime? Because Hordak himself lowkey had a pretty solid character arc and his relationship with Entrapta was pleasantly surprising for me.
Side note, I just finished all of the original Teen Titans, and for the most part, I liked it a lot.
Sure, Season 1 has a couple hokey episodes, Season 3's plot arc isn't very good or engaging, and Things Change is completely unnecessary to everything (the show could've ended one episode earlier and no one would have complained) but the rest of the show ranged from pretty enjoyable excitement to genuine investment around Season 2 and 4's plot arc. Lot of creative episodes, fun character moments and mostly exciting action. It really should have ended at Season 4, since I think that was the most definitive ending with the highest stakes. Season 5 was still my third favorite for its tighter plot and focus on side characters, even if the emotional drive is a bit flimsier. Slade's a pretty awesome villain that sells every line, and Trigon has a fitting menace, but other plot villains (as in, not the episodic ones) like Brother Blood and the Brotherhood of Evil were comparatively bland/detached, except Madame Rogue, she's a neat villain, highlighted in one of the show's best episodes "Trust". Other favorites included How Long is Forever, Betrayal/Aftershock, Haunted, Bunny Raven and The End.
I didn’t really think much of the Heart of Etheria beyond the last resort to stop the Horde Prime invasion. I was more invested in what they were building up with Adora’s character arc, Catra’s on her road to self-improvement and the more personal motivation of those who wanted to save their corrupted allies. A friend I talked about the show with really resonated with Catra's story. And I appreciate what they did with Adora here. Each season gradually built up pieces of her arc: turning against her former life, trying to corroborate with her teammates’ various personalities, realizing she wasn’t responsible for others’ anguish if they don’t want to change themselves, actively fighting against being used/abused by higher powers and eventually realizing she has a life worth living and things worth wanting herself. It’s pretty refreshing to see that conflict for her. In most stories with self-sacrificing characters, the character either has to sacrifice themselves and everyone is okay with it (destiny and all) or the character does the sacrifice with the other characters against it but they’re also unable to do anything about it despite that. Here, Adora’s trying to be the martyr, and Mara and Catra are telling her how it’s not only overkill but that she’s giving up her own happiness for the sake of everyone else and that she shouldn’t just accept death as the only option. You know, “Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night?”
I mean, I wouldn’t say they had no arcs, just more intermingled ones. Entrapta’s was about trying to reconcile her obsession with technology with genuinely wanting to connect and open up to people, hence those brief moments of depression or motivation, but mostly I adore her enthusiasm. And Scorpia’s was about learning to accept herself as the great sweet wholesome person she is and stick by someone who can help motivate that side of herself (like Perfuma), deciding to leave Catra when seeing she wouldn’t be able to help with that or respect her as she is now. Those inadequacies were reflected in the Princess Prom episode, and are gradually dissuaded after she finally decides to join the Rebellion, eventually culminating in the scene protecting her newfound friends before being chipped.
As for Horde Prime, since the entire show was showing several characters on Team Villain with various developing moral stances on the totem pole, it seemed only fitting to end on the one character truly beyond redemption (hi White Diamond). Hordak’s last character moment was to effectively defy his god because he, a defective clone looked down upon as an imperfect, was able to form a genuine human connection with someone who accepted those imperfections, something Prime saw as implausible and fleeting. Noelle stated Prime was inspired by suicidal religious cult leaders, and for me personally, he reminds me a lot of Xemnas from Kingdom Hearts, though with a light preference over darkness. An omnipotent cult leader who brainwashes people into believing their emotions aren't real, and that they lack any sense of "self", as a means of spreading their soul into other bodies, putting on a front of all-knowing omnipotence with a deceptively soothing voice only to ham it up later. Props to the voice actor for voicing Hordak, Horde Prime, various clones and Wrong Hordak. The show didn’t choose to end in an epic Shonen battle scene against him, because that’s not where the emotion would be, but rather Adora and Catra completing their respective arcs, to show how natural connection beats out his artificial manipulation through power. He's on the lower end of the character spectrum, but I've seen faaaaaaaaaaaaaaaar worse when it comes to antagonists in anime and cartoons. At least he feels like he serves a thematic point and had proper buildup.
I’m sorry you didn’t like She-Ra’s conclusion as much as I did. Grateful for you seeing it through to the end and being able to enjoy half the show and some of its character arcs. I’m glad you loved Gravity Falls after my year and a half devotion to it payed off exceptionally well. Wander is great and deserved better. Owl House will hopefully not suck in later seasons after the very good start. You may have watched this video or you may not have since I linked it a few times, but I think it helps to show how She-Ra tied various character elements and recurring motifs together in the end to form what I thought was a strong conclusion. https://youtu.be/Uev-yywlBug
And Breaking Bad is pretty sublime and only gets better and better with every season so yeah great choice. Hilariously my roommates and another MAL friend are watching it at the same time! So many iconic moments and excellent character coalescing. When you get to The Fly episode you’ll have to decide whether you think it’s one of the show’s best or worst.
It’s possible to transfer save data through profiles if you have another Switch. Or, you could just, temporarily buy their online service so you can get your save data back through the cloud via signing back into your Nintendo account. If you don’t have to immediately trade in your old one for a new one, you can use this method below. I got a model in early 2017 and have been lucky that drift has rarely affected me, as I’ve used the Pro Controller more often than not. Sunshine is an interesting game; curious to see where you'll stand (just really don't go for 100%) On Mario 64, Bowser's final fight may not be great, but I think the final level, Bowser in the Sky, is fantastic. Sadly Sunshine's final level is surprisingly bad, but the rest of the worlds are nice to run around in. https://en-americas-support.nintendo.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/27394/~/how-to-transfer-user-and-save-data
Crash 4 isn’t on Steam yet, but given N.Sane Trilogy is on there and Activision loves money, it’ll probably only be a matter of time. Of those gimmick levels you mentioned, the only one that returns in Crash 4 is the jetski for portions of two stages, but it works more like the Crash 2’s Hang Eight level than the ones Coco got entire levels for.
Thoughts on Crash Bandicoot 4 now that I've "finished" it. I definitely liked the game a lot; clearly tons of love and passion for it. But trying to get the collectibles can be incredibly straining if you chose to do so.
The presentation is great. Cutscenes really pop and while not laugh out loud funny there are some charming dialogue exchanges. With one exception the boss fights are pretty solid too.
The core gameplay is Crash as you know it, but with much more busy level geometry, longer levels and ambitious ideas that couldn't be done in the PS1 days. There's these four new masks which enhance the platforming; lategame levels REALLY test your utilization of their abilities.
Aside from two brief instances of using the jetski, and two polar bear sections, it's pure platforming all the way. No pure vehicle levels, no jetpack or even slowass monkey bars.
Great level variety. It uses the map system from Crash 1, and has numerous worlds, so it feels like the themes continually escalate without bouncing back and forth between different time periods and locations.
There are three other characters you play as, but they're in line with core Crash gameplay. Most of their sections are optional half-stages.
If you thought getting 100% was tough in the original three GOOD FRUCKING LUCK HERE. Every level in this game has 12 Gems to obtain. Three are for getting 80% of the Wumpa Fruit in a level, one is for getting through a level dying less than 4 times, one is hidden, and one is the break every box gem. And this game almost always has 100+ boxes per level, like 502 in the biggest case. There's also flashback tapes, which let you access specialized levels based around destroying boxes while making your way over a bottomless pit. They're equivalent to Death Routes in the older games, where as the levels go on, they get further and further away meaning you have to try to get through as much of the level as possible without dying once to obtain them. There's also an Inverted mode of every level, which have unique filters per world, like bringing color back to the world, lighting up the dark, feeling like you're underwater, having comic book sound effects, etc. These also have the same 6 Gems. As levels go on, you'll need more and more gems to unlock (purely cosmetic) costumes for Crash and Coco. I didn't even mention Time Relics as well!
They put a Band-Aid over the longer levels and high challenge by letting give yourself infinite lives and providing a drop circle underneath Crash to avoid depth perception issues while jumping.
If you’ve ever heard of a “Flat Arc”, which is an arc where a character does not change, but they exist as a pillar of consistency that doesn’t believe in a lie and is the most stable to spread the truth to others, I think that’s what they were going for with Bow. He’s the glue that holds everyone else together despite their myriad of issues, and is the major character who had the most stable upbringing and least amount of emotional baggage. This goes more into what a “flat arc” means. https://www.helpingwritersbecomeauthors.com/doubt-key-flat-character-arcs/#:~:text=In%20a%20Flat%20Arc%2C%20the,Truth%2C%20has%20things%20figured%20out.
That being said, there are a few strong moments with Bow in the last few episodes. It only lasted one episode, but I do appreciate that the Boys’ Night Out episode helped to show Bow actually being doubtful of his role as the emotional center when his closest friends had their relationship fractured. I do like the Best Friend Squad, the supporting cast for what they are, and think it’s really good at character relationships in general, but I definitely think She-Ra’s best character writing was with the antagonist characters. Most series wish they could have a villain ensemble that well-done, each with very distinctive designs, voices, personalities, moral stances and chemistry with each other. Noelle and her team took seemingly simple ideas like the childhood friend rival turned evil, the big dumb brute, the maniacal scientist and the tyrannical overlord and fleshed them out/twisted them in ways that definitely surprised me. Horde Prime helps round them out by being the one pure evil villain, but still with a slick evil evangelical aesthetic that informs Hordak and the core ideas of the show.
For all intents and purposes I do think that Infinity War and Endgame, while not perfect, were still suitable, well-planned ends for everything they built up over the years. Obviously, they’re gonna milk it for more and from my perspective a lot of the movies have been hit or miss, but I appreciate that you could consider yourself done with the whole shebang after Endgame. The last season of She-Ra funny enough comes off to me as Rise of Skywalker done right. Inside Out and Zootopia are my two favorites from the Disney/Pixar animation team over the latter half of decade. Some people didn’t like Incredibles 2 and while it isn’t quite the original, it still had a lot of strong moments in there.
Crash 4 is a Day 1 buy for me. I’ve seen a few trailers for it to get a general idea and it looks like a lot of passion and creativity was put into the core design/features. They’re doing a lot to make it feel like a true sequel that jumps off from the original trilogy, rather than what its original sequel did (wallow in its past and make up for crunched development by overloading wonky vehicle sections/gimmicks).
To think there was one programmer for Mario 64 who’s whole job was working on the camera system. It’s probably the aspect that’s aged the worst, but it did set the standard for the entire medium to build off, with design remarkable elsewhere. Sunshine and Galaxy have better cameras. Just know that for Sunshine, in order to reach the final boss, you have to complete the first 7 missions of every major level. Everything else is optional. In Galaxy you’re free to collect whatever stars however you like.
“I think its a re-telling?”
Essentially, yes. It’s a story that starts from Episode 2 of the anime series, but instead of timeskipping a lot, it actually makes the journey up Aincrad floor by floor, detailing Kirito and Asuna’s relationship early on more extensively, showing how they try to organize raid parties against floor bosses and smoothing out the broken pacing. I’ve read four of those books and I think, while there is some silly stuff in it, they are better enough and more competent compared to the original SAO season that if Progressive WAS the original SAO, there wouldn’t be anywhere close to as much as a haterbase. It’s my favorite story to come from the franchise, since it doubles down on the series’ strengths while minimizing its weaknesses. Kirito doesn’t get massive offscreen powerups all the time.
"But this part 'slumber party where four female characters all sleep together in a tent around his barely functioning body.' Lmfao does that actually happen? That's hilarious"
On the downside, I finished the newest SAO season and sadly didn’t like it very much. It had its highs, but there was too much wasted potential and frustrating aspects to like it further: https://myanimelist.net/reviews.php?id=356516
On the upside, we’re finally getting Progressive adapted! https://mobile.twitter.com/zerods_/status/1307340564304736257
I’ve read four of the books at this point, and while they’re far from perfect, they’re better enough compared to the original Aincrad that if Progressive was the original SAO anime that came out in 2012, the backlash would be nowhere near as severe.
All Comments (294) Comments
that isn't on the anime studio it's on the sound director which in the end it isn't his fault since the schedule was bad also j.c staff did worked on action shows before (even the first very anime they did was an action ova) a certain magical index , Shakugan no Shana and danmachi and even tabbo tattoo had good action in its first two episodes sadly it didn't keep up that because the schedule was tight as most modern anime that tries to work as fast as possible for streaming services since 2015 to now.
I do get Galaxy being too easy (I died a lot as a kid but during a recent replay I got 99 lives before the halfway point), but I think the level design is excellent and a significant step up from Sunshine’s and for a new player like you, is constantly surprising. It’s a very zen game to play for me. So many levels have distinctive atmospheres and soundtracks while still tied to the general space theming.
Out of curiosity how many stars did you get in each game? When replaying 64 and Galaxy, I got every Star but for Sunshine I got to Corona Mountain, got 100 and that’s it. If you hate the game now imagine 100%-ing it. Two of the most busted sections (the Pachinko machine and the lily pad in poison water) are optional challenges. The Blue Coins, what with them being scattered in individual areas with no tracker of how many are in a particular level/mission, really inflate the Shine tally, and unlike Mario 64 where you can do almost any mission to gather the 100 coin star and still complete the level, some Sunshine missions don’t even have 100 coins to get so you can have 80 in your inventory with no choice but to exit the level, and even if you do get 100 you’re booted out of the level. Also Sunshine forcing you to do the first seven missions in every world to reach the end, rather than 64 and Galaxy letting the player choose which 60-70 stars you want, is a comparative sore spot. Galaxy lets you replay the game as Luigi if you do the final boss again with every star, but Sunshine just leaves you a shitty postcard. Intend to buy 3D World + Bowser's Fury? That game has a ton of content and I really doubt you played the original on Wii U.
Danganronpa 2 is my favorite of the series since I think as a whole it has the strongest individual characters and cases, but most fans agree that Case 3 is easily the worst one, just like in V3; thankfully the quality rises after that in the second half of the game. The Danganronpa 3 anime follows off of the first two games, in two series meant to be watched as they aired. The reception to this anime is……………….mixed to say the least, but V3 doesn’t directly follow off the endings of the first two games.
Breath of the Wild is a game that’s very much up to your own decision, presumably in response to Skyward Sword never letting your hand go for hours upon hours, but something that really helped make a statement. Health or Stamina, the sidequests, weapons, Shrines, Divine Beast storylines, the memories, whether you even want the Master Sword? So much of it is organic game design that lets you make choices and discover things with your eyes. The difficulty curve is in reverse for the most part aside from a few specific challenges but building yourself up to that point when you’re ready to tackle Hyrule Castle will still take work and involve getting into risky battles for high tier equipment.
That's a fair point to make. I mean, I don't intend to stop recommending She-Ra to people, since I personally found a lot to admire in it, it lacks the easily seeable acclaim as something like Avatar or Gravity Falls (as in I love those too, but most people know those) and I think some of my other friends I’m suggesting it to might like it more than you. But just because it stuck to me doesn’t mean it’ll stick to everyone. While I've seen more than enough genuinely awful anime I have contempt for, there are numerous anime series I’ve watched that I can acknowledge are generally well-made, well-plotted and accomplished the goals they sought out to do, but they didn’t stick with me. I even acknowledge on Anilist that a couple of the shows I gave really high scores to aren’t in my favorites because they didn’t stick with me as much as the ones I chose, but they are well-made enough to give them props. At least you found things to like and could appreciate. It's not like I pushed say, RWBY on you. You'd probably find loads of things to object to there, even beyond the animation quality, and many things that last the entire series.
Good luck getting a Switch back in order. Hope for the best.
I only had very vague memories of seeing a few episodes of Teen Titans on Cartoon Network as a kid, but given how it’s still in conversation years after, I thought I’d buy the complete series to see, and the results for the most part were mostly pretty good and occasionally real great.
Followed now!
PS: When you said Hordak in the last message did you mean to say Horde Prime? Because Hordak himself lowkey had a pretty solid character arc and his relationship with Entrapta was pleasantly surprising for me.
Sure, Season 1 has a couple hokey episodes, Season 3's plot arc isn't very good or engaging, and Things Change is completely unnecessary to everything (the show could've ended one episode earlier and no one would have complained) but the rest of the show ranged from pretty enjoyable excitement to genuine investment around Season 2 and 4's plot arc. Lot of creative episodes, fun character moments and mostly exciting action. It really should have ended at Season 4, since I think that was the most definitive ending with the highest stakes. Season 5 was still my third favorite for its tighter plot and focus on side characters, even if the emotional drive is a bit flimsier. Slade's a pretty awesome villain that sells every line, and Trigon has a fitting menace, but other plot villains (as in, not the episodic ones) like Brother Blood and the Brotherhood of Evil were comparatively bland/detached, except Madame Rogue, she's a neat villain, highlighted in one of the show's best episodes "Trust". Other favorites included How Long is Forever, Betrayal/Aftershock, Haunted, Bunny Raven and The End.
And Breaking Bad is pretty sublime and only gets better and better with every season so yeah great choice. Hilariously my roommates and another MAL friend are watching it at the same time! So many iconic moments and excellent character coalescing. When you get to The Fly episode you’ll have to decide whether you think it’s one of the show’s best or worst.
It’s possible to transfer save data through profiles if you have another Switch. Or, you could just, temporarily buy their online service so you can get your save data back through the cloud via signing back into your Nintendo account. If you don’t have to immediately trade in your old one for a new one, you can use this method below. I got a model in early 2017 and have been lucky that drift has rarely affected me, as I’ve used the Pro Controller more often than not. Sunshine is an interesting game; curious to see where you'll stand (just really don't go for 100%) On Mario 64, Bowser's final fight may not be great, but I think the final level, Bowser in the Sky, is fantastic. Sadly Sunshine's final level is surprisingly bad, but the rest of the worlds are nice to run around in.
https://en-americas-support.nintendo.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/27394/~/how-to-transfer-user-and-save-data
Crash 4 isn’t on Steam yet, but given N.Sane Trilogy is on there and Activision loves money, it’ll probably only be a matter of time. Of those gimmick levels you mentioned, the only one that returns in Crash 4 is the jetski for portions of two stages, but it works more like the Crash 2’s Hang Eight level than the ones Coco got entire levels for.
https://myanimelist.net/reviews.php?id=356516
On the upside, we’re finally getting Progressive adapted!
https://mobile.twitter.com/zerods_/status/1307340564304736257
I’ve read four of the books at this point, and while they’re far from perfect, they’re better enough compared to the original Aincrad that if Progressive was the original SAO anime that came out in 2012, the backlash would be nowhere near as severe.