#but I also got a snes so that's fine

[darkdragon768]

I need to make another list where I'm listing every game I own and am ticking off every game I've played through.

Oh boy, over 150 entries here I come.

[risingsunresistance]

feels weird to not have much to post, i feel like i basically disappeared off social media compared to how i used to post but. there is simultaneously so much going on (things that are boring/heavy and not fun to post about) and nothing at all going on (i have not been able to play anything very much and havent been watching anything besides random documentaries i stumble across), leading to me having nothing to say lmao

i did finally write down a bunch of hypixel worldbuilding headcanon junk instead of having it only be word-of-mouth between me and ark lol. only 1700 words, i can do better 👍 it was literally only about admin magic, what exactly it means to "hack," what a server is, and limbo kjgfhk. i might make a big post about the limbo section one day :]

[embarressment-erradicated]

hey it's a better color pallet than the game boy's. sooo, got that going for it!

everybody give it up for this brand of green. round of applause for most under appreciated green

[localgardenweed]

Last night i finally found out what was up with my Gamecube and that it kept turning off cause it was fucking overheating so i was freaking out for no reason it was just having a fit cause there was too much dust around the vents so now i have to go in and dust it and when i told my dad he said to grab the vaccum and just stick it to a open vent and suck up all the dust and i dont know if that will like destroy the inner compartments i dont wanna test it but maybe if i find like a weaker vacuum and not the big shot one maybe ill try it but for now imma have to either dust it everyday cause it lives in the basement that fucker will not escape or i just play all my Gamecube games on my wii which i did last night cause i wanted to play SA2 in peace and i gotta say peak game.

Im playing Hero Story first and I suck at Sonic’s levels idk if its me or my controller probably me but whatever, Knuckles’ levels is pretty chill i hate the camera though i dont know if i can move it up and down or not but it would be very helpful if i could, i can go side to side but not up and down??? Come on man. Tails’ levels are my favorite so far though cause I can shoot things and run around in his giant little mech and its silly and fun

[cerastes]

Twink or teets?

You're fine, I'm just glad I got context for that 'cause by itself, I wasn't really understanding where you were going with it so I was about to just respond to it with Shang Tsung's ending slides from Mortal Kombat II SNES edition. Also, cute and thank you for the consideration nonetheless lmao.

I'm going with teets because I grew up on that calcium life, and I had to be warned as a child a couple of times to not drink directly from the source (the cow) because that wasn't The Way, seriously I fucking loved drinking milk, this isn't even propaganda, it's just fucking tasty and has a good texture. Twinks aren't bad at all obviously but unfortunately the word Twink reminds me of a mother fucker I hate and that I wish death upon because he is the most obnoxious piece of shit this side of Hans the fucking flying ham from Valkyria Chronicles 1

mY nAmE iS tWiNk fuck you, Eight Agonies Nine Breaks attack upon you!!!!

[capncococharms]

Games I Enjoyed in 2023

I did a big blog post last year where I listed all the games I enjoyed playing and gave my short thoughts about each of my experiences... and I'm doing it again!

Since 2018 I've kept a digital sticky note to keep track of all the games I've played AND finished throughout the year. For 2023 lots of folks claimed it was the "BEST" year for gaming and to some degree... I guess??? Depends on who you ask, but to me I only enjoyed like a handful of new releases and played a lot of older games (or remakes of older games). It was a year of reflecting back on what made me love video games more than looking forward to what's "new".

In 2023, I've finished 32 games. That's 10 more games than I finished from last year but out of all the games I played, here are the ones that stood out to me and left a pretty positive impression.

LIVE A LIVE

I never had a chance to play the SNES version, but I was very familiar with the game to some degree from the old days when I use to browse forum threads about RPGs I've never heard of. I knew I would get around to playing it one day and thankfully it got a remake on the Switch (and then it got a PC port later this year). I didn't get to properly play it last year, but after sitting down to play LIVE A LIVE... it's a game with a really powerful soundtrack, engaging characters, and a unique story that left me wanting more games like it.

I could type up many reasons why I like this game, but I feel it's something you have to experience more than anything. I don't want to spoil anything about this game. If you love Chrono Trigger then you will have a great time with LIVE A LIVE.

Final Fantasy VII- Crisis Core Reunion

I love FFVII and FFVII Remake. When they announced they were remaking Crisis Core I was excited to finally see what the deal was and by the end of this game... it left me a very broken man sobbing my eyes out. As a stand alone game it works very well even if you're not familiar with FFVII. It's a touching and contained story about a man striving to be a hero. Zack is a person I wish I could be in terms of confidence and wanting to do what's right. He's also a goof ball and I am very happy I got to know him more through Crisis Core. I don't want to say much about this game either, but PLEASE play it if you haven't! It made me finally understand why people love Zack so much.

Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater

I've put off this game for way too long. I had the chance to get into it when this game came out on 3DS, but I was too busy in college then. I ended up playing the PS3 version of the game (this was before the MGS Master Collection came out to every platform). At first... I wasn't a fan of this game. I struggled to play this game and felt like an idiot when it came to sneaking. I got stuck at the Volgin fight and out of spite, I started over on "Very Easy" to better equip myself. After working my way back to Volgin, I enjoyed my experience more and was engaged with what was happening around me. Once the game was finished, I was tearing up and couldn't help but think about how often true heroes are forgotten and how history is retold.

Thank you for the heartrending experience, Hideo Kojima.

The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask

I had a weird experience with Zelda games this year. Tears of the Kingdom released and I went in hoping it would be a great follow-up to Breath of the Wild. I wasn't the BIGGEST fan of BotW. I had some faith going in that TotK would be a better experience. Unfortunately, after making it back to Hyrule my fears sort of came true. It felt like the same game I played almost 7 years ago except you can use bubble gum to craft and make things which is... fine I guess.

I kept pushing on hoping the story was going to set up something great and for a while, it did! The BIG twist was interesting, but once I got to the final scene I wanted to chuck this game out the window. The newer Zelda games just weren't doing it for me anymore so I decided to replay some older Zelda games (Wind Waker HD and Twilight Princess HD which was a TON of fun to replay) and decided it was time for me to give Majora's Mask another chance.

I ended up playing this on NSO and after a month or so, I 100%'d the game and greatly appreciated what this game had to offer in terms of setting, story, soundtrack, and characters. The setting is dark and terrifying yet it still keeps a goofy demeanor. I just fell in love with exploring and seeing how human this game can be (especially the finale). This is what I want to see with future Zelda games. I miss having ACTUAL dungeons and linearity, but we won't get that again. I hope that there will be another 2D Zelda game or Nintendo goes back to its roots with 3D Zelda games, but here's to all the indie devs out there trying to recreate that GOOD Zelda magic.

The Great Ace Attorney (Adventures)

I love this series but fell off during the 3DS era with AA6 (I still need to play that...). Since this game is more of its own thing I thought I would give it a shot and MAN! This game took the AA formula and dialed it up to 1000. In Ace Attorney fashion I love the characters, I love the puzzle-solving, and the mystery aspect where everything is tied together (especially that finale omg). My only irk is that the cases tend to go on a bit too long compared to AA 1-4, but I can let that slide because I was streaming this game, and having to voice and read EVERY bit of dialogue was exhausting (I plan to play Resolve on my own time next year so I can get through it much quicker). Ace Attorney still rocks and I hope to catch up and play more in 2024 (looking at you Apollo Justice "Trilogy").

Ranko Tsukigume's Longest Day

One of the shortest games I played this year. I love SUDA 51's work and wanted to give this a shot and it sure was an experience, to say the least. The gameplay is simple and difficult at weird times, but the one thing that sticks out to me about this game, in particular, is the absurdity and goofy humor (which is... basically expected with a SUDA 51 experience) with its visuals and jumping to different art styles and animation. Something about this small game makes me want to start working on my own projects more than anything. You can tell this was made with a creative team and the devs from Tokyo Jungle worked on it to so maybe that's another game I should look into as well... Overall, this was like a fun snack to chew away at left me with my heads in the clouds.

Pizza Tower

I don't need to say much about Pizza Tower. If you've played it, then you get it. Go play Pizza Tower! The OST and crude cartoon art style is what gives this game... uh as the kids call it... "soul". It's the Wario Land game that Nintendo will never make. It's 25% off on Steam! GO PLAY PIZZA TOWER!

Hypnospace Outlaw

Had a rough time playing through this game at first because it would crash pretty often. Turns out the game would connect to the wrong graphics card so after I got that sorted out, I finally got to play this game in peace, and... man... there's nothing else like this game in terms of telling a story/ narrative through faux web browsing. It's a game that perfectly emulates the experience of the late 90's internet browsing. There's a particular joy in exploring page after page to learn about all these characters and their hobbies. Letting the player take a small peek into their lives is a treat. As you get deeper into the game, you start learning about some of these people and who they are underneath their online persona. Without going into spoilers, the game went in a direction I didn't expect with its tone. The final arc of this game left me with some tears and a HUGE respect for what once was before what our current internet has become...

Hypnospace is really really cool.

Undertale Yellow (Pacifist Route)

Kinda unexpected that a fan game would end up on my list, but I'll make the exception. From what I've read, Undertale Yellow was in development for 7 years and that dedication and work shows in terms of presentation, story, and new characters. For a fan game, it doesn't heavily depend on needing the cast of characters from the base game of Undertale to tell its OWN story. Like Undertale, you fall in love with these new casts of characters and go through many vignettes in each part of the Underground where you get to learn about how these monsters live, and just like Undertale you'll laugh, you'll cry, and wish that the journey would never end. Once again I don't want to spoil anything, but for a prequel to Undertale's story... it's surprisingly more powerful than I thought it was going to be. Congrats to the entire Undertale Yellow team who worked on this. It was a pleasant December surprise that made me want to work harder on my passion projects.

I feel to some degree, I love this game probably a little more than Undertale itself...

Probably...

One thing for sure is that this game is helping me tide over until the new chapters of Deltarune come out.

2023 was a great time to play my backlog and give games another chance. Also trying out new stuff in the process despite my current feelings on the gaming industry at the moment...

I hope in 2024, I can continue to dedicate my time to slowly chip away at my backlog and try out new games (or older games I missed out on). Video games inspire what I want to do creatively and I love seeing what people can create and put out there.

[giriduck]

Almost there, folks: we're within 24 hours from TotK launch for much of the world.

Long post under the cut about Ganondorf thoughts in general.

I got into Legend of Zelda as a very small kiddo, way back when it first showed up in the United States on the NES. The limited lore was fine and good, the graphics were on par with everything else at the time, but it was the music that sucked me right in. I'd pop the cartridge in and launch the game just to listen to the theme during the opening scroll.

Zelda 2 was odd and I mostly ignored it. When A Link to the Past came out on the SNES, the enhanced graphics and music was breathtaking, and the story was vast and engaging. There was lore, and it was perfect for picking apart and analyzing. I cared about Link, the fate of Hyrule, and all the NPCs we met along the way. To this day, the epilogue music to ALLttP and the end credits still never fails to make me cry.

I was in my mid teens when Ocarina of Time came out. Subscribed to Nintendo Power Magazine by then, I was all in on the hype. The power of the N64! The first 3D Zelda game! A beefy and hot adult Link! After the launch of the game was delayed by a year, the excitement to play this game was intense.

It did not disappoint. While A Link to the Past was an excellent adventure, Ocarina of Time presented a version of Hyrule in which I genuinely enjoyed simply spending time. It was beautiful and immersive. It was the first atmospheric digital space that I'd seek out when I wanted to relax and watch the sun rise or set. It was the first of it's kind, and it was no surprise when years later, MMOs began rolling out with gorgeous skyboxes and scenery, as digital places for players to escape to. That was Hyrule for me. I already enjoyed it as a fictional kingdom through prior games (and the cartoon series, lol), but OoT solidified it as a beautiful place that I fell in love with.

So I could see why and how the antagonist of the series wanted lay claim to it so badly; it's a desirable, magnificent environment.

The reveal in A Link to the Past that Ganon--the very same baddie from the first game--was pulling the strings the whole time was pretty cool, as well as all the lore about the Golden Goddesses, the Triforce, Ganon's influence over the Dark World, etc. One of the Seven Maidens even mentioned Ganondorf by name, and briefly talked about Ganon's origin story as the guy who found the Triforce, after so many others had failed and all the wars and bloodshed over this mystical, legendary artifact. It was only a few lines, but it was so interesting, and felt like it was only scratching the surface of a much deeper history.

When Ocarina of Time came out, it was so light and fluffy running around as a child in Kokiri Forest until the Great Deku Tree revealed that he'd been cursed and was going to die. He launched into the history of the creation of Hyrule that aligned to lore from A Link to the Past, with music that harkened back to that game. It was a powerful shot of nostalgia.

Then the antagonist--the villain who would eventually find the Triforce--galloped across the screen, backlit by flames. He was big, he was mean, and he was going to appear centuries later in a new form as Ganon. I sort of knew where this was going because I'd played A Link to the Past, and now we got to see the man himself, when he was still a human.

I was instantly fascinated.

Later in the game, it's revealed that he was also a king, and--in a wild choice by Nintendo--depicted as a very rare cis male within his otherwise all-AFAB population of desert warrior people. A big fan of warrior woman archetypes in general, this was also of interest. The whole sociological implications of the, say, constrained demographics within Gerudo society was also an interesting thought experiment.

Ganondorf was such a cocky, arrogant bastard, though. During his seven-year reign, he seemed to squander Hyrule's bounty. He appeared selfish and unconcerned with his people. Although his unexplored backstory to his people and his connection to the Triforce were interesting, he was canonically a pretty terrible person.

Not long after Ocarina of Time came out, I used to frame Ganondorf as he was presented in the game: arrogant, conniving, and cruel.

This made me nervous for the Gerudo, who were in the challenging position of being expected to follow such a difficult person, who also happened to be their king. By extension, it felt like a setup for extremely toxic dynamics, and that did not sit right with me at all. So the mental fanon shifted to him just being uncaring and indifferent about everyone around him, and his quest for power was so all-consuming that he distanced himself from his people, anyway.

This still wasn’t the kind of person I wanted to give space to in my mind. The Gerudo deserved better, and surely they would take great care to raise their prince well, to help ensure their future king was aligned to their values and mores. His people would naturally care about him, and he would ideally reciprocate that to some degree.

Though he had the capacity for cruelty, he was no longer a fundamentally cruel person in my headcanon. “Conniving” evolved into “political” as required, and only a fraction of his original arrogance remained.

Then Wind Waker happened.

Those established headcanons aligned to the more mature, patient, world-weary version of Ganondorf we saw in Wind Waker; he was like who I'd constructed in my head, but even more so. This version was a man who'd suffered defeat and was imprisoned in a world in which he was forced to live with the consequences of his actions. The Hyrule he sought after--the same Hyrule players like myself fondly remember and loved--was maddeningly just outside of his reach. I found myself empathizing because I too, ached to restore the old world to its former glory.

Then, in his famous monologue at the end of the game, how he had sought out the comforts of Hyrule to escape the harsh environment of his home... How he had the names of his adopted mothers engraved onto his swords... Both revelations hit me hard.

For those of us who who wanted to believe that there was more complexity--and humanity--to Ganondorf than what we saw in Ocarina of Time, the reaction to the glimpses we saw in WW Ganondorf was like:

So now we are at the eve of Tears of the Kingdom launch. Will this Ganondorf be the most heartless version we’ve seen yet, or will he have complexity?

In Breath of the Wild, Calamity Ganon had killed Urbosa (a Gerudo Chief skilled with lightning, who was likely his distant descendant) in a very nasty reflection of her specific fighting style (sword, shield, and electricity), and then intimidated Gerudo Town through the possession of a Giant Mechanical Lightning Camel named after a woman he had once personally known, who had famously opposed him ages and ages ago, and because of that rebellion is still remembered as a heroine to the Gerudo.

Clearly his relationship with the Gerudo is going to be severely complicated, at best.

I am curious and actually very nervous about how Ganondorf interacts with the Gerudo in Tears of the Kingdom, if he actually does so at all.

[kaasiand]

Hi are you aware of this guy reupping your meme, misspelling your name, and asking that people credit them instead https://youtu.be/uadnlQqozW4

Oh this was pointed out to me by oomf a few days ago but I think my comment got autodeleted (I fucking love YouTube); I think the video is fine to keep up as long as they credit me correctly (the misspelling sucks but happens often, I just commented to point it out and I think the comment is still up) and remove the bit at the end of the description where they still take credit

Anyway I’m already seeing a few comments pointing out that I made it so that’s good to see

Also GOD if I can be honest here they’re so fucking stupid. I saw them repeatedly answering comments asking if it was real with “no it’s just an animation” Bro that is a mod do you know what an animation is supposed to look like, why are you [they] pulling shit out of your ass like that. Also them using the SNES MC music instead of the GBA circuit one ☹️

[game-boy-pocket]

Today I beat Final Fatnasy Adventure, AKA Adventure of Mana, AKA Sword of Mana, AKA Seiken Densetsu.

I thought this game just had Final Fantasy slapped onto the name to sell more copies in the west but no, it shares a little DNA in that the main character is basically just the fighter from Final Fantasy 1, with other FF classes making guest appearances, there's a status ailment that turns you into a Moogle that takes damage very easily, and you get a Chocobo friend in the game... I actually missed him unfortunately, he's required to progress the game so they have a random Chocobo you never met scoop you up after you take a fall.

This game shares a lot of it's DNA with another game as well. It really wants to be Square's answer to the Legend of Zelda. And it's a pretty good amalgamation of Zelda 1 and Link's Awakening, though it's still very much it's own thing. I very much appreciated this style of game. Especially on the Game Boy, there's just something about top down adventure/RPG games with Game Boy Aesthetics that I love so much that isn't really the same on the NES and I can't quite put my finger on it.

This game wasn't perfect though. Enemies often don't take any knockback... they do Knockback SOMETIMES but not always. And sometimes depending on your weapon, you pull them toward you, and you take damage... Also many enemies are immune to your weapons and you have to switch between them to deal any damage to them. This would be fine if it were a handful of enemies but there were so many, and I could not remember which enemies were immune to what, so often times when an enemy didn't take damage, I would just walk past them instead of switching weapons. There were practically no situations where I was required to kill all enemies so there was no incentive to bother with some of them.

Also, this game's door lock system is dog shit. You buy keys... specific enemies can drop keys but only in the early game, if you run out of keys, you have to leave to buy more...and guess what... Doors re-lock themselves when you leave. Sometiems they re-lock while you're still in the dungeon. It was absolute bullshit.

None of the flaws were deal breakers though. I had a great time with this game. I am definitely more inclined to start up Secret of Mana, I started that game on my SNES Classic Edition since it came on the stock console, but I never got around to finishing it. I think i'll look for a decent QOL patch though. As for my next big Game Boy game, I don't know. Maybe back to DK with either DK94 or DK Land 2... or something else.

[blazehedgehog]

Which of the Rareware games after the Microsoft buyout did you play and what were your thoughts on them?

Let's see... if we can count GBA games, it's:

Banjo-Kazooie: Grunty's Revenge: Played and finished. The first Banjo game that really hooked me, weirdly enough. I usually hate isometric perspective stuff, especially platformers, so the fact this hooked me so well is pretty special.

SabreWulfe: Charming, I guess, but I never put more than a few hours into this. Strictly fine.

The DKC GBA Ports: Almost all universally bad. They're ugly, washed out, with nasty music and sounds. I still think the SNES versions look great, but this amplifies all the worst parts of their aesthetics. All of the new content (more dialog, new bosses) are awful. It feels like the worst parts of DK64's presentation retroactively applied to games that don't need it. DKC1 GBA is by far the worst because when they scaled the game to the GBA screen they weren't super careful about preserving controls or item placement, so it's like walking through your house after everyone's shifted your furniture around by a couple inches. DKC3 GBA is probably the best, and I may have enjoyed it more than the SNES version.

Viva Pinata: I didn't put tons of time into this. Once it got to the point where getting new pinatas to join your farm (or mate) involved super complex, circumstantial things, I got bored of it because it felt more difficult and luck-based than it needed to be.

It's Mr. Pants!: A strange distraction but I never played it more than one or two times because I barely understood it and it felt overly simple.

Banjo-Pilot: I think I beat it once and it vanished from memory.

Diddy Kong Racing DS: Could have been a really good game but just like with the DKC GBA games, it had this vibe of like... being cheaper and more cutesy than the original. They changed a lot of the vibe and really amplified the "we think this is a game for very young children" tone that was originally a little more ambiguous in the N64 game. And in the case of Diddy Kong Racing, it really didn't need that. They messed with a very good game and made it worse in most aspects. Also the touch and mic stuff feels so dated and awkward now. They took a timeless game and made it very... uh, timeful?

Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts: I am a defender of this game, but only to a point. I'm not in love with the aesthetic but building vehicles and completing missions with them is incredible fun and I love the game's meta sense of humor. Unfortunately I think as you get close to the end of the game it kinda falls apart. The Colosseum and Terrarium of Terror are just too big and boring to navigate. I never finished the game because Terrarium of Terror was such a pain in the ass to get through.

Sea of Thieves: I played this a little when I had a free Game Pass sub a few years ago. I think this was right after the update where Sea of Thieves started getting proper questlines and a real narrative. I tried to solo what I could but it's a very difficult game to solo when you run into other players that are out to kill you. Quests are designed to be slightly random too, so I'd fail a quest, try again, and have completely different stuff to do. About the time friends heard I was struggling and were telling me they'd hop on and help me out, I actually started to develop sea sickness. I never got nauseous, but I did get dizzy, and even when I closed my eyes I could "feel" the motion of my boat rocking back and forth. Which is a shame, because as a terminal sufferer of video game wanderlust, I love the idea of sailing around and exploring islands.

Shoutouts to the Banjo-Kazooie and Perfect Dark remasters on XBLA. I finished those games happily. I even did the 101% clear on Banjo, something I hadn't done in a Rareware game since DKC2.

[rainbowresurrection]

I'm borrrrred so here's a some stuff about myself!

My name is Jon.

I have a yellow gecko named Scully (like from the X Files), a tarantula named Alice Cooper (shes 16!) a tabby named Mrs. Chonk (she's food-obsessed and on a diet), and two ferrets named Benny and Marty :-)

Here's da Chonk

In my free time I like to get high and draw crazy shit with markers. I also journal. Though I have pretty bad carpal tunnel so these only happen in short bursts. I love retro videogames but the same applies here lol. I do more watching than playing these days. Atari, NES, SNES, SEGA installments, PS1, and arcade machines are an on-and-off fixation of mine.

I'm a language enthusiast. I used to be fluent in day-to-day Spanish but I haven't gotten to speak it in years so it's awfully rusty now </3 soy hispano y hablo mejor el spanglish :P I can read Spanish just fine. My #1 target language of interest is Japanese. I just got done with an Arabic class. Earlier this year I learned some ASL on the fly to communicate with a coworker, & took a Korean hangeul class (I somehow found that harder than Arabic).

I love many kinds of rock, metal, punk, new wave, alt, and experimental music. Lately I've been into dark trap, especially Ghostemane and Grim Salvo. Generally speaking, my favorite band is probably Black Sabbath (70s era). My fav solo artist is David Bowie.

Obviously, I love Star Trek. I've been a trekkie for ten years now. I started with next gen but TOS quickly became my favorite.

Some of my favorite books include Star Trek: The Motion Picture (ofc), The Lord of the Rings, Interview With The Vampire, and The Dead Zone (I like a lot of Stephen King). I'm currently reading a psychedelic fantasy series known as the Great Book of Amber by Roger Zelazny. So far I'm loving it.

That's all for now 🫡

[lorz-ix]

River City Girls Zero (2022) / Shin Nekketsu Kōha: Kunio-tachi no Banka (1994)

I was really excited to try this game, since we're still sorely missing localizations for most SNES Kunio games, and this is the one that originally inspired the first River City Girls. After that game released, and thanks to the wonderful collection of all the NES Kunio entries translated to english for modern system, I kinda got very into the franchise, you see.

Turns out this was a massive disappointment. It's a very bland, very linear beat' em up that completely fails to live up to the expectations set during the previous console generation, only providing higher quality visuals and sound, and a slightly more intrincate story that takes itself too seriously for how unimpressive it is.

The new localization is fine, with a couple new opening and ending songs, a new animated opening sequence, and the option to choose between a 1994 faithful translation and one that tries to link this game more closely to the characterization of the River City Girls storyline. That's if you're playing in english of course, I noticed every other language only gets one translation. Tough luck.

I felt this localization job was completely unnecessary. As a game, you're essentially forking over 10-15 bucks for a SNES rom with little replayability and extras that add next to nothing to the experience. I would rather pay full price for a collection of all the SNES games with less bells and whistles, if they did it for the dozen NES titles they should have less of an issue doing it with the 5 or so SNES ones. Instead, they chose to give us one single very mediocre game, and I find it hard to have any hope that they'll release the others in the future.

River City Girls 2 (2022)

Even after the previous letdown, I was still very hopeful and excited for a full sequel, and I think it mostly lived up to those expectations. I want to play more of it, play through the story with different characters and do more of the side quests, which is a sign that I had a good time.

There's tons more dialogue for each of the playable characters, which is a treat. There's always some funny moments to laugh at, and I find the cast to be quite charming. Their movesets have also been improved and expanded, so there's more to do and experiment with during fights. You can get pretty creative and do some demanding combos if you're really willing to explore what everyone can do. The combat is a clear step up and probably the easiest thing to praise.

The story is also quite nice, pretty much what I'd expect from a sequel, fun the whole way through, but it's also where I began to have issues. I think some secondary characters that could easily be considered series staples, and who showed up in the first game, should have made an appearance here, but I guess that's my personal take and it can be forgiven. My biggest issue was how Ken was used, with his resemblance to Kunio having actually zero significance to the story, and him being apparently much older than the main cast? I believe he could have made for a more interesting and engaging baddie if he was also a teenager and a similar plotline to the one in Zero had been used.

And, oh man, don't get me started on how they fumbled the dragon twin(k)s. They're usually a top threat in any game they're in, and they got fantastic redesigns here, but they were barely used and I didn't even get to fight them. That should be some sort of crime. Genuinely the most underutilized members of the villain cast. What the hell happened here.

I guess I didn't notice this sort of stuff back when I wasn't a fan and these characters were all new to me, huh. Maybe this is all just fanboy rantings. Maybe it's not a big deal. But I seriously think the dragon twins are cool and they should be used more.

Other than that, my roomie (who I played through the entire game with) and I felt that the frequent fetch quests and backtracking required to advance the story got fairly annoying, but perhaps we wouldn't mind it if we were playing at our own pace and took our sweet time. I think playing with more patience would greatly improve the experience. All in all, I believe it was a very fun game, great fun with a friend, adorable characters, just not perfect you know. I'm only a bit passionate about some of that stuff.

[wirewitchviolet]

A controller with a scroll wheel, you say?

Well this is a little funny. Yesterday I posted the first part of a series of post on the fine details of how computers work, mentioning how I've been looking into this as part of a personal project I've been working on, and today I wake up to see Masahiro Sakurai posting a youtube video lamenting the lack of... this exact thing I'm working on.

Apologies for how much cat hair is in this photo, that's a bit of an occupational hazard, but this here is a photo I took back in September when most of the parts I had to order were in for the prototyping of this thing:

That's a really bad MS Paint mockup, but yeah. I'm designing my own game console, and one of the key features is a big ol' scroll wheel right in the center of the controller. Another is that I'm planning to just put all the designs of the circuit boards and 3D printer files for the casing/buttons up online for free, making it this totally open DIY thing where anyone who's a big enough nerd can just make a couple downloads, order some dirt cheap components, and build their own copy of the system (or people with better setups than me can build and sell them, whatever). So I'm not super worried about anyone stealing my ideas or whatever, but I WOULD like to establish a standard and all that, and figured it was worth noting that this is something I've been slowly working towards for like a year or two now, and didn't just get the idea from this video:

But yeah, now that the idea's out in the public consciousness, here's the plan for the controller (that I was planning to keep under my hat until I had a working prototype and some demo software sometime next year).

First off, the plan is that this is to be the standard controller for a whole console I'm also plucking away at designing, which is a bit more ambitious of a project, so I figure I might as well make it compatible with something that's already out there. So specifically, I'm designing this so that you can take one, plug it right into an SNES (or with a different connector at the end, an NES, because turns out they use the exact same input handling standard and it's just the shape of the plastic on the end that differs), and have it just work. Or mostly work anyway. I'm hoping I can process a signal out of the scroll wheel in a way that it either just needs the 3 extra bits of the input signal I don't have buttons for in my design (more on that later) or failing that, I can get it to output the same sort of signal as one wheel in the SNES mouse, which just rides along the second data line very few things use. I think that plan might break multitap compatibility and require an extra chip on the controller PCB, but it would leave this slightly more compatible with existing games on the same hardware. I might also do something weird with the button mapping to be sure NES select is on a shoulder and it works right out of the box with that whole library.

Working out exactly how to handle signals from the scroll wheel happens to be the point I'm currently stuck on by the way. I got this baggie full of rotary encoders for just a few cents which... almost fit in my first draft 3D printed wheel housing, but I have NO documentation on them, not even a part number/manufacturer besides "H-9," the pins don't fit a breadboard, and I've kinda been scrambling for rent so I can't afford a nice multimeter or oscilloscope to poke around with. Plus again I need to redesign this wheel print to even get it to spin right, and... this was a gift from a friend with a printer who is Not Local. Solvable problem, just needs more time and/or outside expertise.

But yeah, once I have those kinks worked out, it should be easy enough to get a custom board design made, replicas of end-cap of the controller cord are another problem easily solved by ordering a 1 dollar part or 3D printing something. The actual cord might be tricky since I don't know where you actually order something like that from, but it should be easy enough for anyone who doesn't mind a little assembly work to put one of these together and have it good to go for any software made with it in mind, or retrogames where you don't mind a weird button count. So... what's the pitch on this scroll wheel anyway?

Well for starters, there's the stuff Sakurai got into this morning. Any sort of RPG or text heavy game can use it to quickly scroll through menu options, or stuff in a text-heavy game. You could also pan the screen with it, something a lot of early 16-bit games assigned to the shoulder buttons or holding up and down while getting used to the new options the hardware was giving them.

Past that, you'll notice in my design it's at a 45 degree angle. I might have to tweak it a little, but my thinking is for a game that uses it heavily, one thumb or the other can slide over easily enough (I'm going for a pretty compact overall design) so we can have some games where you take your thumb off the D-pad, and have this nice analogue steering wheel. Nice for fine control in a racing game, or if you want some little radio-tuning/safe-cracking sorta deal.

Alternatively, move your right thumb over, use the D-pad to steer, shoot and dodge or whatever with shoulder buttons, and use the wheel to rotate a turret for a twin-stick sort of game maybe.

Or just use it for the sort of stuff mouse based games stick on the scrollwheel. Changing weapons, changing powerups... I'm planning to officially label the directions "hot" and "cold" to encourage weird gimmicky things like... I dunno, a platformer where you have a thermostat in your controller you can always mess with, freeze water coming out of pipes, crank up flame jets? Have a shot charging mechanic where you just really crank it to get to max strength? Weird minigame stuff. There's some fun space to explore with it.

Then we have the rest of the design here... which basically comes down to me being just plain sick of how every controller made by anyone in the past... 20 years give or take has kind of the exact same layout? 4 good face buttons, a D-pad, 4 shoulder buttons, 2 sticks, and 1-4 annoying to reach tiny awkward middle buttons, and we're just kind of overdue for a change-up?

Like first of all, hey, this is just too many buttons. There's a ton of games that really only need a D-pad, and maybe 3 buttons (attack jump pause) and the two things that aren't fully standardized is how awkwardly placed the D-pad is and how awful and awkwardly placed the pause button is. Shoulder buttons can be nice, but I've never really felt like 4 of them awkwardly crammed on the rim has been really useful or ergonomic, and that's coming from someone who's been playing a ton of FF14, which gets more use out of them than anything else I could name. And really, aside from games doing fake twin-stick stuff and using the whole grid like a second D-pad, I'm having a really hard time thinking of any game I've ever played that really makes good use of 4 good face buttons? Like people will use them if they've got'em sure, but unless you do that keyboard style thing where you lay the controller on a table and use all your fingers, you can really only comfortably hit 2 face buttons without sliding your thumb away from them, maybe comfortably make a quick pivot to a third.

Also, really, a lot of designers just sort of feel compelled to map SOMETHING to every button, even if it's clear the design didn't really need them. So basically I figure I'll try kinda just taking a "less is more" approach here. Here's the buttons that it's comfortable to rest your thumbs and fingers on, here's a dedicated pause/menu button where people often stick a kind of redundant menu button, here's my gimmicky scrollwheel. That's it, work around that.

I'm also going a little Gamecube inspired (literally using replacement membranes for one in my prototype design, even). Gonna make a great big primary button and use different shapes for the other two. Trying to label these in a less arbitrary fashion than most. If shooting a gun is a thing you do in this game, and there isn't a real good reason not to, default it to this nice right trigger you can hold down all the time. If we're advancing through menus or jumping or holding down gas in a car, here's the big GO button. Need brakes, need to break stuff with a melee attack? Go back in a menu system? There's your other face button. Have a quick dash move or a run you hold down, let's just use the other shoulder.

So yeah. That's my controller. Need to work out the kinks on the scroll wheel, source a cord, and hopefully I can slap things together and this will be something you can just order bits for piecemeal and put together for like, $5-10 after shipping? Maybe less? The parts are shockingly cheap so far.

But yeah if anyone has any insight to the scroll wheel or cord issues, let me know. Also the whole thing is presently a tad back-burnered because I am in a serious financial crisis and I don't want to have electronics spread all over my table if I have to abruptly find a new place to live if I can't scrape next month's rent together. So as usual, donations are incredibly welcome.

[zeeph-containment-zone]

I could go on FOR HOURS about all of the things I love dearly about the SMRPG remake but I'm gonna be different,,, I'm gonna talk about the things that I didn't like/were weird to me instead >:) (even then they aren't even really game changing things they're just me being nitpicky lol, none of these change my judgement on the remake being absolutely wonderful either!!!) There'll be spoilers under the break so tread with caution if you haven't beaten the main storyline yet!!!

Difficulty:

or rather, lack thereof. I know the game isn't too hard to begin with, but I did feel like it was a little too easy on the normal mode. I think inclusion of the breezy mode was fine because people who want to play on it can play on it and I don't have to, but I do think the main difficulty should have been a bit less forgiving with the timed hit windows and the gauge boosts. The limit breaks didn't bother me all that much, simply because I never used them and was never forced to except for when the mechanic was introduced. In fact, I'm gonna be totally honest, I've never even SEEN the other limit breaks/triple moves aside from the Mario/Mallow/Geno one because I didn't really want to use them and didn't ever really feel like I had to. I think it's fine that they're there and it was a really really neat inclusion, but I also like how you aren't roped into using them and have the option to just, not. However, something you don't have the option to not use is the splash damage and gauge boosts. I found I hit the 10 combo mark pretty quickly pretty often and the stat buff was nice but it did make the game a little too steamrolly at times. The splash damage from perfect timed hits was also kind of annoying and steamrolly, especially when trying to collect Thought Peaks. (I DO really like the perfect block timed hit mechanic though!!!!!) I know the postgame boss rematches are harder and gimmicky and I'm very excited to play those when I have the chance to like, sit down and play vidya games again (ESPECIALLY CULEX'S)! But I do wish they had opted for a hard mode that got rid of the splash damage and either removed/lessened the gauge stat buffs. And also dare I say, make the timed hit window smaller and get rid of the party swapping mechanic for it as well. I did really like the mid-battle party swap because I got to utilize characters I never really got to in the SNES version (namely Peach and Mallow, I'd always run Mario/Geno/Bowser. But then again playing Mallow as someone who knows how to correctly use a mage now was much easier than back when this was the only jrpg I'd ever played.) But I think It'd make for a more challenging and authentic-to-original experience.

Not being able to swap out Mario:

See, I understand why this is in there. Because he is The Guy™ and also so you don't get locked in battles where you have to jump on an enemy to win, like the dry bones. But I think it would have been a really nice QOL change to let you switch mario out for someone else, at least once you hit the postgame. I'd really like to experiment with different team comps that don't have mario in them, my preferred team I'd like to try being Mallow/Geno/Bowser.

The Cutscene Font:

idk it just really clashed with what was going on behind it. I can't pinpoint what it was exactly that was bothering me about it, it just kinda felt awkward

Localization Changes:

I'm going to start this by saying I'm actually VERY happy with the direction they took, by making appropriate changes but keeping the Woolsey translations that made the game as charming as it was. I was so happy to see Culex's goofy antimatter speech before his fight that made me so so happy!!!!

There were some things that got removed that were a little weird to me though:

☆ The toad in the Mushroom Kingdom that asks Mario to "Get Hitched in a few years"

I can see why this was changed, but I always read it as a "celebrity crush" type thing. We all had them, it's a pretty normal thing. I'm just happy I could still stand on top of him and make Mario dizzy

☆Gambling removed from Grate Guy's Casino

It's weird because they kept Casino in the name, but removed the actual gambling. Blackjack has been completely removed and the slots are still there, just named something different and you don't have to spend coins to play anymore. Blackjack did get replaced with a cute memory match minigame though! Gambling has been getting phased out of games for a while now and it's just one of those "huh, that's weird" things to me.

☆Peace Signs removed

Don't get me wrong, I like the new victory animations a whole lot! But I do think it was a strange choice to phase out the peace signs from Mario's, Mallow's, and Peach's victory pose. Was there a reason for it?

☆Card Symbols removed

Not sure why these were taken out either, I always thought it was a really cool detail how each character had their own playing card symbol and color attached to them when they used a magic attack. Maybe they did away with it because of the gambling association?

☆Heavy Troopa, Big Bertha, Speardovich, and Claymorton

I kind of get why Heavy Troopa and Big Bertha (one of the bullet bill cannon enemy's) names got changed because of the connotations, but the original names are pretty harmless given the fact, specifically in the case of Heavy Troopa, there's still dialogue that references his size. Speardovich, iirc, was a localization change but Yaridovich just rolls off the tongue so much nicer and I feel like even with the name change people are just gonna call him Yari anyway. Mack's name being changed to Claymorton is probably the one that makes the least amount of sense to me, but it could be because a lot of the pop culture references were phased out (like the Bruce Lee line and Punchinello's James Bond introduction.) Mack's name was probably a reference to Bobby Darin's "Mack the Knife." That or it had something to do with an SNES character limit.

The other name changes didn't really bother me that much and I feel like they fit pretty well (except for Neosquid because of the haha funny it really doesn't bother me at all shhhhhhh)

☆The Royal Bus Logo

The ONLY reason I'm listing this on here is because despite having been removed from the 3D model, it's still present in the Credits sequence. Was probably an oversight, but I thought it was funny. It was probably removed since players outside of Japan wouldn't get what it was referencing (which is quite literally Jugemu Basu, which translates to 'Lakitu Bus' as it was referred to that in the JP version of the game.)

☆Geno's curls are part of his hat

Okay this isn't an actual issue I had with the game I just always drew him with ribbons for hair. I'm probably still drawing him with ribbons for hair lmao

☆Grate Guy Reward RNG

This also isn't an issue I had with the game but it is just me bitching how I didn't get a single red essence from Grate Guy while getting the star egg. I'm just super unlucky I think, can't find anything about his item pool being changed.

Framerate Issues:

So this is actually INCREDIBLY minor. I noticed the game chugs a little bit when you're in the water/by the water. Not sure why that is exactly but there's certainly a bit of a slowdown. Not a super duper obvious game breaking one, but subtle enough to be noticed.

And that's really all I got. Again reiterating before someone grabs their pitchfork and tries to skewer me that this doesn't change my judgement on the game at all and I still truly believe this is a near 10/10 remake that did an incredible job respecting it's source material while also adding fresh new content and QOL changes. I have a HUGE list of positive things to say about the game that heavily outweigh the nitpicks!!!!! Looking forward to running around in the post game, ESPECIALLY the final Culex fight!

[cutecutejames]

Real thoughts on the film:

SPOILERS, probably. Idk, I could have written this script. Pretty sure this website came together and predicted everything.

Jack Black killed it as we all knew he would.

I didn't hate Chris Prat. Shockingly.

Sad no Koopalings but my beloved Shy Guys got some love.

Peach. Like. *sigh*. She lost her daintiness and that's sad. To be clear, she can kick ass AND ALSO be dainty. In fact she's amazing at it.

The Luma with the dark jokes is a trope I highly dislike

Is it weird I actually held a little hope for Bowigi? Probably.

The Mario Kart part did get to me emotionally. I teared up at the MK8 music. A little less so at SNES Rainbow Road. If Rainbow Road 64 started playing I would have started bawling I dont get a say in this I just would

Overall it was fine. I expected straight garbage, so well done I guess.

[pixelgrotto]

Indy's Greatest Adventures

I rewatched all of the Indiana Jones movies lately, coincidentally just in time for the trailer of the new one, Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny. After I replayed Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis last year and realized that Indy was way more of a tomb raider than I remembered him to be, I was a little nervous about revisiting these films. I needn't have worried too much - wonky portrayal of India aside, the movies still hold up well. There are colonial overtones if you bother to analyze things with a 2022 mindset, sure, but the truck chase scene in Raiders of the Lost Ark still has to be one of the best sequences I've ever seen on film. The same goes for the mine carts in Temple of Doom and the tank scene in Last Crusade. Even Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, which I tolerate more than most, has a few moments of pulpy goodness, nuclear fridges aside.

This brings me to Indiana Jones' Greatest Adventures for the Super Nintendo, one of the few video games that decided to capture the magic of all of Dr. Jones' then-current films. I first saw a screenshot of it as a kid in Issue #9 of The Adventurer, a magazine that LucasArts put out to advertise their products, and I thought it looked neat as hell. A game full of levels inspired by all three Indy movies?! Genius! I never actually played it as a child, since I didn't have a SNES growing up, but the concept stuck with me. And so after I finished watching the films I decided to give Greatest Adventures a whirl, since it's easily accessible by emulation these days.

The game, published by LucasArts but developed by Factor 5 and JVC Musical Industries, runs on the same engine as JVC's three Super Star Wars titles. I haven't played those, but a quick look online shows that they're renowned for being hard as hell and featuring levels that take quite a few liberties from what was in the movies. (Remember how Luke had to go toe-to-toe against a Sarlacc pit monster in the beginning of A New Hope?)

Greatest Adventures doesn't stray quite as far from the source material, though the last boss of the game is a goofy skeleton version of Donovan after he drinks from the wrong Holy Grail. For the most part, though, you've got traditional platforming stages inspired by most of the major moments in each film, like Indy exploring the Well of Souls, beating up Thuggees in the tunnels beneath Pankot Palace, and facing the traps leading up to the resting place of the Holy Grail. Every now and then you'll get a level that expands upon something not really seen in the films - for instance, a snow section that shows Indy in Nepal trying to reach Marion's bar. Then there are what I like to call "gimmick" levels that present you with a key moment from the movies, like Indy running from a giant boulder at the beginning of Raiders or avoiding gunshots in a nightclub in Temple of Doom, and these break up the standard platforming by forcing you to run forward to survive or duck behind cover. Finally, there are three levels that take advantage of the SNES' fancy Mode 7 chip, placing you in a 3D perspective. Temple of Doom gets two of these, mimicking the life raft plane jump in the Himalayas and the mine cart chase. Last Crusade gets the final one, presenting the moment when Indy and his dad escaped a zeppelin via biplane and had to shoot down some Nazis.

It's all standard SNES platforming goodness, though the game is pretty darn hard. Indy controls well (though for some reason his whip is a far better weapon than his gun) but as the game ramps up you can expect to find a lot of inconveniently placed enemies (like birds, a la Ninja Gaiden) designed to trip up your jumps and bleed your health meter. The latter Last Crusade levels in particular start putting you up against Nazi mechanics and guys from the Brotherhood of the Cruciform Sword who can throw wrenches and knives in a perfect arc that always seems to hit you, and it's a fine recipe for frustration. There's also one level where you've got to swing from your whip between the windows of Castle Brunwald, and man is it kind of impossible.

I also wish there was more of an equal distribution of levels between the three movies, since Raiders gets 12 stages while Temple of Doom and Last Crusade only get 8. Also, I would've liked to see Indy's sidekicks present. Greatest Adventures depicts the story of each film as kind of a streamlined alternate take where Indy's alone all the time, and while Marion and Professor Jones Sr. show up in cutscenes (and notably the Game Over screen), others like Short Round and Willie Scott are nowhere to be seen. Willie, I guess I can do without, but not including Short Round is a crime, especially when they could've easily designed a Mode 7 chase scene with him driving a car as Indy escapes Shanghai.

These quibbles aside, playing Greatest Adventures with save states neutralizes a lot of the frustration, and for an Indy fan, there's much to like here - from the lovingly-recreated John Williams score to the occasional stage that really rewards fans of the movies. For instance, Raiders' infamous swordsman in black shows up at the end of the game's Cairo levels, and instead of proving to be a major boss encounter, all you've got to do is shoot him once to move on, just like in the film. There's also a Last Crusade boss battle aboard a tank where you can't use any other weapons but your fists to punch Colonel Ernst Vogel into submission, and you've got to do it before the tank rolls off a cliff, too. Good attention to film detail there!

The era of licensed video game tie-ins for films is more or less over, so I doubt we'll see anything in the form of electronic entertainment when Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny comes out. (Bethesda does have the Indy license and is supposed to deliver an original game that might coincide with the movie's release, but they've been silent on that front for a year, so we'll see what happens.) With this in mind, I do recommend giving Greatest Adventures a run-through if you've got a high tolerance for old-school platforming or at least want to relive Indy's glory days before the new movie releases. Along with Fate of Atlantis, it's probably the only 2D Indy game worth replaying by today's standards.