#yooka laylee again

[game-boy-pocket]

I very much appreciate video games that are made to be spiritual successors to long dormant IP, either by the creators of said IP who no longer work for their company and didn't retain the rights to their creation, or from indie devs who are just really big fans of an IP that is simply going unused. They're really feeding starving fans what they want.

...but man...

I really... really wish it was not necessary for there to be so god dang many of them...

[bestfurrywife]

Rules

Character must be 18+ (if they don't have a specified age, they must be reasonably assumed to be an adult)

No explicit nsfw images in submissions, suggestive content ok

If you're submitting an indie artist's character (eg, someone's oc from tumblr or other social media) you MUST credit them

follow @bestfurryhusband lol

Submission Form

Submissions for tournament 2 are OPEN

Contestants:

Next contestants (feel free to submit again if you have propaganda to add):

Aela The Huntress (The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim)

Allison Goleta (Super Lesbian Animal RPG)

Applejack (My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic)

Auroth, the Winter Wyvern (Defense of the Ancients 2)

 Bonnie (@dapper-lil-catgirl on Tumblr)

Princess Cadence (My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic)

Carmelita Fox (Sly Cooper)

Catra (She-Ra and the Princesses of Power)

Catty (Undertale)

Dabarella Yeetster (Adventure Is Nigh!)

Dean Hardscrabble (Monsters University)

Demona (Gargoyles)

Deoxys (Pokemon)

Diane Foxington (The Bad Guys)

Eclipsa Butterfly (Star vs the Forces of Evil)

Eda the Owl Lady (The Owl House)

Falin (Chimera) (Dungeon Meshi)

Fenneko (Aggretsuko)

Gadget Hackwrench (Chip N Dale Rescue Rangers)

Goodra (Pokemon)

Isabelle (Animal Crossing)

Laylee (Yooka-Laylee)

Lifts-Her-Tail (The Lusty Argonian Maid; Skyrim)

Lop (Star Wars Visions)

Merveille Million (Solatorobo)

Mrs. Brisby (The Secret of NIMH)

Miss Spider (James and the Giant Peach)

Moon Butterfly (Star vs the Forces of Evil)

Ms Tarantula/Webs (The Bad Guys)

Nala (lion king)

Olympia (Rivals of Aether)

Pinkie pie (My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic)

Princess Cadence (My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic)

Pyanfar Chanur (The Chanur novels by C.J. Cherryh)

Rainbow dash

Rarity

Retsuko (Aggretsuko)

Sarabi (Lion King)

Sasha Phyronix (Ratchet and Clank)

Shahvee (The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim)

Sophodra (Humans-B-Gone!)

Summer (Spiritfarer)

Sybil (Pseudoregalia)

The Empress (A Hat in Time)

Trixie (capitol critters)

Trixie Lulamoon (My Little Pony)

Tuca Toucan (Tuca & Bertie)

Tyranitar (Pokemon)

Vanilla the Rabbit (Sonic the Hedgehog)

Waai Fu (Arknights)

Washimi (Aggretsuko)

Wuk Lamat (Final Fantasy XIV)

Zecora (My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic)

Previous contestants:

Alphys (Undertale)

Arlinn Kord (Magic the Gathering)

Astrid (Spiritfarer)

Birdo (Mario)

Captain Amelia (Treasure Planet)

Cordelia Hendricks (The Smoke Room)

Dahlia Byrnes (The Smoke Room)

Duchess (Aristocats)

Erma Felna (Erma Felna: EDF)

Fenna van Houwelinck (Glory Hounds)

Fidget (Dust: An Elysian Tale)

Fillyjonk (The Moomins)

Fluttershy (My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic)

Freya Crescent (Final Fantasy 9)

Furryosa (Atomic Crops)

Golem (Pokemon)

Greasefang (Magic the Gathering)

Hecate (Tokyo Afterschool Summoners)

Holo (Spice and Wolf)

Hoodwink (Dota 2)

Hornet (Hollow Knight)

Ilia Shrikewood (Temptation's Ballad)

Isabelle (Animal Crossing)

Jenna Begay (Echo)

Judy Hopps (Zootopia)

Juno (Beastars)

Krystal (Star Fox Adventure)

Laika (Laika Aged Through Blood)

Laika (Laika's Comet)

Lola Bunny (Space Jam)

Loona (Helluva Boss)

Lopunny (Pokemon)

Loveander (Palworld)

Madam Dora (The Smoke Room)

Madame Vastra (Doctor Who)

Maid Marian (Disney's Robin Hood)

Marie Itami (BNA)

Maria (Extracurricular Activities)

Meicrackmon (Digimon)

Miss Piggy (The Muppets)

Molly Yarnchopper (Kipo and the Age of Wonderbeasts)

Moomin Mamma (The Moomins)

Mother Glory (Friends at the Table)

Muffet (Undertale)

Nidoqueen (Pokemon)

Princess Celestia (My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic)

Princess Luna (My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic)

Queen Bee-elzebub (Helluva Boss)

Renamon (Digimon)

Rivet (Ratchet and Clank)

Rose (Remember the Flowers)

Rouge the Bat (Sonic the Hedgehog)

Roxanne Wolf (Five Nights at Freddy's: Security Breach)

Salazzle (Pokemon)

Sally Acorn (Sonic the Hedgehog)

Soraka (League of Legends)

Tigress (Kung Fu Panda)

Toriel (Undertale)

Torque (X-Com: Chimera Squad)

Twilight Sparkle (My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic)

Vipress (Kung Fu Panda)

Xenomorph (Alien)

Whisper the Wolf (Sonic the Hedgehog)

Yona (My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic)

[also-fours]

the hi-fi rush situation really bums me out.

we had this game that looked super unique, everybody loved it, it won tons of awards

and then it barely got any marketing, feels like it only got as popular as it did thanks to word of mouth and the initial shadow drop, was deemed a "failure" despite selling what many companies would consider a success back in the day, (because it didnt sell call of duty numbers, probably.) and then its studio got shut down

the studio was just starting to spread its wings, start making shit that could inspire their peers, other devs, to start making different things and experiment

and they fucking killed them

it's gone

i mean, maybe they'll make their own studio, i've heard something like that's happened a couple times with the yooka-laylee devs and sonic mania's dev team

but i dunno

as much as i love games like spider-man and god of war (and i mean literally just those two, like, anything else sony does aside from ratchet and clank im not into) i wish they didnt worry so much about modelling photorealism

the obsession with stuff like that is what's made game development so expensive and unsustainable at this rate

i know this is tumblr so the first reaction im gonna get to saying something like "i like spider-man and god of war" at least in my circle is "GOOD GLAD THAT IT'S BECOMING UNSUSTAINABLE FUCK THEM" but like. i actually like what these games had to say and what they brought to the table.

"spider-man had nothing to say it's just a stupid marvel game cash grab and god of war is a generic over the shoulder game"

if you're going to tell me something like that, kindly, please don't interact with this post

like, please?

thank you

anyway, i want games like that that...don't have to upgrade their graphics every time and. waste everyone's time.

genuinely with how they both looked in 2018 i'd be happy with them just. not changing the graphics at all

but uh. sadly sony knows their audience, haha

there'd be hell to pay if they did that

(i hate mainstream gamers)

and as for everything else that xbox and playstation are doing right now, i still want them to do something different

and microsoft killed off the developer that could've inspired others to do that

soooooooo fuck. what now. are we just gonna be stuck in this position forever.

probably not, i mean, again, with how expensive games like spider-man 2 have gotten to produce and the amount of people in and out of the industry screaming that you gotta CHILL THE FUCK OUT, we won't stay like this forever

it might get better

maybe when we get a new series of spider-man games they can have a visual style similar to spider-verse, wouldn't that be rad?

...i mean. judging by the leaks, they might already be experimenting with that...

or something like shattered dimensions have y'all seen that game? looks fantastic, go look it up, they made four different dimensions of spidey and all of 'em have their own unique visual style inspired by their books

sorry im getting off topic

im juat rambling at this point

i just hope people learn the right lessons from hi-fi rush.

and that the people who made it find a way through and can still make great things

thats what i hope for at least

...anyway at least we still have fortnite and its really fun art style--

[velvetvexations]

I'm a fake JSR fan because I don't actually like JSR at all, I'm exclusively a Jet Set Radio Future girlie. I find the aesthetic and gameplay of the original Dreamcast game not just boring but actively bad. Which I don't say to hate on JSR, I understand a lot of people like it just as they should and that this is all my personal take, but I'm just trying to illustrate my disconnect with the fandom and franchise in general. Because like, Future is stuck very deep in my heart and soul, you know? But it's that specific version.

Based on what we've seen of the upcoming game I don't think that even if it comes back it'll ever be my Jet Set Radio ever again, but I'm willing to give it a shot. If they just put Jet Set Radio Future on Steam I'd be happy.

As for Bomb Rush Cyberfunk...it does look to be more Future than JSR, which entices me, but like I told a friend back when it came out, even when these Mighty No. 9/Yooka-Laylee serial-numbers-filed-off games are good, it strikes me as a tragedy it can't be what it's meant to be and has to be this off-brand thing instead.

[bbs-backlog-challenge]

Fin or Bin: Yooka-Laylee and the Impossible Lair

Only a couple of days ago, I finished playing Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze. It didn’t get a backlog entry because I rented it and therefore it technically- technically- was never actually on my backlog. I guess the dice saw fit to punish me for my loophole, because immediately afterwards I rolled Impossible Lair, a game so DKC-coded you could asset flip the two and be none the wiser.

The similarities to DKCR in particular are a banana-skin away from just outright plagiarism, right down to actually having barrel cannons the player character(s) stick their heads out of after two seconds of waiting. TF has winged bananas who leave a trail behind them, collecting all of which grants a bonus; so too do YL have winged quills who behave in an identical fashion. It’s uncanny, and I certainly would be uncomfortable sitting next to these guys during an exam.

If you copy a great game though, you surely will make a great game, and copying only takes you so far. Playtonic prove they still have what it takes with the level design, one standout moment involving a level themed around water fountains that had multiple alternate routes that were just out of my reach, revealing after I had completed it that it was possible to play the same level again but with an alteration- in this case, an icy blast that froze all the water- and explore those other paths. The overworld too is more than just a level hub but a level of its own, requiring exploration and puzzle-solving to open up the way to the next stage.

Fin or Bin:

So here’s a controversial take- I think I actually prefer Impossible Lair to Tropical Freeze. DKCR/TF were great games, but I had my problems with them- and it just so happens that YLIL fixes those specific issues. Exploration was largely optional in TropicalReturns, the absolutely dire puzzle rooms actively discouraging it and the reward of a puzzle piece being equally lackluster. In YLIL these are functionally replaced with the TWIT coins, which are necessary for level progression, giving an actual incentive to find them all. I still prefer the DKC123 formula over either alternative presented here, but for my money YLIL lands a lot closer to what I'm looking for. It's basically the same game as Tropical Freeze, so why not Finish this one too?

(Steam)

[blazehedgehog]

Say the stars align and we get a "true" Banjo-Threeie. What would you want from it, in a general sense?

I mean, what I think about is like...

Banjo-Tooie wasn't super great. It was from that DK64 school of "way too much of everything", and though it wasn't quite as bad as DK64, it was still too much.

And then you think about what Rare became, the bad habits they developed, the end of "that era" for their company, between Star Fox Adventures, Grabbed by the Ghoulies, Kameo, Perfect Dark Zero, etc.

And then you shine that light on what happened with Yooka-Laylee, which was basically just a bunch of ex-Rare people trying to make Banjo-Threeie in spirit. And I think... that's just... what it is. It's all of their bad habits wrapped around a low-budget game trying to look and feel like a high-budget game.

It's slow, and too big, and there's too many weird progression gates, and a lot of the characters are ugly, and none of it feels cohesive...

Like, to be clear, there are a lot of Rare games I like. I think they had a capacity to make great stuff. But at the same time they were very British developers making games that scratched on a lot of the weird British game design tendencies you had from the Amiga and Spectrum.

I don't like calling that stuff out, because I have friends who grew up with those games (your Fantastic Dizzy, Super Frog, etc.), but a lot of them feel weird and alien to me. Obtuse, and mean, and stiff, in ways that were less common on game consoles like the NES and Genesis (edit: upon further review, this is a smarter way of putting it). Rare, to me, split the difference. Wizards & Warriors feels like it could have been a Amiga game, in some ways. It's got that feel, while still also feeling more like a console game would.

And it's kind of shocking to consider that Nintendo handed Rare the Donkey Kong license, given their track record. Nintendo has a certain standard of quality and high accessibility that a lot of Rare's pre-DKC games do not exhibit. But that's the thing, right; Donkey Kong Country is a very sharp explosion in quality for Rare, I feel like. It was one of their defining moments as a company.

But I also feel like the further away we get from DKC1, the less of a guiding hand Nintendo was giving Rare, and the more that British-style sensibility starts creeping back in.

The ultimate being Yooka-Laylee, which straight up has half of an entire world be this homage to frustrating isometric platformers like Knight Lore.

If they did a new Banjo platformer I would want it to be, at most, more of that first Banjo-Kazooie game. And specifically the Xbox Live Arcade version, which saves note totals and things like that.

But the idea of having another game like that first Yooka-Laylee... or even a game that tries to pick up where Banjo-Tooie left off... I make a stink face at that.

Then again, I also really liked Nuts & Bolts, so I assume "true" Banjo fans probably view me as an assassination target.

[heart-star]

My Au's animal crossing characters in families, Tortimer went to live on the tropical islands after retirement and became the new member of the kappa family; the beavers and chamaleons are land neighbors and I jist made Flick in Yooka laylee style as try his kind is actually regular animal.

Some spinoffs I thought God of war would've possibly have after ragnarok: Atreus meeting other versions of him from the other dimensions & Kratos meeting Shovel knight again cause I knew their fight was canon.

[lapismaid]

i have a bunch of games i've started/gotten near done on and need to go and actually uh Finish

Kirby and the Forgotten Land

Pizza Tower (mid World 3, was going for completion as i went but might have to just bite the bullet and beat the game "normally" first)

Sonic Frontiers

7th Dragon (DS)

Etrian Odyssey 2 HD (mid 3rd stratum)

Etrian Odyssey 3 HD (have played original before but this game fucking rules. also want to get 100%)

Resident Evil 2 Remake (at the final area)

Super Sami Roll

Yooka-Laylee & the Impossible Lair

Tears of the Kingdom (just doing loose ends at this point)

Pikmin 4 (in the "postgame")

Metroid Prime Remastered (again played the original before but god The Gramfics.....)

i need to clear off at least Some of these before i actually consider adding more to the backlog.....

...or i could do Another Fucking Dark Souls 2 playthrough either one works really

[pixies-and-poets]

Donkey kong tropical freeze is such a bad game, it's not even really about playing or having fun, it's just strictly super technical and all about inhumanly perfect timing. It seems like a game designed for a cpu that has all the perfect inputs already programmed into it. Playing it as a human player is like... oh, sorry, but you didn't wait until literally the very last frame to jump off the last platform, so now your jump won't be able to cover the distance to the next platform. Sorry, try the last 2 minutes of gameplay you just did all over again! Like what kind of weird ass game devs think that's what makes a game good? Instead of filling a game with nothing but ridiculously challenging platforming that demands inhuman precision, just find ways to make it creative and interesting. I swear so many professional game devs come off like those stupid kids in mario maker who just make stupidly impossible levels where theres some secret shortcut only they know about like "hehe nobody will beat MY level" and its embarrassing. Whatever happened to the old donkey kong style of game where I remember swimming around as a cool swordfish and not worrying about my every input at rapid speed like I'm playing dance dance revolution on expert, but just exploring and enjoying the music and collecting bananas and having fun? The elitist direction of this series is so depressing.

This ask made my eyes bulge when I first saw the preview, but... while I don't necessarily agree with you, I'm gonna meet you where you are.

Tropical Freeze is a game that I think I respect more than I actually enjoy. Its music is incredible, its enemy team is about as fun as can be without actually being Kremlings, its levels are beautiful and you can play as Dixie again, AND Cranky (and now Funky). I don't know if you thought I'd find this ask insulting but I've only ever played the game twice to my memory, and I don't have a huge amount of personal attachment to it. Once, as co-op when the game was brand new, and again when it came out on Switch I did Funky Mode. Whereas I play the original SNES trilogy at least once a year. (edit: actually I'm pretty sure I've done Funky Mode twice)

Because it's been so long since I did the "normal" game, and because I played co-op, I don't have a strong remembrance of how difficult it actually is. But I do remember it being quite hard for us both. If I'm good at any games in the world, I'm fucking good at the old DKCs. I used to speedrun them, I grew up with and was molded by them. And while Retro Studio's work is built off of them, there's a slightly different feel and weight to its demands that are just different enough that I can no longer innately be an expert. (Side note, if you want a game that actually feels more similar to the old games, check out Yooka-Laylee and the Impossible Lair!! It's great!)

So I get where you're coming from, I really do. I think TF is a masterpiece. I say that, anyway, so... Why do I never feel the urge to replay it? But honestly I think that's down to how the game feels overall, its length and level design, its overlong bosses, and not due to its difficulty, which is neither here nor there for me. ...and the fucking rocket barrel levels, I kind of hate them.

See, I do appreciate a good challenge and have played games since that I would consider far more demanding than TF. Of course many of them are indie games, or classic games. Tropical Freeze is pretty hard for a mainstream Nintendo game of the modern era, but lots of people out there love a good challenge and I think it's a good thing that Nintendo/Retro respect their players enough to issue one. Unfortunately, people who want to chill with the silly cartoon animals might end up being frustrated, BUT! That's what Funky Mode is for. It really was a genius idea. Funky Mode is like, so much more fun IMO, it really does replicate the feel I get with the original DKCs, allowing you to go faster and be more confident even if you're not that familiar with TF's level layouts. Even then, it's not totally easy- you still have to be somewhat careful and pay attention, but you can get through the game a lot faster.

And I do want to say, while TF may be the most difficult DKC game, the originals were no walk in the park either. I don't know your experience with how much you've played them, but like I said, for ME they seem easy- after all these years- but I've been around streaming communities, and communities that specifically like to do challenges and casual races, for a long time now. I've seen so many people struggle getting through DKC, DKC2 or DKC3 for the first time. I've seen people give up on doing it without save states. I've seen extremely skilled gamers get frustrated when attempting speed or challenge runs, which granted is a special case, but they have hours and hours of practice and the game meets them there and still kicks them. The DKC series has always been on the harder side, compared to something like Mario which would be the average. I know someone who, like me, has DKC2 as his favorite game ever... but still struggles while playing it. So your description of the older games seems a little rose-tinted. Maybe the early levels were all fun times collecting bananas, but tell me how much peace and vibes you really had in Snow Barrel Blast or Poison Pond or Lightning Lookout or Koindozer Klamber or Parrot Chute Panic or Toxic Tower or- (and that's not even to mention lost world levels)

TF has become a fan darling, but it's ok to not like it. That said, I think its Switch release crafted it into an ideal: a legit challenge for those who want one, and a different mode for those who just want to storm through and yet without it being a totally babymode no-brainer experience. I would like to see any future games offer a balance similar to this, if we ever get them.

....they really do gotta bring Enguarde back though, that's the important thing. I'm not kidding.

[rubalotl]

Tunnel vision

I get such tunnel vision when something grabs my interest, I focus on that thing so much to the point of making my brain feel exhausted. Honestly, it's kind of a problem. I shouldn't push my brain's energy capacity to its limit all the time.

Lately, that has been with games. But I hope I can direct that hyperfocus into art one day once again, but learn to pace myself better so I don't exhaust my brain and burn out again.

At least I've got to play a lot of games during my art burnout (which started around mid 2020 or the start of 2021), a bunch of these games were on my to-do list but didn't have time to play and it feels very good to have gotten through them.

I'm gonna try to remember them all and roughly when I played them:

Replayed Okami on Switch

A bunch of small indies: ABZU | Koral | Fe | Koi DX | The First Tree

Pokémon Sword & Shield (Started Nov 2019)

Animal Crossing New Horizons (Started Mar 2020)

Guild Wars 2 (Started Dec 2020, still playing daily)

Age of Calamity (Feb 2021)

Shiny hunted all the legendaries in ORAS (Finished Apr 2021)

Temtem (Apr 2021)

Pokémon Snap (May 2021)

Pokémon XD Gale of Darkness (Won an auction for it Jul 2021)

Monster Hunter Stories 2 Wings of Ruin Demo (Jul 2021)

A little bit of Planet Zoo (Aug 2021)

Shiny Hunted some in HG (Lugia Oct 12, 2021 | Mewtwo Oct 31, 2021 | Charmander Jul 7, 2022 | Kyogre Jul 19, 2022)

ACNH Happy Home Paradise (Nov 2021)

Pokémon BDSP (Nov 2021)

Pokémon Legends Arceus (Jan 2022)

GW2 End of Dragons (Feb 2022)

Kirby and the Forgotten Land (Jul 2022)

Coromon (Aug 2022)

Replayed Slime Rancher on Switch (Aug 2022)

Ooblets (Sep 2022)

Pikmin 3 Deluxe (Sep 2022)

Slime Rancher 2 Early Access (Sep 2022)

A Short Hike (Sep 2022)

Stray (Oct 2022)

Nexomon (Oct 2022)

Bugsnax (Nov 2022)

Pokémon Scarlet & Violet (Nov 2022)

Nexomon Extinction (Jan 2023)

Age of Calamity DLC (Feb 2023)

Monster Hunter Stories 2 Wings of Ruin (Mar 2023)

Next on the list is: Monster Hunter Rise + Sunbreak DLC | Tears of the Kingdom | Yooka-Laylee | A Link Between Worlds | Four Swords Adventures | The Teal Mask & The Indigo Disk | More Planet Zoo

I want to finally build a proper zoo in Planet Zoo, it's not a game that goes well together with creative burnout since it requires creativity to build stuff in it. So I haven't been able to give it the attention it deserves.

I've already decided that 2023 will be another gaming year. I'm almost all the way through my to-do list of games, and after that, I'll assess what I want to do next.

[anthromediasometimes]

Yooka-Laylee (2017)

Yooka-Laylee is a platformer game released on PC, the PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, and the Amazon Luna over the course of a few years. Considered a spiritual successor to Banjo-Kazooie, with that game's team even having been responsible for it, the game features its titular characters, a chameleon named Yooka and a bat named Laylee. The two must work together to reclaim the magical One Book after it is stolen by the greedy CEO Capital B and Dr. Quack.

Using their unique powers, they traverse through a series of different worlds to collect the One Book's "Pagies" and put a stop to the nefarious duo. Over the course of the adventure, they learn new powers, face peculiar challenges, and meet 'unforgettable' characters. The game has a local co-op mode and contains several secrets to search for, such as minigames and collectibles.

It was developed by Playtonic Games and published by Team17. Some critics believed the game was unoriginal and relied too heavily on nostalgia to truly be successful, and reviews on Steam lean positive, though some complain of slow movement in oversized maps, awkward controls, and various technical bugs. However, there is also a considerable amount of praise for the graphics and lovable characters.

In 2019, a spin-off, Yooka-Laylee and the Impossible Lair, was released. Unlike the original, this game is a 2.5D platformer, in which the duo aims to stop Capital B from enslaving a kingdom of bees. Like the original, this game holds a plethora of secrets, puzzles, and collectibles, as well as extra challenges for an added layer of playability.

This game plays as more of an homage to games like Donkey Kong Country than Banjo-Kazooie. This game also boasts mostly positive reviews on Steam, with praise on its graphics, overworld, and level design, though, once again, some seem to feel the movement is too slow and a few agree that the final level is quite a challenge. Most critics seem to be in agreement, calling it much more modern and polished, but perhaps a bit too difficult.

Currently, Playtonic is working on a remaster of the original Yooka-Laylee, intended to boast "all new challenges, secrets, mechanics, and accessibility options", as well as a new map and customization options. It also claims there will be a better camera and controls. A release date, as of writing this, has not been announced (that I can find).

[game-boy-pocket]

And so I finished a run of Donkey Kong Country Tropical Freeze. I didn't start a new file or anything, I just played all the levels again. Never gonna beat those special super hard levels, they're just too tough for me.

What a fucking good game. I still kind of resent Retro Studios for giving is "We have the Kremlings at home" instead of just giving us them outright, like I say this every time, but Lord Frederick is such a cheap copycat of K. Rool it hurts. I almost prefer the Tikis to these guys cuz at least they were unlike anything DK faced... but that's enough negging the game, this one of the most imainative platformers ever made and really does the DK series justice. I can't wait for the next DK game, it's been way too long.

With that it seems i've replayed every single main series DK game except for DK Land 2 and 3. I'll get to them. I'm thinking next I'll focus on DK '94, and I may even delve into some of the Paon era games that I largely ignored in the past. Anything to get a little more DK in my life. And if I really get desperate, there's always Yooka Laylee and the Impossible Lair but man... I really cannot get behind that kaizo final level...

[clownkiwi]

actually as much as i joke and jest about yooka-laylee, i think yooka-laylee is prime to getting re-evaluated again in the 2020s. especially now that theres renewed interest & demand for 3d platformers following the successes of a hat in time, pseudoregalia, corn kidz 64, & countless others that have been released in between the original release and now

[botebot-10]

Mascot Horror is THRIVING in my brain rn, but I really want to hyperfixate on a PLATFORMER mascot again as well!

Playtonic's dedication to make Yooka Laylee a thing might be EXACTLY what I need! Im also hoping Tate is in it for the long run with Kao!

[necromoonstar]

got some new games installing to try. It's weird how freeing loosing everything and restarting is. There's no huge 100gb games sitting on the computer so I feel comfortable just downloading a few, try them out past interest be damned, delete, organize, and move on to more. It's so nice.

Slowly I'm finding new things to get into and it's really exciting.

By this of course it means I made a new bunch to download since I'm almost through what I downloaded last bunch. I wonder if I should list what I got currently to try out? ... why not it's my blog

Currently playing

How to Date a Magical Girl! ( Awkward protag but I'm enjoying the writing over all, really excited where it goes)

Monster Crown ( THE GLITCHES over all I'd say okay but the fight with glitches and weirdness makes it hard to recommend )

Sonic and SEGA All Stars Racing ( I LOVE I WANT IT ON CONSOLE )

Placid Plastic Duck Simulator ( My Background Baby )

Going Under ( not sure yet what I think very hard for me to play just can't seem to get a vibe. Interesting concept and design. )

Next to Play

NEEDY STREAMER OVERLOAD

STEINS;GATE

Alicemare

Dungeons

The Wolf Among Us

MIND Path to Thalamus E.Edition

The Land of Pain

Aporia: Beyond the Valley

The Raven - Legacy of a Master Thief

Operation Babel: New Tokyo Legacy

Finished

Lucifer Within Us (just gotta to 100% it. very interesting!!) 🌕

Electrician Simulator (not bad just very on and off kinda game) 🌖

Frog Detective 1 (writing is very not for me)

A Mortician's Tale (seems nice but I admit I don't get it)

Yooka-Laylee (just.. don't know how to explain feels jank and doesn't feel fun to play on keyboard so just skipping for now)

Felix the Reaper (Seems like a good puzzle game! really well made just not my kinda puzzle)

You Suck at Parking (again neat puzzle but I'm not for the type)

Totally Accurate Battle Simulator (turns out I enjoy watching more than playing)

Twin Mirror (I feel so awkward D: )

Edit: specifically this is all Steam games. My exploration on console is going very differently XD

[clockworksteel]

Well, quarter of the way through the year. Might as well review how the goals are doing.

Overall, despite the lack of any notable bad events, it was kinda a rough start. Too many appointments, perhaps. There's my housemate's ongoing medical issues (probably some sort of appointment every 1-2 weeks on average so far this year, plus trips to the pharmacy), my vehicle safety inspection came due in February, did taxes, had my own doctor appointment, there were dentist appointments that didn't actually happen, plus of course the worse end of daylight savings happens in the first quarter.

Anyway, the goals:

1: Have some sort of exercise habit again

Honestly, nothing to comment on here. I haven't even made plans.

2: Take care of at least one longstanding thing in the house

I put the auto-closer on the back door, although without the chain that it kinda also needs to deal with the wind. Still, reasonable progress on an unambitious goal. Should've probably made it, like, 2-3 tasks. I'd like to get the water heater replaced in the next few months.

3: Clear the stacks of papers from my desk

I've done a couple sessions of cleaning the papers a little, just looking through for anything that was an obvious trash/shred. Mail has come in too, but I think the stacks are overall lower. Still, need to step it up.

4: Make some more progress on gender stuff

Not much concrete progress here. I haven't really sat down and just thought about things at all. (Also there's been a thing that's been bothering me about my parents and religion since my last visit on Christmas break which has kinda consumed my idle thoughts a bit. May need to try to put it all into words at some point.)

Still, I've made notes of various stray thoughts, events, and dreams as relevant. That's resulted in 15 distinct notes so far this year. I won't be sharing all of them in detail.

I think the most meaningful one is that, after earning the Challenge Enthusiasts goal "Void Given Focus" I thought that would be really cool as a gender. And you know what? When I'm gaming, that's what I am. I don't think it applies when not gaming though. So I guess that's just the "Clyceer" gender. They/them pronouns for that still.

The other ones are some variation on "sure wish I was trans", notes about dreams, and also I have another dress now.

5: Earn at least 100 more Challenge Enthusiasts points

I thought this was going to be a whole-year goal, I already have earned 110 points. Perhaps my neglect of other things hasn't entirely been due to exhaustion, but also a lot of these were just done on my weekly Saturday streams.

I'll probably keep going for more points, but may slow down the off-camera stuff. My full notes also include the start times, but here's just the points.

Jan 23: Ittle Dew got a 5 point objective that I'd already completed (won't count for goal, but is a point gain, technically noticed on Jan 29)

Feb 4: Achieved Lone Fungus "Spores and Spells" objective (10 points)

Feb 5: Achieved the Blasphemous' Miracle of Penance (10 points)

Feb 7: Achieved FTL's Federation Victory (15 points)

Feb 10: Achieved Hollow Knight's Void Given Focus (30 points)

Mar 2: Achieved Patch Quest's Monster Hunter (5 points)

Mar 9: Achieved Haiku, the Robot's Anti-Corruption Protocol (15 points)

Mar 23: Achieved ZeroRanger Grapefruit Smasher (15 points)

Mar 23: Cyber Hook's Retrowave Traceur (10 points, and my first First Person points) Full Challenge Enthusiasts profile: https://cedb.me/user/9f1f4644-b3d3-40b7-a348-fb9ce59222c4

6: Finish Factorio and at least one other game that I haven't played in over 4 months

Yeah, the other video game-related goal is done already too. Should probably throw in Yooka-Laylee and the Impossible Lair sometime this year. It's a Challenge Enthusiasts goal, and all I need to do is beat the titular Impossible Lair with the completed bee shield.

Jan 18: Finished Hue, which hadn't been played since May 27 2023

Jan 25: Finished Factorio

Feb 18: Started Psychonauts 2: I'd never started it, but bought it long ago enough that I'm writing it. Probably will take a while because it's a video playthrough, but is basically guaranteed to finish now.

Unrelated to any start of year goal, I've also taken up interest in the Super Mario Maker Team 0%, and have started helping out with Super Mario Maker 2. I've beaten 13 levels from 2020 so far this year. Not any that were particularly impressive, but cleaning up the mere Expert levels and kinda garbage Super Expert levels frees up time for the good players to grind the truly tough ones.