Page 34 – Burning the midnight oil at noon

Monthend Video Game Wrap-Up: June 2020

~ Game Over ~

Nirvana Pilot Yume (PC) – Part visual novel, part high-speed space racing. Except the “racing” was actually just straight-line obstacle courses where the camera was too close to the ground to see half the obstacles (holes and very short barriers) until it was too late. It became more of a frustrating memorization challenge than a test of reflexes and/or skill. Soundtrack was bumpin’ though.

Shantae and the Seven Sirens (Switch) – After the last couple of Shantae games deviating from the formula a bit, it’s nice to see the series go back to a more standard Metroidvania setup. I really liked that the transformations are all button presses now, instead of powers you have to turn on and off with dances. Music was a step down because it wasn’t done by virt. I’d like to play it at least once more in NG+ mode, but… I don’t think there’s time.

On the Subject of Taters

I slept in a little bit today, just enough that I had to axe something from my morning routine. It was breakfast. It’s always breakfast. Because I get a second chance at breakfast when I pass the Tim Horton’s between the bus stop and work.

It’s been a while since I’ve purchased food there, and as I bit into my hashbrown, I was delightfully surprised by how much it tasted like potatoes.

See, I’ve been getting breakfast from McDonald’s too often lately, and their hashbrowns basically just taste like butter and grease. I go for the coffee, and put up with the hashbrowns because said coffee is just so good.

So anyway, that’s my spiel for today. Tim Horton’s has a way better hashbrown than McDonald’s. It’s about all they’ve got going for ’em these days, but at least it’s something.

Star Wars Binge Week 2020: The Rise of Skywalker

Here we are. It’s been a heck of a ride, but we’ve finally reached then end of the Star Wars saga. And we’re capping it off in a weird place too, as this is the only film in the series that I hadn’t seen before this week. I’ve also avoided all spoilers, so I went into The Rise of Skywalker with completely fresh eyes, and no idea what to expect.

Star Wars Binge Week 2020: The Last Jedi

If there’s one perfect word to describe The Last Jedi, it’s divisive. More than any other entry in the saga, people squabbled about whether The Last Jedi was a good movie or not. Whether it saved or ruined Star Wars. I tended to ignore the bulk of those who sided against it, because quite often their arguments were more focused on the gender and racial diversity of the cast than anything. However, a lot of sane individuals also brought up perfectly legitimate reasons why this film fell flat. I had a great time watching it upon it theatrical release, and today’s revisit… Made me think a lot about it.

Star Wars Binge Week 2020: The Force Awakens

So, it’s finally come down to this: the Star Wars sequel trilogy. By the time that The Force Awakens was even revealed to be a thing, my fandom for Star Wars had already cooled considerably. I didn’t see any of them in their opening months, nevermind opening day. To tell the truth, when I watch The Rise of Skywalker this Sunday, it’ll be my first viewing of the film. So know that I’m going into these with a lot less bias than I have for the original trilogy. Though my passion may have been stoked a bit by the previous six films that I’ve just watched…

Star Wars Binge Week 2020: Return of the Jedi

After yesterday’s… diversion… I will in fact be writing a post about Star Wars. Rest assured that just as expected, I still think that The Empire Strikes Back is a fantastic movie, and it remains my favourite of the saga. Return of the Jedi and A New Hope have constantly jockeyed back and forth for the coveted second-place spot, and having now watched them back-to-back… I’d still have a hard time showing a strong preference for one over the other. I actually don’t hate the Ewoks, so they don’t automatically bring Jedi down to third place like they do for so many others.

But enough about that, it’s time to pivot over to something slightly different.

Star Wars Binge Week 2020: The Empire Strikes Back

This morning I woke up with the expectation that today would be an incredible day. I watched the Pokémon Presents video that was posted and became unreasonably hyped about the announcement of New Pokémon Snap. Afterwards, I went out for a run around the block, and came back in for a short Ring Fit Adventure session. After showering off, I prepared breakfast and sat down with great excitement to watch The Empire Strikes Back, my favourite Star Wars movie.

Then I picked up my phone and everything went sideways.

(A word of warning, the rest of this post is not about Star Wars. Something much more important came up.)

Star Wars Binge Week 2020: A New Hope

I’ll be honest: I’m way too close to the original Star Wars trilogy of films to be able to properly examine them with a critical eye. I have a huge bias for them because these are three of my favourite movies of all time, and I’ve watched all three of them more times than I can count. Plus, I don’t think that my ” bulleted list of random musings” format really works as well with something I’m so familiar with. It’s really better suited to media that I’m either experiencing for the first time, or for the first time in about a decade (or more).

So rather than that, I’m going to… do something a little more personal.

Star Wars Binge Week 2020: Revenge of the Sith

When Revenge of the Sith first came out, I remember being awestruck by it. I saw it three times in the theatre and I played all the video games. I was delighted by the conclusion to the Star Wars prequel trilogy. And yet, I question whether that impression will hold up. Revenge of the Sith is the only one of the three that I’ve not fallen asleep to every time I’ve tried to watch the blu-ray (prior to this week of course), and yet I cannot name a single thing that I really like about it outside of the opening shot where we pan over the side of a Star Destroyer to see an epic space battle. We all know that a single impressive shot is not enough to hold up an entire film. So I guess we may as well just go ahead and get started…

Star Wars Binge Week 2020: Attack of the Clones

Alright, so yesterday I walked away from The Phantom Menace with a sense of mild appreciation for the film. But that one was backed by some pretty strong nostalgia. The next chapter in the Star Wars saga, Attack of the Clones, had considerably less hype surrounding it, and made almost no impression on me, as I couldn’t even remember what it was about. I vaguely recalled a few key scenes, but overall this movie might actually have been my least appreciated Star Wars. Will today’s viewing change that? Let’s get into my list of random thoughts and see!