Month: Aug 2019

Guest Post: Power of Charmix’s thoughts on Winx club: Saving Alfea

On By knight6831In Guest posts, Musings, Winx club4 Comments

 

if you have never heard of the Winx club video games well I hadn’t heard of them either they were a group of 12 video games released between 2005 to 2014 on multiple platforms but what what were they like well the floor is yours Power of Charmix

Winx Club has a lot of different types of merchandise, from clothes to picture books, and the Winx products that I’ve always been most intrigued by are the video games. I know there are lots of Winx games out there, but I personally have only played one of them – Winx Club: Saving Alfea for the Nintendo DS. I recently replayed it for the first time in a while, and I thought I would share my opinion of the game. Is this game a secret legend, or a quickly-forgotten tall tale? Let’s find out.

 

In Saving Alfea, the titular college for fairies is having an anniversary party, and the Winx are trying to gather different decorations and supplies that they need – balloons, lights, music, etc. While the Winx are distracted, Selina takes the opportunity to sneak into the school, in search of an artifact called the Siphonix talisman. She uses her Legendarium creatures to obstruct the Winx and delay them from discovering her scheme. It’s up to the player and the Winx to find out what Selina is planning and stop her before she devises a way to summon Legendarium monsters infinitely. 

 

Saving Alfea is a simplistic, but functional, 2D platformer. The player gets to control all six Winx. In the early levels, you’re forced to play as specific characters, but later you can switch between all the fairies freely. Each level has you playing as a Winx either in her civilian form, or as a Bloomix fairy. 

 

In the civilian levels, you use the B button to jump and A to interact with objects. Pressing Y allows each girl to use their magic for a special ability:

  •  
  • Bloom
  •  can uncover hidden or invisible objects.
  •  
  •  
  • Stella
  •  uses light to destroy normally impassable walls of dark magic.
  •  
  •  
  • Flora
  •  can make certain plants grow, forming either an extra platform to stand on, or a bridge to walk across.
  •  
  •  
  • Musa
  •  causes a spontaneous disco party that is so epic, all of the enemies just have to stop and dance to it for a few seconds, allowing the player to walk past them.
  •  
  •  
  • Tecna
  •  creates a hologram of herself and sends it walking in a different direction, tricking the enemies into attacking it instead of the player.
  •  
  •  
  • Aisha
  •  can cause certain Morphix-covered platforms to move either vertically or horizontally. She also generally has a higher jump than the other Winx.
  •  

 

The special powers all have a recharge time before you can use them again, but it’s not that long of a wait. The goal of the civilian levels is to obtain a certain key item and make your way to the level’s exit. There’s a lot more emphasis on platforming and exploring the levels, and there’s no combat. Your only method of dealing with enemies is to use Musa and Tecna’s abilities. The civilian levels tend to be less linear, and more open to exploration. In addition to the key item, every level in the game has a bonus decoration you can find. These are more hidden in the civilian levels, and a little more straightforward to find when you’re in fairy mode.

 

In the Bloomix levels, most of the platforming elements disappear, due to you being a fairy and being able to just fly over everything. The Y button performs a basic magic beam attack, and the X button lets each Winx use another special skill:

  •  
  • Bloom
  •  unleashes a really powerful fireball attack.
  •  
  •  
  • Stella
  •  releases a burst of light that slows down enemies.
  •  
  •  
  • Flora
  •  summons vines that will immobilize any enemies on the ground or platforms.
  •  
  •  
  • Musa
  •  creates a sound blast that freezes nearby enemies.
  •  
  •  
  • Tecna
  •  summons a techno-shield around herself that prevents her from taking damage for several seconds.
  •  
  •  
  • Aisha
  •  forms a Morphix wall that blocks all enemies and projectiles.
  •  

 

Like the civilian powers, these too require time to recharge after use. The Bloomix levels are much more combat-oriented. Enemies are, quite often, everywhere. There are even segments where you’re trapped in an area and can’t leave until you’ve defeated all the baddies nearby. All of the enemies are various Legendarium monsters from the show, such as the basilisks, the Gloomy Wood trolls, and the pandemonium sprites.

 

The levels are actually really fun to play. The game takes place across four areas – Alfea, Lynphea, Melody, and Zenith. The levels are fairly standard, with no groundbreaking design elements. Despite that, I do like the attention that was given to the spritework and general level design. The Alfea levels are the least creatively designed, but the other levels did surprise me a bit.

 

Aesthetically, the areas look alright, and match the show pretty well. The Alfea levels have you jumping around the outside of the college, Lynphea is full of plants, Melody has a lot of dock-like wood platforms, and Zenith is all futuristic and purple and whatnot. But surprisingly, despite the areas looking different, most of the sprites never look out of place when they’re put inside the various areas. The developers were also smart about where to put their game mechanics. For example, they never put any plants for Flora to grow in the Zenith levels, because having a plant in the techno-world would look very, very weird. Also, one really tiny detail I liked involve the tiny spring pads you see in every level. They actually created separate sprites for the pad in every area – it’s purple on Zenith and green on Melody, and it looks like a small flower on Lynphea. I just found it amusing that the spring was so important, they created three different sprites for it, and just left all the other sprites the same.

 

Speaking of sprites, Saving Alfea looks very nice, especially when you consider the technical limitations of the DS. The backgrounds all evoke the spirit and aesthetic of the show, and look very clean. The sprites of the Winx all look nice, and are animated smoothly. In the cutscenes and the menus, the game uses stock art of the Winx and Selina from season six. I kind of wish they had gotten more than just one piece of art from Rainbow to use, as it can make the cutscenes kind of boring, but it still looks okay. The Legendarium monsters are recreated especially well from their show counterparts. All of the animations are smooth, and I never discovered any major graphical glitches. 

 

The game controls well, and its mechanics are pretty fun. One minor complaint I have is that you have to switch characters using the touch screen, while all the action is happening above. This can be a bit distracting and annoying, especially in the later levels, when you have to switch between characters quite frequently. I can’t really think of a better input for this mechanic, so I can’t complain too much, but it was a little annoying at times.

 

Though the levels are kind of easy at the beginning, they reach a decent amount of difficulty towards the end. It was never excessively hard, but there was actually a bit of challenge, both in the platforming and the combat. I imagine it would be even harder if you were younger and in the game’s target audience. I also like how all of the characters are balanced well – at least, in the civilian modes. Each girl’s special power has its own use, and you have to use all of them to progress. In the Bloomix levels, though,  you can basically play as whoever you want.

 

As you move through the levels, you collect…orange glowing balls, I guess? I don’t know what to call them. Anyway, they form the game’s points system. If you gather enough points, you can get a level up. Each new level comes with a small bonus, such as giving you more health or shortening the recharge time of your special powers.

 

The sound effects are really charming – I especially love the little “pew” that plays when you use your beam attack. The music is also very pleasing to the ear. Three of the six tracks are remixes of other Winx songs – “Winx Rising Up Together”, “Bloomix The Power of The Dragon”, and “The Legendarium World of Mythix”. For the levels on Melody, Zenith, and Lynphea, there are actually original songs – or, at least, songs that I didn’t recognize. They’re all nice to listen to, and fit in with the remixes well. My favorite is the Lynphea song. It’s very peppy and exciting.


Overall, Saving Alfea isn’t a revolutionary game, but I think its goal is to emulate the show, and it does that pretty well. It’s fun to play, and even a little challenging at times, and it looks and sounds very nice. If you see Saving Alfea on sale somewhere, I would definitely recommend that you play it for yourself.

Thank you to Power of Charmix for this brilliant guest post and I’ll admit I have been trying to no avail sadly to get this game but have you play this or any of the 12 winx club video games that have been released and I’ll see you all next time

Review of Winx club 1 x 01: it feels like magic

On By knight6831In Episode reviews, Season 1, Winx club4 Comments

Please note: I watched the 4kids version

over 15 years ago a brand new franchise from Italy began that despite some highs and lows has become a very popular franchise with a lot of fans but now let’s go back to where it all began, does the episode still hold up over a decade and a half later let’s find out

The episode begins by showing the city of Gardenia where Bloom is riding her bike through the streets of Gardenia with her pet Kiko which after saying to mr genaro that she will the scene shifts to the gardenia park where Bloom tells Kiko to go find an acorn that she’ll toss around with him which after she sits down next to her bike taking a bite out of an apple when Kiko rushes back in a panic which Bloom asks if he saw a scary squirrel

In the clearing

Bloom and Kiko find Stella in a fire fight against some ghouls which Stella easily dispatches the ghouls but Knut manages to floor her and he tells the ghouls to bring the scepter that Stella has to him which after Knut has it tells Stella that she’s history when Bloom raises her voice which gets Knut’s attention who attacks her which awakens the dragonflame within her (yeah I know back in the show’s premiere we didn’t know it was the dragonflame but after 15 years winx fans know that it was the dragonflame)

the ghouls charge on Bloom but she destroys them when an orange energy sphere forms around her but one manages to get the drop on kiko however Bloom send it packing with a tree branch.

Stella tells Bloom that she has major winx but before she can explain further, she blasts knut back then wipes the floor with the ghouls however a ghoul manages to bite off a piece of Bloom’s trouser leg before Knut and the remaining ghouls retreat with knut telling Stella that they’ll meet again but she de-transforms moments later

At Bloom’s house

its the next day and Vanessa tries to wake Bloom up but it doesn’t work saying how Bloom pretended to be a fairy but when Vanessa mentions the girl sleeping in the guestroom, Bloom bolts awake getting washed and dressed while sprouting that Stella is Wanda’s cousin and that she’s visiting from far far away, when she gets to breakfast mike tells her that they are going to clean out the garage, she tries to explains to Mike about what Stella is but Vanessa says that Bloom wants to spend the day with her friend and tells Bloom that if she gets the groceries, she be free to spend the rest of the day with Stella

Bloom is walking with her bike when Mitzi suggests she send her bike to the scrapyard but Bloom tells her that her dad bought the bike for her Bloom cycles away telling kiko that if she has powers to remind her to turn Mitzi into a monkey

In a mystery place

Knut walks into somewhere with the Trix who want to know why he failed he explains that he almost had the spectre but thanks to Bloom’s unexpected attack when Icy asks about Bloom, Knut tells them how she beat them but Darcy wants to know what she looks like, Knut doesn’t since he did not have his glasses on which Icy and Darcy berates him for but he tells them that he has a plan on how to find them since one of the ghouls managed to get a piece of Bloom’s clothing so he’ll use a hunter troll to find Bloom and kill her and recover the solaria sceptre

back at Bloom’s house

Mike and Bloom are talking about Stella who has been asleep for 20 hours cause she is a fairy but Mike asks if that’s like a goth but Bloom corrects him by saying real magic and wings but he thinks Bloom is running a fever and wants to call Doctor Silverman but Stella wakes up not realising its night time until Vanessa corrects her

Bloom and Stella introduce themselves to each other but when Vanessa suggest they call Stella’s parents but unfortunately that is not possible due to the distance between earth and solaria but after Stella says she’s from a kingdom called Solaria, Mike wants to call Doctor Silverman thinking Stella and Bloom are seeing things but Stella decides to prove to them that she is telling the truth by turning the house phone into a carrot and lettuce leaving him stumped and Stella explains what happened in the park but when she suggest that she go to Alfea, Mike shuts down the conversation cause he is unsure if sending Bloom is a good idea

In Gardenia

Knut, the hunter troll and 4 ghouls arrive in Gardenia, the troll sniffs the piece of Bloom’s clothing picking up the scent

back at Bloom’s house

Stella and Bloom walk into Bloom’s bedroom who isn’t sure if she has powers but Stella reassures her that she does but her powers have been dormant for too long and reads a book on fairies but when Stella tries to teach her a magic spell it doesn’t work but Stella uses an express portal to show Bloom Alfea

outside 

Knut is following the troll hunter who picks up the scent of both Stella and Bloom but loses it due to them being through the express portal

Outside Alfea

Stella and Bloom look on the alfea college for fairies, Bloom then asks what happens at alfea and tells Bloom about red fountain and who the specialists are and about Cloudtower who then tells Bloom that she invites the specialists over

Back in Gardenia

upon their return, to earth the troll picks up the scent and they go in through the back but Kiko seeing them tries to warn Mike and Vanessa but Mike doesn’t listen so Kiko barricades the door with whatever he can much to Mike’s annoyance but the barricade is not enough to stop the troll who smashes the door down which gets everyone’s attention even Bloom and Stella upstairs who come down after Knut demands to know where Bloom and Stella are, Stella transforms and Bloom leads the ghouls away while Mike and Vanessa slip out the front window but Bloom having lured the ghouls outside but while trying to think of a way deal with them when Knut is blasted out of the house by Stella who herself is knocked through the window by the troll but the specialists show up but Riven’s attempt to restrain the troll don’t work as he ends up getting tossed about landing in between Bloom and Stella as it attacks Sky who blocks with his shield while Brandon creates a chasm in Mike and Vanessa’s front yard and Timmy shoots the troll’s balance who falls into the chasm while riven destroys the ghouls and Bloom and Stella blast Knut from behind who threatens to use a cleaning spell on him that makes him retreat with 2 ghouls while Stella introduces Bloom to the specialists who take the troll into custody and depart after telling Bloom about what is going to happen to the troll

The Next Morning

Mike is cleaning up but Stella offers to clean the whole house with her magic but Mike tells her no but Bloom come down with a suitcase, Mike however wants to know more about Alfea but when she asks her how they will get there so she uses her Solaria ring to teleport them to the hill overlooking Alfea and the episode ends with Bloom, Stella, Vanessa, Mike and Kiko heading towards Alfea

Things i observed

  • the intro and song are unique and do the job of giving you an idea of what the show is 😊
  • hmm so Stella coined the term Winx hmm interesting 🤔
  • “We’d better take her home, she needs major help” I would say take her to the hospital but does gardenia have one? And all the questions she would have answer would be tricky 🤔
  • so Bloom liked stories about fairies interesting🤔
  • if only Vanessa knew how right she was to be about calling her a princess (yeah I know back in the show’s premiere we didn’t know Bloom was the princess of domino but after 15 years winx fans know that by now)
  • who’s Wanda? 🤔
  • “A two wheeled relic to the junk pile” seriously Mitzi bikes are still practical even today 😒
  • Mitzi is so unlikable that all her misfortune later in the series is entertaining 😒
  • “Kiko if I have powers remind me to turn her into a monkey” why hasn’t she done that already 🤔🤣
  • so Knut has vision problems and needs glasses to see
  • Mike’s skepticism is understandable given that to him fairies are a myth but I’ll talk more on that later
  • so is earth is 6 realms away form solaria 🤔
  • an express portal could be useful in tight spots 🤔
  • I find it an odd coincidence the specialists we see in the explanation about red fountain are the Sky, Brandon, Riven and Timmy and cloudtower focuses on the Trix
  • did Stella think to inform Mike and Vanessa about that 😒
  • Riven’s bad attitude is easy to see 😒
  • Seriously Sky openly flirting with a girl you do not know 😒
  • is causing property damage part of training at red fountain? 🤔
  • so the episode ends with the title in the song and a close up shot of Alfea 😊

Overall thoughts

so what did I think of the episode well I thought it was good with great characterisation for Bloom, Stella, Mike and Vanessa, I liked how they used Mike’s skepticism of what was happening, I liked how the story was well paced and the plot was a great way to introduce us to our lead character, it didn’t feel rushed and the voice acting was very good, why I liked Mike’s skepticism was because I could totally see him being skeptical of magic since to him it was all childhood fairy tales and myths but has this episode aged well after 15 years? Well yes and no the story has aged well since I feel the story has aged well since its easy to follow even after 15 years but what hasn’t aged well is the animation it looked primitive and especially with the specialists who looked awful in this style and we have the specialists in the season 8’s animation style which is worse than this but do I recommend this episode yes because the episode is enjoyable and is a good way to get into the older series or can be a fun way to pass over 20 minutes

so I’ll see you all in my next review 😉😉😉

Caption contest announcement & rules

On By knight6831In Announcements, Winx club11 Comments

now fans of the una-di-noi-winx blog should recognise this as the caption contest, i loved it so decided to do one of my own later this year in december and i hope to make this more than just an event for the final month of the year

so the rules of the contest

no.1: The captions cannot include foul or derogatory language
no.2: only one caption per person

I will reveal the screenshot chosen in December but if you want to theorise what image i have planned, i’ll be eager to see your speculation

Memories of Unadinoi-winx

On By knight6831In Personal2 Comments

I apologise for this post being late it took longer than i thought 

March 28th 2019 would have been the 10th anniversary of the Una-di-noi-winx blog but you won’t find it cause it shut down in October of last year for reasons I could understand anyway I found the blog not too long after I started watching Winx club and I looked at that blog every single morning when I woke up to see what people had said on the recent blog posts and the blog was very well designed heck I’d say it was perfect for what it was and the name fit perfectly

 

It’s final day before it shut down was plagued with technical problems like a database error but the next morning I expected it would have gone down by the time I woke up but it was still there until just gone 7am when pages 4 and beyond became inaccessible but I could still read the first 3 pages but by 20 past 8 in the morning the blog became completely unavailable

 

when I was using the blog I enjoyed reading the posts that the admin and guests had put but if I were to say what posts were well done the first were the what if Wednesday’s posts which really went into great detail about topics like places we’ve never seen in Winx club or ways rainbow could develop the specialists and paladins which were very informative but out of all of them my favourite ones were the career for Tecna post which was very detail in covering how Tecna could become a journalist which I could honestly see happening and the post about Musa’s dad remarrying cause the discussion on that was really really interesting to read

 

the next thing I loved about the Una-Di-Noi-Winx blog was caption contest which I wish I had taken part in and I even wanted to submit an entry for the contest which would have been Daphne and Bloom commenting on Diaspro’s failed assassination attempt or even a pic for a caption contest but what really made me like the caption contest was the funny caption users had made for each one seriously I got a few good laughs out of what was written like say for example the caption for the scene from season 6 ep 8 where Tecna was looking at the her new bonded pixie and I quote ‘Who are you and what did you do with Digit’ but my favourite caption had Flora basically reacting to what was her season 8 fairy form which honestly made me smile.

A little side note

“I’ll openly admit I have been considering doing a caption contest at Christmas for a while now but I’m not sure how to do it”

the Thursday have your say was honestly very good cause some of the topics that the admin talked about were very interesting to me like is Aisha a secondary leader and the why Bloom was right to run away and the other topics that Admin talked about were enjoyable to read and very informative

Fanwork Friday was a nice thing on the blog where brilliant fanworks and pieces of fanart could be seen that were very well done my favourite was a fanart of Bloom and Kiko

Admin’s episode reviews were very informative, the admin took time and was very through pointing out things that didn’t work or brought up stuff that others may have missed

onto the Admin’s musings and rants which I liked what the Admin’s musings and rants were since you never knew what the admin would be musing or ranting about it could be anything that the admin had on her mind unfortunately I can’t remember any of them but they were fun to read

now onto All the users I met

so what could I say about the Admin well the admin was very nice and had a lot to say especially about things that she liked and supported and even the things she criticised, she is a very kind person and someone I personally respect and honestly think she is a great blogger and a great person and she brought some anime that I’ve never heard to my attention and I’ll probably look into them at somepoint

Power of Charmix

Charmix is one the nicest user I have had the pleasure to comment with, her winx etymology posts about the meaning of the winxs, specialists and villians’s names were very informative and very well written and I was sad and Charmix is a very respectful commenter who I feel is kind and respectful to whatever she is commenting

Will N

Will was a funny user to talk to but he was serious but my favourite thing about Will was his puns which if I’m being honest are better the puns made by the va for yang from rwby and I really loved the life of posts that he did which were brilliant to read.

Sirenix-winx

well Sirenix-winx is a very nice user who I think has great potential to be one of the best blogger I’ve met, I’ll admit I’ve not read all her blog’s posts given how many pages there are I’d probably not be able to read them and I tried to read all the Una-Di-Noi-Winx blog posts but I couldn’t and recommend her blog

However my biggest regret will always be that I started commenting on the blog 17 months before it shut down because if I had been commenting on it sooner I could have said more and contributed more

If the admin of the blog sees this I hope that they know that they’ve managed to change my opinion on some things about Winx club and I wish the admin of that blog good luck in all future prospects

 

 

 

 

Top 8 openings I like to listen to part 1

On By knight6831In top number listsLeave a comment

The opening intros a thing to try and sell us to watch a show and we all have our favourites so here are mine

Just a quick rule they can be from tv shows, cartoons, animated series and Anime

8. There’s a hero in us all from Ace Lightning
I like this opening cause it opens up like a video game, the characters and who plays them be shown below scenes from the show that are very well done, the transitions to the next who the character is and who’s playing them is a quick swipe but to me what sells this intro is the song by foursquare which fits the show like a glove furthermore this song I feel is reflective of real life cause there can be a hero in us all as a man named Lenny Skutnik proved in 1982 when he jumped into the icy cold potomac river to save a survivor of the crash of Air Florida flight 90

7. Nate is late UK intro
 I like this intro well the lyrics are simple and gets across what the show is all about

6. Action man 1995 intro
I like this intro is because the animation looks good for a cartoon made in 1995, the music is well paced and visual of the intro sequence and shows each of our main character are very well done as is the voice acting heard in the intro but I really like how they transition from animation to the live action version of Action man with the live action stunts that fit the tone of the opening score

5. Power rangers Dino supercharge opening intro
I like this intro well how the intro starts while different is very good, the way the actors are shown with some unmorphed action scenes is a nice way to show who is playing who, the theme song while unchanged from dino charge still gets across that its a power rangers show, the scenes with the megazords are very good cause it’s giant fighting robots which are always awesome, the quick moments showing who the villains are nice touches but the ending of the intro with the poses that lead to the title reveal personally sell that you’re going to enjoy this half hour piece of morning tv which for me who enjoys morning cartoons cause they allow me to relax for half hour before I start my day

Anyway these are my 5th to 8th place of my top 8 openings that I like to listen to, what are your favourite intro title sequences, i’m very curious to see what other intros people like and i’ll see you soon with part 2 of my list