I Love My Nintendo
Apr. 30th, 2016 08:43 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rynlingThursday was hellish and exhausting, so I devoted Friday to playing video games. Gaming tends to stress me out when I'm busy, since all I can think about is how I should be working or sleeping instead of wasting my time. I sometimes forget that games are supposed to be fun, and that the point of fun is to distance oneself from work. This in and of itself is productive, as this distance allows for a broader perspective and encourages lateral thinking. Play enhances work, and work adds meaning to play.
Unfortunately, this cycle doesn't function properly if the game you're playing feels like work, as is the case with Oracle of Seasons, which I was fooling around with this month. That game is garbage, so much so that even thinking about how I would explain how it's garbage is exhausting. Oracle of Seasons managed to convince me that I hate the entire medium of video games, so I dropped it. I'll finish it later, maybe, if I have insomnia while I'm on a business trip.
Instead, I started playing the 3DS version of Ocarina of Time, which is beautiful and perfect. I'm trying my hand at the Master Quest, in which Link takes double damage, all the maps are flipped along their Y axis, and the dungeons are substantially different. It's tricky, but it's a lot of fun.
I've also decided to tackle one level in Yoshi's Woolly World every evening. One day I'll finish the damn game, one day.
The game I'm really excited about, however, is Guacamelee! Super Turbo Championship Edition, which is without a doubt the single best Metroidvania-style game I've ever been fortunate enough to lay hands on. The art, the music, the humor, the animation, the combat, the exploration - everything is ten degrees of amazing. I already get the feeling that this is one of those games (like Ocarina of Time) that I'll keep returning to as long as I have a game system to play it on, because Guacamelee! is pure unadulterated joy.
I'm also playing Bravely Second. I'm enjoying myself, and I'm doing my best to limit my play time to twenty minutes a day so that I don't get burnt out. One of the nice things about living in a big metropolitan area is that I pick up a lot of people through Street Pass; and so, even though I'm only a little more than four hours into the game, my moon base is already almost complete.
I can't wait for the new Pokémon games. According to the official website, the games' release date is "Holiday 2016." I don't know when that is, but it's appropriate, because I'm already planning to take a holiday when they come out; I'm saving money and vacation time so that all I do for ten days is travel and play Pokémon. Honestly, considering how stressful work has been lately, looking forward to the next generation of Pokémon is the only thing keeping me sane sometimes.
God I love video games. Is that sad?
Unfortunately, this cycle doesn't function properly if the game you're playing feels like work, as is the case with Oracle of Seasons, which I was fooling around with this month. That game is garbage, so much so that even thinking about how I would explain how it's garbage is exhausting. Oracle of Seasons managed to convince me that I hate the entire medium of video games, so I dropped it. I'll finish it later, maybe, if I have insomnia while I'm on a business trip.
Instead, I started playing the 3DS version of Ocarina of Time, which is beautiful and perfect. I'm trying my hand at the Master Quest, in which Link takes double damage, all the maps are flipped along their Y axis, and the dungeons are substantially different. It's tricky, but it's a lot of fun.
I've also decided to tackle one level in Yoshi's Woolly World every evening. One day I'll finish the damn game, one day.
The game I'm really excited about, however, is Guacamelee! Super Turbo Championship Edition, which is without a doubt the single best Metroidvania-style game I've ever been fortunate enough to lay hands on. The art, the music, the humor, the animation, the combat, the exploration - everything is ten degrees of amazing. I already get the feeling that this is one of those games (like Ocarina of Time) that I'll keep returning to as long as I have a game system to play it on, because Guacamelee! is pure unadulterated joy.
I'm also playing Bravely Second. I'm enjoying myself, and I'm doing my best to limit my play time to twenty minutes a day so that I don't get burnt out. One of the nice things about living in a big metropolitan area is that I pick up a lot of people through Street Pass; and so, even though I'm only a little more than four hours into the game, my moon base is already almost complete.
I can't wait for the new Pokémon games. According to the official website, the games' release date is "Holiday 2016." I don't know when that is, but it's appropriate, because I'm already planning to take a holiday when they come out; I'm saving money and vacation time so that all I do for ten days is travel and play Pokémon. Honestly, considering how stressful work has been lately, looking forward to the next generation of Pokémon is the only thing keeping me sane sometimes.
God I love video games. Is that sad?
no subject
Date: 2016-04-30 03:08 pm (UTC)I've had OoT 3DS on my 3DS for a while, now, but haven't really gotten into it. I don't remember why. Hm!
I fuzzily remember really enjoying Seasons/Ages as a small child, but
1) They were my very first experience with the Zelda franchise, so I didn't have anything to compare them unfavorably to.
2) I was a small child, and IMO, kids are more...forgiving, when it comes to shitty games?
3) It was like fifteen fucking years ago, so...nostalgia.
3b) oh god i just googled it and they really did come out early in 2001. oh god oh god oh god i'm old.
no subject
Date: 2016-04-30 03:19 pm (UTC)By which I mean, I think I'm a generation older than you. I was in fourth grade when Link's Awakening came out, and I love that game to bits. I totally understand the nostalgia factor involved, and I think it's one of the reasons why the Seasons/Ages bastardization of the Link's Awakening engine bothers me so much. Like, I wanted a sequel to Link's Awakening for years, and then...
Seasons/Ages strikes me as a cash grab on the popularity of the Pokémon franchise right as the Game Boy Color was at the tail end of its life, and I get the feeling that Capcom didn't have a lot of oversight from Nintendo, especially with the main Zelda team enmeshed in the development hell that ultimately resulted in Wind Waker.
If you're interested, a journalist named Jeff Ryan wrote this incredible book titled Super Mario: How Nintendo Conquered America, which doesn't focus on the Zelda series but provides some relevant background. When I read about the problems Nintendo was facing from 2000 to 2003, I was like, "Okay, wow, a lot of things are now making a ton of sense."
(edited because what is text formatting and how does it work)
no subject
Date: 2016-05-01 07:56 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2016-05-02 08:09 pm (UTC)Or actually, I'm relieved that I'm not the only person who thinks that picking up a minor title from fifteen years ago is a good use of time.
It's been my experience that the Final Fantasy titles improve with age, but I feel that one can't say the same of most games from before the PS2 era. Although it's cool to be on the forefront of a rapidly evolving medium, when I look back I feel kind of sheepish about how many hours and days and years of my life I spent deeply engaging with garbage.