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Mailbag
Welcome to the Detstar Mailbag. Here's the
deal: Send in whatever you like, and I'll post a bunch of random stuff.
I welcome your discoveries and questions too, so ask away.
Mailbag Archives:
Current Mailbag: May 2, 2008
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June 21, 2006
June 5, 2006
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May 15, 2006 (F-Zero GX Special)
May 13, 2006
>>More...
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Diary
of a Madman...
 As
most people know, I'm a big fan of hidden details in games... That's
why I'm surprised that it took me until now to notice that Lenny
Oldburn from TimeSplitters FuturePerfect is a tribute to
Ozzy Osbourne. I think I noticed it subconsciously, but I never
made the connection... Is it just me or does that severed limb look
like a real axe? "ROCK AND ROLL!"
If you have any rocking discoveries or burning questions, send 'em
in.
(If you're sending a headless bat, please include it as an attachment)
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LETTER OF THE WEEK:
 Thought
you’d be interested in this fully 3d editor for Goldeneye.
But a side effect of the whole process is that there are a ton more
beta things than we ever even knew. Tons of unused presets that
you can tell what object they were.
http://www.rarewitchproject.com/specials.php?id=geeditor2
Someone else has used the editor and
made a list of beta objects (not many with pictures yet, originally
he will release setups of “beta forms”:
http://wiki.dotshell.net/index.php?title=Beta_Documentation
That's amazing...
I almost can't believe what I'm seeing.
Seven years ago, this stuff would have sounded insanely impossible.
You guys never cease to amaze me...
As for the objects, I'm particularly interested in the Scientists
with D5Ks...
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 Ever since I've stumbled upon
this site, I've loved it. I've studied your Melee
section extensively, and pretty much every other section with
Mario or Zelda content. Super Smash Brothers Brawl,
as Sakuri has stated, will probably be his last SSB.
We're seeing many characters that only existed in wet fanboy
dreams accepted. I myself was greatly pleased at the announcement
of Meta Knight, Pit, and Wario. This has led me to believe
that every series will have more than one representative (except
the retro series and new ones like Wario). Many of these are
obvious, as the Donkey Kong, Metroid, and F-Zero series have
heavy support with Diddy Kong, Ridley/Dark Samus, and Samurai
Goroh, respectively.
However, two of these series
just stump me: Yoshi and Earthbound. Yoshi is a decently small
series that many confuse with the regular Mario series. Earthbound,
although now popular, was originally considered a retro series.
Even Ness was going to be removed by the protagonist of Mother
3 for Melee, but wasn't due to the game's cancellation. Therefore,
I'm just unsure on if my theory will be correct, and if we'll
see if more representation.
For Yoshi, Baby Mario, Baby Bowser, and Kamek come to mind,
but none of these sound like completely powerful contenders.
Many consider that Poo will be the second coming of Earthbound,
but I'm not exactly sure he can surpass Flint & Boney,
or even if that duo will get in. I'm just wondering what your
personal opinion on this situation is. Thank you, and keep
up the good work.
I have
a feeling we'll see more characters from Mario/Yoshi games than
from Earthbound. But from the Yoshi series, you're right - It's
hard to think of a really high impact character. Kamek was about
the most interesting character I could come up with... But if
he's designed correctly, Kamek's wizardry could make him become
a crafty character. And although I can't really picture any
additional Earthbound characters in BRAWL, somehow Poo seems
most likely. |
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 Dear
Deterest, PLEASE HELP ME!!! I CAN'T BEAT ALL-STAR ON VERY HARD!!!
Please give me any info you have that can help me win. Three heart
containers just isn't enough!!! If I beat this I will have completely
beat the game!!! I need that mew trophy. So if you could find it
in the kindness of your soul to help a fellow SSBM
fan out, please reply.
All-Star Mode on Very Hard is certainly
no picnic. It's important to avoid taking as much damage as possible.
Sure, it's easier said than done... But when you're outmatched against
2 or 3 opponents, you really take a beating. I try to keep all enemies
to one side, and try to deliver smash attacks at the group while
constantly tossing items at them. As soon as they move in, I jump
back (or even double roll backwards) to regroup and re-launch my
attack.
If you have
a character with projectiles, hitting an opponent with something
will often set you up for a good smash attack.
You also need
to become good really with your chosen character. Know all of the
moves that are available, which ones take the longest time to pull
off, which ones cause the most damage, and which ones can quickly
get you out of a jam... Also, get to know what your rival characters
look like when they're performing their moves... If you learn to
recognize and anticipate the delay time for some of their failed
attacks, you can rush in and score a free shot. Timing is everything.
It's also helpful to know which attacks will instantly KO a foe
when they have enough damage. My best character is Link, and I know
that when an enemy has 140% damage, Link's aerial A+down or A+up
is usually enough to send a foe flying off the screen. Mewtwo's
aerial forward + A can also be lethal at about 140%.
Meteor smashes
and spikes can be another good tactic, especially if you want to
KO a foe prematurely and end the match... Falco's aerial A+down
is highly effective when used anywhere near a ledge because it tends
to throw characters diagonally away from you for an easy KO.
Hopefully
some of those tips are useful to you...
Keep trying, and good luck.
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 The
new Pokemon I'd like 2 see (in Super Smash Bros BRAWL)
are blaziken, eevee (evolutions of eevee too) and alakazam! what
do ya think?
Blaziken is certainly a popular choice
from Smash fans...
I'd have to say that both Blaziken and Alakazam probably stand a
better chance than Eevee. (Eevee doesn't look nearly dangerous enough
to me...)
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 G'day.
You are probably sick of praise by now so I'll just limit
myself to a simple "top site!" and that will be
all. Now for some quick questions...
1. In Goldeneye
I have myself a Action Replay (Australian PAL version) and
have tried to get to the island. However whenever I activate
the code either I get to the docks and nothing happens or
when the level first loads up everything (being ground, buildings,
guards trucks and more) disappear leaving Bond floating in
eternal limbo. What have I done wrong? Also, where exactly
am I supposed to stand on the dock for the code to work?
2. Moving on to Melee
and I was looking through the sound test menu and listened
to the narrators lot and discovered that he says Giga Bowser
(No 50) Fighting Wire Frames (No 45) and Master Hand (no 64).
What's strange is that I haven't heard these used in the game
and that these sound FX are mixed in with all the other characters
names. Does this mean that maybe one or more could have been
unlocked before being ditched or is this just a little something
else? (These numbers are from the Aussie version, could be
different where you come from)
I never
get tired of receiving positive comments... It helps provide
some balance between "You need to update more often!"
and "You should add (insert random game here)".
Having never used the PAL Action Replay device, I'm not sure
if the code behaves exactly the same way as the Gameshark
code or not. In Goldeneye's Dam, I normally activate the no
clipping code (with L&R) when I'm facing the island, on
the left-most part of the dock. (just out side the entrance
of the guard tower)
It's a bit strange that Melee has audio files dedicated to
some of the "unplayable" characters. While I don't
think they were ever playable, the announcer's voice may have
been recorded for every single character in a single sitting,
just so they'd be available if needed.
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 (In
Super Smash Bros BRAWL) The special Attacks for Petey
Piranha could be:
O: Poison Breath. He breaths poison breath to poison someone.
O>:Chomp. He chomps someone for 1-15 sec. depending on the damage.
OV:Thorns. He makes sharp thorns to come out of the ground to damage
someone for 2 sec.
O^:Mud Sprout: He puts his head down first and gets mud out of his
mouth to go upward.
SUPER SMASH ATTACK: Vine Crush. He summons HUGE vines everywhere out
of the ground to attack everybody.
I definitely
think that Petey would make an interesting character. I can picture
a clever animation of him quickly clambering around with his vines,
a bit like a playful (yet vicious) puppy.
Although he made a great addition to Mario Kart Double Dash, without
the ability to punch or kick, they'd need to get creative with the
rest of his moves. His nasty set of teeth would likely be a big part
of his game... |
 When
I was playing a match with my sister in big blue, she opened a pokeball
and Weezing popped out and after saying its name, it flew away super
fast. We were laughing for a llllooonnnggg time. It was just so funny.
Also, I love your site.
The speedy Big
Blue stage seems to catch some Pokémon off guard. Some of them
are whisked out of sight before they can even announce their presence.
I've also seen it happen with Zapdos, and the wing of Moltres is barely
visible in this screenshot as he flies off screen. |
I want to see Mario kissing Peach
Although I'm sure someone out there will prove me wrong, I
don't think it's possible to get a believable "kiss"
pose between Peach and Mario... Mario's nose is so big that
it rams right through Peach's forehead, which looks kinda
freaky... This still was the best one I could capture.
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 Dear
Det,
I have more Goldeneye related stuff to share with
you, including another lesser-known Goldeneye secret.
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 In
the train on agent mode, you can actually avoid Ourumov, just
like you can avoid Jaws in the Aztec level, as someone else
has shown you. The video is here:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=MGz51jyBzsU
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 It's
a bit of a glitch, and it would be impossible on 00 Agent difficulty...
But it's still cool nonetheless.
Bond escapes so fast that Ourumov doesn't shoot Natalya, so
she's technically still alive during the escape. The escape
artist managed to work so quickly that Bond doesn't fail the
mission...
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 After
007 slips through the floor without saving Natalya, there's
also some dialogue from Trevelyan that I've never seen before...
"Come on James, don't try to be clever. Make your move"
If you simply leave the exit the train car through the door
(Gameshark), Trevelyan says "Leaving
so Soon James? I don't think so." (After which they kill
Natalya) |
The other two are rare moments that occurred while playing Goldeneye
a while ago. In the facility, once when I was playing a while ago
(I had throwing knives mode on, although I don't think that at all
contributed to it), I jumped out the vent without killing the guard,
I just wanted to get him later. Then I killed the three other soldiers
as usual, then when I opened the door to the first dude's stall, he
was just about to pull a grenade on me before I shot him, also giving
me a grenade since I shot him before he could pull the pin. I assure,
this has never happened to me any other time (and there was a period
when I used to play without knocking him off from the vent above like
many people do before I just stuck to the knocking off trick), just
that one time a while ago, and I probably wouldn't expect that happened
to too many other people either, if any at all.
It's impossible to predict when a guard will
pull a grenade. It happens frequently in Aztec on 00 Agent, but only
seems to happen from time to time on other stages. I've had a grenade
explode in the bathroom, which proves that the guards know how to
get down to business.
Another rare Facility incident (again with cheats, but again I don't
think those cheats contributed) is when I got a scientist mad in AGENT
mode. I decided to mess around while outside labs in the main laboratory
area preceding the bottling room, and I shot a scientist's leg once
through the window, and holy crap! Even though I was outside his lab,
he just started chucking grenades wildly, killing another scientist
as well I think, again that was the only time I got a scientist mad
in agent mode. As with the bathroom guard with the grenade incident,
I am willing to bet that this has not happened to anybody else who
played the game. Just felt like this was some interesting stuff. to
share, until next time!
A scientist will pull a gun on you if you've shot him twice, and a
scientist normally won't survive two gunshot wounds on Agent Mode...
But if you're using the Klobb (which is just slightly more powerful
than a BB gun), you can get make a mad Scientist. |
|  How long did it take you to unlock
every character (in Super Smash Bros Melee)?
It took me about a month.
I had to check
my game data because I bought my GameCube in early April of 2002...
And according to my game, I had unlocked every character by April
8, 2002. So, I'd say it took about a week.
Since I was between jobs, I actually had time to PLAY the game. Sure,
it was rather foolish to drop a wad of cash on a video game system
at the time... Looking back now, I wonder if it was it better to have
fun, or if I should have actually tried to accomplish something with
my life... Ha! Yeah, right. |
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 Free
Item (in Super Smash Bros Melee): If you use Peaches
B+Down, every 1 min. 30 sec. you pull it out, an item comes out.
It's a well
known trick, but I don't think it goes by the clock - It appears
to be completely random. In three test matches, I pulled two items
in each match. But the third match yielded absolutely no items.
In a normal match, you wouldn't be able to spend an entire match
pulling up veggies, but in my 3 test matches, I pulled two Mr. Saturns
in the first match, a Beam Sword and a Bob-omb in the second, with
the third match yielding absolutely no items. Of course, the really
good items are pretty rare...
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