Why The "House of Skulltula" Sidequest Reward SUCKS

So, I've been replaying Ocarina of Time and Majora's Mask - of course opting for the portable remakes on the 3DS - and something really, *really* pissed me off.

Fans of the game will already no doubt be aware of the House of Skulltula in Kakariko Village from Ocarina of Time. The apparently wealthy family have all been cursed and disfigured into weird spider-human hybrid creatures. The only way to save them is to seek out and destroy the 100 Golden Skulltulas that are hidden throughout Hyrule - some you must defeat in the past as a child, some you must defeat in the future as an adult.

Each time you defeat 10 Skulltulas, one of the five children will be turned back to normal and will present you with a gift. 10 for the first, 20 for the second etc. Their father requires all 100 to have been destroyed before he turns back to normal.

So why does this sidequest piss me off so much? Well, to put it simply - you spent virtually the entire game destroying these damn things, backtracking, time-travelling, warping, riding magic beanstalks and playing the Sun's Song until your fingers fall off - you crawl back to Kakariko Village clutching the 100 shiny Golden Skulltula tokens, only for the patriarch of the family to present you with...

A huge rupee. 200 rupees. Are you fucking serious.

The five children all give you fairly decent rewards - the adult and giant wallets are pretty cool, the piece of heart is always welcomed, the Stone/Shard of Agony is awesome - the Bombchus are kinda meh but still an acceptable prize - why the hell does their father, who to rescue might I add you need to defeat another FIFTY Golden Skulltulas then proceed to present you with the shittiest and most useless reward ever?

By the time you've defeated all 100 Golden Skulltulas, you've quite clearly finished the Spirit Temple - you're 95% of the way through the game. Guaranteed if you're a completionist you'll have already collected all of the heart pieces, bottles and whatnot - and no doubt you're walking around with an overflowing giant's wallet with fuck all to spend your 500 rupees on. So WHY does this moron feel the need to present you with 200 fucking rupees?!

To be honest, I always find rupees in Zelda games to be absolutely terrible quest rewards. You find rupees from cutting grass, killing enemies, winning mini-games and finding hidden treasure chests - there is absolutely no need whatsoever to complete practically a game-long quest to collect (or destroy in this case) ONE HUNDRED well-hidden things just to be blindly given more money!

I mean sure, this *might* have been acceptable in Majora's Mask - after all, you're tasked with amassing 5000 rupees in your savings in order to earn a heart piece... And of course due to the 3-day repeating mechanic, you're often tasked with needing to re-buy items instead of wasting time harvesting them. Items also tend to be more expensive in general - like the Goron Powder Kegs that cost 100 rupees (and you'll need several of them in order to complete all of the sidequests) and the 500 rupee All-Night Mask. The most expensive thing in Ocarina of Time are the Goron/Zora tunics from their respective merchants - which you'll only need to buy if you were careless and let a bastard Like-Like eat your clothes.

Again I compare this to the far superior game, Majora's Mask and its "big" sidequest if you like - collecting all of the masks and trading them with the children on the moon for the Fierce Deity Mask. Sure, this is an optional item - but it's also totally fucking awesome. It's immensely satisfying to be rewarded for your dedication by being handed what is essentially a giant FUCK YOU button to the final boss - making it insultingly easy. 

What the hell is 200 rupees going to do against Ganondorf? Such a missed opportunity here to do something similar - or even redirect the final Great Fairy's defense upgrade reward - which also comes far too bloody late in the game to be of any real use - but is certainly more useful than pointless money that wouldn't even fit in my wallet.

Animal Crossing: New Leaf - Weed Pulling Badges Made Easy!

Phineas' badges were a welcome addition to Animal Crossing: New Leaf and something I really enjoyed striving towards. Admittedly some of them are just simply outrageously time-consuming and difficult, the majority of them will come naturally as you become addicted and sacrifice days, weeks, months, years of your life to your own town and its residents.

One badge that seems to really annoy people is the one for pulling weeds. Weeds appear daily in your town (as long as you haven't enacted the Beautiful Town ordinance) and can be plucked with B. At first the badge seems easy - especially if you could visit a dream town that's overrun with weeds? Well no, you can't. They have to be in either yours or a friends' town - and weeds seem to be scarce now the Beautiful Town ordinance is a thing.

So allow me to share my method - the somewhat less time-consuming and actually quite cost effective methods of farming and plucking "weeds."

1. Talk to Kapp'n and pay 1000 bells to visit the Island.
2. Talk to Leilani and go on a tour - I recommend either bug catching or fishing. Do not pick item matching, ore collecting or fossil matching, these won't work.
3. While catching bugs/fish, pick up the flowers that are dotted around - fill your inventory
4. Finish the tour, put the flowers in the drop-off box.
5. You will have enough space for another full inventory and a few more - so complete 2 more tours. Any flowers you can't fit in the drop-off box, plant outside on your island.
6. Once your box is full, return to your town. Open the drop-off box, fill your inventory with flowers and plant them all over your beach. 
7. If you want to get the badges even faster, put away any hybrids or flowers you want to keep in storage and cover your whole town with these flowers.
8. Talk to Isabelle and pick any ordinance EXCEPT beautiful town - we want these flowers to wilt, so ignore them, don't water them and don't trample them.
9. Either wait or skip your DS clock forward a day - many of these flowers will have wilted. Wilted flowers are classed as WEEDS. Pluck the wilted ones and replace them with fresh ones from the Island.
10. Repeat this process until you've managed to pluck FIVE THOUSAND wilted flowers. Hey, it's quicker than plucking 1-4 weeds each day!

Luigi's Mansion - Speedy Spirits (Blue Ghosts) Guide

Here is a little guide I've put together in order to help you find and capture all 15 of the Speedy Spirits (A.K.A. "Blue Ghosts") hidden throughout Luigi's Mansion.

Bear in mind, it must be dark in order for Speedy Spirits to spawn, and some can only be captured during the blackout.

Spirit #1
Wardrobe Room

To find the first Speedy Spirit, simply tap on the wardrobe on the far-right of the room.

Spirit #2
Study

To find the second Speedy Spirit, tap on Neville's chair behind his desk. Before attempting to get this spirit, make sure to vacuum up the flying books.

Spirit #3
Breaker Room

To find the third Speedy Spirit, tap on the table on the far-left of the room.

Spirit #4
Storage Room

To find the fourth Speedy Spirit, tap on the chair closest to the door.

Spirit #5
Dining Room

To find the fifth Speedy Spirit, tap on the cabinet on the left side of the room.

Spirit #6
Kitchen

To find the sixth Speedy Spirit, tap on the dishwasher on the left side of the room.

Spirit #7
Gym

To find the seveneth Speedy Spirit, tap on the exercise bike closest to the front wall.

Spirit #8
Nana's Room

To find the eighth Speedy Spirit, tap on the armchair on the right side of the room.

Spirit #9
Billiards Room

To find the ninth Speedy Spirit, tap on the chair in the corner of the room. This must be done while Slim Bankshot is there.

Spirit #10
Twins' Room

To find the tenth Speedy Spirit, suck the top bunk with your vacuum.

Spirit #11
Music Room (During Blackout)

To find the eleventh Speedy Spirit, tap the pianist's chair.

Spirit #12
Hidden Room (During Blackout)

To find the twelfth Speedy Spirit, tap the chest on the far right.

Spirit #13
Nursery (During Blackout)

To find the thirteenth Speedy Spirit, tap on the crib.

Spirit #14
Cellar

To find the fourteenth Speedy Spirit, tap on the crate beside the door.

Spirit #15
Sealed Room

To find the fifteenth Speedy Spirit, tap the chest closest to the banister.

Luigi's Mansion - Golden Mice Guide

Here is a little guide I've put together in order to help you find and capture all 10 of the elusive golden mice hidden throughout Luigi's Mansion.

Bear in mind, it must be dark in order for golden mice to spawn - so if you miss one, you will get a second chance during the blackout.

Mouse #1
Study
Cheese Mouse

Mouse #1 is found in area 1, in the study. Behind Neville's chair at the desk, there is a hunk of cheese. Examine it to make the mouse appear.

Mouse #2
1F Corridor
Spawn Mouse

Mouse #2 is found in area 2, in the 1F corridor at the T-shaped part of the corridor. Simply enter and exit over and over until the mouse appears.

Mouse #3
Fortune Teller's Room
Cheese Mouse

Mouse #3 is found in area 2, in the Fortune Teller's Room. Behind her chair is a lump of cheese. Examine it to make the mouse appear.

Mouse #4
Dining Room
Cheese Mouse

Mouse #4 is found in area 2, in the Dining Room. Under one of the chairs is a lump of cheese. Examine it to make the mouse appear.

Mouse #5
Kitchen
Spawn Mouse

Mouse #5 is found in area 2, in the kitchen. Simply enter and exit over and over until the mouse appears.

Mouse #6
Tea Room
Cheese Mouse

Mouse #6 is found in area 3, in the tea room. Under one of the chairs is a lump of cheese. Examine it to make the mouse appear.

Mouse #7
Tea Room
Spawn Mouse

Mouse #7 is found in area 3, in the tea room. Simply enter and exit over and over until the mouse appears.

Mouse #8
2F Corridor
Spawn Mouse

Mouse #8 is found in area 3, in the 2F corridor. Simply enter and exit over and over until the mouse appears.

Mouse #9
Safari Room
Cheese Mouse

Mouse #9 is found in area 3, in the Safari Room. Behind the armchair is a lump of cheese. Examine it to make the mouse appear.

Mouse #10
Sealed Room
Spawn Mouse

Mouse #10 is found in area 3, in the sealed room. If the mouse doesn't spawn the first time, you will need to use the mirror to leave, then drop down the chimney again.

Unboxing: Japanese Pokémon Candy

Today I'm going to show you a pair of Pokémon candy/snacks I received from Japan! One is a box of "milk candy," and the other is a Kinder-Surprise style chocolate egg.

Firstly, I had a box of "milk candy." The packaging on this was just amazing - styled after a Master Ball, which even opened up like one once the seal had been broken!

On the inside of the lid, there was a little maze-style puzzle. Under the bag of snacks, I found a collectible sticker - holographic too! The one I got was Mega Blaziken - and it came with some stats on the back - naturally I have no clue what it says, as I don't speak or read Japanese!

To be honest; the snacks themselves were a little disappointing. They tasted like Golden Nuggets cereal that someone had left open for several months. They had a slight crunch to them, but once they were wet in your mouth, they quickly disintegrated into nothing.

Here's some close-ups of the packaging:

(Click to enlarge!)

Front view of the package

Back view of the package - including a sample of the stickers that are available to collect

Side views of the packaging

The puzzle printed on the inside of the packaging

Sticker and packaging that was found inside

Front and back of collectable sticker

Inner bag

Close-ups of the snacks

Next, I had a chocolate surprise egg. It was rather a small box - and didn't come with any bonus goodies inside, but of course, the main prize was inside the chocolate egg itself!

The chocolate was pretty good, a mixture of sweet and creamy and yet it had a mildness to it - like it was a candy specifically made for children. Well duh. :)

The figure inside, according to my Twitter followers is Zygarde 10% Forme. It was fairly simple to build and comes with a nice display stand - which personally I don't think it needs, as it can stand on its own feet - but perhaps other figurines in the set can't.

I'm feeling a little hacked off, as one of the available figures was ESPEON - my FAVOURITE Pokémon - but noooo, I couldn't get that one, could I?!

Here's some close-ups of the packaging:

(Click to enlarge!)

Front view of the packaging

Side views of the packaging

Top view of the packaging

Back of the packaging - lots of Japanese text!

The foil wrapper from the egg itself

Close-up of the figurine

Side views of the figurine

The assembly instructions and list of other available figurines

And finally, here's my full unboxing video: