Games of January 2022

Recently, I've been too worried about finishing games and trying to focus on what I play. I'm trying now to play as much and as broadly as I can. I've played 14 games in January and I feel really good about it. Honestly, this month has felt like one of the months I've been happiest and excited about the games I play. It's been great to pick up whatever game feels like it best fits the moment. I've found a new space in my heart for Mario Golf, space for Puyo Puyo Tetris 2 and a bunch of other games too.

I wanted to talk a bit Super Mario Party, even though it isn't in my top five below. My partner and I played a game one Saturday night and we really enjoyed ourselves. I originally picked up Super Mario Party to defend against the threat of niblings who might wonder why Uncle TJ has so many video games that they can't play, and then it's basically sat on the shelf ever since. We often end up playing single player games beside each other and I thought it might be fun to actually do something together. Super Mario Party filled that gap for us pretty well (and really it's the first video game we've played together since we gave up on Animal Crossing: Amiibo Festival). I see why people have enjoyed Mario Party All Stars more, I'm really glad we played.

I played a little bit of Legend of Mana on the Switch, which I'm still not sure how I feel about exactly. I'll play more, but I'm reminded of how disappointed I was when I first played this. It has a very "unstory" story and the combat feels very odd - although now having played the intermediary step of Trials of Mana it makes more sense. It looks beautiful, but I'm a little unsure about the decision to upres the backgrounds, but leave the character sprites original.

Another game I wanted to talk about was Actraiser: Renaissance. I didn't get in to the original Actraiser on SNES - despite loving Quintet's other games - because as far as I could see it wasn't a great city builder and I didn't like the idea of the platforming parts. Unfortunately, Renaissance seems to also not be a good city builder and I thought the platforming was awful. I picked it up because I watched ProtonJon play a chunk of it, since he thought it had too much city building in it, it might appeal. It didn't. Also, unlike Puyo Puyo Tetris 2 - which we'll discuss momentarily, this game makes incredibly loquacious NPCs an absolute frustration and nightmare. 

Or perhaps I mean, "Oh, dearest, most venerable Lord, the people of this land which you so lovingly watch over, love you and and are so pleased to venerate you at this alter which you placed in a most advantageous position in our settlement and while so venerating, beg your assistance, oh Lord, to dispatch the vile monsters which do so plague our settlement, which you so lovingly..." *cough, cough, cough* I'm sorry, I don't know what came over me there. I'm glad I picked this up in the hopes that it brings Illusion of Gaia and the Turbo trilogy to light, but I can't say it's "good".

My top five games (by play time) for January were:

1. Hollow Knight - Dan Floyd from Playframe, loves this game and came to love this game over the course of his Let's Play. I'd been thinking I should at least try it out and honestly it's been a great part of my new play to play more games. It's been a bit of a struggle, but I went back and restarted after hitting a bit of a wall and I'm really impressed with how much better I am than when I first started. This is an outstanding Metroidvania and I am really enjoying it.
   
   
   


2. Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword HD - So, Skyward Sword was the very first game I really wrote about on the this blog. I was feeling silly having bought it again for the switch, since my Wii U is *right there*, but honestly I'm glad I picked it up again. It's a lot of fun and it's pretty and relaxing. (Hollow knight has been pretty in its own way, but in no way has it been relaxing.) I've always liked Skyward Sword - in fact it was my favourite Zelda when it came out - and honestly the HD remake has felt great. It has a few flaws, and the motion controls are not ... seamless, but it's a good time.
   
   
   


3. Puyo Puyo Tetris 2 - I'm pretty good at Tetris. I'm terrible at Puyo Puyo. I'm in love with this game. The original idea seemed a little dumb to me and I'd been avoiding this and the original Puyo Puyo Tetris since I don't really engage with multiplayer games that much. That was dumb and I am so happy I bought this game. There's way more than enough single player content for me here and the game actually does a reasonable job of teaching you, if for some reason you're only good at one of Tetris or Puyo Puyo.
   
   
   
   
   But the game play isn't what I'm here to talk about. This game has a dumb story. It's a game with 3 - 5 minutes of cut scene dialog before and after each level. The characters talk *a lot*. I'm here for it. I don't know why, but between the writing team and the localization team I'm grinning from ear to ear between levels because it's all so profoundly dumb. Nothing makes sense, no one makes sense and I am damned well here for it.
   
   


4. Mario Golf: Super Rush - I wasn't too happy with this game when I wrote up my end of the year thoughts. Pretty good, but lacking content and soul. I was wrong.
   
   
   
   
   I was wrong about the content anyway, they've introduced a lot of new courses and a few new modes and honestly there's a lot to really enjoy about this game. They also fixed their online mode so that it's not misserable to play - although the netcode is still a little bit janky. I've really enjoyed Mario Golf this month and it's been the perfect thing to pick up for 20 minutes. It's *still* a little short on soul, but honestly I don't mind any more.
   
   


5. Eastward - I've played about four and a half hours of Easward. I *feel* like I've played 20. I don't really know how to describe Eastward. It's an action RPG set in the post apocalypse (I think). It's an homage to 90s games and a pastiche of Earthbound. It's very upbeat while leaving my heart clenched that terrible things are going to happen. It's beautiful pixel art of an ugly world. I'm excited to keep playing and I'm really glad my current outlook on games makes it easier to digest each bit as I play.
   
   
   

Here's my total play time chart for January:

And here's a chart of how much I've played over the month: