Throwback Thursday: Nanovor

Thought I'd do something a bit different today. You may not know this but I actually have several gaming blogs.  Yeah, I know. It was a bad idea. I should have just blogged about anything and everything I wanted to here on TFN . . . kind of like what I'm doing now, but the pressure of being a "pure" Wizard101 fansite was something that used to be a thing for me.

Anyway, I thought I could repost "an oldie but a goodie" from one of my other blogs on Nanovor.  Don't remember what those were? Then read on for a Throwback Thursday post from yours truly!

Apparently the game was discontinued in 2010 and had a release on iOS devices shortly afterward. Unfortunately the game couldn't quite rise to the Marketing, which was really good btw. Check out this throwback commercial from 2009

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Nanovor have taken over the world

Originally written on Sept 7, 2009

About three days ago the kids and I were watching Cartoon Network when a commercial for nanovor popped on.



I didn't think much about it until after the commercial when the kids literally jumped out of their seats and wanted to go check it out on the computer RIGHT NOW I MIGHT DIE!

So we went there. (NOTE: link to Nanovor.com now defunct)

Three days later I am 20 dollars poorer from buying two of these nanovor toys at Toys R Us, and a lot more educated about how a "red spike" move might be accomplished by a 2.0 evolved nanovor bug.



This is what I do. I teach my kids how to kick your butts and unleash them upon you. Sorry about that.

As a parent, I was glad to see there were some chat controls available to me, so I'm in!

Nanovor is a pvp-only online game where you pit your swarm of microscopic bugs against an opponent's swarm of microscopic bugs.



The above shot is the initial battle screen. What you see there is that my character has five bugs in his swarm and has chosen the Plasma Lash nanovor to begin his battle. The Plasma Lash bug (or at least this generation of the bug) has four options to choose from: head whip, electro-lite, yellow spike, and skip. The battle proceeds as I choose one of those and click on the opponent's location (unless I choose the spike), and then I finally click which bug to swap out on the next round and reclick on your opponent's location.

After the battle orders have been made, my bug and your bug go at it.

This repeats and repeats until one person either leaves the game in frustration or one person's swarm is obliterated.



SPLAT! like that.

There is progression in this game so far (I mean, we've only been playing the game for 3 days or so . . . we don't know how far this will go yet). After playing and winning a few battles, you'll eventually earn a few badges.

Badges in this game are awesome things. Some of them will result in a new nanovor being added to your swarm and perhaps a few EMs. EMs are the stuff of evolution--Primordial ooze in a microscopic test tube. If you get the right combination of EMs you can take your bugs and evolve them into tougher 2.0 (And on) versions.

Here's a picture of a tank walker bug we evolved into it's 2.0 version.



Evolved bugs are stronger and usually have either more deadly attacks or more beneficial overrides. ahhh! We'll get to overrides . . . be patient.

Now besides earning your bugs and EMs through badges, you can also buy nanocash. Nanocash is where the free game ends. Each of those two 10$ Nanovor toys up above came with 400 nanocash. With nanocash you can buy three things. 1) a bug and 3 EMs for around 65 nanocash or so, 2) 6 EMs for around 55 nanocash, or 3) a whopping 6 or 7 bugs (always guaranteed a rare bug in the bunch) for 275 nanocash.

Here's a picture of my daughter opting for the 6 EMs choice.



Many bugs evolved this day . . . many bugs.

So, as we were saying, What the heck is an override? Overrides are buffs that you can apply to your nanovor to make it stronger, faster, or more deadly. Some are single use buffs (the spikes specifically) and some stay with your swarm until you cast over the top of it or win the match. You can only have one override running at a time.

Here's my one and only tip for you guys on overrides. Don't waste your breath casting a spike if you don't have a 2.0 version of a bug in your swarm that can actually make use of it. Not every 2.0 bug can make use of a spike either . . . only specific ones.

I think you'll figure it out from there.

Now, do I have complaints about Nanovor? You bet I have complaints! Who the heck wants to battle in a black 2-D boring space? My kids and I came up with a very compelling background space out in the parking lot in about 5 seconds.





Come on (who makes these things?) Smith and Tinker, Inc! You can do better than a black background!! We've seen your cartoon episodes; we expect more awesome backgrounds! (How'd I do at my angry consumer voice? not good?)

word.

See you in the Nanovor space!

Throwback Thursday -- Dragonspyre test server post Day 1

Heya all!

It's Thursday, so I thought I'd dig through the archives to see if I could find something interesting, and I came upon an interesting post back on January 10th, 2009 . . . it was when Dragonspyre was released on the Test Realm, and I had jumped in to get all the inside info!

Here's the original post. And here's a copy and paste:

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Post Title: Fell Asleep, but here's what I got (SPOILER)

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Ok,

I fell asleep while formatting this video of Dragonspyre. It's just freshly uploaded to youtube, so I hope it comes through. It's a spoiler, so don't watch it if you don't want to see me running around Dragonspyre on the test server. HAHA!

!!!!!!!SPOILER ALERT!!!!!!!!!

Don't watch this if you don't want to see Dragonspyre on the test server. I video taped and screenshot what I could for you all, my fantastic readers.



Peace.

Happy Dueling!

Now stop watching that and go have fun on the test server yourself! :-)

TFN's Throwback Thursday -- Trouble on Triton Avenue

Hello readers of TFN!

I just wanted to do a "Throwback Thursday" offering TFN style today.  Yesterday I was going through some old things on my blog and rediscovered a Fan Fiction I had been messing around with, and so I wanted to share it again with you all.

I think it's in need of a bit of editing, and honestly I know I wrote a couple more chapters to this, but I simply can't find them right now (. . . how I hate digging through old files on poorly labeled CDs--I'm my own worst enemy sometimes.)

Trouble on Triton Avenue is an unfinished story about one Thomas Lionblood who is thrown into a much greater plot thanks to a torn card in his deck.  I had about 10-11 chapters outlined at one time, but never finished the remaining parts of the story due to time constraints and other things.

From May 15th, 2010:

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I've had a few requests to revisit my fan fiction from waaaaaay back. :-) Ok, I'll give you the next chapter. From what I have planned there will probably be four or five more chapters after this one, and then it'll be done. Thanks for making me revisit this story! It's been a long time in the making.

If you'd like to do some back reading on this story:

Chapter 1 - Ripped from the light
Chapter 2 - Leaves of Healing
Chapter 3 - Lexicons for Lionblood
Chapter 4 - On the Heels of Akilles

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Chapter Five – Intimidation Tactics

Thomas pushed open the palatial door of Sgt. Akilles retreat and held the door open for Merle. The air in the room grew instantly stiff as the low rumble of Cyclops voices died in a breath. Sgt. Akilles looked quickly to his men and dismissed them all but one, who would remain by his side . . . It was obvious that Akilles knew two eyes were better than one when dealing with Merle.

Akilles’s titan sized hands clenched around his large mallet that he stomped in his hand from habit. He spit to the side and grumbled lowly. “So, I see the young wizard is back and you still have him on your leash. How’s that feel dog?”

Before Thomas could defend himself, which he was perfectly willing and able to do, Merle had tapped his staff onto the floor and spun it toward Akilles. A long, leathery strand of light snaked out from the tip of his staff and securely fastened itself around Akilles’ throat. Sparks flew and died in a moment to reveal that Merle had put a leash around Akilles’s neck. Merle took the end of the leash and handed it to a stunned Thomas. “You tell him how it feels, Private Akilles,” said Merle, extending the sting of the word “Private.”

Akilles appeared as completely stunned as Thomas at the old man’s bold actions.

Merle moved towards Akilles more briskly than anticipated, “Another taunt like that to the protector of Wizard City, and I’ll have you eating dog food next.” Akilles dropped his mallet and put his hand over his lips to guard his mouth. Akilles’s guard dropped his mallet and covered his mouth too, mimicking the actions of his leader.

Merle pulled up a chair to the table covered in fine fruit in front of Akilles, set his cane aside, and grabbed the nearest apple and took a bite. “Now that the intimidation part of this visit is over, let’s talk business.” Merle snapped his fingers and the leash and collar disappeared. “Pull up a chair, Akilles and Thomas.” Merle took another loud bite. “You know, they say that if you elongated the tone your mouth creates when you bite an apple for a period of 30 seconds, you’d completely lose your hearing.”

Both Thomas and Akilles lowered themselves slowly to their chairs around the table, still stunned and cautious.

“Yes,” continued Merle, “But there’s a kind of magic between the jaw and the ear that actually turns off the harshness of the sound when you bite so you don’t go deaf from your own eating. Now THAT’s magic my friends. That’s magic that every common beast has.” Merle pointed his mouth in the direction of Akilles’s guard and took another bite of the apple, and this time really crunched into it. A brisk wind picked up from the sound, and Akilles’ guard was blown back against the wall and knocked out.

“Did you really come here to talk about apples, Merle?” grunted Akilles. “Or did you . . .” Merle cut off Akilles sentence with another gracious bite of apple. Akilles looked even more humiliated for a moment.

“No, I didn’t, “slopped Merle as he twirled the apple in his hand. “I came to talk about magic and to ask your advice.”

Akilles laughed. “After humiliating me time and time again, you think I’m going to give you advice?” Merle laughed along with Akilles. Thomas laughed nervously too. The air in the room was so uncomfortable that it felt like being elevated above a pit of scorpions.

Merle suddenly stopped laughing and said, “yes, and I think you’ll see why you will.” Merle pointed over to Thomas, “show him the card, Thomas.”

Thomas pulled out the broken card and turned its back toward Akillies. “Harold Argelston noted that your symbol is on the back of this damaged card of mine, which he also said appeared to be pre-titans work.”

Akillies pushed himself quickly from the table. “Oh no!” said Akillies, “It’s Tumok Gravelbeard!” Akilles grabbed his jaw as if trying to hold it up from falling on the ground. “Tumok has returned . . . Tumok has returned . . .” he whimpered in disbelief.

“Get a hold of yourself, please, Akilles,” demanded Thomas. “Who is Tumok?”

“Tumok is the keyholder of the Great Spyre,” backed Akillies, unable to contain his outward expression of fear.

“The Great Spyre?” asked Thomas. Merle put a finger to Thomas’s mouth. Akilles was starting to give them the information they needed, and Merle knew he could explain the location to Thomas later.

“Tumok is the punisher of all myth magic,” further backed Akillies “ . . . and Tumok was enslaved by Malistaire himself”

Merle stared at the staggering Cyclops and dropped the core of his apple to the table. “Tumok,” whispered Merle to Thomas. “I knew Malistaire was in trouble with his emotions, but this could mean the end of Wizard City for us all. We must take action.”

Thomas raised himself from the table and nodded at Merle. Merle blinked his eyes, and they were quickly teleported from Akilles’s sanctum.