title: Shuaib

text: It is also said he told his people to stop being dishonest in their daily activities. Although he preached and prophesied for a sustained period of time, the majority of the people refused to listen to him. Shuayb, however, remained steadfast. He consistently preached powerfully against the wicked, telling them of the punishment that had befallen the sinful before them. Shuʿayb warned the people that their ignorance would lead to the destruction of Midian, giving historical examples of earlier prophets, including Noah, Hud, Saleh and Lot, all of whose people had been destroyed by God.


title: Shuaib

text: The people taunted Shuʿayb and told him that, were it not for the prestigious family he came from, he would surely have been stoned to death. Shuayb replied, "Is my family of more consideration with you than God?" When the Midianites refused to believe, they were destroyed by a mighty earthquake. The Qur'an, however, mentions that Shuʿayb, and his believing companions, were rescued from the thunderous punishment.


title: Shuaib

text: Shuayb's mission is often mentioned in the Qur'an with the mission of Noah, Hud, Saleh and Lot. Scholars have pointed out that these five prophets exemplify the early prophetic missions: The prophet would be sent to his community; the community would pay no attention to his warning and would instead threaten him with punishment; after years of preaching, God would ask him to leave his community, while his people were subsequently destroyed in a punishment. Scholars chronologically interpret the listing of the five prophets, so Shuʿayb was a descendant of Noah (preached about the Great Flood) and the Prophet Abraham.


title: Shuaib

text: One claimed tomb of Shuayb is found in Jordan, west of the town of Mahis, in an area called "Wādī Shuʿayb" ().


title: Shuaib

text: The Druze believe the tomb of Nabi Shu'ayb is located near Hittin, in the Lower Galilee. Each year, on the 25th of April, the Druze gather at the site to discuss community affairs.


title: Shuaib

text: There is also a tomb in the southwest of Iran (in the village Guriyeh, Shushtar) which has been recorded as the tomb of Shuayb.


title: Zola Budd

text: Zola Budd (also known as Zola Pieterse; born 26 May 1966) is a South African middle-distance and long-distance runner. She competed at the 1984 Olympic Games for Great Britain and the 1992 Olympic Games for South Africa, both times in the 3000 metres. In 1984 (unratified) and 1985, she broke the world record in the 5000 metres. She was also a two-time winner at the World Cross Country Championships (1985–1986). Budd mainly trained and raced barefoot. Her mile best of 4:17.57 in 1985, still stands as the British record.


title: Zola Budd

text: She returned to South Africa in 1989, and represented South Africa at the 1992 Summer Olympics. She moved with her family to South Carolina, USA in 2008; and competed at marathons and ultramarathons. She moved back to South Africa in 2020-2021.


title: Zola Budd

text: Budd, who was born in Bloemfontein, Orange Free State, South Africa, achieved fame in early 1984, at the age of 17, when she broke the 5000 m world record with a time of 15:01.83. Since her performance took place in South Africa, then excluded from international athletics competition because of its segregation policy, the International Amateur Athletics Federation (IAAF) refused to ratify Budd's time as an official world record.


title: Zola Budd

text: In 1985, she claimed the world record officially, while representing Great Britain, clocking 14:48.07.


title: Zola Budd

text: The "Daily Mail", a British tabloid newspaper, persuaded Budd's father to encourage her to apply for Registration as a British citizen (i.e: not naturalisation), on the grounds that her grandfather was British, to circumvent the international sporting boycott of South Africa, so that she could compete in the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles. With a strong push from the "Daily Mail", registration as a British citizen was granted in short order and she moved to Guildford. Her application and arrival was controversial due to her acquiring a passport under preferential circumstances. Groups supporting the abolition of apartheid campaigned vociferously and effectively to highlight the special treatment she received; normal applicants for naturalisation had to wait years to be granted citizenship, if at all.


title: Zola Budd

text: Shortly afterwards, Budd was forced to pull out of a 1500 metres race in Crawley, Sussex, when the town council withdrew their invitation at short notice. The race was part of the inaugural event for the town's new Bewbush Leisure Centre and Mayor Alf Pegler said members of the council had expressed misgivings that the local significance of the event would be overshadowed by "political connotations and anti-apartheid demonstrators".


title: Zola Budd

text: She ran her first competitive race on the cinder track at Central Park in Dartford, Kent, covering 3000 m in 9:02.6 in a race shown live on the BBC's "Grandstand" programme. She ran in further races in Britain, including the UK Championships 1500 m (won in 4:04) and the 3000 m in the UK Olympic trials, which she won in 8:40, earning a place on the British Olympic team. In the 2000 m at Crystal Palace in July 1984 she set a new world record of 5:33.15. Commenting during the race for the BBC, David Coleman exclaimed, "The message will now be flashed around the world – Zola Budd is no myth."


title: Zola Budd

text: In the 1984 Olympics, held in Los Angeles, California, the media billed the 3000 m race as a duel between Budd and world champion Mary Decker; however experts predicted Decker's main competition to be Romanian Maricica Puică, who had set the fastest time that year.


title: Zola Budd

text: Decker set a fast pace from the gun with Budd in close pursuit, followed by Puică and Britain's Wendy Sly. When the pace slowed just past the midway point, Budd took the lead on the straight and ran wide of the pack around the turn. Setting the pace, she took herself, Decker, Sly and Puică clear of the pack. Running as a group was an unusual situation for Budd and Decker, both of whom were used to running in front and well ahead of other competitors.


title: Zola Budd

text: At 1700 metres, the first collision occurred. Decker came into contact with one of Budd's legs, knocking Budd slightly off balance. However, both women maintained their close position. Five strides on, at race time of 4:58, Budd and Decker again made contact, with Budd's left foot brushing Decker's thigh, causing Budd to lose her balance and sending her into Decker's path. Decker's spiked running shoe came down hard into Budd's ankle, just above the heel, drawing blood. Videotapes later examined by Olympic officials showed Budd visibly in pain. However, Budd maintained equilibrium and kept stride.


title: Zola Budd

text: Decker stepped on Budd; then, shortly after, she collided with the British runner and fell spectacularly to the curb, injuring her hip. As a result, Mary Decker did not finish the race. Decker was carried off the track in tears by her boyfriend (and later, husband), British discus thrower Richard Slaney.


title: Zola Budd

text: Budd, deeply affected by the occurrence, continued to lead for a while, but faded, finishing seventh. Her finishing time of 8:48 was well outside her best of 8:37. Budd tried to apologise to Decker in the tunnel after the race, but Decker was upset, and replied, "Don’t bother!" Puică won, with Sly second, and Canada's Lynn Williams third.


title: Zola Budd

text: An IAAF jury found that she was not responsible for the collision. Decker said many years after the event: "The reason I fell, some people think she tripped me deliberately. I happen to know that wasn’t the case at all. The reason I fell is because I am and was very inexperienced in running in a pack."


title: Zola Budd

text: In general, it is the trailing athlete's responsibility to avoid contact with the runner ahead; whether or not Budd had sufficient control of the race to have pulled into the curve as she naturally did was hotly disputed. "This doesn't mean," track journalist Kenny Moore wrote in the aftermath, "that a leader can swerve in with impunity, but that in the give and take of pack running, athletes learn to make allowances." At first the US media sided with Decker, while the British press supported Budd.


title: Zola Budd

text: In 2002, the moment was ranked 93rd in Channel 4's 100 Greatest Sporting Moments. On an episode of "Celebrity Come Dine with Me", Budd stated that, to that time she had never seen footage of the collision.


title: Zola Budd

text: Budd competed internationally for the UK in 1985 and 1986. In February 1985, she was World Cross Country Champion (beating Ingrid Kristiansen), but then went on to several track defeats. The most significant of these was her rematch with Mary Decker-Slaney at Crystal Palace in July 1985, in which she finished fourth, some 13 seconds behind Decker-Slaney.


title: Zola Budd

text: Budd's form improved significantly after this race, however, as she then went on to break the UK and Commonwealth records for the 1500 m (in 3:59.96), the mile (4:17.57), the 3000m (8:28.83) and the 5000m (14:48.07). This last reduced the world record by ten seconds. She was also victor in the European Cup 3000m. Her best times in the 1500m, mile run and 3000m were set in races with Decker-Slaney and Maricica Puică. Budd finished third in all three races, with Decker-Slaney and Puică consistently coming first and second, respectively.


title: Zola Budd

text: 1986 began with a defence of her World Cross Country title and a world indoor 3000m record of 8:39.79. However, after a couple of victories in fast early season times over 1500m (4:01.93) and 3000m (8:34.72), her outdoor track season brought several defeats by athletes she should have beaten easily. She competed in both the 1500m and 3000m at the European Championships but did not win a medal in either, finishing 9th and 4th, respectively. It later emerged that Budd was suffering a painful leg injury for much of the season; she did not compete in 1987 as she sought treatment for this.


title: Zola Budd

text: In 1988, Budd began to compete again with a handful of cross-country runs. However, several African nations claimed she had competed in an event in South Africa and insisted she be suspended from competition. Budd said she only attended the event and did not compete. The International Amateur Athletics Federation upheld this charge and suspended Budd, at which point she returned to South Africa, and retired from international competition for several years.


title: Zola Budd

text: In 1989, Budd married Mike Pieterse. The couple have three children, daughter Lisa and twins, Azelle and Mike. Also in 1989, Budd published her autobiography, "Zola" (co-written with Hugh Eley).


title: Zola Budd

text: On her return to South Africa, Budd began racing again. She had an excellent season in 1991 and was the second-fastest woman in the world over 3000m. Following South Africa's re-admission to international sport, she competed in the 3000m at the 1992 Summer Olympics in Barcelona but did not qualify for the final. In 1993, she finished fourth at the World Cross Country championships but would never translate this form on to the track.


title: Zola Budd

text: Budd remains the holder of numerous British and South African records at junior and senior levels, and still holds two junior world records: the mile and 3000m.


title: Zola Budd

text: Following allegations of her husband having an affair with former Miss South Africa Agatha "Pinkie" Pelser, Budd, under her married name Pieterse, and her three children relocated to Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, US, in August 2008; Zola’s husband joined them later. She initially had a two-year visa that allowed her to compete on the US masters' circuit. She raced in the South Carolina division of USA Track and Field, winning the women's division of the Dasani Half-Marathon during Bi-Lo Myrtle Beach Marathon on 14 February 2009 with a time of 1:20:41.


title: Zola Budd

text: On 12 January 2012, she announced her participation in the 2012 edition of the nearly Comrades (ultra)Marathon which was held on 3 June 2012. She would also participate in the Two Oceans Marathon during the Easter weekend of 2012 as she trained towards the Comrades Marathon which she ended up finishing in 8:06:09 (she was the 37th female finisher), earning a Bill Rowan Medal. Although she planned to also run the Comrades in 2013 she withdrew due to illness.


title: Zola Budd

text: In June 2014, Budd entered the Comrades again, hoping for an overall silver medal and for a time under 7 hours 30 minutes (7:30:00). Budd beat her time target, finishing with a time of 6:55:55 and earning a gold medal for a top 10 finish as well as a gold medal as the 1st 'veteran' (senior) finisher while coming in as the 7th female finisher overall (the first six being at least 10 years her junior). Budd dedicated her 2014 Comrades run to South African teacher Pierre Korkie, held captive in Yemen by Al-Qaeda for one year. She was stripped of her 'veteran' gold medal (but not of her cash prize for finishing 7th overall) following accusations that she did not display a small age category tag on her running vest, in addition to the veteran designation already displayed on her running bib. Budd and her coach pointed out that the veteran gold medal and silver medal were then given to two runners who also did not have the small age category tag on their running vests, and announced in September 2014 that they had started court proceedings against the Comrades Marathon Association to have her veteran win reinstated.


title: Zola Budd

text: As of July 2020, she was an Assistant Cross Country and Girls Track Coach at Conway High School in Conway, South Carolina; and volunteered as assistant coach at Coastal Carolina University, also in Conway.


title: Zola Budd

text: In South Africa today, township taxis are nicknamed "Zola Budd" for their speed. The singer Brenda Fassie (whom "Time" magazine called "the Madonna of the townships" in 2001) had a hit single in the 1980s with her track "Zola Budd".


title: Zola Budd

text: On 20 July 2012 BBC Radio 4 broadcast a play by Richard Monks about the political and media actions taken to bring Zola Budd to Britain with her father at the age of 17, the script implying she was unwilling and homesick.


title: Hazel O'Connor

text: Hazel Thereasa O'Connor (born 16 May 1954) is a British singer-songwriter and actress. She became famous in the early 1980s with hit singles "Eighth Day", "D-Days" and "Will You?" She also starred in the 1980 film "Breaking Glass".


title: Hazel O'Connor

text: O'Connor was born in Coventry, England. She is the daughter of a soldier from Galway who settled in England after the Second World War to work in a car plant. Her brother Neil later fronted the punk band The Flys, best known for their single "Love and a Molotov Cocktail", which she later covered.


title: Hazel O'Connor

text: Her film debut was in "Girls Come First" in 1975, where she was credited as Hazel Glyn. She became prominent as an actress and singer five years later in 1980 when playing the role of Kate in the film "Breaking Glass". She also performed on the accompanying soundtrack.


title: Hazel O'Connor

text: Her performance as Kate won her the Variety Club of Great Britain Award for 'Best Film Actor'. She was also nominated for the BAFTA Award for Best Film Music. The film's soundtrack album featured songs written and performed by O'Connor and reached number 5 in the UK Albums Chart. It had a 38-week chart run and was certified Gold by the British Phonographic Industry. Several tracks from the album were released as singles, the most successful being "Eighth Day" and "Will You" (with a notable saxophone solo by Wesley Magoogan) which both reached the UK Top 10. When O'Connor toured the UK to promote the album, the opening act were a then-unknown group called Duran Duran. It was the band's first opportunity to play to large audiences throughout the UK and gave them the exposure they needed to secure a recording contract.


title: Hazel O'Connor

text: Subsequent albums released by O'Connor included "Sons and Lovers" (which featured the UK Top 10 hit single "D-Days"), "Cover Plus", "Smile", "Private Wars" and "Five in the Morning". O'Connor also collaborated with other artists, and made appearances in the video for Mick Karn's "The Sound Of Waves" and a cameo appearance in the 1983 Eurythmics video "Who's That Girl?".


title: Hazel O'Connor

text: O'Connor donated her songwriting talents to Greenpeace First International Record Project released worldwide in 1985 as a response to the French bombing and subsequent sinking of the "Rainbow Warrior". Her duet song "Push and Shove" with Chris Thompson leads off the second act of the album and accompanying video.


title: Hazel O'Connor

text: She has made numerous television appearances, starring in "Jangles" on British television and in 1986 playing the lead role of Vivienne in "Fighting Back" as well as singing the theme tune. She also played a singer in an episode of "Prospects" on Channel 4 in 1986 resulting in the release of two spin-off singles alongside former "Breaking Glass" actor Gary Olsen. For a time she was interested in becoming a member of The International Society for Krishna Consciousness, commonly known as the Hare Krishna movement, and starred in a 60-minute film about her relationship with the Krishnas titled "Persuaders" which was broadcast by the BBC in December 1985.


title: Hazel O'Connor

text: Her theatre work included "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" at the Royal Exchange, Manchester, "Nightshoot" at the Tricycle Theatre, London, "Girlfriends" at the Playhouse, London, "Swing Out Sister", her own production, at the Riverside Studio, London, "The Raven Beckons" at the Riverbank Theatre, Dublin and "The Cuchulain Cycle" at the Riverside Studio, London.


title: Hazel O'Connor

text: In 1997 she recorded the studio album "Five in the Morning" with record producer, co-writer and guitarist, Gerard Kiely. The album included the song "Na Na Na". A live album, "Live in Berlin", followed.


title: Hazel O'Connor

text: The turn of the century saw O'Connor tell her life story in a touring show entitled "Beyond Breaking Glass", with harpist Cormac de Barra. The show was a hit at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in 1998 and toured the UK, the Netherlands (twice), Australia and Canada.


title: Hazel O'Connor

text: She signed to Invisible Hands Music in 2002; this triggered a run of new releases and of deluxe re-issues of her 1990s work. A commercially available reincarnation of the previously mail-order "Beyond the Breaking Glass" was followed by a previously unreleased acoustic concert, "Acoustically Yours".


title: Hazel O'Connor

text: In 2003, Invisible Hands Music released O'Connor's first-ever official best of compilation, "A Singular Collection", which brought together her early hits from the Albion days, mid career work at RCA, and the best of the latter, DIY era. To add something new to the best of compilation, O'Connor recorded a cover of her friend George Michael's hit "One More Try", with a band that included drummer Carlos Hercules, who at the time was playing for Annie Lennox and Beverley Knight. Hercules joined George Michael's band in 2006. The track was released as a single, and generated extensive airplay and renewed interest in O'Connor—the following year saw her perform at the Glastonbury Festival.


title: Hazel O'Connor

text: "Hidden Heart", produced by Martin Rushent and including duets with Maire Brennan and Rob Reynolds, was released in the UK in 2006, and her 1984 album "Smile" was reissued on CD in 2008.


title: Hazel O'Connor

text: In 2008, O'Connor performed for the second time at the Glastonbury Festival, playing an acoustic set on the Avalon stage.


title: Hazel O'Connor

text: In 2009, O'Connor performed as part of the '1980s Here and Now' tour at many venues including Wembley Arena. She continued to tour extensively with her own solo projects, 'Beyond the Breaking Glass' and 'Bluja Project'. In 2009 she was awarded her own star on Coventry's 'Walk of Fame'.


title: Hazel O'Connor

text: In September 2010, O'Connor performed in France with The Bluja Project featuring Clare Hirst and Sarah Fisher, and in Ireland in October with Cormac de Barra. She then performed 'Breaking Glass Live' throughout England, culminating in a show at the Leicester Square Theatre in London on 5 December 2010.


title: Hazel O'Connor

text: O'Connor married artist Kurt Bippert in 1987. The ceremony took place on Venice Beach, California. It received coverage by "Hello!" magazine. The actor David Rappaport was best man, and Dave Wakeling from The Beat gave O'Connor away. Bippert and O'Connor divorced in 2000.


title: Hazel O'Connor

text: O'Connor currently divides her time between living in Ireland and France. She is friends with BBC Radio London host JoAnne Good and singer Toyah Willcox, whom she narrowly beat for the lead role in "Breaking Glass".


title: Hazel O'Connor

text: On 17 January 2022, O'Connor's brother Neil published a statement on her website, saying she was currently recovering from "a serious medical event" on 9 January 2022 at her house in France. She had been taken to hospital where it was determined that she had suffered a brain haemorrhage and was put into an induced coma for 24 hours.


title: Star Fox 2

text: Like the original "Star Fox" (1993), "Star Fox 2" pushed the graphical capabilities of the SNES with Argonaut's Super FX chip. Dylan Cuthbert was lead programmer, with Shigeru Miyamoto returning as producer and Katsuya Eguchi as director. "Star Fox 2" introduces semi-real-time gameplay, new ship types, new playable characters, and a more advanced 3D game engine. The story continues the battle against Emperor Andross, who seeks to destroy the Lylat system.


title: Star Fox 2

text: By 1995, 3D technology was advancing quickly and the 3D game market was expanding, with competition from the Sony PlayStation and Sega Saturn consoles. Concerned that the 16-bit graphics of "Star Fox 2" would compare poorly against newer games, Nintendo instead prioritized its upcoming Nintendo 64 console. The Nintendo 64 game "Star Fox 64" (1997) incorporated some concepts introduced in "Star Fox 2".


title: Star Fox 2

text: In the years after the cancellation, various prototype ROM images were leaked online. In 2017, "Star Fox 2" was officially released for the first time as one of 21 games included in the Super NES Classic Edition. In 2019, it became available for the Nintendo Switch to subscribers of the Nintendo Switch Online service.


title: Star Fox 2

text: Instead of following mostly linear paths inside predefined missions as in "Star Fox", the player moves a team of two ships freely around a map screen that represents the Lylat system. When the player's ships make contact with enemy forces, the game switches to an action perspective, piloting the Arwing ship directly with controls and gameplay similar to the first "Star Fox". When the player clears the specified objectives, they are taken back to the map screen to select a new destination.


title: Star Fox 2

text: The objective is to beat all enemy forces present in the map while defending planet Corneria, preventing its damage level from reaching 100%. The player must intercept fighters and incoming IPBMs (interplanetary ballistic missiles), while also dealing with battleships, which deploy more fighter squadrons, and planetary bases, which fire IPBMs. If Corneria's damage level reaches 100% or the player runs out of extra ships, the game ends. General Pepper employs a satellite that can shoot down enemies on a limited basis; the player must also defend this installation from special enemies that can take over the satellite and use its cannon to fire at Corneria. The player also encounters the Star Wolf mercenary team and various bosses.


title: Star Fox 2

text: "Star Fox 2" employs a semi-real-time strategy system. While selecting a destination on the map screen, the game is paused, but while the player's ships travel to their destinations, enemies and missiles also move toward theirs. While fighting enemies in the action screen, time moves at a slower pace than on the map screen, allowing other enemies and missiles to advance and cause damage. To prevent excessive damage to Corneria, the player may need to leave a battle to intercept another enemy.


title: Star Fox 2

text: After his defeat in the original "Star Fox", the antagonist, Andross, returns to the Lylat system and launches an all-out attack against Corneria, using his new fleet of battleships and giant missiles launched from hidden bases to destroy the planet. General Pepper again calls upon the Star Fox team for help. Armed with new custom Arwings, a Mothership, and two new recruits (Miyu and Fay), the Star Fox team sets out to defend Corneria by destroying Andross's forces before they can inflict critical damage on the planet. Along the way, Star Fox must also combat giant bosses, bases on planets throughout the Lylat system, members of the Star Wolf team and finally Andross himself.


title: Star Fox 2

text: "Star Fox 2" features six playable characters, more than any game in the series until "Star Fox Command" (2006). These include Fox McCloud, fearless leader of the Star Fox team, Falco Lombardi, the ace pilot with a headstrong attitude, Peppy Hare, longtime mentor to Fox, and Slippy Toad, the team's young tech analyst and Fox's childhood friend. The two new playable characters are Miyu, a tomboyish lynx, and Fay, a white dog and part of an aristocratic family. "Star Fox 2" also introduces a team of rival mercenary pilots, Star Wolf, which includes Wolf O'Donnell, leader of Star Wolf and a despicable criminal, Leon Powalski, an inscrutable and sinister chameleon, Pigma Dengar, an arrogant and selfish pig who is a former member of the Star Fox team before betraying them, and Algy, a devious creature with incredible precision aim.


title: Star Fox 2

text: Like its predecessor "Star Fox" (1993), "Star Fox 2" was co-developed by Nintendo EAD in Japan and the British company Argonaut Software. Development began shortly after work was finished on the European and competition versions of "Star Fox". Argonaut had a contract with Nintendo to create three games; after "Star Fox", Argonaut programmers Giles Goddard and Dylan Cuthbert worked on "Stunt Race FX" (1994) and Cuthbert on "Star Fox 2". Cuthbert worked out of Nintendo's headquarters in Kyoto and had little contact with Argonaut during development. He served as lead programmer and was assigned two Japanese Nintendo programmers to work under him. The team was overseen by designers Shigeru Miyamoto and Katsuya Eguchi, with Eguchi as director. "Edge" reported in December 1993 that development on a sequel to "Star Fox" had begun.


title: Star Fox 2

text: The team decided early on to use the Super FX 2 chip in the game cartridge. It was an enhanced version of the Super FX, a reduced instruction set computer (RISC) for SNES ROM cartridges developed by Argonaut. The original chip was designed to calculate 3D math quickly and was first used in "Star Fox". The Super FX 2 had more memory and ran at 21 MHz, twice as fast as the original chip. Argonaut's original proposal for the Super FX used this improved architecture, but Nintendo found it too expensive. Cuthbert also rewrote parts of the engine to run in parallel in RAM to free more Super FX 2 processing for more advanced features, such as planar clipping and advanced collision detection. These enhancements enabled the chip to manipulate more polygons and sprites and to map textures more quickly, giving the team the computing power needed for free-roaming 3D environments. Such free-roaming gameplay was planned for the original "Star Fox", but it was made on-rails because of the original Super FX chip's limited computing powers. Cuthbert also retooled the engine to increase the frame rate from 20 to 30 frames per second, but it was not steady so they locked the frame rate at 20 FPS. Freely explorable environments were the only gameplay element planned for the original "Star Fox" carried into "Star Fox 2"; all other ideas were new.


title: Star Fox 2

text: Miyamoto considered the "Star Fox" series a platform for experimenting with new gameplay ideas. The team experimented more with "Star Fox 2" than "Star Fox". This creativity led to gameplay ideas such as the platforming sequences with the robot walker. Miyamoto took great interest in Cuthbert's platforming gameplay (before "Super Mario 64"'s release in 1996). At one point in development, the Walker sequences occurred in much larger space stations with energy gates that needed to be unlocked, a gameplay structure comparable to dungeon crawling. Because of the Super FX 2's greater computing power, the team decided to have the fighters visibly transform into bipedal Walkers. The transformation was made in a realistic sense; the artists even drafted the mechanisms by which the fighters transformed.


title: Star Fox 2

text: Director Eguchi wanted to explore a more roguelike game system and use similar game mechanics to "Star Luster" (1985). He played "Star Luster" repeatedly for inspiration and was particularly fond of its random encounters system. He also enjoyed "Fortune Street" and was inspired by its more strategic gameplay elements. Given this direction, the team designed the main gameplay structure: players would move across a map defending planets from the enemy, battling in randomly generated enemy encounters. It was designed to play out differently each gameplay session. For further replayability, the team added six playable characters, two of which were series newcomers: Miyu and Fay. More antagonists were added, including Wolf. A two-player mode was planned and tested, but the team could not get the frame rate high and steady enough for it to be enjoyable.


title: Star Fox 2

text: "Star Fox 2" was playable on the show floor at the Winter Consumer Electronics Show (Winter CES) in Las Vegas in January 1995. The version demonstrated was significantly different from the final version. "GamePro" enjoyed the free-roaming gameplay, the craft morphing ability, and strategy elements. "Electronic Gaming Monthly" also liked the shift to free-roaming and felt the non-linear gameplay and ship morphing abilities were major improvements. "Nintendo Power" dubbed it their top SNES game of the show. All three magazines thought "Star Fox 2" was better than the original. "Edge" was more critical, writing that "Star Fox 2" was Nintendo's attempt to keep the SNES relevant. They wrote that the Super FX polygons were not particularly impressive, and the gameplay lacked "the immediate appeal of its predecessor". A man was arrested and charged with felony grand larceny for attempting to steal a demo cart from the show floor.


title: Star Fox 2

text: By mid-1995, "Star Fox 2" was nearing completion, and was planned for release in August. However, 3D technology was advancing quickly and the 3D game market was expanding, with competition from the Sony PlayStation and Sega Saturn. The consoles ran impressive 3D graphics that captured the public's attention. Nintendo was concerned that the 16-bit "Star Fox 2" 3D visuals would be compared to the superior 3D capabilities of competing consoles. Cuthbert said that "Star Fox 2" would be "compared directly against games such as "Ridge Racer", which felt like you finally had an arcade machine's power in your home".


title: Star Fox 2

text: Nintendo decided to prioritize its upcoming Nintendo 64 console, including a new "Star Fox" game, "Star Fox 64". According to Cuthbert, Miyamoto wanted a clear break between 3D games on the SNES and Nintendo 64. The Super FX 2 chip also raised the cost of production, which would have made "Star Fox 2" an expensive release.


title: Star Fox 2

text: "Star Fox 2" was canceled in mid-1995, when it was about 95% complete. Nintendo still wanted the game finished after cancellation, so took it through full localization and QA testing. Cuthbert said there may have been no official announcement of cancellation, and there was confusion about the game's status in the media. The August issue of "GamePro" printed that it had been delayed to 1996, while "Electronic Gaming Monthly" wrote that had been canceled in their September issue. "Nintendo Power" wrote in their September issue that "rumors of the demise of "Star Fox 2" have been greatly exaggerated", with a release most likely coming in the first half of 1996.


title: Star Fox 2

text: For many years, the completed version of "Star Fox 2" remained in Nintendo's archives. Super FX games were not considered for Nintendo's Virtual Console content distribution service because Nintendo had difficulty emulating the chip. In 2015, Miyamoto told journalists: "In my memory, I enjoyed ["Star Fox 2"] but I'm not sure I would release it, [...] I'd rather have people play a new game".


title: Star Fox 2

text: In the years following cancellation, ROM images of incomplete builds of "Star Fox 2" were leaked anonymously onto the internet. Cuthbert denied he had leaked it and suspected the ROMs had been taken from his hard drive after he left Argonaut.


title: Star Fox 2

text: The first ROMs leaked in the late 1990s were early test builds with numerous software bugs. These versions mostly consist of debug menus and sparsely populated landscapes; one version includes a 2-player mode. A few years later, an anonymous person reached out to the emulation community, saying that they had a non-working copy of the final beta ROM. The community determined that an internal header was missing and were able to add the header to get it functioning. The ROM image was leaked online after. This version was in Japanese and much more complete than previous versions. The emulation community was inspired by the release to improve Super FX chip handling in their Super NES emulators. A fan translation patch was also released which took four people and over 100 hours of work. The patch developers also changed a debug modifier that was set to zero, preventing Corneria from taking damage.


title: Star Fox 2

text: All leaked ROMs are beta versions. Some gameplay features do not work correctly, are incomplete, or hampered by bugs. According to Cuthbert, all the leaked ROMs lack the final few months of QA work. They were also all set up in debug mode, so the encounter systems and randomized gameplay elements do not work correctly. Speaking about the final beta ROM, he said: "The basic parts are there, but there is an adage in game development, 'The last 10 percent is 90 percent of the game' and the ROM is missing that last 10 percent of iteration and refinement".


title: Star Fox 2

text: When compiling a list of games to include on the Super NES Classic dedicated console, the system's producer proposed the inclusion of "Star Fox 2". He thought it would be a waste otherwise to never release a completed and debugged game. Nintendo had preserved the game since its completion, making it easy to bring it to the Super NES Classic. The device was announced along with "Star Fox 2"'s inclusion in June 2017. The announcement came as a delightful surprise to Cuthbert. No one from Argonaut or Q-Games was consulted or otherwise made aware ahead of the reveal. Some of the original developers celebrated the announcement.


title: Star Fox 2

text: The Super NES Classic was released on September 29, 2017, in North America and Europe and on October 5 in Japan. The version is the localized English ROM that was completed in the 1990s, though Cuthbert suspected Nintendo had to make minor changes, such as altering screen flashing, to get it past modern regulations. Promotional artwork for "Star Fox 2" was created by Takaya Imamura, the original "Star Fox" character designer. The instruction manual was released digitally online and included concept art and design documents, an unusual move for Nintendo.


title: Star Fox 2

text: In December 2019, Nintendo released a video of upcoming games for its Nintendo Switch Online NES and Super NES services. The update includes "Star Fox 2" as a part of its portfolio of games, playable by those with an active Nintendo Switch Online membership as of December 12, 2019.


title: Star Fox 2

text: "Star Fox 2" received generally favorable reception from critics during its inclusion on the Super NES Classic Edition in 2017. "Polygon"s Ross Miller found it to be ambitious and fun. "Destructoid"s Chris Carter complimented the constant swap between viewpoints and playstyles, minimal "RPG-like" exposition between levels and the introduction of Star Wolf, stating that they added character into the game but noted its short length and criticized the low framerate. "Eurogamer"s Christian Donlan described it as an unusual but "wonderfully surprising and inventive" sequel that builds upon the first "Star Fox", due to its more roguelite nature. "GamesRadar+" David Houghton gave positive remarks regarding the evolution of the franchise's core ideas and free-roaming 3D planets, but criticized its uncohesive game mechanics, overly ambitious ideas and "choppy" technical performance. "IGN"s Samuel Claiborn complimented its "janky-yet-plucky aesthetic" but complained that severe frame-rate drops plagued the game and that it was difficult to control the ships. Claiborn stated that it was the worst game in the SNES Classic Edition and wished the game had been cancelled. "Nintendo Life"s Damien McFerran was positive to the game's depth, complexity and challenge, and called it a good reason to own a SNES Mini.


title: Star Fox 2

text: "Nintendo World Report"s Neal Ronaghan and John Rairdin praised its distinctly structure and design, challenge, strategy and roguelike elements, audiovisual presentation, replayability and deep gameplay. Rairdin wrote that it was the most important game in the "Star Fox" series, and one of the greatest Super Nintendo games. However, both criticized the lack of rail shooter levels, slowdown and clipping issues, as well as limitations by its era of development. "HobbyConsolas" David Martínez commended the Arwing's transformation mechanic, open levels and introduction of new Star Fox members and Star Wolf but criticized the game's short length, technical shortcomings and controls, feeling that it was not well-rounded as the first entry. "Digital Trends" Mike Epstein felt that "Star Fox 2" took some of the biggest risks the "Star Fox" franchise had attempted. "The Verge"s Andrew Webster called it "a fascinating experience". "GameSpot"s Michael Higham gave positive remarks to the land vehicle sequences, freedom of approach to manage an incoming threat and off-rails 3D dogfights in space, but criticized its poor technical performance, short length, and lacking sense of adventure when compared to the first "Star Fox", among other aspects.


title: Star Fox 2

text: After "Star Fox 2" was canceled, Argonaut's contract with Nintendo ended. Cuthbert left Japan and moved to the United States to work with Sony. In 2001, he returned to Japan to establish Q-Games. The company collaborated with Nintendo in 2006 to develop "Star Fox Command", and again in 2011 for "Star Fox 64 3D". Cuthbert found the experimentation with "Star Fox 2" personally helpful in his career.


title: Star Fox 2

text: "Star Fox 2" inspired the design of later "Star Fox" games. Free-range flying and grounded vehicle gameplay were implemented into "Star Fox 64", as was the Star Wolf team. Nintendo and Q-Games played "Star Fox 2" to gather inspiration on its strategic gameplay elements for "Star Fox Command". Miyamoto asked Cuthbert to make "Command" more similar to "Star Fox 2" than the original "Star Fox". The Arwing's ability to transform into the Walker was re-introduced in "Star Fox Zero" (2016). The game also drove ideas for future Nintendo 64 games. Cuthbert believes a lot of the platforming experimentation they ran in "Star Fox 2" gave Miyamoto confidence for "Super Mario 64".


title: Jiraiya

text: Jiraiya (自来也 or 児雷也, literally "Young Thunder"), originally known as Ogata Shuma Hiroyuki (尾形周馬寛行), is the toad-riding protagonist of the Japanese folk tale Katakiuchi Kidan Jiraiya Monogatari (報仇奇談自来也説話, "The Tale of the Gallant Jiraiya"). The tale was originally a Yomihon that was published in 1806–1807, and was adapted into a serialized novel that was written by different authors and published in 43 installments from 1839 to 1868; one of its illustrators was woodblock artist Kunisada. Kawatake Mokuami then wrote a kabuki drama based on the first ten parts of the novel, which premiered in Edo in 1852, starring Ichikawa Danjūrō VIII in the leading role. Since then the story has been adapted into, several films, video games, and manga and has also influenced various other works.


title: Jiraiya

text: Katakiuchi Kidan Jiraiya Monogatari (報仇奇談自来也説話)  is considered the first novel or Yomihon to be adapted into a kabuki play, the novel was written by Kanwatei Onitake (感和亭鬼武) and was published between 1806 and 1807. The story was later adapted many more times with variations in the story.


title: Jiraiya

text: The tale of Jiraiya starts with a poor, masterless samurai named Isami Gentaro, who's wrongfully jailed because he could not afford the rent for his farm. His family manages to get the money to pay his bail so Isami's father, Kirakusai travels alongside his grandson, Tomokichi to pay Isami's bail. However, on the way to free Isami, Kirakusai is attacked and killed by Master Rokuyaon Gun who kidnaps the two-year-old Tomokichi and abandons him in a valley. During this time, a masterless samurai of the Miyoshi House, Ogata Shuma Hiroyuki, better known as "Jiraiya", happens upon the young Tomokichi and decides to raise him as his son.


title: Jiraiya

text: Gentaro is later released with the help of other villagers and becomes a vassal of Shiizu Kunihisa after proving his courage as a samurai at the same time as Master Gun. Gentaro and Master Gun then begin working together to capture Jiraiya as he is a wanted criminal. Fortunately, though caught, Jiraiya manages to scheme his way out of jail. Gentaro eventually meets his wife, Soe (who now goes by "Seino") and they discuss the former's hatred for whoever killed his father and son, both unaware the latter is alive. Master Gun eavesdrops on this conversation and decides to steal their Amulet of Protection, also known as the "Seitensō" (西天草), and proceeds to kill both Gentaro and Soe. Tomokichi—whilst engaged in a duel with Master Gun for Midori, the stepdaughter of Gentaro—learns that it was he who murdered his family. While this allows Tomokichi a chance to exact his revenge, he is unable to take it as Master Gun uses the Amulet of Protection to escape.


title: Jiraiya

text: Master Gun is chased to Mt. Miyoko by Tomokichi and, upon reaching the mountain, is accosted by the spirits of the dead until he arrives to a grotto where the Immortal Toad Ascetic lives. They converse and the immortal sees all of Master Guns' sins and even tells him that, since there are dead souls haunting him, he must be a murderer and that he'll die from his sins. Terrified, Master Gun begs the immortal to save him, to which he agrees but saying he will only help him once. The immortal then uses his magic arts to send Master Gun down the mountain before warning him if he tells anyone of this encounter he will die. However, later that night, after getting drunk with one of Jiraiya's followers, Master Gun tells him of the events at Mt. Miyoko. The morning after Master Gun leaves, Jiraiya goes to Mt. Miyoko to visit the Immortal. The Toad Ascetic then appears in front of Jiraiya and tells him that, even though he is a bandit who committed innumerable sins, he'll teach him one magic art as he admires Jiraiya's loyalty. While Master Gun and Jiraiya are visiting the immortal, Tomokichi sets out to find them and, upon finally locating Jiraiya, recounts to his stepfather of what has happened to his family. Jiraiya vows to assist Tomokichi in his revenge and will be there to help when he is needed, sending his troops to steal the Seitenso from Master Gun so as to lure him out in order to kill him.


title: Jiraiya

text: After luring Master Gun to a place called Kagamigaura, Tomokichi and Master Gun then engage in battle. While Tomokichi almost fails, he is able to turn the tide thanks to Jiraiya's encouragement, announces he'll avenge his grandfather and parents, and finally cuts off Master Guns' head, ending part one and the first revenge story.


title: Jiraiya

text: The second part opens up with the immortal on Mt. Miyoko appearing to Jiraiya in his dreams asking for his assistance in return for teaching him more magic arts. Jiraiya sets off towards the mountain to save his master and, when he arrives, sees a monstrous snake fighting his master, who's taken on the form of a giant toad. Jiraiya manages to kill the snake and is rewarded by the immortal with more magic arts, which he then uses to rob a wealthy man right after learning them. Since Jiraiya is wanted by the government, he became a pirate and started plundering commercial ships, until one night at sea the ghost of his former lord, Miyoshi Nagashige asks him to take revenge on the Ishido family, more specifically Ishido Haruchika. Jiraiya agrees and he soon after saves a vassal of Ishido named Agawa Uneo, and his companion Nagisa, the younger sister of another vassal named Madeno Hamanosuke, to which he tosses Agawa Uneo into the sea and takes Nagisa hostage. Agawa Uneo is then saved by a former member of his group and begins to pursue Jiraiya immedatly after recovering. During this time, Madeno Hamanosuke goes to Mt. Kinki to pray to Benzaiten, a god related to snakes, for the safety of his lord. He is answered by a goddess who appears before him and gives him the Stone Conch, otherwise known as the "Ishihara" (石螺), which holds the power to negate magic arts and repel evil.


title: Jiraiya

text: Meanwhile, Tomokichi has become a vassal of Shiizu Kunihisa after taking revenge on Master Gun and is ordered to take back the Amulet of Protection from Jiraiya, to which he sets off in search of his adoptive father. After finding Jiraiya, Tomokichi asks him to return the Amulet of Protection to which the former agrees, but only after the next six months as he needs it to complete his revenge. In order to keep this meeting a secret, Jiraiya summons a powerful tsunami to kill all of Tomokichi's troops despite the latter's pleads for mercy to his men. After all is said and done, Jiraiya invites Tomokichi to go with him on his revenge quest so that he would not be punished.


title: Jiraiya

text: Jiraiya then begins his plan, first by robbing betrothal gifts for Ishido Haruchika's daughter, Tamahitohime, which leads to the death of Nagisa. After sneaking into the Nitsuki House, Jiraiya summons a tsunami to kill all of the servants in order for his troops to pose as them and sneak into the Ishido residence. Jiraiya then finds a mountain hermit who was going to treat one of Ishido Haruchika's sick daughters and kills him, he then pretends to be the mountain hermit in order to sneak into the Ishido House. After sneaking into Ishido Haruchikas's room, Jiraiya then cuts off his head.


title: Jiraiya

text: Afterwards, Jiraiya calls on Tomokichi to return the Amulet of Protection as promised. However, Madeno Hamanosuke shows up and announces the head of the man Jiraiya cut off actually belonged to Agawa Uneo and all of his troops were captured because a member of the Jiraiya's group, Asazuma was a vassal of Ishido and warned the Ishido house of his plan. Jiraiya tries to use his magic arts to defeat Madeno Hamanosuke, however, Madeno uses the Stone Conch that was given to him by Benzaiten to negate Jiraiya's magic arts. Jiraiya finally realizes that his death is at hand as he lived a sinful life and this is his justice so, before anyone can kill him, he commits suicide and turns to stone.


title: Jiraiya

text: Isami Gentaro – Tomokichis's father who is imprisoned at the beginning of the story, he later becomes a vassal of Shiizu Kunihisa and hunts down the bandit Jiraiya. He is killed by Master Rokuyaon Gun as part of his plot to steal the Amulet of Protection.


title: Jiraiya

text: Kirakusai Gentaro – Isamis's father and the grandfather of Tomokichi, he's killed by Master Rokuyaon Gun whilst on his way to pay his son's bail.


title: Jiraiya

text: Soe Gentaro – Isami's wife and Tomokichis mother, sells herself to a brothel to pay for her husband's bail. She is later reunited with her husband but is killed alongside him by Master Rokuyaon Gun as part of his plan to steal the Amulet of Protection.


title: Jiraiya

text: Master Rokuyaon Gun – One of the story's main antagonists who seeks the Amulet of Protection, he is killed by Tomokichi as part of the first revenge plot that makes up the story.


title: Jiraiya

text: Tomokichi Gentaro – Jiraiya's adopted son, he is kidnapped by Master Rokuyaon Gun as a child and left to die but is found by Jiraiya. He grows up and takes revenge on Master Rokuyaon Gun for killing his family.


title: Jiraiya

text: Shiizu Kunihisa – The head of the Kunihisa household who Master Rokuyaon Gun and Isami Gentaro served before their deaths and who Tomokichi later serves after taking his revenge on Master Rokuyaon Gun.


title: Jiraiya

text: The Immortal Toad Ascetic – The Immortal Toad Ascetic that lives on Mt. Miyoko and helps Master Rokuyaon Gun escape, he teaches Jiraiya several magic arts throughout the story.


title: Jiraiya

text: Miyoshi Nagashige – Ogata Shuma Hiroyuki's late lord, he appears to Jiraiya as a ghost and asks him to take vengeance on the Ishido House, but more specifically on Ishido Haruchika.


title: Jiraiya

text: Ishido Haruchika – The head of the Haruchika family, he is the second antagonist of the story as he is the one that Jiraiya is asked to kill by his late lord, Miyoshi Nagashige.


title: Jiraiya

text: Agawa Uneo – A vassal of Ishido Haruchika, he is captured by Jiraiya and tossed into the sea before later being used as a decoy for lord Ishido during Jiraiya's plan to take revenge.


title: Jiraiya

text: Madeno Hamanosuke – Another vassal of Ishido Haruchika, his sister is captured by Jiraiya and later dies and so he planned to take revenge on Jiraiya. He is also given the Stone Conch, otherwise known as the "Ishihara" (石螺), which was given to him by the god Benzaiten in order to negate Jiraiya's magic arts.


title: Jiraiya

text: A popular version of the story was translated by William Elliot Griffis. The story starts with Jiraiya's father who was a castle lord being killed during one of many civil wars. After he is killed young Jiraiya is hidden by a retainer and is able to escape, but they are attacked by a band of robbers, and the retainer is killed after resisting. Jiraiya goes to a place called Echigo where he spent the rest of his childhood. Jiraiya now led a wandering life in several provinces but wished to restore his family name. Since he was talented at swordsmanship and was exceptionally brave Jiraiya soon become a chief of his own band of robbers, where he would sneak in disguise to the places he robbed to learn where the treasure was stored. He would then come back and rob them later.


title: Jiraiya

text: One day Jiraiya heard of an old man who lived in Shinano and he started off to rob him. The land was a place full of mountains and was full of snow in the winter. During the journey, he was beset by a great snowstorm and he took refuge in a small house that he happened upon, inside was a beautiful woman who treated him with great kindness. This did not change Jiraiya's nature as a robber though and after midnight he went to kill her with his sword while she was reading. However, in a flash, her body changed to a very old man who grabbed the heavy steel blade and easily broke it into pieces. He then announces his name as Senso Dojin, and that he is a giant frog that has lived on the mountain for hundreds of years. He pardons Jiraiya after telling him he could kill him easily and then teaches him magic arts. Jiraiya stayed with Senso Dojin for several weeks learning the magic arts of the mountain sprites in order to control the weather as well as to control frogs and change their shape and size at will. After Senso teaches him he forbids him from robbing or injuring the poor and helpless and to instead take from those who use and acquire money dishonestly and to help the needy and suffering. He then turns into a giant frog and hops away.


title: Jiraiya

text: After this Jiraiya sets out on his journey to help the poor and needy by helping a poor farmer whose crops failed and he could not pay his rent or loan on time. As well whenever a miser was robbed they would say that the young thunder had struck, as Jiraiya was very popular with the poor people of the time.


title: Jiraiya

text: During this time when Jiraiya was helping the poor and needy, a young maiden named Tsunade also lived in the same province of Kiushiu. She was a model daughter and was always obedient and kind. One day during her trip into the mountains for firewood she met a very old man who approached her and told her he had lived in the mountains for hundreds of years and that his body was really that of a snail. He then offers to teach Tsundae the powers of magic he possesses. She gladly accepted and began training daily with the old man. Once she had mastered the magic, she was advised to use her powers to defend the poor and destroy wicked robbers, and to join her powers with Jiraiya in the form of marriage. The old man then turns into a snail and crawls away. Tsunade then remarks that she and Jiraiya with the combination of slug magic and frog magic would be able to destroy a robber named Orochimaru, who was the son of a serpent. Tsunade and Jiraiya eventually met and were married soon after.


title: Jiraiya

text: Soon after Jiraiya and Tsunade were married war broke out in Japan between the Tsukikage and the Inukage. In the war, the Tsukikage sought out the help of Jiraiya and Tsunade who agreed to help them with the war, while the other clan the Inukage sought the help of Orochimaru otherwise known as Dragon-coil. Orochimaru was known as a very wicked robber whose father was a man and mother was a serpent that lived at the bottom of lake Takura, he was skilled in the magic of the serpent and would spew venom on the strongest of warriors to destroy them.


title: Jiraiya

text: During a respite between the conflicts, Jiraiya and Tsunade were resting in a monastery. In the monastery, there was also a princess named Tagoto that had fled from Orochimaru as he wanted her to be his bride. She hated Orochimaru and did not want to marry him, however, when Orochimaru upon hearing that Tagoto and Jiraiya were in the same monastery, immediately made his way to the monastery. He then kidnapped the princess Tagoto and poured poisonous venom onto the sleeping Jiraiya and Tsunade. After they are poisoned one of Jiraiya's pages, Rikimatsu, volunteers to go to India to retrieve the only antidote to cure Jiraiya and Tsunade. Rikimatsu then uses the magic he learned from the Tengus of the mountains he flies to India and back in one day and one night to deliver the antidote. After Jiraiya and his wife recovered the war broke out again, and in a great battle Orochimaru was killed and Tagoto was rescued. Jiraiya was rewarded by being made a daimyo of Idzu.


title: Jiraiya

text: At this point, Jiraiya had grown tired of war and the hardships that an active life brought, and he was glad to settle down to a peaceful life in Idzu. He spent the remainder of his day in peace and tranquility among his children and his grandchildren.


title: Jiraiya

text: Jiraiya – otherwise known as “young thunder”, is the protagonist of the story, his father was a castle laird in Kisushiu but is killed when he is young. He then becomes a bandit who uses his frog magic arts to help the poor and needy.


title: Jiraiya

text: Tsunade – Jiraiya's wife, is taught slug magic by an old man whose real body turns out to be a slug. Her magic is strong against snake magic


title: Jiraiya

text: Senso Dojin – he appears as an old man who teaches Jiraiya frog magic, and later reveals himself to be a giant frog


title: Jiraiya

text: Orochimaru – otherwise known as Dragon-coil, is the son of a snake and is able to use snake magic which is strong against frog magic. He is the main antagonist of the story.


title: Jiraiya

text: Rikimatsu – he is one of Jiraiya's pages, he learns Tengu magic and is instrumental in saving Jiraiya and Tsunade when they are poisoned by Orochimaru.


title: Jiraiya

text: A Persona representing the spirit of Jiraiya is summoned by the character Yosuke Hanamura in "Persona 4".


title: Jiraiya

text: The 18th "Super Sentai" season, "Ninja Sentai Kakuranger", features a character named Jiraiya (played by Kane Kosugi) who summons a giant black toad mecha.


title: Jiraiya

text: The seventh installment of the "Metal Hero Series", "Sekai Ninja Sen Jiraiya" features ninja student Toha Yamaji who identifies himself as Jiraiya to combat The Sorcerers Clan.


title: Jiraiya

text: In "Urusei Yatsura" in episode 179, Cherry summons a giant slug and a giant toad to fight the spirit of a giant snake that possessed Sakura.


title: Jiraiya

text: In "Pokémon", Greninja is a Water/Dark-type Pokémon, the evolved form of Frogadier, and the final evolved form of Froakie, the Water-type starter of the Kalos region. With the appearance and abilities of both a frog and a ninja, pulling inspiration from Jiraiya.


title: Languages of Argentina

text: Spanish is the language that is predominantly understood and spoken as a first, or second language by nearly all of the population of Argentina. According to the latest estimations, the population is currently greater than 45 million.


title: Languages of Argentina

text: English is another important language in Argentina and is obligatory in primary school instruction in various provinces. Argentina is the only Latin American country characterized as "high aptitude" in English, being placed 15th globally in the year 2015, according to a report from the English Aptitude Index. In 2017, Argentina fell ten places from its best position and fell to 25th place, though it continues to be the second highest ranked Ibero-American, after Portugal.


title: Languages of Argentina

text: Guarani and Quechua are other important languages in Argentina with 200,000 speakers and 65,000 speakers respectively.


title: Languages of Argentina

text: Fifteen Indigenous American languages currently exist and five others (today extinct) existed in different regions. The vernacular Indigenous American languages (native to the Argentine territory) are spoken by very few people. In addition there is Lunfardo, a slang or a type of pidgin with original words from many languages, among these languages are ones from the Italian Peninsula, like Piedmontese, Ligurian, and others like Italian, Portuguese, etc., and have been seen in the Río de la Plata area since at least 1880. There is also Portuñol, a pidgin of Portuguese and Spanish spoken since approximately 1960 in the areas of Argentina that border Brazil.


title: Languages of Argentina

text: Another native language is Argentine Sign Language (LSA), which is signed by deaf communities. It emerged in 1885.


title: Languages of Argentina

text: After the above-mentioned languages German follows (around 200,000, including a significant number of the Volga German dialect and of the Plautdietsch language). Multitude of Old World and immigrant languages are spoken in their respective ethnic communities throughout the country; these are namely Albanian, Arabic, Armenian, Asturian, Basque, Belarusian, Bosnian, Bulgarian, Catalan, Chinese, Croatian, Czech, Danish, Dutch, Estonian, Finnish, French, Galician, Greek, Hebrew, Hungarian, Irish, Japanese, Korean, Latvian, Lithuanian, Macedonian, Norwegian, Occitan, Polish, Portuguese, Romani, Romanian, Russian, Serbian, Slovene, Swedish, Turkish, Ukrainian,


title: Languages of Argentina

text: and Yiddish. Most of these languages have, with the exception of Chinese and Plautdietsch, very few speakers and are usually only spoken in family environments.


title: Languages of Argentina

text: The Republic of Argentina has not established, legally, an official language; however, Spanish has been utilized since the founding of the Argentine state by the administration of the Republic and is used in education in all public establishments, so much so that in basic and secondary levels there is a mandatory subject of Spanish (a subject called "language.") Since 1952, The Argentine Academy of Letters, which was founded in 1931, has regularly collaborated with The Royal Spanish Academy to register local variants.


title: Languages of Argentina

text: Even though the Constitution establishes the jurisdiction of the National Congress "to recognize the ethnic and cultural pre-existence of indigenous peoples of Argentina.," the native languages have not been recognized as official, except in the provinces of Chaco and Corrientes.


title: Languages of Argentina

text: The most prevalent dialect in Argentina is "Rioplatense", whose speakers are located primarily in the basin of the Río de la Plata. There is also Cuyo Spanish and Cordobés Spanish. In the north, Andean Spanish is spoken and in the northeast there is a great influence from Paraguayan Spanish.


title: Languages of Argentina

text: Argentina is one of several Spanish-speaking countries (along with Uruguay, Paraguay, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Honduras and Costa Rica) that almost universally use what is known as "voseo"—the use of the pronoun "vos" instead of "tú" (the familiar "you") as well as its corresponding verb forms.


title: Languages of Argentina

text: A phonetic study conducted by the Laboratory for Sensory Investigations of [CONICET] and the University of Toronto showed that the intonation Porteño Spanish is unlike that of other Spanish varieties, and suggested that it may be a result of convergence with Italian. Italian immigration influenced "Lunfardo", the slang spoken in the Río de la Plata region, permeating the vernacular vocabulary of other regions as well.


title: Languages of Argentina

text: As in other large countries, the accents vary depending on geographical location. Extreme differences in pronunciation can be heard within Argentina. One notable pronunciation difference found in Argentina is the "sh" sounding y and ll. In most Spanish speaking countries the letters y and ll are pronounced somewhat like the "y" in yo-yo, however in most parts of Argentina they are pronounced like "sh" in English (such as "shoe") or like "zh" (such as the sound the makes in "measure").


title: Languages of Argentina

text: In many of the central and north-eastern areas of the country, the trilled /r/ takes on the same sound as the and ('zh' - a voiced palatal fricative sound, similar to the "s" in the English pronunciation of the word "vision".) For Example, "Río Segundo" sounds like "Zhio Segundo" and "Corrientes" sounds like "Cozhientes".


title: Languages of Argentina

text: The Indo-European languages spoken in Argentina by stable communities fall into five branches: Romance (Spanish, Italian, and Portuguese), West Germanic (English, Plautdietsch and standard German), Celtic languages (Welsh), and Central Indo-Aryan (Romani).


title: Languages of Argentina

text: On the other hand, the indigenous languages of Argentina are very diverse and fall into different linguistic families...


title: Languages of Argentina

text: In addition to Spanish, the following living languages are registered in Argentina with local growth:


title: Languages of Argentina

text: Argentine Sign Language, understood by around two million deaf people of Argentina, their instructors, descendants, and others. There are different regional variants, such as in Cordoba.


title: Languages of Argentina

text: Southern Quechua: from the family of Quechuan languages. There are seven variations present that are marked by their geographical origin, detailed here are South Bolivian Quechua and Santiagueño Quechua:


title: Languages of Argentina

text: In the provinces of Corrientes, Misiones, Chaco, Formosa, Entre Ríos, and Buenos Aires dialects of Argentine Guarani are spoken or known by nearly one million people, including Paraguayan immigrants that speak Paraguayan Guarani or Jopara. In Corrientes, the Argentine Guarani dialect was decreed co-official in 2004 and made obligatory in educational instruction and the government.


title: Languages of Argentina

text: The Mapuche language is an isolated language that had approximately 40,000 to 100,000 speakers in the provinces of Neuquén, Río Negro, Chubut, and Santa Cruz in 2000.


title: Languages of Argentina

text: Central Aymara is a language of the Aymaran group, spoken by 30,000 inhabitants of Jujuy, of the North of Salta, besides the immigrants of Puna and of Peru.


title: Languages of Argentina

text: In addition to surviving indigenous languages, before the contact with Europeans and during some time during the Colonization of the Americas in Argentina they spoke the following languages, that are currently extinct:


title: Oberst

text: Oberst () is a senior field officer rank in several German-speaking and Scandinavian countries, equivalent to colonel. It is currently used by both the ground and air forces of Austria, Germany, Switzerland, Denmark, and Norway. The Swedish rank "överste" is a direct translation, as are the Finnish rank "eversti" and the Icelandic rank "ofursti".


title: Oberst

text: is a German word. Spelled with a capital O, "" is a noun and defines the military rank of colonel or group captain. Spelled with a lower case o, or "", it is an adjective, meaning "top, topmost, uppermost, highest, chief, head, first, principal, or supreme". Both usages derive from the superlative of , "the upper" or "the uppermost".


title: Oberst

text: As a family name, "Oberst" is common in the southwest of Germany, in the area known as the Black Forest ("Schwarzwald"). The name is also concentrated in the north-central cantons of Switzerland (Aargau & Zürich). Here the Swiss version of "Oberst" is spelled "Obrist". The name first appeared in the thirteenth century in the German-Swiss border area, and early forms were "Zoberist" and "Oberist." The name most likely refers to the "tribe that lives the highest on the mountain" or "the family that lives the highest in the village".


title: Oberst

text: Translated as "superior" or "supreme", the rank of "Oberst" can trace its origins to the Middle Ages where the term most likely described the senior knight on a battlefield or the senior captain in a regiment. With the emergence of professional armies in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, an "Oberst" became the commander of regiment or battalion-sized formations.


title: Oberst

text: By the eighteenth century, were typically afforded aides or lieutenants, often titled . This led to formation of the modern German rank of the same name, translated as lieutenant colonel.


title: Oberst

text: The Danish rank of is based around the German term. Ranked OF-5 within NATO and having the paygrade of M402., it is used in the Royal Danish Army and the Royal Danish Air Force.


title: Oberst

text: (short: O) is the highest staff officer rank in the German Army ("Heer") and the German Air Force ("Luftwaffe").


title: Oberst

text: The rank is rated OF-5 in NATO, and is grade A16 or B3 in the pay rules of the Federal Ministry of Defence. It is equivalent to:


title: Oberst

text: was in the so-called "armed organs of the GDR" (), represented by Ministry of National Defence, and Ministry for State Security, the highest field officer rank, comparable to the colonel in many NATO-Armed forces (Rangcode OF-5). This was in reference to Soviet military doctrine and in line with other armed forces of the Warsaw Pact.


title: Oberst

text: was in the German Reich and Nazi Germany the highest field officer rank, comparable to the OF-5 rank in many NATO-Armed forces. It was equivalent to "Kapitän zur See" in the "Kriegsmarine", and SS-Standartenführer in the Waffen-SS until 1945.


title: Oberst

text: The rank of was introduced around the same time as Denmark, as Norway at the time was part of Denmark–Norway.


title: Oberst

text: The Swedish variant , is the most senior field grade military officer rank in the Swedish Army and the Swedish Air Force, immediately above the rank of lieutenant colonel and just below the rank of brigadier general. It is equivalent to the naval rank of captain in the Swedish Navy.


title: The Monster Ball Tour

text: The Monster Ball Tour was the second worldwide concert tour by American singer Lady Gaga. Staged in support of her first EP, "The Fame Monster" (2009) and comprising a set list of songs from that and her debut studio album, "The Fame" (2008), the tour visited arenas and stadiums from 2009 through 2011. It is the highest grossing tour for a debut headlining artist in history. Described as "the first-ever pop electro opera" by Gaga, the tour was announced in October 2009 after with rapper Kanye West was suddenly cancelled. The Monster Ball Tour commenced four days after the release of "The Fame Monster" in November 2009.


title: The Monster Ball Tour

text: A revision of the tour occurred after only a few months of performances, due to Gaga's concern that the original version was constructed within a very short span of time. The stage of the original show looked like a frame, comparable to that of a hollowed-out television set. Since "The Fame Monster" dealt with the paranoias Gaga had faced, the main theme of the original shows became human evolution, while elements of the cancelled tour with West were still included in some parts. From 2010 onwards, the revamped shows had a New York theme and portrayed a story set in the city, where Gaga and her friends got lost and had to find their way to "the Monster Ball". Both versions of the show were divided into five segments, with the last being the encore. Each of them featured Gaga in new outfits, singing songs related to the concept of the segment, as they were followed by a video interlude.


title: The Monster Ball Tour

text: The tour received positive reviews, with critics praising Gaga's singing abilities and the theatricality of the show. The Monster Ball was a commercial success, with extra demand for tickets prompting organisers to add multiple dates to the itinerary. It ultimately grossed an estimated US$227.4 million from 200 reported shows, attended by an audience of 2.5 million. At the 2010 "Billboard" Touring Awards, Gaga won the Breakthrough Performer Award, as well as the Concert Marketing & Promotion Award. HBO filmed a special of The Monster Ball Tour during Gaga's February 2011 shows at Madison Square Garden in New York City. Documenting the whole concert with intersperses of backstage footage, "", aired in May and was released on DVD and Blu-ray on November 21, 2011.


title: The Monster Ball Tour

text: Initially, rapper Kanye West and Lady Gaga had plans to launch a joint tour in October 2009, known as . Amid negative response to his controversial outbursts at the 2009 MTV Video Music Awards, West declared that he would take a hiatus from his music career. Nevertheless, the complete schedule for Fame Kills was released, with the tour set to begin on November 10, 2009, in Phoenix, Arizona. Shortly afterwards, the tour was officially cancelled without any explanation. Gaga addressed the situation at "Billboard"s annual Women in Music luncheon, where she cited creative differences as the reason for the tour's cancellation. In an interview she stated, "[Kanye] is going to take a break, but the good news is, I am not."


title: The Monster Ball Tour

text: After assuring the public that she would be embarking on her own tour, Gaga officially announced the Monster Ball Tour on October 15, 2009. It was originally planned to debut in London in early 2010, but ended up kicking off on November 27, 2009, in Montreal. Rapper Kid Cudi and singer Jason Derulo were confirmed as the supporting acts for the tour, with Cudi supporting Gaga from the beginning of the tour, and Derulo joining from December 28, 2009. The official poster for the tour featured Gaga in Versace 676 sunglasses and wearing a gyroscope around her called "The Orbit", which she first wore on the October 3, 2009, episode of "Saturday Night Live". The contraption was designed by Nasir Mazhar in collaboration with Gaga's own creative production company, Haus of Gaga. The tour's sponsor of the American leg was Virgin Mobile USA, who introduced the "Free I.P." program which offered free show tickets to fans who volunteered their time to homeless youth organizations.


title: The Monster Ball Tour

text: In an interview with "Rolling Stone", Gaga explained that she wanted to put together an expensive looking, beautiful show which would be affordable for her fans. She asserted that the tour was a "pop-electro opera" because the theatrics and story elements interwoven within it played out like an opera. According to her, the design of the show was innovative and forward in terms of creativeness. Gaga wanted to change the shape of the stage and designed one with Haus of Gaga that was "essentially a frame with forced perspective, and the frame is put inside the stage." The stage had a triangular inset, like a diamond, and everywhere the show took place, the dimensions were measured in such a way that the box fit any stage. "So no matter where I go, my fans get the same experience. So often you go into theaters and there's ambient light flying in from all sorts of places, and the audience is in different spots, and the stage is in different shapes and lengths and widths and depths, so this is a way for me to control all the light and all of the different elements of the show", she added.


title: The Monster Ball Tour

text: The show revolved around themes of evolution, as well as her paranoias represented on "The Fame Monster". While developing the tour Gaga spoke about original sin and demons inside human beings; "So we talked about growth, and that led us into this kind of scientific space, and we started talking about evolution and the evolution of humanity and how we begin as one thing, and we become another." This theme of monsters and evolution played a part in the fashion for the tour, which according to Gaga was "another level from where we were with the Fame Ball. [...] It's going to be a truly artistic experience that is going to take the form of the greatest post-apocalyptic house party that you've ever been to." Although Gaga stated that she was inspired by the things she and West were doing with the Fame Kills tour, she concluded that she did not want to use any of the things that they had designed together. Later, she said that Fame Kills was "the great lost tour", but confirmed that some of the elements of it were incorporated into The Monster Ball.


title: The Monster Ball Tour

text: "I begin as a cell and I grow and change throughout the show. And it's also done in what now is becoming my aesthetic, which is, you know, it's part pop, part performance art, part fashion installation—so all of those things are present... It's a story, it's me battling all my monsters along the way. I'm playing all the music from "The Fame", all the music from "The Fame Monster". And the stage that I designed with the Haus [of Gaga] is a giant cube that sits. Imagine you were to hollow out a TV and just break the fourth wall on a TV screen. It forces you to look at the center of the TV. It's my way of saying, 'My music is art.'"


title: The Monster Ball Tour

text: For the performance of "Paparazzi", Gaga had collaborated with her Haus of Gaga creative partner Matthew "Matty Dada" Williams. She had a different vision for it in the beginning. Dada thought that Gaga should wear her hair braided, which Gaga had never done before. Dada's explanation for the concept was the look of Rapunzel, the fairy-tale character. He felt that "it's something people deeply understand. And when you're wearing sunglasses on a scaffolding piece with a giant alien dancing behind you, I promised [to Gaga] it's not going to look like Rapunzel.'"


title: The Monster Ball Tour

text: In December 2009, Gaga revealed that she planned to cancel the concept of the original shows of The Monster Ball Tour and start afresh. She felt that the revamp of the show was needed as the original tour was constructed in a very short span of time. Gaga recalled that after West and she split up for this tour, she was unsure if she could get a show together in time, but nevertheless wanted to promote "The Fame Monster". Hence she was able to put together "something that, in truth, I never would have done if I had a longer amount of time". The revamp of the tour was planned from the arena shows in the United Kingdom from February 2010. "My team thinks I'm completely psychotic. But I don't fucking care what they think. [...] Well, just to give you an idea, the stage is about four times the size of the one we're on now and conceptually, it's completely different. One thing that has been lost over the past 10-15 years, in pop music, is the idea of showbiz. And this is definitely going to bring that back", clarified Gaga. According to James Montgomery of MTV, the show recalled the Broadway performance musicals "The Wizard of Oz" (1939) and "West Side Story" (1961), the Broadway stage musical "Metropolis" (1989), and the television mini-series "Angels in America" (2003).


title: The Monster Ball Tour

text: During an interview with London's 95.8 Capital FM radio station, Gaga further elaborated on the changes in the show. She said that the show was constructed like a piece of musical theater. It also incorporated a number of contemporary and old musical pieces, some of them being re-recorded specifically for the show itself. A new keytar was constructed for the show and was named Emma. The instrument was created by the Haus of Gaga and the singer said, "We have this new instrument that I brought to the Brits tonight, 'Emma', which is what I was playing on the stage. She's a hybrid from all these other instruments." During an interview on KISS-FM with Ryan Seacrest, on his show "On Air with Ryan Seacrest", Gaga explained that the concert tour was still called The Monster Ball, but it had become more of a musical and less of a concert. It had a New York theme at its core; telling a story where Gaga and her friends travel to The Monster Ball, but get lost.


title: The Monster Ball Tour

text: Beginning behind a giant, green, laser lit video screen featuring scrim lights, Gaga appeared in a bulb-covered futuristic silver jeweled jumpsuit with matching eye makeup and mask and sang "Dance in the Dark" as dancers, dressed in white balaclavas and white jumpsuits, moved around her. The video screen, resembling an electric mathematical grid, was eventually lifted during the performance. After the song, Gaga strapped a portable silver jeweled keyboard to herself and began to perform "Just Dance" while emerging from the inside of a white cube on a platform. This was followed by a brief video intermission and Gaga returned onstage in an off-white costume, that resembled an alien ecto-skeleton, while the dancers wore skeletal headgear. She started performing "LoveGame", which ended with Gaga pointing towards her groin. Flames appeared on the video screens, as she got out of her ecto-skeleton outfit. After stripping down to a silver bodysuit she performed "Alejandro", and was carried by her crotch by one of her male dancers, and later lowered onto another one of them.


title: The Monster Ball Tour

text: The section was followed by a video interlude featuring snarling dogs and brooding ravens. The performance of "Monster" began with Gaga emerging in a black feathered jacket and performing dance moves reminiscent of Michael Jackson as the backdrops featured a black bird's wings. She continued with two songs from "The Fame Monster" titled "So Happy I Could Die" and "Teeth", after which she removed the feathered dress. Gaga then started performing the song "Speechless" on piano, and continued with an acoustic version of "Poker Face". Rapper Kid Cudi joined her then to perform his song "Make Her Say" which contains a sample of "Poker Face". This segment was followed by the performance of "Fashion" and "The Fame", during which Gaga wore a gold Egyptian styled crown and matching body suit, compared to the garment of a viking. Gaga crawled atop her piano during the follow-up songs "The Fame" and "Money Honey", after which she returned to the stage, dressed in black vinyl and nearly nude in a red patent leather bikini, to perform "Boys Boys Boys", backed by a squadron of skinny and shirtless leather boys. During "Poker Face", she wore a bondage inspired black leather dress with guns hanging from it and a hat made of muzzles, and pumped her hands in the air while performing the song. This was followed by Gaga sitting on a dentist's chair and spreading her legs during "Paper Gangsta". Another video interlude followed, displaying arty poses of Gaga in gothic looks.


title: The Monster Ball Tour

text: She returned to the stage while wearing multiple donned braided extensions for "Paparazzi". Gaga was perched atop a railing and from each of her braids, a dancer was attached on the stage. A backdrop of stars were shown during the performance. The performance ended with the railing taking Gaga high above the stage, where she faked her death. This was followed by "Eh, Eh (Nothing Else I Can Say)" as she descended from the top—which signified her rebirth—amidst white lights and mechanical fog. She wore a giant gyroscope around her, akin to "The Orbit" by Haus of Gaga. The last song of the show was "Bad Romance" which she performed in an '80s-inspired white power suit with exaggerated high shoulders and high-waisted pants. The show ended with a video of Gaga getting a heart-shaped tattoo on her shoulder, with the word "Dad" in the center of it.


title: The Monster Ball Tour

text: After revisions, the show was divided into four sections: "City", "Subway", "Forest", "Monster Ball" and concluded with an encore. It began with a projected video onto a curtain—which contained images of Gaga doing a 360 degree jump—while a club remix of "Dance in the Dark" played. Surrounded by violet light, her silhouette appeared on the curtain while she performed "Dance in the Dark". Once the curtain was removed and the chorus reached, the New York cityscape and neon lights were revealed. Gaga gyrated on the set dressed in a "futuristic, angular, glitter ball suit". After descending from her fire escape, she poked around in the hood of a dilapidated green Rolls Royce while performing "Glitter and Grease". Upon checking under the vehicle's bonnet, Gaga revealed a keyboard and began to play the opening notes of "Just Dance". Gaga then performed "Beautiful, Dirty, Rich" while scaling various pieces of scaffolding and subsequently "The Fame" where she rose from beneath the stage and played her keytar Emma, wearing a giant red cape.


title: The Monster Ball Tour

text: "LoveGame" saw the beginning of the "Subway" section, with Gaga wearing a translucent nun's habit, and a skeletal hand. The song was performed with the aid of a gilded subway car and a "disco stick" while her next number "Boys Boys Boys" featured muscly male dancers cavorting in spandex shorts. After a costume change, Gaga burst into "Money Honey" with an extended keytar solo after emerging from beneath the stage as the New York scenery disappeared around her. As she walked towards the Glitter way, Gaga recalls when she was in jail and her friend Beyoncé bailed her out, thus performing the song "Telephone". A piano is then brought in and Gaga goes into the song "Brown Eyes", after which she performs "Speechless" while the piano starts spitting fire. This segment also saw the performance of "You and I" in some of the shows; the song was later added to Gaga's second studio album, "Born This Way". During this song, she tells the audience about her life as a teen in New York, and how she became who she is today. Gaga and her friends then continue down the Glitter Way, and soon they run into an angel, who plays an angelic tune that summons a twister, taking them closer to the Monster Ball, but landing them in a strange place that they did not know. Gaga sings "So Happy I Could Die", decked in a white dress, that moves on its own accord.


title: The Monster Ball Tour

text: The third segment begins with Gaga returning on the stage and singing "Monster", inside a forest with black, thorn-like trees. Her dancers conglomerate around her near the end and Gaga reveals herself to be covered with blood. She then states that the thing she hates more than money is the truth and performs "Teeth", while introducing her band. Gaga and her friends then find the Eternal Fountain, which pours out red colored liquid and Gaga explains that it bleeds for anyone. She starts singing "Alejandro" while jumping into the fountain and singing, as blood pours over her. Gaga then returns and sings "Poker Face" on the cat-walk. After the performance, she and her friends find themselves in a dark place, and after some dialogue, Gaga's friends run off, leaving her alone to deal with the Fame Monster, a giant angler fish. Gaga starts singing "Paparazzi" and eventually kills the Fame Monster by shooting sparks from her pyrotechnic bra and underwear. She then leaves for the Monster Ball and after appearing there, meanwhile fans assume the show is not over yet, suddenly Gaga appears on stage and performs the song, "Bad Romance" while standing inside a giant gyroscope. After the song, she says that she can do one more song for an encore to the audience. Born This Way is performed with Gaga singing with a hand microphone and wearing a plastic two-piece ensemble and during the bridge, she performs an organ solo of Johann Sebastian Bach's Toccata and Fugue in D minor. After the end of the song, she creates a monster paw with her dancers and finally the show is over as the curtain goes down.


title: The Monster Ball Tour

text: The original version of the tour received generally positive reviews from critics. Jane Stevenson from "Toronto Sun" gave the concert four out of five stars and said that Lady Gaga came across as a "confident, colourful, and campy performer. [...] Gaga's success was evident with slick-looking videos, lights, elaborate costumes, dancers, and yes, a band, even if her stage was sometimes left dark as she left to make numerous changes." T'Cha Dunlevy for "The Gazette" noted that the performance was lacking—adding that the show never reached its peak until the end, when Gaga performed the "real rendition" of "Poker Face" and "Bad Romance." "Better late than never", Dunlevy concluded. Aedan Helmer from "Jam!" magazine said that "At first blush, it might seem the real driving force behind Gaga's meteoric rise to fame is her hand-picked cadre of costume and set designers—dubbed "Haus of Gaga"—who seemingly know no bounds when it comes to pushing the envelope of haute couture and the theatre of the absurd. [...] But what really sets Gaga apart from the middling masses of lip-synching Britney clones and Idol wannabes is her pure, unadulterated musical talent. [...] The Lady can sing." Theatre critic Kelly Nestruck, while writing for "The Guardian", said "While The Monster Ball has nothing on the great operas or the golden age of musical theatre, Lady Gaga's 'electro-pop opera' is at least twice as entertaining and infinitely fresher than any stage musical written over the last decade." Lauren Carter from "Boston Herald" praised the show saying "[Gaga] only has two albums under her belt but who cares? Every song feels like a hit, and Gaga-as-star is already taking on Madonna-like proportions. [...] After [the show] at the Wang Theater, fans could justifiably walk away thinking Lady Gaga is crazy, brilliant or both." Jeremy Adams from "Rolling Stone" reviewed the performance at Wang Center in Boston and said that "Throughout the evening, Gaga [..] aimed for a kind of pop theatricality that might potentially cement her burgeoning status as performance artist."


title: The Monster Ball Tour

text: Aidin Vaziri of "San Francisco Chronicle" said that "During her 90-minute performance—not so much a live concert as a meticulously choreographed spectacle—Lady Gaga also evoked Kanye West with the futuristic set, Britney Spears in her heavy-lidded stage movements, Courtney Love with her interminable between-song monologues highlighted by four-letter squelches and—who else?—Madonna for, oh, just about everything else." Jim Harrington from "San Jose Mercury News" felt that the show would have been better technically if around thirty minutes were lessened from it. James Montogomery from MTV reviewed the concert at San Diego and said that "[Gaga] powered through and turned the San Diego Sports Arena into a raucous, delightfully raw discotheque." Writing for the "Las Vegas Sun", Joe Brown observed that "Lady Gaga out-Cher-ed Cher, made Cirque du Soleil and Britney's 'Circus Tour' look like county fair carnivals, and made New Year's Eve in Las Vegas anticlimactic." "Los Angeles Times" writer Ann Powers avouched that the tour was "an invigoratingly ambitious show, executed with vigor by its star and her expressive dancers." Jon Pareles from "The New York Times" said that the tour always provided "something worth a snapshot: a sci-fi tableau, perhaps, or a skimpy, glittery costume. The more her image gets around, the better Lady Gaga does."


title: The Monster Ball Tour

text: The revamped concerts were also met with critical acclaim. Mark Savage from BBC Online reviewed the first of the revised performances in the United Kingdom. Savage described the concert as a hugely ambitious, terrifyingly loud show, "spread over four acts and held together by a flimsy 'narrative' about Gaga and her dancer friends trying to get to a party." He was also impressed that the entire spectacle was put together in just four weeks. MTV's James Montogomery reviewed the first North American performance of the tour in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. He said that the tour was "packed with more wattage than an overheated power plant and more costume changes than a thousand Vegas reviews, it's the kind of show that leaves you with wide eyes, ringing ears, aching limbs and absolutely zero chance of making it to work in the morning." "New York Daily News" writer Jim Farber expected that the theatricality of the show might have obscured the songs, but instead felt that Gaga's voice was perfect and the concert actually "pushed Gaga a long way towards her obvious goal – to be the queen of this pop moment." Glenn Gamboa from "Newsday" said that Gaga "built her monster-sized fame on knowing how to create a spectacle and then having the substance to back it up. For every coat made of Kermit the Frog dolls or headdresses that covered her face in red lace, there was a stomping disco anthem or tender piano ballad to match. That back and forth is the centerpiece of her Monster Ball Tour." Dan Aquilante from the "New York Post" was critical of the show, calling it "scripted, silly, and tired, right down to Gaga's patter." He added that the 15 costumes Gaga wore during the two-hour plus gig were "more successful helping her cement the notion of an erotic and exotic otherworld." Writing in the "Telegram & Gazette", Craig S. Semon was appreciative of the show, calling it "an out-of-this-world blast and end-of-the-world blow-out that must be seen to be believed."


title: The Monster Ball Tour

text: Rick Massimo, reviewing the concert for "The Providence Journal", wrote that as a musical theater, the Monster Ball was not that exciting, but "that leaves the music, and when you lay two hours of her songs end-to-end, it's easy to see the vision, the intelligence and a serious songwriting talent at work." Jay N. Miller from "The Enterprise" was impressed with the show, saying that the music was somewhere between industrial disco and house music with a rock edge, but "always danceable". Philip Borof from Bloomberg Television reviewed the concert in New York's Madison Square Garden and found it average, calling the crowd decked in various costumes as the "most entertaining". "Toronto Star"s Ben Rayner appreciated the show, exclaiming "hot damn, that was one hell of a show Gaga brought to the Air Canada Centre Sunday night and suddenly it doesn’t seem redundant to add one more voice to the Lady Gaga choir." Mariel Concepción from "Billboard" felt that Gaga "may be best known for her gaudy outfits and over-the-top stage shows, but at her hometown headlining debut at Madison Square Garden last night, the pop phenomenon proved she's a regular girl at heart." "The Seattle Times" staff writer Marian Liu declared that as "one of the most anticipated touring acts of the year, [Gaga] stimulated the crowd's senses on Saturday night in a way few artists can. She brought spectacle and backed it up with soul." "The Guardian" journalist Alexis Petridis reviewed the opening show of the European leg, and commented that "it takes a certain je ne sais quoi to open your show doing something that looks suspiciously like mime on a rickety metal staircase while wearing an outfit with shoulderpads the size of the deck on a small aircraft carrier."


title: The Monster Ball Tour

text: As soon as the dates for the show were announced, there was high demand for tickets. As sponsor of the North American Monster Ball Tour, Virgin Mobile customers had access to presale tickets. Bob Stohrer, VP of Marketing for Virgin Mobile USA said "We are excited to take our partnership with Lady Gaga and The Monster Ball Tour to another level. [...] We'll also build on our partnership around combating youth homelessness and continue to enhance the tour experience for fans and our customers." Shows in the first leg of the tour were sold-out completely, prompting Live Nation Inc. to announce that Gaga will return to the U.S. in February 2011 for another run of U.S. dates. The 2011 dates for the North American Monster Ball Tour were announced as starting from February 19 in Atlantic City, with ten arena dates confirmed through April 18. Additional shows were announced, and Semi Precious Weapons collaborated with Gaga until the tour ended. Live Nation Entertainment's global touring division, headed by chairman Arthur Fogel, held the reins as promoter/producer of the Monster Ball tour.


title: The Monster Ball Tour

text: Fogel commented on Gaga's lack of experience in a tour and said that it was an opportunity for her. "As an artist with that kind of talent and vision emerges, it creates a lot of excitement, and ticket sales worldwide demonstrate that people are really excited to see the show. Over the course of the next many months we're trying to play to as many people in as many places as possible", Fogel added. "It's an across the board home run." Demands increased and another additional six dates were added to the announced itinerary. The Monster Ball sold-out shows in Toronto, Vancouver and San Jose who were compelled to add second dates in each city. In Los Angeles, to ensure that concert goers had the best possible access to tickets, a second performance was announced prior to the onsale of the first shows, and both Staples Center concerts were completely sold out. "Billboard" estimated that by the time the tour wraps up in 2011, it would have grossed close to US$200 million worldwide.


title: The Monster Ball Tour

text: The ticket money from the final performance at Radio City was donated for the Haiti earthquake relief. Gaga announced on the rescheduled show at Elliott Hall of Music on January 26, 2010, that about US$500,000 was collected for the relief. At the 2010 "Billboard" Touring Awards, Gaga won the Breakthrough Performer Award, as well as the Concert Marketing & Promotion Award, the latter being an acknowledgement of her partnership with Virgin Mobile. "Billboard" also placed The Monster Ball Tour at position four on their Year-end Top 25 Tours of 2010. They reported that the tour had grossed US$116 million from 122 shows, with an audience of 1.3 million. By the end of the year, Pollstar announced that the tour had earned a total of US$133.6 million from 138 shows, making her the only woman to be placed in their list of the Top 10 Tours of 2010.


title: The Monster Ball Tour

text: The top grosser of The Monster Ball Tour were the two concerts at the Bell Centre in Montreal, which collectively earned over US$10 million. By amassing an audience of 111,060 from two shows, the performances at the Foro Sol in Mexico City attained the largest audience of the tour. Gaga's show at the United Center in Chicago became the highest-grossing concert of the third American leg; it earned an estimated US$1.8 million from 15,845 sold seats at a February 28, 2011 performance. The largest crowd, however, came from the Nashville market with 14,925 present at the Bridgestone Arena performance on April 19. The tour continued its presence in the Atlanta market on April 18, 2011, where she performed to 10,864 people at the Arena at Gwinnett Center. The third American leg concluded in Uniondale, New York with a sellout crowd of 13,195 at Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum on April 23, 2011. At the conclusion of 2011, The Monster Ball Tour grossed over US$70 million from 45 shows. By May 2011, the tour had grossed a total of US$227.4 million from the 200 reported shows, drawing an audience of 2.5 million, making it the highest-grossing tour in history by a debut headlining artist.


title: The Monster Ball Tour

text: HBO filmed a special of The Monster Ball Tour during Gaga's February 21–22, 2011 shows at Madison Square Garden. The special, titled "Lady Gaga Presents the Monster Ball Tour: At Madison Square Garden", aired on HBO on May 7, 2011 and Sky1 on May 21, 2011 in the United States and the United Kingdom respectively. Prime showed the special in New Zealand on June 2, 2011. The special showed the whole of the Monster Ball Tour, and some backstage footage, which was shown in black-and-white. It ended with another black-and-white backstage scene where Gaga and her backup singers perform "Born This Way" a capella.