Sunset of the Dual Screen

For each year that passes, I become more and baffled that this website still exists. Like, I have immense difficulty focusing on anything for more than about 10 minutes at a time, and a list of unfinished projects that could wrap around the Earth. How am I still doing this???

I don’t have an answer to that question. But Nintendo recently asked themselves a similar question, in relation to keeping the ol’ 3DS family of systems relevant. Their response was “We’re not.” and earlier this week, it was announced that the 3DS eShop will be shutting down in March of next year. To be more specific, you’ll no longer be able to make purchases at that point. Presumably, the shop will still exist so that people can still download all the games they’ve paid for. Presumably.

Continue reading Sunset of the Dual Screen

TE Video Presents: Batman Pizza

Last year, I made it my mission to upload three videos every week. And I mostly held to that! Kinda fell apart in December, but you know how it is. Work was insane, I was spending what little creative energy I had on the 24 Days of Desire, holiday things were eating up a lot of free time.

I made no such promises to myself in 2022. Trying to create and edit that many videos was… a lot. Even when most of said videos were video game let’s plays and as such, overlapped with things I’d have been doing anyway. Moving forward, I’m just going to create video content when I feel like it. No more forcing myself to meet an imaginary quota and suck the fun out of it.

And so of course, what could possibly more video-worthy than a Batman-themed pizza?

Banjo-Revelationie

I’ve played Banjo-Kazooie, I don’t know, four or five times since it released in 1998. Or at least, I’ve played it that many times to completion. If you count all the times I played through Spiral Mountain on the demo kiosk at Toys ‘R’ Us, the number would quickly become astronomical.

Anyway, Banjo-Kazooie is a pretty open-ended game. Much like Super Mario 64, there is an intended order that you’re supposed to visit the game’s different worlds, but as long as you’ve got enough macguffins to unlock the right doors, you can play the worlds in whatever order you like. Unlike its sequel, Banjo-Tooie, Banjo-Kazooie’s world are pretty well self-contained. Rare is the instance when you have to leave a world because there’s a challenge that you cannot complete without a move learned in a later world.

Continue reading Banjo-Revelationie

Vampire Survivors: A miserable little pile of unlocks

I randomly tuned in to a Twitch stream last week, because the notification on my phone said the streamer in question was playing “the new Castlevania game”. I didn’t know there was a new Castlevania game!!

There isn’t. It was… somewhat misleading. The game being played was, in fact, a $3 indie game called Vampire Survivors. To be fair, this game does rip a lot of ideas (and maybe even sprites) directly from the Castlevania series, but it doesn’t really play like them at all.

And me, I turned around and immediately bought the game and sank most of that evening into it. Then I kept playing it pretty much every day after that. But more on that later!

Continue reading Vampire Survivors: A miserable little pile of unlocks

Mysteries, not solved

I’ve never watched Unsolved Mysteries in my life, but it’s a show that I’ve heard a lot about. Matt from Dinosaur Dracula is a big fan of the show, and as such, I’ve absorbed plenty of information about the show from his websites and the Purple Stuff Podcast. Because of that, I’ve long since been interested in actually watching the show, just to see what it’s like.

Imagine my luck, then, to learn that (what seems to be) every single episode is available to watch on YouTube! For free! Time to learn about all sorts of crimes from the 80’s!

Continue reading Mysteries, not solved

2021 Reflections: Part 4: The Runners-up.

“But Ryan!” you shout, incredulously “Where was Part 3??”

I’ll tell you where Part 3 is. It’s here. I just didn’t add it to the post title, because I didn’t want to. There you go. There’s no lost chapter or anything. Just me being silly and inconsistent.

Anyway, just for kicks, here is the list of video games that I had considered for my 2021 Top 10 list, but didn’t quite make the cut. I think that these are all great games, but they just didn’t affect me the same way that the winners did. I would absolutely recommend any game from this list.

  • Downfall (PC)
  • Ys Origin (Switch)
  • Ys I: Ancient Ys Vanished ~ Omen (PC)
  • Ys II: Ancient Ys Vanished ~ The Final Chapter (PC)
  • Power Wash Simulator (PC)
  • Deltarune: Chapter II (PC)
  • Alisa (PC)
  • Kathy Rain: The Director’s Cut (PC)
Continue reading 2021 Reflections: Part 4: The Runners-up.

Monthend Video Game Wrap-Up: January 2022

~ Game Over ~

Kathy Rain: the Director’s Cut (PC) – Probably my favourite point-and-click adventure game of all time, and there’s some tough competition! Features a good story, great characters, very good voice acting, and a complete lack of nonsense puzzle solutions. I think it says a lot that I had watched an LP of this one, yet still felt it necessary to play it myself.

Mega Man X (SNES) – Tradition demands it!

Ys VIII: Lacrimosa of Dana (PS4) – This is a Very Good Action RPG. It builds on the foundation laid by SEVEN and Memories of Celceta, and really did a great job of refining what made those games good. It also adds a number of quality-of-life features, a player-controlled camera, and a fishing mini-game! My only major beef is that the broken equipment that powers up for every so many monsters you kill was nerfed in this one.

Pokémon Shining Pearl (Switch) – Pokédex completed.

~ Progress Notes ~

Cyberpunk 2077 (PC) – *shrug emoticon*

Pokémon Legends: Arceus (Switch) – Unlocked third area.

Sinnoh woes

I’ve been playing a lot of Pokémon Shining Pearl lately, in an effort to complete the game’s Pokédex. Because going through all that trouble once for the original game just wasn’t enough for me, I suppose. Gotta do it all again!

And as I sat on my couch a few nights ago, grinding away countless hours to complete my checklist of digital creatures, it dawned on me that Sinnoh is not the worst region in the Pokémon series because of its HMs, or its confusing and inconvenient map. No, Sinnoh is a pain in the butt because it has, by volume, the highest number of stupid gimmicks for finding pokémon.

Continue reading Sinnoh woes