Continent

A continent is one of several very large landmasses on Earth. They are generally identified by convention rather than any strict criteria, with up to seven regions commonly regarded as continents. These are (from largest in size to smallest): Asia, Africa, North America, South America, Antarctica, Europe, and Australia. In geology, areas of continental crust include regions covered with water.

Definitions and application

By convention, "continents are understood to be large, continuous, discrete masses of land, ideally separated by expanses of water." Many of the seven most commonly recognized continents identified by convention are not discrete landmasses separated completely by water. The criterion "large" leads to arbitrary classification: Greenland, with a surface area of 2,166,086 square kilometres (836,330 sq mi) is considered the world's largest island, while Australia, at 7,617,930 square kilometres (2,941,300 sq mi) is deemed the smallest continent.

The Earth's major landmasses all have coasts on a single, continuous world ocean, which is divided into a number of principal oceanic components by the continents and various geographic criteria. The definitions of continents are sometimes extended beyond the major landmasses, in a way that every bit of land on earth is included in a continent.

My Singing Monsters

My Singing Monsters is a video game franchise created by Canadian computer game developer Big Blue Bubble. The first game of the series was released in September 2012 for Apple iOS. Ports of the game for other touchscreen smartphone operating systems were later released, including versions for Android, Amazon Kindle Fire tablet, and Barnes & Noble Nook. The success of the title prompted Big Blue Bubble to create various spin-off apps including My Mammott and My PomPom featuring popular characters from the My Singing Monsters mythos.

In September 2015, the company released the second official game of the series, My Singing Monsters: Dawn of Fire on iOS and Android.

My Singing Monsters

In My Singing Monsters, players collect and breed many different types of monsters, each of which has a unique musical line that is either sung, or played on an instrument. The gameplay environment consists of nine islands, each of which has its own distinct theme. Monsters, even if any of them are muted, generate coins, which can in turn be used to acquire many decorations, remove obstacles, build structures, and buy food for the monsters to level up and make more money. There are also achievements and goals to direct gameplay, with in-game currency as rewards. Diamonds are used to speed up processing products, upgrade certain structures, and for buying uncommon and rare monsters, though common monsters can be bought with coins. Many in-game actions earn experience points, which unlock new monsters, structures, upgrades and achievements.

North America

North America is a continent entirely within the Northern Hemisphere and almost all within the Western Hemisphere. It can also be considered a northern subcontinent of the Americas. It is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the west and south by the Pacific Ocean, and to the southeast by South America and the Caribbean Sea.

North America covers an area of about 24,709,000 square kilometers (9,540,000 square miles), about 16.5% of the earth's land area and about 4.8% of its total surface. North America is the third largest continent by area, following Asia and Africa, and the fourth by population after Asia, Africa, and Europe.

In 2013, its population was estimated at nearly 565 million people in 23 independent states, or about 7.5% of the world's population, if nearby islands (most notably the Caribbean) are included.

North America was reached by its first human populations during the last glacial period, via crossing the Bering land bridge. The so-called Paleo-Indian period is taken to have lasted until about 10,000 years ago (the beginning of the Archaic or Meso-Indian period). The Classic stage spans roughly the 6th to 13th centuries. The Pre-Columbian era ended with the arrival of European settlers during the Age of Discovery and the Early Modern period. Present-day cultural and ethnic patterns reflect different kind of interactions between European colonists, indigenous peoples, African slaves and their descendants. European influences are strongest in the northern parts of the continent while indigenous and African influences are relatively stronger in the south. Because of the history of colonialism, most North Americans speak English, Spanish or French and societies and states commonly reflect Western traditions.

South America

South America is a continent located in the Western Hemisphere, mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere. It is also considered as a subcontinent of the Americas, which is the model used in Spanish-speaking nations and most of South America.

It is bordered on the west by the Pacific Ocean and on the north and east by the Atlantic Ocean; North America and the Caribbean Sea lie to the northwest. It includes twelve sovereign states – Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Guyana, Paraguay, Peru, Suriname, Uruguay, and Venezuela – and two non-sovereign areas – French Guiana, an overseas department of France, and the Falkland Islands, a British Overseas Territory (though disputed by Argentina). In addition to this, the ABC islands of the Netherlands and Trinidad and Tobago may also be considered part of South America.

South America has an area of 17,840,000 square kilometers (6,890,000 sq mi). Its population as of 2005 has been estimated at more than 371,090,000. South America ranks fourth in area (after Asia, Africa, and North America) and fifth in population (after Asia, Africa, Europe, and North America). The most populous countries are Brazil, Colombia, Argentina, Venezuela and Peru.

Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection

The Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection (Japanese: ニンテンドーWi-Fiコネクション, Hepburn: Nintendō Wi-Fi Konekushon) (commonly abbreviated WFC) was an online multiplayer gaming service run by Nintendo to provide free online play in compatible Nintendo DS and Wii games. The service included the company's Wii Shop Channel and DSi Shop game download services, which still work. It also ran features for the Wii and Nintendo DS systems.

Games designed to take advantage of Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection offered Internet play integrated into the game. When promoting this service, Nintendo emphasized the simplicity and speed of starting an online game. For example, in Mario Kart DS, an online game was initiated by selecting the online multiplayer option from the main menu, then choosing whether to play with friends, or to play with other gamers (either in the local region or worldwide) at about the same skill level. After a selection was made, the game started searching for an available player.

On January 26, 2012, it was announced by Nintendo during an investors' meeting that the Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection service will be succeeded by and absorbed into Nintendo Network. This new online system will eventually unify the 3DS and Wii U platforms and replace Friend Codes, while providing paid downloadable content, an online community style multiplayer system, and personal accounts. Nintendo Network is fully supported on the Nintendo 3DS and on the Wii U, whilst still continuing providing partial legacy support for both Wii and Nintendo DS under the Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection brand. Specifically, the Wii U can boot to Wii mode and then access the Wii Message Board messages which have been recorded by the gameplay progress of compatible local games, but it cannot send Wii Message Board messages remotely between different machines.