Over the past few months I kept noticing reviews in and out of Newgrounds saying that my FSM series is "underrated". If people really think that way, I don't mind at all. In fact, I actually have to agree with those comments. However, I've also noticed over time that I'm losing my audience for some reason and I find this very odd.

I mean, I dedicate my time to develop the story the way I want it and entertain my audience. Fans ask for more episodes and I give them more. However, every time I make a new episode, it gets even less views than the previous one and I don't understand what I'm doing wrong. If people supposedly like this series, then why are less people viewing the latest ones? Do viewers really have short attention spans these days or are users rejecting it cause it's a "sprite movie"? I don't want to get into that topic all over again... it blew up in my face twice before.

Let me give you a clear example of what I'm talking about: if I compare the views from ep. 5 and ep. 6 respectively, It's clearly noticeable that roughly 103,000 viewers either missed out or wasn't interested in episode 6. Seriously, so much demand for new episodes and in the end I'm busting my ass for nothing? What the hell? People ask for more, I give them more, but I get less in return. It doesn't seem fair, does it?

Just to point this out, I'm not the kind of person to make weekly or monthly episodes, even if I wanted to. I don't have the time for that, considering the fact that I'm studying for a career in telecommunications and that itself is time consuming. That and sharing a computer with 4 other family members can be a total pain in the ass sometimes, but there's not much I can do about it.

As for ep 7 well, I'm still developing it and I want to have it ready before the end of the year, but I fear it might end up sharing the same fate as ep. 6: critically acclaimed, yet completely overlooked. I'm not really sure what will happen with this one.

Overall, I sometimes feel disappointed and maybe even a little frustrated by this. I don't know whether to continue the story or let it phase out unfinished into oblivion like other flashes have over the years, but if you guys REALLY want this series to continue, spread the word about it. People are really missing out on something interesting here and I don't want to let all this effort go to waste.

Hey guys. Remember when I said I was working on other projects to make up for lost time? Well, the video posted below is one of them:

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Yes I know this doesn't count as a flash,It's an AMV, but this was a different idea that I had in mind and was something I've been wanting to get off the ground for quite a while.
You see, based on the original instrumental song entitled "the Goddess Appears", I felt inspired to write lyrics for this song years ago, but I couldn't find the right person to sing it for me. Rina-chan was out of the question cause she's already well known as Zelda and I wanted to give someone else a chance for once.

Anyway, A few months ago I met another girl, Shiraikigu ,aka Beeku on Youtube and Deviantart, who wanted to audition for FSM 8(after I finish FSM 7 of course). While auditioning I asked her to do this little favor as a side project and she gladly accepted to sing my lyrics while I did the mixing and editing. We both liked how it turned out at the end and she later thanked me for giving her the opportunity to work with me. Also, I should point out that I will be using a small clip of this song during the scene selection screen for ep. 7, just to see if anyone else is interested in it. Beeku will also make a cameo appearance as Malon in the end of the episode too, so don't miss out on it when the episode is finished, though it will take a while.

Aside from FSM 7 I'm also working on 2 other flash projects and I'm hoping to release at least 2 of them before the end of the year. so keep an eye out for them when they're done.
Later!

I don't know if this has annoyed anyone else outside the US or Canada, but one thing that has really gotten my attention over the past few years are the ridiculous location restrictions that some sites are applying nowadays.

Take for example VEOH. It was originally a video site like youtube but with better video quality. Then one day the idiots working on this site decide to make their service unavailable internationally except for a good 33 countries in order to "focus on markets what have the most viewers" Total bullshit.

Now Youtube is apparently doing the same thing, although from a different perspective. In other words, if my IP address isn't from a specific country(US, Canada, UK etc.), I can't watch the videos. I consider this totally unfair since I live in South America and I watch a lot of English speaking programming.

I understand uploading copyrighted content in video sites is a big deal nowadays, but there are occasions that certain shows that I want to watch aren't available on Cable or DirecTV in my country and the only way I can watch them is through Video sites or P2P Networks. If I had the time and the money to move to another country and view their content I would.

In my opinion, Video sites are obviously made to share all videos internationally, are the restrictions REALLY that necesary when you actually have viewers in another part of the world? It's not always about the money you know, even the creators of South Park are in favor of people downloading their episodes and watching them online no matter where other people live.

Seriously though, to me, Internet politics have gotten extremely picky over the past few years. If people want to watch your stuff, let them view it, don't block them.

Normally I don't reveal this publicly, but I might as well say this right now. FSM 7 has been somewhat delayed for the past few months. The reason for this is because of a few factors regarding one of my voice actors, an animation sequence and a credits scene that are still labeled as WIP (work in progress) and I hate to admit this, lack of inspiration from my part.

Don't get me wrong, I want to continue the story, but over the past few months I felt mentally exhausted after finishing the epicness that is FSM 6 and wanted to take a short break from flash. Also, I should mention that I've been busy in my University over the past few months too and haven't had the chance to work on anything new here, (apart from the Street Fighter collab where I voiced 4 characters in Osuka's scene). This is one of those days that your personal life interferes with a personal hobby of yours. I'm sure this has happened to many other users too.

But on the bright side, I'm slowly working on other projects to make up for lost time. I'm even writing a draft of the script for FSM 8 and introducing new characters in the story. I think I'm about halfway done with the script, but you can never tell.

Hopefully when things get under control, I'll have FSM 7 ready sometime this year (not sure when though), so please bear with me on this and have some freaking patience for once. I know you're all desperate and I left you guys hanging with the story, but it really isn't that easy to put all this together. It is fun to see the finished results though.

Keep on the lookout for anything new later on.
See ya!

Over the years, I've made a decent amount of flashes. But during a certain time you start to realize that some projects don't have the same charm as they used to back in the day. Let me explain this from my POV, When you're a flash author, musician or a guy working on any other project, one tends to experiment a lot with different ideas. Some are good, some are bad and sometimes some are overwhelmingly popular. Now, when the third option tends to pop up, you sometimes regret making something so popular.In short what I'm trying to say in this post is that most of the stuff that I made between early 2004 and mid 2005, as popular as they were, are now, well... crappy and somewhat embarrassing. Yes, I know everyone goes through a developmental part in their hobby/career, but there are times that one wants to be remembered for another project rather than your earlier works.

Take for example one of my earliest flashes: "Hey ya! VG style!" it was a random experiment I made in 5 days involving repetitive sprites dancing to the Tune of "Hey Ya" by Outkast. Back then, what I made was innovative (kind of), it was different, it was catchy, it got everyone's attention and to this day it's still one of my most viewed flashes reaching over 750k views. However, after a few years pass, one starts to look back at his/her work and read its reviews and realize how lame and embarrassing it is nowadays.

It's kind of hard to explain sometimes. it's like, based on the negative criticism the flash has gotten over the years, you feel forced to hate your own creation. That's how I feel with "Hey ya" right now. I now officially hate the song and regret making such a weird flash... And it's all thanks to the haters themselves who just had to leave insulting remarks about it. Same goes with my other earlier projects. But in my defense, I was a noob and I only made that stuff for fun. I never meant to offend anyone with my animations.

Now with all that aside, the flashes that I'm truly proud of right now are my MK Mishaps and Four Swords flashes (excluding the original FSM pilot). These flashes are the only ones that seem to stand out above the rest of my animations for some reason. I can't really point it out, but these flashes tend to have such a high replay value and I sometimes find myself watching and enjoying my own creations that were able to make others crack a smile or just plain out ROFLMAO, if you know what I mean. This is the type of stuff that I'm thankful for nowadays, Especially on youtube where most of my works have somewhat of a cult following, despite most youtubers not knowing that I made that stuff.

Looking back after all this, I still remain optimistic with any future projects that come to mind whether it be a series, a music video or a handful of random gags, etc. I'm still looking forward to entertaining my audience. Hopefully I'll come up with something mindblowing sometime soon. and Why not? Maybe experiment with something original at some point. Only time will tell.

Well, I guess that's enough for this month's rant, keep an eye out for my future installments of MK Mishaps and Four Swords Misadventures. Maybe at some point I'll come up with something new as well.

Til next time.

Hi. Just to clear things up, the whole Cease and Desist order was an April Fools joke that I made up based on the legality of sprite movies in general by flash "purists" who keep bitching about how unoriginal sprite movies are these days because of their "stolen content" . In the end, Sprite movies still qualify as Fair Use in this flash site. If that wasn't true, then Tom Fulp wouldn't allow pixelled video game parodies in his site. I'm surprised by how many people fell for my little prank, not knowing that it was actually posted on April 1st.

Also, to avoid further confusion, Four Swords Misadventures will continue. However, Episode 7 might take longer than expected. The reason? Well, Osuka and I are working on a top secret project at the moment that will be revealed at a later date. After that project is finished, He will again animate a scene for me in FSM 7. I'm not going to reveal too much information about that either of course. When will it be ready? I don't even know,I don't put release dates on my flashes. However, I'll have it done sometime this year hopefully.

Another common misconception is that many are speculating that ep. 7 is the final episode. It's not true. It's the final part ***of the story arc trilogy project*** (meaning ep. 5, 6 & 7). I'll keep the story going after that. How many episodes will I make? Again, I'm not sure either. I never planned an exact amount. Anything can happen.

Keep an eye out for this and a few other surprises later on. Til next time!

Wow, I can't believe this. I do not even know where to start. Well, I guess I could share this with the people here and show them what's going on:
I received this e-mail early in the morning:

"Dear Mr. Victor Fiori:
It has come to our attention that you have made an unauthorized use of our copyrighted work entitled The Legend of Zelda: Four Swords in the preparation of a work derived therefrom. We have reserved all rights in the work, first published in February 21st 1986 to present day. Your work entitled "Legend of Zelda: Four Swords Misadventures is essentially identical to the Work and clearly used the Work as its basis, for example: Copyrighted characters, backgrounds, artwork and music.
As you neither asked for nor received permission to use the Work as the basis for "Legend of Zelda: Four Swords" nor to make or distribute copies, including electronic copies, of same, I believe you have willfully infringed our rights under 17 U.S.C. Section 101 et seq. and could be liable for statutory damages as high as $150,000 as set forth in Section 504(c)(2) therein.

We demand that you immediately cease the use and distribution of all infringing works derived from the Work, and all copies, including electronic copies, of same, that you deliver to me, if applicable, all unused, undistributed copies of same, or destroy such copies immediately and that you desist from this or any other infringement of my rights in the future. If I have not received an affirmative response from you by 04/15/2009, indicating that you have fully complied with these requirements, we shall take further actions against you.
Very truly yours,

Reginald Fils-Aimé, President of NOA
Satoru Iwata, President and CEO, Nintendo Co., Ltd.
Shigeru Miyamoto, Senior Managing Director of Nintendo Co., Ltd."

By the looks of it, Nintendo decided to put their foot down when it comes to authors making sprite related stuff or using copyrighted Nintendo characters in an author's story. I'm shocked, yet at the same time disappointed by this. Looks like Nintendo doesn't appreciate my interpretation of "The Legend of Zelda" and now I'm being forced to stop my Zelda series and work on more original content. What choice do I have? Four Swords Misadventures is now cancelled. I guess its back to the old drawing board. This is total Bull. I'm sorry guys... : (
Update: April Fools!

For those that are unaware of it right now, I posted a teaser trailer for Four swords 7 on Youtube. This will also be used as the intro for ep.7

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A flash version of it is also available in my site. I should point out again that there's been a lot of confusion over this being the last episode.
It's the last part OF THE STORY ARC, not the series. I'll try to continue it after that.

Another thing that I should point out for those who haven't visited my site, I'm also planning a new MK Flash. I haven't gotten much done lately, but you'll see it at some point hopefully. Some gags will be loosely inspired by the MK vs. DC game, while other gags will follow the same formula as the original MK Mishaps trilogy. Fans have been asking for another MK flash and this wil be my last MK parody since I should really move on to other stuff afterwards.

And before I forget, I should inform you guys that I collaborated in this year's Street Fighter Collab, again, in a limited way. Basically I did some voice acting for another one of Osuka's flashes and this parody has something to do with some of the villains from the SF series. I don't want to reveal too much, just wait until the collab itself is finished. On another Note, Osuka will also be helping me with FSM 7 by making a special fbf animation scene. His transformation scene was so well received in episode 6 that I figured I'd ask him for one more favor that I had in mind which has to do with a recurring theme in a popular anime. You'll see what I mean.

And finally, I should inform you guys that I've taken an interest in voice acting, so if anyone wants me to do some voicework for a flash, send me a message and I'd be happy to help. However, that would really depend on the project and the author behind it. I'm not gonna work with noobs if you know what I mean..

Well, that's all for now. I'll keep you guys informed if something comes up. Later!

I sometimes don't know that's worse out of the two:
The fact that 20th Century Fox had to "Americanize" Dragonball, or the fact that we have to stomach another lame Street Fighter movie (also distributed by 20th Century Fox).

I'll be honest, I don't have any high expectations for neither of them. As much as I am a fan of both SF and DB, there's something in these movies that doesn't appeal to me.

First, Dragonball Evolution:

1-Goku's a High school Student in the film (Goku never went to high school, he studied martial arts under the aid of master Roshi)
2-Bulma's Hair isn't blue
3-Piccolo looks like a freakin vampire from Buffy(at least he looks a bit greener now, yet missing his antennas).
4-Justin Chatwin looks nothing like Goku, not even with the goofy hair.
5-Master Roshi isn't a pervert in the film. (A bit of a let down cause I love Roshi's comedic antics)
6-the gadgets look like something out of transformers (a simple "Poof" cloud would've been fine for the effect)
7-Goku at one point in the film says "I'm not ready for this." (Goku almost never backs down from a fight)
8-Krillin isn't in the movie (he's an important character to the franchise too).

I could go on and on, but these are the main reasons why the movie has a good chance of sucking (Dragon) balls.

As for street fighter:

1-Kristin Kreuk, as much as I loved her in Smallville, she doesn't convince me much as Chun Li.
2-The poster itself SUCKS!
3-No Ryu & Ken. that spells FAIL in my book.
4-I got mixed feelings about seeing Taboo as Vega. Not sure what to say about that.
5-The movie doesn't feel like something out of Street Fighter
6-Balrog should have been played by a Mike Tyson look alike.
7-The guy who plays M. Bison doesn't convince me. Hell, Raul Julia was a more convincing Bison in the old campy Van-Damme Movie

My overall feeling is that while both films will be panned by critics (and hardcore gamers alike) they might achieve cult status or will be financially successful. They only care about the money anyway.

I personally think that I would have done a better job of bringing Street Fighter or Dragonball to the big screen, and that isn't saying much...

Oh well, Thanks again Hollywood for ruining my childhood.
Leave anime to the Japanese, will ya?

Wow, I'm in disbelief! I never expected to reach such an honor. I...I'm speechless.
I'm not going to brag about this in the front page (I decided no to post my blogs there anymore). I thought there was some kind of specific rule to reach king of the portal status. Oh well, I guess anything is possible.

I'd like to thank everyone who collaborated with me and the fans who supported my animations.
Thanks to Osuka, Rina-chan, Kenkaku, SamIam Chris Sharpe and the rest of the FSM cast. I wouldn't be here if it weren't for your help.

And a very special thanks to Tom Fulp and his crew for making me King this month.
Wow, I'm still in shock...

Thank you.