#my blog was dormant for years and when i came back my hyperfixations had changed but i still follow all the friends i made a long time ago

[slowsweetlove]

Dear Dolly,

am I happy your semi-back? Of course♥️

Do I want you to look after yourself, follow your instincts and connect more IRL or even here again? Absolutely.

You do you. On your terms. Your blog, your rules (or lack thereof).

Anyways I'm always happy to see you on my dash⭐

first i would like to apologize for my constant flakiness. i'm in my mid twenties now and life is beyond hectic. i've been thrown so many curveballs, and i feel horribly guilty for teasing fics only to be pulled away by life with no way to execute what has been promised-

which is why i will no longer be teasing fics or trying to set any kind of schedules for myself.

i went and saw an elvis impersonator the other night and was shocked by how many people my own age were there. usually it's just me in a crowd full of elderly women. it had me wondering if i could connect with those girls in real life the way that i had connected with you all. i wondered if maybe- just maybe- i had conversed with one of them on tumblr at some point (though i highly doubt that). it was exciting. . . but also really sad.

my mental health is probably at it's worst right now, and a friend of mine unexpectedly passed over the holidays (hence why i suddenly disappeared). i'd like to say that the anon hate didn't get to me all those months ago, but it did. i became paranoid that the second i logged into this account i'd be met with hate. anger. people telling me they didn't like my writing anymore or those that i considered friends no longer wanting to talk to me.

so i logged out of tumblr. tried to ignore the urge to write or say "i'm alive guys and i still love you just as much" because i don't want to be seen as selfish or horrible for going on a hiatus. i also don't want any of you to feel as though i abandoned you.

this account was the reason i got up out of bed every morning for an entire year. i got to know some of your lives. your loved one's names, what you were going to school to become, your wants and dreams- and being in that crowd at the elvis show brought me right back where I needed to be. it slapped me right in the face.

guilt. regret. fear

and an overwhelming sense of love. i don't want to abandon this blog. no matter how many notes or lack-there-of i receive on future fics. . . i want to keep posting. i want to talk about austin and elvis with anyone that will listen. i'm tired of being tired. i want to be happy again, and i was so happy with all of you. i want to crawl back to this bubblegum pink blog and treat it like a dollhouse- live in here with you in whatever elvis-induced delusions we share.

so if there's anyone out there that still is active- hello. i really fucking missed you.

[guardiangeologist]

Luigi's Uncharacteristically Large and also maybe Haunted House (3DS Edition): A Highly Professional Review

The entire time I've had this blog, I haven't really been sure what to use it for. I've settled on spewing my unscripted thoughts on whatever Game of the Week I've played most recently because, quite frankly, where else are they gonna go? I love my girlfriend, but these words are destined for a wider platform. I must expand my horizons. So here I am, talking about cartoon ghosts and green vacuum-wielding Italian men on the internet.

Now, let me tell you, this green man and his stupid house have been in control of my entire brain like some fucked up Italian Ratatouille for at least 10 years. I was a Luigi's Mansion Kid. What do I mean by that? I mean I roleplayed Luigi's Mansion on the school playground when I was in the 3rd grade. With the other Luigi's Mansion Kids. So it's safe to say I have some experience when it comes to this game. At times, he goes dormant. He waits patiently for another hyperfixation to pass. However, just when I least expect it, he returns from the grave (almost like a ghost?) to stage a military occupation of my frontal lobe to last the next few months.

So, there's my history. I ended up finally picking up the 3DS version of this game just before the eShop shut down (rest in piss) for shits and giggles, and only just got around to playing it this week while laying in bed with a migraine. (maybe not the smartest decision?) I mean, to start with, why was this game released for the 3DS? It came out in October 2018, at which point we were already an entire year post-Switch. I mean, I guess it would be fine, but it's just so obvious that being on the 3DS holds this game back in so many different areas (which I will get to, be patient!) and it's seriously a tragedy it hasn't been ported to Switch yet. Why put together such an amazing remake, and then bottleneck it with lackluster hardware and release it on a nearly out of service console?

In terms of positive changes? LOADS of QoL stuff. I might even go as far as to call this the definitive version of the game in spite of the few drawbacks it does present. Some examples include:

Re-fighting portrait ghosts: NO MORE RESETS!!! (Ok still some resets for speedy spirits because there's no way in hell I'm staying in the blackout for longer than I have to but that's just part of The Experience)

You can go back to the Lab from the Mansion by exiting through the front door. Finally, Luigi has learned how to open doors!

The tougher post-game Hidden Mansion, originally exclusive to the PAL version, has finally been made available to us worthless money-grubbing Americans! (Minus the disorienting flipped rooms, which I found pretty disappointing but some people will probably celebrate.) You can even get platinum ghost portraits from the Hidden Mansion which I have yet to obtain all of because jesus christ it is not easy to defeat a ghost with 150 health in a single attempt.

And now, the ghostly elephant in the room: co-op. I did try it, with my little brother as my Gooigi guinea pig. It's...I mean...honestly, it's not great. If you want to play LM1 with a friend, I can honestly recommend a ROM hack of the GameCube original more than I can recommend Nintendo's official multiplayer, which is pretty lame. For one, nothing is scaled up difficulty-wise to account for the extra player, so most battles in the game become trivial with the addition of a second experienced player (not my little brother.) But secondly, and most importantly:

the LAG.

DEAR GOD THE LAG.

I can testify that our internet is fine. The internet is not the issue, and even if it were, it shouldn't take any more bandwidth to play this game than it takes for two 3DS systems that are within 3 feet of each other and 10 feet from a router to communicate with each other. Yet, the game did not once run at full speed on either screen the entire time we played. Additionally, my brother complained several times that he couldn't even move his character. Luigi's Mansion with two players SHOULD be a chaotic mess, but adding the piddly framerate on top of it makes the game nearly unplayable.

That being said, the co-op is a disappointment, but it was never necessary for the game to be a satisfying package overall, it's better than having nothing. Though, as is typical, the work of fans definitely triumphs over Nintendo's official product in this department.

Oh, and they still didn't fix the oversight which causes you to lose the second gold diamond if you die after collecting it because the game prompts you to save while it's still on the ground... No A-Rank for me, I guess.

Mm, yes, the controls, yeah, those exist. This is one of those spots where I feel this game could have easily benefitted from just being developed for the Switch. Instead of forcing a dual-stick game onto a dying handheld with a single circle pad, maybe we could've, like, released it for the dual-stick console/handheld that was already out and had a perfectly established user base? They tried to substitute the c-stick with the gray alien nipple- or uhh..."circle pad pro"...that comes pre-installed on the New Nintendo 3DS, but it does not work well. The nub just isn't responsive enough to substitute for an entire stick, and if you want it to be a real circle pad, you have to buy an external attachment. Not to mention the nub isn't even available on every 3DS model! So like, yeah, I understand they made an honest attempt to work around the controller issues, but a better workaround would've been to just...not curse this game to irrelevancy by trapping it on a dying console.

All of that said, I spent all week playing this game, so they did something right. Curse my brain worms.

11/10 will buy this game and its sequels again every time Nintendo re-releases them.