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Current number of blog posts: 6
Thought it'd be fun to just a blog post about what I've been playing recently and my thought on them. I've mainly been replaying games I haven't played in a long time.
Starting with Hamtaro: Ham-Ham Heartbreak for the GBA. I've always been worried about replaying this game. I thought that maybe the slower paced gameplay may clash with my current taste in games. Luckily I still really enjoyed it! There are some puzzles I forgot completely, and I did get stuck a couple of times. Some of the puzzles are very "adventure game" if you know what I mean. I've been into "RetroAchievements" and I ended up 100%'ing the game. Would genuinely recommend it to anyone who enjoys cozy little adventure games.
Next up was Sonic Battle. I've been on a bit of a GBA kick and I had to revisit one of my favorite Sonic games. Sonic Battle is one of those games that has invaded my mind palace ever since I played it all those years ago. I made my through it and let me tell you, a 20 year difference in a person matters a lot. I remember this being a much harder game when I was younger. It was still a great time. Just, even with its flaws I can't hate this game. The style, the presentation, the vibe. It's all so good. I love how it's like this mix of Adventure 1 and 2 in terms of characters. Once again I ended up 100%'ing it via RetroAchievements and it was pretty painless. One achievement was kinda grindy but nothing too bad. If you've never played it. Give it a shot.
Lastly I replayed classic Doom and Doom 2, albiet via a multiworld randomizer. I'm kind of shocked just how much I forgot about Doom 2. It felt like a new game with how little I remembered of it. Doom is always a fun time, even if Icon of Sin is such a garbage boss fight. I probably don't have to tell you, but if you haven't played them, then you really should if you enjoy fast first person shooters. These replays got me in a real Doom mooD and I looked for some total conversion mods and found a really cool one. I really love Splatterhouse so imagine my excitement when I saw a Splatterhouse TC! I haven't played far but it's been pretty fun so far. If you plan on giving it a try, make sure to have GZDoom 4.3.3 or older. That's what the dev says at least. That's been it for the most part aside from the usual suspects. Tetris 99, Pokemon, Stepmania, the regulars. You can typically find what I'm playing on my Retro Achievements or Backloggd.
As a self-described clown I feel as if I have to lament the decline of today's date, known as "April Fools." At least when it came to the internet. I feel like websites don't go in as much as they used to. Back in the day you'd see whole websites completely rebrand and take on a whole new visual identity just to make a joke. Sometimes it would come at the expense of usability but to see the effort and care put into these overhauls was always a joy. Now we're lucky if we even get a singular changed element on the webpage.
I know some video games have kept up some funny yearly gags but there have also been others that have turned it into just another yearly "event" which leaves a bad taste in my mouth. Just another chance to put fomo items into some kind of in-game store to make people spend more money. It completely goes against the spirit of the holiday. We're supposed to come together for a fun time, not gatekeep the joy behind paywalls.
It really seems like the best "jokes" we get in recent years are the ones where the joke is that there is no joke. You see a trailer or social media post about something silly and it turns out to be true. Pretty commonly, this would be some kind of short video game with a silly premise. Although not all are made equal. You have good examples like "The Murder of Sonic the Hedgehog" and "Lovers of Aether" whereas other attempts feel so cynical and disingenuous like Palworld's "More than Pals"
I guess what I'm trying to get at is that I miss when it seemed like more of the "core web" would have fun for a single day. The core web already feels so stagnant and corporate that having some fun for a day would be a nice breath of fresh air.
Nintendo recently announced their own music streaming app. It's just called "Nintendo Music" and has the world's more boring app icon (white music note on a red background) since they're in their google iconography phase thanks to how popular the Switch was.
I've used it for a little bit and it seems fine. You need an active NSO subscription to use it. Which, fair I guess. Pretty much every music streaming service has a subscription and I'm already paying for it because I wanna play Nintendo games online.
The main flaw at the moment is the lack of music selection. Which shouldn't be surprising since launching something with very little to offer is Nintendo's specialty at this point. (Looking at every collection of games on the NSO retro consoles). Any other complaints I'd have with it are the same for any music streaming service.
I'm pretty well out of my "I only listen to video game soundtracks" phase of my life so this isn't going to be a game changer for me specifically. I'm very anti-music streaming service. I use youtube for music (I do not use YouTube Music though) while on the computer every now and then but that's about it.
I'd much rather download/rip MP3s and have the files myself, but at least with "Nintendo Music" they offer something and that something is the ability to extend certain tracks upwards to an hour and the ability to block soundtracks under the guise of "Spoiler Prevention". While I'm probably not gonna make use of these features, I appreciate they're there.
I've seen some backlash from people upset that Nintendo is doing this instead of just putting the music on spotify and while I understand that and the theories of they're doing this because they're control freaks with their IPs..... part of me also thinks those features mentioned might have something to do with it. Nintendo is very particular with how they want things to work. It would not surprise me in the least if they opted to making "Nintendo Music" purely because they wanted quirky little features like that.
I mean.... same to be honest. I love little quirky bullshit lmao. Anyways, overall pretty standard. Nothing all that special. Good if you wanna listen to the Pokemon Scarlet and Violet soundtracks. Which I do so that's what I've been doing with it lmao. Though it doesn't have Toby Fox's remix of Celestial by Ed Sheeran. so, 0/10 I guess. Sorry.
I wanted to save this for the rambles section of the site but after thinking on it for a while it's not really substantial enough.
I have some thoughts on FF7 Remake and Rebirth. Overall I have nothing but praise for the games as they've really taken the world of FF7 and expanded upon it in ways that I absolutely adore. Remake taking place entirely within Midgar was a choice that I'm 100% fine with since I love Midgar. It's such an amazing setting in my opinion. The only real issues I have with Remake is.... the ending, but probably not for the reasons you might expect!
!!Spoilers ahead!!
The part of the ending I'm talking about is specifically the fight with Sephiroth. It's a cool fight don't get me wrong, but I just.... don't like that they did it? It's a weird feeling to put into words but even though the fight is cool, the music is great, and the gameplay is fun. I still just don't like that it ends with a fight again Sephiroth. It very much feels like "oh it's the end of a Final Fantasy 7 game, of course you're gonna fight Sephiroth" which I don't know, it feels kinda unearned? It doesn't help at all that they had a thematically appropriate and completely unique boss with the Whisper Harbinger. That felt like such a good final boss considering what happened in the story. Then Sephiroth gets shoehorned at the last second because we gotta fulfill a Sephiroth quota.
Like I said, great fight but it just makes me a little upset with how it's used.
This brings me into one of the main gripes I had about Rebirth when it came out. I love Rebirth, genuinely it does SO MUCH and nails almost all of it and as a fan of the original it just makes me so happy. Then we get to the Midgar Zolom aka Midgardsormor. It's hard not to draw comparison to the original when playing through Remake and Rebirth. Which I feel most of the time they absolutely do the original justice but this moment left me feeling a little disappointed. In the original it was such a great "story telling through gameplay" moment where you encounter the Boss just by naturally exploring the world map. You encounter the boss and realize you're not beating this thing no matter how hard you try. You're not strong enough. You get a chocobo and outrun this massive monster that has proven itself to be far beyond your capabilities.
Then you see it.... another one of its kind killed. Not just killed but hung up in such a way that it's a display of its corpse. Almost as if someone was expecting you to see it. "Did Sephiroth... do this?" while I know this became a bit of a funny little meme for a couple of days, this line still holds such weight to it. A monster you had no chance of beating no matter how hard you tried, now lays before you dead, in such a manner that makes it look like whoever did this was toying with it. The only assumption on who could've done it, is the same guy that you're out to find. You are in over your head.
Now imagine if none of that happens and you just fight the thing, beat it, and a cutscene plays literally showing you Sephiroth killing it in front of your eyes. Not gonna lie, this is like the one moment in Rebirth that I just straight up don't like. It still gets the message across that Sephiroth is just leagues stronger than Cloud and friends but YOU as the player don't feel that like you did in the original.
Obviously this one scene doesn't take away from the MOUNTAIN of good that Rebirth does, but man, it still stinks. It only stinks as much as it does because of how good Rebirth is overall..
Only other thing I hate about Rebirth is that THEY DIDN'T LET US PLAY AS VINCENT! THE BOSS FIGHT WAS AMAZING BUT I WANT MY MAN! INSTEAD WE GOT CAIT SITH BOX THROWING!
HUZZAH! I am here to talk about one of my favorite games of all time. CAVE STORY!
Released in 2004 (It's gonna be 20 in December!) this little freeware title has rooted itself into my DNA. I discovered it around 2010 when it got a wiiware release. I didn't play the Wiiware release though, I originally played the fan translation of the original freeware version.
To this day I always associate Balrog with "Huzzah" instead of "Oh yeah!" because of this.
I am someone who never got into the Metroid series. I just don't vibe with them, which is why whenever someone asks me "what's your favorite metroid game?" I always just tell them Cave Story. I can't tell you why. Maybe it's the shorter size. Maybe it's the setting. Maybe it's just the overall moment to moment gameplay. Whatever the reason, Cave Story has stood the test of time for me. It's one of those games I could replay every year and still enjoy.
The question is, should YOU play Cave Story? YES! ABSOLUTELY! IT'S NOT EVEN A QUESTION!
It's free, available on a multitude of platforms, and FUN. There is no excuse not to at least give it a try!
Just head on over to the Cave Story Tribute Site's Download Page and find a version that you can play. I'm sure there is some way you can play it. It's on PC, Mobile, Mac, Linux, and ported to a multitude of systems. All free to download and made by the community.
Please enjoy good video games :)
