Well it’s kind of a cloudy night here in what is usually normally sunny Southern California and here I am trying to remember which games I’ve played this past week. At this point my gaming revolves around the PC, iOS, and the Switch. I’ll explain why next week, which should be fun. Anyways before I forget let’s get started.
It’s Monday Night here so I’m still on track with my goals for 2022. Good evening Pixlpeeps! So more running around this past week along with today…seriously have you ever had a day where everything just isn’t clicking? That was today for me. Trying to get paperwork printed when printers didn’t work, when the printer did work, it didn’t read the usb stick, pick up other paperwork in a busy location, people not knowing how to drive in a parking lot and then the cherry on top was Panera getting my lunch wrong. It was that kind of day. I did however play some games when I did have time.
At the beginning of every year I like to take a look at the games I’m looking forward to in the coming year and write about them. So that’s what we’re going to do here. Keep in mind that this list is by no means comprehensive, though. There will surely be games announced through the year that I will be interested in. And some of these games might be delayed, and there will be games I may not know about yet or have forgotten about. It’s hard to keep up with all the indie games I might want to play, for instance. But here’s my list anyway.
Donkey Kong made me a fan of Nintendo very early on. To this day, DK is my favorite arcade game of all time. I loved it for being one of the most colorful, expressive games out there. It was probably as close as you could get in the early 80s to having a playable cartoon show. So naturally, when more Nintendo games started showing up at the arcade, my young self was excited. And if any game could tear me away from DK, it was Mario Bros.
After a breaking from games for a while, I've felt like playing something. Not sure what, if anything, I want to commit to, so I've been briefly revisiting some old favorites I've had on my mind, and trying out some titles I've been interested in, through demos or...other means
Ever since Namco’s Pole Position made its debut in the arcades in 1982, the racing genre has been considered an essential medium in the gaming world. The increase of video game consoles making their way into homes throughout the mid-to-late ’80s further solidified the popularity of racing games. Players looking for deeper mechanics than what was available from the current offerings of the day could rejoice when Kemco published Top Gear in 1992- one of the first driving games for the Super NES.
So get this, last week I had a Quick Hits written and ready to go, but just didn’t post. I got caught up in some things, and then on Monday, and Tuesday actual worked popped up including scanning pictures. You know what’s wild? When you take a picture that’s seen better days since it was taken in the 1940s, you not only make the torn sections go away, but you make it almost look like it was taken yesterday and nobody says “hey thanks for working your magic on this” it’s kind of annoying, but whatever. I’m here, you’re here, let’s type this up, catch up on stuff I missed here the past week or so, and then get back to scanning pictures and working my magic.
Oh boy, oh boy, it's comics day again! I found some good ones this time. I even had some Hope's Cookies too afterward. It's been a while since I did that. I was a little bit afraid of the sugar rush, but gladly it didn't happen. So let's see what I got as well as my progress with Doctor Strange Epic Collection Vol. 4.
The past couple of months I really haven’t been buying any games. You would think with the Stay At Home order I would have stocked up on some new titles but I didn’t, yet now right before Thanksgiving I am kind of on a run and there is another one I want that is going to be released in a couple of weeks. Anyways more on that stuff hopefully this Friday and for now let’s talk about the stuff I’ve actually played.
An anthropomorphic animal high school where young furries have to perform trials, not unlike those in Hunger Games, or face starvation. I found the story and relationships gripping, but the targeting controls were terrible. I had to play a pin-the-tail-on-the-furry minigame that was near impossible. That tail looked funny on a nose though. I went and played the following four games and watched a tv episode instead.
On October 18, 1985, the Nintendo Entertainment System was launched in the US. Among the 18 games released alongside it was Kung Fu. A rather unassuming title, Kung Fu has an intriguing history behind it. It started as an arcade game from Irem called Kung-Fu Master and was intended to be based on the movie Game of Death- Bruce Lee’s final film before he died. Later in the course of development, the story and characters were changed to become a tie-in to the Jackie Chan film Spartan X (aka Wheels on Meals). Most noteworthy about the game was its genre-defining gameplay elements that are considered by many to be the first example of what would come to be known as a beat ‘em up.
In 1988, the Summer Olympics took place in Seoul, South Korea. Capitalizing on this event, Konami released the latest game in their Hyper Sports series, Konamic Sports in Seoul on the Famicom. The game was released a year later in the US as Track & Field II. If the original Track & Field were a person, it would be the humble, modest friend quietly entering the room. Track & Field II, on the other hand, is more like the gregarious guy that wants to be the life of the party. Instead of the meager eight sporting events of the first game, this one features 15 athletic events (11 of which were new to the NES series).
A giant mashup of everything I played the other day becomes another great game. Read to play.
To not just post a blog but to finally join all the cool kids and acquire a Nintendo Switch Lite. That's right, the stimulus money finally arrived and I got lucky with this purchase. It wasn't even planned on. The original plan was to get a new Xbox One controller; I didn't even care about dropping $170 for an Elite controller. When the local Walmart had nothing in stock in regards to controllers, my eyes wandered to the Nintendo Switch cases. There was one box for a Coral skew/version/skin Lite and I made the choice right then and there. Who knows when an opportunity would come again.
On Saturday I had a blog all typed up because I didn’t want to get out of bed and be productive. After finishing it I didn’t like it so here we are…I’LL READ IT LIVE!!! This opened up more time for me to actually play some games. Crazy, right? Let’s take a quick tour because I think my laundry is almost done.
As I sit here looking back on what I’ve played during the past week I’ve noticed that I still haven’t really sat down with a “real” game, I mean I’ve wandered back into the F2P area of gaming, and to be quite honest it fits me right now. I really don’t want to jump into a full game where I have to camp out in front of my TV, remember things, and then if I don’t play it for a week I’m lost and lose interest. Right now I’m in a place where I want to jump in for a couple of minutes, play something and then move on. Here are a couple of examples of my couch gaming during commercials:
EDF 2025 will go in the digital locker with the release of Borderlands 3. My friend got a physical copy, and I got a digital one. I'll finalize my thoughts on EDF below.
Two years ago I did something that I truly regret: in desperate need of money, I sold my 3DS XL and knowing full well that my purchases couldn't be saved (or that they could and I didn't want to prep for that). I bought quite a few digital games and physical copies for that wonderful handheld. It didn't even matter to me that I had an older model (it wasn't a "new" 3DS).
Well good morning Pixlpeeps! Before I grab some breakfast let’s go over what I did and didn’t play this past week. I got a new toy this weekend so I didn’t spend a lot of time gaming but more on that on Friday, but for now let’s get started.