Marge really gives Tress time to shine, I love that she’s able to play both versions of Marge and it comes off so naturally. She’s an amazing voice actress, I’ve yet to get tired of hearing her voice!
Also it only just hit me that it looks like Marge is wearing all leather, which suits her malevolated personality so well.
(Also from “Toonstruck Official Hints and Solutions”)
I also like how her wool mimics the shape of a female chest, it gets the intention across in a way that makes sense for the character, very fun design idea in my opinion. It makes me wish for a remastered version of Toonstruck so the design was a bit clearer!
Part 6 is here! In this episode we get a peek into the Malevolands, as well as a small behind the scenes look into my recording process (AKA, I forget to edit something out and it leads to a bit of fun, so I’ve left it in for you all to [hopefully] enjoy).
I feel compelled to accompany every Toonstruck LP I see with the following guide to solving any sliding puzzle, provided that you can tell which tile goes where. Never be baffled again! Let’s suppose that the tiles are numbered thus:
1 2 3 4
5 6 7 8
9 10 11 12
13 14 15 16
and that the blank space goes in slot 16. Each of these steps should be fairly easy to accomplish if you slide tiles around haphazardly, just making sure that you don’t move any of the tiles that I indicate have been solved:
Move tile 1 into slot 1. You will never need to move it again.
Move tile 2 into slot 2. You will likewise never need to move it again.
Move tile 3 into slot 5.
Move tile 4 into slot 6.
Slide tile 4 right, up, and right, bringing tile 3 along for the ride. The entire top row is now fixed and need never be moved again.
Move tile 5 into its place, then tile 6.
The remaining space is getting tight, so you might want to move tile 8 into slot 16.
Move tile 7 into slot 9, then move tile 8 into slot 10.
Repeat the right, up, right movement to complete the second row. The top two rows are now correctly placed.
With only two rows remaining, we now have to work left-to-right. Start by placing tile 13 in slot 9 and tile 9 in slot 12. They don’t really need to be so far apart, but it’s easiest to split them this way.
Move tile 9 to the left until it’s in slot 10, next to tile 13.
Move tile 13 down and tile 9 left. You need never touch them again.
Repeat the above steps: Put tile 14 in slot 10 and tile 10 in slot 12, then move tile 10 left. Shift both tiles into their correct places.
Simply rotate the last three tiles until they’re correctly positioned. If this turns out to be impossible, then the puzzle is broken. Someone has switched two of the tiles. It’s possible that you’ve swapped the positions of two apparently identical tiles. Whoops.
Puzzle solved! I hope this guide helps you and nobody reading this thread ever has a problem solving a sliding puzzle again. If you can’t remember all of the steps, just keep in mind that the last two tiles in any row or column have to be placed at the same time. If you’re missing only one tile in a row or a column, you’ll need to pull out the one next to it, put them together, and then snake them into position that way.
This is amazing! I had a feeling there was some system to it, I love seeing that’s actually the case! The next time I run into a sliding block puzzle in any game I’m going to employ this method.
Also huge shout-out to you, I remember first finding your LP’s through the LP Archive back in the day (In particular I found Folklore and, of course, Mask of Eternity super enjoyable to watch). I’m now wondering if your LP of Toonstruck was actually my first introduction to the game?
I didn’t bring it up during the Let’s Play but I never played Toonstruck as a kid, I was actually introduced to it/first learned about it through watching a Let’s Play of it. So on the off-chance that it was your LP that I saw, thank you very much, as mine might not exist without you!
(Also on the off chance that anyone reading this thread does not already watch Nidoking’s Let’s Plays, please check them out!)
Wow, thanks for the shout-out! It may well have been my LP. I’m surprised at how long it’s been - that was one of my earliest. It’s good to know that people are discovering games through my LPs. I try to pick games that don’t seem to get much attention, but really deserve it. I’m enjoying your take on it as well, so I’m glad to have been a proximate cause.
For the record, I worked out the sliding puzzle algorithm myself during a very long car trip with nothing but a sliding puzzle for entertainment. The “last two tiles at once” principle is really the key to the whole thing - once I’d given up trying to shove that final tile into its place, the rest was fairly simple. By contrast, I had to be taught how to solve a Rubik’s Cube, although solving it one-handed is my personal party trick.
The time frame would definitely line up, I got into LPs sometime around 2010 which if the dates on the LP archive are accurate, are around the time you posted it!
I applaud your ability to figure out the sliding puzzle algorithm by yourself, that’s incredible. The only party trick I have going for me is a double-jointed elbow (Which as you can expect, is very hard to work into a conversation naturally).
The Cutifier can’t bring anyone back to life. I doubt it can erase memories either so Marge and Polly are going to have to have an interesting reevaluation of their relationship after this.
Aw, thank you so much! You came in just around the midpoint of the LP, we’ve got another 5 videos to go of the main game and then there’ll be some bonus videos that’ll come out just before Halloween (So look forward to some spooky Toonstruck fun around then!).
I’m going to spoiler tag this in case anyone wants to avoid end of the game spoilers After we get the Cutifier all fixed up we get locked in Nefarious’ castle and never get to see what’s become of Cutopia before the game ends. I sort of wonder if that might’ve been something they would’ve done if they hadn’t been pressed for time/money and had to end the game prematurely.
Here’s Part 7! We’re so close to finishing the Cutifier, but first we have to bust out of this jail cell! Sadly this part was recorded before Nidoking provided his solution for sliding puzzles, so I didn’t get to test out his process (But I at least figured out how to speed up footage in premiere to make it a little less painful for everyone to sit through).
Since we’re so close to finishing the device, one thing I always have kind of wondered is, how would one go about converting this blueprint into a Zanytizer? Would you want to go as lolrandum as possible (salt/pepper/socks) or would you want something thematic but not part of the actual pair (salt/pepper/mustard)? For that matter, aside from perhaps an increased propensity for swearing, would being Zanytized really make a meaningful change in Cutopians? They’re pretty weird little spuds already.
Man, this is a really intriguing thought! Based on the Zanydu mouse causing a ruckus in the tavern, I assume a bunch of Zanyfied toons would wreak havoc on any remaining Cutopians (Sponsored by WACME, of course). I like the idea of something thematic, but not quite appropriate to the pairing to create a Zanytizer.
On the note of Zanyians, I always kinda wondered if there was any meaning to glean from Zanydu being an island separated from the mainland… Was that done to keep the extremely zany toons out of the rest of the toonworld? I kinda wish that the game played up King Hugh as a total despot, maybe there’s some kinda social hierarchy in the toonworld that he exploits… Could be an interesting way to reference how Drew’s being restricted by his Boss into only drawing cute, cuddly things when all Drew wants to do is cut loose with the zaniness! (I’m probably giving this way too much though)
I can’t remember specifics but I feel like I’ve seen this conceit before, except that it’s more explicit that the different nations/factions are broad categories of cartoon character. Cutopians are childrens’ show characters, toons in the vein of classic Looney Tunes or Disney seem to be some kind of arbitrarily assigned default (the cartoon equivalent of white people) without any distinct name of their own, the Malevolands seem to just be villains of any and all kinds, and the Zanydu-analog is, yes, where the really nutty toons are cloistered away so they’ll only bother each other. I suppose the confusion in Toonstruck’s case is that aside from a couple of exceptions like Bun Bun and the armadillo guards, there’s really nothing that makes one think, “these guys are definitely intended for the seven-and-under crowd.” Basically everyone else you meet in Cutopia could be a Zanian after a gallon of chamomile tea; and a couple, like Bricabrac and the Footman, feel sort of like Zanian immigrants (ala Fingers).
Zanydu kind of feels to me like it was colonized by the Zanians of their own accord; there may have been a period of time when Zanians and Cutopians were one people, divided by some kind of psycho-cultural split in ideology about, I don’t know, probably manners as the Cutopians told it and potato salad according to the Zanians. Tension brewed until finally the Cutopians had had enough. When the riots lasted about twenty seconds and consisted entirely of a million voices joined in a single cry of “Knock it off, you poopy-heads!” the Zanians all just sort of left awkwardly, feeling embarassed for their would-be oppressors. Cutopian history remembers it as a dark, shameful event for which they will never be able to make amends. I do like the idea of King Hugh as a despot, maintaining power by playing inter-racial conflicts off one another between principalities in his kingdom, but I also get sort of a sense that the three different locales represent distinct countries in their own right; Zanydu, being full of basically ungovernable nutbars, is perhaps more of an anarchist commune.
Yeah eh? It’s a nice subtle moment that I didn’t really expect from Toonstruck.
The whole scene with Nefarious is pretty great, gotta love a villain who knows to get shit done before you start monologuing to the hero. Of course, he still makes the classic mistake of letting the hero live instead of just killing him then and there, but I guess that wouldn’t make for a very exciting adventure game.
Part 9 is here! We get our first look around Nefarious’ castle.
EDIT: It just struck me, anyone who is watching this that wasn’t a 90s kid might have no idea what we’re talking about when comparing Snout to Mr. Bumpy. Feel free to have a look at the intro to Bump in the Night if you want a bit more context:
The Felix the Cat movie is completely baffling and I invite everyone to watch it at least once (Preferably in a group setting so you can get the emotional support you’ll need to actually make it through the movie).
Most films I liked as a kid I can rewatch and see some merit in them. Even if they’re not great, there’s usually some sort of charm to them. The Felix the Cat movie though? No idea what I was thinking.
Amazingly, the entire soundtrack is available on iTunes. Who would’ve thunk?
Here’s a link to the part of the movie featuring the Duke of Zill song for everyone not in the know. If you’re completely baffled by the visuals, that’s okay, it doesn’t make that much more sense even if you’ve actually watched the movie.
