Every time I see the mother with the child I burst out laughing because: 1) the mother reminds me of a Karen, 2) they remind me of an American tourist I saw, when I visited Pompei, who was using a leash to keep her son at bay and under control. I was sto WTF??? the first time I saw it and apparently it's a thing there, lol.

I love how in the first seven seconds of the animation the mother looks unbothered by the chase, she didn't even notice that someone is running from another person trying to kill him XD. This speaks volume on her attention level in case her son gets lost. I like the slightly blurred background behind Nene at 00:10, it gives a depth feeling. I still remember the first part of Pico Vs Nene and I can see the improvement in both fluidity of animation, use of shading and more dynamic movements. The level of enjoyment is always the same: quite high and enjoyable.

It's interesting that here Pico doesn't use his Mac-10 UZI, unlike the official FNF cutscene, but prefers to defend himself but it's understandable since Nene had taken them away with that knife attack in the first video. In the first video I liked the use of your sona as a bystander in the final shot as way to represent a continuation of the first part. And now we can see it in its fully-fledged version.

Even though the combat animation seems a bit stiff at times (00:41) overall it does a great job of conveying the physicality of combat. It makes you feel every single blow, slash and parry with your eyes. I liked how at 00:51 the animation gives you the impression that Nene is about to win but then the change of angle shows that luckily Pico dodged the blow, saving himself. Lol, the silhouette of Pico at 00:59 was funny.

I like how the video combines seriousness with silliness typical of these characters XD

Nice reference to the original cutscene where Pico runs away from Nene and bumped into something or someone like in this case. I admit I thought it was Darnell when I saw him colliding with the black boy. Nene's face at 01:15 is absolutely priceless and creepy in her cartoony look, nice use of lights and shadows. The change in attitude when she saw the bottle of soda is beautiful, it shows well how FNF Nene is highly dangerous, funny but it's also better to stay away from her if you rub her the wrong way.

The music choice is spot on and I loved the most the music battle and the song when Nene enjoyed the sprite with Pico. The black guy is more than right to be pissed off, I would have reacted the same way but then I couldn't help but to laugh at seeing Nene's reaction again. Rest in peace, guy. I felt bad for him.

I loved this continuation of the first part and how it ended, minus the poor guy's death XD, I hope next time Pico doesn't drink last sprite and shares it with Nene. Great job, cool animation, nice musical pieces and congrats for the Daily Feature! Keep it up!

This is probably one of the animations I love the most for the February month. I keep watching and re-watching it over and over to the point I almost memorized the lyrics. The animation is very rhythmic (pun intended), fluid and dynamic. I compared it to the original gameplay and I really like the rendition of this animation. It really does justice to the game itself. The fact that it is a remake of an old animation made 10 years ago, makes this video even more beautiful and enjoyable. The old animation is also very nice and if you look at it with the perspective of 10 years in the future, you can see it as a storyboard for this animation. Lately I'm discovering the character of PaRappa and the more I look at him (between fanart and gameplay) the more I love him, and this animation does nothing but make me love the character even more!

Every time I see PaRappa move like that at 00:16 I laugh like crazy XD the absent-minded expression on his face is too funny XD like he was lost in his own world and was barely listening to the basic requests. In fact, even Instructor Mooselini's face says it all and confirms what I think. I also love how a few seconds into the song, the hood of the car flies off, revealing the steering wheels and the blue and red gas and brake pedals. I found it funny as heck. My favourite line of the song is of course this:

"When I say boom boom boom, you say bam bam bam! No pause in between, come on, let's jam!"

It's interesting how in the game stage, bad mode the instrumental shifts from G major to E minor, giving it a more depressing tone, and an additional descending piano tune plays. The camera switches to a first-person view, showing how PaRappa is swerving the car left and right. Road signs are replaced with a "SLIPPERY ROAD" sign and a "DETOUR" sign on top, reflecting the driving difficulties.

The part I loved the most was at 00:26 when PaRappa breaks the steering wheel, detaching it XD so silly.

Fun fact: Mooselini appears as cameo in a comic from The Amazing World of Gumball.
https://static.wikia.nocookie.net/parappatherapper/images/5/52/Mooselinicameo.jpg/revision/latest/scale-to-width-down/1000?cb=20210605132536

This whole video is a mix of fun, silliness and talent. The animation movements seem to follow the types of movements when a person drives, such as changing gears. The colors are vibrant and the whole animation is really well done. Congratulations to both Frontpage and Daily 5th Place, well deserved!

This is a really lovely animation and I want to inaugurate my 100th review by sharing my two cents on this. I like how fluid animation is, the overall ambience and simple but funny plot. When I first read the title I thought about a simple fish animation with no plot but then I was glad to be wrong. I enjoyed it despite its short duration. I like how the small, little, yellow fish manages to outsmart the bigger fish. A thing I loved the most, along with the story, was the background. It gives me strong watercolours vibes and ooohhh, I notice the animation was made with Krita! Amazing, I have Krita but I never animated with it. Maybe a day I might, how knows but back to the movie.

The way the fish moves and swims around gave me, in a way, those Chinese animated movies from the 70-80s feel which are truly work of art, theater set in motion and I sense something similar in this work too. I am rewatching the animation over and over. I don't know if Krita allows the addition of sounds though. The only reason why I gave 4 stars instead of 4.5/5 was simply the lack of sound BUT I think that in an experimental piece like this, even this lack is an addition because it allows the mind of the viewer to create his/her/their own mental sound that fills the musical "void". I personally didn't create any mental sound, I wanted to enjoy the creation the way it is. The fish design is adorable and fits him perfectly even from a chromatic aspect since yellow has interesting meanings.

In the West, yellow is not a well-loved color. In a year 2000 survey, only 6% of respondents in Europe and America named it as their favorite color, compared with 45% for blue, 15% for green, 12% for red, and 10% for black. For 7% of respondents, it was their least favorite color. Yellow is considered a color of ambivalence and contradiction. It is associated with optimism and amusement, but also with betrayal, duplicity, and jealousy. However, in China and other parts of Asia, yellow is a color of virtue and nobility.

In the context of this animation yellow has a clear positive semantics which contrasts with the purple colour of the menacing, predatory fish. I love how the little fish turns around at 00:02, it melts my heart the level of cuteness of the movements. Plus I've noticed the shape manipulation of the fish's movements, great choice to enhance the dynamism and natural movements. It gives a more realistic vibe despite the minimalist style of both design and swimming way. I also noticed how the shape bending and twisting, during the movement sequences (i.e. always at 00:02 when the fish encounters the predator or a 00:05 when the predator opens the mouth and the fish looks in horror), give an added value in the emotional characterization of the protagonists of the story. I laughed and loved at 00:07 when the 'lil fish looks at the bigger one with a smile/smug on his face; it's adorable and funny at the same time.

Usually smaller fish live in big schools where they swim in the same direction in a coordinated manner and take advantage of the egoistical geometry group (you hope that you neighbour gets eaten first instead of you and the more you are, the higher chances are that you don't get caught), but in this short animation we see the resourcefulness of the little guy, who takes advantage of his smaller size (faster) and intelligence (he outsmart him and mocks him), winning over his danger. At the end the fish even manages to kick him off, saving his own life.

Really cool job, I hope more people will appreciate this^^ keep it up!

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EDIT 13/03/2025:

I raised the score to 4.5 after reading that the lack of sound was intentional since the project didn't need it.

I'm glad I made your day, keep it up. I would like to see other animations of yours!

For a game made in 48 hours this came out nicely. I will be quick: I loved and enjoyed a lot this game. The music is enchanting and game mechanics are really well done with a relatively linear learning curve. I said relatively because in some levels the curve was a bit awkward as previous levels (mid levels) tended to be a bit more challenging than later levels, even though I found level 19 easy to solve while level 12 gave me more problems.

Aesthetically speaking, I liked the use of limited colour palette, the use of black, white and purple add that feel of focus while solving the game. I liked the orange when activating the magic because it creates a nice chromatic contrast. The simple background gives a sense of mystery and arcane reality. I don't know if the choice for purple was intentional or not, but I like its symbolism in the context of the game. Purple is the color most often associated with the artificial and the unconventional. It is the major color that occurs the least frequently in nature, and was the first color to be synthesized. Why did I mention this? Because the protagonist is a magician trapped in a magical reality and magic is about unconventional realities, artificiality etc. think about alchemic procedures or medieval grimoires whose goal was to chain forces of Nature to become a little God able to create, trasmutate and destroy worlds.

In European alchemy during this time, "the 'precious purple tincture'" was a term for various substances alchemists hoped to create. The term and goal of the alchemists evoked kingliness, since the divine right of kings was also thought to aid the alchemists' future. And keep in mind that in Europe purple is linked to royalty. Curiously even in China it's linked to the emperor. The Chinese word for purple, zi, is connected with the North Star, Polaris, or zi Wei in Chinese. In Chinese astrology, the North Star was the home of the Celestial Emperor, the ruler of the heavens. The area around the North Star is called the Purple Forbidden Enclosure in Chinese astronomy. For that reason the Forbidden City in Beijing was also known as the Purple Forbidden City (zi Jin cheng).

So the overall colour choice well convey this atmosphere of magic and mystery. I also liked the pixel art, very simple and I don't complain about the lack of details and shading. I like the way it is, because what matters is solving the puzzles. And speaking of puzzles I would have enjoyed this game even without medals because it manages to reach a goal I highly consider when playing a game: entertainment/fun value that leads to relaxation. Everything is well balanced to never make the player get frustrated with the solution of a level. No punishment in case of failing and falling (aka re-do from the start each level). The only element that I feel to point out is the lack of R button to restart even if the game tells you what to do in case you want to start from a specific level. It's just a small thing, but overall it's a great, short game. I enjoyed it so much that I replayed it several times now.

I liked that you allow to use arrow keys and WASD controls, I hate WASD I have difficulties at mastering them even if I can tolerate them and try to adapt to them if controls are not wonky like I noticed in other games. But here thankfully both arrows and WASD work fine. I ofc chose arrows, but still I tried a few levels with WASD and it felt pretty natural (I mean movements and jumps).

Really cool game, I loved it. Keep it up!

It's really fantastic being able to finish the game and collect all medals after many months I abandoned it due to the huge lag that beings to happen after a while you enter the portals to free other characters. But I've noticed this happens only with Ruffle, if you play with Newgrounds Player the lag doesn't occur, making the whole experience really enjoyable and fun! The game has a lot of Metroidvania-like vibe with its run and gun nature in which each character takes advantage of their unique traits to pass through levels. I admit I spent more time at finding all CDs, bowls, spoons, masks and photos than completing each level because I wanted those medals and I tend to explore a game in every small part. I want to take my time, but because the first time I played it in Ruffle I couldn't go beyond Pico's stage due to lag, I pretty much abandoned every hope since I didn't know I could edit in my account setting how I want a game to be displayed (Ruffle or NG Player).

So to all people who experiment lag with Ruffle, play the game with Newgrounds Player by going to your account settings and unchecking boxes about Ruffle as tool to visualize movies and games. This way the lag problem disappears. I've noticed some curious things/bugs when playing it; one of them is a grey square on the top left corner of Dad 'n Me stage that can be visible if you use Bitey and jump high. I've noticed these grey boxes in other levels such the last stage where all characters work together to get the last key before the battle. In P-Bot boss fight when you start as Dad you first need to break the blocks. Usually they disappear when he smashes them, but only here they don't disappear.

The only thing that I feel to criticize is the lack of damage indicator during boss fight. I initially didn't know how to battle him or what to do. I had to fight him a second time to understand how to beat him. So I may give some tips to those who want to fight him.

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You start to fight with Dad, so one of the best solutions to counterattack P-Bot is staying in the middle and avoiding P-Bot's drill attack. With Captain the strategy is the same as he doesn't have a wide attack range unlike Pico. With Pico you must stay away as much as possible and fire like crazy. Bitey can be a bit tricky sometimes because you have to control his position when he attacks with kicks, but a way to attack P-Bot is a combination of kick and dash; kick to attack and dash to avoid attacks. Salad Finger initially confused me the most because he seemed not to have an attack, only showing the finger puppets but then I discovered he can deflect attack to P-Bot. So deflect rockets back at him by using your finger puppets. When I discovered it, I was surprised to know Salad Finger is one of the strongest in this battle despite being the weakest in terms of physical strength. Don't get too close, you can stun him by throwing your hands at him or simply jump to get away from him. I preferred the latter.

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The game is fantastic, it has become one of my favourite here, voice acting is spot on, animation is cool, style rocks and graphics pretty enjoyable along with a very simple and entertaining gameplay, not to mention the constant innuendos to the male urogenital organ XD. Even if I comment years after this game, I can say it well deserves its "Best of the Month" feature! Fantastic job everyone, I replay it again!

This is first time I feel to give a relatively low score to a game that overall is well done, with a fun gameplay for the most part (first 20ish levels at least), nice sound effects and a lovely music because of an element that I consider crucial in a game, even with difficult games: entertainment value. To me if a game doesn't provide a nice entertainment/fun value despite its difficulty and the thought process it may forces you, then the game failed its goal to keep a player engaged. I will be frank the only reason that will keep me playing the game is the last achievement that is becoming a pain in the neck due to last 8 levels. I am stuck at level 23 and I can't figure out a freaking strategy to pass it despite everything I could possibly image because it feels extremely unfair in some parts (one of them is circled in red):

https://www.newgrounds.com/dump/item/dd447bf0a9abf58dd244babccd3ef0ba

The red arrows are my attempts to find a solution, and this path is the only one that barely makes me rid of the majority of the tiles but then I keep getting stuck because I don't have an extra tile that would allow me to pass the level. I tried to copy-paste the link to the walkthrough but sadly the link is broken if I try to copy-paste "http://www.youtube.com/wa" and if I try to copy-paste the remaining part the link brings me to a different channel with two 3 years old videos named "class video". I tried to remove the "-" next to "cO" in " http://www.youtube.com/wa tch?v=-cO_PltLefY" and it says "This video isn't available anymore"

Unless you fix the link and/or recover the walkthrough video, this game becomes extremely difficult to fully solve and right now last achievement was unlocked in November 2023. I will try to solve this damn level 23 and if I ever manage to reach level 30, I will raise the rating to 3, maybe even 3.5 if next levels are a bit more balanced. And by balanced I mean that there must be tiles that allow me to finish a move and not to be stuck. I'm very sorry, but after level 17 I started to lose having fun due to the high level of frustration it's giving me.

I've also noticed the game doesn't save your progress if you want to play it the next day, making it even more frustrating if you want to focus on the level you are stuck....

I truly hope to find a solution to these hellish levels in order to give a higher score because the game deserves a better score, but rn I am not having fun at all, sorry.

UPDATE: the fact it doesn't save the levels you've completed outside the game (in-game I see the level being saved) doesn't help the game's replayability. I've noticed that every time you close NG Player the game restarts from level 1 and this is not a good thing if a walkthrough of most difficult levels is needed. Let's assume you finally reach level 29 but you have to finish the next day because you have to do other stuff, then you have to re-start from zero, and frankly this made me lose will to even try for now. Sorry, my experience with the game ends here. Maybe in future, if I ever want to try it again I might try but for now I prefer not to get frustrated any more.

Ok, this slaps hard especially the mixing at the base of the musical composition. I like the title choice that fits perfectly the music because it describes well the transition between the end of the 90s and the beginning of 2000s, plus 1999 was Pico's birthday year in terms of the game. The Pico franchise was announced on April Fools' Day of 1999 and unveiled with Pico's World on the same day. The hub introduced others to the then-brand-new characters and their games. Only two were available at the time: Darnell's Pyro 101 and Nene Interactive Suicide. But the main protagonist of the franchise, Pico (initially named Pogo), didn't have a scenario yet. Here you can see the birth of what will be the trademark of this awesome site:

https://web.archive.org/web/19990420135239/http://newgrounds.com/

fun fact: the series' main game, Pico's School, initially had a teaser page with a mockup of the original plot of the game; it was coprophilia-related. Here the original mockup and teaser of Pico's School: https://pico.wiki.gg/images/b/b8/Pico_Teaser.png?adc42a&format=original

However, the original version of the game never made it past the concept art phase, as it "wasn't really going anywhere" for Tom Fulp: https://pico.wiki.gg/images/e/ed/PicohasNoAge.jpeg?dbb6d4&format=original

Then we know the tragic Columbine High School massacre and the game was reworked into a sort of commentary on the tragic event with the humour typical of 90s Internet.

But back to the song which I am listening over and over because I really love it. I can see a lot of improvement in terms of mixing and I love the fast breakbeats that add a peppy vibe to the undertone musical composition. The heavy bass and sub-bass lines, and synthesizers manage to build very well the tension and rhythm, especially at 00:45 and 00:58 (those are my most favourite parts!). I love how the kick drums play a significant role in creating a varied musical imagery and how it encapsulates Pico's School game. In the game you move fast in the school, even the music (both the modern one, and the original from 1999) shows this urgency to act fast.

Hi-hats accompany well and in a delicate manner the construction of the beats, I like that. The beauty of fast drum beat is that it forms a canvas on which one can create tracks to appeal to almost any taste and often will form only a background to the other elements of the music. In this case the sense of action, emergency, and cityscape is the first thing that comes in mind while listening to it. I've noticed the syncopated breakbeats, notably in the middle part of the piece, and Amen breaks that enrich and give a more lively taste to the music.

The subtle presence of ambient pads give a more "light" atmosphere to a piece that celebrates a franchise that relies on dark elements (besides the original mockup teaser I 've shown above, the game is inspired by a true fact). I helps to create variety.

Congratulations, this is one of my favourite pieces of yours. Sadly I can only give 5 starts, I wish I could give it 10 stars, well 10 starts from my heart! Happy Pico Day!

Ok, yesterday I listened to the song to get an idea of its content but I wanted to wait to today to give a proper and honest feedback to this work. One thing that I don't understand is if this "full ep" should be a kind of mini album or a composition of different parts. When making something is always important asking "what do I want to convey with this piece?". I personally think that one of the differences between visual arts and music is that visual arts rely on static shapes whose dynamism is a combination of deception, illusion and artistic skill that give the vibe of movement and progression.

With music things are different, because you build a story in motion through notes, arrangements, mixing, instruments, vocals and so on. And this is why it's important for a musical piece to be consistent in what it aims at showing to the listener. Music is composed of many things such as rhythm, pitch, timbre, dynamics, texture, harmony, melody, tempo and form.

-rhythm is the most important element of music because it's its building block. It tells us when a sound should be played and how long it should last. It is what makes you want to tap your foot or dance along to a piece of music. It’s the underlying pulse that drives a song forward. All music, no matter what style, has some kind of rhythm. I can see in this piece a rudimental rhythm in each of these seven parts as I mentally classified them. Rhythm is the pattern of sounds and silences that occur over time. I can hear the pulse (the beat repeated in a regular pattern) but it's very minimalist and doesn't achieve that emotional building that keeps the listener engaged in moving some body parts to the rhythm. If I'm not mistaken at 03:41 I can hear 4/4 time signature. I can sense that the drums try to hit each quarter note beat throughout the song but the mixing element interferes a bit with the structure of the beat. You can see in the famous song Blinding Lights by The Weekend how the drums are able to create a pulse that instantly makes you want to tap your feet, clap and go with the flow. Here I see a much more drier rhythm.

-harmony is when two or more notes are played at the same time and is what makes music sound full and complete. It's extremely helpful at adding depth and context to a melody and can even completely change the mood of a song. Because of the lack of effective mixing I don't seem to perceive an incisive harmony to the structure of the songs (notably 00:05-00:27 and 00:37-01:53) and this leads to another weak point of your composition: texture.

-texture is basically how the music or sound is organized. Here I think to perceive a highly monophonic, thin texture. Each song seems characterized by one melody, or tune. Bach’s “Cello Suite No. 1” is a great example of monophonic texture, so it's not a bad thing per se but because both the title of the piece and the lack of a minimal description don't give a clear clue at what you are trying to convey with this piece, I struggle at fully appreciate this texture. At 06:36 the time signature seems breaking due to the attempt at adding variety but this breaks temporary the texture too, creating a less coherent musical piece.

The structure of some parts are very monothematic and even boring such as at 01:12 while the part at 00:37 has more rhythm and is more pleasant to listen to compared to the one I've just mentioned. At 01:49 the mix of drums and chords gets a bit confused, creating a slightly dissonant pattern that breaks the composition of the piece.

At 08:29 the music completely changes, breaking the flow of the preceding piece, and it gives me a strong gamelan vibe. I don't understand why the musical signature in this part completely changes in this orientalist-like vibe and I'm not using orientalist as a nice thing here because gamelan is the heavy use of hand-drums (i.e. kendang) and metallophones such as gendér barung, not to mention the use of gambang gangsa and gambang kayu. Gamelan is ruled by the céngkok pattern which dictates the pathet of the piece, here ofc I don't hear this because I don't think you know the musical theory of gamelan which is fine but maybe a bit more of study on its pattern and structures would have made it more nice to appreciate. Despite this I admit it's the only part I truly enjoyed of the composition because of its completely different nature, more folkloristic part and musically engaging tempo.

Because dynamics are kept at a very minimum due to the limited types of instruments used here, I can't sense much variety in the composition and the listener might be not interested at all at keeping listening such piece.
Dynamics are an important way to add interest and variety to a piece of music, and they can also be used to create a certain mood or feeling. Because of this the main mood that this song gives me is a lack of interest in effectively sending a concept or idea in the musical piece. If I had to compare this song to a colour, it would be a grey scale, minus the last part that resembles a gamelan (I would see that part as green).

High-hats as 06:36 add a nice vibrancy and variety to this part despite they last briefly. Nice job with them.

But I admit the thing that I really found annoying in this work were the constant silence breaks between each part (i.e. 00:27-00:37, 01:52-01:58 and so on), these were probably thought as way to create a transition between the parts but because the whole composition is not kept due to the many errors (lack of mixing or wrong mixing, minimal dynamics, dry rhythm, etc.) it's difficult to see a composite, organic, vibrating structure of the song. Plus these breaks interrupt the evolution of the song in the very moment it seems to be evolving into something interesting.

I know my comment might seem a bit harsh plus who am I to judge this way considering I'm not even a musician, just someone who loves music as vital part of their existence, but I was genuinely interested in listening your piece and give a honest feedback. I can see a potential for future works because the basics of musical theory seem grasped but I feel to give you these advice to better improve your experience as musician so more people will be invested in your works:

-don't use casual musical genres just to fill spaces, scroll down and you would have seen "Other-Experimental". Due to the nature of this piece that struggles to convey something effectively, I see it as an experimental piece and not Ambient. Ambient music emphasizes mood and texture over the traditional melodies and rhythms found in pop music or classical music. Ambient musicians often augment these synths with acoustic instruments and ambient sounds from nature. This piece "Reflections" made by ForgottenDawn superbly shows what I have said: https://www.newgrounds.com/audio/listen/1419061

-tags, tags and again tags. Use them to make your song easy to find. If you don't use them, people will never discover you since, thankfully, NG does not rely on algorithm but only on human force.

-title. Next time add a more convincing title because "basement" doesn't transmit anything besides images of darkness, closed spaces, domestic environment while here music give a more lively, open-spaced feeling especially 02:02, 04:42 and 08:29 which bring the listener to a forest, not a basement.

-description. Add a description about what brought you in the creation of the song, the feelings, emotions, symbolism, even shitposting, everything that shows that you cared about your own creation. Songs, just like videogames, videos, and artworks, are like children. They are made by us and it's our responsibility to care about them by taking care about each aspect, even the silliest.

-username. I know this might not have anything to do with the song itself, but it's important when it comes to promote yourself. How do you prefer your listeners and potential watchers remember you? A catchy name or a generic "user[INSERT NUMBERS HERE]? A catchy name gives a more lively feel to an account, you can sense life. A set of numbers gives an aloof feel and might make some people not get invested in your works (plus the other two things I mentioned such as description and tags).

-study, practice, ask for advice from more seasoned musicians. Do not isolate in your account, explore the Audio Portal, comment on people' stuff, fave, open threads in the audio forum: https://www.newgrounds.com/bbs/forum/13

If you scroll down you will notice that people open audio threads, similarly to art threads but with musical pieces. Open one, ask for critiques and if you are open to them people will gladly help you.

I hope my humble opinions might be useful, good luck for everything and don't get discouraged if initially you will have to work a lot to get people invested in your works but in the long run it will pay off.

Oh man, where do I start with this green gem? I nicknamed it "green" because it strongly evokes me this colour while listening to it. Another track that I discovered thanks to the Creature Collab and entered in my personal list of the top 10 favourite NG tracks here. But what I love the most is the musical arrangement and type of instruments used, not to mention that the title confirmed what I immediately thought: a gamelan. For those who don't know, gamelan the traditional ensemble music of the Javanese, Sundanese, and Balinese peoples of Indonesia, made up predominantly of percussive instruments.

The musical signature of gamelan is the heavy use of hand-drums (i.e. kendang) and metallophones such as gendér barung, not to mention the use of gambang gangsa and gambang kayu. I love listening to it as form of appreciation for Indonesian cultural tradition. It is used for rituals, ceremonies, dance theatre, dance-drama, traditional Indonesian theater, wayang puppets theatre, singing, concerts and so on. As I said the title confirmed my thoughts because, although I don't know Indonesian languages as whole, I know a few words and "tarian" is one of them which means "dance" and "lumut" which means "moss". So "moss dance" and again the green colour returns semantic-wise, but frankly the name "lumut" brought my mind on another field: folktales.

And I would like to share here an Indonesia folktale I learned some years ago when a person sold me a small book featuring folktales around the world, and the one I am about to tell was in this book. While I write it down, try to image a dancer and the gamelan as background music, ruled by the céngkok pattern which dictates the pathet of the piece.

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Long time ago in East Java, there stood twin kingdoms, Jenggala and Kediri. The kingdoms were once united under Kahuripan Kingdom. To avoid war, the kingdoms decided to reunite through a marriage of the kings’ children. They were Raden Panji Asmarabangun and Dewi Sekartaji. One day, Jenggala kingdom was attacked by a large number of people. When the war broke out, Dewi Sekartaji ran away and hid out in a desolate village. There she met a wealthy widow called Nyai Intan. Nyai Intan had three beautiful daughters, Klenting Abang, Klenting Ijo, and Klenting Biru. Then, Nyai Intan took Dewi Sekartaji as her child and gave her a name, Klenting Kuning.

Klenting Kuning was more like a servant than a child. Nyai Intan and her daughters often scolded her and treated her badly. In the meantime in Jenggala, Panji Asmarabangun with his soldiers were looking for his wife, Dewi Sekartaji. Then, in one afternoon, a soldier came up to him and told him that he saw a girl that looked like the princess in a small village. In the next few days, Panji Asmarabangun and his soldiers decided to go to Dadapan, a village that not far from where Klenting Kuning lived. Under the name of Ande-Ande Lumut, Panji Asmarabangun stayed in a modest house of an old widow called Mbok Randa. He soon announced to the people that he was holding a contest to find a wife.

Klenting Kuning's three stepsisters heard the new and dressed up as beautiful as possible to win the prince’s heart. On the due day, the girls seemed ready. They put on their best dresses and jewelry. When they were wearing their make up, Klenting Kuning came up to them and complimented their look. Klenting Abang cruelly asked Klenting Kuning if she wanted to come but it was clear it wasn't a question out of genuine care since the other two sisters mocked Klenting Kuning.

Klenting Biru while pointing at a pile of their dirty clothes said Klenting Kuning to do the laundry. Klenting Kuning took the dirty clothes and went to a nearby river. She actually did not want to go to the contest because she loved her husband so much, Raden Panji Asmarabangun. Suddenly a crane approached her. It talked like a human and grabbed a whip in its feet. He told her to go to the contest in Dadapan where she would have met her husband.

Klenting Kuning rushed back home and dressed up for the contest. By that time, Nyai Intan and her three daughters reached the bank of Bengawan Solo River. But they could not get across a river that deep and wide, when suddenly a giant crab floated upon the stream. They did not know that the crab was Yuyu (1) Kangkang, Ande Ande Lumut’s henchman assigned to test the participants. Yuyu Kangkang would help them to across the river if they kissed him. The three sisters agreed and one by one they kissed the crab. After that, Yuyu Kangkang told them to get on his back and took them across.

Not long afterwards, Klenting Kuning showed up at the river bank. Yuyu Kangkang asked the girl if she needed help to cross the river, Klenting Kuning nodded and the crab spirit told her the condition to cross the river: the kiss. She refused saying that she already had a husband, then she lashed the stream with her whip, making the river water dwindle. The crab got scared and agreed to take her across the river even to Dadapan Village. Klenting Kuning thanked Yuyu Kangkang, while in Mbok Randa’s house, the ladies showed off their beauties in front of Ande Ande Lumut. But he did not seem impressed by any of them. Nyai Intan went forward and got on her knees before the prince and begged him to marry one of her daughters, but the prince refused and commanded the guards to lead the lady in yellow dresses. She was Klenting Kuning. Everyone was surprised especially Nyai Intan and her daughters. The mother scowled why he did chose the girl in yellow instead of one of her daughters. Ande Ande Lumut replied that they have been disgraced by kissing the giant crab, whereas the girl in yellow was clean.

Afterwards, Ande-Ande Lumut revealed to Klenting Kuning who he really was. So, they went back to the palace and lived happily ever after.

Footnotes:

(1) yuyu is the Indonesian word for the Gecarcinucoidea, a superfamily of freshwater crabs which can be found throughout South Asia, Southeast Asia and New Guinea, with a single genus found in Australia.

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I love how you can hear small fragment of chiptunes at 01:38 and 03:25 which add a nice reminder it's a videogame track with modern elements. I love hearing the Kendang (maybe Kendang Ketipung) and Gambang Kayu melodies which add a strong, driving rhythm to the musical composition, not mention the Bonang Barung, one of my favourite céngkok repertoire. The traditional musical base of this piece slightly reminds me of the Janger Banyuwangi, the folk art from Banyuwangi, East Java that combines Balinese dance, costumes and gamelan with Javanese folk tales. And it's not a coincidence that the story of Anda Anda Lumut is performed in this type of art. Other stories include Cindelaras, Minakjinggo Mati, Damar Wulan Ngenger, Damarwulan Ngarit, and Sri Tanjung.

I was gladly happy to see a musical piece that features traditional elements of one of the type of music and arts I love the most in a website that mainly favours modern compositions. I know this piece is modern but it incorporates very well the traditional elements that bring the listener to an orientalist journey into the South-East Asia. Thank you for making such green gem! Keep it up.

I like this idea of personal OCs meeting NG characters, in a way I do a thing similar with my OC Xiang who curiously lost her ability to speak like a human in NGverse after being catapulted in it by the Portal. I like the idea of characters interacting with other characters and see how they interact, and this fanart is funny as hell. I read it as if I were playing a videogame. I've just noticed a typo in this sentence of the Google document:

"But unfortunately, when they started talking, I could understand what they were saying."

Maybe you meant "I could not understand what they were saying", since you immediately then mentions the frustration for the interaction. And because I love deciphering stuff whenever I can I tried to translate into English what they said, maybe this will help with your research:

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Entity 1: Hey! What's going on?

Entity 2: I don't know! Suddenly a guy appeared out of nowhere coming from this portal!

Entity 1: Is he dangerous?

Entity 2: I don't know! He seems to be big-headed and ugly as hell!

Entity 1: What did he say?

Entity 2: I don't know! He doesn't speak binary!

Entity 1: WHAT IS HE TALKING ABOUT?

Entity 1: He's gone

Entity 2: Anyway... let's go get some pizza!

Entity 1: I can't eat pizza... the voices in my head tell me to eat vegetables!

Entity 2: Ugh... let's go somewhere else!

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I suggest for the next time to bring a translator or build a machine that automatically translate binary language, lol^^

I like the simplicity of the background that helps to focus on characters more. Now I see the connection with the blog you posted some days ago and I was glad to have shared my idea on which background using. This was a fun interaction, I can't wait to see more if you want to continue. I had lots of fun reading, enjoying this fanart and ofc translating the text.

Wow, this was a really nice and unexpected surprise. I didn't think to be included in such lovely and great artwork aimed at celebrating people who make possible our experience and success here *_*

I love how each character is rendered in your style especially the human ones because you can appreciate very well your unique and creative way of rendering human characters with their slim, slender bodies and elongated heads. But I also like a lot how you made non-human characters, especially Mustard (Simoes1000's character), Chdonga and AnassAnimationPro, because you managed to highlight their unique traits. I know almost all these characters and this nice gift allowed me to discover new characters too.

I like the soft cell shading on each character since it balances well the bright colours of the flat colour. Speaking of characters I would like to talk about my OC, since she is one of the few non-human character, and yes I LOVE HOW YOU MADE HER! I always loved and appreciated when people render my characters in their style especially not so easy characters like a four-winged dromaeosaurid paravian dinosaur which can be quite challenging if someone is not used to its anatomical features.

But I like seeing her with a more modern bird-like look because it shows the artist's way of seeing her and this ofc enriches the person who receives the gift, me in this case. I also liked the use of her colour palette since I tend to use that as base for my iridescence effect. Microraptor had an iridescent plumage after all, so whenever I can I try to highlight it. Anyway as I said I really liked a lot this surprise and lovely gift art that celebrates everyone's OC^^

Thank you very much for this gift, it truly fills my heart with happiness, joy and surprise. I wish you all the best, really!

Wooahh, this turned out epically! You did a great job with the rendering and the adaptation in full Newgrounds style where usually more characters are inserted in a dynamic and action context. I prefer much more this promo than the original you took inspiration from, because the sharpness of the lineart of each character makes everything very beautiful to look at and the characters are more noticeable. I like that the overall color tone of both the characters and the background is not excessively vibrant because it makes everything much more balanced in terms of lights and shadows as well as volumetric shapes of the individual subjects.

Every single character is very well done and characterized not only in style but also in what they do, so you can easily identify them. I realize of course that many NG characters like Charlie the Unicorn or Scrotum could not be included due to the spatial constraint, but it is nice to see Alloy a character, in my opinion, who deserves much more in terms of recognition so I am happy to see him in the promo. In terms of execution I like how each individual character has dynamic poses that match the character themselves. I especially like the fluidity of the poses in Alien Hominid, Dad, Fancy Pants, Salad Fingers, Henry Stickmin etc. The light effect behind Captain came out really well along with the left part of the background where a play of light and shadow makes it all pleasant to look at. I like the overall cell shading, it gives a nice cartoonish feel, but I also really like the soft shading on Bitey's face. It really does a good job of getting the fur effect right.

I also love the use of the font from the original promo for the collab title and of course I love the giant Angry Faic watching everything. I like the personalized touch he has with that look. Still in terms of details, I like the thickness of the swords (Green Knight and Hank) and the highlight on the surface renders the metallic texture well.

But if there is one thing I loved looking at the work was noticing the trigger discipline in Pico. I noticed that the index finger is not on the trigger. I know it seems like a silly thing to most, but for me who loves guns, seeing this element always makes me very happy because in reality it is important to avoid, even at the level of artistic works, spreading errors or false beliefs. When holding a gun the index finger must always be kept away from the trigger if you do not want to shoot. Considering that Pico is an expert shooter I doubt that he makes shoddy errors by keeping the index finger on the trigger if he does not want to shoot.

The collab seems very nice and interesting and I would have even participated if it weren't for the fact that I don't know how to animate XD. I don't even know if I want to try with Krita, lol. Good luck to everyone who participates though, I bet it'll be awesome. Great job offering to do the promo artwork, it does the collab justice. Congrats!